National Seminar on The Adivasi Question in Contemporary India

About MNLU

Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur, established in 2015 by the Government of Maharashtra, is a premier institution committed to excellence in legal education and research.

The University is recognised by the University Grants Commission under Section 12 of the UGC Act, 1956 and by the Bar Council of India. It is also a member of the Association of Indian Universities and the Consortium of National Law Universities.

About the Conference

The question of Adivasi existence, rights, and futures occupies a central yet persistently marginalized position in contemporary Indian socio-political discourse. Despite constitutional recognition as Scheduled Tribes and the proliferation of welfare, development, and rights-based interventions, Adivasi communities continue to experience structural dispossession, cultural erasure, epistemic marginalization, and disproportionate exposure to state and corporate violence.

From extractive and exploitative development projects and forest governance regimes to counterinsurgency operations and neoliberal conservation and welfare models, Adivasi life-worlds are routinely framed as obstacles to national progress or as relics of a pre-modern past. At the same time, recent decades have witnessed renewed scholarly, activist, and political attention to indigeneity, indigenous knowledge systems, ecological and environmental ethics, and alternative modernities.

Adivasi movements across India have consistently articulated claims not only around land and autonomy but also around culture, language, knowledge, and memory. These developments compel a rethinking of the “Adivasi question” beyond the binaries of tradition versus modernity, development versus preservation, and inclusion versus exclusion. This National Seminar is anchored in insights drawn from Critical Legal Studies, Subaltern Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Political Ecology, and Anthropology.

It treats the “Adivasi” not as a static cultural category but as a historically constituted political identity shaped by colonial ethnography, nationalist discourse, capitalist expansion, and ongoing struggles for self-determination and exclusion.

Themes

• Rethinking Adivasi Identity and Culture
• Land, Forest, and Political Ecology
• Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Epistemic Justice
• Law and the Adivasi Question
• Adivasis and the perils and promise of Development

Sub themes

• The Constitution- Adivasi Self-Governance, State Intervention and Conflicts
• Adivasi Customary Practices, Identity, Languages and Education
• Nature Worship, Religion and Conversion of Tribal Faith
• Displacement, Resistance, and Capitalist Form of Development
• Indigenous Knowledge, Culture and Tribal Identity, TKDL
• Adivasi Endangered Languages, Recognition and Governance
• Adivasi, Climate Change and Environmental Issues
• Indigenous Knowledge, Art, Folklore, Traditional Knowledge Management System, TKDL
• Institutionalisation of Tribal Justice System, Community Justice and Governance
• Encountering Tribals, Atrocities and Judiciary
• Implementing Protected Laws and State Inaction on PESA, FRA and RCTLARR Act.

Submission Categories

• Long Articles: 4000 to 8000 words
• Short Articles: 2500 to 4000 words

Submission Guidelines

• Submissions must be original and unpublished works of the author(s).
• Each paper must include a clear and concise title and an abstract of 250–300 words.
• Co-authorship is permitted up to a maximum of two authors.
• Plagiarism beyond the permissible limit will result in outright rejection.
• Formatting must adhere to the following:
  Title: Times New Roman, Font Size 14, Bold, CAPITALS, Centre aligned;
  Main text: Times New Roman, Font Size 12, 1.5 line spacing, Justified;
  Footnotes: Times New Roman, Font Size 10, Single spacing
  Plagiarism must not exceed 10 per cent. AI-generated content is not permitted.
• All submissions shall undergo a double-blind peer review process.
• Citation style: Harvard Bluebook, 20th Edition.

How to Submit?

Interested candidates can submit abstract via the link given at the end of the post.

Abstract can also E-Mail on: ctlr@nlunagpur.ac.in & iprchair@nlunagpur.ac.in

Important dates

• Last Date for Submission of Abstract: March 10, 2026
• Confirmation of Abstract Selection: March 15, 2026
• Last Date of Registration: March 20, 2026
• Last Date of Full Paper Submission: March 22, 2026

Fee

• Participants- 500/-
• Paper Presentation for Research Scholar- 1000/-
• Paper Presentation for Faculty- 1200/-
• Registration Fees include conference kit

Contact

Email: ctlr@nlunagpur.ac.in/ iprchair@nlunagpur.ac.in.

Click here to Submit.