Transformation of Tribes in India: Terms of Discourse Author(S): Virginius Xaxa Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol
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Transformation of Tribes in India: Terms of Discourse Author(s): Virginius Xaxa Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 34, No. 24 (Jun. 12-18, 1999), pp. 1519-1524 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4408077 Accessed: 06-03-2018 11:21 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly This content downloaded from 14.139.62.115 on Tue, 06 Mar 2018 11:21:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Transformation of Tribes in India Terms of Discourse Virginius Xaxa Sociologists and anthropologists tend to see as the end result of social change in tribal India the transformation of any given tribe into a caste or just another socially stratified group, or the merger of the tribe in the peasantry. Questioning the assumption of loss of tribal identity, this article attributes it to the study of tribes not as communities in their own right but in terms of affinity or non-affinity with mainstream communities. THERE are more than 400 groups in and caste have been rooted in the con- and pastoral castes. A somewhat more Indian society which are officially des- sciousness and the social relations of the serious effort towards a distinction is ignated as scheduled tribes. These groups people at large. They have also had a long reflected in the later censuses. Risley and have all been undergoing changes. These history. Such has not been the case with Gait, in charge of the 1901 and 1911 changes have been observed and described the category of the tribe: it was added to censuses respectively, added 'so-called by a variety of persons for nearly 100 the list mentioned above by the British in animists' in the table for caste and others. years, but their consequences and impli- the 19th century. That category is hence Marten followed the same pattern in the cations have been seriously misconstrued. seen as a colonial construction [Beteille 1921 Census, except that he changed the The conventional wisdom among anthro- 1995: Singh 1993]. Even so, it has come to heading from 'animism' to 'tribal reli- pologists has been that when a tribe be extensively used in social science litera- gion'. Hutton continued with the distinc- undergoes change through a loss of iso- ture in general and sociological and anthro- tion between tribes and others in terms of lation and through close integration with pological literature in particularas an aid to religion and tribes were distinguished from not in terms of caste or caste-like features. the wider society, sooner or later, and with an understanding of Indian social reality. unfailing regularity, it becomes a caste. When the British began to write on For Hutton the tribe-caste distinction could While this may have been true to a greater Indian society, the term 'tribe' was used be maintained only thus. or lesser extent till the forties, the argu- in general parlance in more than one sense: Tribes were thus defined as those that ment is no longer valid. Yet anthropolo- in reference to a group of people claiming practised 'animism'. Of course those in gists have gone on making such a general- descent from a common ancestor, and in charge of the census operations were not isation - and despite inadequacy of data, reference to a group living in a primitive satisfied with this basis of demarcation of concept and argument to support it. or barbarous conditions. The former usage the tribes. They were of the view that there Now, while tribes continue to undergo has a longer history than the one which were difficulties in distinguishing the changes of many kinds, these no longer became prevalent after the colonial en- religion of the tribes from that of the lower transform them into castes. The Oraons counter. Yet it is in the sense that devel- strata of Hindu society. Keeping these today practise various religions and speak oped later (the primitive stage of living) observations in mind Ghurye [1963:205] more than one language; they earn their that the term 'tribe' has come to be mainly went to the extent of observing that so- livelihood from a variety of occupations, conceptualised in anthropological writ- called aboriginals who form the bulk of both agricultural and non-agricultural. Yet ings. The term has thus undergone changes the scheduled tribes and who have been they remain Oraons in some socially in the concept in the course of history. designated in the censuses as animists are significant sense. They have not become The early British writings on India did best described as 'backward Hindus'. a caste with any definite standing in the not study groups or communities from the In the post-independence period one caste hierarchy. This argument has impli- caste/tribe perspective. The groups were finds more systematic efforts to distin- cations not only for the understanding of studied in their capacity as human group- guish tribe from caste. And yet, scholars tribes but also for the understanding of ings or communities. Their description in have not arrived at systematically worked- Indian society as a whole. The most caste/tribe terms was a later phenomenon. out criteria to this day. It has generally important implication is that new castes It is therefore not very clear in which sense been assumed that tribe and caste repre- are no longer being formed, whether, by the British ethnographers used the term sent two different forms of social the transformation of tribes into castes or 'tribe' in India, especially in the early organisations - castes being regulated by by other means. Tribes have become phase. The impression one gets is that the the hereditary division of labour, hierar- peasants and socially differentiated enti- usage in the sense of common ancestry chy, the principle of purity and pollution, ties but, contrary to views held, without may have been more in vogue. References civic and religious disabilities, etc, and any loss of their distinctive identities. to the rajput, ahir and jat 'tribes' as well tribes being characterised by the absence as the interchangeable use of the terms of the caste attributes. CASTE AND TRIBE 'tribe' and 'caste' in 18th century writings The two types of social organisations Diversity or heterogeneity has been on India tends to support such view. are seen as being governed by different termed one of the hallmarks of Indian Ethnographers evidently had difficulty principles. It is said that kinship bonds society. Religion, language, region, caste differentiating one from the other at least govern tribal society. Each individual is and tribe have been considered to be the in the initial stage. hence considered equal to the others. The most important distinctions. But not all In the census reports of 1881, when the lineage and clan tend to be the chief unit of them have been conceptually and theo- first 'proper' all-India census was under- of ownership as well as of production and retically as contentious as the category of taken, the term used was not 'tribe' but consumption. In contrast, inequality, tribe. It has generally been said that the 'forest tribe', and that too as a sub-heading dependency and subordination are inte- categories of religion, language, region within the broader category of agricultural gral features of caste society. It is also said Economic and Political WeeKly June 12, 1999 1519 This content downloaded from 14.139.62.115 on Tue, 06 Mar 2018 11:21:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms that tribes do not differentiate as sharply the rest of the population and had no rungs of Hindu society, and (4) groups as caste groups do between the utilitarian interaction or interconnection with them. fully adapted to the Hindu faith and living and non-utilitarian function of religion. In contrast the main concern of post- in modern style. Caste groups tend to maintain different colonial ethnography has been to show a The criteria of classification used by forms, practices and behaviour patterns close interaction between the tribes and Vidyarthi suffer for want of logical con- for each of these two aspects of the re- the larger society or civilisation. The sistency. Elwin went to the extent of writing ligion. Tribes in contrast maintain similar relationship has, of course, been differ- that the whole aboriginal problem was one forms, practices and behaviour patterns ently conceptualised. Sinha [1958] views of how to enable the tribesmen of the first for both functions. 'tribe' as adimension of little tradition that and the second classes to advance direct Tribes and castes are also seen to be cannot be adequately understood unless into the fourth class without their having different in respect of the psychological it is seen in relation to the great tradition. to suffer the despair and degradation of disposition of members. Tribes are said In contrastto Beteille [1986:316] views it the third. Dube classifies tribes almost take direct, unalloyed satisfaction in more the in terms of distance from state and along the lines spelt out by Elwin. Many pleasures of the senses - in such areas civilisation as in contexts where tribe and others, including Bose and Fuchs, have food, drink, sex, dance and song - whereas civilisation coexist, as in India and the not made specific classifications but do caste people maintain a certain ambiva- Islamic world.