It’s Time for India’s Scheduled Tribes to Claim World Indigenous Peoples’ Day

[with Jordan Namchu, PhD Candidate, Sociology, IIT Bombay] 

The article examines the growing significance of World Indigenous Peoples’ Day in India, despite the Government of India’s refusal to recognise Scheduled Tribes (STs) as “indigenous peoples” under international law. We trace the historical engagement of ST leaders in global indigenous rights forums, particularly through the Indian Council of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ICITP), and connect this to contemporary struggles against extraction, militarisation, and ethnic conflict. The piece argues that the discourse of indigeneity provides ST communities with both a shield against erasure and a bridge to global solidarity.