Social Change Among the Tribes During Colonial & Post Independent India | Anthropology Optional for UPSC PDF Download

Introduction

• TRIBAL societies like other societies have also been undergoing change. However, the fact remains that powerful forces of change were released for the first time only during colonial period and that is why colonial transformation of the tribal society forms an important area of study and investigation in anthropological studies in the Indian subcontinent. The most apparent aspect in any such study is the fact that with the extension of authority of the state to the forest regions largely inhabited by the tribal populations, a number of minor and major tribal uprisings occurred.
• BEFORE taking up the emerging dimensions of tribal transformation that began more or less with the advent of colonial rule, it would not be out of place to take a brief look at some features of pre-colonial situation. In any such analysis we should, first of all, give up the popular notion that before the advent of the British Colonial rule the tribal communities have been leading the existence of total isolation- geographical and cultural-from the centers of Indian civilization.
  The presence of ant mahamatya during Mauryan period, whose reference is found on the rock edicts of Asoka, bears testimony to the fact that the polity of even such an ancient period had contacts with the communities living in hills and forests (Girijan & Vanvasi). There was a definite orientation of the adivasis towards the larger Hindu population though the tribals were not “Hindus" following their customs and traditions including their animistic beliefs. A number of anthropologists brought out classification of tribal communities focussing on cultural process. This exercise was largely in terms of the orientation of the tribal communities towards the Hindu- Society B.K.Roy Burman (1970) classified the tribes as follows:
  (a) Tribes incorporated in the Hindu social order
  (b) Tribes positively oriented towards the Hindu social order
  (c) Tribes negatively oriented towards the Hindu social order
  (d) Tribes indifferent towards the Hindu social order
• AMPLIFYING his position, Roy Burman observed that the tribes like the Bhil, Bhumij, etc. may be considered to be incorporated in the Hindu social order. They had accepted the ethos of the caste structure and now can hardly be differentiated from the neighbouring Hindu peasantry. The tribes like the Santhal, the Oraon, the Munda, the Gond etc. can be considered to be positively oriented towards the Hindu social order. Though the bulk of their population were not in caste frame and they are still not, to a considerable extent they have adopted the symbols, ethos and the world view of their Hindu neighbours. Tribal communities like the Mizo and the Naga can be considered to be negatively oriented towards the Hindty social order. They definitely rejected caste as a frame for social organization. Most of the tribal communities in Arunachal can be considered to be indifferent to Hindu social order.
  They were and still are hardly aware of the tenets of Hinduism. Many of them traditionally eat beef and their moral constraints and systems of pollution and purity do not appear to bear any significant degree of resemblance to those of the Hindus. Yet, as Roy Burman (1994) himself acknowledges, positive and negative orientation towards dominant cultural influences is not a rigidly fixed pattern for all times to come. The situation has definitely changed in varying degrees. In later years, Roy Burman has disassociated himself with this approach but as a referrant to the precolonial or colonial set up this can still be used to understand the socio-cultural situation vis -a-vis tribal communities.
• IN ORDER to understand the colonial and post-colonial situation visa-vis social-cultural change the classifications of L.P. Vidyarthi (1977) and S.C. Dube (1977) may also be referred to which talked about different levels and stages of acculturation vis-a-vis the larger Hindu society, more precisely Hindu peasantry in different regions of the country.
• COMMENTING on the pre-colonial situation, K.S. Singh in his essay on Colonial Transformation of the Tribal Society in Middle India, agrees with the view that most of the ethnographers described the pre-colonial situation as static. Through his case study of the tribal communities of Middle India, K.S. Singh relies on historical evidence and says that three major trends were visible during pre-colonial period. His analysis is largely oriented towards politico-economic dimensions. Citing three major, trends, he says that the first was colonization and establishment of settlements (bhums) by peasant castes, who were encouraged by the Mughal rulers and zamindars to reclaim lands and offered various incentives for this purpose, or by other categories of immigrants.
  Trade and strategic routes passing through the jungle regions acquired a new significance. The Jharkhand and Gondwana emerged as historical regions in the medieval period. Secondly, many tribes, such as Bhils, Mina, Kols and Gond were recognised as dominant communities by the Mughal empire. Thirdly, we witness the rise of state either out of the tribal matrix as in the case of the Gond and Chero or as a result of the imposition on the tribal system of the authority of the Rajputs and other castes which established their power in the highlands of Orissa, Central India, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
  A crucial precondition of the formation of state in middle India was the extension of cultivation through there clamation of land and the introduction of a new agricultural technology by the peasantry from plains. The Gond Nagabansi and Chero chiefs encouraged the settlement of non-tribal peasant communities such as Kurmi, Keori and Kunbi, who with their superior agricultural technology, alone could generate the agricultural surpluses that the new states required, A new mode of production thus emerged.
  A consequence of the imposition of the feudal super structure on the tribal society was its breakdown and fragmentation into distinct social strata, based on corresponding distribution of power and economic interests in land and defined in terms of ritual status. The new states acted as the agents of sanskritization but they also strengthened the sense of tribal identity. State formation stimulated commercial activities, developed trade routes and promoted small scale urbanism. A variety of castes ranging from the Brahmins, who were tempted by generous grants of land, to the artisan communities flocked to the new fort cities. All in all, a complex social-economic system had emerged in certain parts of tribal middle India even before the colonial System was established there.”
• THUS, with the establishment of the colonial rule the relative (geographical/cultural) isolation of most of the tribal societies in India came to an end. Radical changes in tribal situation occurred. The British Colonial rule created new problem by replacing the old social organization, agrarian system and socio-economic values with the new ones the tribals were not familiar with. Old forms of social controls and agencies of social change were revised. New forms of commercialization began. Not only land became property but significantly private property. A new rule of law was established.
  The colonial rule “initiated commercialization of production, consumerism and money/cash economy to precisely serve their exploitative interest. The State power played a decisive role in determining the future of the people and during the British period It experienced a basic transformation. As a result, the self contained subsistence economy based on agriculture and forest produce was weakened and destroyed" (S.R. Sharma, 1999). The customary law of tribal communities was replaced by the new law of the centralised state power during the British rule and this continued even after that. The new law operated through it’s administrative and judicial organs and helped the process of Hinduisation to some extent. This process progressed in proportion to the urbanization and transformation into capitalist economic development.
• THE most striking feature of this period was the breakdown of the communal mode of production and the emergence of private right in land. A further stage In the development of the peasant system was the penetration of tribal economy by market. The colonial system created a demand for money in largely non-money economies to pay land revenue and other levies, to defray expenditure of various kinds, and to buy necessities, "The traditional form of barter exchange died away. There was some evidence that sections of the tribes took to commodity production on at a limited scale." (K.S. Singh, ibid).
  Even the most primitive economies came gradually within the operation of the market system. With the market came the middle man, merchants and moneylenders. Here the concept of diku (the aliens, outsiders) becomes crucial to the understanding of agrarian relations. A diku was the creature of the colonial system who performed a variety of functions as a middle man in administrative matters, as a moneylender, as a trader who controlled production of foodgrain through the system of advance credit, and as a land grabber.
• DURING this period the process of peasantization and depeasantization operated at the same time. Several tribal communities who were not peasants were coming into the fold of peasantry while a number of tribal people after losing their land were entering into a different economic system. Substantial sections of tribes from middle India such as Santhals, Oraon and Munda had to migrate to the tea plantations of Assam and the adjoining areas while others became industrial labour, share-croppers etc.
  Inter-tribal markets had been traditionally an institution of sociocultural importance. These were not the places only for economic transactions. It also served as agency of Culture Change. With the entry of new market forces and creation of demand for new commodities triggered by the outsiders the traditional tribal markets either declined or were transformed into places of formal economic exchanges and activities. Profit making had never been the dominant value in tribal economy. Rather, reciprocity, redistribution and cooperation were the bases of the traditional tribal economy. All these values were eroded.
  Now the tribal society was moving closer and closer to the peasant/ caste stratified system. This strengthened the role of sanskritization. Several tribes of middle India unitedly moved towards the Varna system and laid their claim over Kshatriya status mainly because the Kshatriya model of Sanskritization or Kshatriazation was the easiest and most popular process. The Santhals and the Gonds are the most obvious examples of this process.
• THE role of Christianity as an agent of change also deserves some discussion mainly in the north-east regions as well as astray pockets of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal. Since Christianity was perhaps the earliest agency of welfare in a number of tribal areas, it took a back seat as an ideology. The modernizing role of Christian missions is also an important feature of social change in those tribal areas where it had a deep impact. But unfortunately there always existed a close link between Christianity and Colonialism. "At the political level, the missionaries, in close collaboration with the colonial administrators, rationalised the raj (British rule) and sought to create a new bastion of support for it among the backward communities of India.
  In the initial phases, the missionary activities were disruptive of the tribal system. Evangelisation was inherently ethnocentric. The missionary imposed a puritanical ethic on the permissive tribal society, though the approaches of various denominations (of missionaries) to social questions markedly varied depending on the exigencies of the situation." (K.S. Singh, Ibid). In the north-eastern region and middle India they mainly worked on the tribes and elsewhere on non-tribal communities mainly the lower social strata of Hindus and Muslims. Under the impact of Christianity, a number of values and institutions of the affected tribal communities wilted. The fate of Youth Dormitories’, a very popular institution of tribes declined. Obviously, the missionaries wanted the churches only to be the places of congregation. At the same time it is also true to an extent that the Christianity gave a new sense of self-respect to the tribal peasants and sought to create a separate identity for them.
• IN ANY analysis of social change among the tribal communities during the colonial period the role of tribal movements cannot be ignored. Many tribes reacted to the changes brought about by the colonial administration in a variety of ways. Because of their prolonged relative isolation the tribal communities had developed their own social structure and mechanism of social control and they were quite sensitive to them. Perhaps that is why they reacted to these changes more strongly and often violently than other populations. We have got a chronicled description of tribal movements and revolts-minor and major-and studies of unrest and disturbances. Most of the tribal movements could be covered under the headings of ‘Anti-Colonial’, ‘Anti- Diku' and ‘Pro-Ethnic’.
  Analysing the nature and consequences of these tribal movements in Middle India K.S. Singh (ibid) write that ‘the first phase (1795-1860) coincided with the rise, expansion and establishment of the British empire. It saw the rise of what we may call the 'primary resistance movements’. It was led by the traditional chiefs and their subordinates who had been dispossessed of their property and thrown out of their occupations by the new system. The Chuar rebellion (1795- 1800), the uprisings of Chero and disturbances in Chotanagpur in 1820, the Kol and Bhumij insurrections, the resistance offered by Gond zamindars in 1819 and 1842 and the Khond resistance of mid 1830s are some of the examples of this phase. The Santhal insurrection (1855- 59) was both a resistance and agrarian-cum-revivalistic movement. All these movements sharpened the tribal ethnicity and gave them a new identity.
  The second phase (1860-1920) coincided with the intensive phase or colonialism, which saw a much deeper penetration of tribal and peasant economies by merchant capital, higher incidence of rent etc. All gains registered during the first phase of the movements were washed away. Not only those who were expelled came back but many more also came, intensifying the exploitation of tribes. Unlike the peasants, the tribal movements developed a religious and political overtone. The failure of the first phase of movements had made the tribals look inward. They sought to restructure the entire social system. This was the beginning of revitalization movements. The Munda-Oraon Sardar Movement (1869-1895) led by Birsa Munda, the Tana Bhagat. Movement (1895-1901) and the Bhil’s movement led by Govind Giri may be the examples of this phase which were largely socio-cultural in nature.
  It involved participation of the tribes in the national and agrarian movements and emergence of a seperatist movement in Chotanagpur. It also reflected a deep yearning and craving for the roots and a sense of pride in tribal cultures. The followers of Mahatma Gandhi sprung up among the Bhils, Gonds Hos. Oraon. Mundas and Santhals. It also coincided with the politicisation of the tribes bringing them into the mainstream of national Politics and Political process (for details see the chapter on Tribal Movements). The tribal movements of the colonial period had a deep imprint on the struggle of the tribal people in the post-independence period.
• PETER GARDNER (1978) in his review of social-cultural change among the tribal peoples of India has selected five tribes namely the Garos of Assamt now of Meghalya (studied by Burlington, 1963). Bhumij of Bengal (Sinha, 1957, 59, 62, 65), Konds of Orissa (Bailey, 1960) Kotas from the Nilgiri Hills (Mandelbaum., 1954,55,60) and Paliyans from the southern extremity of Tamil Nadu (Gardner, 1966. 699 72). Talking about the Garos, he says that " basically there are two broad phases to the recent history of the Garos as Burlington recreates it. First, there was a protracted period during which endemic head hunting in the hills and other war like behaviour kept outsiders at arm’s length. It did not prevent active market links between the Garos and plainsmen in market towns at the foot of the hills but it did prevent even the most concerted efforts of zamindars from bringing any but the edge of the plateau under their authority. Burlington describes the border as being in constant turmoil. Phase twp began abruptly. In 1867 the British moved troops onto the plateau, nine years later, by a symbolic gesture in which they destroyed two hundred skulls. It brought headhunting to a sudden end. As for as the other areas of society and culture they adopted change on their own terms. Except some changes in the life of the converted Christian Garos they remained largely unaffected. Moreover, one way or the other, Garos did not comply with whatever pressure there might have been from their Hindu neighbours to give up widow remarriage, slaughtering and eating of beef, or casual handling of cooked food. They chose to judge behavioural propriety in their own terms.
• IN MANY superficial wavs the Konds of Kondmals, in northern Orrissa, live in Circumstances startlingly like those of the Garos. The East India Company, repelled morally by the practice of Kond human sacrifice, waged a twenty year war in the mid-nineteenth century to bring the whole Kond area under it’s jurisdiction. Protective policies enunciated in 1855 amounted to little at first. Between 1875 and 1924. a great deal was done by way of road building and vocational education. And in 1897 Konds were offered special compensatory rights and privileges under laws to ensure them justice in the face of Oriya exploitation. They were protected, for example, from loss of their land (Bailey, 1960). Bailey sums the situation up in terms of two trends, the results of different administrative policies: (a)-assimilation through opening up of the area and (b) protection from exploitation through education, laws, reserved jobs, and general "uplift". The area did open up, exploitation was not severe, but educational advances in retrospect have to be viewed as modest. Other outcomes of change during the period include improvement of the medical situation, articulation with the world of caste, establishment of regular dominance-submission relationships with other peoples, and retension with changed functions of territorial clans and lineages.
• THE Bhumij of Barabhum, in the Eastern foothills of the Chotanagpur Plateau, have been associated with the Barabhum kingdom since the thirteenth to sixteenth century (Surajit Sinha, 1962), A century ago there were fewer non-Bhumij in the area and the land was more forested. While they are known to have been speakers of a Munda language in the past, by the early nineteenth century the Bhumij were reported to be speaking Bengali, the language of the great agricultural plain around them and by the 1880s they were said to speak only Bengali. A century ago, there were no weekly markets in the area, only itinerant traders. With the general opening up of the area to Hindu immigrants gradual Hinduization of the Bhumij began from the apex of their society downward. They claimed a true Rajput-Khastriya ancestry. New festivals to major Hindu deities, and the much admired behavioural model of the Rajput-Kshatriya were the obvious features of this transformation. The link with an interfering external British administration was to stay and Hinduization was to continue.
• THE Kota have been studied several times by David Mendelbaum who has published a steady stream of articles on their changing relationship with the outside world. As he reconstructs the past, Mandelbaum gives some credence to a folk-historical idea that, once, the Kotas who are artisans, the Todas who herd buffaloes, and the Kurumbas who are food collectors were the sole occupants of the Nilgiri plateau. Then, centuries ago Badaga cultivators arrived from Mysore as refugees of War. The four people worked out a small social system of their own with caste like economic and ritual inter-dependence and with a distinct hierarchy in terms of both power and considerations of purity., The new era began with a peaceful influx of Britishers and plainsmen having special interests in the plateau. When the British arrived to establish hill stations in the early nineteenth century, traders were already visiting the area and labourers were infiltrating from the plains. There was some missionary and government education of Kotas. The Kotas gradually became sophisticated. A reformist faction of the Kotas undertook to sanskritize their behaviour, especially that which other Nilgiri tribes took to be demeaning. Mandelbaum contends that these changes have been slow and self determined.
• THE Paliyans are, largely, a food collecting people of southernmost India who have been known for centuries as shy honey-collectors. They live in bands scattered along the east slope of the ranges dividing southern Tamil Nadu from Kerala. For many centuries, Paliyans have maintained sporadic, tangential contact with the Tamil plainsmen around them. In it’s most circumspect form this contact has been silent barter of forest produce for commodities such as metal implements, cloth, and condiments. Forest contractors, however, pursued Paliyans into their inhospitable dry thorny forest to arrange for special kinds of labour-such as the extraction of soap, nuts, hemp, and elkhorn. Paliyans had to enter into contract labour under threats, even at gun point, and some bands, after experiencing episodes of such bullying retreated into an almost fully nomadic existence. Thus the variation between contact and isolation is best seen as cyclical. The second phase of Paliyan contact with outsiders could be thought of in quantitative terms rather than qualitative. Mandelbaum attributed this to (a) increased exploitation of forest produce, (b) development of plantations in the lower valleys which Paliyans have long Inhabited, (c) entry of benevolent development officers, malaria eradication crew, etc., and (d) the lure of material advantages (Peter Gardnor, 1972). But a qualitative change does take place when Paliyans settle down.
• THE colonial administration was, by and large, law and order oriented administration. It certainly acted as a catalytic agent but the pace of social change increased manifold in the post-independence period. Some aspects of change under the impact of welfare and developmental measures could be seen in a separate chapter in. this book captioned as 'Social Change and the Contemporary Tribal Societies’.