13 Definition and identification of tribe/scheduled tribe

Dr. N.K Mungreiphy

Contents of This Unit

1.  Learning Outcomes

2.  Introduction

3.  Definition of tribe

4.  Identification of tribe or scheduled tribe

5.  Summary

1.  Learning Outcomes After studying this module:

• You shall be able to understand the concept of tribe.
• You will know the definitions of tribe given by different scholars.
• You would be able to understand the variations in tribes and the different criteria suggested for identifying a community as tribes.
• In addition, you would understand the debate and discussion in the effort to define and identify tribes.

2. Introduction

There are varied concepts and definitions of the term ‘tribe’ and it has been defined by various scholars and academics. Basically, tribes are indigenous social group identified by their own distinct culture, tradition, belief, sense of belongingness, collective responsibility and socioeconomic setups. They are identified by the particular territory each one of them occupied and are govern by their own political system with an accepted leader and elders. Tribes have their own rule of descent, kinship system, nature of marriage and preferential forms of marital alliances, family forms and structure, dialect, distinct traditional attires, customary laws and social structure. Tribes are also known by the terms Adivasi, indigenous, aboriginals, backward Hindus, hill tribe, primitive etc.

There are differences in conceptualization and definition of tribe because of the diversity of tribes found in different parts of the world. Tribes of Africa, Asia or Australia differ from each other and each tribe has its own unique feature and socio-cultural facet. D.N. Majumdar studied the Ho tribe of Bihar, India; Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf studied different tribes of India beginning with the Konyak Nagas of Northeast India and later a hunting-gathering tribe, the Chenchus of Andhra Pradesh, and also the Gonds of Andhra Pradesh; Verrier Elwin studied the Baiga tribe of Madhya Pradesh; Sarat Chandra Roy worked among the Mundas, Oraons, Birhar and Hill Bhuiyas tribes of India; A.R. Radcliffe-Brown work among tribes of Anadaman Island, Bronis law Malinowski studied Trobriand Islander tribes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard studied Nuer and Dinka of Sudan, and gave different interesting insights to the concept of tribe. Tribes have different forms of kinship system, culture, forms of marriage and family, religion and social institutions. Such diverse study gave rise to varied perspective and definitions of tribes.

According to 2011 census, in India scheduled tribes constitute 8.2% of the total population. Indian tribes are spread over all the States and Union Territories of India except for Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Pondicherry and National Capital Territory of Delhi. There are 705 ethnic groups notified as Scheduled Tribes according to the constitution of India. The number of tribes scheduled under the Constitution of India is quite large, and the heterogeneity is massive. Each tribe is quite distinct from the other.

Since tribes are different from one another in terms of diverse aspects, it is not easy to define or classify them. For instance, ‘Khasi’ tribe of Meghalaya, Northeastern India is completely different from ‘Bhil’ tribe of central and western India, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan or Maharashtra in terms of morphology, socio-cultural dimensions and way of life. Though there are some similarities or common traits, tribes from different parts of India have their own distinctive cultures and features. Some tribes follow patrilineal while others adopt matrilineal descent group. Several tribal groups practice monogamy while some practice different forms of polygamy. Some tribes are hunters, gatherers and fishers, while others are cultivators, whether it is shifting or settled cultivation. Tribes of different regions of India are different from one another in terms of physical features, cultural and tradition, economy, polity etc.

Moreover, some tribes are in their transitional phase in terms of cultural practices, belief and world view, dietary habits, lifestyles, occupation and other socioeconomic factors, though some basic distinctive features like dialects, territorial occupancies, customs etc remains constant. Some tribes have rapidly improved their socioeconomic status and living condition. However, there are still other tribes who do not change much, holding on to their traditional way of life, belief and practices.

The organization and settlements of several tribes are well demarcated and much simpler. On the other hand, there are some tribes like the ‘Nagas’ comprising of many sub-tribeswhich are spread over different states of Northeast India, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradeshas well as in Western parts of Myanmar, a neighboring country. The Nagas are conglomerate of more than fifty sub-tribes and they share common cultural traits, customary laws, political system, legends, physical appearance and features, however there are some distinctive variations as well. The sub-groups are differentiated mainly by their traditional dress and dialects. The common traditions to all the sub-group of the Nagas tribes include features like the simple loom for weaving cloth, erstwhile head hunting culture, dormitory system etc. Their custom, belief system and mythology are unique to them.

Indian tribes and their cultural practices have enticed many anthropologists and sociologists from different parts of the world and many have written about them. Tribes are diverse and in the attempt to define tribe there have been differences in term of usage of words, concepts or defining criteria and it has been a contentious affair. There is no definition of tribal that is universally accepted, nevertheless various efforts have been made and criteria suggested for defining and identifying community as tribe in India and other parts of the globe by various scholars.

3. Definition of tribe

Tribe has been defined by many prominent Anthropologist, Sociologist and others scholars. A renowned Indian Anthropologist, Majumdar D.N. (1950) define tribe from anthropological perspective as “ as a social group with territorial affiliation, endogamous, with no specialization of functions, ruled by tribal officers, hereditary or otherwise, united in language or dialect, recognizing social distance with other tribes or castes, without any social obloquy attaching to them, as it does in the caste structure, followed tribal traditions, beliefs and customs, illiberal of naturalization of ideas from alien sources, above all conscious of homogeneity of ethnic and territorial integration.” Vidyarthi L.P.(1981) define tribe as “ social group with definite territory, common name, common district, common culture, behavior of an endogamous group, common taboos, existence of distinctive social and political system, full faith in leaders and self-sufficiency in their distinct economy.”

According to G.S. Ghurye “The Scheduled Tribes are neither called the ‘Aborigines’, nor the ‘Adivasis’, nor are they treated as a category by themselves. By and large, they are treated together with the Scheduled Castes and further envisaged as one group of the Backward Classes.” According to Krishnan P.G. (1985) tribe is “a social group of simple and kind, the members of which speak a common dialect, have a single government act together for common purposes and have a common name, a contiguous territory, a relatively uniform culture or way of life and a traditions of common descent.” Bardhan A.B. (1973) defines the tribe as “course of socio-cultural entity at a definite historical stage of development. It is a single, endogamous community with a cultural and psychological makeup.” According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India “a tribe is a collection of families bearing a common name, speaking a common dialect, occupying or professing to occupy a common territory and is not usually endogamous, though originally it might have been so”.

According to G.W.B. Hunting ford “A tribe is a group united by a common name in which the members take a pride by a common language, by a common territory, and by a feeling that all who do not share this name are outsiders, ‘enemies’ in fact”. I.M. Lewis wrote “Ideally, tribal societies are small in scale, are restricted in the spatial and temporal range of their social, legal, and political relations, and possess a morality, a religion, and world-wide of corresponding dimensions. Characteristically too, tribal languages are unwritten, and hence, the extent of communication both in time and space is inevitably narrow. At the same time, tribal societies exhibit a remarkable economy of design and have a compactness and self-sufficiency lacing in modern society”. “In its simplest form the tribe is a group of bands occupying a contagious territory or territories and having a feeling of unity deriving from numerous similarities in culture, frequent contacts, and a certain community of interest” as defined by Ralph Linton.

A tribe is “a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader” as defined by the Oxford dictionary. In 1951 the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland defined tribe as a “politically or socially coherent and autonomous group occupying or claiming a particular territory” (Notes and Queries on Anthropology, 1951).

The different concepts and definitions of ‘tribe’ give multidimensional aspects in understanding tribes from different regions all around the world. The varying definition shows that there have been different concepts about tribe arising from the study and understanding of different tribes at different point of time. However the differences among scholars on the definition and concept of tribe have become lesser with time and better perception.

4.  Identification of tribe or scheduled tribe International Labour Organization

To identify tribe or scheduled tribe, there has also been effort from various scholars and organizations in putting down criteria for classification. The International Labour Organization laid down some criteria to help identify indigenous and tribal population, both subjectively and objectively, though the criteria are not meant to serve as a formal definition of the tribe. Article 1 (1) and (2) of the International Labour Organization Convention No. 107 (ILO Convention No. 107) states that with regard to indigenous populations, the criteria for identification include the pattern of living of the group, which is regulated mostly by economic, cultural and social institutions of ancestral historical population that they have inherited, than by the contemporary dominant communities and peoples ‘institutions of their country. The main characteristics of semi-tribal populations include their relatively fast integration with the national community through the gradual loss of their ‘tribal characteristics’, in comparison with the tribal and indigenous populations, but falling short of full integration.

The Constitution of India

The definition of tribe was not given clearly in the Indian constitution. However, the Constitution of India refers to Scheduled Tribes in Article 366 (25) as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”. The Constitution of India in Article 342 prescribes procedure to be followed in matter of the specification of scheduled tribes. According to this Article, the President of India after discussion with the Governor of respective states or union territory, may specify tribal communities or tribes or groups within tribal communities or parts of tribes which shall for the purposes of the Constitution of India be considered to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that Union territory or State as the case may be by public notification. By law, Parliament may include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.

To identify a community as Scheduled Tribes, the following essential characteristics should be there as laid down by the Lokur Committee.

• indications of primitive characters
• geographical isolation
• shyness to contact with the other community generally
• distinctive culture and
• backwardness

This criterion for identification is not given in the Constitution but it has become well established over the years. It takes into consideration various reports which include the definitions contained in Census of the year 1931, the first Backward Classes Commission reports of1955, the Advisory Committee on Revision of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe lists (Lokur Committee), 1965 and the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes orders (Amendment) Bill, 1967.

As authorized by the Constitution of India, Clause (1) of Article 342, the President of India has promulgated hitherto nine orders specifying the Scheduled Tribes in relation to the union territories and states, after discussion with the respective State Governments concerned. At present, out of the nine orders, eight are in function in their original or revised forms. Only one order, which is the Constitution Scheduled Tribes order, 1968 (Goa, Daman & Diu) has become defunct in 1987because of reorganization of Goa, Daman & Diu. As per the reorganization act of Goa, Daman & Diu of 1987, the Scheduled Tribes list of Goa has been reassign to part XIX of the Schedule (Scheduled Tribes) to the Constitution Order, 1950 and that of Daman & Diu II of the Schedule of the Constitution Order, 1951(Ministry of tribal affairs, GOI, 2015). There are no community specified as Scheduled Tribe with respect to the States of Punjab and Haryana as well as the Union Territories of Delhi, Chandigarh and Pondicherry. Apart from these states and union territories, all the other states have tribal communities in their provinces

Criteria for identification of tribe for different scholars

T.B. Naik discussed the problem of identification of tribes specifically in India context. He examined the tribal life, religion, geographic and economic factors, and developed criteria for recognizing and classifying tribes. T.B. Naik (1960) suggested the following criteria for identification of community as tribe.

i. A community to be considered a tribe should have the minimum functional inter dependence within the community (the Hindu caste system is an example of high interdependence).

ii. A tribe should be economically backward. It should have the following characters:

• The economy of tribe should be at an under-developed phase
• Monetary economics should not be understood fully by the members of tribe
• Means of exploiting their natural resources should be primitive methods, and
• There should be diverse economic pursuits.

iii. Geographic isolation should be there comparatively from other people or community.

iv. Tribal members should have common dialect culturally, which may be subject to regional differences.

v. Psychological conservatism should be there among the tribe members, which would make them attached to their old traditions and customs. The members of the tribal community should not have much desire to change.

vi. A tribal community should be structured politically and should have influential community panchayat.

vii. There should be tribal customary laws and as a result of these customary laws the members of tribe might have to suffer in court of law.

A tribe might undergo acculturation; however the degree of acculturation might have to be determined in terms of their customs and tradition, gods, dialect etc. A community to be considered a ‘tribe’ must have all these attributes according to Naik.

U.R. Ehrenfels elaborated the criteria for identifying tribes with slightly different views (Naik, 1968).

According to Ehrenfelsthe points to be included are:

i. A community, even though it is small, may remain isolated from other communities within a geographical area. This applies to both tribe and caste groups. The members of a true tribe normally have common beliefs, follow common occupational practices, speak a common dialect and most notably consider themselves as members of a small but semi-national unit. These groups are generally not incorporated into the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy.

ii. The words “economically backward”, “underdeveloped stage” or“ primitive means” should be deleted from definitions and substitute these words by terms “self-sufficient” considering tribes like Khasi, Bhil,Gond, Agaria and others who in part have more specialized economy, sometimes even much more specialized than their non-tribal neighbours in their region. However members of tribe may work for their respective family group and may remain functionally dependent of the solidarity with the tribal group as a whole, rather than to be a copartnerin the caste hierarchy of non-tribal groups.

iii. Geographical isolation should be there though not every tribe is an isolated unit (like Irula, Santhala, Bhil etc). Nevertheless the solidarity of tribe will no doubt be more stable if a tribe has its own system of economy.

iv.  Common languages or dialects are distinctive for tribes of Assam and the Central areas, however it is not so in the case of the Western and Southern States of India. Community of language stresses that, nevertheless to build up tribal consciousness it is not essential. The concepts of original religious believes of most tribes in pre-acculturation period were different from their Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Buddhist neighbours, but at present they are not always so.

v. A tribe need not always have a community panchayat nor be politically structured. A tribe may or may not have a few elders or a single chief within the community, who may exercise more or less power.

vi. Replacement of relevant Para of the earlier definition with the words, ‘The members of a tribe have a feeling of belonging to a group the existence of which is valuable’.

vii. Customary laws and practices are found in almost all tribes, which are relatively different from their non-tribal neighbours. They are indeed made to suffer very often on this account in law courts and in other contact situations with non-tribals.”

Eminent Indian Anthropologist, Majumdar and Madan (1967) categorically stating the following specifics for a community to be considered as tribe:

i. A tribe is undeniably a territorial group in tribal India; tribes have their own traditional territories, which the emigrants constantly refer to it as their home. The Santhal tribes working in Assam tea gardens refer to particular regions of Bengal or Chhattisgarh or Bihar as their home.

ii. In a tribal group, not all members are kin of each other; however kinship operates as a strong, integrating and associative regulative principle within every Indian tribe. As a consequence there is tribal endogamyas well as the partition of a tribe into several clans or sub-clans and so on. These clans or sub-clansetc are exogamous, being kin groups.

iii. Indian tribal members speak single common language, which is their own and/or the language of their neighbours. Intra-tribal conflict on a group scale is not a characteristic of tribes of Indian. The practice of joint ownership of property among tribes, (for instance the Hos) wherever present, is not exclusive. Tribes of Indian are under the control of State governments politically, but there may be within atribe a number of Panchayats corresponding to the racial and cultural, heterogeneity, of the constituent members in a village or in neighboring villages.

iv. There are further distinctive characteristics of Indian tribes like the dormitory institutions; distinguishing customs regarding birth, death and marriage; the lack of institutional schooling for girls and boys; a moral code of conduct which is different from that of Muslims and Hindus; peculiarities in terms of religious beliefs and rituals which may differentiate the tribes even from the low caste Hindus.”

5.  Summary

The problems of defining tribe has been debated since long and such discourse have also achieve considerable measure of standardization in specifying criteria for identifying tribes, although there is no universal definition of tribe yet. Anthropologist, sociologist, administrators, missionaries and social workers had extended dynamic academic efforts through investigation, ethnography and research at different point of time in coming about the present stage, where the broad idea of characteristics of tribes has been well defined.

References

• Bardhan A. B. The Tribal Problem in India, Communist Party of India Publications, New Delhi, 1973, pp. 16 – 17
• Ghosh A. “Indian anthropology history of anthropology in India” 6 Feb, 2015. http://nsdl.niscair.res.in/jspui/bitstream/123456789/519/1/PDF%204.11HISTORYOFANTHROP OLOGY_IN_INDIA01.pdf
• ILO Convention “No. 107Article 1(1) & (2)”, 4 Feb 2015. http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—norms/documents/publication/wcms_105009.pdf
• Krishnan P.G. Constitutional andTriba1 Welfare: Cochin University Law Review, Vol. ix No. 1 and 2, March – June, 1985, pp 45-46.
• MajumdarD. N.The Affairs of a tribe: A study of tribal dynamics. Lucknow, The Universal publishers Ltd., 1950.
• Majumdar, D. N. and. Madan T. N.An Introduction to Social Anthropology.Bombay Asia publishing house, 1967.
• Ministry of tribal affairs, GOI, Schedule tribe, profile, definition. 3 Feb 2015. http://tribal.nic.in/Content/DefinitionpRrofiles.aspx
• Nadeem Hasnain. “Tribe and Caste” 6 Feb, 2015. http://nsdl.niscair.res.in/jspui/bitstream/123456789/518/1/12.2PDFTribeandCaste.pdf
• Naik T.B. What is tribe: Conflicting Deflecting, in Applied Anthropology in India edited by Vidyarthi, L.P., Kitab Mahal, Allahabad, 1990?
• Notes and Queries on Anthropology, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 6th ed. London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1951. pp. 66
• Vidyarthi L.P. Applied Anthropology in India. Kitab Mahal Allahabad, 1990
• Vidyarthi L.P. Tribal Development and its Administration, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1981, pp 12-14.