Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Politics and International Relations

Reader 1

Nancy Neiman

Reader 2

Gabriela Morales

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© 2026 Sajni S Sheth-Voss

Abstract

This thesis examines how Adivasi resistance to mining-induced dispossession across India’s mineral belt is increasingly channeled into the judiciary, arguing that this shift functions as a mechanism of containment rather than a pathway to justice. Despite a robust legal framework designed to protect Adivasi land and consent rights, systematic non-enforcement and political closure have hollowed out policy and electoral channels, pushing communities into litigation as a last resort. Drawing on scholarship in political economy, legal studies, and political ecology, alongside primary sources including court documents and activist statements, this study follows how disputes move across institutions and are ultimately reshaped within the courts. The analysis shows that judicial processes convert collective political claims into individualized economic compensation, limiting the potential for structural reform while encouraging continued reliance on legal action. This causal chain is grounded in a detailed case study of the Hasdeo Arand conflict, where a community possessing extensive legal protections saw each one bypassed, spent nearly a decade in court, and ultimately received a ruling that voided its rights and substituted them with monetary compensation. By linking failures across policy, electoral politics, and the judiciary, this thesis shows how the funneling of Adivasi claims into the courts produces a gradual erosion of movement capacity. While Adivasi movements continue to adapt, this dynamic reveals both the limits of judicialization and the enduring political challenge these communities pose to extractive development.

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