Accepted Panels

The paper looks into history of collective anxiety or uncertainties as expressed through history of bonded labour, migration and processes of interaction with other communities.  Paniyan, originally hunter-gather community, mainly inhabit the northern part of Kerala commonly known as the Malabar region.  Bearing the burden of being bonded labour to transforming into wage labourers in time and spaces Paniyan have evolved and maintained their own identity. This study looks into the how the community as a whole deals with the external factors and how we need to understand the process of marginalization in the Paniyan context through different historical episodes.  The changes in policies and welfare schemes and its influence on the Paniyan community, their belief systems  throw some light  on the process of marginalization.  The quest here as to how we understand the terms such as vulnerability, backward and marginalized in the Paniyan context.  Here is an attempt to put forth Paniyan identity through the historical episodes of exploitation to wage labor and then to welfare oriented economy. The Paper questions the way we understand and label the tribal community underdeveloped or backward. In the process it analyses how Paniyan have interacted with other community and the impact of the government policies and implementation. In this regard attention is drawn towards different sections of the community, and branding the entire community with our own explanations and descriptions. What remains the  essential query is ‘what decides that a community is marginalised, or backward or vulnerable ‘? Historical process and  modernization have influenced the way Paniyan identifies themselves. Study among the Paniyan has enabled to reflect on underlying and imminent issues such as,  “ How they feel about themselves” and  how that should have a relevant standing  in anthropological research.