Development Discourse of Tribes in India

As per 2001 census, groups, communities described as tribes have been estimated at 83.4 million representing 8.2 per cent of country’s population. Though they constitute only 8.2 percent of the total population, they represent an enormous diversity in terms of size, language and linguistic traits, ecological situations, physical features, extent of acculturation, modes of making a living level of development. Up till independence the tribal population lived in comparative isolation form the national scene and lived almost a self-sufficient life where they had their own diverse forms of political organisation. With the rise of British rule the situation changed as the introduction of new and uniform civil and criminal laws as well as administrative structures that were imposed on ‘tribal’ traditions and ethos. When India became independent in 1947, tribes still lived in isolation from social, educational and economic backwardness and they found themselves increasingly losing control over their land resources as the tribal areas were integrated with the larger society through network of roads and railways on the one hand and trade and commerce on the other. All these opened the floodgates for influx of people from outside in the areas as government officials, traders, merchants, moneylenders and even as land hungry peasants and cultivators. Despite the various interventions from the government to address the tribal development issues, through both constitutional safeguards and interventionist five-year plans, empirical studies indicated that tribal remained in a state of exclusion, exploitation and marginalisation