Undoing Historical Wrongs: Law and Indigeneity in India

Abstract

Beginning with a close look at a recent call by the Supreme Court of India to undo the historical injustices done to the "original inhabitants" of the country, this paper examines similar calls for justice made by Jaipal Singh Munda, the most vocal representative of Adivasis in the Constituent Assembly of India between December 1946 and January 1950, when both the possibilities and limitations of addressing past injustices were being written into the Constitution of India. While drawing attention to debates and disagreements over righting certain past wrongs that remain largely absent from historical accounts of the Constitution's drafting, this paper also invites reflection on the problematique of addressing calls for reparation made by dispossessed peoples as original inhabitants in modern liberal democracies.