Assignment Code: BANE-143/ASST/TMA/2022-23

Course Code: BANE-143

Assignment Name: Tribal Cultures of India

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Total Marks: 100

There are three Sections in the Assignment. You have to answer all questions in all the Sections.

Assignment – I

Answer the following in about 500 words each. 20X2= 40

a. Discuss the characteristics and geographical distribution of tribes in India.

Ans) With the exception of Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana, there are more than 700 tribal communities in India, making up 8.6 percent of the country's total population. Ethnic groups are separated for easier understanding based on the geographic, linguistic, racial, and economic traits they share within their ecological context. However, there are variations in terms of physical characteristics, traditions, sociocultural practises, etc. even within the same eco-cultural zone.

Northern Himalayan Zone

Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh are all included in the northern region. This region is part of the Himalayan ranges, where tribes live in the hilly regions and have a rich culture that is different from that of the people who live in the plains. Its eastern and western borders, which it shares with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Nepal, are covered in mountain valleys. Because of the highlands in this area, nomadic tribes like the Gujjar, Bakarwal, Bhedi, Balti, Changpa, and Dogra are able to survive through a pastoral economy. Although the majority of them depend on raising sheep, goats, cows, and buffaloes as a form of pastoral subsistence, there is a significant difference in their cultural traits.

Eastern Zone

This region includes states like West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. Language-wise, the tribes of Odisha are associated with the Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burmese, and Austric families. Despite this, their sociocultural lives share a lot of similarities. The patrilineal system of inheritance is the classification of kinship. The position of headman in the priest village is inherited. They include marriage by capture, elopement, purchase, service, and negotiation, the latter of which is preferred by the majority of tribes.

Religion is an amalgam of animistic practises such as naturism, fetishism, and shamanism. The most common type of dormitory system is the ingersin of Bondos, dhangarabasa of Bhuyans, dindaghar of Kondhs, and majang of Juangs. The important ceremonial activities gaur, gotar, pushpenei, kedu, karam, chaitparab, and maghaparab are a few of them.

Western Zone

This region includes the union territories of Goa, Dadra, and Nagar Haveli as well as Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. The Thar Desert and arid regions cover the majority of it, but the majority of the tribes live in hilly forests in central India. Cattle breeders known as "Rabaris" are thought to have immigrated from Sindh and Marwar and claim Rajput ancestry. Banni is a location where one can see the socio-cultural framework of the Rabari people through their artistic expression of various embroidered patterns and designs. Since each Bhil has a unique culture and way of life, Gujarat's Bhils are socially divided into Valvi Bhils, Vasava Bhils, Garasia Bhils, and Bhilala.

Central Zone

Geographically, central India includes the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and their bordering regions, such as south-eastern Rajasthan, northern Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, south-western West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, southern Uttar Pradesh, and northern Maharashtra. Of which, the majority of the tribal people live in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while there are more tribal groups in Odisha.

Southern Zone

This region, which includes the Eastern and Western Ghats, is south of the Vindhya ranges. This region includes the recently formed states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nādu, and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. Except for the Coorg’s of Karnataka and the Toda of the Nilgiris hills, the majority of the tribes are of Dravidian origin.

b. Write a note on the anthropology of Tribes in India.

Ans) Any attempt at definition leads to a significant increase in conceptual understanding. Definitions of their field of study are something that many anthropologists spend a lot of time doing. It was not necessary to define the various tribes around the world (in Australia, the Americas, and Africa) because non-indigenous people have historically migrated to or colonised indigenous lands. The racial characteristics of the indigenous and non-indigenous populations contrast quite sharply, aside from the history that can be traced. As a result, in their studies of the indigenous populations on these continents, anthropologists never specifically focused on defining "tribes."

In contrast to their counterparts from other continents, Indian tribal society is a little different. Tribal societies differ from mainstream (or village) societies, and tribals were able to protect their culture and cultural characteristics from the mainstream societies' acculturation process. Both tribal people and non-tribal people share many of the same regional and racial characteristics. It is nearly impossible to trace the history of non-tribal migration to tribal areas. This is so because both the locals and the tribal members are native to the area. It is also highly debatable whether or not the tribal population of India should be considered indigenous. Many academics and activists are aware of it and refer to themselves as "Vanvasi," "Adivasi," and "Girijan" to indicate where they live and to assert that they inhabited these lands long before the arrival of non-tribal people.

The definition necessary to identify the tribal communities is not provided in this article or the two clauses. Who can and cannot be considered as tribes in each state is solely up to the discretion of the state government, which makes recommendations to the president through the governor. Because of the serious ambiguity created by this, the State Government frequently turns to expert commissions to determine whether a particular group or community belongs to a tribe. In order to identify the tribal communities, Andre Beteille also attempts to analyse the hazy justifications occasionally offered by the various expert committees.

According to him, the commission for SCs and STs proposed "tribal origin, primitive way of life, remote habitation, and general backwardness in all respects" as common elements to the definition of tribes in 1951. The Lokur Committee stated in 1965 that the criteria for identifying a tribe include "indication of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness." As they can be disputed, these are seen as a nebulous interpretation of what Indian tribes are. Other than the definitions given above, some examples of tribes that might be given suggest otherwise.

Andre Beteille attempts to provide a thorough definition while also analysing the social conditions in comparison to non-tribal societies. The tribes are described as a society with a political, linguistic, and cultural boundary that is only loosely defined. They are also described as a kinship-based society without social stratification. Andre Beteille cautions us, however, that there aren't any "ideal" tribes, as defined by anthropologists. It is clear that the tribes are in transition. As a result, a number of factors should be taken into account when defining the Indian tribes. They cannot be categorised under a general category that applies to all Indian tribal communities. When researching the Indian tribal population, it is important to take into account their "Historical Perspective."

Assignment – II

Answer the following in about 250 words each. (Write Short Notes) 10X2=20

a. Deliberate on the tribal movements with examples.

Ans) You must have all encountered the word "movement" in a variety of settings. We are well aware of the Indian freedom movement as well. What, though, is "movement"? How does it differ from words like "protest" and "resistance," which have a similar appearance? Protest is a way for a person or a group of people to express their disagreement or opposition to the government's or authority's action. Typically, it is a way for the weak to express their anger and disapproval toward the powerful. It gives the dominated a way to resist the dominant.

The government established a land system that gave middlemen and landlords who were outsiders legitimacy. State ownership of the land has taken the place of the community's rights. For the land they used, the Adivasis were compelled to pay rent. As a result, Adivasis’ status changed from being landowners to being merely tenants. All related exploitations of the tribal peoples by the government, zamindars, contractors, traders, and middlemen revolved around this central issue. The state's law gradually took the place of the customary tribal law. The Adivasis were also forced to adhere to a local government system that was run by agents of the zamindars or rajas.

Tribal political parties and organisations have emerged as a means of boosting social cohesion. The British forest policy, which was crucial in the exploitation of the Adivasis, remained unchanged until 2006. The state persisted in claiming exclusive control over forest land and excluding the tribes from their traditional rights.

b. Write a note on the forest policies and tribes.

Ans) The Forest Act, the first forest law, was introduced by the colonial government in 1865 in an effort to limit private access to forests and place them under state control. The colonial administration was able to control the forest and the tribes who lived there by developing forest policies and putting them into action. The colonial state's motivation for introducing forest legislation or enactment in the second half of the nineteenth century is seriously in doubt. According to Sinha, the British government did not want to risk interfering in the affairs of forest dwellers because they had witnessed numerous tribal uprisings in the nineteenth century.

As a result, it had an impact on the commercialization of timber as well as vested interests in trade and business. As a result, they were compelled to find the Indian Forest Department in 1861. The primary goal of nationalising forest resources was commercialization and income generation, and the secondary goal was the conservation of natural resources, including forests, according to a number of authors.

The first policy implemented in India while it was under British rule, however, disregarded this component of community involvement. As a result, it endangered the system of communal livelihood and eventually sparked widespread unrest, which obliged the state to amend or enact new legislation with a more accommodating attitude for communities reliant on the forest. The Forest Act of 1865 gave various provincial forest administrations legal standing and gave them monopolistic control over the forest. According to Sinha, the Indian Forest Act of 1873 was the first piece of legislation to introduce government policy and programme.

Answer the following questions in about 75 words each. 2X5=10

a. Indigenous communities

Ans) According to its etymology, the word "indigenous" comes from the Latin word "indigena," which consists of the words indi, which means "within," and gen, which means "root." In contrast to "foreign" or "brought in," the term "indigenous" denotes "born in," "something that comes from the country in which it is found," "native of," or "aborigine" (see Albert Kwokwo Barume: 2010, 2014). When used strictly adjectivally, the word "indigenous" means a group or culture that is thought to originate from a particular location and is considered to be "from" or "of the original origin."

b. Tribal displacement and rehabilitation

Ans) One million people in developing nations lose their homes and land each year due to development projects. The population of Scheduled Tribes is directly impacted by development and displacement. The question becomes more pertinent when it relates to tribal people because they frequently negatively impact the environment, making tribal life more difficult and causing tribal migration. Even the tribal people's health, food, and nutrition are negatively impacted. Resettlement is the act of resettling in a new location. Rehab means restoring something to its prior condition. The process of rehabilitation entails identifying a person's needs and problems, connecting those issues to relevant aspects of that person and their environment, defining rehabilitation goals, organising, and carrying out the necessary interventions, and evaluating the results.

c. Globalisation and tribes

Ans) In the past, people relied on their own means of production and were largely self-sufficient for survival. Today, however, things are very different. There are foreign products and services available everywhere in the nation. After the revolution in communication and information technology, the limited resources have been transported to developing nations. Thus, the increasing interdependence that now affects everyone has led to the creation of a single social system that governs the entire planet. As a result, it had an effect on people's economic, social, cultural, and political practises all over the world.

d. Problems of tribal women

Ans) Any community's success is strongly influenced by the status that its women enjoy.

The word "status" can be summed up as a set of obligations and rights. A person's sex, age, marriage, or birth into a particular family or society determines their status, and roles are learned based on their current or anticipated status (Lalhmingpuii and Namchoom, 2014). The general consensus is that tribal women have higher status than their counterparts in larger Indian society.

e. Tribes and social change

Ans) Due to political, social, and economic developments, our society has undergone significant occupational and technological changes. Links and interactions between castes, tribes, religious movements, and cultural regions have been facilitated by these changes. We observe a significant spread effect of these cultural changes across geographical and racial boundaries.

However, these developments have also served to reinforce people's sense of inadequacy and their attachment to limited cultural identities based on factors like caste, language, region, and ethnicity. On a national level, the process of cultural integration has advanced, but there has also been a rise in the pursuit of cultural autonomy.

Assignment – III

a. Write a synopsis to present how you would conduct ethnographic research in a tribal community. Justify the unit of study in your synopsis. 20

Ans) To conduct ethnographic research in a tribal community, we need to collect appropriate data. In ethnography, there are three methods of gathering data: observation, interviewing, and archive research.

1. Participant observation is distinctive in that it mixes the researcher's involvement in the lives of the subjects being studied with the maintenance of a professional distance. Angrosino defines observation as the act of noticing people's behaviours and interactions while they are in a field setting.

2. Interviewing: The technique of guiding a conversation to gather information is known as interviewing.

3. Research conducted using resources that have been stored for official and unofficial research, service, or other purposes is known as archival research.

Defining the primary topic of the research by articulating the issue you want to learn more about. The first concern is determining where to start. The environment should allow for clear observation. It is also beneficial to choose a location where you can easily fit in, but this does not imply that you are well-versed in it. How do you join the group you want to study in? If you have a buddy who can speak on your behalf, it will be easier for you to obtain the formal approval you might require. If you first join the group as a volunteer rather than a researcher, you can also gain access. You must choose how you will represent yourself to professionals in the area. Will you be carrying out shady research? What personas will you have to play in order to interact with others? What level of involvement will you have in other people's lives? Will people be able to accept you in their daily life if you identify as a researcher?

It can occasionally be challenging to record and collect data at the same time. What kinds of information should be logged or carried in field notes? What should you do if you can't accurately document your observations while you're out in the field? Always keep a notepad on you for quick notes. Sometimes there is no choice but to wait until you have left the setting to record observation. To reduce recall issues, you should record the observations as soon as you can. You could also use tools like audio recorders, video cameras, etc. According to Singleton and Straits, you should include the following details in your field notes or in-depth descriptive explanations of any observation you made over a specific time period:

This is a summary of what was observed that day. The goal is to accurately document what you see. Additionally, you should refrain from analysing people or situations while you are out in the field because you won't have time and it will obstruct your ability to observe what is happening. What should I be on the lookout for? the environment, the people, individual behaviours, group dynamics, and perspectives. Previously forgotten episodes: These are descriptions of past incidents that you are recalling while on the job. These describe impromptu concepts for data gathering, data analysis, relationship hypotheses, etc. These are notes that you make to and for yourself, such as plans for upcoming observations or specific individuals or objects to keep an eye out for. These are recordings of your introspective responses while working in the field. They could offer hints about biases that might be skewing your observations. This relates to any thoughts you may have about the methods you used to get your data, such as any challenges you encountered, potential biases caused by the methods, or adjustments to how you can observe and document your findings.

b. Discuss the qualitative analysis of data and report writing for the synopsis that you proposed in Assignment III a. 10

Ans) The qualitative analysis of data and report writing for the synopsis that you proposed in Assignment III are as follows:

Analysing, Interpreting and Reporting Findings

Remember that the researcher is the detective looking for trends and patterns that occur across the various groups or within individuals. The process of analysis and interpretation involve disciplined examination, creative insight, and careful attention to the purposes of the research study. Analysis and interpretation are conceptually separate processes. The analysis process begins with assembling the raw materials and getting an overview or total picture of the entire process. The researcher’s role in analysis covers a continuum with assembly of raw data on one extreme and interpretative comments on the other. Analysis is the process of bringing order to the data, organizing what is there into patterns, categories, and basic descriptive units. The analysis process involves consideration of words, tone, context, non-verbal, internal consistency, frequency, extensiveness, intensity, specificity of responses and big ideas. Data reduction strategies are essential in the analysis. Interpretation involves attaching meaning and significance to the analysis, explaining descriptive patterns, and looking for relationships and linkages among descriptive dimensions. Once these processes have been completed the researcher must report his or her interpretations and conclusions

Qualitative Description

Reports based on qualitative methods will include a great deal of pure description of the program and/or the experiences of people in the research environment. The purpose of this description is to let the reader know what happened in the environment under observation, what it was like from the participants' point of view to be in the setting, and what particular events or activities in the setting were like. In reading through field notes and interviews the researcher begins to look for those parts of the data that will be polished for presentation as pure description in the research report. What is included by way of description will depend on what questions the researcher is attempting to answer. Often an entire activity will be reported in detail and depth because it represents a typical experience. These descriptions are written in narrative form to provide a holistic picture of what has happened in the reported activity or event.

Reporting Findings

The actual content and format of a qualitative report will depend on the information needs of primary stakeholders and the purpose of the research. Even a comprehensive report will have to omit a great deal of the data collected by the researcher. Focus is essential. Analysts who try to include everything risk losing their readers in the sheer volume of the presentation. This process has been referred to as "the agony of omitting". The agony of omitting on the part of the researcher is matched only by the readers' agony in having to read those things that were not omitted but should have been.

Balance between Description and Analysis

In considering what to omit, a decision has to be made about how much description to include. Detailed description and in-depth quotations are the essential qualities of qualitative accounts. Sufficient description and direct quotations should be included to allow readers to understand fully the research setting and the thoughts of the people represented in the narrative. Description should stop short, however, of becoming trivial and mundane. The reader does not have to know absolutely everything that was done or said. Again, the problem of focus arises. Description is balanced by analysis and interpretation. Endless description becomes its own muddle. The purpose of analysis is to organize the description in a way that makes it manageable. Description is balanced by analysis and leads into interpretation. An interesting and readable final account provides sufficient description to allow the reader to understand the analysis and sufficient analysis to allow the reader to understand the interpretations and explanations presented.