CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1) Glimpser of Tribals in India
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CHAPTER I ● INTRODUCTION ● 1.1) Glimpser Of Tribals In India According to Anthropological Survey of India there are 750 Tribes in the Country. As per 750 Tribes in the Country .As per the 2011 Census Total tribal Population is 104.3 millions Amounting to 8.6% to the total population of the Country .Out of these 750 tribes The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of the India has Classified 75 groups as primitive tribal groups. Maharashtra ranks 2 nd as regards size of tribal population in the country as concerned next to Madhyapradesh. There are 45 Tribes in the State. The Total tribal Population in Maharashtra as per the 2011 census is 10.5 million, constituting 9.35 % on the total population of the State. There are 36 District in the State including Palghar and the Tribal population is largely concentrated in western hilly area of Maharashtra. Thane (Before division of thane district) is the largest tribal populated District in the state and country. As per the 2011 Censes. The total tribal Population of the Thane District (Before division) is 1, 10, 54,001 and 79, 99,098 is urban population. It shows that Major Concentration of tribal Population is in rural area. India is considered to be an Anthropological laboratory Because of its cultural, linguistic, ethnic and regional diversity. The Population of India can be classified into 3 divisions:- Urban Population –People living in the cities, Rural population – People comprising of populations living in the rural areas, and Tribal Population -i.e. the tribals living on the Mountains, on the hills, in the forest and villages, etc. Tribes are by and large Children of Nature, their lifestyle being conditioned by the eco – system. They have been living in the remote areas on forest hill slopes and plateaus and in areas generally with Poor natural resources. Their economics level is quite uneven there are large numbers of Tribal communities who are still at the food gathering and hunting stage on the Extreme while some of them have become undistinguishable from modern agriculture and industry societies on the other extreme. 1 At the beginning of British rule (1818) the Tribes were more degraded. They gain scanty living by tilling forest glades and by hunting .Under British Management the tribes were gradually forced to give up their life of wondering and many of them settled to village and labour. 1.2)What is a Tribe? In spatial and cultural consideration Indian tribal Population is at widely different stages of social as well as Economics development. Hence they do not from any Permanent crystalline Structure. The concept of tribes is thus of paramount importance to understand tribes in Indian culture. The term “tribe” has been derived TRIBUZ which has a “Latin root”. The term means three divisions into which the early Romans were grouped .The Meaning of the term thus varies from nation to nation. For examples the Romans conceived the term as political division while the Greeks seemed to have equated the term with fraternities and in Irish history the term means family or communities having the same surname (Roy, 1972). The Oxford Dictionary defines a tribe as a group of primitive or barbarous clans under recognized chiefs recognized chiefs (Oxford Encyclopedia Dictionary, Vol.3 1983) The Western scholars used the said concept with a slight modification here and there. Parry (1928) States that tribes is a group of people speaking a common dialect and inhabitant of a common territory. He has not mentioned any thing regarding cultural unity of tribe. Rivers (1924) adds that members of tribe have a single Government and act together for some common purposes such as welfare etc. His definition does not include spatial concentration as a Special feature of the tribe. 2 Wissler (1923) includes certain like specific name, unity of speech etc. as a feature of the tribe. None on the above mentioned definitions envisage tribes as a politically or socially coherent and auto group. Kroeber (1948) laid great emphasis on social and cultural unity of tribe. Hoebel (1958) comments that the possesses a distributions Pattern that marks it off from other tribes. Dictionary Anthropology (Winick , 1956) defines a tribe as a social group usually with definite area cultural homogeneity and unifying social organization . It may include several subgroups, such as sibs, or villages. A tribe ordinarily has a leader and may have a common ancestor and patron deity. “The families or small communities making up the tribe are liked together through social, religious, family or blood relations “Risley (1915) designated the tribe as aboriginal i.e. man of the soil. Hutton (1933) coined the term primitive tribe; While Shoobert(1933) designated the tribe an aboriginal community Ghurye (1959) has referred to the tribe as backward Hindus. According to him, the tribes of central India is neither isolated from the Hindu caste of the plains nor is they are true autochthonous in their present habitat. They are imperfectly integrated with the caste system. The tribes are also termed by different names –viz.-ADIVASIS (first settlers or authonous)BHUMI-PUTRA (sons of the soil ) JANAJATI (folk people ) , ADIM JATI (original community), VANYABASI (caste of forest ), UPAJATI (sub caste), ANUSUCHIT JANJATI (Schedule tribes ),GIRIJAN (Hill dwellers ) and so on . But none f the term ADIVASI seems to be appropriate. The tribe cannot be designated by any term with suffix JATI .Since the Connection of JATI through meaning nation or tribe also widely equated with caste system in Indian context. The problem of defining tribe has attracted much attention because tribes and castes are two important pillars and are situated in the poles of linear binary opposition .During the 3 census operation 1891; administration first realized the difference in determining the boundary line between the tribe and caste. Thus, imperial Gazetteer of India as early as 1891 first defined the tribe as “A Tribe is a collection of families bearing a common name, speaking a common dialect, occupying or professing to occupy a common territory and is not endogamous though originally it have been so” Dr Mujumdar (1961) defines a tribe as: A social Group with territorial affiliation endogamous with no Specialization of functions, ruled by the tribal officers, hereditary or otherwise, united in language or dialect, recognizing the social distance from tribe or castes but without any stigma attached in the case of caste-structure following tribal traditions beliefs, customs, illiberal naturalization of ideas from alien sources , above all, conscious of homogeneity of ethnical and territorial integration” (28th report of the commissioner for Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribes 1988) Dr. Mujumdar observers that a tribe is collection of families or group of families bearing a Common name, members of Which Occupy the same territory , Speak the some language and observe certain taboos regarding marriages, professions or occupations and have developed a well assessed System of reciprocity and mutuality of obligations . In short the term is generally applied to community or cluster or communities characterized by a common territory, language and a cultural heritage and an inferior technological level. 1.2) ATTRIBUTES OF A TRIBAL COMMUNITY To summarize in a nutshell the views of Experts about the attributes tribals could be classified as Follows: 1. Tribals live in an isolated area as culturally distinct groups. 2. Tribal traces their origin form the oldest ethnological section of the Population. 3. They follow Primitive methods of occupations such as hunting, gathering of minor forest produce and therefore they are backward economically as well as educationally. 4 4. Members of tribal Society Profess A primitive religion and are not always within the Hindufold in the usual sense. 5. Tribals have their own common dialect. Their Dialect has no written script. 6. Tribals love Music, Dance and liquor. 7. Members of tribal communities dress scantily. Tribal in India were considered as “Backward Class “. But later the term was used to denote them as the weaker Sections of the Indian society until 1919 they were termed as the “Depressed Class”. The Indian Prorchize Committee in 1919 however accorded a different nomenclature for census reports as under. A. Census 1931 referred them as Primitive tribes. B. Census 1941 referred them as “tribes”. C. Census1951 referred the Tribals as “Scheduled Tribes”. The term “Scheduled Tribes” was inserted in the Constitution vides Articles 342 (1) which empowered the President of India to specify tribal Communities by Public notification. In Pursuance of this power the Presidential orders have been issued. 1. The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes ) order 1950 2. The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes ) Part ‘C’ states order 1951 3. The Scheduled Tribes list (notification) order 1956 etc. 1.3) CHARACTERISTICS OF TRIBAL PEOPLE Although there is no concrete definition of a tribe, one can summarize in a nut shell the view of experts about the attributes of tribals. These are as follows. 1. Tribals live in isolated areas as culturally distinct groups 2. They trace their origin with the oldest ethnological section of the Population. 3. Tribal dialects have a script 4. Animism is one of the important aspects of their religion 5 5. They follow primitive methods of occupations such as food gathering, hunting and occasional fishing 6. Drinking alcohol is linked with their ritual and ceremonial life. 7. Shyness as regards to social interaction with civilized societies is yet another characteristic. 8. Love for dance and Music is yet another salient feature of their culture. 1.4.D) Economic life of Tribals Based on studies by Indian Anthropologist, NadeemHusnain(1987; 19) has classified the economic life of tribals in India as Follows: 1. Food gathering and hunting tribes 2. Tribes engaged in hilly cultivation 3. Tribe engaged in cultivation on plain lands 4.