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Abstract
Foucault has defined six principles of heterotopias. In the first principle of heterotopias he explains that all cultures have heterotopias which may be categorized as the ‘heterotopias of crisis’ and ‘heterotopias of deviation’. Crisis heterotopias are reserved, privileged or sacred spaces for members of primitive societies in “crisis”, that is, a society that maybe within a larger society but in an involuntary state of being that is different and does not appear “normal” to the outside world. Foucault believes that the first kind, that is, the heterotopias of crisis is disappearing with modernisation and giving way to the second kind which is heterotopias of deviation. This can be related to the reality of the Dongria Kondh of South Odisha, an indigenous people, who resist development and assimilation and want to continue living in their natural habitat and are considered to be other than normal by society. Developmental agencies profess a utopia for these people which becomes counterproductive as it oversteps the immediate reality, is impractical and unreal as it proposes to claim nature and natural resources that have sustained the Dongria Kondhs over centuries, supplementing them with a better/modern lifestyle. In this paper I propose to analyse the condition of the Dongria Kondhs and the Niyamgiri Mountains as a heterotopias. A heterotopias is created when the Dongria Kondhs ‘other’ themselves by resisting external forces and engage with their own people isolated by larger society.