Tribal Communities in India: History, Identities and Challenges

12 Dec 2023

Tribal Communities in India: Tribes beyond Texts and Structures

‘Tribe’ is a modern term for communities that are very old, referring to some of the earliest inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent.

In India, these tribes were characterized by not adhering to religions with written texts, not having traditional state structures and not exhibiting class divisions.

A tribal village fair

 A tribal village fair

How are Tribal Communities in India classified considering Permanent and Acquired Traits?

In terms of positive characteristics, tribes are classified according to their permanent and acquired traits. 

Permanent Traits of Tribal communities in India: 

Let’s study permanent traits which mainly include region, language, physical characteristics and ecological habitat.

Demography Diversity: Mapping the Tribal Landscape Across India’s Regions
  • India’s tribal population is dispersed across the country. 
  • Middle India: Approximately 85% of tribal people reside in “middle India,” a region extending from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west to West Bengal and Odisha in the east, encompassing states like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh.
  • The North Eastern States: These states have the highest concentrations, with all states except Assam having more than 30% tribal population.
    • Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland, have tribal populations ranging from 60% to 95%.
  • Rest of India: In contrast, the tribal population in the rest of India is less than 12% in all states except Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
  • These tribal communities inhabit diverse ecological habitats, including hills, forests, rural plains, and urban industrial areas.
Language: Linguistic Landscape of Tribal Community in India
  • In terms of language, tribes are categorized into four linguistic divisions of 2 major groups .
  • Indo-Aryan and Dravidian: These are shared by the rest of the Indian population as well, and tribes account for only about 1% of the former and about 3% of the latter.
  • The Austric and Tibeto-Burman: These are primarily spoken by tribals, who account for all of the first and over 80% of the second group.
Physical-racial classification of Indian tribes
  • In physical-racial terms, tribes are classified under the Negrito, Australoid, Mongoloid, Dravidian and Aryan categories.
  • The Dravidian and Aryan categories are shared with the rest of the population of India.
Variety in Unity: Understanding the Diverse Sizes of Indian Tribal Community
  • Varying Sizes: Tribal communities vary significantly in size, ranging from around seven million to some Andamanese islanders who may number fewer than a hundred individuals.
  • Largest Tribes: These include the Gonds, Bhils, Santhals, Oraons, Minas, Bodos, and Mundas, each with Dravidian and Aryan categories.
  • Dravidian and Aryan Categories:  In India, These tribes constitute about 8.6% of the country’s total population, amounting to approximately 104 million tribal individuals according to the 2011 Census.

Table: Permanent Traits of Tribes

 

Acquired Traits and Integrating with Hindu Society

Classification based on acquired traits uses two main criteria: their mode of livelihood and their extent of incorporation into Hindu society, or a combination of both.

Sustaining Livelihoods: Diverse Modes in Tribal Community
  • Tribes can be categorized based on their mode of subsistence.
  • This includes fishermen, food gatherers and hunters, shifting cultivators, peasants, and plantation and industrial workers.
Interplay of Assimilation: Tribes and Hindu Society Dynamics in India
    • This assimilation perspective can be viewed from both the standpoint of the tribes and that of the dominant Hindu mainstream.
    • Assimilation from Tribes’ Viewpoint: From the tribes’ viewpoint, assimilation is assessed based on the extent to which they have adopted Hindu customs and practices.
      • Additionally, their attitude towards Hindu society, whether they are positively inclined towards Hinduism or resist or oppose it, plays a crucial role in classification.
  • Mainstream Hindu Perspective: From the mainstream Hindu perspective, tribes can be categorized based on the status accorded to them within Hindu society. 
    • This status ranges from high regard for certain tribes to generally low status for most others.

Table: Acquired Traits of Tribes

Evolution of Tribal Communities in India: Debates in 1960s Hindu Society

  • Contours of Controversy: 1960s Debates on Tribal Identity in Hindu Peasant Society: During the 1960s, there were debates over whether tribes should be considered one end of a continuum with caste-based (Hindu) peasant society or if they constituted an entirely distinct type of community.

Agitation by tribal women

Agitation by tribal women

  • Continuum Advocacy for Tribal Integration in Hindu Peasant Society: Advocates of the continuum saw tribes as not fundamentally different from caste-based peasant society but rather less stratified (fewer hierarchical levels).
    • They are possessing a more community-oriented, as opposed to individual, concept of resource ownership.
  • Clash of Cultures: Debating Cultural Distinctions Between Hindu Castes and Animist Tribes in the 1960s: Opponents argued that tribes were wholly dissimilar from castes due to their lack of a concept of purity and pollution, which is central to the caste system.
    • The argument hinged on an assumed cultural distinction between Hindu castes.
      • Hindu castes characterized by their beliefs in purity and pollution and hierarchical integration.
      • Whereas Animist” tribes who exhibited more egalitarian and kinship-based modes of social organization.

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Comprehensive coverage with a concise format
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