Revision summary
Tribe in India has no single cultural definition. Colonial marks, Ghurye’s Hinduisation and Elwin’s protection compete. Scheduled Tribe is a legal list, not an essence. Some listed groups are peasants; some forest dwellers are unlisted. Definition is a power relation to state and market.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Defining ‘tribe’ in India is a political and scholarly problem. Census lists, colonial isolation, and Hinduisation theses do not name one people with one culture.
Body
Competing definitions
- Colonial ethnography used isolation, animism, and ‘primitive’ as marks. The 1935 Act then segregated some groups administratively.
- G. S. Ghurye called many tribes backward Hindus. Verrier Elwin stressed distinctness and protection.
- The Constitution uses Scheduled Tribe as a list, not as a sociological essence.
Problems
- Language, forest, and shifting cultivation do not fit all listed groups; some ST communities are peasant or urban.
- Identity assertion for autonomy needs a people; the list can both enable reservation and freeze a colonial label.
- Overlap with caste, as in some plains groups, blurs tribe versus jati.
- Exclusion errors: unlisted forest dwellers miss FRA and reservation.
Sociological caution
- Tribe is a relationship to the state and the market, not a museum type.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Colonial isolation marks] --> L[ST list] G[Ghurye Hinduisation] --> L E[Elwin distinctness] --> A[Autonomy identity]
Conclusion
Definitional problems arise because tribe is at once a colonial category, a Hinduisation debate, and a constitutional schedule. Autonomy politics must use the list without mistaking it for a single culture.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Examine the colonial policy of segregation of tribes under the Government of India Act, 1935.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q3(a)). View answer →
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Are all Adivasis STs?
Adivasi is a political-cultural claim. ST is a gazette list. They do not always match.
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Does isolation still define tribe?
Markets and mines have ended isolation for many. The label remains.
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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2024 · Q2(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
What are the definitional problems involved in identifying tribes in India? Discuss the main obstacles to tribal development in India -
2022 · Q1(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Elucidate the challenges of integration for tribal communities in india. -
2017 · Q4(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
What is the nature of religious change among tribal communities ? Illustrate with two examples from colonial and post independence times
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