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Original Research Article

Eco-Colonialism and the Subversion of Indigenous Space in G. N. Devy’s A Nomad Called Thief

Rashmi Achmare

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Rashmi Achmare Corresponding Author

Associate Professor, Department of English, School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, JSPM University, Pune, India

ORCID: 0009-0009-8451-2647

Correspondence: achmarerashmi@gmail.com

Received
05 Sep 2026
Published
10 Oct 2026

Abstract

Existing scholarship on Adivasi marginalisation has examined criminalisation, forest governance, linguistic exclusion, mobility, and development-induced dispossession, but their interconnected spatial effects remain insufficiently explored. This article argues that these processes collectively regulate who may move, remain, work, know, and belong within indigenous space. It employs qualitative textual analysis and thematic close reading of G. N. Devy’s A Nomad Called Thief: Reflections on Adivasi Silence, read alongside scholarship on postcolonial representation, indigenous spatiality, denotified communities, forest relations, and development-induced dispossession. Its innovation lies in conceptualising eco-colonialism as a spatial process linking classification, environmental regulation, epistemic marginalisation, and territorial reorganisation. The article further proposes “spatial legitimacy” to examine authority over indigenous space. The analysis concludes that Devy’s text presents dispossession as restriction of recognised rights to movement, livelihood, knowledge, memory, and belonging.

Keywords: Adivasi Knowledge, Eco-Colonialism, G. N. Devy, Indigenous Space, Spatial Legitimacy
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How to Cite

APA

Achmare, R. (2026). Eco-Colonialism and the Subversion of Indigenous Space in G. N. Devy’s A Nomad Called Thief. British Journal of Advanced Research, 1(4), Article 001. https://doi.org/10.68263/BJAR-AXENMUZE

MLA

Achmare, Rashmi. "Eco-Colonialism and the Subversion of Indigenous Space in G. N. Devy’s A Nomad Called Thief." British Journal of Advanced Research, vol. 1, no. 4, 2026, article 001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.68263/BJAR-AXENMUZE

Chicago

Achmare, Rashmi. "Eco-Colonialism and the Subversion of Indigenous Space in G. N. Devy’s A Nomad Called Thief." British Journal of Advanced Research 1, no. 4 (2026): 001. https://doi.org/10.68263/BJAR-AXENMUZE

References

Bhagabati, D. S. (2024). How to be Indigenous in India? Law and Critique, 35, 93–123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-023-09343-8 Devy, G. N. (2006). A nomad called thief: Reflections on Adivasi silence. Orient Longman. Glotfelty, C., & Fromm, H. (Eds.). (1996). The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology. University of Georgia Press. Guha, R. (1983). Elementary aspects of peasant insurgency in colonial India. Oxford University Press. Jolly, H., Satterfield, T., Kandlikar, M., & Suma, T. R. (2024). Locating kadu in Adivasi portrayals of protected forest areas in southern India. World Development, 173, 106390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106390 Kumar, B., & Baraik, V. K. (2024). Indigenous urbanisation and urban indigeneity: Insights of embedded identity and contouring spatiality in Jharkhand, India. Habitat International, 153, 103185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103185 Massey, D. (1994). Space, place and gender. University of Minnesota Press. Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books. Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). University of Illinois Press. Varughese, R., & Mukherjee, S. (2024). Development-induced dispossession: Adivasi existence in the milieu of contemporary Indian texts in translation. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11, 659. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03166-3 Wadekar, D. (2025). Constitution of criminality: The role of India’s constitution-making process in legitimizing notions of hereditary criminality. In D. Jones-Brown (Ed.), Oxford intersections: Racism by context. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945246.003.0071
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Metadata
ISSN 3153-709X
Tracking ID BJAR_SEP_26_003
Article No. 001
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Article Info
Journal BJAR
Volume Vol 1, No 4
Year 2026
Type Original Research Article
Licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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