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Unit 2: Major Segments of Indian Society

land and forests and in many cases they are being fleeced by money lenders, big landowners, Notes
traders, businessmen and others. In spite of this, we cannot support ideas of scholars like Verrier
Elwin who advocated keeping tribals in partial or full isolation and strongly advised that these
people should be allowed to maintain their traditional and original tribal life as far as possible.
While we do not want tribal culture to be destroyed, at the same time, we do not want that tribes
should remain ‘backward’ and not be benefites by industrial development, occupational mobility,
education and benefits of welfare schemes. The isolated and segregated condition of the tribal
world which results in their poverty, illiteracy, exploitation, etc., cannot be tolerated in this age.
Their exposure to justice, enlightenment, help and cooperation is essential.
Displacement and Resettlement of Tribals
During recent years, displacement of tribals has drawn the attention of several scholars. It is
estimated that development schemes like dams, mines, industries and various projects have resulted
in the displacement of about 40 per cent tribals between 1951 and 1991 (Fernandes, 1994:24). The
illiterate and powerless tribals have been compelled to leave their resource-rich regions and migrate
to other places. This has resulted in the problem of their resettlement. One estimate is that about
20 per cent of the STs have been rehabilitated. In Maharashtra and Gujarat under the ‘land for
land’ scheme, only 15 per cent of about 10,000 eligible tribal families were granted land (lbid:36).
This has resulted in impoverishment and marginalisation of tribals. In many areas, tribals have
resisted the take-over of their support system and started agitations. Such tribal agitations have
been reported from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh
and so on. Surprisingly, tribals agitate more than the high caste non-tribal farmers, even though
they are illiterate and less organised. This can be explained in terms of difference in the extent of
dependence on natural resources, exposure to external society, nature of leadership among them
and the benefits they expect from the project (Fernandes in George Pfeffer, 1997:82). Tribals resist
these projects because much of their food and other daily needs are met by the forests and the
shifting cultivation in forests. This dependence on forests develops a symbolic relationship of the
tribals with the source of their livelihood. The second reason is inadequacy of benefits. No
compensation is paid for the forests because what the tribals consider common property land is in
fact government land. Even the compensation for the little individual land they own is very low
(say, about Rs. 3,000 per acre). What little amount they get is appropriated by money-lenders and
middlemen. They are thus left impoverished. The third reason is that their literacy is so low that
they cannot hope to get jobs in the new project. At most they get temporary jobs of unskilled
labourers. All these reasons compel them to agitate against new projects and being displaced from
their native lands.
Integration and Assimilation
The British administrators like Dalton, Risley and others talked of ‘Hinduised tribes’ and ‘Hinduised
section of the tribe’. They referred to a number of cultural traits which tribal people have adopted
from the neighbouring Hindus. Have the welfare and the development programmes drawn the
Adivasis to the fore of the national front? Have they been able to elevate their social position? It
has been accepted by many scholars that the gap between tribals and non-tribals is partly the
result of political policy of the imperial colonial power and partly because the non-tribals considered
the tribals ethically and culturally distinct from the rest of the population. As such, the demands
of the Adivasis after Independence for distinctive treatment and even autonomy were valid.
Anthropologists sympathetically endorsed this demand. The census officers were emphatic about
their religious distinction. They designated them as animists. Ethnologists pointed out their racial
background and ethnic traits. But according to Ghurye, on the cultural and linguistic plane, the
tribals are not markedly different from the neighbouring non-tribal or Hindu rural communities.
This viewpoint has been supported Majumdar and Aiyappan. Some tribes like Mizos, Khasis,
Nagas, Mundas, Meenas, Bhils, etc., have become somewhat modernised but some have still
remained ‘backward’. Their techno-economic backwardness and their sticking to traditional cultural
values have remained a barrier to their integration in Hindu society.

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