On 11 July 2024, Dr Sanchita Bakshi successfully defended her thesis investigating persistent adivasi marginalization and their enclavement in large parts of India, focusing her research on southern Odisha.
Dr Bakshi's thesis builds on her earlier research of working in policy reformulation concerning the issue of 'regional backwardness' in India. Moving on from that primarily quantitative assessment, in this research she focuses on a more qualitative assessment of the distribution of development indicators.
In her examination of persistent adivasi marginalization and their enclavement in large parts of the country, she examines three distinct yet interconnected themes: relational identities of 'backward' adivasi territories, structural factors and survival strategies adopted by the adivasis and contingent relations and spaces of contestation, including how adivasi politicization encounters opposition.
Rewatch Sanchita's defence introduction
