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: 18/11/2014 03:22 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . 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]. Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic and Political Weekly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 14.139.45.242 on Tue, 18 Nov 2014 03:22:35 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Transformationof 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 Indiansociety which are officially des- sciousnessand the social relationsof the serious effort towards a distinction is ignatedas scheduledtribes. These groups peopleat large.They havealso hada long reflected in the later censuses. Risley and haveall beenundergoing changes. These history.Such has not been the case with Gait, in charge of the 1901 and 1911 changeshave been observed and described the categoryof the tribe:it was addedto censuses respectively, added 'so-called by a variety of persons for nearly 100 the list mentionedabove by the Britishin animists' in the table for caste and others. years,but theirconsequences and impli- the 19thcentury. That categoryis hence Marten followed the same pattern in the cationshave been seriously misconstrued. seen as a colonial construction[Beteille 1921 Census, except that he changed the Theconventional wisdom among anthro- 1995:Singh 1993].Even so, ithas come to heading from 'animism' to 'tribal reli- pologists has been that when a tribe be extensivelyused in socialscience litera- gion'. Hutton continued with the distinc- undergoeschange through a loss of iso- turein general and sociological and anthro- tion between tribes and others in terms of lationand through close integrationwith pologicalliterature in particularasan aid to religion and tribes were distinguished from thewider society, sooner or later, and with an understandingof Indiansocial reality. not in terms of caste or caste-like features. unfailingregularity, it becomes a caste. When the British began to write on For Huttonthe tribe-castedistinction could Whilethis may have been true to a greater Indiansociety, the term 'tribe' was used be maintained only thus. or lesser extent till the forties, the argu- in generalparlance in morethan one sense: Tribes were thus defined as those that mentis no longervalid. Yet anthropolo- in referenceto a groupof peopleclaiming practised 'animism'. Of course those in gists havegone on makingsuch a general- descentfrom a commonancestor, and in charge of the census operations were not isation- anddespite inadequacy of data, referenceto a groupliving in a primitive satisfied with this basis of demarcation of concept and argumentto supportit. orbarbarous conditions. The former usage the tribes. They were of the view that there Now, while tribescontinue to undergo has a longer historythan the one which were difficulties in distinguishing the changesof many kinds, these no longer became prevalentafter the colonial en- religion of the tribes from that of the lower transformthem into castes. The Oraons counter.Yet it is in the sense thatdevel- strata of Hindu society. Keeping these todaypractise various religions and speak oped later(the primitivestage of living) observations in mind Ghurye [1963:205] more thanone language;they earn their thatthe term 'tribe' has come to be mainly went to the extent of observing that so- livelihoodfrom a varietyof occupations, conceptualisedin anthropologicalwrit- called aboriginals who form the bulk of bothagricultural 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 significantsense. They have not become The early Britishwritings on Indiadid best described as 'backward Hindus'. a caste with any definite standingin the notstudy groups or communitiesfrom the In the post-independence period one castehierarchy. This argumenthas impli- caste/tribeperspective. The groupswere finds more systematic efforts to distin- cationsnot only for the understandingof studiedin theircapacity as humangroup- guish tribe from caste. And yet, scholars tribes but also for the understandingof ings or communities.Their description in have not arrivedat systematically worked- Indian society as a whole. The most caste/tribeterms was a laterphenomenon. out criteria to this day. It has generally importantimplication is that new castes It is thereforenot very clear in whichsense been assumed that tribe and caste repre- are no longerbeing formed,whether, by the Britishethnographers used the term sent two different forms of social the transformationof tribesinto castesor 'tribe' in India, especially in the early organisations - castes being regulated by by other means. Tribes have become phase.The impressionone gets is thatthe the hereditary division of labour, hierar- peasantsand socially differentiatedenti- usage in the sense of common ancestry chy, the principle of purity and pollution, ties but, contraryto views held, without mayhave been more in vogue.References civic and religious disabilities, etc, and any loss of their distinctiveidentities. to the rajput,ahir and jat 'tribes'as well tribes being characterised by the absence as the interchangeableuse of the terms of the caste attributes. CASTEAND TRIBE 'tribe'and 'caste' in 18thcentury writings The two types of social organisations Diversity or heterogeneityhas been on India tends to support such view. are seen as being governed by different termedone of the hallmarksof Indian Ethnographersevidently had difficulty principles. It is said that kinship bonds society.Religion, language, region, caste differentiatingone fromthe otherat least govern tribal society. Each individual is and tribehave been consideredto be the in the initial stage. hence considered equal to the others. The most importantdistinctions. But not all In the censusreports of 1881,when the lineage and clan tend to be the chief unit of themhave been conceptually and theo- first 'proper'all-India census was under- of ownership as well as of production and reticallyas contentiousas the categoryof taken, the term used was not 'tribe' but consumption. In contrast, inequality, tribe.It has generallybeen said that the 'foresttribe', and that too as a sub-heading dependency and subordination are inte- categoriesof religion, language,region withinthe 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 14.139.45.242 on Tue, 18 Nov 2014 03:22:35 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions thattribes do not differentiateas sharply the rest of the population and had no rungs of Hindu society, and (4) groups as caste groupsdo betweenthe utilitarian interaction or interconnection with them. fully adapted to the Hindu faith and living and non-utilitarianfunction of religion. In contrast the main concern of post- in modern style. Caste groups tend to maintaindifferent colonial ethnography has been to show a The criteria of classification used by forms, practicesand behaviourpatterns 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 contrastmaintain similar relationship has, of course, been differ- that the whole aboriginal problem was one forms, practicesand behaviourpatterns ently conceptualised. Sinha [1958] views of how to enable the tribesmen of the first for both functions. 'tribe' as adimension of little traditionthat 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 differentin respectof the psychological it is seen in relation to the great tradition. to suffer the despair and degradation of dispositionof members.Tribes are said to In contrast Beteille [1986:316] views it the third. Dube classifies tribes almost take direct,unalloyed satisfaction in the more in terms of distance from state and along the lines spelt out by Elwin. Many pleasuresof the senses - in such areasas civilisation in contexts where tribe and others, including Bose and Fuchs,