Contents: Part I: Creating National Space. 1. Indian anthropology and the construction of 'tribal ethnicity' before independence/Daniel J. Rycroft. Part II: Rights Perspectives. 2. Exploring Ideas of autonomy through tribal movements in eastern India/Virginius Xaxa. 3. The social life of categories: affirmative action and trajectories of the indigenous/Bengt G. Karlsson. 4. Tribes, states and colonialism in Asia: the evolution of the concept of indigenous peoples and its application in Asia/Christian Erni. 5. Identity crisis and ethnic assertion among the Thengal Kacharis of Assam/Jyoti Prasad Saikia and Anannya Gogoi. Part III: Rights and Realities: Democracy and Gender. 6. Traditional leaders and democratization in tribal societies/M.C. Arunkumar. 7. Reframing the constructions of gender and egalitarianism: Adivasis in transition/Bhanumathi Kalluri. 8. Customary laws, patriarchy and gender relations in contemporary Sumi Naga Society/Avitoli G. Zhimo. Part IV: Interaction and Subordination: History Repeats. 9. Tribal Livelihood: Status and Challenges (With Special Reference to Central India)/S.N. Chaudhary. 10. The Cauldron of Development: Dissipating Tribal Territories and Increasing Unrest/R. Siva Prasad. 11. Tribes of India: The Victims of Social Abuse/M. Sreenathan. Part V: Exclusion in Inclusion. 12. Implementation of Development Schemes and Exclusion: A Study with Reference to Growth of Education in Arunachal Pradesh/M.C. Behera and Jumyir Basar. 13. Asur as Homo Sacer: Political Economy of Vulnerability/Vikas Dubey. Part VI: Negotiating Development. 14. Anthropological Discourse on Poverty and Vulnerability: A Study with Reference to Sugali Tribe of Andhra Pradesh/Kasi Eswarappa. 15. A Study on the Health-Care Practices among the Sherpas: A Hill Tribe of West Bengal/Chumu Sherpa and Pinak Tarafdar. Tribal studies have been a critical area of enquiry, starting from colonial requirements to contemporary interest of government organizations and NGOs, anthropo-sociological adoption to cross disciplinary recognition, culture and ethnography to multidisciplinary methodological perspectives, academic pursuits to project-induced necessity of evaluation and assessment and from depicting tribes as ‘others’ to integrating them in nation-building. The emerging trend reflects on perspective shifts and expansions through essays included in this book, thus mapping multi-dimensional growth of knowledge over a wide range of topical issues on the subject over a period of more than a century. Precisely, the volume is a pioneering attempt to locate whither tribal studies through collection of essays from scholars of diverse background. This volume undoubtedly will be of interest to scholars and students across disciplines. Administrators, policy makers, rights activists and all those interested to know the process of expansion and institutionalization of knowledge on tribal studies in India will also find it useful.