 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Adivasi" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheAdivasi (also spelledAdibasi) are the heterogeneous tribal groups across theIndian subcontinent.[1][2][3][4] The termAdivasi, a 20th-century construct meaning "ancient inhabitants", is now widely used as a self-designation by many of the communities who are officially recognized as "Scheduled Tribes" in India and as "Ethnic minorities" in Bangladesh.[5][6][7][8] They constitute approximately 8.6% of India's population (around 104.2 million, according to the2011 Census)[9][10][11] and about 1.1% of Bangladesh's population (roughly 2 million, 2010 estimate).[12][13]
Claiming to be among the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, many present-day Adivasi communities formed during the flourishing period of theIndus Valley Civilization or after the decline of the IVC, harboring various degrees of ancestry from ancientDravidians,Indo-Aryan,Austroasiatic andTibeto-Burman language speakers.[14][15][16]
Adivasi studies is a new scholarly field, drawing upon archaeology, anthropology, agrarian history, environmental history,subaltern studies, indigenous studies, aboriginal studies, anddevelopmental economics. It adds debates that are specific to the Indian context.[17]
Adivasi is the collective term for the tribes of theIndian subcontinent,[3] who are claimed to be theindigenous people of India.[18][19] It refers to "any of various ethnic groups considered to be the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent".[3] Although "Tribe" and "Adivasi" are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. "Tribe" refers to a social unit, whereas "Adivasi" means ancient inhabitants. The former is ananthropological term primarily associated with the social characteristics, while the latter is asocio-political term associated with theautochthonous identity, specifically used in the Indian subcontinent. The use of the term Adivasi, as a socio-political construct, often overlooks the historical complexities of indigeneity, including migration, linguistics, anthropology, and archaeology—somethingHardiman views as "the idea that Adivasis are autochthonous, or original, inhabitants is belied by the fact that many such groups are known to have migrated in recorded history into the areas in which they are now found, often displacing existing inhabitants in the process... There have been so many migrations in and out of this region in past centuries that no particularjati [community] can have genuine grounds for making such a claim."[20]
The term Adivasi, in fact, is aSanskrit word specifically coined in 1930s by the tribal political activists to give a distinct and collective indigenous identity to the tribals, alleging thatIndo-Aryan andDravidianethnolinguistic group are not indigenous to the land.[21][7] The term was initially popularized by tribal activist organizations in present-dayJharkhand.[22] Later,Thakkar Bapa used the word to advocate for a pan-Indian reference to the inhabitants of forests, a usage that was later adopted, although not popularly byGandhi.[23][24]Post-independence,Jaipal Singh Munda, president of the Jharkhand-based organization 'Adivasi Mahasabha', was elected as an independent member representing tribals in theConstituent Assembly. He advocated for the term 'Adivasi' in place of 'Scheduled Tribe'.[25] However, due to the need for legal connotation,Ambedkar rejected the use of such general socio-political terms inthe Constitution by adopting 'Scheduled Tribe' for tribals and 'Scheduled Caste' for untouchables, although he advocated forDalits.[26][27] Ambedkar, responding to Munda's advocacy for 'Adivasi', clarified: "why I substituted the word "scheduled" for the word "aboriginal" the explanation is ... the word 'scheduled tribe' has a fixed meaning, because it enumerates the tribes ... the word 'Adibasi' is really a general term which has no specific legalde jure connotation, something like the Untouchables [Dalits]. Anybody may include anybody in the term 'untouchable' [andAdibasi]. ...by this Constitution, we are conferring certain privileges, certain rights on these Adibasis. In order that, if the matter was taken to a court of law there should be a precise definition as to who are these Adibasis, it was decided to invent, so to say, another category or another term to be called 'Scheduled tribes' and to enumerate the Adibasis under that head."
In mostIndo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi and Bengali,Adivasi means "Original Inhabitants,"[3] Sanskritic derivation fromādi 'beginning, origin'; andvāsin 'dweller' (itself fromvas 'to dwell'), thus literally meaning 'beginning inhabitant'.[28] Although terms such asatavika,vanavāsi ("forest dwellers"), orgirijan ("mountain people")[29] are also used for the tribes of India,adivāsi carries the specific meaning of being the original andautochthonous inhabitants of a given region,[7] and the self-designation of those tribal groups.[30] However, the use and acceptance of the term Adivasi vary across places, communities, and contexts and do not always carry its original connotation. For instance tribals ofNorth East India don't use the term Adivasi for themselves, rather prefer the word "Indigenous" or "Tribe". The term Adivāsi applies only to the immigratedTea-tribes of Central India origin.[17] In Bangladesh, Adivasi term is also used to refer tribals of Central India affiliation, although not popularly as India, wherein the tribals have designated as "Ethnic minorities" (Khudro Nritattik Jonogoshti).[31] Similarly the termAdivasi Janjati used in Nepal for hierarchically lowly-status ethnic groups inNepal's caste system, having own socio-cultural institutions,[32][33] although the political context differed historically under theShah andRana dynasties.[34][35] In Sri Lanka, theVedda people are referred as Adivasi.
TheConstitution of India doesn't use the wordAdivasi, and directs government officials to not use the word in official work. The notified tribals are designated asScheduled Tribes (Anusuchit Janjati) in the Constitution.[8] The constitution of India grouped these ethnic groups together "as targets for social and economic development". Since that time the tribe of India have been known officially asScheduled Tribes.[3] Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as "such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution".[36] But, due to the political leverage associated with tribals in the Constitution of India, the termAdivasi serves as a unifying factor both politically and socio-culturally, maintaining its influence inpublic discourse as astatus quo, challenging the legally designated, state-specific administrative termScheduled Tribes.[8]
Judicially it remarked that "India is a country ofold immigrants in which people have been coming in over the last ten thousand years or so... who came mainly from the North-West, and to a lesser extent from the North-East... At one time it was believed that the Dravidians were the original inhabitants. However, this view has been considerably modified subsequently, and now the generally accepted belief is that the original inhabitants of India were the pre-Dravidian aborigines, i.e. the ancestors of the present tribals or Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes)."[37][38][39]
But India does not exclusively recognise Adivasisa.k.a. Tribesa.k.a.Scheduled Tribes as indigenous people of India, rather considers all Indians as indigenous to the land.[40][31] Thus, India has disagreed or refused at various international forums, when there is uncertain in the concepts ofindigeneity and considered same yardstick across countries for identification. For instance, although India initially ratified theInternational Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 107 onIndigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957, in 1989, India refused to sign theILO Convention 169.[4] In 2007, considering all Indians as indigenous, India voted for theDeclaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in theUnited Nations General Assembly.[40][41]
A substantial number of Adivasia.k.a.tribal communities are recognised asScheduled Tribes under theConstitution of India. Those Scheduled Tribes constitute 8.6% of India's population, while in Bangladesh they are designated as "Ethnic minority" and constitute around 1.1% of Bangladesh's population.[12]
One concentration lies in a belt along the northwest Himalayas: consisting ofJammu and Kashmir, where are found many semi-nomadic groups, toLadakh and northernHimachal Pradesh andUttarakhand, where are found Tibeto-Burman groups.
In the northeastern states ofArunachal Pradesh,Meghalaya,Mizoram, andNagaland, more than 90% of the population is tribal. However, in the remaining northeast states ofAssam,Manipur,Sikkim, andTripura, tribal peoples form between 20 and 30% of the population.
The largest population of tribals lives in a belt stretching from easternGujarat andRajasthan in the west all the way to western West Bengal, a region known as thetribal belt. These tribes correspond roughly to three regions. The western region, in eastern Gujarat, southeastern Rajasthan, northwesternMaharashtra as well as westernMadhya Pradesh, is dominated by Indo-Aryan speaking tribes like theBhils. The central region, covering easternMaharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, western and southern Chhattisgarh, northern and eastern Telangana, northern Andhra Pradesh and western Odisha is dominated by Dravidian tribes like theGonds andKhonds. The eastern belt, centred on the Chhota Nagpur Plateau inJharkhand and adjacent areas of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal, is dominated byMunda tribes like theBhumijs,Hos andSantals. Roughly 75% of the total tribal population live in this belt, although the tribal population there accounts for only around 10% of the region's total population.
Further south, the region nearBellary inKarnataka has a large concentration of tribals, mostly Boyas/Valmikis. Small pockets can be found throughout the rest of South India. By far the largest of these pockets is in found in the region containing theNilgiris district ofTamil Nadu,Wayanad district ofKerala and nearby hill ranges ofChamarajanagar andMysore districts of southernKarnataka. Further south, only small pockets of tribal settlement remain in the Western and Eastern Ghats.
The scheduled tribe population inJharkhand constitutes 26.2% of the state.[43][44] Tribals in Jharkhand mainly followSarnaism, an animistic religion.[45]Chhattisgarh has also over 80lakh scheduled tribe population.[46][47][48]Assam has over 40 lakh Adivasis primarily as tea workers.[49] Adivasis in India mainly followAnimism,Hinduism andChristianity.[50][51][37]
In the case of Bangladesh, most Adivasi groups are found in theChittagong hill tracks along the border with Myanmar, in Sylhet and in the Northwest of Bangladesh. In Sylhet and in the north west you can find groups such as theSauria Paharia,Kurukh,Santal,Munda and more, and other groups such as thePnar,Garo,Meitei,Bishnupriya Manipuri and more. In theChittagong Hill tracts you can find variouseTibeto-Burman groups such as theMarma,Chakma,Bawm,Tripuri,Mizo,Mru,Rakhine and more. In Bangladesh most Adivasis are Buddhists who follow theTheravada school ofBuddhism,Animism andChristianity are also followed in fact Buddhism has affected Adivasis so much that it has influenced localAnimistic beliefs of other Adivasis.[52]
Though claimed to be the original inhabitants of India, many present-day Adivasi communities formed after the decline of theIndus Valley Civilisation, harboring various degrees of ancestry from ancienthunter-gatherers,Indus Valley Civilisation,Indo-Aryan,Austroasiatic andTibeto-Burman language speakers.[14][15] Only tribal people ofAndaman Islands remained isolated for more than 25000 years.[16]
According to linguistAnvita Abbi, tribes in India are characterized by distinct lifestyle and are outside ofcaste system.[53] Although considered uncivilised and primitive,[54] Adivasis were usually not held to be intrinsically impure by surrounding populations (usuallyDravidian orIndo-Aryan), unlikeDalits, who were.[note 1][55] Thus, the Adivasi origins ofValmiki, who composed theRamayana, were acknowledged,[56] as were the origins of Adivasi tribes such as theGarasia andBhilala, which descended from mixedRajput andBhil marriages.[57][58] Unlike the subjugation of the Dalits, the Adivasis often enjoyed autonomy and, depending on region, evolved mixed hunter-gatherer and farming economies, controlling their lands as a jointpatrimony of the tribe.[54][59][60] In some areas, securing Adivasi approval and support was considered crucial by local rulers,[7][61] and larger Adivasi groups were able to sustain their own kingdoms in central India.[7] TheBhil,Meenas andGond Rajas of Garha-Mandla and Chanda are examples of an Adivasi aristocracy that ruled in this region, and were "not only the hereditary leaders of their Gond subjects, but also held sway over substantial communities of non-tribals who recognized them as their feudal lords."[59][62][63]
The historiography of relationships between the Adivasis and the rest of Indian society is patchy. There are references to alliances between Ahom Kings of Brahmaputra valley and the hill Nagas.[64]This relative autonomy and collective ownership of Adivasi land by Adivasis was severely disrupted by the advent of theMughals in the early 16th century. Rebellions against Mughal authority include theBhil Rebellion of 1632 and the Bhil-Gond Insurrection of 1643[65][66] which were both pacified by Mughal soldiers. With the advent of theKachwaha Rajputs and Mughals into their territory, the Meenas were gradually sidelined and pushed deep into the forests. As a result, historical literature has completely bypassed the Meena tribe. The combined army of Mughals and Bharmal attacked the tribal king Bada Meena and killed him damaging 52 kots and 56 gates. Bada's treasure was shared between Mughals and Bharmal.
During the period ofBritish rule, the colonial administration encroached upon theadivasi tribal system, which led to widespread resentment against the British among the tribesmen. The tribesmen frequently supported rebellions or rebelled themselves, while theirraja looked negatively upon the British administrative innovations.[67] Beginning in the 18th century, theBritish added to the consolidation of feudalism in India, first under theJagirdari system and then under thezamindari system.[68] Beginning with thePermanent Settlement imposed by the British in Bengal and Bihar, which later became the template for a deepening of feudalism throughout India, the older social and economic system in the country began to alter radically.[69][70] Land, both forest areas belonging to adivasis and settled farmland belonging to non-adivasi peasants, was rapidly made the legal property of British-designated zamindars (landlords), who in turn moved to extract the maximum economic benefit possible from their newfound property and subjects.[71] Adivasi lands sometimes experienced an influx of non-local settlers, often brought from far away (as in the case of Muslims and Sikhs brought to Kol territory)[72] by the zamindars to better exploit local land, forest and labour.[68][69] Deprived of the forests and resources they traditionally depended on and sometimes coerced to pay taxes, many adivasis were forced to borrow atusurious rates from moneylenders, often the zamindars themselves.[73][74] When they were unable to pay, that forced them to becomebonded labourers for the zamindars.[75] Often, far from paying off the principal of their debt, they were unable even to offset the compounding interest, and this was made the justification for their children working for the zamindar after the death of the initial borrower.[75] In the case of the Andamanese adivasis, theirprotective isolation changed with the establishment of a British colonial presence on the islands. Lacking immunity against commoninfectious diseases of the Eurasian mainland, the large Jarawa habitats on the southeastern regions of South Andaman Island experienced a massive population decline due to disease within four years of the establishment of a colonial presence on the island in 1789.[76][77]
Land dispossession by thezamindars or interference by the colonial government resulted in a number of Adivasi revolts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as theBhumij rebellion of 1832-1833 and Santal hul (orSanthal rebellion) of 1855–56.[78] Although these were suppressed by the governing British authority (theEast India Company prior to 1858, and the British government after 1858), partial restoration of privileges to adivasi elites (e.g. toMankis, the leaders ofMunda tribes) and some leniency in levels of taxation resulted in relative calm in the region, despite continuing and widespread dispossession from the late nineteenth century onwards.[72][79] The economic deprivation, in some cases, triggered internal adivasi migrations within India that would continue for another century, including as labour for the emerging tea plantations inAssam.[80]
There were tribal reform and rebellion movements during the period of theBritish Empire, some of which also participated in the Indian independence movement or attacked mission posts.[81] There were several Adivasis in theIndian independence movement including Birsa Munda, Dharindhar Bhyuan, Laxman Naik, Jantya Bhil, Bangaru Devi and Rehma Vasave, Mangri Oraon.
During the period of British rule, India saw therebellions of several thenbackward castes, mainly tribal peoples that revolted against British rule. These were:
There are more than 700 tribal groups in India. The majorScheduled Tribes (Adivasi) are;
Tribal languages can be categorised into five linguistic groupings, namelyAndamanese;Austro-Asiatic;Dravidian;Indo-Aryan; andSino-Tibetan.[91]
Adivasi literature is the literature composed by the tribals of the Indian subcontinent. It is composed in more than 100 languages. The tradition of tribal literature includes oral literature and written literature in tribal languages and non-tribal languages. The basic feature of tribal literature is the presence of tribal philosophy in it. Prominent tribal writers includeHansda Sowvendra Shekhar,Nirmala Putul,Vahru Sonawane,Temsula Ao,Mamang Dai,Narayan,Rose Kerketta,Ram Dayal Munda,Vandana Tete,Anuj Lugun etc.
In theCensus of India from 1871 to 1941, tribal people and their religions were described in several ways: Forest tribe (1891); animist (1901); tribal animist (1911); hill and forest tribe (1921); primitive tribe (1931); and tribes (1941). However, since the census of 1951, the tribal population has been recorded separately, for each denomination. Some Adivasis have been converted toChristianity starting with British period and after independence. During the last two decades Adivasi fromOdisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand have converted toProtestantism, as a result of increased presence of missionaries.
Adivasi beliefs vary by tribe, and are usually different from thehistorical Vedic religion, with itsmonistic underpinnings, Indo-European deities (who are oftencognates of ancient Iranian, Greek and Roman deities, e.g.Mitra/Mithra/Mithras), lack ofidol worship and lack of a concept ofreincarnation.[92] Tribals have their own distinct religions based innature worship;most tribals (more than 89%) identify as Hindus and follow the Hindu religion,[citation needed] some (5.53%) have embraced Christianity due to proselytisation by Christian Missionaries albeit not without social and cultural conflicts between their tribal roots and the newly-adopted Christian traditions, and some tribals, mainly in Lakshadweep are Muslims and are believed to have embraced Islam during the 14th century; other tribals (4.19 %) follow their distinct religion.[93][verification needed] Conversion of tribals to Christianity has been a growing phenomenon from the days of the British rule.[94][95] Christians have been jailed due to accusations of "forced conversions" of tribals.[96][97] Conversion to Islam is a growing phenomenon in recent times.[98] Tribals in theDang district, having their own distinct religions based innature worship, are beingproselytised to Hinduism, byHindutva ideological groups such as theBJP & theVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).[99] Tribalancestor worshippers in theNilgiris, have raised objections to be being labelled as Hindu, Muslim, or Christian.[100]
Animism (fromLatinanimus, -i "soul,life") is theworldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence. TheEncyclopaedia of Religion and Society estimates that 1–5% of India's population is animist.[101] India's government recognises that India's indigenous subscribe to pre-Hindu animist-based religions.[102][103]
Animism is used in theanthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of someindigenous tribal peoples,[104] especially prior to the development of organised religion.[105] Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, "animism" is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so fundamental, mundane, everyday and taken-for-granted that most animistic indigenous people do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion");[106] the term is ananthropological construct rather than one designated by the people themselves.
Donyi-Polo is the designation given to theindigenous religions, ofanimistic andshamanic type, of theTani, fromArunachal Pradesh, in northeastern India.[107][108] The name "Donyi-Polo" means "Sun-Moon".[109]
Sarnaism or Sarna[110][111][112] (local languages:Sarna Dhorom, meaning "religion of the holy woods") defines the indigenous religions of the Adivasi populations of the states of Central-East India, such as theMunda, theHo, theSantali, theKhuruk, and the others. The Munda, Ho, Santhal and Oraon tribe followed the Sarna religion,[113] where Sarna means sacred grove. Their religion is based on the oral traditions passed from generation-to-generation. It involves worship of village deity, Sun and Moon.
Animist hunter gathererNayaka people of Nilgiri hills of South India.[114]
Animism is the traditional religion ofNicobarese people; their religion is marked by the dominance and interplay with spirit worship, witch doctors and animal sacrifice.[115]
Some historians and anthropologists assert that many Hindu practices might have been adopted from Adivasi culture.[116][117][118] This also includes the sacred status of certain animals such asmonkeys, cows,fish (matsya),peacocks, cobras (nagas) andelephants and plants such as thesacred fig (pipal),Ocimum tenuiflorum (tulsi) andAzadirachta indica (neem), which may once have held totemic importance for certain adivasi tribes.[117]
Asant is an Indian holy man, and a title of a devotee or ascetic, especially in north and east India. Generally, a holy or saintly person is referred to as a mahatma, paramahamsa, or swami, or given the prefix Sri or Srila before their name. The term is sometimes misrepresented in English as "Hindu saint", although "sant" is unrelated to "saint".[citation needed]
Some Hindus do not believe that Indian tribals are close to the romantic ideal of the ancientsilvan culture[124] of the Vedic people.Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar said:
The tribals "can be givenyajñopavîta (...) They should be given equal rights and footings in the matter of religious rights, in temple worship, in the study of Vedas, and in general, in all our social and religious affairs. This is the only right solution for all the problems of casteism found nowadays in our Hindu society."[125]
At theLingaraja Temple inBhubaneswar, there areBrahmin and Badu (tribal) priests. The Badus have the most intimate contact with the deity of the temple, and only they can bathe and adorn it.[126][127]
The Bhils are mentioned in theMahabharata.Ekalavya consideredDarona as his guru, and he had the honour to be invited toYudhishthira'sRajasuyaYajna atIndraprastha.[128] Indian tribals were also part of royal armies in theRamayana and in theArthashastra.[129]
Shabari was a Bhil woman who offeredRama andLakshmanajujubes when they were searching forSita in the forest. Matanga, a Bhil, became a Brahmana.[130]
Bhangya Bhukya notes that during the final years of theBritish Raj, while education introduced Westernization in the hilly areas of central India, the regions also parallelly underwent theHinduization andRajputization processes. TheGond people and their chiefs started doing the "caste–Hindu practices" and frequently claimed the "Rajput, and thuskshatriya status". The British government used to support these claims as they viewed the adivasi society to be less civilized than the caste society and believed that adivasi peoples' association with the castes would make the adivasis "more civilized and sober" and "easier for the colonial state to control". Bhukya also points out that central India's "Raj Gond families" had already adopted the religious and social traditions of the Rajputs before the British Raj in India, and there were "matrimonial relations" between a number of Gond and Rajput Rajas. However, the British governments' policies of offering "zamindari rights, village headships andpatelships" fueled the process.[131]
According to Patit Paban Mishra, "the 'ksatriyaization' of tribal rulers and their surroundings, resulted in the Hinduization of tribal areas".[132]
Some Adivasi organisations have demanded that a distinct religious code be listed for Adivasis in the 2011 census of India. The All India Adivasi Conference was held on 1 and 2 January 2011 at Burnpur, Asansol, West Bengal. 750 delegates were present from all parts of India and cast their votes for Religion code as follows:Sari Dhorom – 632,Sarna – 51,Kherwalism – 14 and Other Religions – 03.Census of India.[133]
Tribal communities in India are the least educationally developed. First generation learners have to face social, psychological and cultural barriers to get education. This has been one of the reasons for poor performance of tribal students in schools.[134] Poor literacy rate since independence has resulted in absence of tribals in academia and higher education. The literacy rate for STs has gone up from 8.5% (male – 13.8%, female – 3.2%) in 1961 to 29.6% (male – 40.6%, female – 18.2%) in 1991 and to 40% (male – 59%, female – 37%) in 1999–2000.[134] States with large proportion of STs like Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya have high literacy rate while states with large number of tribals like Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh have low tribal literacy rate.[135] Tribal students have very high drop-out rates during school education.[136]
Extending the system of primary education into tribal areas and reserving places for needing them, they say, to work in the fields. On the other hand, in those parts of the northeast where tribes have generally been spared the wholesale onslaught of outsiders, schooling has helped tribal people to secure political and economic benefits. The education system there has provided a corps of highly trained tribal members in the professions and high-ranking administrative posts. tribal children in middle and high schools and higher education institutions are central to government policy, but efforts to improve a tribe's educational status have had mixed results. Recruitment of qualified teachers and determination of the appropriate language of instruction also remain troublesome. Commission after commission on the "language question" has called for instruction, at least at the primary level, in the students' native language. In some regions, tribal children entering school must begin by learning the official regional language, often one completely unrelated to their tribal language.
Many tribal schools are plagued by high drop-out rates. Children attend for the first three to four years of primary school and gain a smattering of knowledge, only to lapse into illiteracy later. Few who enter continue up to the tenth grade; of those who do, few manage to finish high school. Therefore, very few are eligible to attend institutions of higher education, where the high rate of attrition continues. Members of agrarian tribes like the Gonds often are reluctant to send their children to school,
An academy for teaching and preserving Adivasi languages and culture was established in 1999 by the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre. The Adivasi Academy is located at Tejgadh in Gujarat.
Most tribes are concentrated in heavily forested areas that combine inaccessibility with limited political or economic significance. Historically, the economy of most tribes was subsistence agriculture or hunting and gathering. Tribal members traded with outsiders for the few necessities they lacked, such assalt andiron. A few local Hindu craftsmen might provide such items as cooking utensils.
In the early 20th century, however, large areas fell into the hands of non-tribals, on account of improved transportation and communications. Around 1900, many regions were opened by the British government to settlement through a scheme by which inward migrants received ownership of land free in return for cultivating it. For tribal people, however, land was often viewed as a common resource, free to whoever needed it. By the time tribals accepted the necessity of obtaining formal land titles, they had lost the opportunity to lay claim to lands that might rightfully have been considered theirs. The colonial and post-independence regimes belatedly realised the necessity of protecting tribals from the predations of outsiders and prohibited the sale of tribal lands. Although an important loophole in the form of land leases was left open, tribes made some gains in the mid-twentieth century, and some land was returned to tribal peoples despite obstruction by local police and land officials.
In the 1970s, tribal peoples came again under intense land pressure, especially in central India. Migration into tribal lands increased dramatically, as tribal people lost the titles to their lands in many ways – lease, forfeiture from debts, or bribery of land registry officials. Other non-tribals simply squatted or even lobbied governments to classify them as tribal to allow them to compete with the formerly established tribes. In any case, many tribal members became landless labourers in the 1960s and 1970s, and regions that a few years earlier had been the exclusive domain of tribes had an increasingly mixed population of tribals and non-tribals. Government efforts to evict nontribal members from illegal occupation have proceeded slowly; when evictions occur at all, those ejected are usually members of poor, lower castes.
Improved communications, roads with motorised traffic, and more frequent government intervention figured in the increased contact that tribal peoples had with outsiders. Commercial highways and cash crops frequently drew non-tribal people into remote areas. By the 1960s and 1970s, the resident nontribal shopkeeper was a permanent feature of many tribal villages. Since shopkeepers often sell goods on credit (demanding high interest), many tribal members have been drawn deeply into debt or mortgaged their land. Merchants also encourage tribals to grow cash crops (such ascotton orcastor-oil plants), which increases tribal dependence on the market for necessities. Indebtedness is so extensive that although such transactions are illegal, traders sometimes 'sell' their debtors to other merchants, much likeindenturedpeons.
The final blow for some tribes has come when non-tribals, through political jockeying, have managed to gain legal tribal status, that is, to be listed as a Scheduled Tribe.
Tribes in theHimalayan foothills have not been as hard-pressed by the intrusions of non-tribal. Historically, their political status was always distinct from the rest of India. Until the British colonial period, there was little effective control by any of the empires centred in peninsular India; the region was populated by autonomous feuding tribes. The British, in efforts to protect the sensitive northeast frontier, followed a policy dubbed the "Inner Line"; non-tribal people were allowed into the areas only with special permission. Post-colonial governments have continued the policy, protecting the Himalayan tribes as part of the strategy to secure the border with China.
Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernisation. Both commercial forestry and intensive agriculture have proved destructive to the forests that had enduredswidden agriculture for many centuries.[137] Adivasis in central part of India have been victims of theSalwa Judum campaign by the Government against theNaxalite insurgency.[138][139][140]
Government policies on forest reserves have affected tribal peoples profoundly. Government efforts to reserve forests have precipitated armed (if futile) resistance on the part of the tribal peoples involved. Intensive exploitation of forests has often meant allowing outsiders to cut large areas of trees (while the original tribal inhabitants were restricted from cutting), and ultimately replacing mixed forests capable of sustaining tribal life with single-product plantations. Non-tribals have frequently bribed local officials to secure the effective use of reserved forest lands.
The northern tribes have thus been sheltered from the kind of exploitation that those elsewhere in South Asia have suffered. InArunachal Pradesh (formerly part of theNorth-East Frontier Agency), for example, tribal members control commerce and most lower-level administrative posts. Government construction projects in the region have provided tribes with a significant source of cash. Some tribes have made rapid progress through the education system (the role of early missionaries was significant in this regard). Instruction was begun in Assamese but was eventually changed to Hindi; by the early 1980s, English was taught at most levels. Northeastern tribal people have thus enjoyed a certainmeasure of social mobility.
The continuing economic alienation and exploitation of many adivasis was highlighted as a "systematic failure" by theIndian prime ministerManmohan Singh in a 2009 conference ofchief ministers ofall 29 Indian states, where he also cited this as a major cause of theNaxalite unrest that has affected areas such as theRed Corridor.[141][142][143][144][145]
The criteria presently followed for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe are : (i) indications of primitive traits, (ii) distinctive culture, (iii) geographical isolation, (iv) shyness of contact with the community at large, and (v) backwardness.
Population complexities, and the controversies surrounding ethnicity and language in India, sometimes make the official recognition of groups as Adivasis (by way of inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list) political and contentious. However, regardless of their language family affiliations, Australoid and Negrito groups that have survived as distinct forest, mountain or island-dwelling tribes in India and are often classified as Adivasi.[146] The relatively autonomous tribal groups of Northeastern India (including Khasis,Apatani andNagas), who are mostly Austro-Asiatic or Tibeto-Burman speakers, are also considered to be tribals: this area comprises 7.5% of India's land area but 20% of its tribal population.[147] However, not all autonomous northeastern groups are considered tribals; for instance, the Tibeto-Burman-speakingMeitei of Manipur were once tribal but, having been settled for many centuries, are caste Hindus.[148]
It is also difficult, for a given social grouping, to definitively decide whether it is a "caste" or a "tribe". A combination of internal social organisation, relationship with other groups, self-classification and perception by other groups has to be taken into account to make a categorisation, which is at best inexact and open to doubt.[149] These categorisations have been diffused for thousands of years, and even ancient formulators of caste-discriminatory legal codes (which usually only applied to settled populations, and not Adivasis) were unable to come up with clean distinctions.[150]
The additional difficulty in deciding whether a group meets the criteria to be Adivasi or not are the aspirational movements created by the federal and state benefits, including job and educational reservations, enjoyed by groups listed as scheduled tribes (STs).[151] In Manipur, Meitei commentators have pointed to the lack of scheduled tribe status as a key economic disadvantage for Meiteis competing for jobs against groups that are classified as scheduled tribes.[148] In Assam,Rajbongshi representatives have demanded scheduled tribe status as well.[152] In Rajasthan, theGujjar community has demanded ST status, even blockading the national capital ofDelhi to press their demand.[153] However, the Government of Rajasthan declined the Gujjars' demand, stating the Gujjars are treated as upper caste and are by no means a tribe.[154] In several cases, these claims to tribalhood are disputed by tribes who are already listed in the schedule and fear economic losses if more powerful groups are recognised as scheduled tribes; for instance, the Rajbongshi demand faces resistance from theBodo tribe,[152] and theMeena tribe has vigorously opposed Gujjar aspirations to be recognised as a scheduled tribe.[155]
Part of the challenge is that theendogamous nature of tribes is also conformed to by the vast majority of Hindu castes. Indeed, many historians and anthropologists believe that caste endogamy reflects the once-tribal origins of the various groups who now constitute the settled Hindu castes.[156] Another defining feature of caste Hindu society, which is often used to contrast them with Muslim and other social groupings, is lineage/clan (orgotra) and villageexogamy.[157][158] However, these in-marriage taboos are also held ubiquitously among tribal groups, and do not serve as reliable differentiating markers between caste and tribe.[159][160][161] Again, this could be an ancient import from tribal society into settled Hindu castes.[162] Tribes such as the Muslim Gujjars of Kashmir and theKalash of Pakistan observe these exogamous traditions in common with caste Hindus and non-Kashmiri adivasis, though their surrounding Muslim populations do not.[157][163]
Tribals are not part of the caste system,[164] Some anthropologists, however, draw a distinction between tribes who have continued to be tribal and tribes that have been absorbed into caste society in terms of the breakdown of tribal (and therefore caste) boundaries, and the proliferation of new mixed caste groups. In other words, ethnogenesis (the construction of new ethnic identities) in tribes occurs through a fission process (where groups splinter-off as new tribes, which preserves endogamy), whereas with settled castes it usually occurs through intermixture (in violation of strict endogamy).[165]
Tribals and are often regarded as constituting egalitarian societies. However, many scholars argue that the claim that tribals are an egalitarian society in contrast to a caste-based society is a part of a larger political agenda by some to maximise any differences from tribal and urban societies. According to scholarKoenraad Elst, caste practices and social taboos among Indian tribals date back to antiquity:
The Munda tribals not only practise tribalendogamy andcommensality, but also observe ajâti division within the tribe, buttressed by notions of social pollution, a mythological explanation and harsh punishments.
Unlike castes, which form part of a complex and interrelated local economic exchange system, tribes tend to form self-sufficient economic units. For most tribal people, land-use rights traditionally derive simply from tribal membership. Tribal society tends to the egalitarian, with itsleadership based on ties of kinship and personality rather than on hereditary status. Tribes typically consist ofsegmentary lineages whose extended families provide the basis for social organisation and control. Tribal religion recognises no authority outside the tribe.
Any of these criteria may not apply in specific instances. Language does not always give an accurate indicator of tribal or caste status. Especially in regions of mixed population, many tribal groups have lost their original languages and simply speak local or regional languages. In parts of Assam—an area historically divided between warring tribes and villages—increased contact among villagers began during the colonial period, and has accelerated since independence in 1947. ApidginAssamese developed, whereas educated tribal members learntHindi and, in the late twentieth century, English.
Self-identification and group loyalty do not provide unfailing markers of tribal identity either. In the case of stratified tribes, the loyalties of clan, kin, and family may well predominate over those of tribe. In addition, tribes cannot always be viewed as people living apart; the degree of isolation of various tribes has varied tremendously. TheGonds,Santals, andBhils traditionally have dominated the regions in which they have lived. Moreover, tribal society is not always more egalitarian than the rest of the rural populace; some of the larger tribes, such as the Gonds, are highly stratified.
The apparently wide fluctuation in estimates of South Asia's tribal population through the twentieth century gives a sense of how unclear the distinction between tribal and nontribal can be. India's 1931 census enumerated 22 million tribal people, in 1941 only 10 million were counted, but by 1961 some 30 million and in 1991 nearly 68 million tribal members were included. The differences among the figures reflect changing census criteria and the economic incentives individuals have to maintain or reject classification as a tribal member.
These gyrations of census data serve to underline the complex relationship between caste and tribe. Although, in theory, these terms represent different ways of life and ideal types, in reality, they stand for a continuum of social groups. In areas of substantial contact between tribes and castes, social and cultural pressures have often tended to move tribes in the direction of becoming castes over a period of years. Tribal peoples with ambitions for social advancement in Indian society at large have tried to gain the classification of caste for their tribes. On occasion, an entire tribe or part of a tribe joined a Hindu sect and thus entered thecaste systemen masse. If a specific tribe engaged in practices that Hindus deemed polluting, the tribe's status when it was assimilated into the caste hierarchy would be affected.
A number of constitutional and juridical safeguards for Adivasi have been encoded.[note 2]
The Scheduled Tribe groups who were identified as more isolated from the wider community and who maintain a distinctive cultural identity have been categorised as "Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups" (PVTGs) previously known as Primitive Tribal Groups by the Government at the centre. So far 75 tribal communities have been identified as 'particularly vulnerable tribal groups' in 18 States and UT ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands of India. These hunting, food-gathering, and some agricultural communities have been identified as less acculturated tribes among the tribal population groups and in need of special programmes for their sustainable development. The tribes are awakening and demanding their rights for special reservation quota for them.[166]
Widely addressed as tribals, Adivasis are heterogeneous groups spread all over the nation having different languages and group identities.
'Adivasi' literally means 'original inhabitant', and it refers to heterogeneous adivasis tribal groups living all over the subcontinent.
In any case, the termadivasi is a relatively recent one, at most only a century old. Despite its recent origin, however, it is now widely used as a self-designation by many of the people whom the Government of India classes as Scheduled Tribes.
The Concept of the Adivāsi: According to the political activists who coined the word in the 1930s, the 'adivāsis' are the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent ...
... The Adivasis are the original inhabitants ...
... Adivasis are the aborigines of India ...
The Adivasis are the original inhabitants of India. That is what Adivasi means: the original inhabitant. They were the people who were there before theDravidians. The tribals are the Gonds, the Bhils, the Murias, the Nagas and a hundred more.
The term 'Adivasi' was coined in Jharkhand and popularized by theAdivasi Mahasabha. Thakkar Bapa seized on it and became a major advocate of its use. Gandhi, who then began to apply the term himself, even believed that Thakkar Bapa had coined it. In the late 1920s, Thakkar Bapa had written in Gujarati that the Bhils, Santhals, Gonds, etc., wereasal vatani (original inhabitants) of India.
I have stated above, while ascertaining the general attitude of Mr. Jaipal Singh to tribal problems, his insistence on the term 'Adivāsi' being used for Schedule Tribes... Sir, myself I claim to an Adivāsi and an original inhabitant of the country as Mr. Jaipal Singh pal... a pseudo-ethno-historical substantiation for the term 'Adivāsi'.
The scheduled tribes themselves tend to refer to their ethnic grouping as adivāsis, which means 'original inhabitant.' Hardiman continues to argue that the term adivāsi is preferable in India as it evokes a shared history of relative freedom in precolonial times ...
PPT... uncivilised ... These forests and land territories assume a territorial identity precisely because they are the extension of the Adivasis' collective personality ...
... Adivasis are not, as a general rule, regarded as unclean by caste Hindus in the same way as Dalits are. But they continue to face prejudice (as lesser humans), they are socially distanced and often face violence from society ...
... Valmiki, from whose pen this great epic had its birth, was himself a Bhil named Valia, according to the traditional accounts of his life ...
... In Mewar, the Grasia is of mixed Bhil and Rajput descent, paying tribute to the Rana of Udaipur ...
... the Bhilala are commonly considered to be a mixed group who sprung from the marriage alliances of the immigrant male Rajputs and the Bhil women of the central India ...
... The Munda Parha was known as 'Manki', while his Oraon counterpart was called 'Parha Raja.' The lands these adivasis occupied were regarded to be the village's patrimony ... The Gond rajas of Chanda and Garha Mandla were not only the hereditary leaders of their Gond subjects, but also held sway over substantial communities of non-tribals who recognized them as their feudal lords ...
... The Navegaon is one of the forests in Maharashtra where the natives of this land still live and earn their livelihood by carrying out age old activities like hunting, gathering forest produce and ancient methods of farming. Beyond the Kamkazari lake is the Dhaavalghat, which is home to Adivasis. They also have a temple here, the shrine of Lord Waghdev ...
... The way in which and the extent to which tribal support had been crucial in establishing a royal dynasty have been made quite clear ... tribal loyalty, help and support were essential in establishing a ruling family ...
The 16th century saw the establishment of a powerful Gond kingdom by Sangram Sah, who succeeded in 1480 as the 47th of the petty Gond rajas of Garha-Mandla, and extended his dominions so as to include Saugor and Damoh on the Vindhyan plateau, Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur in the Nerbudda valley, and Seoni on the Satpura highlands.
... Among the Munda, customary forms of land tenure known as khuntkatti stipulated that land belonged communally to the village, and customary rights of cultivation, branched from corporate ownership. Because of Mughal incursions, non-Jharkhandis began to dominate the agrarian landscape, and the finely wrought system of customary sharing of labor, produce and occupancy began to crumble. The process of dispossession and land alienation, in motion since the mid-eighteenth century, was given impetus by British policies that established both zamindari and ryotwari systems of land revenue administration. Colonial efforts toward efficient revenue collection hinged on determining legally who had proprietal rights to the land ...
... The permanent settlement Act had an adverse effect upon the fate of the Adivasis for, 'the land which the aboriginals had rested from the jungle and cultivated as free men from generation was, by a stroke of pen, declared to be the property of the Raja (king) and the Jagirdars.' The alien became the Zamindars (Landlords) while the sons of the soil got reduced to mere tenants. Now, it was the turn of the Jagirdars-turned-Zamindars who further started leasing out land to the newcomers, who again started encroaching Adivasi land. Theland grabbing thus went on unabated. By the year 1832 about 6,411 Adivasi villages were alienated in this process ...
... The Permanent Settlement was 'nothing short of the confiscation ofraiyat lands in favor of the zamindars.' ... Marx says '... in Bengal as in Madras and Bombay, under the zamindari as under the ryotwari, the raiyats who form 11/12ths of the whole Indian population have been wretchedly pauperised.' To this may be added the inroads made by the Company's Government upon the village community of the tribals (the Santhals, Kols, Khasias etc.) ... There was a wholesale destruction of 'the national tradition.' Marx observes: 'England has broken down the entire framework of Indian society ...[permanent dead link]
... of the features of the adivasi land systems. These laws also showed that British colonial rule had passed on to a new stage of exploitation ... Forests were the property of the zamindar or the state ...
... The Kol insurrection of 1831, though, no doubt, only the bursting forth of a fire that had long been smouldering, was fanned into flame by the following episode:- The brother of the Maharaja, who was the holder of one of the maintenance grants which comprised Sonpur, a pargana in the southern portion of the estate, gave farms of some of the villages over the heads of the Mankis and Mundas, to certain Muhammadans, Sikhs and others, who has obtained his favour ... not only was the Manki dispossessed, but two of his sisters were seduced or ravished by these hated foreigners ... one of them ..., it was said, had abducted and dishonoured the Munda's wife ...
... As usually the zamindars were the moneylenders, they could pressurize the tenants to concede to high rent ...
... In addition, many tribals were forced to pay private taxes ...
... The Adivasis spend their life-times working for the landlord-moneylenders and, in some cases, even their children are forced to work for considerable parts of their lives to pay off debts ...
... As I have suggested previously, it is probable that some disease was introduced among the coastal groups by Lieutenant Colebrooke and Blair's first settlement in 1789, resulting in a marked reduction of their population. The four years that the British occupied their initial site on the south-east of South Andaman were sufficient to have decimated the coastal populations of the groups referred to as Jarawa by the Aka-bea-da ...
... Contact with whites, and the British in particular, has virtually destroyed them. Illness, alcohol, and the will of the colonials all played their part; the British governor of the time mentions in his diary that he received instructions to destroy them with alcohol and opium. He succeeded completely with one group. The others reacted violently ...
... TheSanthal insurrection in 1855–56 was a consequence of the establishment of the permanent Zamindari Settlement introduced by the British in 1793 as a result of which the Santhals had been dispossesed of the land that they had been cultivating for centuries. Zamindars, moneylenders, traders and government officials exploited them ruthlessly. The consequence was a violent revolt by the Santhals which could only be suppressed by the army ...
... Revolts rose with unfailing regularity and were suppressed with treachery, brute force, tact, cooption and some reforms ...
... many of the labourers came from Chota Nagpur District ... home to the Adivasis, the most popular workers with the planters – the '1st class jungley.' As one of the planters, David Crole, observed: 'planters, in a rough and ready way, judge the worth of a coolie by the darkness of the skin.' In the last two decades of the nineteenth century 350,000 coolies went from Chota Nagpur to Assam ...
... the Vedic Aryan was not particularly eager to enter heaven, he was too much this-worldly oriented. A notion of reincarnation was not introduced until later. However, there was a concept of a universal force – an idea of an underlying monistic reality that was later called Brahman ...
Tylor's notion of animism—for him the first religion—included the assumption that earlyHomo sapiens had invested animals and plants with souls ...
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)... The centre of Rig Vedic religion was the Yajna, the sacrificial fire. ... There is no Atma, no Brahma, no Moksha, no idol worship in the Rig Veda ...
... Shiva was a 'tribal deity' to begin with and forest-dwelling communities, including those who have ceased to be tribals and those who are tribals today ...
... The Adivasi tribes encompass the pre-Dravidian holdovers from ancient India ...
... Although the northeast states make up just 7.5% of the geographical area of India, the region is home to 20% of India's tribal people. The following are the main tribes ... Nagas ... Monpas ... Apatani & Adi ... Khasi ...
... The Meiteis began to think that root cause of their present unrest was their contact with the Mayangs, the outsider from the rest of India in matters of trade, commerce, religious belief and the designation of the Meiteis as caste Hindus in the Constitution of India. The policy of reservations for the scheduled castes and tribes in key posts began to play havoc ...
... Nor, for that matter, does a traits approach to drawing distinctions between tribe and caste lead to any meaningful interpretation of social or civilizational processes. Social boundaries must be defined in each case (community or regional society) with reference to the modes of social classification, on the one hand, and processes of social interaction, on the other. It is in their inability to relate these two aspects of the social phenomenon through a model of social reality that most behavioural exercises come to grief ...
... Even the authors of our traditional law-codes and other works did not know whether to call a particular group of backward people a caste or a tribe ...
{{citation}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)... Because the question of what groups are to be given preferences is constitutionally and politically open, the demand for preferences becomes a device for political mobilisation. Politicians can mobilise members of their caste, religious or linguistic community around the demand for inclusion on the list of those to be given preferences ... As preferences were extended to backward castes, and as more benefits were given to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the 'forward' castes have ...
... An angry mob of Koch-Rajbongshis (KRs) ransacked 4-8-03 the BJP office, Guwahati, demanding ST status for the KRs ... the KRs have been demanding the ST status for long, and the Bodos are stoutly opposed to it ...
... Gujjars on Thursday blocked road and rail traffic in the capital and adjoining areas as part of their 'NCR rasta roko' agitation ... The NCR agitation, called by All India Gujjar Mahasabha, is in support of the community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status in Rajasthan ...
... Rajasthan is sitting on a potential caste war between the Gujjars and Meenas with the former demanding their entry into the Schedule Tribes list while the Meenas are looking to keep their turf intact by resisting any tampering with the ST quota ...
... endogamy is basic to the morphology of caste but for its origin and sustenance one has to see beyond ... D.D. Kosambi says that the fusion of tribal elements into society at large lies at the foundation of the caste system; Irfan Habib concurs, suggesting that when tribal people were absorbed they brought with them their endogamous customs ...[permanent dead link]
... in North India, high caste Hindus regard the village as an exogamous unit. Girls born within the village are called 'village daughters' and they do not cover their faces before local men, whereas girls who come into the village by marriage do so ... With Christians and Muslims, the elementary or nuclear family is the exogamous unit. Outside of it marriages are possible ... Lineage exogamy also exists among the Muslim Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir ...[permanent dead link]
... The preference for in-marriage produces the reticulated kinship system characteristic of Punjabi Muslim society, as opposed to Hindu lineage exogamy and preference for marriage outside one's natal village ...
... The tribal communities, by and large, also practise clan exogamy, which means marrying outside the totemic division of a tribe ...
...Elwin documents the strict observance of this rule: Out of 300 marriages recorded, not a single one broke the rule of village exogamy ...
... Among many Indian tribes it is the recognized custom to marry outside the village. This restriction is prevalent in the Munda and other tribes of Chhota Nagpur of Madhya Pradesh ... the Naga tribe of Assam is divided into Khels. Khel is the name given to the residents of the particular place, and people of one Khel cannot marry each other ...
... there is every reason to believe that the inspiration leading to the formation of exogamous gotras came from the aborigines ...
... Kalasha kinship is indeed orchestrated through a rigorous system of patrilineal descent defined by lineage exogamy ... Lineage exogamy thus distinguishes Kalasha descent groups as discretely bounded corporations, in contrast to the nonexogamous 'sliding lineages' (Bacon 1956) of surrounding Muslims ...
...The radiating, segmentary character of the underlying genealogical figure requires that the specifications be unilineal ... we have in the Dharmasastra doctrine of jatis a theory of ethnogenesis through intermixture or marriage of persons of different varnas, and secondary and tertiary intermixtures of the original ones, leading to a multitude of units, rather than the radiating segmentary structure of ethnogenesis by fission or descent ...
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. India: A Country Study.Federal Research Division. Tribes.
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote| National | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
