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This book examines the socially segregated Santals, a tribal community that migrated from various parts of Bengal and its neighbouring states of Bihar, Orissa, and Jharkhand to Kolkata, a city currently driven by capitalist-consumerist forces that pose a challenge in terms of the community’s inclusion and accommodation. As residents of Kolkata for more than four decades, the Santal migrants have experienced multiple unique challenges in adapting to modern, urban life.
The book maps the political economy of social change around the globe and in India to understand how such marginalised tribes have coped with attempts to assimilate. By pursuing an ethnographic account and exploring the lived realities of the Santals as they negotiate the socio-cultural world of the city, the book attempts to deconstruct notions of ‘pristine’ tribal cultures and the need to ‘mainstream’ tribes, thus conveying a sense of the multiple discourses on the tribal question emerging from within the tribal community. In turn, it critically addresses the tension concerning the theory-practice divide in researching marginality. Combining theoretical insights with empirical discussions and thematic analyses of the qualitative data, the book offers researchers, scholars, students, and policymakers an interesting read on marginality in the context of globalizing urban spaces.
List of contents
Introduction.- Social Context of the Tribal Margins in the City: The Conceptual Framework.- Santal Lifeworld in an Urban Fringe Settlement.- Negotiating Journey into the City.- The Urban Predicament and Intergenerational Dilemmas.- The Paradox in Education: Dilemmas of Aspirations and Choices.- Language-Script Disputes in Formal Learning.- Summary and Concluding Thoughts.
About the author
Ruchira Das is an Associate Professor at the Department of Elementary Education, Institute of Home Economics, University of Delhi for almost two decades. Sociologist and educationist by training, she has extensively researched in the areas of sociology, urban sociology-migration studies and sociology of education. Her current interests have been particularly in the areas of identity, marginality, and urban schooling. She was associated as Post-Doctoral Researcher with the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project titled, Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures, led by University of Bristol and anchored at Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore. Dr. Das has been in the Executive Committee of Comparative Education Society of India (CESI) affiliated to World Council for Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) in leading positions for more than ten years. Currently she is the Vice President of CESI.
Summary
This book examines the socially segregated Santals, a tribal community that migrated from various parts of Bengal and its neighbouring states of Bihar, Orissa, and Jharkhand to Kolkata, a city currently driven by capitalist-consumerist forces that pose a challenge in terms of the community’s inclusion and accommodation. As residents of Kolkata for more than four decades, the Santal migrants have experienced multiple unique challenges in adapting to modern, urban life.
The book maps the political economy of social change around the globe and in India to understand how such marginalised tribes have coped with attempts to assimilate. By pursuing an ethnographic account and exploring the lived realities of the Santals as they negotiate the socio-cultural world of the city, the book attempts to deconstruct notions of ‘pristine’ tribal cultures and the need to ‘mainstream’ tribes, thus conveying a sense of the multiple discourses on the tribal question emerging from within the tribal community. In turn, it critically addresses the tension concerning the theory-practice divide in researching marginality. Combining theoretical insights with empirical discussions and thematic analyses of the qualitative data, the book offers researchers, scholars, students, and policymakers an interesting read on marginality in the context of globalizing urban spaces.
