Erosion and counter-erosion: bare life and Adivasi resistance in walking with the comrades

In this article, I analyse how erosion is utilised as a narrative device in Arundhati Roy's Walking with the Comrades to highlight the xenophobic exploitation of Adivasis (indigenous communities) under neoliberal capitalism in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. I investigate how, through multiple forms of sociocultural othering, forced eviction and systemic persecution, the Adivasis are relegated to bare life. However, I contend that by mapping the multiple meanings attributed to ecology, the eroded landscape also forms the site of counter-erosion and resistance, and subsequently theorise how the indigenous struggle in Dantewada can potentially serve as a model for resistance movements against extractive capitalism.