20 Tribal Religion

Kanato Chophy

Introduction

The religious life of tribes in India encompasses a wide spectrum of beliefs, practices and rituals that it would be myopic, if not futile to understand ‘tribal religion’ in the classical anthropological sense. However, for conceptual clarity, it is imperative that the discussion of ground reality of tribal religion in India be understood at the backdrop of theoretical developments in the anthropological study of religion, at least the works of the founding fathers. In the Indian context, aside religious revivalism giving form, content and shape to the emerging discourse on indigenous religion; the dimensions of understanding Indian tribal religion has pertinently been from a Eurocentric viewpoint—both conceptually and theoretically—many a times failing to reflect the Indian social reality.

To establish the antiquity of tribal religion would take us back into distant past, since some religious beliefs and practices still reflect the vestiges of prehistoric past; however, this does not warrant tribal religion as an elementary and primitive form of religion since many tribes also possess complex religious beliefs, which students of religion would regard as higher form of religious thought. For instance, among the Australian aboriginals ethnographic studies have shown the existence of complex religious beliefs contrary to what Durkheim theorized as the nascent form of religious belief; and notably, Mircea Eliade had pointed out the presence of ‘High Gods’ or ‘Sky Gods’, which he calls as primeval monotheism. The tribal religion also interchangeably known as indigenous religion has undergone tremendous change as a result of cultural contact many a times becoming completely assimilated into world religions, or giving rise to newer form of religious beliefs and identity as a reactionary process, or evolving into a syncretized form of religious belief retaining elements of both the old and the new religion. This process of social and cultural change has made the landscape of tribal religions more complex and diversified. Thus in recent years anthropologists have developed various theoretical perspectives and methodology to study the changing landscape of tribal religion.

In India among the 600 above odd tribes there is enormous diversification of religious affiliation and identity ranging from a rudimentary form of what anthropologists identify as magico-religious belief to organized religion like Hinduism and Christianity. Among the tribes like the Naga, Mizo and Kuki in North East India, there is predominance of Christianity; and among the tribes of Central, North Western and South India like the Gond, Bhils, Munda and Toda the assimilation into Hinduism is much observed; while among certain tribes like the Asur, Birhor, Chenchu, Ho, and the Andaman Islander tribes, the adherents still largely follow the traditional form of religion. Also the resurgence of traditional religious identity among the tribes of Central India, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya in the form of Adidharam, Donyi Polo and Seng Khasihave added new dimensions to the study of tribal religion.

Theory and concept

Tribal religion is also variously called as animism, primitive religion, native religion, indigenous religion, and by a host of other vernacular terms. The concept was commonly associated with the existence of belief in supernatural beings among what was known as primitive people and societies of lower races. Here the basic conceptualization being the existence of magico-religious beliefs, which was understood as the vestiges of primeval human cultures, if not a precursor of religious idea preceding the highly evolved monotheistic religion of the Europeans. Interestingly, scholars like Weber, Freud, Nietzsche and Spencer heralded the demise of religion, which they believe would be superseded by reason and scientific temper. The main argument was that the tribes/primitive peoples possessed the lowest form of religious beliefs steeped in irrationality and superstitions. This idea of evolutionary progression of religion in human history generated important theories on the origins of religion, where small scale and isolated societies were de facto identified as inhabiting the lowest form of religious belief.

The theory of tribal or primitive religion occupied a prominent space in the development of anthropological thought. It was the founder of British anthropology, Sir E.B. Tylor, who first coined the term ‘animism’ that became a common terminology and provided the conceptual underpinning to understand the religion of primitive peoples. E.B. Tylor’s theory came at the backdrop of his criticism of Max Müller’s theory of naturism—which proposed that the personification of natural forces and objects like the sun, moon, wind and rain, etc., and the myths and legends that arise from these personifications is the beginning of religion.

Herbert Spencer taking a step further beyond Tylor’s animistic theory gave the ghost theory, which posited a dualistic concept of a sort of inner phantom and the body where the spirit is capable of detached existence as to appear in a dream, or lead an independent existence. Importantly, Spencer related ghost theory to the prelogical and unperceptive mental functioning of the ‘primitives’ lacking coherence in differentiating dreams and reality, as well as the dead and living.

Another important perspective on primitive religion gained prominence after Emile Durkheim’s work on totemism. It was W. Robertson Smith who first developed totemism as the most primitive stage of religious life; totemism holds that all religions originated in the belief of primitive tribes where each clan within the tribe identified themselves with a particular plant or animal species; or clans attributed some form of spiritual kinship with animal or plant species which was held to be sacred and therefore not to be harmed. The collective rites and festivals directed toward the totemic object were understood to be the origin of religious rites and rituals. Emile Durkheim in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life further developed the theory of totemism basing his study on the Australian Aborigines, chiefly the Arunta tribe. According to Durkheim the essence of religious rites consists in worshipping the society thereby establishing the social solidarity; and the ‘most primitive form of this self-worship is totemism’.

In the anthropological fieldwork tradition, it was in the works of scholars like Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski, Evans-Pritchard and Godfrey Liendhardt, etc., who established an ethnographic tradition of the study of tribal religion.

Definition

The popular definition of tribal religion is understood as a magico-religious complex, wherein the community subscribes to composite beliefs in efficacious magical acts, supernatural entities (both personal and impersonal), and propitiation of ghosts and spirits. This particular understanding echoes Melford Spiro’s definition of religion as ‘culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings’. Similarly, Tylorhad also defined religion as ‘the belief in supernatural beings.’ Generally the shared belief in supernatural beings pervades every known tribal religion. Although various theories were proposed to understand the religious life of ‘primitive’ peoples, the popular conception remained a belief in supernatural entities with preoccupation of magical rites and rituals.

There are multiple perspectives to understand and conceptualize tribal religion; nevertheless, there are certain characteristic features, which differentiate tribal religion from the world religions.

1. Tribal religions are localised and contextual. The cosmology, creation stories, myths, legends and worldview reflect the immediate natural surrounding and the environmental reality. Thus whether it is the sacredness of sal tree among the Oraon, or cattle among the Nuer, or various totemic animals among the Australian aborigines, or reverence for trees, rivers and mountains among various tribes; tribal religions characterizes the tangible reality of ecological conditions that are indispensible for the survival of the community.
2. Tribal religions are devoid of religious texts. There is no written tradition but religious traditions are passed down generations through the word of mouth, whether they are complex religious treatise, mythical stories, magic spells, symbols, or elaborate ritual enactment, etc. In fact, the significance of oral tradition maintains the unique identity of tribal religions.
3. Tribal religions are marked by a belief system in different spirits, where the spirits are believed to be active agents in the physical world influencing the daily life. Importantly the spirits are believed to be acting on the destiny of the individuals and community both as malevolent and benevolent forces. Contrary to popular belief, tribal religions are not devoid of the presence of a powerful creator. The belief in almighty god is common among many tribes; for instance, the Konyak Naga call the almighty god as Gawang, the Nuer call it as Kwoth Nhial, among the Dinka it is known as Nhialic, while among the tribes of Chotanagpur the creator god is known by names like Dharmesh and Sing Bonga, etc.
4. Every tribal religion has religious specialists, priests or a ritual technician who presides over religious matters concerning the community. In most cases, these religious specialists also provide their services as mediums, necromancers and clairvoyants, and which are also the basis of shamanistic beliefs and practices. Among Indian tribes, the role of the religious head is known by various names like Pahan among the Munda and Oraon, Badava among the Bhil, Deuri among the Ho, Kemovo among the Angami Naga, and so on. But for instance, among the Trobriand Islanders where the head chief is also the chief magician, combining both religious and political authority, is not a common feature among the tribes in India.
5. The relationship with the spirits in the tribal worldview is both vertical and horizontal. In eschatology of world religions, the spirits or souls depart for the other world after death, which is a vertical relationship; but in the tribal worldview there is concept of life after death and the place for death souls, however, the spirits of dead persons are also believed to dwell with the living thus giving a form of belief in guardian spirits and also ancestral worship.

    Tribal religion in India

The publication of E.B. Tylor’s Primitive Society in 1871, where the second volume was entirely devoted to religion, generated an in-depth theoretical study of primitive religion. What Tylor coined as ‘animism’ was divided into two dogmas: first, the belief in the existence of soul; and second, the belief in the pantheon of spirits extending up to a powerful almighty god. Tylor’s definition gained prominence in the Indian context to label and identify tribal religions. For example, during the census of 1901, animism was taken as chief identity marker to name a particular social formation as tribes. However, for some reasons unknown, the term animism became a label for a crude and primitive form of magico-religious practice, where belief in magic was considered a predominant element; and this assumption became common to understand tribal religion in India.

The British administrators and academics differed in their approach and attitude toward the tribal religious identity. For scholars like R.H. Risley, their approach was to distance the tribes from what was identified as the evils of caste system; while scholars like J.H. Hutton, Fürer-Haimendorf and Verrier Elwin propounded a close interaction and resemblance between tribal religions and Hinduism. Hutton and other scholars advocated that the term animism be replaced with tribal religions in the Indian context. J.H. Hutton, the foremost expert on Naga tribes, further proposed the theory of soul matter, which he believed underpinned the headhunting practices, human sacrifice and even cannibalism, elsewhere, where the soul matter was seen as the essence of fertility for crops and livestock. Importantly, Hutton saw it difficult to draw a sharp distinction between tribal religions and Hinduism, which he felt was in a continuum.

The term tribal religion, although paradoxical, is used in the Indian context due to the diversity of religious beliefs and practices. The complexity is due to the fact that Indian tribes fall under different categories and theoretical orientations developed by the social scientists.

D.N. Mazumdar developed the concept of Bongaism basing on his ethnographic study on the Ho of Chotanagpur. Bonga, which is an Indian equivalent of the Melanesian term ‘Mana’ was proposed by some anthropologist as the nascent form of religious belief. Bonga is believed to be an impersonal power or an attribute permeating every space, and giving life to all life forms. Thus this power gives life to plants and animals; it is the attribute that makes the river flow, the wind to blow, the seeds to sprout, the rain to fall, and also cause epidemics and cure diseases. Mazumdar also observes that the Ho impute the movement of rail engine, vehicles and plane to the impersonal power calling it Bonga. L.P. Vidyarthi’s study showed some similarity between the Maler word Gossaiyan and Bonga, but Gossaiyan according to Vidyarthi also referred to a class of spirits guiding the people. The theory of Bongaism resembled the pre-animistic origins of religion theorized by R.R. Marett called animatism, according to whom primitive peoples believed that there is an impersonal occult power in certain persons and objects imbuing the supernatural properties.

What anthropologists identify as animism is the most widespread belief among Indian tribes with ethnographic data pouring in from almost every region of the country. The belief in hosts of spirits and the existence of soul pervades every known tribal religion in India ranging from small tribes like the Asur, Birhor, Chenchu and Kadar to large tribal groups like the Gonds, Santhals and Oraon. There are diverse animistic beliefs, but in all these tribal groups the reverence for souls and spirits is pivotal for the understanding of tribal religion.

The worship of nature is another important aspect of tribal religion. The reverence for natural bodies like the sun, moon and earth is a common feature. Among the Chotanagpur tribes like the Munda, Santhal, Maler, Birhor and Ho, the sun known as Sing Bongais revered as a supreme deity. The offering made to mother earth is common among the Santhal, Oraon, Juang, Saora, and the Maria and Muria of Bastar region. The worshipping of sun and moon is found among the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh; and also among the Garo of Meghalaya and Kacharis in Assam, the reverence for sun, moon and earth is found. While in southern India, reverence for the sun is found among the tribes like the Toda, Koya, Kannikars and Uralis.

Similarly, totemismis a common feature among the Indian tribal groups. The totemistic clan is found among the Naga, Kharia, and Munda. The Koirengtribe of Manipur bears a totemistic relation with the tiger, this feature is found among the Sangtam, Sumi and Lotha Naga. Also among the Bhils, Mina, Ho, Oraon, Birhor, Gonds, Killi and Bhilala, they have varying forms of totemic beliefs and practices. In these cases the totemic beliefs assume both the religious and kinship relations.

The argument is that the term ‘tribal religion’ should be considered a conceptual category rather than a definitional one, since tribal religion in India embraces a great deal of beliefs and practices that parochial terms like animism, totemism, spiritism and naturalism would fail to reflect the empirical reality.

Tribal religion and Hindu civilisation

‘Are tribes Hindus?’ has of late become not only a persisting anthropological dilemma, but also reawakened far-reaching identity polemics in democratic India. Prominent Indian social scientists like N.K. Bose, G.S. Ghurye, S.C. Dube, D.N. Mazumdar and André Béteille have established a close historical interaction between tribes and caste societies. According to G.S. Ghurye, Indian tribes were never in isolation but were part of Hindu civilisation, and their cultural beliefs reflect a rudimentary form of Hindu society, as such he called tribes as ‘backward Hindus’.

Scholars like N.K Bose and Mandelbaum were of the opinion that tribes are gradually becoming castes and this process is continuing since time immemorial. N.K. Bose conducted his ethnographic study on the Juangs at Pallahara in Orissa. The Juangs who were originally forest tribes were forced to migrate due to the forest policy adopted by the Orissa government in 1936. One group migrated to Pallahara and the other to Dhenkanal; the group to Pallahara adopted wheat cultivation and got absorbed into the local peasant caste community; while the group to Dhenkanal started making baskets and got absorbed into the local oil men caste. S.C. Dubehad reported similar case among the Raj Gonds, Surajit Sinha among the Bhumij of West Benga, and by Mandelbaum on the Urali of Travancore.

B.K. Roy Burman gave the classification of Indian tribes basing on their attitude toward the Hindu civilisation. The four types are: incorporated tribes, which have become completely incorporated into the caste society; positively oriented tribes like Oraon and Santhals who have incorporated some traits of caste society and Hinduism but have retained their tribal status; negatively oriented tribes like some tribal communities of North East India who nurture alienation toward the mainstream society due to historical reasons and; indifferent tribes like in Arunachal Pradesh who are equally oriented towards Hinduism and Christianity. What Roy Burman identified is the perception of tribes toward the mainstream society. According to M.N. Srinivas the Hindu way of life should comprise the mainstream approach because caste and religion are two essential characteristics of mainstream culture. However, the criticism to this view came mainly from Roy Burman who opined that it would exclude the communities of North East India and others who are non-Hindus in the mainland.

The interaction between Hindu civilisation and tribes has been continuing for centuries, if not millennia. However, the existence of tribal religion in many pockets of India has remained out of contact with caste societies and Hinduism owing to both geographical and historical reasons. Thus among the tribes of North East India and elsewhere there might be similarities with the Hindu beliefs and practices, especially with regards to worshipping of nature and reverence for celestial bodies; nevertheless, to circumscribe these tribes within the Hindu fold basing on these characteristics would involve the politicization of religious identity, since it would require an imposition of the embracive Vedic/Hindu worldview on these tribes, although most of these indigenous religions have developed according to their own geniuses. Importantly, the impact of world religions like Hinduism and Christianity has made the religious identity and affiliation more complex among the tribes giving rise to newer religious processes, dilemma and even religious tensions.

The revival of tribal religion

The religious revivalism and identity consciousness among the tribes is an important aspect of modernisation. The development of Donyi Polo among the Tani speaking group like Adi, Apatani, and Hill Miri;Bhagat movement among the Oraon and Munda;Seng Khasi movement among the Khasi, and the recent development of Adi Dharam in central India are a result of religious adaptation and threat perception. These religious movements have emerged in response to the influence of Christianity and Hinduism. Thus there is an attempt to codify religious teachings, built worshipping places, organize regular worshipping sessions, and develop texts, etc., similar to the world religions. In this process, there are attempts to revive the traditional beliefs and practices, but also many elements have been borrowed from Christianity and Hinduism giving rise to a more organized form of tribal religious belief and identity. Nevertheless, not all tribes have been successful in reviving their religious tradition; for instance, tribes like the Gonds, Bhils, Bhumij and Tharus have largely assimilated within the Hindu fold; while in North East India, tribes like the Naga, Kuki and Mizo have embraced Christianity in large numbers. Also in many cases, conflicts have emerged between the converts and adherents of traditional faith; moreover, even within the revived religious tradition, there are disagreements among the adherents with regards to maintaining the pristine religious identity and what elements to imbibe from other faiths.

The educated middleclass tribals are responsible for the revival of tribal religion. However, in recent times tribal intellectuals like Talum Rukbo in Arunachal Pradesh and Ram Dayal Munda in Jharkhand, who in the words of Paul Radin can be called as ‘religious formulators’ have innovated the tribal religious identity in the midst of unprecedented socio-cultural change. Such individuals are giving new direction to the organisation and development of tribal religions, and also providing new dimensions to ethnographic studies.

Tribal religion in India has undergone tremendous change, which has to be tackled at the backdrop of social change; also there is no singular concept within which to conceptualise and identify tribal religions, as such the term ‘tribal religion’ requires careful examination and study.

Total number of tribes 600

References and suggested readings

• Durkheim, Emile ([1912]1995) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Translated by Karen E. Fields. New York: The Free Press.
• Elwin, Verrier (1955) The Religion of an Indian Tribe. Bombay: Oxford University Press.
• Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1937) Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Evans-Pritchard, E. E. ([1956]1962) Nuer Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1965) Theories of Primitive Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Spiro, Melford E. (1967) Burmese Supernaturalism.Philadelphia: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Tylor, Edward. B. (1958 [1871]) Primitive Culture. New York: Harper and Row.