Indigeneity and Legal Pluralism in India Claims, Histories, Meanings Cambridge Studies in Law and Society Series

As calls for reparations to indigenous peoples grow on every continent, issues around resource extraction and dispossession raise complex legal questions. What do these disputes mean to those affected? How do the narratives of indigenous people, legal professionals, and the media intersect? In this richly layered and nuanced account, Pooja Parmar focuses on indigeneity in the widely publicized controversy over a Coca-Cola bottling facility in Kerala, India. Juxtaposing popular, legal, and Adivasi narratives, Parmar examines how meanings are gained and lost through translation of complex claims into the languages of social movements and formal legal systems. Included are perspectives of the diverse range of actors involved, based on interviews with members of Adivasi communities, social activists, bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers, and judges. Presented in clear, accessible prose, Parmar's account of translation enriches debates in the fields of legal pluralism, indigeneity, and development.

1. Introduction; 2. Locating a dispute; 3. A people's movement; 4. Litigants, lawyers, and the questions of law; 5. Claims and meanings; 6. Law, history, justice; 7. Conclusion.

Pooja Parmar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa. Her research on legal pluralism, indigeneity, human rights, and international law has been published in such journals as the Australian Feminist Law Journal, the International Community Law Review, and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. Before entering academia, Parmar practised law in New Delhi.