Tracing the Residues of Colonial, Economic, and Gendered Violence in the Narratives of Adivasi Men in India

The present article attempts to "under" stand (Bulhan, 2015) the economic and gendered violence that subtend contemporary enactments of Adivasi (scheduled tribes) masculinities in India. Breaking away from the epistemological violence (Smith, 1999; Teo, 2010) of Western Eurocentric academic traditions, this article draws on critical discursive decolonial feminist frameworks (Lugones, 2008; Segalo & Fine, 2020) to understand how Adivasi men narrate their lives, identities, and their dreams, and what they fail to speak. Two interviews and one focus-group discussion conducted with Gond Adivasi men in Central India, alongside my own ethnographic accounts of working in the region with feminist organizing, are analyzed. I argue that Adivasi men's subjectivities in India are shaped by the violence of "double colonization" (Xaxa, 2021). First, colonial categories created by the British such as "scheduled tribes" and associated ascriptions of "primitiveness" bear significantly on contemporary Adivasi subjectivities and gender relations. Second, colonization of men's labor and bodies by the (unfulfillable) gendered demands as "breadwinners" for the family within a neoliberal context disenfranchise and push them to the bottom of the economic order. Enmeshed with colonialism and the neoliberal restructuring of the political economy, domestic abuse permeates homelife. Adivasi men themselves bear witness, dehumanize, silence or at worst harm women through their verbal and bodily enactments. Implications of these results are discussed in light of globalization, the rise of right-wing ideologies blanketed in patriarchy, and increased state oppression toward tribal communities.Public Significance StatementThe present article advances our understanding of how gendered and economic violence shape masculinities among marginalized men, particularly Adivasi men in India. Adivasi men's subjectivities are configured by the ongoing violence of colonization and neoliberal economic policies of the Indian State. These, in turn, render Adivasi women more vulnerable to violence. The article may be of relevance to develop interventions to support marginalized men, gender-based violence, or economic empowerment.