Abstract

The period following India’s independence is regarded as the age of development and has played a pivotal role in modernizing India. Industrial and administrative modernity affected the existence and sustainability of the Adivasis, subsequently forcing the Adivasis to the periphery of the society and driving Adivasi migration into deeper forests that remain untouched by development. Displaced and dispossessed of space, self, and social ties, these communities are cast adrift from mainstream society and the safety net of the welfare state, compounding their marginalization. This article investigates the representation of this displacement and its associated trauma within the narrative of Bastar Dispatches: A Passage Through the Wilds by Narendra. This study focuses on the Abujhmadia community, an indigenous Adivasi community in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. Adopting a post-developmental theoretical framework, this article examines how the characters in the narrative are impacted by the capitalist–industrialist–administrative modernity engendered by development policies and initiatives over an extended period spanning multiple generations. The article also advocates the need to re-examine the discourses of development and progress in a more inclusive, individuated, and sustainable way.