Problems and Politics of Tribal recognition in India and in Jammu and Kashmir.

Abstract

The advantages of the Schedule Tribe status have led to increasing and persistent demand for tribal recognition in India. The Government anthropologists though serve as instrument of ethnological governmentality yet put under immense pressure by the political and bureaucratic constraints while scheduling of tribes in India. Under such circumstances they face a lot of difficulties and in the process often translates into one community’s success and another’s failure in attaining Scheduled Tribe status. Bestowing of Scheduled Tribe status to Gujjar community and its denial to Pahari community of Jammu and Kashmir is firmly rooted in political constraints, underground political networking and the lobbying of multiple agencies at the Central and State levels than performing the “tribal” slot.