Hybrid histories : forests , frontiers and wildness in Western India

Hybrid Histories examines the environmental and cultural histories of the Dangs in the forested regions of western India. Instead of depending only on the conventional chronologies and methods of professional historians, Ajay Skaria draws on the epochs and concerns of Dangi oral traditions about their past. The latter represent Dangi reflections on colonialism, modernity and history. By foregrounding such reflections, the author suggests, we can supplement conventional forms of history-writing and write hybrid histories.

The book also explores a crucial but almost entirely neglected theme in Indian history: the politics of wildness. This politics, which was often in an agonistic and sometimes antagonistic relation to Brahmanical or Kshatriya values, was articulated most forcefully by forest communities such as the Dangis. Skaria looks at the enactment of wildness in modes of livelihood, kingship, and gender relations, and suggests that with the transformation of practices of wildness following the consolidation of colonial rule, there emerged that new identity which is so prominent today: adivasi. This innovative book will be of relevance to historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and those interested in Indian communities, community identity, and the impact of modernization and colonial rule.