Doctoral Dissertation Research: Indigenous Ontologies of Land and Land Politics: A Critical Analysis of Forest Rights Legislation

Clark University, Worcester MA

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation study will examine different ontologies (conceptualizations) of land and land rights of states and indigenous peoples to more fully understand conflicts over land and their possible resolution. Indigenous peoples account for a significant proportion of people who are displaced by state-led development initiatives, yet they often refuse alternate lands in compensation because of their historical ties to particular lands. Their ideologies accord value to specific socio-ecologically significant lands, giving rise to complex and multiple land use patterns and behaviors that are often illegible to policy makers and put them in conflict with the State. Through a case study analysis of the 2006 Forest Rights Act of India, this project will investigate how different ontologies of land and land rights impact the implementation of land policy in different communities. How do States frame land rights? How do indigenous communities understand their relationship to specific lands? How do different ontologies of land and land rights shape land policies, conflicts and negotiations? By enriching current understandings of the connection between ontology and political practice surrounding land, the findings of this research can positively impact land, development and environmental policy in various contexts, while contributing theoretically to the fields of political ecology, critical development studies, environmental theory, sustainability studies, and indigenous and decolonial studies. This research will be conducted in two indigenous (Adivasi) communities in Kerala, India that continue to be displaced by development projects, while being simultaneously placed via forest and land conservation policies, specifically, the Forest Rights Act (FRA), as legitimate residents of forestlands. The FRA is historically reparative legislation that recognizes various communal land rights but has failed to prevent dispossession since its implementation in 2009. While the Adivasis express a socio-ecological ontology of land, the State expresses a different understanding of land as property/resource, and the meeting of the two has historically resulted in conflict. In an attempt to understand this conflict and build tools to mitigate future conflicts, this research will examine the political process of implementing the FRA to: a) examine the underlying ontological assumptions and beliefs of the Adivasis; b) determine whether and how these ontologies translate into political practice; and c) illustrate how Adivasi ontological beliefs about land converge and diverge with those of the Indian state that underlie the FRA. An empirical case-study approach utilizing qualitative analysis of narrative interviews, participant observation, focus group discussions, event ethnography and archival research will be conducted in 15 hamlets and with state officials to answer the following research questions: What does the FRA implementation process reveal about Adivasi versus state land ontologies? How have these different systems of valuing land been expressed, or not, in land use policy, and politics? Data will be analyzed to discern the discourses, stories and practices that the Adivasis and the State utilize in articulating their differing ontologies of land, and their knowledge and understanding of each other, land, and their knowledge and understanding of each other.