Experiment in Tribal Life D

EXPERIMENT IN TRIBAL LIFE D. N. MAJUMDAR The tribal population which is scattered all over India, and is known by different names, is a section of sadly neglected children of God. In this article, which is based on his personal observations, the writer gives an account of the life of the tribals in Dudhi, U.P., describing the picture of the various phases of their life and the disintegration which later set-in due to the inroads made by avaricious contractors, money lenders and merchants. What happened in Dudhi could be truly applied to tribal areas through out the country. Consequently, the writer makes a plea for adopting ameliorative measures in order to make the life of the tribal population worthwhile. Dr. Majumdar is the Head of the Department of Anthropology, University of Lucknow. India has a large tribal population to the The Santhals of Bengal and those who tune of 25 to 30 millions. The figures of still cling to their 'original moorings, or tribal strength, in the various Provinces and the Oraons of the Ranchi district in Bihar States of the Indian Union, are far from and the Malo or Malpaharia of the Raj- reliable. The difficulty of enumerating the mahal hills, own the same racial traits but tribal people living in the hills and fast are regarded as different on cultural nesses where they find their asylum even grounds. to-day, is indeed great, and the nature of The Census literature which refers to the Indian Census organization, its volun tribal life and culture is no guide to the tary character, and the untrained personnel racial affiliation or cultural status of the who collect the primary data, all combine tribes. What Grigson has said about the to confuse enumeration. inaccuracy of the Hyderabad Census The tribal people, to-day, are scattered Reports applies more or less to all the over wide areas, and the same tribe is publications of the Census, in respect of split up into sections, adopting different their descriptive accounts of tribes and appellations or on the basis of cultural castes, or even in the recorded figures and levels, so that in one Province, a tribe may nomenclature of the tribes. be enumerated as 'aboriginal', in another The trends of tribal demography in India Province it may be given the status of a during the first half of the present century 'caste' and enumerated as such. The tribal have been as follow: labour settled in the tea gardens are des cribed as 'coolie' castes and the criminal (1) Some tribes are on evil days, and Banjaras are Sugalis in Madras and are rapidly ' thinning out, as for example, Kanjars in another part of the country. The the Korwas of the U. P. and the Birhors Saoras are enumerated as a tribe, in the of Bihar. Agency tracts in Orissa, and are the cul (2) Some tribes are facing a cultural tivating Sahariyas in the Eastern States, malaise due to contacts with civilisation and and as far north as the Uttara Pradesh. are showing a slower rate of increase. The The Gonds are Raj Gonds, Rajhwars, Naga tribes, the Khonds of Orissa, for Majhwars, Marias, Murias and the Bhil example. is a generic name which includes several racial elements. The Waghers of Kathia- (3) Some tribes have succeeded in their war are Hindus and Muslims, so also many struggle for survival and are multiplying in of the criminal tribes of Northern India. proportion to their degree of adjustment, 282 D. N. MAJUMDAR such as the Santhals, the Mundas and the by an Alpine element which people the Hos of Bihar. middle belt of India. In one or two tribes of the South, there is evidence of a 'negrito' When we read these demographic trends strain which some anthropologists claim to along with the changing canvas of tribal be the basic racial substratum in the Indian life today, we shall probably find the key population, but the 'negrito' has never been to the tribal problem. indigenous to India and the wooly hair, short stature and a mesocephalic head may The tribal population of India can be be due to late infiltration or could as well classified into three levels of cultural develop be traced to the African source. There is ment. There are primitive tribes outside the ample evidence of the infiltration in the pale of Hindu influence, the so-called 'real coastal parts of India of western Negroids primitives' whose isolation has not been and some anthropologists think that the invaded, probably, due to inaccessi Mediterranean race had Negroid association bility and remoteness or even it before they spread out. The Mongolian has been invaded, without produc race cannot be said to have influenced the ing discomforts. There are tribes who population of interior India, though the have adopted Hindu customs and practices, Scythian branch of this race had left its have shown a degree of association with the impression on the Kathis of Cultural Gujarat lower castes and have reached a certain and probably among the Mhers, Rajputs amount of cultural height, but who are and the Oswals of Cutch. From the evidence still denied the status even of 'exterior' of blood groups, it appears that the Indo- castes. There are primitive tribes who are Australoids do not show any close affiliation definitely acculturated, are Hinduised or with the Negritoes for the latter have a converted to Christianity, have attained a high B incidence. Even the Andamanese level of culture which has conceded a social who are Negritoes show a high B percentage. status to the Hinduised tribes like the one The Paniyans are A and O and the incidence enjoyed by the 'unclean' or the exterior of B in the tribal population is not very castes or has put a stigma to the Christian high either. converts for a change-over. The Kaleidospic account of origins and From the racial point of view, the tribal miscegenation given above, indicates in a population of India, both of interior India broad way, the extent of fission and fusion and of the north-east frontier, belong either of cultures in India. It is not possible, there to the Indo-Australoid or the Mongoloid fore, to map out spatially the zonal distribu stock. The Nagas, the Kukis and the tion of specific culture or cultures, as it may Manipuris of Assam are of Mongoloid origin, still be possible in Africa and Oceania, in and other tribes like the Garos and the habited by 'native' people, except perhaps Rajbanshi have a mixed descent. The in the out-lying parts, in the Naga hills in Mongolian strain has entered Assam and Assam or in the Agency tracts of Orissa and the outlying parts of Eastern Bengal in no Madras, in Bastar, Hyderabad and in Tribal uncertain way. The Indo-Australoids are Mysore, but that definitely in a relative sense. scattered over the whole country. In Peni nsular India, they have mixed with the The Tribal Pattern in Dudhi in Mirzapur Mediterranean type and in Central India, District in the Uttara Pradesh .—The tribal they have been assimilated here and there belt in the Uttara Pradesh runs in a EXPERIMENT IN TRIBAL LIFE 283 parabolic form, with Gorakhpur as its apex, (1) Pulwari extending to 79 square miles one arm passing through Mirzapur, bor east of the Kanhar river, dering the Kaimur range of hills, the other (2) Dudhi lying west of the Kanhar through the Tarai to the cis-Himalayan extending over 121 square miles, region. The depth of this belt is not very (3) Gonda Bajia with an area of 173 significant and that is why the numerical sq. miles east and south of Dudhi and strength of the tribes in the Province, is not considerable. (4) Barha or Adhaura lying south-west of Dudhi and north-west of Gonda Bajia The U. P., have a mixed population, with an area of 234 sq. miles or over. which was labelled as 'Aryo-Dravidian' by Risley, but the difficulty of identifying the The land is rocky, covered with hills original racial types, with any linguistic or and stunted forests, interspersed with pockets cultural family, has been conceded and we of cultural lands, which supply the need have had to revise our racial nomenclature, of food for the scanty population of the in the light of recent research. In the area. The hills are of igneous and Racial Survey of the United Provinces metamorphic rocks, here and there are of (1941 Census) we have found at least three, clay slate or schistone formation and in if not more, racial types which may be the bulk of the Pargana there are gneiss called: — seamed with dolmite, limestone, quartz, serpentine and other minerals of the schi (1) Mongoloid, living in the cis-Hima stone chain in the north. The aerial view layan districts and the Tarai regions, of Dudhi, is represented by a land of rolling (2) The Indo-Mediterraneans in the hills intersected here and there, by rivers interior of the Province, and and hill streams with isolated peaks, the (3) A dark short-statured, flat-nosed highest of which is about 1830 ft. above racial type living in the south of the Kaimur sea level. To-day, Dudhi is the scene of range of hills and interspersed here and much activity; a cement factory is being there. started, at Chopan, which will depend upon There is, however, a top-dressing of an tribal labour; the Rihand Dam is being Indo-Nordic strain particularly in the constructed, which will innundate large western parts of the Province.

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