Revision summary
Colonial census and forest law boxed diverse groups as tribes. Risley racialised the box; Agency law needed it for land and timber. Ghurye and Elwin fought over what to do with the same box. The Constitution scheduled it for protection. Tribe today is a legal-political identity with a colonial origin.
Model answer
Introduction
Tribe as a colonial construct means the British census, forest, and criminal tribes files invented a boxed people. The box still exists as ST, but it was not a timeless Indian noun.
Body
How the construct was built
- Census and Risley turned fluid frontier groups into tribes versus castes.
- Forest acts and Agency administration needed a legal savage to take timber and to exempt some custom.
- Ghurye later said the same people were backward Hindus. Elwin used the box to protect land.
Afterlife
- The Constitution kept the construct as Scheduled Tribe with Fifth and Sixth Schedules.
- Anthropology now treats ‘tribe’ as a political-legal identity with a colonial birth, not as a stone-age essence.
- Unrest over lists and FRA shows the construct still distributes rights.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Colonial census forest] --> T[Tribe box] T --> ST[Scheduled Tribe] T --> P[Protection and stigma]
Conclusion
Tribe was standardised by colonial government. Independent India reused it as protection. Critique the essence; keep the rights the box now carries.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Relevance of tribal Panchsheel today
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q1(a)). View answer →
-
If tribe is a construct, should ST go?
Constructed categories can still name real dispossession. The shield is the point.
-
Did Indians have no word before?
They had many local names. ‘Tribe’ as a single all-India type is the colonial glue.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2016 · Q1(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks
Significance of Mesolithic findings from Belan Valley -
2016 · Q3(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Give a critical assessment of 'Negrito Problem' in India -
2016 · Q4(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Give a detailed appraisal of skeletal remains from Chalcolithic culture of undivided Punjab -
2016 · Q5(c) · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks
Impact of industrialization on scheduled tribe population of Jharkhand -
2015 · Q1(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks
Relevance of tribal Panchsheel today -
2015 · Q1(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks
Sacred complex as a dimension of Indian civilization -
2015 · Q1(c) · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks
South Indian Paleoliths -
2015 · Q3(c) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Describe the paleoanthropological fossil finds from Siwalik hills. Examine the contribution of Siwalik fossils to paleoanthropological knowledge
More from this topic
Q6(c) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Trace the history and describe the methods of formulating the lists of OBCs, both at the State and National levels
Evolution of the Indian Culture and Civilization
Kalelkar listed; Mandal implemented 27 percent with social-educational-economic tests. Indra Sawhney added creamy layer and a 50 percent ceiling. 102nd Amendment constitutionalised NCBC; 105th restored state lists after the Maratha judgment. Rohini tries to sub-categorise Central OBCs; Ram Singh required data for Jat inclusion. Centre and states maintain separate lists; method is gazette politics under judicial review.
Q6(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
"The village was not merely a place where people lived; it had a design in which were reflected the basic values of Indian civilization." Who said this? Elaborate
Evolution of the Indian Culture and Civilization
The statement is from the Srinivas village-studies tradition: the village as a designed microcosm of Indian civilisation. Design includes caste ecology, agrarian rank, ritual calendar and factional politics. Values: hierarchy-with-interdependence, local dharma, jati marriage, sacred geography. Marriott, Dube and Bailey showed regional versions of the same idea. Land reform, migration, 73rd Amendment and PESA have rewritten the plan without erasing rank.
Q5(e) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks
Lothal dockyard and international trade relations.
Evolution of the Indian Culture and Civilization
S. R. Rao identified a burnt-brick tidal basin at Lothal as a dock beside warehouses and bead workshops. Gujarat Harappan coastal sites together support craft export to the Gulf and Mesopotamia (Meluhha). Some archaeologists prefer a reservoir reading; geomorphology of the estuary is still discussed. Even without the word dock, Lothal is a water-edge trade and craft town. International trade here is Bronze Age Gulf networks, not a modern port trust.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.