Tribes of India

As rightly pointed out by Virginius Xaxa, “defining ‘Tribe’ has conceptual as well as empirical problems for the academicians.” According to Andre Beteille, in many parts of the old world the tribe and civilisation had co existed for centuries, and were closely implicated in each other from ancient to modern times. However, in India it was the British who, for the first time, disentangled tribe from caste. While the British recognised the importance of Tribes in the socio-economic and cultural landscape of the sub-continent, they also sought to control them. The ethnographic material on the tribes in India failed to define the tribes, and the discourse became rather to ‘identify than define the tribes’(Beteille, 1986). The defining of tribes then became closely associated with the political and administrative considerations.

The inauguration of racial theory and classification of races in Europe in the 19th century made the colonial project of knowledge creation more vigorous in the colony. There were serious debates between colonial administrators and ethnographers on who the “tribes” were and their relation to the caste-Hindu society. The tribes’ mythological origin narratives, clan systems, social practices, belief system and languages were the main points of discussion. These debates resulted in a series of ethnographic volumes on the Adivasi communities, besides the colonial census and gazetteers, that homogenised forest and hill communities as tribes and later as “Scheduled Tribes.” These studies depicted the Adivasis as primitive tribes or barbarians who were violent, uncivilised, honest and childlike (Bhukya 2008: 103–9). These notions of the “tribe” as “primitive” have been strongly critiqued by progressive scholars of the postcolonial period.

Until March 31, 1937, the British categorised them as ‘backward classes’. It was under the Government of India Act 1935 that they were first scheduled as tribes, a practice that was retained in independent India. According to the 2011 census, there are 705 Scheduled Tribes in India, accounting for 8.6% of the total population. The most important Constitutional provisions pertaining to the defining, welfare and development of the tribes and tribal areas are specified in Article 342, Article 244, Article 244A, Article 275, Article 330, Article 332 and Article 335. However despite many welfare policies, the stereotyping still continues leading to further marginalisations of the tribes.

This repository is an attempt to reflect on the heterogeneity of the tribal population and culture of India. Historically and constitutionally tribes have traditionally been othered as a homogenous group, even though they are an essential aspect of the diverse identity of India. Through this collection of articles, we hope that an in depth study of tribal populations and cultures across the states of India, enables us to reflect on issues like indigenous practices of nature preservation, farming, justice, art, progress, gende-relations, education, representation and many other aspects of tribal lives that are extremely relevant today.

This resource kit, prepared from the rich archives of Economic and Political Weekly, attempts to enumerate upon the diversity, practice, history and challenges of Tribes across the states of India. This repository of 200+ articles will enable researchers to delve deep into the debates spanning across different disciplines on the respective theme.

• Changing Livelihood Dependence on Forest in North East India | Economic and Political Weekly
• Education, Assimilation and Cultural Marginalisation of Tribes in India | Economic and Political Weekly
• Tribal History sans Contemporary Politics
• Tribes: The Other View | Economic and Political Weekly
• The Changing Dynamics of Tribal Societies in India | Economic and Political Weekly
• Featuring Adivasi/Indigenous Studies | Economic and Political Weekly
• State and Its Anxiety of Caste Census | Economic and Political Weekly
• Is Ambedkar’s Prejudice against ‘Tribe’ a Settled Matter? : A Monument to Academic Carelessness | Economic and Political Weekly
• Reservations, Efficiency, and the Making of Indian Constitution | Economic and Political Weekly
• An Idea of a Prison | Economic and Political Weekly
• Action on Prison Data | Economic and Political Weekly
• Community Self-governance in Education | Economic and Political Weekly
• Environment, Food Security and Natural Resources : Lacunae in Tenth Plan Approach Paper | Economic and Political Weekly
• COVID-19 and Tribal Communities: How State Neglect Increased Marginalisation during the Pandemic | Economic and Political Weekly
• Governors and the Fifth Schedule : Failing the Constitutional Mandate | Economic and Political Weekly
• Livelihood Vulnerabilities of Tribals during COVID-19: Challenges and Policy Measures | Economic and Political Weekly
• Protective Discrimination: Why Scheduled Tribes Lag Behind Scheduled Castes | Economic and Political Weekly
• The Implications of India’s New President | Economic and Political Weekly
• Journalistic Discourse(s) and the Adivasi : Making of Space and Image | Economic and Political Weekly
• Elwin's Tribals | Economic and Political Weekly
• Land Distribution among Scheduled Castes and Tribes | Economic and Political Weekly
• Light Shines through Gossamer Threads : Inside-Outside Political Spaces
• Tribes as Indigenous People of India : | Economic and Political Weekly
• Politics of Language, Religion and Identity: Tribes in India
• Scheduled Tribes and the Census: A Sociological Inquiry : | Economic and Political Weekly
• Endangered Languages: Some Concerns
• A Regressive World View on Scheduled Tribe Reservations | Economic and Political Weekly
• Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes : | Economic and Political Weekly
• Mine Now, Mine Forever? | Economic and Political Weekly
• Concept of 'Tribe' in the Draft National Tribal Policy : | Economic and Political Weekly
• The Scheduled Tribes and Christianity in India : | Economic and Political Weekly