When the invaders came to India, they called the various Indigenous People as ‘Tribes’. Foreign colonizers used the term “Tribe”. Our history and Puranas also mention similar words such as Adivasis, Vanvasis & Attavyas. The time “Tribe” is not mentioned anywhere clearly.
Our Indian constitution has not exclusively drawn any criteria to identify ‘Tribe’. But the constitution has defined the Scheduled Tribes in Article 366 (25) as “scheduled tribe means such tribes or tribal communities or part of a group within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be scheduled tribes for this constitution.”
Various dictionaries give different definitions for Tribe. According to the Cambridge dictionary, a group of people, often of related families, who live together, sharing the same Language, culture, and history, especially those who do not live in towns or cities. Whereas to the Oxford Dictionary of sociology, a tribe’ is a social group bound together by kin and duly associated with a particular territory; members of the Tribe share the social cohesion and are associated with the family with the sense of political autonomy of the nation. According to Britannica Encyclopedia, Tribe, in anthropology, is an abstract form of human social organization based on a set of smaller groups (known as bands), having temporary or permanent political integration, and defined by traditions of common descent, Language, culture, and ideology. Dictionaries define the purpose of Anthropology, which will conflict with legalistic usage.
There is some common consensus from all these universal definitions like culture, Language, cohesion and tradition. There are no universally accepted criteria for defining Tribe by social scientists when we consider the Indian complex scenario of vastly diversified culture to define any ethnic groups, especially for the legal purposes many parameters to be considered.
In the first backward class, the commission was set up in 1953; the preamble of their questionnaire about the ST observed as “The Scheduled Tribes can also be generally ascertained by the fact that they live apart in hills, and even where they live on the plains, they lead a separate, excluded existence, .and are not fully assimilated in the main body, of the people.: Scheduled Tribes may belong to any religion. They are-listed as Scheduled Tribes because of the Kind of life led by them.”
In the BN Lokur Advisory committee report of 1965 on Scheduled Caste and scheduled tribe list for revision, they have considered and observed slightly differently as “indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large and backwardness. We have considered that tribes whose members have by and large mixed up with the general population are not eligible to be in the list of Scheduled Tribes.”
Considering all these factors, we can Identify and classify a tribe or a tribal community with the Four C’s (4C’s) Characteristic Litmus test to understand the Kind of life they lead, which are Character, Culture, Custom and Cult. ‘Character’ denotes social cohesion, introversion, type of Weapon they commonly used (Axe, Archery, sword), preference of living locations (Hills, River Banks or Gypsy), type/ dependency of livelihood (Hunting forest-dwelling, agriculture) etc. The other 3 “C” are closely intertwined with each other but are also quite distinct. ‘Culture’ is the Language, dialect, dress, foods, songs, festivals and dances of each community. ‘Custom’ is the law they follow in society in the marriage, succession, selection/ election of the chief, decision making etc. ‘Cult’ decides the Faith, way of worship, deities, rituals, gods & goddesses, various pooja (prayer) & activities conducted on each customary occasion, like poojas & prayer songs, to be performed on multiple occasions from birth to death. All these characteristics together identify a tribe community and further a sub-group inside a specific tribe.
The Character of the Tribes, which lets them enjoy traditional territorial freedom and rights in the forest, was always suppressed. They were branded as fugitives from the history of Samrat Ashoka to British India. But the ancient history of Ramayana and Mahabharatha shows that Tribe’s freedom or rights were never questioned and were, instead, respected.
Outlook of the Character of the community changes to an extent after they attain education due to the influence of technology and the influence of the law of the land. Culture also influences the development of society. Still, traditions are always a matter of pride to the community and part of its identity, so traditions will always be maintained. Customs are the law which influences the direction of the land, and a certain level of reformation always happens. With the influence of Social reformers and Gurus, the customary laws and Cults always reformed for society’s advancement. The Last “C”, Cult, seems insignificant, but it has a crucial role in identifying a community’s identity. As said earlier, the Cult is connected with Faith. As the faith changes, the entire lifestyle of a tribe gets changed, and that, in turn, changes the identity of the community itself. As the tribes depended on nature, they worshipped the various deities associated with nature. Still, their worship and respect for nature and its gods fade as the faith changes. All the practices and traditions from birth to death will change, completely changing the culture and customs.
Hence identifying the importance of the Cult, which governs and influences all other characteristics of a community to identify or define the Tribe or tribal groups. The 4 C’s should be considered while determining the tribes to include and exclude from Scheduled lists.
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