 | Indigenist Mobilization: Confronting Electoral Communism and Precarious Livelihoods in Post-Reform Kerala Subjects: Adivasis -- Political activity -- India -- Kerala; Dalits -- Political activity -- India -- Kerala; Agricultural laborers -- Political activity -- India -- Kerala; Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (Organization); Land reform -- India -- Kerala; Communism -- Indi; In Kerala, political activists with a background in Communism are now instead asserting political demands on the basis of indigenous identity. Why did a notion of indigenous belonging come to replace the discourse of class in subaltern struggles? Indigenist Mobilization answers this question through a detailed ethnographic study of the dynamics between the Communist party and indigenist activists, and the subtle ways in which global capitalist restructuring leads to a resonance of indigenist visions in the changing everyday working lives of subaltern groups in Kerala. Luisa Steur is Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam. She is also Lead Editor of Focaal-Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology . Extending her work on indigenism in Kerala, she is now engaged in comparative research on racial inequality and anti-racist activism in Cuba. |
