Call for Papers

Dear Sir/Madam,

It is a pleasure to inform you that Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India organizes a three day international seminar on Resources, Tribes and State from 13th to 15th February 2012. The seminar will be spread over several academic sessions including inaugural and valedictory functions. (A copy of the write-up on the theme of the seminar topic is attached).

We cordially invite your participation and a presentation (oral/poster) on any theme outlined in the theme paper. We also request you to recommend the name of interested scholars whom we shall contact for their participation and presentation of the paper.

Thematic outline of the seminar topic Resources, Tribes and State

Resources and their sustainable use, precisely in response to Brundtland Commission Report, 1986 have occupied the centre stage in development discourse. The concern has stemmed from the awareness of the contradictions in the relationship between resource use and level of development: high level of consumption depletes resources at a higher rate and depletion of resources cause the level of consumption unsustainable.

In spite of this awareness, the per-capita consumption of key natural resources is very high in rich countries. A recent World Bank Report records that 2.3 billion residents of low-income countries consumed less than 3 per cent, while 1 billion residents of high income countries consumed more than 80 per cent of the total global resources. According to another report, while 10 per cent rich countries consume more than 70 per cent of world resources, the remaining 90 per cent depend on only 30 per cent of the global total. But a trend has emerged in the countries from this 90 per cent bracket in which the people are increasing the consumption of resources consequent upon their falling upon consumerism. In view of this a recent paper of UN Environment Programme (UNEP) predicts that the consumption of resources would go up from the current level 60 billion tonnes to 140 billion tonnes by 2050.

As a matter of fact, indigenous and tribal communities inhabited in different regions of the globe have been playing a vital role in preservation and management of natural resources within the frame of their indigenous knowledge. It is not a surprise to find that about 80 per cent of the world’s cultural and biological diversity have been reported in their inhabited regions. But the connections between tribes and resources have emerged as critical issues having inter-related internal and external dynamics. Tribes have acquired commercial interest in their resources, consequent upon state sponsored development interventions, which they have conserved so far due to subsistent livelihood pursuits within the frame of their indigenous knowledge system (IKS). The emerging commercial interests have linked the resources to the market demand thereby expanding the demand base beyond the community. The expansion of demand base is further facilitated by the State which often accesses these resources in the pretext of national development, but caters to the consumption level of rich sections. Added to it is the global demand for resources to maintain the consumption level of rich countries. Not surprisingly, we find transnational corporations (TNCs) as major players in mining and quarrying, damming the rivers and establishing industries particularly in resource abundant tribal areas. The entry of TNCs and other private players is facilitated by the state through its legal instruments.

Undoubtedly, the trajectory of development has been significantly a state mediation through which the issue of connections between tribes and their resources provides both opportunities and challenges. A critical scrutiny of it has been a growing interest in contemporary scholarship. The interest has further implications; first, the concerns for preserving culture and formulating sustainable strategies of development, and over exploitation of resources for commercial interests that stands contrary to the spirit of cultural preservation and sustainable resources use; second, the response of tribal and indigenous people b to these connections with resilience and negotiations.

With this backdrop a three international seminar is proposed to address the above issues across the countries in the globe, inhabited by indigenous and tribal people, with a view to understand the operational dynamics and development perspectives both in principle and practice, and with emphasis on forces and process of interventions. The negotiation of the tribes with forces of interaction and intervention shall be viewed from the perspectives of both the people and intervening agencies. The general themes to be included are the following:

1. Theoretical issues: Development perspectives and the connections of resources, tribes and State; resource perceptions-community and state interface
2. Land, tribes and State: competing interests and emerging realities
3. Water resources vis-à-vis tribes and development interventions
4. Forests and Tribes: state mediation
5. Identity issues-resistance and negotiations
6. Legal and policy instruments and tribal interests (national and international regulations, policies, programmes including UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)

However, the themes are not exhaustive, but they are merely suggestive to the issues to be taken up in the seminar for deliberation.