The Adaptability of Tribal Land Rights amidst Rapid Urbanization
- NLR Journal
- Oct 17
- 2 min read
            By P Subin Joseph, Advocate at Madras High Court.
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Abstract
During the modern era of rapid urbanization, it is to be noted that the tribal communities are being faced with a dire choice between embracing future progress or holding onto their traditional heritage. The land rights of the tribal populace have often been granted a lower predilection than other concurring rights. With issues of human rights violations and other more pressing issues, the issue of land rights is usually pushed to the backburner. However, it is to be noted that this indeed could be put forth as a primal root cause of all their issues in the first place. While it is indeed true that the government has established certain safeguards to prevent the loss of land from tribal hands, the problem arises when the authorities step forward to uproot their traditional society, to build an urban environment that essentially renders them to be a fish out of water. How far could the authorities hide behind a façade of goodwill and attempt to veil their selfish ambitions under the veil of development, before it severely cripples the livelihood of the tribal population in question? The paper will attempt to investigate the age-old conflict between tradition and modernity, while adequately gauging the social pulse with regards to how the tribal community might be dealing with this issue. Recent developments regarding land grabbing and human rights abuse regarding the tribal community, will be examined in a thorough manner to understand the stance of legal loopholes in the existing statutes. It has been claimed that amendments to the existing acts have significantly weakened its enforceability. The paper will focus on identifying sustainable solutions that would strike a balance between preserving the traditional values and heritage of the tribal community while also considering the push for modernization from the government. Furthermore, the dystopian creation of slum-dwellings will also be examined to formulate a proper hypothesis of how the conflict amidst modernity, poverty and traditionality have resulted in a societal disparity of disproportionate magnitude.
Keywords: Land Rights, Tribal Rights, Tribal, Modernization, Urbanization.
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