Beyond the Extractive Imaginary: Stories of Repair from Forest Rights Agitations in India

This paper explores the idiom of repair in the context of forest rights struggles by Adivasi communities in India, particularly focusing on the Pathalgadi movement. We argue that these movements embody an invitation to repair, where communities attempt to engage the state in a relational dialogue grounded in constitutional provisions. Through an examination of Adivasi practices of installing stones and boards inscribed with legal texts, we frame these actions as jurisgenerative acts of repair, that seek to reconstitute and remind the state of the broken promises of indigenous sovereignty. Even as the state refuses to take up this invitation through acts of violence, our focus on the crafting of these material and symbolic interventions reveals how Adivasi communities offer alternative imaginaries that challenge extractivism.