Indigenous Urbanisation and Urban Indigeneity: Insights of embedded identity and contouring spatiality in Jharkhand, India

Abstract

Indigeneity in India and globally remains largely tied to rurality, and in urban spaces, as primary (re)negotiations of their urban affiliations, portrayals and experiences. This paper instead introduces a negligent trope of urban indigeneity, particularly as it manifests in often overlooked yet advancing urban spaces within the ‘indigenous geographies’ of the global south. Focusing on Jharkhand, an eastern state of India with a predominant tribal population, the paper explores cities and towns with strong indigenous character, embracing both their customary associations and contemporary socio-spatial formations. Employing a mixed-method approach, we examine their embedded urban social landscapes through tribal toponyms (landmarks or place names) and evolving urban socio-spatial interactions via demographic concentrations, both as indicators of growing integrations into indigenous urbanscapes. Findings suggest that despite their long-established histories and enduring identities, to a greater or lesser extent, urban tribals are increasingly adapting an outward-pushed urban socio-spatial formation. With shrinking urban cores and shifting social peripheries, indigenous cities and towns are reproducing a socio-spatial dialectic that impedes most urban-led social mobility and perpetuates the precariousness of urban indigeneity.