Biographical trajectories of Adivasi sportswomen in India demonstrate that they encounter sports as a passage to step out of their societal limitations, financial crisis and to prove their loyalty towards the nation. Exposure to sports is often facilitated by the institutions of governance as Adivasi subjects have been historically essentialized as physically gifted to endure the demands of competitive sports. However, the passage to gain mobility through sports is constructed through yardsticks that measure accrual of value which corresponds to a brahmanical and capitalistic order. Commitment towards excellence, self sacrifice and discipline to attain laurels for the nation is celebrated. While Adivasi women feel coerced to participate in the quest to accrue credibility within the brahmanical-capitalistic order, their specific historical relationship with the order renders their participation as instrumental at best and vision-less at worst. Reluctance, indiscipline, inconsistency are cited as the leading causes that prevent them from gaining success. Their material vulnerabilities owing to their political-economical position, embeddedness within a different order of value production and the inability of the training infrastructure to be sensitive towards their needs and vulnerabilities are often overlooked. The memoirs of Jaipal Singh Munda stand testimony to the politics of representation which have diluted the significance of leisure and pleasure associated with the practice of sports particularly when enjoyed by athletes emerging from Adivasi backgrounds. Reducing such aspects to a lack of aspiration and discipline to contribute to the cause of nation building. Drawing upon a study of biographical trajectories of Adivasi sportswomen across Jharkhand this paper seeks to argue that yardsticks that measure socio-economic mobility and informs state policy should render itself sensitive towards the historical specificity, material realities of deprivation and the fundamental needs of the Adivasi women athletes to engender a truly inclusive sporting ecosystem.
