From being Adivasi to becoming climate warriors: Transformation in the politics of recognition and legal mobilization in India's coal-mining areas

Legal mobilization in India’s coal-rich forests has transformed. It has been difficult for Adivasi or Indigenous communities in India to protect their rights over land and resources in the coal-mining areas, as the Coal Bearing Areas Act, 1957 that governs the acquisition of land allows for land to be compulsorily acquired by the state. Communities have begun to use climate change as a galvanising term to frame their legal mobilization efforts. Harnessing the concern of climate change has informed their legal mobilisation strategies in very specific ways that challenge the state’s exercise of absolute sovereignty over these lands. In this paper, through empirical evidence, I map the nuances of this transformation and how it has shaped the legal mobilisation strategies of these communities against two coal mining projects: one in Talabira, Odisha and another in Sudergarh, Odisha. I argue that climate change shifts the discussion of sovereignty to one of competing sovereignty where Indigenous communities can limit or challenge the exercise of absolute sovereignty by the state.