Page 34 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 2: Major Segments of Indian Society

the STs, and (ii) protection of tribals against exploitation. The funds for TSPs are provided by state Notes
governments and the central ministries.
However, TSP results have not been commensurate with the expectations and the investments
made so far as heavy emphasis is laid in several states on infrastructural development without
corresponding emphasis on the development of the STs. The TSP schemes are supposed to lay
emphasis on family-oriented income-generating schemes in sectors like agriculture, animal
husbandary, cooperatives, tribal crafts and skills, etc., besides laying emphasis on education,
health, and housing.
In the Five Year Plans, the programmes for the welfare of the STs aim at: (1) Raising the productivity
levels in agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, cottage and small-scale industries, etc., to improve
the economic conditions, (2) rehabilita on of the bonded labour (3) education and training
programmes, and (4) special development programmes for women and children. But various
evaluation studies on all these programmes for the integrated development of the tribals have
brought out the inadequacies of these programmes.
Acculturation and Changes in Tribal Culture
Cultural change is ‘change in knowledge, attitudes, ideas, behaviour, religious beliefs, and moral
doctrines of individuals who compose the community or the society’. Thus, cultural change is a
multifactorial process. Several factors as identified by Raha and Dubash Roy (1997: 149-159) which
have brought about changes in the tribal culture are: measures undertaken by the government,
communication facilities, spread of education, process of urbanisation, occupational mobility,
community development projects, frequent contacts with the neighbouring Hindus in the urban
areas, construction of dams in the tribal areas, impact of Christianity, facilities of bank credit,
modern medicare, cooperative societies, modern legislation, cash and market economy, and
reformist movements.
The tribe-caste interaction and the process of acculturation is found among many tribes in different
states. Its best example has been pointed out by Binay Kumar Patnaik’s study of Sabaras (tribe) in
Ghorabar village in Orissa, who comprise 5 per cent of the total 235 households with 280 people
(see Pfeffer, 1997:317-329). The process of undergoing acculturation by this tribe is found in the
following changes:
1. The structural change in the tribe is found in discarding egalitarianism (with least of functional
dependency) and accepting caste system and thereby introducing the system of stratification in
the community.
2. The community is hierarchically divided in four segments on the basis of ritual superiority
which resembles Hindu varna framework. There is functional distribution of occupations among
the four divisions like the four varnas—hunting and fighting, worshipping, cultivation, and
dancing and singing respectively. The difference is that while in the varna system, worshipping
occupies the highest ritual status, in this tribe it occupies second place in the hierarchy. Secondly,
purity and pollution is absent in the Sabaras tribe as it is found in the caste system. Thus,
Sabaras are accepted as a separate ‘caste’ and not as a tribe in the village.
3. Like the caste system among the Sabaras too, each sub-caste has its own panchayat which acts
as a watch-dog of the community customs and taboos.
4. Each sub-division of the Sabaras claims descent from three Sabaras who figure in Hindu
mythologies—Mahabharat and Ramayana.
5. The imprint of Hindu culture is prominent on the marriage customs of Sabaras, though inter-
caste (inter-segment) marriage is absent. Polygamy is a taboo. Bride-price has been replaced by
dowry.
Why the adopting of Hindu traits by the Sabaras is termed as a process of ‘acculturation’ and not
‘sanskritisation’ is because (a) the benefit of acculturation is ‘economic gain’ and not achieving
higher ritual status. By entering the Hindu-fold as a caste group, they have been assigned the
occupation of wood-cutting and basket making permanently. After deforestation, they have become
agricultural labourers; and (b) the model adopted for mobility is not Brahmanic but Vaishya,

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