ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how adivasis use marginality as a ‘positioning’ in soliciting their goals and demands followed by an analysis of the power generated by the tribals in their everyday actions of resistance for challenging domination. In studying tribal movements, the anthropologists’ endeavour to deconstruct the discourse of the powerful, while giving voice to the struggles of the marginalized, is problematic. In Odisha, the challenge to mainstream development comes in the form of different resistant movements from the socio-economically marginalized tribals who critique ‘development’ based on their vision of an ecologically sustainable and socially just world. With strong people’s movements and support from cross-class alliances, the marginal tribals succeeded in saving Gandhamardan and Niyamgiri, and also challenged the state regarding how they would like to be governed as far as development is concerned. The sangathans use the marginality as a space for mobilizing support for their movements beyond issues and across borders.
