Unveiling the Human Rights Violations Within the Denotified Tribes and Nomadic Tribes in India

This research article examines the persistent human rights violations faced by denotified tribes (DNTs) and nomadic tribes (NTs) in India, tracing their origin to colonial-era criminalization and its enduring socio-legal consequences. It argues that the marginalization of this community cannot be reduced to a historical injustice. Still, as an ongoing form of structural exclusion sustained through stigma, surveillance and restricted access to citizenship rights, the study draws on fieldwork among DNTs and NTs and engages with community-level experiences to examine how everyday practices of exclusion shape their social and legal lives in post-independence India. This article further analyses how the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 institutionalized hereditary criminality. Despite its repeal, similar logic continues to inform state practice and social institutions by situating human rights violations within a broad analytical framework of criminalization and citizenship. The study highlights the continued denial of dignity and recognition to DNTs and identifies opportunities for policy intervention and advocacy.