This book examines the everyday state from the perspective of the lived experiences of peripheralized Indigenous tribal people in contemporary Tripura, Northeast India.

Historically, the Indigenous tribal population in the said geographical region were perceived from prevailing theories that portray them as occupying non-state spaces or as communities that do not fully experience the reach of the state. In contrast, recent scholarship suggests that the state is experienced in multifaceted forms when we locate it within everyday practices or ordinary manifestations of the state. Building on discussions in the anthropology of the state and development literature, the book examines the concrete rural indigenous people experiences of the state and how they negotiate said interactions to their advantage and for their own empowerment. It aims to answer the following questions: How do members of peripheralized Indigenous tribal communities imagine, perceive, and experience the state in their everyday practices?; What are the various strategies and approaches that they use to undermine and negotiate the complex power relations to their advantage in their relations with the state? The author argues that for the peripheralized Indigenous community, the state is experienced as both hope and despair, that is, as broken promises, but also aspirations of empowerment, engaged governance and a desire to decolonize the dominant caste-based settler state.

This book will be useful for researchers and scholars of tribal/adivasi/indigenous studies, anthropology of state and development, development studies, social work, sociology, political science, Northeast India studies and South Asian studies.