3 - Unveiling Marginality and Inequality: Coal, Class, and Community in Arunachal Pradesh

Presentation Abstract
This paper unpacks the layered marginalities that unfold within the margins that have emerged from complex dynamics of resource politics, which have led to the dispossessions and exploitations of indigenous communities. In particular, it examines the multifaceted political economy of coal extraction in the Patkai Hills of Arunachal Pradesh in relation to how it reproduces intra-community inequalities among the Tangsas. The paper emphasizes the need for a contextualized, nuanced understanding of inequalities within the margins of a localized socio-political context of extractive industries like coal mining. It pushes how policy interventions must include social questions on community dynamics and intra-power hierarchies to promote equitable development in the long run.

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, the paper sheds light on the community's lived experiences, highlighting their unequal access to resources, limited decision-making power, and uneven socio-economic benefits stemming from coal extraction. It argues that the community is deeply embedded in the extractive process, participating actively in the operation of an unregulated coal economy. It also underlines a paradox wherein the predominant accumulation of capital is concentrated in the hands of a select few local elites despite the involvement of the larger local population. The paper further asserts that this concentration of capital among a limited section of tribal elites is catalyzing socio-economic marginalization and perpetuation of intra-inequalities, which in turn is reinforcing a more robust form of class hierarchies among the Tangsas.