‘The Sun Always Rises’: Caste, Predatory Development and the Struggle for Self-Worth in India's Araku Valley

Abstract

This dissertation investigates why and how development becomes predatory in India’s poorest places – and what marginalized people do when it is their own development under threat. Drawing on 4 years of ethnographic fieldwork and over 40 interviews conducted in India’s Araku Valley between 2012 and 2023, I analyze institutional arrangements that appear to offer pathways to social inclusion for marginalized groups but ultimately reproduce and entrench systemic inequalities. I theorize the concept of “predatory development” to describe these arrangements, referring to social arrangements that aim to include marginalized people in development initiatives, while ensuring these initiatives do not fundamentally disrupt the existing social order through perverse institutional designs. In Araku Valley, the expansion of universal education was enthusiastically embraced by historically excluded Adivasi communities, who viewed formal schooling as the key to overcoming social disadvantage. Despite this engagement, significant employment opportunities remained inaccessible to them, highlighting a core logic of predatory development where maintaining entrenched social structures, like caste, overrides inclusive goals. I argue that the extension of education in Araku Valley, rather than serving as a pathway to empowerment, becomes entangled with enduring caste structures and neoliberal economic policies, resulting in a ‘glass door’ phenomenon that channels Adivasi aspirations into precarious forms of labor and limited social recognition. This dissertation further investigates how the cultural meanings of education are shaped and contested in the context of predatory development, highlighting the ways in which Adivasi youth deploy education not only as a means of economic advancement but also as a tool for reclaiming dignity, agency, and self-worth. Sociologically, this research contributes by: 1) Theorizing “predatory development” as a mechanism functioning through caste hierarchies in India, analogous to predatory inclusion via racial hierarchies in other contexts. 2) Demonstrating ethnographically how caste, as a system dividing laborers and controlling knowledge, shapes the devaluation of educational credentials for lower-caste groups even amidst universal access. 3) Highlighting the complex interplay of caste, development, and agency, showing how Adivasi youth navigate and challenge predatory systems by strategically using education to contest ontological categories, redefine social identities, and pursue alternative pathways to dignity and self-determination.