Q5(a) · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2025 · Anthropology GS 2 · 10 marks · 2 min read

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Impact of urbanization and industrialization on tribal communities of India.

Topic: The concept of ethnicity. Syllabus: 7.3 The concept of ethnicity; Ethnic conflicts and political developments; Unrest among tribal communities; Regionalism and demand for autonomy; Pseudo-tribalism. Social change among the tribes during colonial and post-Independent India. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2025 and The concept of ethnicity.

Revision summary

Impacts are in the resource belt and in migrant cities, not only one story of loss. Samata, Niyamgiri, FRA and the 2013 land Act are the legal brakes on dispossession. Urban STs face certificate portability and informal work. Kinship stretches; identity is restaged in unions, churches and student bodies. Xaxa’s theme: development without consent produces cash beside a broken commons.

Model answer

Introduction

Urbanisation and industrialisation do not wait for a tribe to “arrive” in a city. Mines, steel towns, dams, highways and labour markets move into the hills, and young people move out. The impact is both in situ (Jharkhand coal, Odisha bauxite, Chhattisgarh plants) and in the city (Bastar in Raipur, Santhal in Mumbai, North-East in Delhi).

Body

In the resource belt

Factories and mines buy land, water and quiet. Samata (1997) tried to stop easy transfer of Scheduled Area land to non-tribals for mining. Niyamgiri (2013) put Gram Sabha in the path of bauxite. Land Acquisition Act, 2013 (RFCTLARR) requires consent and R&R; practice still produces kaccha colonies beside plants. Industrialisation here means a wage next to a broken commons, not a full proletariat with a union clinic.

Urbanisation of the tahsil town brings PDS shops, coaching, and also liquor, land brokers and a thana that speaks Hindi. Kinship stretches: a brother in the plant, a sister in a hostel, elders on residual jhum or tendu.

In the metropolis

Circular migration — brick kilns, construction, domestic work, security — urbanises the household without urbanising rights. Slum STs often cannot use the ST certificate of the home state for local jobs (portability limits). Churches, dhumkuria associations and WhatsApp kin groups recreate a little village. Health follows the pattern of Q3(b): TB, anaemia, unsafe abortions.

Political and cultural

Industrial belts produce both trade-union STs and sarpanch contractors. Ethnic student unions in cities (NSUI is not the point; Naga and Adivasi student bodies are) keep identity hot. Sanskritisation in town and revival of dance festivals on Republic Day can happen in one family.

CAMPA plantations and PESA paper-compliance often fail when a municipal or industrial authority sits on the same land. Xaxa called this development without community consent. The gain is cash, school and a wider marriage market. The loss is grove, language density and a generation that is informal labour, not “tribal beneficiary”.

Flow diagram

flowchart TD
  I[Mine dam plant] --> V[Village commons]
  C[City labour] --> H[Split household]
  V --> L[Samata Niyamgiri FRA]
  H --> L

Conclusion

Industry and the city enter tribal life as mine, migrant room and tahsil town. Law (Samata, Niyamgiri, FRA, 2013 acquisition) can slow dispossession; it has not equalised urban citizenship. The community becomes a split household, not a vanished tribe.

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