Intense constitutional deliberations surrounded the future of predominantly tribal areas in British India during the last three decades of colonial rule. On the one hand, the most vocal anthropologically minded administrators argued that the introduction of modern electoral democracy would be inimical to the interests of tribal people. On the other, the nationalists held almost unanimously that the only way tribes could be uplifted from their backwardness was by giving them guaranteed representation in the legislative bodies. With Indian independence, the debate was resolved in favour of the nationalists, and electoral democracy made its inroads into tribal areas such as Bastar. In this paper, I shall analyze the dynamics through which the predominantly tribal region of Bastar came to be incorporated into the body-politic of the new nation.