Sustainable Tribal Consciousness through Women’s Leadership: Motherhood, Gender and a Tribal Resistance Movement in Contemporary Odisha, India

Tribal women are transforming motherhood into a source of political legitimacy and collective action to resist land acquisition and safeguard their ancestral land, forests, cultural identity, and, ultimately, their children’s future. This study explores the crucial role of tribal women leaders in sustaining tribal consciousness by articulating their voices and engaging in collective action for the tribal resistance movement. Within the context of tribal women in the Sundargarh district of Odisha, their leadership demonstrates grassroots-level resistance to the dominant political economy, in which resistance is understood as a response to economic marginalisation and social exclusion. This study examines how tribal women utilise Self-Help Groups (SHGs) as a socio-political space to produce political awareness and women’s collective action and agency. Furthermore, it argues that tribal women sustain resistance through everyday negotiations within households and kinship networks, influencing domestic and communitarian decision-making processes regarding land ownership and sales. Therefore, this study highlights the role of tribal women’s leadership in mobilising communities, maintaining non-violent forms of protest, and sustaining tribal consciousness, which often remains invisible or unrecognised.