Indigenous politics: Community formation and indigenous peoples' struggle for self-determination in northeast India

This paper deals with a number of questions relating to politics based on " ethnicity" or community belonging among "tribal" or indigenous peoples in I ndia's northeastern region. In particular, I probe the complex question of indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, a right that most indigeno us organizations in the world regard as crucial and that is central to the UN draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Autonomy or self- determination, in one form or another, is on the agenda of more or less all mobilized communities in Northeast India. In multi-ethnic contexts, howeve r, it is not easy to translate such demands into viable political solutions . By discussing several different cases, the contemporary Bodoland movement , the Naga struggle for sovereignty, and the mobilization of the Rabha peop le, the paper brings the issue of indigenous politics in India into focus.