In the Global South, indigenous people have been continuously subjected to top-down, and often violent, processes of post-colonial state and nation building. This book examines the development dilemmas of the indigenous people (adivasis) of the Indian state of Kerala. It explores the different facets of change in their lives and livelihoods in the context of modernisation under different political regimes.

Darley Jose Kjosavik is Associate Professor of International Development Studies at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.

Nadarajah Shanmugaratnam is Professor Emeritus of International Development Studies at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.

1. Indigeneity in Transition: Locating Indigenous People (adivasis) in the Indigeneity-Class Intersection 2. Property Rights Transitions and Alienation of Indigenous People's (adivasis') Land: Pre-colonial Period 3. Pauperisation and Proletarianisation of Adivasis: Colonial and Post-colonial Property Relations 4. Not a Frozen Class: Indigenous People (adivasis) in the Kerala Model of Development 5. Adivasis in a Development Triangle: Decentralisation, Neoliberalism and the Kerala Model 6. Contested Frontiers: Adivasi Land Restitution Law and SettlerNarratives 7. Re-articulating Adivasi Land Rights and Identities: Tensions in the Indigeneity-Class intersection 8. Epilogue: The Struggle Continues:Indigeneity and Social Change