INDIAN TRIBES IN TRANSITION

INDIAN TRIBES IN TRANSITION The tribal in India put on view an assortment of customs and traditions typical of their own life styles. Modernization as well as Urbanization has their own role in the process of transformation in life and culture of tribes. Because of these transformations in the traditional tribal culture of various communities, the uniformity in their socio cultural milieu had been disrupted. According to RS Mann (1980: 1-2) there are three stages in tribal living karkedin most of the tribal communities. Some tribal are sufficiently changed, some are in the transitional stage and others remain bogged down within the frame of traditionality. The creation of such stages of living can be attributed to the plan as well as the non-planned efforts of non-tribal. While the planned efforts are of recent origin, the no-planned forces, of quite long standing, have had more influence. Such a trend is obviously the result of the great persistence of tribal problems, including those, which got induced as a result of the introduction of agents of change in Tribal belts. The tribal consists of units fashioned on a single pattern, the sib (clan) concept; all sibs being generally similar in function and of equal dignity and within each sib the constituent members are on one level of democratic equality. Primitive tribes stratified by age distinctions, differences of sex and matrimonial status, and of affiliation with one of the resulting groups, which may affect the individuals life for more powerfully than his membership. (Louie : 245). Professor Mamoria has expressesed his doubts about the reliability of the members of tribes and tribes and this is mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, because of the difficulty of classification and secondly because of the deliberate misrepresentation which has crept in. After 1909 with the indurations of the separate religious electorates, there had been o increasing pressure on the parts of the religious groups to swell their number in census. Because of these errors, the data of the tribal are most inaccurate among all those data collected by census. There are about 571 tribes and they are dividing into three groups on the basis of their distribution in the three well-defined zones, the northern zone, the central-Indian zone and southern Indian zone. They may differ on account of physiological factors, language, culture and they are at different stages of socio-cultural development. The north eastern zone including the sub Himalayan region and the hills and mountain ranges of north east India, of the Taster valley and the Janna, Padma, Portion of the Brahamaputhra, inhabited by the tribes like Nags, Khasis, Gonds, Mishmash, Abors and so on. Some have mongoloid features, with a Megalithic culture with pronounced development of matriarchy. Central India is occupied by the aboriginal population from time immoral and consists of the plateaus and maintains belts between the Indo-Gangetic basin and Krishna River in the south. The Juangs, Kharias, Hos, Santals, Gonds, Bhils, Mundas, Oraons, etc. are some of the main tribes of these areas. Physically they are Astrologic characters, economically of the shifting cultivation stage and socially organized with councils under a headman. The southern – Indian zone consists of that part of peninsular India, south of the river Krishna. The tribes of these areas are of the most ancient inhabitants of India, and some of the tribes seen in these areas are Toads, Korus, Kavas, Papayas, Uralic, Malayans etc. Their economic life centered round hunting and food gathering and the local headman settled the disputes. There are matriarchal and patriarchal tribes and there is an evidence of practicing polyandry among some tribes. Most of these groups have been undergoing changes. These changes have been observed and described by a variety of persons for nearly 100 years, but their consequences and implications have been seriously misconceived. The conventional wisdom among anthropologists has been that when a tribe undergoes change through a loss of isolation and through close integration with wider society, sooner or later, and with unfailing regularity, it becomes a caste. (Xaxa: Vol.XXX IV: No.24) Reserved by C.K.Rakhesh. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of C.K.Rakhesh.