Revision summary
Roy treated tribal custom as real law, not as leftover culture. Mundas and Oraons used clan and village councils as courts. Land custom blocked free sale to outsiders. Colonial title created a dual legal world. His file feeds later Schedule and PESA claims of self-rule.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
S. C. Roy treated customary law as the living constitution of tribal society, especially among Mundas and Oraons of Chotanagpur. It was kinship, land, and council, not a footnote to the Indian Penal Code.
Body
Custom as law
- Roy’s monographs on the Mundas and Oraons recorded clan, village, and parha or panchayat as courts of first instance.
- Land was a community and lineage trust. Custom barred free alienation to outsiders, which colonial landlords and later courts often overran.
- Offence was against clan purity, grove, and village peace. Sanction was fine, feast, outcasting, and sometimes ordeal, not only jail.
Political reading
- He showed that British courts and zamindari titles created a dual system: custom for insiders, deed law for the dispossessor.
- Munda uli-hatu and Oraon village offices were government, not folklore. Later Wilkinson’s Rules and Chotanagpur tenancy echoes sit on that file.
- Roy wrote as a lawyer-ethnographer. Customary law was evidence for tribal self-rule, a seed of later Fifth Schedule and PESA arguments.
Limit
- He worked a century ago. Mission, mining, and statutory panchayats have layered new forums on the old council.
- Custom was not always gentle to women and juniors. Recording it is not the same as freezing it.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD R[S. C. Roy] --> M[Munda Oraon custom] M --> L[Lineage land] M --> C[Village parha council] S[Colonial court zamindari] --> X[Dual law]
Conclusion
Roy made customary law the core of Munda and Oraon political society. Land, clan, and council were the code. State courts were the disruption, not the original law.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Discuss the contributions of N. K. Bose in understanding tribal communities and their place in Indian civilization
Next question on this syllabus topic (2021 · Q4(a)). View answer →
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Did Roy want to abolish state courts?
He wanted custom recognised as law. He wrote inside the colonial legal world, not as a secessionist.
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Is customary law the same as PESA?
PESA is a later statute that can house custom. Roy is the ethnographic ancestor, not the Act.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2021 · Q4(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss the contributions of N. K. Bose in understanding tribal communities and their place in Indian civilization
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