CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Foreword ix Preface xi SECTION I ANTHROPOLOGICAL NARRATIVES 1 The Representation of Tribals: Images and Reality 3 2 Imaging the Tribals in First Person Singular Verrier Elwin's Autobiography, Rahul Sankrityayan's Travelogue and M.N. Srinivas' Monograph-Memoir 24 3 The Fact and the Fiction of a Tribal Movement 45 The Birsa Munda Rebellion in Texts by Kumar Surcsh Singh and Mahasweta Devi 4 The Breaking Down of Genres A Study of Shaani's An Island of Sal 63 SECTION 11 THE MODE OF THE METAPHOR 5 The Middle Class and the Distant Romance The Tribal Non-Tribal Interface in Popular and 'Serious' Fiction 89 6 Violence as Tribal Oppression, Resistance and Impulse in Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya's lyaruingam and Mrityunjay 113 7 Tribal Issues, Metaphysical Dimensions Description, Protest and Philosophy in Gopinath Mohanty's Paraja 137 8 Tribal Women in Modern Indian Writing 157 Index 173