Chapter
Published 03.07.2026
Keywords
- Representation,
- Adivasi women,
- Indian cinema,
- nation
How to Cite
Singh, D. A. (2026). Interrogating the Look: Representing Indigeneity in Indian Cinema. Loreto College Academic Press, 9–23. Retrieved from https://loretocollegeacademicpress.com/index.php/lcap/article/view/3
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The representation of Adivasis and tribal communities in Indian cinema has long mirrored the ideological anxieties of the nation-state, oscillating between romanticised otherness and fearful alterity. Indian cinema, particularly mainstream Bollywood and regional industries, has historically rendered indigeneity through lenses shaped by caste, class, and nationalist ideologies, often flattening the diverse experiences of tribal communities into essentialised tropes of primitiveness, victimhood, or militant resistance.