Transformation of Tribal Society Integration vs Assimilation

K S Singh

This paper attempts to set the current changes that are taking place in tribal society in India in a wider perspective of social, economic and political changes. The paper is in four sections.

Section I presents an ideological perspective of the changes that are taking place, and Sections II and I I I discuss the economic transformation of tribal society and its impact on the social stratifica-tion among the tribals. The final section discusses in detail how these social and economic changes have given rise to, and are reflected in, various ethnic based solidarity movements as well as socio-cultural movements revolving round the question of tribal religion, language and script, and political movements whose demands range from greater political autonomy to Independence and whose methods range from constitutional agitation to armed insurgency.

This is the first part of the paper which is being published in two instalments. SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY has moved away from the stereotype of a tribe as an isolate, and has focused on inter-action and interdependence of tribes and peasants.1 Speaking on a similar theme, Transformation of Tribal Society in Modern India, Surajit Sinha had deli-neated the process of the assimilation of tribes into caste-peasant base of Indian civilisation through the adoption of agricultural technology and linguistic arid cultural norms of the peasant castes. The varna-jati model of ab-sorption has given way to the search for political status as an ethnic mino-rity wi th in a constitutional framework informed w i th an egalitarian democra-tic ideology. This inspired the rise of ethnic-based solidarity movements led by an educated elite, there being a broad correlation between the intensity of the separatist solidarity movements and the degree of spatial and cultural isolation from the regional caste/pea-sant society.2 The social historian has seen this process of integration within the framework of the political economy of feudalism and colonialism.3 What Nirmal Kumar Bose described as the Hindu mode of absorption was neither Hindu nor absorption, but a process of integration into the production system of colonialism.4 This secular process has sometimes been oversimplified; the transition of tribes into peasants and of peasants into depeasantised working class is generally described as a uni-linear process.6 Such studies of a tribe as a class or one ethnic community overlook the , complexities of tribal social formations and situations, the pul l of ethnicity amidst growing dif-ferentiation, etc. G S Ghurye, who had propounded his anti-isolation and pro-

assimilation viewpoint regarding tribals in 1942, has recently not only reiterat-ed his views but has also questioned the related policy and programmes and the social anthropologists' commitment to the concept of integration instead of assimilation of tribes into the larger society.6 What irks him is that the American model of ethnic-cum-cultural pluralism has been unabashedly applied to the Indian situation, even though it has failed in relation to the American Indians. Ghurye notes that while the Russians have set out to Russianise their nationalities, the Chinese have Sinified their minorities and the Ame-ricans did try to Americanise their ethnics once upon a time, there is also a case for the assimilation of the sche-duled tribes, a process which has been held up by the faulty policies of the government out to appease the tribals.

Therefore, it w i l l be appropriate to set the ' tribal transformations' in a wider perspective. I w i l l first deal w i th the perspective and ideology, economic transformation and social stratification in tribal society in India. I w i l l then discuss how these processes are reflect-ed not only in ethnic-based solidarity movements but in a whole range of movements.

I

Prespect ive a n d I d e o l o g y We are by now familiar w i t h the

stories of the annihilation of indigenous peoples and the formation of the reser-vations for the 'Red Indians' in the New World, under various treaties con-cluded between their chiefs and the colonisers' governments, continuing en-croachment on reservations and restric-

tions of the native's rights in them, etc. The. encounter wi th the white settlers and Christianity gave rise to many a movement the study of which has generated a good deal of informa-tion and stimulated a lot of theoretical model-building. In the United States which has an Indian population of 800,000 divided into 300 tribes living in 300 reservations about 40 per cent of them are l iving below the poverty line. This is in spite of the fact that the Federal government spends an in-credibly large amount on their welfare and the Indians enjoy ful l rights as American citizens. The Indians have refused to be assimilated and to give up their identity in spite of the Ame-ricanisation of their life-style. The pro-cess of grabbing of the Indian land continues. In a damning indictment, the Wor ld International Tribunal at Rotterdam (Holland) in November 1980 held the governments of the United States and Canada guilty of stealing the land of the Indians and charged them wi th following a systematic policy of genocide against the Indians, of having illegally deprived them of their lands and of unleashing violent repres-sion against their protest movements. The tribunal also condemned the acti-vities of various multinational corpora-tions in the Indian settlement areas which have resulted in reckless mining, deforestation, despoiling of the land and utter callousness in waste disposal on the part of the-MNCs and have caused serious environmental and health hazards leading to innumerable diseases and, in the long run, physical deform-ities and deaths.7

The North American model of reser-vations travelled to Latin America. A

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recent study of the policy, legislatioa and administration of welfare measures for these people, conducted by the International Labour Organisation shows that they were still governed by the 19th century attitude of complete assimilation and denied right to a share in administration of their affairs. In Brazil the Indians who are not inte-grated w i th national life are held under tutelage and thus denied the exercise of full civic rights. Of the 180,000 Indians under tutelage none has ap-plied for emancipation. In Columbia the general law of the State does not apply to the 'savages' who are being reclaimed to civilisation by the mis-sions. In general the picture "which emerges is dismal.8

In Australia, too, the aboriginese were pushed off their ancestral land and herded on to reservations, and continued to be exterminated unt i l 1928 when the last official killings were reported. Their number fell from 300,000 in the late 18th century to 67,000 in 1901, and has been slowly increasing since then, having reached 161,000 today. It was not unti l 1967 that equal citizenship rights were given to the aboriginese, their languages were recognised, and the Common-wealth assumed concurrent 'jurisdiction over matters relating to them which earlier fell within the purview of the state regimes. Other administrative changes are creation of a Department of Aboriginal Affairs, an Aboriginal Development Commission and an elec-ted National Aboriginal Conference. The aboriginese customary law is being integrated into Australian jurisprudence. The ownership of land however re-mained the key issue and it was not until 1977 that the government enact-

ed a law whereby the aboriginese could fay claim to any crown land not al-ready occupied. It is reported that about 25,000 aboriginese acquired free-hold title to roughly 28 per cent of Northern Territory's 523,620 square miles of rock and shrub. Similarly the Government of South Australia handed over to the Pitjantiatiara tribe title deeds to about 40,000 square miles of territory.9 Complications have, how-ever, arisen in this regard as Australia has struck rich o i l and mineral deposits in the aboriginese' homeland.

Alongside the reservations, there is also the model of incorporations esta-blished for indigenous people. There are Maori incorporations in New Zealand in which the Maori landowners have become shareholders farming is determined by a managing committee

and profits are disbursed annually as dividends. While they have carried out expensive farming operations, which have contributed significantly to the overall growth and productivity, they hardly claim to be a vital l ink of New Zealand's economy.10

Against the capitalistic models of re-servations and incorporations based on the concept of the assimilation of i n -digenous peoples could be pitted the socialistic concept of self-determination of nationalities which was formulated as part of the debate on the 'national question in the second and th i rd de-cades of the present century. Soviet ethnographers recognise ethnicity as a process of social consolidation working at a level lower than nationality and as a key element in socialist reconstruc-t ion. At the time of the foundation of the USSR the right of the nationality and national minority to determine its political and economic status was re-cognised and their union into the great family was considered a voluntary act. In consonance w i th this principle the ethnic boundaries were regorously de-marcated and made co-tennious wi th the administrative boundaries of re-publics and autonomous territories. The policy has been to promote the full development of cultural autonomy of the nationalities while integrating them fully within the politico-economic system of socialism. While describing this process the Soviet ethnographers have noted that the pre-Revolution social system of many of these national minorities was characterised by the rise of private property and social differen-tiation, alienation of the upper crust from the working populations, etc. Wi th the growth of the socialist eco-nomy, the primitive communities have been generally urbanised and their pastoral or agrarian economics have been integrated into the macro-level industrial complexes leading to a phe-nomenal rise of productive forces. 1 M the same time there have also been the strong centralising influences at work; for example, the widespread use of the Russian language as the medium of communication. Once the choice of sell-determination has been exercis-ed at the time of the formation of the state or the nation-state, secession-ism is out of question and is seen as the handiwork of neocolonial forces.

The third world under the colonial system, was generally spared the trau-matic experiences of the reservations. The colonial encounter w i th the ind i -genous population was not as direct and as -bloody. The colonial svstem.

in the countries of tropical Africa and South Asia, preferred a system of direct or indirect ride or a combination of both for the indigenous population. These countries shared the experiences of national oppression, ethnic conflicts and contradictions, the role of the ethnic factor or factors in their freedom struggles. After attaining independence, many of the African states faced the task of forming a nation out of myriad tribes, and the euphoria over the unity of ethnic communities forged in the course of the freedom struggles gave way to a mature understanding of inter-ethnic relationship and the need for its development in the process of national consolidation. Although many African states had passed the stage of tribal formation, tribal forms and pre-judices survived. Therefore while ethnic goups were exhorted to give up their tribalism, it was generally under-stood that the .solution of ethnic prob-lems is linked with the socio-economic transformation of nation-state.

Secessionism has no place in the system. As Jomo Kenyatta said: "Nationhood and familyhood must and can be contrived out of our many tribes and cultures".12 This is also echoed in one of the objectives of the Tanganyika African National Union, which is "the creation of a nation out of more than 120 tribes, out of peoples of different religious and different social groups, and a nation in which race is of less importance than a record of service and an expected ability to give service".13

Of particular interest is President Julius Nyerere's socialistic experiments in a tribal mi l i eu :

In the past when our population was divided into different tr ibal groups, the land belonged to the particular tribe l iving on i t in future, however, our population w i l l be united as one nation, and the land w i l l belong to the nation. And today just as one man cannot prevent another man from his tribe from using land, so also tomorrow one tribe wi l l not be able to prevent another tribe from using land that is actually the property of the na-tions a whole.11

Many of these countries are grappling wi th colonial backlog of discrepancies between ethnic and political boundar-ies, inter-tribe conflicts, movements of separatism and secessionism.

The African experience is relevant because we too are faced w i t h the problem of consolidating a nation-state and have inherited the colonial back-log of ethnic conflicts which have sharpened as the process of develop-

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meat intensifies. Our founding fathers too sought to create and consolidate a nation-state out of a congeries of com-munities including tribes. However, India is not the best example of a plural society, because while pluralism stresses cleavages and discontinuities between the sections of people differen-tia'ed by race, ethnicity, religion or culture, there has been an al l pervasive sense of cultural unity, a wide ranging sharing of its idioms and symbols, in spite of diversities in our country. Tribals were not aliens: their isolation was relative, never absolute; they have been part of the Indian civilisational universe. However, as a nation-state in the process of consolidation, we too are confronted like others w i th ethnic problems,

To go back to the colonial experience of the subcontinent, unlike Africa which adopted the system of indirect rule, namely, rule through the traditio-nal chiefs of territories, a large part of the tribal region and most of the tribal population in India were inte-grated wi th in the administration of the provinces of British India or wi th in that of the Indian state's where the British Resident kept a watch on the tribal situa-tion and, in some cases, even acted as the agent for the t r ibal regions. There were areas of tribal concentra-tion which were enclaved to 'reclaim to civilisation' the tribes who had re-belled or were difficult to pacify. It was in these enclaves that the concept of protection of the tribes as an ethnic community developed in stages. The Agency system established wi th the

objective of quelling rebellions was the earliest mode of protective administra-tion. The Agency settled tribes open-ed up the tribal world, laid lines of communication, established chatties along highways to supply the army which brought in merchants, traders and pedlars and set up cantonments and centres of administration and trade. The colonial system ended the relative isolation of the tribal society; brought it into the mainstream of, the new administrative set-up, policy and programmes; put an end to the polit i-cal dominance of the tribes in the region; and roped the tribal commu-nities which had been spared the strain of surplus generation by their states into a new system of production rela-tions. The colonial system, as else-where, followed the dual policy of strengthening the feudal crust of the tribal societies, formed by the rajas, chiefs and zamindars and simultaneous-

ly created conditions in which their economy and political system were undermined by the rampaging market forces.15

That the normal laws should not automatically apply to the tr ibal areas was the principle that underlay the passage of the Scheduled Districts Act (1874) and shaped the concept of the backward areas in the Government of India Act of 1919. Whether or not this principle should continue to be applied was a matter that figured in a most lively debate in the early 1930s. While one school contended that the aborigines formed a distinct element in India and should be placed in charge of the British government, the nationalists saw in this proposition the continuation of the imperial policy of divide and rule. However, the tribal and non-tribal areas were both partly and fully 'excluded' in the Government of India Act of 1935.

Gandhi reacted sharply to the segre-gation of various communities, parti-cularly the tribals, under the dangerous spell of the policy of the 'isolation and status quo'. The Act of 1935, he would recall, separated tribals from the rest of the inhabitants. The 'Ex-cluded Areas' were placed under the government's direct administration: the Adivasis were put into watertight compartments and classified as tribal people by the government. " I t was a shame", he told social workers, "that they had allowed them to be treated like that. It was up to them to make the Adivasis feel one wi th them". In .strategically situated Assam, in 1946, ho reminded the people that " i t was their shame that the' Adivasis should be isolated from the rest of the nation of which they were an inalienable part''. While including Adivasis Welfare as the fourteenth item the Mahatma said:

Adivasis have become the four-teenth item in the construction pro-gramme. But they are not the least in point of importance. Our coun-try is so vast and the races are so varied that the best of us, in spite of every effort, cannot know all there is to know of men and their condition. As one comes upon layer after layer of things one ought to know as a national servant, one realises how difficult it is to make good our claim to be one nation whose every unit has a l iving cons-ciousness of being one w i th one another.16

On the eve of the transfer of power the most scathing indictment of the colonial policy of isolation and status quo for tribals came from the last British Governor, T G Rutherford of

Bihar: While we [the British] have been in power we have not done much for them beyond a certain amount of protective legislation which func-tions effectively when the officers responsible are really sympathetic and largely w i th the aid of mis-sionaries we have done a l i t t le to educate them. The tendency on the whole has been to treat them as delightful primitives whose simplicity and customs are a wel-come relief from the sordid details of administration among the ordi-nary Hindus and Muslims.17

The need to provide' adequate safe-guards for the tribal was again exten-sively discussed in the Constituent Assembly, and the nationalist opinion favoured incorporation of far more radical provisions for the safeguards of the tribals' interests in the forms of the V and VI schedules of the Indian Constitution. This was an index of the profound change that had come over the nationalist opinion in regard to the tribal question awing to the efforts of Gandhi and Thakkar Bapa, among others, the unfolding of the profound humanism of the free-dom movement, and the liberalism of the tribal leaders themselves. This ap-preciation of the uniqueness of tr ibal factor within the framework of Indian nationalism and the extension of political rights to tribals were beyond the expectations of the colonial ad-ministrators and anthropologists.

Short of providing a measure of protection for tribals in middle India under the Fifth Schedule and of autonomy in the North-East under the Sixth Schedule, it was neither possi-ble nor practicable to create a tribal state out of the adjoining tribal majo-r i t y areas of the provinces at the time of the transfer of power. India had inherited the boundaries of the p r o -vinces fixed wi th an eye on admini-strative convenience. Language and not ethnicity determined the reorga-nisation of states in the 1950s. It was within the political and cultural sys-tem of the states that the tribals in middle India were sought to be inte-grated, even though they were divid-ed between more than one state. Ethnicity influenced the formation of the states in the Nor:h-East in the 1960s and 1970s, even though certain ethnic areas are st i l l to be integrated. However the application of the prin-ciple of tr ibal ethnicity elsewhere in middle India is fraught wi th difficul-

t i e s because nowhere except in two districts and a few talukas are the tribals in matority. However the

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Chotanagpur Development Author i ty presents an interesting model of- re-gional autonomy. Its performance de-serves to be watched for some time before the concept of regional auto-nomy is examined for application else-where in middle India.

The process of decolonisation which began after the transfer of power i n -volved enfranchisement and grant of full citizenship rights to tribal com-munities and setting up of democra-tic instiiutions. This resulted in the curtailment and abolition of the power of the tribal chiefs who had acted as the natural leaders of their commu-nity. The chiefs enjoyed a great deal of power in the Mizo and Khasi hills and therefore, when threatened wi th Joss of power they joined hands wi th the anti-national forces in the early 1950s, while the educated tribal elite favoured union wi th India. In middle India, tribal chieftainship was abolish-ed wi th the zamindari and intermedi-any interests in the first flush of land reforms. As a corollary to this a new leadership came up through elections and as agents of development process which control the apparatus of pol i t i -cal power and corner a good bit of development benefits today. Almost all over the country this class of tribal elite exploits the national stereotypes of tribal society to secure benefit and acts as the mediator wi th the govern-ment; it has more in common wi th the middle class elsewhere than wi th its own people.

Secondly, while isolation was equat-ed wi th the status quo in the colonial society, a new strategy of development was drawn up combining the twin elements of protection and develop-ment. Seen in the perspective of the th i rd world , the Indian strategy of tribal development, in spite of its limitations, has been acclaimed as a unique experiment.

Jawaharlal Nehru's philosophy and vision shaped the tribal policy in the 1950s, particularly in the North-East. He avoided the extremes of the two standpoints; namely, the anthropologi-cal approach which sought to treat the tribals as museum specimens to be kept apart, for study and observation; and the other approach which sought to destroy their individuality, distort the process of their development and absorb them in a culture and way of life that was alien to them. That they should be "engulfed by the masses of Indian humanity" was a prospect that appalled Nehru.

I am alarmed when I see not only

in this country but in other great countries too how anxious peo-ple are to shape others according to their own image or liveness and to impose on them their particular way of life, ... I am not at all sure which is a better way of living. In certain respects I am quite certain theirs is better. Therefore, it is grossly presumptuous on our part to approach them wi th an air of superiroty or to tell them what to do or not to do. There is no point in trying to make them a second rate copy of ourselves.18

Therefore, while tribal identity should be preserved, tribals should develop in their own way without let or hind-rance, As Nehru admitted, these reac-tions were, to begin wi th , instinctive and not based on any knowledge or experience. Gradually and towards the close of the 1950s, outlines of a policy emerged.

(i) People should develop along the lines of their own genius and we should avoid impos-ing anything on them. We should t ry TO encourage in every way their own tradi-tional arts and culture,

(ii) Tribal rights in Kind and forests should be respected,

(iii) We should try to train and build up a team of their own people to do the work of administration and develop-ment. Some technical per-sonnel from outside w i l l , no doubt, be needed, especially in the beginning. Bur we should avoid introducing too many outsiders into tribal territory,

(iv) We should not over-adminis-ter these areas or overwhelm them wi th a multiplicity of schemes. We should rather work through, and not in rivalry to, their own social and cultural institutions,

(v) We should judge results, not by statistics or the amount of money spent, but by the quality of human character that is evolved.

In consonance wi th this philosophy a strategy of tribal development was framed. The Nehru era laid the founda-t ion of tribal policy. The Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Com-mission (1961) evaluated the working of constitutional safeguards for the tribals and tribal development pro-grammes. It noted the changes of far-reacting character introduced in tribal areas by the development process. The Commission while endorsing Jawahar-lal Nehru's approach made widerang-ing recommendations involving pro-tection of tribals' land, of their r ight in forest, their rehabilitation etc, all wi th in the framework of the Nehru-vian policy.

The framework of policy and stra-tegy imbued with Nehru's Humanism held the ground for about 15 years. It still provides the sheet anchor of In -dia's tribal policy though in recent years there has been a considerable broadening and deepening of the structure of the policy and programmes. We enter upon a more intensive phase from mid-60s. The formulation of the Fifth and Sixth Five Year Plans show-ed perception of (a) the deleterious effects of the disturbance of the en-vironment consequent upon the inten-sive exploitation of the natural resour-ces of tribal regions on the tribal com-munities, (b) the growing incidence of exploitation of the tribal people, their loss of land, their indebtedness, their transformation from peasants into la-bour, particularly in the Zones of in-tensive industrial activities, and (c) the diversities of t r ibal situations, which called for a more area specific approach to planning and development. This means a gradual moving away from the schematic pattern of the earlier plan and formulation of a more integrated approach to the tr ibal pro-blems. More backward communities have been identified as tribes, Uttar Pradesh appeared for the first time on the tribal map of India, and areas of tr ibal concentration were enlarged to bring within the ambit of planned development the populations ranging from 50,000 to 10,000 Each tribal re-gion prepares its own sub-plan, which forms a part of the plan of the state. Each project in the sub-plan region --there are 180 intensive tribal develop-ment projects - - its own pro-ject report wi th reference to the spe-cial needs of the areas; these are com-piled into the sub-plan, which is a part of the plan prepared by the state. A plethora of legislation has been enacted to prevent alienation of land, regulate money-lending, abolish bonded labour system, and organise labour. The new package of programme seeks to tackle more effectively on a wide front the programmes of credit and marketing, application of a simple and relevant technology to agriculture, development of a pro-gramme of social forestry under which the tribals could become the owners rather than remain workers in forests, and further development of communi-cations, health and education, which have already made an impact. The resources being mobilised for the development of the tribal regions from many sources, outlay in the state plan, investment of the Centraf government ministries, institutional

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finance and the special central assis-tance for development of tribal areas have reached an all time high, The funds allocated for tribal development by successive governments since independence might not have been commensurate wi th the proportion of the tribal population and they were very low up to the Fourth Plan, but they did rise to 3.01 per cent in the Fifth Plan and 4.37 per cent in the Sixth Plan, thus inching very close to their share in the plan efforts. The development experience shows that even where ample funds are available, the administration in tribal areas has to be so reoriented and the technology of development so evolved that the tribals are able to absorb and take advantage of the development pro-gramme.

To sum up, while the Indian experiment with tr ibal development has been hailed as unique in the th i rd world perspective of the treatment of the indigenous peoples, one has to take a balanced view of its processes. On the positive side the tribes who are full citizens have, barring a couple of islamite communities, maintained their demographic growth rate. They have also maintained their identity, their distinct way of life, although they have not remained affected by the storms blowing around their country. They have also remained in good parts of the North-Hast and a large part of middle India an agrarian community in possession of their lands, even though the incidence of land aliena-tion has sharply increased in and around urban anas. From almost the zero level in the 1930s progress in education and literacy, health care and communication has been re-markable, though critical gaps exist in the utilisation of these facilities by t r i -bals as compared to non-tribals. They have also participated in the democratic processes and have a share in the con-trol of the apparatus of political power. Therefore there is no substance in the allegation that their population has declined and. that they have been pre-vented from acquiring real political powers.19 On the negative side how-ever they remain the most backward, under-developed and, next only to the Harijans, the most exploitd commu-nity.

II

Economic Development and Change

We now turn to an analysis of the

processes of economic transformation. Both economic and. non-economic c r i -teria determine the definition of the 'tribes', which is an administrative category. The traditional criteria are tribals' relative isolation, homogeneity, and settlement in a well-defined ha-bitat. To these are added criteria i n -fluenced by administrative convenience and the compulsions of rural deve-lopment : primitiveness, economic backwardness and treating the com-munity as a whole notwithstanding the levels of advancement of its strata as a unit of development planning. Thus the more primitive groups have been distinguished from the less primit ive; the former are characterised by low literacy rate, pre-agricultural techno-logy and small population. Impl ic i t in this two-fold division has been the recognition of the tact that there is not one tribal system but many, that there is not one but several tribal economies. Before we turn to the spatial distribution of tribal economies, it should be noted however that except lor a few isolated and small communi-ties, no tribe in India today subsists on a single techno-economy of produc-t ion. The primitive . technology of hunting, foodgathering, shifting and terrace cultivation is confined to the heavy monsoon zone covered by tropical forests in the North-East, part of Fastern and Central regions, the Nilgiris and the Andaman Islands. While there is historical evidence of the practice of shifting cul t iv i t ion having prevailed in western India, it is no longer practised in the arid and semi-arid regions. The hunting and foodgathering tribes are the Onges and Jarwas of the Andaman Islands and the Shompens of Nicobar Island, the Sulung in the North-East who are now taking to shifting cultivation, the Choianickans in Kerala and the Birhors in Bihar and Orissa. Foodgathering is now generally a subsidiary and, dur-ing the lean months, a primary source of food for most of the primitive, tribes on the mainland. Shifting cultivation is being practised by 2.6 mil l ion tribals who constitute 8.7 per cent of the tribal population. A firm indication of the extent of dependence on this mode of production w i l l emerge after the completion of the Anthropological Survey of India's' cur-rent project on shifting cultivation. Wet terrace cultivation has developed in western Himalayas, North-East India and in a couple of pockets in Bihar and Orissa. Pastoral economy which constitues about 10 per cent of

the tr ibal population survives in the high altitude of the sub-Himalayan regions, the arid zones of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and in a small pocket in the Nilgiris. A l l over t r ibal India settled dry cultivation has emerged as the primary mode of food production involving nearly 60 per cent of the tribals.

The major thrust of change has been from tribes into peasants. We are in a position today to trace the process of transfer of technology from pea-sants to tribes in the pro-colonial and colonial societies. By the end of the 18th century communities of peasan-tised tribals had emerged in Assam, Rajasthan, middle India, etc. The colo-nial period witnessed an accentuation of this trend as movements of pea-sants into tr ibal regions continued. The colonial administration bui l t up a hierarchy of tenures for the upper crust of the tribal society which con-sisted of the tribal chiefs and recog-nised the occupaincy rights of tribal peasants. The colonial system follow-ed the policy of reclaiming the tribes to civilisation through the adoption of plough culture and integration into market. The survey and settlement operations introduced in unsurveyed tribal regions acted as an instrument for the transformation of tribes into peasants. They identified different cate-gories of land, determined tribals' rights in land, fixed rent and thus grafted the concept of private property in land on to the tr ibal system. Transi-t ion to settled agriculture was also helped by the conservation of forests resources for commercial exploitation, which pushed the tribals off their land in reserved forests.

Since Independence this process of transformation has intensified. Pres-sure of tribal population on land has grown as the carrying capacity of land has diminished. There has been dif-fusion of improved agricultural tech-nology by government agency. Of par-ticular interest is the extension of agri-culture technology into the t r ibal eco-nomies of the North-East because un-like middle India, there was no trans-fer of technology from peasants to tribes, no inter-ethnic participation in production. Separation of craft from agriculture occurred wi th in the tr ibal community itself and its economy was integrated wi th the market system across the Inner Line. W i t h introduc-tion of new technology the shifting cultivation is being increasingly com-bined wi th terrace and wet cultivation in the foothills and low-lying areas,

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i ron implements have replaced the wooden tools and a variety of new crops is grown to suit the market, The technological innovations have brought about a change in social relationships. Hunting, food gathering and shifting cultivation technologies were associat-ed w i t h the system of communal or collective ownership of land and use of labour. The systems of terrace and wet cultivation are associated w i th the emerging trends of private ownership of land, increased use of inputs and labour, and the role of market. In the North-East while the two forms of collective and private ownership exist side by side, yet evidence suggests that the latter preponderates in areas of wet cultivation.

Much the same k ind of technologi-cal structural changes are taking place, though on a smaller scale, in the re-gions of dry cultivation. As the dry farming technology is developed and applied to settled agriculture, the pace of the transformation of t r ibal agri-culture is quickened. At present, much of settled cultivation is at subsistance level and the majority of the tribals produce not a marketable surplus but 'marketed surplus' which they are forced to do to buy their necessities. However, pockets of modernised agri- cultural farming are emerging among the Munda and Oraon of Chotanagpur, the Gonds and Korkus of middle I n -dia, the Badagas and M u l l u Kurmbas of the Nilgiris. Cash cropping of coconut has turned the Nicobarese into an affIuent community. Incidence of cash cropping has been reported from parts of tribal Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra, Orissa and (Chotanagpur.

This process may be discussed at some length. In Chotanagpur, particu-larly in Ranchi, tribals have taken up cultivation of wheat as a second crop, aided by minor irrigation. They have constructed thousands of wells helped by the voluntary agencies and govern-ment. About one-third of the area under the improved variety of crops and a substantial area under the high yielding varieties is owned by tribals. The increase in production of cereals and vegetables has not resulted in generation of surplus; it has only short-ened the tribals' hunger period.

In this connection the findings of two micro-level case studies in the transformation of tr ibal economy are interesting. The first is based on the study of the working of the Tr ibal Development Agency (TDA) , Chakra-dharpur (1972-8), which embraces re-motely situated t r iba l regions lying on

the borders of Ranchi and Singhbhum, and peopled by the Ho and Munda communities. During the last six years the T D A spent Rs 1.80 crore, a major part of which went into developing a minor irrigation system in the undulat-ing terrain and application of the new agrcultural strategy. Over 52,000 out of 70,000 families participated in the programmes. There has been a notice-able increase in the area under cultiva-tion and consumption of fertilisers by farmers has gone up. There has been a rise in the production of vegetables and wheat and summer crops, the areas under which have multiplied. As tribal economy is traditionally deficit in draught cattle, their distribution help-ed boost agriculture. The application of the techniques of dry land farming has substantially helped agricultural development. The upland was treated for acidity and cropped w i t h high yielding varieties which became instant-ly popular, covering about 30 per cent of the area. It is however in the area of wheat cultivation that the most spectacular results could be seen, Tir -bal peasants have taken to double, and, in some cases, even triple crop-ping instead of the traditional mono cropping and the area under both is progressively being extended. This would not have been possible without the reorientation of irrigation pol i -cies. The emphasis has shifted from the construction of weirs and large irriga-tion works to the exploitation of underground and surface water resour-ces through a chain of intake wells constructed in river beds, big dia-wells a few of which were energised wi th pumps in rivulets and streams. As tribal economy is starved of credit because of the legislative restriction on the transfer of land, a major innova-tion has been the arrangement for easy f low of credit from co-operative institutions and banks on furnishing personal or collective security by t r i -bal farmers, thus reducing their de-pendence on moneylenders. Tribals have always been responsive to the programmes concerning rearing of pigs, ducks and goats; and aided by subsidies this programme has become very popular enabling a tribal family to earn an additional yearly income of Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,000. An evaluation of the impact of this intensive pro-gramme of development suggests (i) that the traditional lean and hunger period has been shortened; (ii) that surpluses which have emerged arc being used for creating productive assets, or meeting higher consumption

requirements; and (i i i) that there has been visible affluence among a few middle level tribal peasants who have benefited most from the development process.

The other project, the lndo-Gcrman Project, smaller in size, was started in Apr i l 1979. It covers 709 families in the Simadega block. They mostly belong to the primitive Kharia tribe. The project has spent Rs 40 lakh which works out to a per capita investment of Rs 4,000 making it an essentially capital-intensive project. It introduced the new agriculture strategy, support-ed by a vigorous irrigation programme. Like the T D A , it constructed big dia-wells (160) and set up lift irriga-t ion schemes (4); there were also mo-bile pumping sits. Altogether they irrigated 700 hectares owned by tribal families, thus mono crop areas were brought under double (525 ha) and triple cropping (100 ha), accounting for a total production of 26,100 quin-tals. The average family income has thus gone up. They have used the in -creased income to buy land and fancy goods, repay debt, acquire assets, etc. There is no starvation. Out-migration has slopped.

There are many such success stories which suggest that the first 'green re-volution' has spread to the backward tribal tracts creating pockets of afflu-ence. The technology of the second green revolution in pulses and seeds, maize and minor millets has been de-veloped and is being introduced. The plateau regions of Orissa have report-ed a substantial rise in the yield of these crops benefiting tribals. The small peasant sector in tribal areas has become dynamic, as part of the over-all process of the transformation of rural society.

As a result of the introduction of the new agricultural technology, and methods of farming suited to the north-eastern region, foodgrain pro-duction rose by 16 per cent between 1972-73 and 1977-8; the area under various crops increased during the same period from 30.88 lakh hectares to 31.39 lakh hectares, while the average production rose to 1,130 kg from 989 kg in 1972-3 an increase of 14 per cent. Manipur reported the highest yield (1.626 kg per hectare) while the corresponding figures for Meghalaya and Tripura were 1,152 kg and 1,224 kg respectively. For the country as a whole about 7.44 lakh acres of tribal land was brought under various improved agricultural techni-ques in all eight t r ibal development

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agencies. The other dimensions of the agricultural strategy for the tubals who subsisted on. agriculture and for-est produce comprised (a) allotment of land for cultivation (18,253 acres), (b) land-development and soil conser-vation programmes (23,531 acres), (c) extension of minor irr igation (60,000 acres) through wells (5600), (d) con-struction of tank, roads and arterial loads and (c) distribution of plough bullocks (12,800 pairs) and saplings and grafts (7.3 lakh). 71 per cent of the targeted beneficiaries (3.36 lakh) have benefited from these programmes. In fact, the entire thrust of the pro-gramme appears to be to peasantise the tribals, draw them closer wi th in the network of the new agricultural policy and programme, to improve-pro-ductivi ty of land, bridge the foodgap, increase earnings from land etc. Fin-ancing of the scheduled tribes /castes by the commercial banks as on Decem-ber 31, 1978 was of the order of Rs 36.78 crore. The inflow of institu-tional finance explains the success of the new agricultural strategy in the tribal areas. A critical study of the physical achievements of their pro-grammes during the Fifth Five Year Plan shows that notwithstanding a wide range of variations in perform-ance, the programmes have succeeded in achieving their objectives, though in a l imited way.20 Yet -tribals' transi-tion to the peasant system is not yet complete, their dependence on forest as a source of food and earnings is in many ways as crucial as their depend-ence on land.

Tribal areas in middle India have witnessed a rapid growth of urban po-pulation and industrialisation. An im-mediate result of this has been the immigration into tribal areas of non-tribals in search of job. In Chotanag-pur the level of immigration jumped from 4,80,000 in 1951 to 10,73,920 in 1961 and to 14.29,803 in 1971. The demographic pattern has thus been disturbed and tribal population is dec-lining. Another result has been the displacement of tribals from lands which have been acquired for setting up industries and constructing pro-jects. In the early phase of industria-lisation the tribals were given hand-some compensation for land which they did not know how to use. They be-come nomads. The danger of displace-ment stil l haunts them. The strategy of relief and rehabilitation therefore wi l l have to be re-oriented w i t h the objective of recreating community settlement in appropriate environment.

This means that some land w i l l have to be given for the land to be acquir-ed, and displaced persons w i l l have to be assured opportunities of em-ployment or self-employment. Absorp-t ion into industrial culture of the indigenous people through training and education should be a part of i n -dustrial project, and a charge on it as has been the experience of socia-list countries. This is all the more necessary because there has been a steep decline of village industries and traditional crafts.21

III Social Stratification

The political and economic processes of tribal transformation described above have been reflected in social stratification. There always existed wi th in a tribe a measure of distinction between the high and the low in terms of social and physical distance, notion of puri ty and pollution, prestige and status, habits and customs, etc. The colonial system created and strength-ened a threefold division wi th the feudatory chief zamindars at the top, the well-to-do headmen in the middle and the general mass at the bottom. As mentioned earlier a class of insider diku and professional tr ibal money-lander also grew up as the unintended result of the anti-land alienation laws, which restricted transfer from tribals to non-tribals. A rich stratum of tribal buyers of land emerged as suggested by the data on transactions in land and moneyleuding in the district settlement reports.22

This process has developed further in the post-colonial phase. The 1961 Census Reports suggest a three-tier pattern of landholding in tr ibal society,23 In a perceptive analysis of emerging stratification in tr ibal Gujarat, Bose identifies four distinct classes of peasants among tribals; rich peasant, middle peasant, poor. peasant, and agricultural labourer.

In no region has a single tribe solely occupied a particular class position: but they are generally distributed among all the four classes. However, some tribes are in better position than the others. For instance, in Vadodara, none of the Nayakas are r ich peasants, 30.3 per cent of them are labours and 54.3 per cent are poor peasants, while all the rich peasants in this district belong to the Bhil tribe. But, from the same tribe we find 33.4 per cent are middle peasants and 1.6 per cent are r ich peasant, and 10.5 per cent are agricultural labourers. Again, in Sabarkantha in

which 97 per cent of the dis-t r ic t t r ibal population belong to Bhi l tribe, we find that 11.6 per cent are agricultural labourers, 65.1 per cent are poor peasant, 21,7 per cent are middle peasant and 1.6 per cent are r ich peasants. A similar pattern has also been ob-served in the other districts.

At the bottom of the stratifica-tory system are the tr ibal agricul-tural labourers. A majority of agricultural labourers are landless, a few of them have less than one acre of land of poor quality which virtually means having no land at all and like landless labourers they also live by selling their labour power.24

In a restudy of the Chodhras, a Gujarat tribe again, Shah tells us about the emerging differentiation based on landownership and education which reflect in political attitudes and Behaviour.

The rich Chaudhris identify their interests wi th those of the non-tribal r ich farmers. In fact, some of them supported the Khedut Samaj (rich peasant organisation) against paddy levy and land ceiling. Educat-ed Chaudhri boys identify them-selves w i th the urban middle-class boys. These attitudes reflected in the 1975 state Assembly elections to some extent. The majority of the poor peasants voted for the ruling Congress, believing that it was a party of the poor. The middle pea-sants got equally divided between the Congress and Janata Morcha, and the majority of the r ich peasants voted for the Janata Morcha. Simi-larly most of the educated Chaudhris, like the urban and rural educated youths, voted against the rul ing Congress on moral issues, consider-ing the ruling party as corrupt. This division of votes stratawise in the tr ibal society also reflects the gene-ral voting pattern among the caste Hindus in South Gujarat. Thus, in perception, behaviour and life style, members of the different straa among the Chaudhris in general and edu-cated and rich peasants in parti-cular are becoming part of the larger society, joining hands wi th the similar secular strata outside the tr ibal society. Such process, on the one hand, disintegrates the tribal society in terms of its culture-customs, rituals, life style and eco-nomic interests and integrates some of its sections w i t h the larger society, on the other.25

Mishra reports a similar process from the north-east :

The special division of labour between tribes and the subjugation of one by the other having performed ils historic role lapses into oblivion and a new phase of social karyoki-nesis within the members of a single tribe comes into existence. In some place, as in the Khasi hills, where private property in land is welt

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developed, the division of labour takes a new shape. Here the first group of citizens discriminates against the second, the second against the th i rd , and all discrimi-nate jointly against the rest. In addition to this the law of female ultimogeniture in matters of i n -heritance has a built-in-tendency to create both propertied as also dispos-sessed section of society. A n d it is through the forece operating in this endogenous process that the land-lord, tenant and labourer come into being to perform their roles as assigned by the great social division of labour.25

However it should be noted in evaluating the findings of these studies that there are also contrary pulls in the opposite direction. The bonds of ethnicity and the appreciation of the political advantages of the tribe as an ethnic minori ty are stil l strong.. This has inhibited the development of tribals wi th non-tribals. An interesting intra-tribal contradictions which are overshadowed by the confrontation of aspect of stratification is the developing nexus between the insider and outsider'.27 Diku, the alien, a creature of the colonial system, acted as the middleman, trader and money-lender. While the protective tenancy laws sought to curb this class, they had the unintended result of spawning a class of tribal moneylendeis or the insider diku. Recent settlement operations in Chotanagpur have revealed exten-sive transaction in land between tribals and tribals. This process operates in the North-East also where the business and trading communities across the Inner Line have maintained close relations w i th their tribal agents. Therefore, it appears that no matter strong the sentiments against these aliens in the North-East and elsewhere may be they are for too deeply entrenched in the economic system of the region to be expelled, because their ouster wi l l mean the collapse of the marke t wi th which t r ibal economy is being increasingly linked. Even the most primitive economic system of the Cholanaickans has been drawn into the vortex of market forces.

We have described above various models of tribal transformations, the uniqueness of the Indian experiment wi th all its merits and shortcomings, The social impact of the transfer of agricultural technology, and the pro-cess of transformation of tribes into peasants. We have also discussed the factors which have contributed to social stratification. A l l these pro-cesses are reflected in a wide ranging variety of t r ibal movements which are

discussed in the following section. (To be concluded)

Notes [This paper is based on the eighth Devraj Chanana Memorial Lecture delivered under the auspices of Delhi University on December 10-11, 1981.]

1 Dube, S C, "Tribal Heritage of India, Ethnicity, Identity and Interaction", Volume 1, Vikas 1977.

2 Sinha, Surajit, Transformation of Tribal Society in Modern India' , Fif th Devraj Chanana Memorial Lecture, 1973 (unpublished).

3 Singh, K S 'Colonial Transforma-tion of the Tribal Society in Middle India', Presidential A d -dress, Bhubaneswar, 1977. Also see Sharma, R S, ' I nd ian Feudal-ism, c 300-1200", University of Calcutta, 1965.

4 Ibid. 5 Bardhan. A 13, "The Unsolved T r i -

bal Problem", Freedom Jubilee Series No 5, Communist Party Publication, 1973. Also see, Bhowmrk, Sharit, "Class Forma-t ion in the Plantation System", Peop l s Publishing House, New Delhi, 1981.

6 Ghurye, G S, "The Burning Caul-dron of North-East India", Popular Prakashan, Bombay 1980. Also see "The Schaduled Tribes", Popu-lar Prakashau, Bombay, 1963.

7 'Red Indians tight for the right to live on the Land of Ancestors'. The Searchlight, September 15, 1981.

8 See, Swepston. Le , 'Latin Ameri-can Approaches to the "Indian Problem" * International Labour Review. Vol 117, No 2, March-Apr i l , 1978.

9 , Datta-Ray. Sunanda K, 'New Oreams for Old', The Statesmen. December 1 and 2 1981. Also see Chinai, Rupa, T h e Alienated Aborigines'. Sunday Standard Magazine. March 8. 1981.

10 Kawharu, I H. McEwen, J M, and Winiate, W. "Maori Incorporations in New Zealand". New Zealand National Commission for UNSCO (unpublished).

11 USSR Academy of Sciences. Social Sciences Today. Editorial Board, "National Relations in the USSR: Theory and Practice Pro-blems of the Contemporary Wor ld" , Moscow. 1974. Also see, Brom-ley, Yu V. "Soviet Ethnography: Main Trends. Problems of the Con-temporary Wor ld" . Social Sciences Todaxu "Editorial Board, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow. 1978.

13 Oimted in Tsmagileva, R N, Fthnic Problems of the Tropical Africa : Can they be solved? Progress Publishers. Moscow, 1978, p 122.

13 Ibid p 126. 14 Ibid. 15 Singh. K S 'Colonial Transforma-

t ion of the Tribal Society, op 'ciK 16 Singh, K S, 'The Mahatma and the

Adivasis', Man in India. V o l 50, No 1. January-March, 1970.

17 Quoted in Singh, K S, "Colonial-

ism, Anthropology and Primitive Society: The Indian Scenario (1928-47)", Second Indo-GDR His-tory Seminar, University of Delhi, December 1981.

18 Quoted in Singh, K S, "Jawahar-)al Nehru. Tribals and their Transformation", Seminar on Nehru and Village, Madras, February 22-27, 1980.

19 Junes, Steves, 'Tribal Underdeve-lopment in India', paper presented to UN Institute for Economic Planning and Development, En-vironment Training Programme, Seminar on Environment and Poorly Integrated Socities in Africa (Mauritius. Apr i l , 1976). Also see a rejoinder by Bhupender Singh, Planning Strategy for Tri-bal Development in Retrospect and Prospect, A Mid-Term Appraisal, Occasional Papers on Tribal De-velopment 29, Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi. 1981.

20 Singh, K S. Tribal Economy in India', ludo-Soviet Symposium in Social Sciences, February 22-26, 1977, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Also see by the same author, 'Transformation of Tribal Eco-nomy Two Case Studies' (un-published). 1978; and 'Pattern of Agricultural Changes in Tribal Chotanagpur'. "Trends of Socio-

'economic Change in India 1871-1961". Transactions of the Indian institute of Advanced Study, Volume V I I , Simla, 1969.

21 Prasad. N and Sahay. A, " I m -pact of Industrialisation on Bihar Tribes". 1961; Census of India, 1961, "Social processes in the Industrialisation of Rourkela" 1968: Vidyarthi, L P "Industriali-sation in India. A Case Study of Tribal Bihar 1970". Also see Pra-dban, H Prasad and N Sengupta, "Regional Distribution of Economic Benefits arising from a Steel Plant: A Case Study of Rourkela Steel Plant" (mimeographed).

22 Singh. K S. "Colonial Transfor-mation of the Tribal Society", op cit.

23 "Land Tenures in India" Census of India 1961. Volume 1, India, Part X I - A (i). 1968.

24 Bose, Pradip Kumar. Stratification among Tribals in Gujarat'. EPW, February 7, 1981.

25 . Ghanshyam. "Socio-Econo-mic Condition of Chodhras: A Restudy Centre for Social Stu-dies, Surat, Indian Council of So-cial Science Research funpublish-ed).

26 Misra, Rani Frasanna, 'Kirata Modes of Produc-

tion in Tribal Societies in North-Fast India', in Arvind N Das and V Nilkant (ed) "Agrarian Rela-tions in India", Manohar, Delhi, 1979.

27 Singh, K S, Tribal Ethnicity in a Multi-Ethnic Society: A Study in Colonial and Post-Colonial Chota-nagpur', UNESCO Seminar on Trends in Ethnic Group Relations in Asia, Manila, March 1976.

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