 "Former Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda | Photo: Wikimedia Commons")
Travelling down a freshly tarred road in Khunti district of Jharkhand, visitor can’t miss noticing stone slabs and signboards outside villages. “Outsiders aren't welcome", the green, concrete slabs engraved in white letters warn in Devanagri script.
Hundreds of such slabs, which are called Pathalgadi in the local dialect, cite various articles of the Constitution about governance in tribal areas to declare autonomy and self-rule for the region. Some slabs were pulled down after a crackdown by Chief Minister Raghubar Das’s BJP government, but many still stand in villages.
The Pathalgadi movement hit national headlines in August 2017 when villagers in
