W.B.C.S. Main 2018 Question Answer – Sociology – Scheduled Tribes In India.

1)Who are the scheduled Tribes in India?Write a note on the problems of scheduled Tribes in India.

The provisions under Article 342 read as follows

342(1) Scheduled Tribes — the President may with respect to any State or Union Territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor thereof, by a public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities as Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State or Union Territory as the case may be.Continue Reading W.B.C.S. Main 2018 Question Answer – Sociology – Scheduled Tribes In India.

(2) Parliament may be law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.

Criteria for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe

While the Constitution is silent about the criteria for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe. The words and the phrase ‘tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities” in Article 342 have to be understood in terms of their historical background of backwardness. Primitiveness, geographical isolation, shyness and social, educational & economic backwardness due to these reasons are the traits that distinguish Scheduled Tribe communities of our country from other communities. It takes into account the definitions of tribal Communities adopted in the 1931 Census. These facts are the basis for the provision in Article 342(1) which mandates to specify the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities as Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State or Union Territory as the case may be. Thus the list of Scheduled Tribes is State/UT specific and a community declared as a Scheduled Tribe in a State need not be so in another State. The Presidential notifications under Clause 1 of Article 342 of the Constitution are issued as the Constitution Orders. Two Constitution Orders were initially issued in relation to two distinct categories of States as existed at the time of adoption of the Constitution of India.

Problems of Tribal People

Tribes of India are varied in terms of their socio-economic and political development. Some of them have changed through Hinduisation, and some through conversion to Christianity or other routes. Some tribal people are in the transitional phase, while others are adhering to their old lifestyles. This shows an uneven process of change and development among the tribal people in India. Only a small number of tribal people have been benefited by the policies and programmes meant for their development.

According to the 1991 census, the tribal population was 6.78 crore, that is, about 8.08 per cent of the total population of India. Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar have highest ST population in descending order, respectively. Gujarat and Rajasthan have over 3 million each. Maharashtra has nearly 8 per cent, followed by Assam, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh. Lakshadweep islands, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have a little less than 100 per cent tribal population.

Problems of the Tribal People

The tribes were alienated from their own lands. The landlords and moneylenders of the plains gradually replaced the tribal landowners. There were a number of movements against the British Raj and the Hindu moneylenders and landlords. The tribes were given protection in view of such an oppressive situation.

Ghurye lists a number of socio-cultural and economic problems of the tribes of India in view of their distinctions. Some tribes represent aristocracy, landlords and noblemen; others consist of the Hinduised sections of tribesmen; and thirdly, there are tribes and some sections from amongst them who are still largely isolated from the non-tribal population.

Ghurye mentions three ways for solution for the problems of the tribal people

(1) No change and revivalism,

(2) Isolationism and preservation, and

(3) Assimilation.

No change and revivalism has been supported by Elwin, whereas isolationism has been advocated by Hutton. The famous anthropologist S.C. Roy (1970) was an assimilationist. However, today, a paradoxical situation exists.

Protective discrimination isolates the tribal people from the non-tribesmen, but in course of time this very policy would bring the tribals at par with the non-tribals. The dominant thinking today is in favour of assimilation of the tribal people into the national mainstream without any disruption. It is not easy to have both dissolution and assimilation at the same time.

Since tribal people are at different social, political, economic and ecological levels, their problems also differ in degree from each other. These differences can be seen in terms of hill tribes and plainsmen; between those who are engaged in forest-based economic pursuits and the ones who are employed as settled agriculturists; or between those who are Hinduised or converted to Christianity; and those who are adhering to an unadulterated tribal way of life.

Despite these distinctions, some common problems of the tribal people are

(1) Poverty and exploitation

(2) Economic and technological backwardness

(3) Socio-cultural handicaps

(4) Problems of their assimilation with the non-tribal population

S.C. Dube’s five-fold classification of the Indian tribes provides a clear picture of the problem of tribes in India.

Dube (1982) mentions

(1) Aboriginals living in seclusion;

(2) Tribal groups having an association with the neighbouring non-tribal society and also maintaining their distinctiveness;

(3) Tribals living in villages along with caste groups, sects and religious groups and maintaining their identity;

(4) Tribals who have been degraded to the status of untouchables; and

(5) Tribals who enjoy high social, economic and political status. Such a classification is based on the nature of cultural contacts of tribals with non-tribals.

The U.N. Dhebar Commission recommended that an area be declared ‘tribal’ where more than 50 per cent of the people were tribals. Economic criteria have also been suggested, such as dependence upon forests for food, primitive agriculture, agriculture and forests both as sources of livelihood, and modern occupations, particularly employment in industries. Thus, no uniform solutions of the tribal people can be provided as they do not share common existential conditions and cultural ethos.

The tribal people had a strong sense of community life before the British rulers and Hindu zamindars and moneylenders intruded into their lives. Exchange of goods and transactions at weekly markets and fairs was the basic mode of economic relations.

However, the British took over the forests on which they depended for their livelihood. The moneylenders brought them under their control by extending loans at exhorbitant interest rates and then by mortgaging their lands, alienating them from land they cultivated.

Indebtedness led to exploitation and pauperisation of the tribal people. Hinduisation has also contributed to indebtedness and exploitation, as the tribals adopted Hindu ways of life and rituals which forced them to spend as the Hindus did. Tribals occupied a very low rank in Hindu society after they copied Hinduism.

At some places, the tribals have been made to serve as bonded labourers. The Doms and Koltas in Uttar Pradesh serve the upper caste families even today. In Rajasthan, the Sagri system, in Andhra the Vetti system, in Orissa the Gothi system, in Karnataka the Jetha system and in Chhattisgarh (earlier part of Madhya Pradesh) the Naukrinama system are the examples of the bondedness of the tribals. They have borrowed money from the moneylenders, but have not been able to pay back and are therefore bound to work till they return the loan. A situation of emancipation does not arise as the tribal is not able to repay the loan completely and quickly.

K.S. Singh (1992) points out that agrarian issues are basic to tribal development in India. The tribal agrarian problem cannot be treated in isolation. Tribal people have to be treated along with other weaker sections of Indian society. Keeping the situation of Jharkhand (earlier part of Bihar) in view, Singh observes that the concept of aliens is crucial to the understanding of an agrarian situation where non-tribals outnumber tribals.

The class of moneylenders has arisen due to several factors, including the agrarian legislation. Alienation of land has resulted from tribal backwardness and indebtedness. Integrated Tribal Development Blocks (ITDBs) have not produced the desired results in the tribal areas.

Famine and drought have become a recurrent feature. The tribal sub-plan has been introduced to combat problems of famine, drought, illiteracy, indebtedness, exploitation, etc., by taking up special schemes for the development of tribal areas.

A study of the impact of the decentralisation of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) trade on the tribals of Jharkhand shows that the dominant causality is economic rather than political and ideological. The study refers to the control of forest produce like bamboo, Kendu leaves, Mahua, Kusum, Karanj and Sal seeds by the government of Jharkhand. The MFP contributes about 35 per cent of the state’s revenue from forests.

The takeover has adversely affected the institution of hat (weekly market), where the tribals carried out economic transactions, and also performed several social and cultural activities. Forests provided a collective life to the tribals, and this was being denied to them as a result of the MFP trade takeover. The tribals have been agitated over this step taken by the government of Jharkhand.

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