Revision summary
Traditional councils are customary lineage bodies for land, marriage, and offence. PESA Gram Sabha is a statutory assembly in Fifth Schedule areas. PESA lists powers over MFP, intoxicants, and consultation on land. Niyamgiri showed a sabha using statute against a mine. Both can be captured; they often run in parallel.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
A traditional tribal council is a customary body of elders or clan heads that settles land, marriage, and offence. The PESA Gram Sabha is a statutory village assembly with listed resource powers in Fifth Schedule areas.
Body
Traditional council
- Bodies such as the Santal manjhi-parganait, Munda panch, Gond panch, and Naga village council rest on lineage and custom, not on a 1996 Act.
- They hear witch accusations, marriage, and forest share in local idiom. Verrier Elwin valued that living law against a clerk’s court.
- G. S. Ghurye was cooler, seeing custom as often stacked toward local strong men.
PESA Gram Sabha
- PESA, 1996, after the Bhuria Committee, names the Gram Sabha as competent over land acquisition consultation, minor forest produce, intoxicants, and village plans in Scheduled Areas.
- Membership is the electoral village, including women and non-lineage residents who custom might have kept out.
- Minutes, quorum, and state PESA rules make it a fileable body for FRA claims and mining hearings, as at Niyamgiri.
Comparison
- Custom is fast and thick in kinship. PESA is slower and thicker in statute.
- Parallel power is the usual field fact: council sits at night, sabha sits for the scheme. Elite capture can infect both.
- Where the Act was not notified in full, the traditional council still does the work and the sabha is a signature meeting.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD T[Traditional council] --> C[Custom lineage] P[PESA Gram Sabha] --> S[Statute MFP land] T --> V[Village order] P[P] --> V[V]
Conclusion
Traditional councils run living customary law. PESA Gram Sabhas run listed statutory powers for the same villages. Function overlaps; legitimacy and paperwork do not.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Explain how British policies impacted the major resources of the tribals
Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q6(c)). View answer →
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Does PESA abolish the traditional council?
No. It creates a statutory sabha. Customary councils often continue.
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Who is more democratic?
PESA includes all adults on the roll. Traditional councils may exclude women or in-migrants. Practice varies.
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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2025 · Q8(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Describe the nature of traditional socioeconomic interdependence among the Toda, Kota, Kurumba and Irula tribes of Nilgiri Hills. Highlight the changes occurring in these interrelationships -
2021 · Q4(b) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Discuss the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in transforming traditional power hierarchy in rural India -
2021 · Q8(a) · Anthropology GS 2 · 20 marks
Examine how structural transformation in economy is affecting traditional social relationships in agrarian society -
2016 · Q3(c) · Anthropology GS 2 · 15 marks
Describe the traditional patterns of settlement of Indian villages
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