Tribes Odisha: The Scheduled Tribes are members of aboriginal tribal people living in India before the arrival of the Aryans.
Although terms atavika, vanavasi (“forest dwellers”) or girijan (“hill people”) are used for the tribes of India but “adivasi” carries the specific meaning of being the original inhabitants of a given region in the hilly and forested areas.
Adivasi holds 8.6% of India’s population or 104 million, according to the 2011 census. 89.97% of them live in rural areas and 10.03% in urban areas. There are around 700 tribal groups found in India.
The scheduled tribe population in Jharkhand constitutes 26.2% of the state. Tribals in Jharkhand mainly follow Sarnaism, an animistic religion. Chhattisgarh has also 32-25 per cent scheduled tribe population. Assam has 40 lakh Adivasis.
We found Adivasi societies in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and some north-eastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
History of Adivasis
In Ancient India
Historically, the Adivasis governed themselves outside the influence of any particular ruler. In the Indian epics such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas there are many interactions and wars held between the forest or hill tribes and the Hindu rulers.
In some areas, securing adivasi approval and support was considered crucial by local rulers, and larger adivasi groups were able to sustain their own kingdoms in central India. The Gond Rajas of Garha-Mandla and Chanda are examples of an adivasi aristocracy that ruled in this region.
Thus, the adivasi origins of Valmiki, who composed the Ramayana, were acknowledged as the origin of adivasi tribes such as the Garasia and Bhilala, which descended from mixed Rajput and Bhil marriages.
In Islamic Period
The ownership of adivasi land by adivasis was severely disrupted by the advent of the Mughals in the early 16th century. Rebellions against Mughal authority include the Bhil Rebellion of 1632 and the Bhil-Gond Insurrection of 1643which were both pacified by Mughal soldiers.
British Period
Beginning with the Permanent Settlement imposed by the British in Bengal and Bihar, which later became the template for a deepening of feudalism throughout India, the older social and economic system in the country began to alter radically.
The land, both forest areas belonging to adivasis and settled farmland belonging to non-adivasi peasants, was rapidly made the legal property of British-designated zamindars (landlords), who in turn moved to extract the maximum economic benefits from their newfound property and subjects.
Adivasi lands sometimes experienced an influx of non-local settlers, often brought from far away by the zamindars to better exploit local land, forest and labor. Deprived of the forests and resources, they traditionally depended on and sometimes coerced to pay taxes, many adivasis were forced to borrow at usurious rates from moneylenders, often the zamindars themselves.
Land dispossession and subjugation by British and zamindar interests resulted in a number of adivasi revolts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as the Santal hul (or Santhal rebellion) of 1855–56.
Although these were suppressed ruthlessly by the East India Company, partial restoration of privileges to adivasi elites and some leniency in tax burdens resulted in relative calm.
Participation in Indian Independence Movement
There were several Adivasis including Dharindhar Bhyuan, Laxman Naik, Jantya Bhil, Bangaru Devi and Rehma Vasave, who participated in the Indian independence movement.
Characteristics of Scheduled Tribes
- They live in remote and inhospitable areas such as hills and forests
- Their livelihood is based on primitive agriculture having low level of technology that leads to their poverty. They have low levels of literacy and health standard
- Communities have developed their own distinctive culture, language and religion
- They have a marginal degree of contact with other cultures and people
A list of Scheduled Tribes in India is recognised as tribals under the Constitution of India. The Constitution of India, Article 366 (25) defines Scheduled Tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to the scheduled Tribes (STs) for the purposes of this Constitution.
