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Tribal people: Victims of Development
- Mr. Vachaspati V.

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Most of the people believe that folklore studies are confined to peasant societies. However, the characteristic features of peasant society i.e., oral traditions, relatively simple culture, mythology, folktales, and folk life and non-industrial occupations, can be found in tribal populations also. In India, almost all the peasant societies or agricultural rural societies are part of mainstream Hindu fold. However, the tribal societies are distinctly different from the Hindu culture, which are relatively isolated geographically. Next to Africa, India has the largest concentration of tribal population. Most of the tribal societies live on a hill, in a forest, or on a plain area with a few exceptions. According to Robert Redfield, its small size, physical isolation, high degree of homogeneity, group solidarity and the absence of literacy characterize folk society. The religion of Hindu is dominant in India and the process of Hinduization is on. Apart from industrialization, this makes the tribal societies experience the ‘culture contact’ and thus change. Some of the names of the tribal mentioned in the Hindu mythology include Bhils and Savaras. Some tribal societies are in the process of Sanskritization. Gonds the second biggest tribe in India is on the verge of becoming a Hindu caste. The impact of industrialization and culture contact on the tribes proved destructive to their societies in India. Hindu legends and traditions, fairy tales, animal tales, fables and myths penetrated deep into the tribal cultures. There may be a few correct definitions of the rural and the urban societies but there is no satisfactory definition anywhere for the term, ‘Tribe’. Even the Constitution of India has not defined this term clearly except by scheduling the tribes under Article.342. There are some problems in classifying tribal societies. The classifications by anthropologists, sociologists and folklorists are ignored by one another, but take their own classifications based on their bias. The taxonomical term used by the Government, Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) is nothing but looking down upon them. Instead, the government should better use such words as Endangered Tribal Group (ETG). Alternatively, they can adopt the method of N.K.Bose, who divides the tribal people into three principle categories, basing on the manner in which they primarily make their living. They are 1) Hunters, and Gatherers, Fishers 2) Shifting cultivators and 3) Settled Agriculturalists using plough and cattle, and nomadic cattle keepers, artisans and labourers, and workers in plantations and industries. This papers aims at stressing the methodological priority of the search for the laws of study of tribal culture, and in the science of man and his culture. According to Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckholn, culture is a “set of attributes and product of human societies, and therewith of mankind, which are extra somatic and transmissible by mechanisms other than biological heredity” (1952:145). Originally, folklore was the study of any society from its discovery and definition, fieldwork and archiving, analysis and theory, to its recycling and application, authenticity and ownership, revival and commercial use, cultural and political functions, its relevance to national, social, ethnic and local identities, and the emergence of emancipating folklore work in traditional and modern communities and nations. It includes the impact of modern media and political development due to the implementation of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments in India. The structure of traditional authority among the tribal societies has been witnessing changes. Originally, the folklore consists of ancient customs, festivals, old ditties and dateless ballads, archaic myths and legends. The success or failure of folklorists depends not only on their but also on the ambience of the national system within which their studies take place. Clearly, the task and success of these papers will be much greater if national policy is based upon tolerance of cultural variation, and a determination to link national development to the interests of the sub-cultures that make-up the nation, and the creation of national social system based upon a respect an interaction between members of such sub-cultures. Before launching a policy for the welfare of the simple societies i.e., tribal cultures, it is necessary to study their beliefs practices, folklore, in short, their culture. Their cultural phenomenon could be studies under ‘Emic’ terms, and should identify the areas of convergence and divergence. However, the government and others do not properly realize this at present as well as in past. In past, these kinds of situations resulted in several rebellions by the tribal people in India from 1778, the Revolt of Mal Paharias of Chotanagpur against the British Government, to the recent ‘Greater Nagaland’ by some sections of Naga people in North-East. The reasons for this tribal discontent in India are multi-dimensional i.e., harshness of forest laws and regulations, inadequate credit facilities, inability of protective legislation, ineffective measures in tribal rehabilitation who are displaces by development projects, ethnocentric feelings by both tribal and non-tribals, variations in cultural development, lack of proper representation in legislatures. Experts such as anthropologists, sociologists and folklorists than any other people can understand the beliefs of Tribal People and their practices and how they perceive the welfare policies of the government better. There are two kinds of elements in every culture: Core and Fringe. Culture Core means all the elements related to the subsistence, and the culture fringe means all the remaining elements. The elements consist of traits and a trait is the least divisible part of a culture. When there is a change in the culture ‘Core’, the result can be beneficial or fatal. When there is change in culture fringe, the results could be less beneficial or less fatal. The government, with the help of experts, should identify these core and fringe elements of a particular society. Then only it is possible to take appropriate decisions for their development. Tribal people have lived everywhere in intimate relationship with forests and their entire existence has been linked with it. There existed a ‘symbiotic relationship’, between tribal people and forests. Not only economic life but also the religious-social institutions are in relation with the surrounding forests. Many flora and fauna have been their objects of worship (Totem). The destruction of forests and displacement by development projects changed their emphasis on socio-economic-religious-magic phenomena. The Chenchus, a PTG have taken to crime in certain areas. Bhaviskar (1955) has traced the criminality among the Bhil and the Bhillalas of Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh, which is due to the growing control of the state over the forest resources and degeneration of cultivable lands. G.P. Reddy’s study highlighted the failure of the scheme of the Government of Andhra Pradesh for Chunchus’s resettlement and the failure of Chenchis to adopt agriculture. The government failed to recognize the traditions of Chenchus and thus resulted in the failure of these schemes. Resettlement houses were built with burnt bricks and systematic drainage facilities. However, after a few months, most of the Chenchus abandoned these houses. This is because Chenchus burn the but after the death of a member of their family or they abandon their entire guden (hamlet) or move slightly to the other side of it they are many deaths owing to epidemics. By tradition, they are semi-nomadic, move freely in the forest, and are not habituated to living in permanent huts. They use to construct huts under trees. These factors were not considered when their colony was constructed with well-laid streets and bricks-walled huts. The failure of Chenchus to adopt to agriculture though the British allotted land to them on cooperative basis is due to the fact that Chenchus are primarily food-gatherers and lack agricultural skills. Moreover, they are individualistic and lack marital stability, which is essential for agriculture that needs many hands. Instead of these policies, the government could have developed bee keeping industry and forest based cottage industry for them. This only one of the case studies to explain the failure of government initiatives. Verrier Elvin reported about the institution of Dormitory in the tribal societies of India, particularly in Northeast. The tribal folk of Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Northeast have this type of institutions. This has a great bearing upon the socio-economic life of their societies. A dormitory is a place to accommodate guests and serves as a meeting place for gossip and recreation by the old and young. The young gather in dormitory in the evening to dance, sing and play to participate in the folk tales, folklore and even do sexual activities for training. Strict secrecy is maintained about the happenings inside the dormitory. The precise significance of the dormitories lies in the training that they provide to the young members. This scope of the training imparted in a dormitory is much broader than that provided in a school. However, it is sad to note that the cultural contacts with the non-tribal people and spread of Christianity news forms of living have been in to the tribal life and consequently they started feeling ashamed of attending these institutions. Among the tribal people of India, the institution of marriage is more advanced regarding the age of marriage of the youth than their so-called advanced neighbours. There is enough opportunity for the satisfaction of sex impulses outside the marriage. Premarital sexual chastity is not rigidly insisted upon in a large number of tribes. Monogamy, polyandry and polygyny are found among the tribals of India. Divorces and widow remarriages are universally permitted which are not found in traditional Hindu societies. Drinking is also a part of their socio-religious practices. In all the ceremonies and rites connected with birth, death, marriages, festivals and propitiation of evil spirits. The tribal indulges in drinking has no scope for terms of trade and exploitation, but promotes solidarity among them. But the modern laws related to alcoholic beverages, modern marriage laws and laws related to inheritance have led to changes in their social structure. Various development government plans have failed at three levels 1) Making policies 2) their Implementation and 3) the requirement and training of the personnel. The policies are stereotypes and devoid of tribal bias. Because of this, some tribes were benefited while others experienced ‘Cultural Shocks’, resulting in inequalities among the various tribal groups. Perhaps the most critical policies of the government to affect tribal people are related to their position of land. Any modification of the traditional man-land relationship will undoubtedly have a major impact on all the aspects of tribal culture. Many good plans of the government have failed at the implementation level because the personnel responsible for the implementation are generally unsympathetic to them in addition to the bottlenecks of administrative flaws. Unless the important aspects of tribal life are well understood, all the programmes, however good and useful fail to yield fruitful results. The policies of the government for development of tribes designed to bring changes in local hydrology, vegetation and settlement patterns and to increase population mobility failed. Even the programmes to reduce the spread of certain diseases have frequently led to dramatic increase because of the unforeseen effects of disturbing the pre-existing order. A part from this, apparently voluntary changes, it appears that more often dietary changes are found upon unwilling people by the circumstances beyond their control. In sum areas, new food crops have been introduced by a government’s decree to end hunting, pastoralism or shifting cultivation. Food habits have also been modified by massive disruption of the natural environment by outsiders. In fact, shifting cultivation and pastoralism, both highly successful economic adaptations under traditional conditions, have proved vulnerable to the pressures of the increased populations and the efforts to raise productivity beyond their natural limits. Shifting or Swidden cultivation has come under severe attack by the government almost like pastoral nomadism. To administrators it appears to be a wasteful process, but in most tropical forest environment under aboriginal conditions it has proved to be a very sound and stable form of application where shallow soils and heavy rainfall place severe limitations on agricultural activities. Most of the innovations are in fact tailor-made specifically to the needs of the world market, and accepting them very often means also accepting a variety of other related innovations and an ever-increasing dependence on the world economy. The developmental programmes have introduced into the tribal culture the modern capitalist economy. The subsistence character of economy is overall declining. It has accelerated inequalities among the various segments of tribes. Before the advent of the British, it is believed that no tribal people are suffering from poverty. However, the only identity left for the tribal people today is their existential situation: increasing poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and destabilization. The loss of primordial attributes is massive. Our Five Year Plans laid emphasis on industrial growth, both in manufacturing and agriculture. In the latter sector, the government has encouraged large irrigation projects and chemical fertilizers, which, largely, benefit property owners but not peasants. Many projects such as Sardar Sarovar Dam, the Steel Plants of Chotanagpur plateau and the railway lines laid deep into the tribal regions resulted in ‘acculturation’. The ownership of land among the tribal is governed by a set of customary rights. Among the tribal people of Bihar, individual ownership either is managed by the village council or settled by the chief while among Maler of Raj Mahal hills, the communal ownership is prevalent. In many agricultural tribes, the village community owns certain types of and the laws of inheritance, in matter of details, vary from situation to situation. Most of the tribal people have their own land, from which bulk of their population get economic support. With the gradual change in the laws and regulations of land and with the introduction of Zamindari system during British era, the tribal people were dispossessed of their lands and forests. The pace of industrialization has accelerated urbanization after the First World War and especially after India’s independence. The tribal belt of middle India is in the strangling grip of Industrial Revolution and rapid urbanization, termed as ‘Industry based urban explosion’. Industrialization and consequent urbanization deep in the tribal regions of Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have greatly affected the folk and primitive population, which previously led to homogeneous, distinctive and folk style of life. The influx of non-tribal people into the tribal regions as skilled workers to work in the industries led to the breakdown of social structure and consequent re-alignment of that structure. This resulted in un-lawful activities such as extremist and prostitution. In certain cases there emerged undesirable consequences such as land alienation, poverty, child labour, venereal diseases, bonded labour, increase in infant mortality and loss of their folklore. The linguistic and cultural policies and massive influx of non-tribal population into the tribal habitats have accentuated the threat to their cultural identity and generated a sense of deprivation. This resulted in cultural shock. W.H.R.Rivers (1922), speculated that the sudden total transformation experienced by many tribes causes a form of shock that made people stop producing or desiring children, in some cases they simply died because life was not longer worth living. The tribe, Great Andamanis are already on the verge of extinction. Many more tribal societies are heading towards extinction. It is well known fact that the tribal folk of India have an integrated well-balanced social system and functioning and used to lead a corporate life during the pre-independence era. However, under the British Administration, their corporate life received a severe blow. Accepting novel technologies in most cases mean a total abandonment of their traditional economic self-sufficiency and this is not at all a desirable change to promote. Now, the questions need to be examined by all: what will be the impact of UNESCO’s international recommendation for the safeguarding of traditional culture and folklore in the sphere of folklore theory and practical work in the field traditions? What will be outlook of folklorist in the New Millennium? Are we prepared for developmental strategy, which may be beneficial for all tribal societies, big and small? Have we been able to pose the right kind of questions? These questions need to be answered by experts themselves. Almost all the problem of human society can be solved when we find out the origin of the problem. For this, the knowledge of culture is essential. India is a plural society, and that plurality must be respected and preserved. No one opposed the development, but the development should be at the expense of tribal societies that made them ‘Victims of Development; really these cultures could not have survived for half a million years if they had not done a reasonable job of satisfying human needs. A high degree of social engineering is required for repairing these societies and this can be done only through proper study through folklore. Notes: 1. M. Satyanarayana and V. Gangadharan, Chenchus and Development Programmes in, Tribal Development. 2. Verrier Elvin, Philosophy of NEFA. 3. Nadeem Husnain, Tribal India Today. 4. Jagannath Pathy, ‘Indian State and Tribal Development’, in Tribal Development. 5. P.C.Mahapatro, ‘Dynamics of Tribal and non-Tribal Interaction’, in Economic Development of Tribal India. 6. C.H.Browner, Bernard R.Ortiz de Montellano and Arthur J Rubel, ‘A Methodology of Cross Cultural Ethno-medical Research’, Current Anthropology (1988). 7. Cyril S.Belshaw, ‘Contribution of Anthropology to Development’, Current Anthropology (1974:520). 8. B.K.Roy Burman, Transfer and Alienation of Tribal Land’, Tribal Development in India. 9. John H. Badley, Victims of Progress (1975).

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