Page 29 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes to build their homes but also give them fuel, herbal medicines for curing diseases, fruits,
wild game, etc. Their religion makes them believe that many of their spirits live in trees and
forests. Their folk-tales often speak of the relations of human beings and the spirits. Because
of such physical and emotional attachment to forests, tribals have reacted sharply to restrictions
imposed by the government on their traditional rights.
• Tribal government programmes have not significantly helped the tribals in raising their
economic status. The British policy had led to ruthless exploitation of the tribals in various
ways as it favoured the zamindars, landlords, moneylenders, forest contractors, and excise,
revenue and police officials.
• Banking facilities in the tribal areas are so inadequate that the tribals have to depend mainly
on moneylenders. Being miserably bogged down in indebtedness, tribals demand that
Agricultural Indebtedness Relief Acts should be enacted so that they may get back their
mortgaged land.
• About 90 per cent of the tribals are engaged in cultivation and most of them are landless and
practise shifting cultivation. They need to be helped in adopting new methods of cultivation.
• The unemployed and the underemployed want help in finding secondary sources of earning
by developing animal husbandry, poultry farming, handloom weaving, and the handicrafts
sector. Most of the tribals live in sparsely populated hills and communications in the tribal
areas remain tough. The tribals, therefore, need to be protected against leading isolated life,
away from towns and cities, through a network of new roads.
• The tribals are exploited by Christian missionaries. In several tribal, areas, mass conversion
to Christianity had taken place during the, British period. While the missionaries have been
pioneers in education and opened hospitals in tribal areas, they have also been responsible
for alienating the tribals from their culture. Christian missionaries are said to have many a
time instigated the tribals to revolt against the Indian government.
Relations between the tribals and non-tribals thus started worsening and non-tribal residents
were increasingly depending for protection on the para-military forces. The demand for separate
states for tribals took the shape of insurgency in Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Bihar, Manipur,
Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura. Neighbouring countries, unfriendly to India, were active in
exploiting these anti-Indian sentiments. Infiltration of foreign nationals, gun-running, trafficking
in narcotics and smuggling even today are very serious problems in these states surrounded by
tribal belts.
In short, the main problems of the tribals are poverty, indebtedness, illiteracy, bondage, exploitation,
disease and unemployment.
After independence, tribal problems and tribal unrest have become politicised. An articulate and
effective political elite have emerged in several tribal areas. These elite are conscious of tribal
rights and are capable of making calculated moves to gain their acceptance. The tribals of Jharkhand
region in Bihar and of Bastar region in Madhya Pradesh are recent examples where tribal political
leaders have succeeded in compelling the central government to agree to form separate states. A
separate tribal state in Bihar (Vananchal) would comprise 18 districts of South Bihar, with tribal
population of 26 per cent. The demand for greater Jharkhand state consists of 26 predominantly
tribal districts of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. In areas where tribal leadership
does not exist, political parties—national, regional or local—are moving in to fill the vacuum. S.C.
Dube (1972:30) has also said that today we find a shift in the political attitudes and strategies of
the tribals—from politics of compliance and affirmation to politics of pressure and protest. It may
be said that the political culture of the tribes is undergoing a radical transformation. This parochial
political culture and ‘participant’ political culture is oriented more to sub-national tribal identities
than to a broader national identity. When interests of the smaller unit (tribe) and the larger unit
(nation) clash, the tendency is to ignore or sacrifice the latter. This perspective resulting in exclusive
focus on purely tribal interests and on their solution unlinked with broader national interests
imparts parochial overtones to the emerging political culture. On the other hand, in participative
political culture, the tribals take an active interest in formulating policies, questioning the usefulness

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