Pattern of Ritual Friendship in Tribal India S. K. SRIVASTAVA University
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Pattern of Ritual Friendship in Tribal India S. K. SRIVASTAVA University of Agra FRIENDSHIP as one of the voluntary forms of inter personal relation- ships has not been given due consideration by the social scientists, though it has been to a certain extent studied by sociologists, anthropologists and psycholo- gists but the largest share and credit goes to the psychologists. The sociologists, and particularly, the anthropologists have grossly neglected this part of inter- personal relationships, because they have been preoccupied with the studies of kin relationships and behaviour among different kins. The present paper, therefore, attempts to describe the concept of ritual friendship in Tribal India.' It also focusses on some dimensions of friendship which may be taken up for cross cultural validation. Of more than twenty monographs consulted on the tribal peoples of India twelve reported ritual friendships. Materials on more casual friendships received only incidental mention. The space devoted to friendship in these monographs ranged from two to twelve pages of quite uneven detail. Since ethnographers vary greatly in what they report, the difference in this coverage cannot be considered a measure of the salience of ritual friendship in the twelve tribes. There are certain striking uniformities in the descriptions. These may derive in part from the fact that nine of the twelve tribes are concentrated in Assam, Bihar and Orissa, in part from the fact that the twelve tribes all have a mixed 1 The following sources have been consulted for information on ritual friendship in twelve tribes of India. Archer, W. G. "Ritual Friendship in Santal Society." Man in India, XXVII, (1947), p. 57-60. Elwin, V., The Baiga, (London, 1939), p. 233-235. Elwin, BondoHighlander, (Bombay, India, 1950), 37-39. Elwin, The Muria and Their Ghotul, (Bombay, India 1947), p. 304, 310, 334-336, 436 fT. Mills, J. P. The Ao Nagas. (London, 1926), p. 198-200 Mills, J. P., The Rengama Nagas, (London, 1937), p. 151-153, 184-186, 217. Parry, N. E., The Lakhers. (London, 1932), p. 274-275. Roy, S. C., The Oraons of Chota Nagpur, (Ranchi, India 1915), p. 396-405). Roy, S. C., The Birhor, (Ranchi, India, 1925), p. 527-531. Roy, S. C., The Hill Bhuiyas of Orissa, (Ranchi, India, 1935), p. 235-238. Roy, S. C., The Kharias, (Ranchi, India, 1937), P. 161-162. Srivastava, Surendra K., The Tharus, A Study in Culture Dynamics, Agra, 1958. 240 hunting and horticultural economy and share a similar kinship organization that stresses partilineality, patrilocal residence and clan exogamy and finally, in part from the fact that only six ethnographers are responsible for the twelve monographs. A summary of the sources consulted is given in Table I. Table I Summaryof Sources Tribe Location Languagegroup Author Baiga Central India Chhattisgarhi Elwin, 1939 Bhutia Orissa Munda Roy, 1935 Birhor Bihar Munda Roy, 1925 Bondo Orissa Dravidian Elwin, 1950 Kharia Bihar Munda Roy, 1937 Lakher Assam Tibeto-Burman Parry, 1932 Ao Naga Assam Naga Mills, 1926 Rengma Naga Assam Naga Mills, 1937 Muria Central India Gondi Elwin, 1947 Oraons Bihar Munda Roy, 1915 Sontals Orissa Munda Archer, 1947 Tharus Uttar Pradesh Tharuhati Srivastava, 1958 (mixed Hindi) Types of Friendship. The analysis of the data suggested the possibility of distinguishing three types of ritualized friendship. No sharp line can be drawn between these types, but they serve here as rough and ready points of reference. Serious type : Entails lifelong obligations and responsibilities ; is entered into with elaborate rituals. Non-serious type: Entails fun and romance; may or may not involve lifelong obligations and commitments. Trivial type:.' Shortlived "going about" pacts, emotional involvements, and obligations trivial. An analysis of the terms used by each tribe to designate friendship does not yield a sharp and consistent general typology of friendships for the twelve tribes. This is due in large part to the non-comparability of the source material even when the same ethnographer reports on different tribes. Any attempt to give such a tabulation quantitative expression would lend the results a spurious precision. Nevertheless, an analysis of some forty-five friendship terms in twelve .