rural and tribal societies in indiasdeuoc.ac.in/sites/default/files/sde_videos/i sem ma...rural and...

RURAL AND TRIBAL SOCIETIES

IN INDIA

MA SOCIOLOGY

I SEMESTER

(2019 Admission Onwards)

(CORE COURSE)

UNIVERSITY OF CALICUTSchool of Distance Education

Calicut University- P.O, Malappuram- 673635,Kerala

190354

School of Distance Education

Rural and Tribal Societies in India

UNIVERSITY OF CALICUTSchool of Distance EducationStudy MaterialI SemesterMA SOCIOLOGY(2019 Admission)

Core Course (SOCI C04)

RURAL AND TRIBAL SOCIETIES IN INDIA

Prepared by:

Smt.. RANJINI.PT,Assistant Professor of Sociology,School of Distance Education,University of Calicut.

Scrutinized by:

Sri. Shailendra Varma R,Assistant Professor,Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College,Calicut.



Objectives

1. To acquaint students with basics of rural and tribal societies in our country.

2. To analyze rural and tribal problems.

3. To provide knowledge of rural and tribal social institutions.

MODULE 1 - RURAL AND PEASANT SOCIETY

1.1 Scope and importance of the study of rural society in India

1.2 Rural society, Peasant society, Agrarian society: Features

1.3 Perspectives on Indian village community: Historical and Ecological

1.4 Nature and changing dimensions of village society, Village studies-Marriot &

Beteille

MODULE 2 - CHANGING RIRAL SOCIETY

2.1 Agrarian social structure, Land ownership and agrarian relations

2.2 Emergent class relations, Decline of Agrarian economy, De-peasantization

2.3 Land reforms and its impact on rural social structure with special reference to

Kerala

2.4 Migration, Globalization and rural social transformation.

MODULE 3 - GOVERNANCE IN RURAL SOCIETY

3.1 Rural governance: Village Panchayath, Caste Panchayath, Dominant

caste

3.2 Decentralization of power in village society, Panchayathi Raj

3.3 Community Development Programme in India

3.4 People’s Planning Programme: A critical Appraisal

MODULE 4 - TRIBAL SOCIETY IN INDIA

4.1 History of Indian Tribes, Demographic features

4.2 Integration of the Tribals with the Non-tribals, Tribe-caste continuum

4.3 Tribal problems in India

4.4 Approaches, Planning and programmes for Tribal Development.



MODULE 1

RURAL AND PEASANT SOCIETY

Rural and tribal societies in India is the fourth paper of MA Sociology. This paper deals with the

structure and characteristics of rural and tribal societies in India in ancient as well as in modern

period. Even though the process of urbanization is very fast in modern society, the rural societies

are not fully disappeared so the study of rural and tribal society deserves relevance in society.

This course acquaints the students with the basics of rural and tribal societies in India and at the

same time it provides a clear picture about the rural and tribal social problems. The course also

tries to give an idea about the rural and tribal social institutions. Through providing these

intellectual outlooks the course also provides an outlook about the fellow beings living in rural

and tribal society.

The paper constituted by four modules First Module is Rural and peasant society, which discusses

the origin, development, nature and scope of the study of rural society in world as well as in

India. The module also tries to familiarize the basic concepts in Rural sociology that is the

scientific study of rural society. The module displays the structure and characteristics of village

community with the help of the studies of well known Indian sociologists like Marriot and

Beteille. The second module is changing rural society, which deals with the transformation of

the rural society from agrarian social structure to the modern form. The rural society transformed

mainly with the influence of emergence of class society. The emergent class relations destruct

the agrarian economy which leads to de-peasantization. Land reforms are another peculiarity of

post-independent society; it is another cause of decline of agrarian society. Migration and

globalization are another two factors leading to rural transformation. Module third mainly

analyzes the governance in rural society, which discusses the historical emergence of the

governance system in rural society. Village Panchayath, caste Panchayath and dominant caste

are the early governing body in rural society. Decentralization of power is the attraction of village

society during post-independence period. Tribal society in India is the fourth module of this

paper. The fourth module mainly discusses the history of Indian tribes give special reference to

the demographic features of tribes, integration of tribes with non-tribes, tribe-caste continuum,

tribal problems in India and the approaches, planning and programmes for tribal development.



1.1 Scope and importance of the study of rural society in India

Rural society is the subject matter of rural sociology. It is a field of sociology associated with the

study of social life in rural society. Rural social institutions, social structure, social change, rural

life etc. are important topics analyzed in rural sociology. Rural sociology is the scientific study

of rural society and it is the holistic study of rural social settings. Rural sociology became

prominent during the late industrial revolution in France, Ireland, Prussia, Scandinavia and US.

The systematic origin of rural sociology is in 19th century in America. The period of 1890-1920

in America saw the rural societies facing many socio-economic problems which attracted the

attention of the intelligentsia thus establishing study of rural society as an academic discipline.

The appointment of Country life Commission by Theodore Roosevelt was an important landmark

in the history of rural sociology. It has been argued that the Second World War caused heavy

destruction and damage to human society which needed immediate reconstruction. As a result

rural sociology got an impetus in USA. The main concern of rural sociology came to be the

understanding and diagnosing of the social and economic problems of farmers. More emphasis

was placed on issues such as the internal structures of community life and the changing

composition of rural populations than on their relationships with land or the social aspects of

agricultural production. The prominent scholars engaged in researches in rural sociology during

this period were Sir Henry Maine, Etton, Stemann, Baden Powell, Slater and Pallock etc.

It was since about the middle of the nineteenth century that more systematic observations on the

history of the origin and transformation of rural society have been advanced the impact of the

capitalist industrial civilization upon the rural economy and social structure, in various parts of

the world, forced the attention of scholars to the study of the trends of rural social development.

Research in the subject of the origin and the nature of village communities which were

undergoing transformation was launched.

Emergence of sociology as an organized discipline in USA

However, rural sociology as an organized discipline consciously developed, is of very recent

origin. Due to historical reasons it has originated in the U.S.A. and slowly tends to draw attention

elsewhere as its importance is being realized. The American society faced an all round decay

during the period among 1890-1920 this period known as the exploiter period. Intelligentsia

makes analysis about the exploiter period and a considerable literature, describing and analyzing

the problems arising out of its growing crisis, came into existence. This literature, however, did

not explore, locate, and formulate the fundamental laws governing the development of rural



society. It became pre-requisites for the birth of the science of rural society but did not still create

that science. However, the beginnings of rural sociology may be traced to those “streams” of

publications.

The first valuable work on the subject was the Report on the Country life Commission appointed

by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. A number of Doctorate theses based on the study of

the rural community comprised further significant literature dealing with problems of rural life

and providing, revealing information thereon. Finally a group of rural church and school studies

made by individuals interested in an investigation of maladjustments in rural life constituted the

third “stream” of publications. This literature served as the basis for creating the science of rural

sociology in the U.S.A. The Country life Commission, under the chairmanship of Dean Bailey,

the eminent scholar of rural problems, conducted a field work on the basis of questionnaire. The

Commission, on the basis of this investigation, published a report in which they attempt to

analyze and diagnose the defects and deformities of rural society. “This report actually provided

what might be called a charter for Rural Sociology”.

“An American Town,” “Quaker Hill” and “A Hoosier Village”, of which James Michel Williams,

Warren H. Wilson and Newell L. Sims were respectively authors, represented further studies of

the American rural community. These studies were based on statistical and historical data and

field-interview techniques and were submitted as research documents at the Columbia University

between 1906 and 1912. Dr. Warren Wilson, along with others interested in the process of rural

life, carried on a number of rural church studies. These studies, together with some rural school

studies and “The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community” by Dr. C.J. Galpin based on

an investigation into rural life made by him at the Agricultural Experiment Station of the

University of Wisconsin in 1915, comprised additional literature germane to rural sociology until

1916.

“Rural Sociology” by Prof. John M. Gillettee published in 1916 served as the first college text

book on the subject. Subsequently, a number of writers devoted them to the study of rural life

and published valuable works which also enriched the literature on the subject. The publication

of “A Systematic Source Book in Rural Sociology” in 1930 recognized as an “Epoch-making”

work contributed decisively to accelerate the advance of rural sociology.

Later on, other intellectuals also focused their attention on the subject and helped its further

development. Sorokin, Zimmerman, Galpin, Taylor, Kolb, Brunner, Sims, Dwight Sanderson,

Landis, Redfield and Smith are some of the outstanding social thinkers in the U.S.A. whose



intellectual labour resulted in a phenomenal advance of the new science of rural sociology. The

founding of the journal “Rural Sociology” in 1935 (at present a monthly) and the establishment

of “Rural Sociological Society of America” in 1937 were further landmarks in the history of its

growth. It has started taking roots and is slowly but securely spreading itself in various parts of

the world including India which needs it the most in view of its very large rural population with

innumerable complex problems.

The origin and development of Rural Sociology in America was influenced by the social

conditions during the period of 1890-1920 and its analyses by the world of intelligentsia. Besides

these, the research works and teaching, influences the development of Rural sociology.

Origin of Rural Sociology in India

Rural sociology is the science of rural society as a whole, the origin of Rural sociology in

America was influenced by the problematic nature of rural society. The origin of Rural sociology

also reflected in the development of rural sociology in India. The intellectual world received and

recorded the problematic nature of rural society, it leading to the publication of books on rural

social problems. Even though the books are the main pillar of the development of rural sociology

in India, the systematic growth started with the promulgation of the Constitution of India and the

implementation of Community Development Programme in India. We are briefly discuss the

emergence of Rural sociology in India.

Sir Henry S. Maine a well known Anthropologist, the beginning of the study of rural society in

India is closely related with him. Maine brought out two significant books, viz., Ancient Law

(1861) and Ancient Society (1877). Maine, though wrote about Indian villages and designated it

as a republic, he had his own bias which was Euro-centric in its cognition and value terms.

Dumont an Indologist has criticized Maine for his European bias in analyzing Indian rural

society. Actually the British administrators-turned ethnographers and Anthropologists

considered the village community as an autonomous sociological isolate. This is particularly

reflected in the writings of Charles Metcalf and other British administrators in India besides

Henry Maine. Despite some of these weaknesses the fact remains that Maine made a beginning

of a systematic study of rural life. It is he who for the first time theorized that kinship was the

mainstay of India’s rural society. However, the systematic growth of rural sociology started in

India after the promulgation of constitution of India and the implementation of Community

Development Programmes. It was argued that when the British Anthropologists consolidated

their colonial empire in South Africa and India, why social Anthropology could not be helpful in



Nation-building in the wake of development programmes. This gave rise to number of rural

studies. Even during the days of British East India Company there were efforts made by

sociologists and Anthropologists to find out the pattern of land tenure, customary laws and the

functioning of peasants and artisans. Besides these, during the British period researches were

made on the affairs of rural life, it is the main influence of the development of Rural sociology

in India. The Recurrent famines in India provoked several studies which also leading a number

of economists in the study of village communities. Rural sociology in its own right and merit

occupies a qualified status. It has its subject matter, its scientific nature and above all methods

and tools. By its nature it is interdisciplinary and draws freely from the sister disciplines of

economics, political science, sociology and social Anthropology. A R Desai has done a

pioneering work in the field of rural sociology by editing Rural sociology in India. The edited

work was first published in 1969.

Rural sociology mainly analyses the rural society as a whole such as rural social structure, social

institutions, social problems, rural governance etc. Like other subjects like Sociology, Rural

sociology developed with the influence of social condition in America. In Indian context only

the rural problems aren’t the main influence of the development of sociology, the study of rural

social institution was another influence of development of Rural sociology.

Some basic characteristic features of rural sociology

Rural sociology is the scientific study of rural society. As a science, Rural sociology has certain

characteristics which are given below:

1. Rural sociology is multi-dimensional: Owing to the orientation Rural sociology to sociology

and social Anthropology, Rural sociology is multi-dimensional. It has different traditions in

US, Europe and in Asia. It draws subject matter, scientific nature and methodology from

sociology and social Anthropology.

2. Rural sociology is interdisciplinary: Rural sociology is interdisciplinary in its design and

functioning. It draws freely from the sister discipline of Economics, Political Science,

Sociology and Social Anthropology.

3. It studies interactions and interaction systems: Rural sociology deals with the study of

interactions and interaction systems. When this perspective is applied to the analysis of rural

society it becomes rural sociology.

4. It studies small places: Rural sociology is the study of small places like villages and tribal

habitations etc. The empirical abstractions made out of the little or small places help to



construct theoretical constructions. The studies made by Malinowski, Boas, Radcliff Brown,

Levi Strauss etc. made various empirical studies about the people living in high lands, forests

and small villages.

Nature and Scope of Rural Sociology

Nature of a subject means the way it behaves; it is the peculiarity of every subject. Scope is

another area of analysis related with the branch of knowledge. The scope is determined on the

basis of its applicability in various fields and in society. In this sense the scope of rural sociology

is wide. The nature and scope of rural sociology is briefly analyzed below.

1. Nature of Rural sociology is scientific: Rural Sociology has its own concepts, methods

and verifications. It has certain theoretical formulations; it has logic of enquiry above all

it is subjected to verifications. Some of the characteristics which support the scientific

nature of sociology that are give below:

2. Empiricism: Empiricism is the basic characteristic of any science, which means that the

knowledge acquired from our experiences. In natural sciences the experiments are

conducted in laboratories and come in a conclusion like that in rural sociology the

researches are conducted in society in a limited manner because the subject is individual

he has freedom and rights. But the research conducted in society and accumulates result

on the basis of the data collected from field work. Hence, rural sociology is an empirical

science.

3. Accumulated facts: Science grows on the data accumulated from field. Robert K Merton

very rightly observes that a sociologist stands on the shoulders of other sociologists.

Whatever, Talcott Parsons or for that matter Marx, Durkheim and Weber did, was carried

forward by the next generations.

4. Objectivity: Another characteristic of science is its objectivity. It means the willingness

and ability to see things as they really are to study facts in a given field of investigation

as they exist without personal bias, prejudices or feelings as to their desirability or

undesirability. The objectivity in social science is very difficult.

5. Precision and accuracy: Science is also characterized by accurate and precise

observations. When scientific observations are made it is extremely important that these

describe situations or persons as they actually do exist at the time of observation- this is

accuracy.

6. Methodology: Science must have valid methodology. It should be valid in sense that other

scientists could also employ the same method and reach to their findings.



7. Reciprocity in theory and empirical research: Theory in science is constructed out of the

experiments made in laboratory. But approach to laboratory is through the media of

theoretical constructs and hypotheses. Generally in scientific research we move from

theory to empiricism and empiricism to theory. In any case there is both way interaction

between theory and empirical research. There is a healthy interaction in the domain of

science between laboratory investigation and theoretical formulation. Philosophers

empirically accepted this relationship between theory and empirical research. C Wright

Mills’ description states that theory without data is empty and data without theory is blind.

8. Rural sociology is a social science derived from sociology. It applied the methods in

social science for its observations. Rural sociology is a science; it follows its methods for

enquiry

that is scientific so the nature of rural sociology is scientific.

Rural sociology is scientific in nature like its mother discipline. It has following the

characteristics of science. In accordance with time changing, new phenomena are added with

Rural sociology as a branch of knowledge, and hence the scope of sociology is widens.

Scope of Rural Sociology

In comparison to other social sciences, Rural Sociology is a novel branch of Sociology and is a

separate science that possesses its own subject matter and method of study. By scope of the

discipline, it is meant that what Rural Sociology refers to what it studies. To draw attention on

the scope, N.L. Sims says, “The field of Rural Sociology is the study of association among people

living by or immediately dependent upon agriculture. Open country and village groupings and

groups behavior are its concern.” According to Lowry Nelson, “The scope of Rural Sociology is

the description and analysis of progress of various groups as they exist in the rural environment.

In the words of Bertrand and his associates: “In its broadest definition Rural Sociology is the

study of human relationship in rural environment.” On account of the opinions given by Sims,

Nelson and Bertrand, it is observed that the scope of Rural Sociology revolves around rural

people, their livelihood and social relationship in rural environment. Though it studies society

from the rural perspective, its main aim is concentrated on rural lives. Because of the boundary

of the area of study is wide so the scope of rural sociology is also wide, this proves from the

analysis of following subjects:

a) Rural society: Rural sociology is the study of rural society. Apart from studying the rural

society, Rural Sociology also studies its nature and primary components from the structural



and functional stances. The most crucial objective of rural sociology is to study rural social

life. Rural social life encompasses the behavior patterns, web of relationship, social

interactions, standard of living and socio-economic conditions of the rural people. Therefore,

the scope of Rural Sociology expands where the boundary of Rural Society is expanded.

b) Rural population: The population residing in rural area is the basic essence of rural sociology.

The discipline studies the nature, characteristics, size, density and distribution of rural

population from various angles. Rural sociology also aims at the study of the factors of

growth of population its effects on rural society. It also analyses the rural-urban migration.

c) Rural community: Rural community is considered as one of the primordial organizations of

mankind. Hence, rural sociology is chiefly concerned with the origin, nature, characteristics

and social attributes and human ecology of rural community. It also studies the homogeneous

trajectory of the rigid and conservative nature of hither to existing customs, traditions, norms,

values and so on in rural communities.

d) Rural social organization: Social organization is the backbone of every society as well as

social life. The most important function of rural sociology is to offer fundamental knowledge

about rural social organization.

e) Rural social institution: Social institutions are the building bloc of every society. Rural social

institutions built the rural society that is family, marriage, kinship, economy, religion etc. All

of these are the subject of the study of rural sociology. Family is the basic social institution;

it enables the social order in society. Marriage another social institution helps to maintain

rural society in an orderly manner. It also controls the behaviour of peoples in society. Rural

sociology analyses the rural social institutions and its relevance in society also studies the

changes in it.

f) Rural social processes: Rural social processes are the basic structure of rural society. Rural

sociology entails the social processes like social interaction and its types like conjunctive and

disjunctive. Rural conjunctive processes include co-operation, accommodation and

assimilation. Rural disjunctive processes covers conflict, competition.

g) Rural culture: Culture refers to that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,

customs and other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society. Rural culture is

firmly rooted in rigid and conservative dogmas and it is generally very stagnant in nature.

Rural sociology studies cultural complexes, cultural patterns, cultural changes etc.

h) Rural social problems: One of the important content of the study of rural sociology is rural

social problems like poverty, unemployment, population growth, illiteracy, untouchability

etc.



i) Rural social control: Social control is necessary for the wellbeing of society. Social control

enables through the various controlling agencies like family, marriage, religion, community

organizations, etc. these constitute the rural social structure. Rural social control, its types, its

agencies etc. are the subject of the study of rural sociology.

j) Rural social change: Change is a universal social phenomenon. Each and every society being

changed. Rural social change constitutes the subject matter of the rural sociology.

k) Rural urban contrast: It is an important subject of study in rural sociology. Rural urban

contrast is a relevant topic of discussion in our society.

l) Rural Planning and reconstruction: Rural planning and reconstruction are very much

necessary for underdeveloped societies. In this context the poor and backward condition of

Indian rural society requires planning and reconstruction in a systematic and planned manner.

Rural society entails the plenty of social problems. Therefore, for the eradication of these

problems and for the betterment of rural life proper planning and reconstruction should be

made by the state as well as central government. Rural sociology studies all these subjects

and provides guidelines and solution.

1.2 Rural society-Features

The term ‘rural society’ is used almost interchangeably with the terms like ‘village’,

‘countryside’, or ‘folk society’. Of these, the term most commonly used in sociological literature

on rural society is the village. In India the term rural is defined in terms of revenue. In comparison

with urban society, rural society is a small society with low density of population; more or less

people are engaged in agriculture as a main stay of livelihood and these societies are the

repository of traditional mores and folk ways. Indian villages exhibit a great deal of diversity.

There have no a unified definition for villages in India, certain villages are big others affluent

due to high young and working population they are affluent villages and certain villages are the

areas with high elderly population they are known as grey villages, early writings are referred

these villages. Rural societies have certain characteristics which are given below:

1. Small in size

2. Simple society

3. Agriculture is main occupation

4. Caste system (Occupational divisioning of people):

5. Low density of population

6. Self-sufficiency

7. Village organization (all disputes are settled by village Panchayath)



8. Joint family

9. Indebtedness

10. Rural society give importance to tradition:

11. Social and occupational mobility was very low

12. Illiteracy

13. The people are of superstitious by nature

14. Believe in power of magic

1.2 Peasant Society-Features

The term peasant literally means a person working on the land with simple tools. But the entire

rural populations including the big landlords and the agricultural labourers have been treated as

peasantry. This term is very vague and in fact it is very difficult to clearly and precisely define

it. Several rural sociologists have tried to define the term in their own way. This treatment does

overlook the differences between and among the categories both in terms of the land holdings,

technology, employment of labour etc. A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural labourer or

farmer with limited land ownership, especially one living in the middle Ages under feudalism

and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants existed:

slave, serf, and free tenant. Peasants hold title to land either in fee simple or by any of several

forms of land tenure, among them socage, quit-rent, leasehold, and copyhold. Peasant has strong

sentiments towards land and their main source of income was agriculture but their land

possession is very small. They mainly work in the field of others as labourers. Different thinkers

differently define who are the peasants or peasantry.

Eric Wolf defines “peasants are the population that is existentially involved in cultivation and

makes autonomous decisions regarding the process of cultivation ". Theodor Shanin defines

them as “consist of small agricultural producers who with the help of simple equipment and

labour of their families produce mainly for their consumption and for the fulfillment of

obligations to the holders of political and economic power." Irfan Habib defines peasantry as "a

person who undertakes agriculture on his own, working with his own implements of his family".

George Dalton, “Peasants were legal, political, social, and economic inferiors in medieval

Europe.”

All these definitions conceptualize peasants are agriculturists and the people with complete

freedom in taking decision regarding the process of cultivation. Peasants are cultivators but they

haven’t land ownership. Even though they haven’t land, they have strong sentiments towards



their working land. Economically they remained in lowered position; their main source of income

was agriculture. Peasant society is neither small in size like that rural society not big as urban

society, it stand in a medium position. It is neither completely isolated not absolutely dependent

on the others. They love traditions and passed from one generation to other. They believe in the

philosophy of soul, Karma and re-birth. Religion plays an important role in their life. They have

great regard for sacred books, have blind faith in religious practices and are by nature superstition

ridden. In economic field this society depends on other societies because it is to sell its products

in the outside market so that it can earn money both for paying the taxes as well as for purchasing

commodities of day-to-day use. Because of peasant society does not produce that much that must

essentially be marketed outside the village this dependence is very low. In many cases surplus is

sold in the market itself.

Peasant societies have political dependence also. It must depend and accept social and political

decisions taken by political bosses who are political elites. Peasant society is more or less similar

to the rural society.

1.2Agrarian Society

Agriculture is the main occupation in rural society so agrarian society is a basic concept of the

study in rural sociology, which means the society coming after the hunting and gathering or the

society evolved after Neolithic revolution. In this society people are mainly depending on

agriculture for their livelihood and other related activities like animal husbandry. The study of

rural sociology without the study of agrarian society is incomplete. However, like all other

economic activities, agricultural production is carried out in a framework of social relationships.

Those involved in cultivation of land also interact with each other in different social capacities.

Not only do they interact with each other but they have also have to regularly interact with various

other categories of people who provide them different types services required for cultivation of

land. For example, in the old system of Jajmani relations in the Indian countryside, those who

owned and cultivated land had to depend for various services required at different stages of

cultivation on the members of different caste groups. In exchange, the cultivators were obliged

to pay a share of farm produce to the families that served them.

As is the case with other social interactions, all these exchanges are carried out in an institutional

framework. The most important aspect of the institutional set-up of agrarian societies is the

pattern of land ownership and nature of relationships among those who own or posses land and

those who cultivate them. Those who owned the agricultural land do not always cultivate it



themselves and often lease it out to tenants or share-croppers. Similarly, those who cultivate their

own land or leased-in land from others often employ labour. The term of employment of labour

is also varying. Some could employ labour of regular basis, some on casual basis and some others

could do so on contractual basis. The form of employment of labour and the nature of relationship

that labour has with employer farmers or land owners are important aspect of a given agrarian

structure. The agrarian structure and land ownership pattern in a given society evolve historically

a long period of time. Those who own land invariably command a considerable degree of power

and prestige in rural society. These sets of relationships among the owners of land and those who

provide various services to the land owning group could be described as the agrarian class

structure.

Rural society is an agrarian society; there agriculture is the main economic activity. In pre-British

period the structure of agrarian society is different, with the coming of British administration its

structure become too complicated. Then post-independence India agrarian structure changed and

a class system developed.

1.3Perspectives on Indian Village Community: Historical and Ecological

Village community is the peculiarity of Indian society, which is known by two perspectives like

historical and ecological. The former means the understanding Indian village community through

the historical accounts of different scholars. In early times the East India Company makes report

through their officers for administrative purposes. The others stricken by Indian village

community was the western philosophers the important among them are Charles Metcalf, Maine

and Mackenzy. The later means the characteristics of a phenomenon determined on the basis of

the relationship between its characteristics and environment. As per ecological approach the

peculiarities of village community analyzed on the basis of the feature of the habitation of they

still existing.

The Indian village community- Historical aspect

Historical aspects mainly analyses the characteristics of Indian villages through different

historical periods. The early writers like Metcalf and Maine state that the Indian village

communities being unchanging. The western and Northern communities are different; due to the

fact that the communities in the North had changed owing to the factors like were not operating

in western India. History shows that both internal and external forces have been working out

changes in our village communities. The influence of Hindu period and Muhammedan influence



was not powerful on Indian village communities, so the institutions continued to exist but their

growth was arrested and efficiency weakened. But the British influence was dominant and all-

sided on village communities it also destroyed most of the village institutions like the headman

lost his importance, the accountant has ceased to be hereditary, the village council no longer

exists, the Panchayath never heard of the village fund and the funds are vanished. Village life to

a great extent remains the same; people still till their lands and sow their crops in the old manner.

Metcalf familiarizes Indian village communities as a republic. In Vedic times it appear as

independent republic, but throughout the historic period, the community was always subordinate

to and a constituent of larger political unit. The word republic conveys that the notion of

democracy and of equal rights but in village community not exist the idea of equality so cannot

considered it as a republic. Village communities are administered by the local bodies. In village

communities people used collective approach to solve the problems there. The Assembly is a part

of local bodies and it conceived as a united body and further it stands for equal rights and liberties

of all its members as the common assembly of the whole people and hence there should be a

sense of liberty, equality and fraternity in the mind of all. National life and activities in earlier

times were expressed through popular assemblies and institutions. Such gatherings are referred

to as Samiti, which means “meeting together.” Those bodies are existed in village communities.

In the villages the various meetings and assemblies are organized for discussing the problems.

Dr. Mookerji has listed the original texts use a number of terms to designate these popular local

bodies Viz. Kula, Gana, Puga, Vrata, Sreni, Sangha, Samudaya, Samuha, Sambhuya-

Samuthana, Parishal, Charana.

The Ancient Indian Villages

This part mainly analyses the peculiarity of ancient village officials like Gramani and other

officials. The knowledge about the ancient village official structure is got from the Ancient

accounts like Valmiki Ramayana, Mahabharata and Manusmrit. In that period villages are not a

well developed settlement system. Valmiki Ramayana mentions of two types of villages are

found in ancient times, the first was Ghosh and the other was Gram. Ghosh is small villages

generally situated near forests and the officials of there are known as Ghosh Mahattar. Grams

are the second type of villages, which is bigger than Gosh and the officials in these villages are

called Gram Mahattar. The Mahabharata also mentioned about the Ghosh and Gram. The

Ramayana also mentions Gramani as another village official, who was a highly respected man.

Manu calls the village official as Gramik, who was responsible for village administration and he



also collected the King’s dues from the village inhabitants and another duty was reporting the

maladjustments in the villages to the next higher official, the one over ten villages. Doshi was

another higher official in village community stands above Gramik, the one in charge of the

administration of ten villages to whom Gramik reported the maladjustments. Vishanti another

village official responsible for twenty villages, in the administrative hierarchy who are arranged

above Dashi a village official, who reports the malpractices to Vishanti. Over him used to be an

official responsible for a hundred villages called Shati or Shati-Gramadhipati and above him way

yet another over one thousand villages called Sahasra-Gramadhipati. Through these accounts

can grasp the officials’ hierarchical structure in ancient Indian villages.

Village control Over the Gramani

The Ancient historical records maintain that the village community as a settlement pattern with

a collective authority. Even though the King is a supreme authority, he has no an independent

right to determine all things in that territory, the right of decision was decentralized. In this

section we analyses the control or authority of Gramani over village community. Gramani was

a village official appointed by King but he has no right to determine the things himself. He had

to work strictly under the advice of the Village elders, the Gram Vridhas, who were chosen by

an assembly of village. Dr. Altekar calls Gramani as Village Mukhya. Village Scribe the record

keeper of village, who and Village Mukhya cannot act as they like. Both of them had to work in

accordance with the advice of the Gram Vridhas. These have functioned from ancient times as

non-official body. The Mukhya was the executive authority, but he ever acted against the

customary practices, the Gram Vridhas used to correct him.

Functions of the Village Panchayath and the Gramani

Gramani is an official in village community appointed by King. It is a suitable word to express

the relationship between State and the people. Gramani was like a father, mother or guardian of

village folk and who is responsible to protect the interest of village folk. Gramani is an important

position in village administration; he has more and more functions, the two significant functions

are conceived here first one is to look after the village defense and headed the corps of volunteers

and guardsmen organized for the purpose. His second task was to realize the State dues and keep

records of the realizations. All important papers under is charge and the entire village community

co-operated with him in his task.



Justice in the Village

In above section we discussed the local bodies in Indian village communities, the judicial

functions are fulfilled by the local bodies such as Gana, Kula etc. The courts in that society acted

as appellate type. The administration of justice was the primary task of the local bodies in village

level. The laws of Ganas were quite comprehensive which is known as Samaya. Samaya literally

means a decision or resolution arrived in an assembly, that is the laws of the Ganas were passes

in their meetings.

Indian Villages in Buddhist time

This part conceptualizes the peculiarity of villages which are existed in Buddhist period. Indian

villages are self-governing and agricultural system is the peculiarity of it. Various settlement

systems are the peculiarity of Buddhist period such as Ghosa, Kheta, Kharvata, Gram, Pali,

Pattana, Samvaha, Uagara, Matanba etc. At least thousand families were residing in village

communities. The dwellings were fairly close to another. The village almost invariably had a

gate known as Gram-dwara. Beyond this the village orchard and the gram-kshetra situated.

Gram-kshetra is the cultivated area of village. Fencas, Snares and field watchmen protected the

crops. Gopalaka a village official, who protect the flocks at night till its owners come in the

cultivated area of the villages, consisted of individual holdings.

System of land holdings and village organizations

Grass land and the forests are the lands commonly constitute the villages, its ownership was

communal. People, priests or some dignitaries have no right over village lands, in spite of they

have right to pick up fallen woods.

Maurya Period

During this period the village boundaries are demarcated by river, hills, forest ditches, tanks,

bunds and trees and the villages situated at distances of one or two Krosha (one Krosha is two

miles). The villages were organized under the union of 10 called Samgrahana, of 200 called

Karvatika, of 400 called Dronamukha and of 800 constituting Mahagrama and administratively

termed Sthatnuja.

The Villages: administrative staff, Rules for agricultural promotion

Village was a prominent settlement pattern maintained by the administrative staffs. These

administrative staffs constitute the administrative structure. The village administrative staffs are



comprised off the Adhyaksha (the headman), the Samkhayaka (accountant), the Sthanikas (the

village officials in different grades), the Anikasta (Veterinary doctors), Jamgha Karika (Village

couriers), Chikitsaka (Village sanitation), and the Ashwa-Damak (horse trainer). Chandragupta

Maurya king, in whose period the villages were divided into three categories on the basis of their

population, which are given below:

1) Jyeshtha- The biggest villages

2) Madhyama- The middle villages

3) Kanishtha- Smaller villages

These villages again divided into four categories on the basis of the characteristics of paying

State revenues. Certain villages in Maurya period were paying the usual revenues, which are

ordinary villages. Pariharak villages are the revenue free villages; these villages were constituted

by the service groups like priests and teachers. Their major obligation was to spread education

and help the people in pursuit of Dharma, the revenue was considered in the form of their salary.

Ayudhuja was another category of villages, which is revenue free. This village was constituted

by other prominent service groups such as soldiers, their main role was to protect village from

external attacks. Another type of village was constituted by the people who paid taxes in kind

not in cash. The people in this village were farmers, cattle raring people and other working

groups. They paid revenue into the form of agricultural produce, animals, forest products, gold,

labour, silver, pearls, minerals etc.

Village communities in South India

The tribal origin and rudiments in Northern and Southern India were diverse and heterogeneous,

but their local governments belong to same series. There existed several committees for village

administration. The committees, whose designation gives an idea of the nature of their

responsibilities, which are given below:

a) Annual Committee

b) Garden Committee

c) Tank Committee

d) Gold Committee

e) Committee of justice

f) A Committee styled Panch-Vara

Life in villages was common and based on mutual aid rather than mutual exclusiveness. In South

Indian villages each village owned a certain number of looms in common and the weavers who

worked them were maintained out of the village fund.



The social organism

Social organism is an important branch of analysis similar to the natural science. In this

perspective society is similar to biological organism; its parts are interdependent for the smooth

functioning of system as a whole. In this section mainly analyses the structure of Indian village

community. In British period Indian society was the main attraction of administrators and their

officers; they were analyzed Indian villages for administrative purposes.

Up to the advent of British in India her social organization was pre-dominantly characterized by

village community system. This system was found to be absent or rudimentary in the south-

western extreme of the sub-continent (such as in present day Kerala), but that in all other parts

of India, it was the dominant institution. Holt Mackenzie reported that the existence of village

communities in northern India. Likewise Elphinstone noted that the presence of village

communities in Deccan. Baden Powell stated that in eastern India all land must have some

landlord with tenants under him, the British parliamentary papers recorded quite categorically

that previously the Zamindars were essentially accountable managers and collectors of revenue

and not the lords and proprietors of the lands, that the sale of land by auction or in any other way

for realizing arrears of land revenue appears to have been usual, if not unknown in all parts of

India before its introduction by the British government into the company’s dominations and that

traces still remained to show that the village community system existed also in this part of India.

Except in south-western tip of the sub-continent, the village community system flourished

practically all over India. East India company officers published certain general notes in British

parliamentary Papers in 1812 about village community system which is not an exaggeration as

compared to the classic description of Marx, whose accounts give the best idea of how these

village communities functioned.

Those small and extremely ancient Indian communities, some of which have continued

down to this day are based on possession in common of the land, on the blending of agriculture

and handicraft and on an unalterable division of labour, which serves whenever a new community

is started as a plan and scheme ready cut and dried. Occupying areas from 100 up to several 1000

acres, each forms a compact whole producing all it requires. The chief part of production is

destined for direct use by the community itself, and does not take the form of a commodity.

Hence, production here is independent of that division of labour brought about, in Indian society

as a whole by means of the exchange of commodities. It is surplus alone that becomes a

commodity, but a portion of that not reached in the hands of the State, it reached in the shape of



rent in kind. The constitution of these communities varies in different parts of India. In those of

the simplest form, the land is tilled in common and the produce divided among the members. At

the same time spinning and weaving are carried on in each family as subsidiary industries. Side

by side with the masses thus occupied with one and same work, we find the chief inhabitants,

who is judge, police and tax gatherers, the book keepers (who keeps the accounts of tillage and

registers everything relating thereto), another official who prosecutes criminals, the boundary

man, who guards the boundaries against neighboring communities, the water overseer (who

distributes water from the common tanks for irrigation), the Brahmin (religious services), the

school master (teaches children reading and writing), Astrologer or Calendar Brahmin (who

makes known the lucky or unlucky days for seed time and harvest and for every other kind of

agricultural work), a smith and carpenter, the potter, the barber, the washer men, silversmith.

This dozen of individuals is maintained the expense of the whole community. The whole

mechanism discloses a systematic division of labour, but a division like that in manufacturer is

impossible since the smith and carpenter etc. The law that regulates the division of labour in the

community acts with the irresistible authority of law of nature at the same time that each

individual artificer, the smith, the carpenter and so on conducts in his workshop all the operations

of their handicraft in the traditional way, but independently and without recognizing any authority

over them. The village communities are autonomous in administration; the village council was

the governing body its jurisdiction expanded over houses, streets, markets, temples, wells, tanks

etc. The village councils look after the village defense, settled village disputes, organized works

of public utility, acted as a trustee for minors and collected the government revenues and paid

them into the central treasury and central government discharged their duties through this body.

Thus while on one side almost all functions of the government, except that the organizing army,

determining foreign policy and declaring and conducting a war were discharged through the

agency of the local bodies. Village community system evolved in India due to influence of

geographical features of India on the early stages of India’s social development and India’s

agrarian economy. Because of India’s peculiar climatic and territorial conditions, artificial

irrigation by canals and water-works had to be the basis of a flourishing agrarian. However

changing the political aspect of India’s past must appear its social condition has remained

unaltered since its remote antiquity until the fast decennium of the 19th century. The handloom

and the spinning wheel producing their regular myriad of spinners and weavers were the pivots

of the structure of that society. The advance of agrarian village economy over tribal country is

the first great social revolution in India.



The village community came into existence from time immemorial, which attained stability

through two aspects such as economic and social and ideological. Economic aspects related to

the village community and its outer world, which includes the characteristics of village

community as an autonomous and self-sufficient as well as the simplicity of its organization. The

second aspect, which influences the stability of village community, was its social and ideological

aspect, which is closely related with the village community’s internal mechanism. Jati-division

was the peculiarity of Indian village community, which is closely related with the social and

ideological aspects. The Jati-division also helps to the stability of village community to hinter

the political clouds over village community. The Jati-division of society represented by the

immutable social units, demarcated from one another by the three main attributes of (a)

hereditarily fixed occupation (b) endogamy and (c) commensality and arranged in hierarchical

orders in particular societies in different parts of India. These Jati truly represented the Indian

caste system and showed the unique character of Indian social organization. The Jati division of

society supplied the social foundation to the village community system in India by providing an

unalterable division of labour in society whereby the whole mechanisms discloses a systematic

division of labour is regulated with the irresistible authority of law of Nature.

Moreover, the village community system was further stabilized by the spiritual sanctions through

the doctrine of Karma and the theory of Reincarnation. Both of these taught the people that their

position in society was the consequence of their work in the previous birth and their obedience

to the ethics of the society would improve or deteriorate their caste position in the next life.

Following this ideology not enough force could generate within the society to disrupt the

standardized harmony.

Thus fulfilling the social and economic needs of the society at a certain stage of its development,

the caste system played the most significant role in Indian social organization so long as the

village community system dominated Indian life. Simultaneously these two institutions

transformed a self-developing social state into never changing natural destiny, as it appeared to

the people and still appears so to a very large number of Indian and others.

Victory of village is article prepared by D D Kosambi, which is analyzed the foundation of a

village economy. In the article he correlates the agrarian economy and the caste system as a

village social organization. Smriti, foreshadowed the complete victory of village life through the

practicing of caste system in village social life, the influence of caste system was far deadlier

than invasion. The hide-bound caste system became rigid only within stagnant villages whose



chief intellectual product, the Brahmin was stamped with incurable rusticity elevated to religious

dogma. The passage of years had little meaning compared with the vital round of the seasons,

because the villagers produced almost all they needed every year to consume it by the time of the

next harvest.

Historical perspective analyzes the historical emergence of village as settlement pattern in India.

Different philosophers analyze it through empirical experiences. Indologists, anthropologists’

sociologists etc are the main figures of historical perspectives. They discusses the emergence of

village community through the development of various factors like economy, social structure,

political system etc. all are influenced by the geographical factors and social factors.

Ecological Perspective

Ecological approach means the approach based on the relationship between environment and the

specific phenomena. Various sociologists try to analyze village community on the basis of

historical perspective and others try to analyze ecological basis such Irawati Karve, O K H Spate,

S C Dube, D S Tyagi etc. are important among those. They try to conceptualize village

community on the basis of physical characteristics and habitation. It is an approach of study of

rural society as like historical approach.

The structure is something concrete and visual as also something abstract and conceptual. It is

objective and subjective but the grades of objectivity and subjectivity differ from people to people

depending on their social conditioning. A structure has a form which may be sharply defined and

simple or indistinct and vague. A casual observer may call the habitation area as village but

objective that may be wrong. Irawati Karve tries to conceptualize Indian village and try to

identify the base of conceptualization. In Maharashtra there are appear to be three types of

villages which are differently constituted as regards their gestalt.

a) The one type tightly nucleated village with the habitation clearly defined from the

surrounding cultivated fields. These villages are situated on high plateau of the Deccan. In

such villages while the habitation area is well marked, the boundaries of the village together

with its fields are never perceived. The fields owned by one village merge into those owned

by another except where a hillock or a stream or a highway forms the boundary. Tightly

nucleated villages are commonly found all over the Maharashtra plateau, and also in other

parts of India like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra, Mysore and Orissa. Two types of roads

are found in this type village one is the roads connecting different villages meant for inter-



village communications. And the other is internal streets or narrow alleys connecting housing

areas: sometimes a main arterial road may pass through or near a village and owing to modern

ribbon development may become the main street of the village but such cases are very few.

One can generally distinguish between roads connecting, villages and streets connecting

internal habitation area. Even though well developed forms of roads are existed in nucleated

villages, they show a clear distinction between communications within one village and

communication within other villages. Modern Marathi words are used for communication,

besides these Sanskrit words are used for both internal and external communication arteries

but there is a whole series of words which denote various types of roads inside a habitation

area. Ali, Galli, Bol are some of these words.

b) The second type of village is found on the west coast that is near to the coast. This type

village is generally strung along length-wise on the two sides of a road. The houses stand in

their own compounds with their fruit and cocoanut gardens and are fenced on all sides. One

walks or drives through fences on both sides of the road all the time. There are numerous tiny

streams joining the Arabian Sea and there are also spurs of the western mountains coming

right into the ocean. Where the streams join the sea they widen considerably are forbidable

at low tide and have on both sides’ strips of the salt marshes called Khajana. These natural

obstacles divide one village from the other. Where these are absent one village merges into

the other and a casual traveler does not become aware of having crossed from one habitatic

area into another. The gestalt has changed not merely as regards form also as regards the

inter-relation of the background and the gestalt. In such villages the exploitation of land is of

two types such as horticulture and agriculture. The gardens of cocoanut and areca nut palms

and plantain, jack fruit and cashew nuts are planted near the houses and fenced in while the

rice field may lie a little away from the houses though in some areas they come right to the

steps of the houses. There is no sharp distinction between the habitation area and the

cultivated area. In this type village the main roads generally and also the main arterial road

joining the villages of the coast for miles and miles in one linear direction. The road from

Cape Comorin to Trivandrum is the best example of such roads.

c) The third type of village was found in Satpura Mountains on the north-western boundary of

the Marathi speaking region. The houses are situated in their own fields in clusters of two or

three huts, all belonging to a single close kinship group. They are either the huts of a father

and grown-up sons or brothers or their wives. Sometimes and her husband may have a hut in

the same cluster as that of the father and brothers of the woman. The next cluster of huts may

be as far as a furlong or two away depending on how big the holding of each cluster is. The



village boundaries are not defined by streams or hillocks because the houses belonging to one

village are situated on separate hillocks or divided by streamlets. In this area the village lost

its gestalt completely on all four sides. The habitation area is not distinguished from the

cultivated area and the widely scattered houses of such villages are many times nearer to the

houses in the next village than to the houses of its own village. In third type village there is

no village streets because no houses are aligned along streets. There are only footpaths

leading from one house cluster to another and the continuation of these leads to houses in the

next village.

Indian villages are more complicated in its structure and which is reflected in the way houses are

built and roads existed. A village is multi-caste in its structure, in North and sometimes even in

Maharashtra there may be only one lineage of a caste, but generally in North and almost as a rule

in the Dravidian South each caste in a village made up of more than one lineage and clan. The

habitation area of each caste in village is separated from that of the other by a greater or lesser,

distance they were the untouchables, their habitation area has generally a distinct name.

Maharwada, Mang, Mahars, Mala, Madiga Wadi etc. are certain untouchable caste living in end

of a village. A few castes may live in houses situated side by side but others live apart. Brahmins

and weavers are another caste groups in Indian villages both of these groups living in their own

areas, they were not mingled with each other. This tendency to have separate sub-areas for

habitation within a larger unit called a village, which can be explained in various ways and on

different grounds like caste hierarchy, ideas of impurity and pollution, the need for certain

occupations to have room for carrying out the different processes needed for their craft. The first

reason that is caste hierarchy applies to the house complexes generally, the second reason

impurity and pollution applies to the distance found between the untouchable quarters and the

rest. The third reason is the need for certain occupations, which is applied to the castes like

potters, brick makers, weavers and dyers, shepherds, wool carders and blanket makers etc. These

proves that the inherent tendency of Indian culture to form separate groups and remain separate,

in India villages caste was rather a direct tendency of separation than a hierarchical structure.

Family is a primary group that may be unilateral or bilateral; this group extends up to the caste.

The family as well as the caste is based on territory. The smallest territorial unit is the area in

which the house and the family land are situated and in largest territorial unit in that part of

linguistic area through which a caste has spread. The castes and tribes are not living in mingled.

Through which sociologist Karve tries to prove the relationship between the geographical area



and the social institutions like caste, family and economic activities. It is necessary to the study

of ecological approach of village community.

O K H Spate an English geographer explains Indian village community on the basis of ecological

perspective. The great majority of the country folk live in small or large nucleated settlements,

and areas of dispersed habitations are few. The Himalayan zone is the only extensive area of true

dispersal, even in the hills the normal unit is the small hamlet rather than the homestead. In the

arid west this is enforced by the paucity of water-points and the needs of defense. These are

anomalies; in the great homogeneous plains nucleation is almost invariable. In the past defense

played big role in areas open to constant disturbance. In these type nucleation villages are often

grouped around a petty fort with close packed houses and with blank outer walls, low doorways

etc. Often there is not much in the way of site selection; one place is as good as another and the

village rises are as often as their own creation, the rubbish of generations. But any discontinuity,

any break in the almost imperceptible slope, produces linear settlement pattern such as bluffs

above flood-plains and the margins of abandoned river courses. The bluffs are notable and larger

than the drier interfluves. Settlement lines tend to occur also at the marked break of slope where

steep residual hills grade into a fan, which has usually a fairly high water table.

Caste and community largely govern the layout of the village. Lingayaths (agricultural caste),

Muslims, Jains and Brahmins are the important caste groups. In Inam (landlord) village most of

the people belonging to the Desai (Jain) and Deshpande (Brahmin) families whose Wadas stand

on the best sites within large compounds. The Desai provide the village patel or headman.

Besides those, the Talwars (domestic servants and agricultural labourers), Harijans, and Wadars

(quarrymen) are lived in the circumference of the village or beyond the old moat. Occupations

likewise are still mainly on caste basis. The higher caste people lived in big and well planned

making houses. The poorest castes live in wretched one room wattle huts with thatched roofs.

The aspect of the village varies not only with the general regional setting, with build materials

and house-types, but with social factors. The generally greater emphasis on caste in the South

takes social fragmentation allied with spatial separation to the extreme, segregating the

untouchables in outlying cherries or sub-villages, sometimes located several hundred yards from

the main villages which they are service components. A typical and is indeed the climax of

geographical differentiation; apartheid. A typical cheri may consist of two rows of huts with a

narrow central street in the middle this widens to make room for tiny temples. Social factors are

no less important that environmental. The houses of the lower caste people are not only dependent

on the basis of cultural factors but geographical factors.



Indian village is infinitely depressing in the plains where so much ground is cultivated that the

scanty village site cannot grow with its growing population, or where a few miserable huts cling

to shade less stony rises in the drier parts of central India. Peasants often display an astonishing

resilience and refuse to be broken by his bitterly hard geographical and social environment.

S C Dube a well known Indian sociologist who outline the social structure of Indian village

communities, list some of the important factors of change and attempt a broad analysis of the

major trends of change. For understanding the structure and problems of Indian village society,

it is necessary to analyze the village both as a distinct isolable entity and as a link in the chain of

a wider inter-village organization. An individual village derives some of the characteristic

features of its organization from the great national tradition of India. The Indian village is

sufficiently isolable, but it is not an isolate, and has therefore to be viewed as community within

a larger community. The interplay of several different kinds of solidarities determines the

structure and organization of Indian village communities. Kinship, caste and territorial affinities

are the major determinants that shape the social structure of these communities. Most of the sub-

caste grouped together as a caste. Non-Hindu religious groups in villages tend to function as

separate castes. Most of the Hindu castes are fitted into one of the four major divisions of Hindu

society called Varna. Solidarities provided by kin and caste tend to merge but those of territorial

affinity belong to a different level. An individual and his family belong also to a village, which

is often multi-caste in its composition. The village itself is a part of a network of neighboring

villages, the region and the nation. Indian peasant communities are constituted by the structural

elements like individual, family, group of near kin lineage, relatives, sub-caste or caste and

Varna, those elements are organized in terms of kin and caste. Individual, family, village, inter-

village organization, region and Nation are the other organized elements of village structure in

terms of territorial affinities. Caste is the most important single organizing principle in these

communities, and it governs to a very considerable degree the organization of kinship and

territorial units. In this system of segmentary division of society the different segments are kept

apart by complex observances emerging from an all pervading concept of ritual pollution. The

caste divisions are regarded as divinely ordained and are hierarchically graded. The difference

between the different segments is defined by tradition and is regarded as permanent. In inter-

group relations the caste structure works according to a set of pattern of principles: hierarchy and

social distance manifest and express themselves in rules and regulations that are calculated to

avoid ritual pollution and maintain ritual purity. Marriage and the physical contacts between

community members are governed by strict rules. It has been pointed out earlier that castes are



endogamous. Caste exogamies are forbid by tradition. Food is different on the basis of the rule

of purity and pollution. Caste determines the occupation. Within a village the caste system

manifests itself a vertical structure in which individual castes are hierarchically graded and the

horizontal ties of a caste are important for a village caste group has strong links with its counter

parts in other villages and in several spheres of life they tend to act together. The basic unit of

social organization in Indian peasant communities is not the large joint family, after minor attain

maturity and a degree of economic self-sufficiency when the large joint families breaks up into

nuclear family. Informally the local group of near kin functions as an effective agency of social

control. Sometimes the village as a unit of social structure worked passing the boundaries of

caste, kin and integrated multi-caste community. Structurally the village communities can be

divided into three main groups first is single settlement village, in which the community shares

a common and compact settlement site, and the second is nucleated village which has a central

settlement as the nucleus around which there are a number of smaller satellite settlements and

the third is dispersed village community in which the community consists of a series of dispersed

homesteads having well-defined ties with one another. The people are mainly engaged in agriculture

as the main economic activity other non-agricultural occupations are subsidiary to agriculture. A large

proportion of India’s population lives in villages. The inhabitants of a village may be farmers or

trader or artisans or scholars or priests and village can be classified according to the occupation

of the majority of its inhabitants. Villages may belong to a single tribe or may differ from one

another in caste or religious persuasion and this give another means of classification of types.

The orders of clusters are different the orders are given below:

a) Shapeless clusters or agglomerate with streets not forming an integral part of the design.

These may be massive or dispersed type, in which the village is reckoned to consist of an

assemblage of discrete clusters of comparatively small size.

b) Linear cluster or assemblage with a regular open space or straight street provided between

parallel rows of houses.

c) Square or rectangular cluster or agglomerate with straight streets running parallel or right

angles to one another.

d) Village formed of isolated homesteads, a number of which are treated together as a mauza

for convenience of collection of rent or taxes.

Various factors are involved in the origin and character of a rural settlement. The social structure

is not singly determined the village structure and it determine mainly on the basis of ecological

factors.



1.4 Nature and changing dimensions of Village society, Village studies-Marriot & Betteille

McKim Marriot was an American Anthropologist; he was the student of Robert Redfield in

Chicago University. He was the Professor in the Department of Anthropology in Social Sciences

Collegiate Division of the University of Chicago. He conducted field works in Uttar Pradesh and

Maharashtra and authored varied studies on rural social organization and change. Even though

he was an American whose studies mainly concentrate in Indian villages. Kishan Garhi is a

village in Uttar Pradesh where who conducted the field work and described about the nature and

the changes in village society. He applied structural-functional approach in his study of village

India. His contributions mainly influenced in the development of sociology and Anthropology in

Indian society. His important works include- Village India-Studies in the Little Community

(1955), Caste Ranking and Community structure in the five regions of India and Pakistan (1960),

India through Hindu Categories (1990). He conducted various studies about the social change

and try to l conceptualize these changes through certain conceptual framework. Andre Beteille a

well known Indian sociologist famous for his study of caste as village phenomenon. His major

works include Caste, Class and Power: Changing Pattern of Stratification in Tanjore Village

(1695), Social Inequality, Studies in Agrarian Social Structure (1974), Marxism and Class

analysis and Inequality and Social Change (1972). He mainly analyses the interplay of caste,

class and power in village social change. His studies mainly concentrate on caste system.

India still lives in villages as more than sixty percent of the population even today reside in rural

areas and depend on agriculture and related professions. Early studies conceptualize the village

society as social economic and political unit, along with the caste system. Even though growth

of urbanism and rise of cities attracted rural population to shift to cities, village as an entity

continues to be important in the social, cultural, political and economic landscape of India. The

centrality of village in Indian society can be gauged from the number of village studies in the

1950s and 60s. These studies give us some insights on village as social unit. India’s village canbe traced far back in history which creates a sense of timelessness and continuity. The

Arthashastra (400 BCE-200AD) provides us with a classification of the king’s duties related tothe administrative affairs of the village. In the medieval times Al Biruni’s Kitab al Hind (early

eleventh century) gives us an account of the caste occupation based organization in the village.

British colonial administrative view of India was based on the category of ‘village’. Theperspective developed and forwarded was that India was primarily composed of villages which

were self- sufficient and independent. The writings of James Mill and Charles Metcalfe and their

notion of the Indian village community influenced the later scholars of Indian village. Metcalfe



in 1810 had said that, ‘the Indian village communities were little republics, having nearlyeverything they wanted within themselves and almost independent of foreign relations.

In the colonial discourse, the Indian village was described as a self-sufficient community which

had everything within its periphery. Caste system through its division of labour provided this

view a practical functionality which meant communal ownership of land was marked by a

functional integration of various occupational groups in the village. The famous attributes of

Indian civilization of timeless continuity, simplicity and social harmony were attributed to the

village. ‘Each village was an inner world, a traditional community, self-sufficient in its economy,

patriarchal in its governance, surrounded by an outer one of other hostile villages and despotic

governments. Village social life is organized around caste, kinship, economy, politics and

religion. People’s social lives are mostly confined to their villages, their livelihoods and livesrevolve around the rural environment and resources. The world of caste society is based on

hierarchy. People were divided into higher or lower groups based on birth, their food, their

dresses, ornaments, customs and manners were all ranked in an order of hierarchy. The first three

Varna, namely, Brahmins (the priests or men of learning), Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors) and

Vaishyas (traders) were regarded as dvijas or the twice born. The fourth category was that of

Shudras, composed of numerous occupational castes that were regarded as relatively ‘clean’ andwere not classed as “untouchables”. In the fifth major category were placed all the “untouchable”castes. Within each category there were several sub-groups (jatis or sub-castes), which could be

arranged in a hierarchical order within them.

Attempts to claim a higher ritual status through, what Srinivas called sanskritisation, was not a

simple process, and could not be achieved only through rituals and life-style imitation. The group

had to also negotiate it at the local power structure. Similarly, stressing secular factors, ‘Therewas a certain amount of overlap between the twin hierarchies of caste and land. The richer

landowners generally came from such high castes as Brahmins, and Lingayats while the Harijans

contributed a substantial number of landless labourers.

Any study of the religion of Indian village show double processes working simultaneously

between the religious beliefs and practices of the village and the wider Indian civilization.

McKim Marriott, takes the concepts of ‘great tradition’ and ‘little tradition’ from Robert Redfield(1955) and has given the terms Universalization (elements of village culture being incorporated

into a wider regional or even larger society) and Parochialization (cultural elements of a pan-

Indian nature filtering down to the village level through various modes of communication such

as story-telling and folk drama) respectively to refer to the two aspects of this double process of

interaction between the little and great traditions.

M.N. Srinivas’ (1950) concept of Sanskritisation also shows the interaction between religion at

the local level and all India Hinduism which is Varna based. Orthodox sanskritic elements travel

from the higher castes to the lower castes. Modern western technology — railways, printing



press, radio, films and now, television have also helped in the spread of Sanskritisation.

Sanskritisation is also about ‘universalization’ or identification with the larger religion, theidentification of a local God or Goddess with some deity of the Hindu pantheon. Thus among the

Coorgs, Ketrappa is identified with the Vedic deity Kshetrapala while the local cobra deity is

identified with Subramanya or Skanda, the warrior son of Shiva. This helped the Coorg’sreligious community to become incorporated in the wider Hindu religious community. Apart

from festivals and deities, another important aspect of the religion of the village community is

pilgrimage. Pilgrimage centers have attracted people from distant places in India. In traditional

India, temple towns and sacred cities like Gaya, Mathura, Ajmer, Varanasi, Puri, Tirupathi and

Amritsar attracted pilgrims even though roads were very poor and unsafe. Thus we see a

continuous interaction between the little and great tradition in the religion of the village. Caste

endogamy (marriage within caste) and village exogamy (marriage outside village) were widely

practiced. Relations outside the village meant travel to those areas where kins/ relatives lived at

the time of festival or special occasions. Social networks of the village through caste, kinship,

marriage meant social relations with the outside world and thus, villages were not isolated units

socially.

Beteille had argued that his study of village ‘Sripuram as a whole constituted a unit in a physicalsense and, to a much lesser extent, in the social sense’. The village in pre-British India was

economically self-sufficient was created by the existence of the Jajmani system (relationship of

reciprocity of economic exchange between landlords and peasants over generations), where

payment was in kind/grains (absence of monetization), and the poor communications which

limited the flow of goods. Andre Beteille’s study of Tamil village of Sripuram demonstrates that

how the structures of traditional caste hierarchy were getting replaced by class based categories

of stratification.

Village markets that are to be distinguished from capitalist markets not only serve an economic

purpose but also political, recreational and social purposes. The weekly markets or Haats that

exist all over rural India from ancient times form major links with neighboring villages and

towns. The institution of weekly markets is cultural institutions with significance beyond mere

economic exchange. The institution of caste based specialization means that only some people

can do certain tasks, like only those of potter caste can make pots, those of blacksmith caste can

make iron implements and so on. All the artisan and servicing castes did not live within a single

village, especially in the case of the smaller settlements. Certain castes provide services to a

number of villages and were shared amongst the villages like, barbers, priests, doctors, etc. The

village market became linked to the formal market networks when the capitalist system

penetrated the rural areas. The availability of new economic opportunities differed in different

villages especially with processes of industrialization and urbanization, which made the village

a part of the wider economic system. The early studies on village society states that village



economy is self-sufficient, many ethnographic studies, based on fieldwork, have explained that

the Indian villages have always been a part of the wider society and civilization and not self-

sufficient units.

The villages in pre-British India were autonomous political unit. There were several duties

performed by the king towards his subjects. Roads, tanks and canals for irrigation were built

along with temples. He also granted gifts of land to learned and pious Brahmins. The king was

the head of all caste groups and Panchayaths. Any disputes regarding mutual caste rank and other

inter-caste conflicts were ultimately settled by him. This task was not confined to just the Hindu

rulers but even the Mughal kings and feudal lords settled questions affecting a caste. The

relationship between the village and the ruler changed with the British colonial rule. British

established an effective administration as development of communications followed the political

occupation. Power of the village Panchayath was greatly reduced by the system of modern law

courts as major disputes and criminal offences were now settled there.

Both of these social theorists analyzed village as an entity with specific social structure. Even

though the works of Beteille concentrates on caste, village is a topic of analysis of him. He also

highlights the interplay of caste, class and power in change of village social structure. Marriot

analyses the change in village social structure with a special reference to the influence of the

forces within society and outside of society.



MODULE 2

CHANGING RURAL SOCIETY

Rural society is the peculiarity of Indian society. It is the society of simplicity and low densely

populated agrarian and caste ridden. Today this society was in transition with the interference of

the external factors like British administration, independence movements, industrialization,

emergence of capitalism, urbanization etc. This module gives an idea about the changing

structure of rural society. Agriculture was the main economic activity in rural society, so this

module mainly concentrates on the analysis of agrarian social structure, and how it is changed

with the advancement in world. This module mainly provides a historical understanding about

the rural society.

2.1 Agrarian social structure, land ownership and agrarian relations

India is the land of village, which is the unit of rural society. In early period agrarian economy

was the backbone of Indian society, when agriculture is the major economic activity in rural

society. So the agrarian social structure had become the major topic of analysis of Rural

Sociology. Before analyzing agrarian social structure, it is necessary to make an idea about

agrarian structure, which means the institutional framework of agriculture. This institutional

framework relates to the distribution, control and use of land. In other word it is related to land

tenure, forms of agricultural employment, social organizations, trade unions etc. and it also

includes the infrastructure of agriculture Viz. irrigation schemes, road, railways etc. Rural

sociology mainly analyses the social aspects of the agrarian structure that is agrarian social

structures. Torner denotes agrarian social structure is the relationship obtaining among the groups

engaged in agricultural operations. Agrarian social structure in India is very complex. More and

more sociologists, especially Indian sociologists deeply analyses the agrarian social structure in

India, A R Desai, Betteille etc. are important among those. Agrarian social structure in India is

different from region to region.

Tenants are an inevitable part of agrarian social structure, who cultivates the land on certain

conditions. Most of the agriculturists in India are tenants. The emergence of tenant goes back to

the British period when in 1793 the Permanent Land Settlement was made. The Jamindari system

which emerged from land settlement was an intermediary system, which created the class of

tenants who suffered from operation at the hands of the Jamindars. It was a historical emergence

found for the first time in Indian agrarian history. In the native states, also known as princely



states, the jagirdar worked as an intermediary between the tenant and the central princely rule.

In these States Jagirdar was the counterpart of jamindar. The status of tenant in pre-independent

India was highly deplorable.

In course of time, a series of intermediaries developed between the jamindar and the cultivating

tenant, whose condition, thereby, increasingly deteriorated. The Bengal Tenancy Acts of 1859

and 1885 aimed at ameliorating the position of the tenants. However, the legislation did not

accomplish much. The mass of tenants continued to live in an increasingly worsening condition.

Peasant proprietors another category included in India agrarian society, who are quite like

tenants. They are land owners. The landowners were sub-divided into upper landowners, middle

landowners or peasant proprietors. As a result of the operation of factors like heavy land tax,

small holdings, fragmentation of plots, growing heavy indebtedness, this class had been

increasingly impoverished since it came into existence. It had been in a state of permanent

disintegration. The woes of the peasant proprietors during this period were altogether new. These

land proprietors suffered from their disintegration. However, a few of them who owned larger

patches of land rose to the level of rich peasants while a large number of them were reduced to

the status of poor peasants, tenants of absentee landlords or land laborers. This process of

differentiation of the peasant proprietors grew at an accelerated rate since the rate of

impoverishment of the peasantry increased. The colonial period witnessed, on one hand, the

impoverishment of the tenants and, on the other hand, differentiation and disintegration of the

peasant proprietors. As a result of this process, there emerged, in rural India, the class of absentee

landlords, one hand, and the lower peasantry and agricultural laborers, on the other.

It must be observed that in India the agricultural sector, constitutionally, is the subject of the

State. Land taxation, thus, is determined by the State government. Because of this statutory

position, there is much variation in agricultural tenancy in India is that it is shaped by the

historical and cultural forces of a particular region or part of the country. For instance, we have

certain castes which are actually agricultural castes; e.g., Patidars of Gujarat, Jats of Haryana

and Sikhs of Punjab. This is purely a cultural phenomenon. It also affects the size and pattern of

agricultural practices. Historically, variation in tenancy could be explained by the fact that the

colonial forces in British India and feudal forces in princely states also determined the form and

extent of tenancy. However, at a broader plane, it could be said that there are five variations of

tenants in India:



1. Cash tenants: They pay fixed cash rent for the use and occupancy of their land.

2. Share-cash tenants: They pay part of their rent in cash and part in the share of crops.

3. Crop share tenants: They pay a share of the crops only.

4. Croppers: They pay a share of the crops but usually work under the close supervision of

landlord or his agent.

5. Other and unspecified tenants

There is much variation in agricultural tenancy. The classes of tenants which given above are not

exhaustive. As a matter of fact, the sharecropper is both a tenant and also landowner of a patch

of land.

2.2 Emergent class relations, Decline of Agrarian economy

Traditional Indian society is a caste society; the class system was not prevalent there. In Pre-

British period agrarian society peasants, landowners and middle class are the three classes

comprised in, the class structure in different regions are different. Commonly communal

ownership of land was found in early society. During the colonial period a complex class

system started to emerge in Indian rural agrarian society. While the same the dominant caste

were probably also cultivating caste in the pre-colonial period, they were not the direct owners

of land. Instead, ruling class such as Kshatriyas or Zamindars controlled the land. The peasants

or cultivators are worked in the land, which provided by Zamindars. When the British

colonized India in many areas they ruled through these local Zamindars. They also granted

property rights to the Zamindars. Under the British, the Zamindars were given

more control over land than they had before. Since the colonizers also imposed

heavy land revenue (taxes) on agriculture, the Zamindars extracted as much

produce or money as they could out of the cultivators. One result of this Zamindari

system was that agricultural production stagnated or declined during much of the

period of British rule. Many districts of colonial India were administered through

the Zamindari system. In other areas that were under direct British rule had what

was called the Ryotwari system of land settlement, in which Ryot means peasant. In

this system, the ‘actual cultivators’ (who were themselves often landlords and not

cultivators) rather than the Zamindars were responsible for paying the tax. Because

the colonial government dealt directly with the farmers or landlords, rather than

through the overlords, the burden of taxation was less and cultivators had more

incentive to invest in agriculture. As a result, these areas became relatively more



productive and prosperous. After India became independent, Nehru and his policy

advisors embarked on a programme of planned development that focused on agrarian

reform as well as industrialization. The policy makers were responding to the dismal

agricultural situation in Indiaat that time.Thiswas marked bylow productivity, dependence

on imported food grains, and the intense poverty of a large section of the rural

population. They felt that a major reform in the agrarian structure, and especially in the

landholding system and the distribution of land, was necessary if agriculture were to

progress. From the 1950s to the 1970s, a series of land reform laws were passed — at the

national level as well as in the States — that were intended to bring about these changes.

The first important legislation was the abolition of the Zamindari system, which removed

the layer of intermediaries who stood between the cultivators and the State. However,

Zamindari abolition did not wipe out landlordism or the tenancy or sharecropping systems,

which continued in many areas. It only removed the top layer of landlords in the multi-

layered agrarian structure. Among the other major land reform laws that were introduced

were the tenancy abolition and regulation acts. They attempted either to outlaw tenancy

altogether or to regulate rents to give some security to the tenants. In most of the States,

these laws were never implemented very effectively. In West Bengal and Kerala, there

was a radical restructuring of the agrarian structure thatgave land rights to the tenants.

The land reform rules and green revolution change the existing class structure in rural

agrarian society and these also destruct the rural agrarian economy. Green revolution is a

prominent factor leading to destruction of agrarian economy. It motivates the big farmers

the traditional agriculturist could not compete with the big farmers. Industrialization is

another factor of destructing rural agrarian economy.

De-peasantization

De-peasantization is a serious challenge facing by India in contemporary society. Agriculture is

the major economic activity in rural society so the de-peasantization strongly affects the rural

society and vice versa. De-Ruralization, migration of rural to urban society, etc. are the main

factors of de-peasantization. Because it is a rural phenomenon; it becomes an important area of

analysis in Rural Sociology. This process mainly starts with industrial revolution, and then with

the passing of time the process accelerates. Urbanization, liberalization, government policies

related with agriculture etc. are the other factors of de-peasantization.



The process of shifting of peasants from agricultural to non-agricultural sector for an alternate

source of livelihood is known as de-peasantization. De-peasantization is a specific form of de-

agrarinization in which peasants lose their economic capacity, social coherence and

demographically shrinking in size. Thus, it can be said that de-agrarinization is a broader term

which means moving of societal social structure from farming to non-farming sector whereas; de-

peasantization is specific form of de-agrarinization in which peasants lose their size

demographically. De-peasantization is the shrinking size of peasant’s practices or small producers

from the land. De-peasantization refers to the erosion of agrarian way of life that combines

subsistence and commodity agricultural production with an internal social organization based on

family labour and village community settlement. De-peasantization measured through the rate of

urbanization. A Farshad in his work “Global Depeasatization, 1945-1990” refutes the fact that

urbanization of the planet is a key indicator of the death of the peasantry. Johnson considers that

it is too narrow a view to parallel the trend that sees a decrease in the rural population to a decrease

in the peasantry. It is argued that the de-peasantization is contested at the most basic level the utter

destruction of the peasantry is challenged he argued that the peasant way of life will always exist

in some form. If the peasantry is a unit engaged in a form of production based solely on agriculture,

the world is witnessing a process of widespread de-peasantization.

Capitalism is an important factor which leading to de-peasantization, over-urbanization leading

the widespread rural urban migration it also leading to de-peasantization. The transformation of

workforce from farming to non-farming sector can be divided into two categories namely growth-

led shift and distress induced shift. The former is related to developmental factors like

mechanization of agriculture, increasing employment, income, high education level, rampant

urbanization, development of secondary and tertiary sector and State intervention for generating

employment opportunities and so on. These factors are known as pull-factors which attract the

workforce from farming to non-farming activities. On the other hand distress induced

transformation is based on hardship or crisis driven factors like falling productivity, increasing

cost, decreasing returns, unemployment, underemployment, unproductive land, market problem,

no or less subsidy provided by government etc. these factors are known as push-factors.

De-peasantization means due to certain causes of hindering the livelihood, people shift their

occupation from agricultural sector to non-agricultural sector. This is very common in



contemporary society. Over-urbanization, population explosion, Government policies, climatic

change, environmental exploitation etc. are the factors leading to de-peasantization.

2. 3 Land reforms and its impact on rural social structure with special reference to Kerala

Land reform usually refers to redistribution of land from the rich to the poor. More broadly, it

includes regulation of ownership, operation, leasing, sales, and inheritance of land. In an agrarian

economy such as India, with great scarcity and an unequal distribution of land, coupled with a

large mass of the rural population below the poverty line, there are compelling economic and

political arguments for land reform. It received top priority on the policy agenda at the time of the

Indian Independence in 1947. Land reforms have been a national agenda of rural reconstruction

since independence. They refer to attempts by the Government to achieve social equality and

optimum utilization of land by redistributing the land holdings. These reforms are also intended to

reorder the agrarian relations in order to achieve a democratic social structure, to eliminate

exploitation and social injustice within the agrarian system and thereby enlarging the land base of

the rural poor, to provide security for the tiller of the soil and to remove obstacles arising from the

agrarian structure that has been inherited from the past and to increase agricultural productivity

and infusing an element of equality in local environments. But despite this vision of the Nation,

there was inertia, lack of sincerity by governments and pressure tactics of powerful land owning

class discouraged land reforms in most of the States. Land reform legislation in India mainly

consisted of four main categories—tenancy reform, abolition of intermediaries, land ceiling, and

land consolidation. The first category of land reform, namely tenancy reform, imposed regulation

that attempted to improve the contractual terms faced by tenants, including crop shares and security

of tenure. Under the British land-revenue system, large feudal landowners (Zamindars) received

the rights to collect tributes from peasants in exchange for a land tax paid to the State. Almost half

of the land was under this system at the time of Independence. This system was considered

exploitative, and abolition of intermediaries was aimed at curtailing the power of these large

landowners and ensuring that the cultivator of the land was in direct contact with the government,

which minimized unjust extraction of surplus by the landowner. The third form of land reform was

the imposition of a ceiling on landholdings that aimed to redistribute surplus land to the landless.

Finally, consolidation of landholdings constituted the fourth kind of land reform, which ensured



that small bits of land belonging to the same small landowner but situated at some distance from

one another could be consolidated into a single holding to boost viability and productivity.

Kunjan Pillai also examined the emergence of Brahmin landlordism in Kerala. Under the influence

of the settlers, Hinduism became the most powerful religion. Temples began to be constructed by

about 750 AD, which performed the all-in-one functions of school, library, seminary, theatre and

Public Park. When a temple was built it was usual to endow it with property the revenue from

which would cover expenses of daily worship, festivals, schools and feeding places. Kings,

Naduvazhis (governors) and even ordinary cultivators donated land to the temples. Management

of temple property was vested with a council of Uralar (local leaders). Kunjan Pillai associates

the term janmi with the office of trustee. In the beginning prominent persons were appointed for a

fixed time. At a later period, it became the custom for them to hold office for lifetime. The lifetime

right of trustees over property was called the janmam (lifetime) right.

Ownership of land was vested with the Chera king whose feudatories, the Naduvazhis and

chieftains enjoyed land rights in the districts in return for paying tribute. Lands of the king or of

the feudatories inhabited and cultivated by the native population were known as Cherikkal lands.

Three kinds of rights, Kanam (proprietorship) Karanmai (tenancy) Kutimai (occupancy) were in

existence during the period. An important development was the gradual acquisition of thousands

of acres of land by Brahmin village corporations through Attiper (from landowners placing land

under temple or Brahmin protection, or by outright purchase from them). Narayanan is of the view

that the acquisition of large areas of land by the Brahmin corporations gradually led to the

domination of economic and social life by the settlers who imposed their culture on Kerala. By the

twelfth century the Brahmins were able to establish themselves as the most dominant group.

According to Kunjan Pillai, their influence was so great that they even succeeded in persuading

the royal families to accept the myth of Brahmin blood alone being capable of producing good

kings. There were instances of Brahmins making the kings at one for the cardinal sin of giving

them offence. They succeeded in introducing a hierarchical system with themselves at the top as

the most superior caste. By virtue of religious leadership and temple management, Brahmins

became powerful landlords by a gradual process of converting management rights to ownership

rights. Kings and governors also possessed vast tracts of land as landlords. The feudal system in

medieval Kerala showed a hierarchy of land rights and caste which displayed somewhat the



following pattern: Janmam - Rajas, Brahmins, Temples and Naduvazhis. Kanam- Nairs and sub-

groups of Nairs Verumpattom Nairs, Moplahs (Muslims), Syrian Christians and Ezhavas. Agrestic

Slaves- Pulayas, Cherumars, Parayas and others. Kerala is one of the few Indian States which

implemented land reforms.

Land mark legislations related with Land reform

The State of Kerala was officially formed in the year 1956. Even before its formation, there had

been endeavors at land reforms in the State. The Restriction on Possession and Ownership of Lands

Bill (1954) being the best example of the same. The first democratically elected government

assumed office on 5 April, 1957. The first elected government issued the Stay of Eviction

Proceedings Ordinance to afford interim protection to tenants, including the 'kudikidappukars'

(hutment dwellers). Reports say that close to two million acres were transferred to 1.3 million

households. In spite of delays in implementation and circumvention of the legislation, the abolition

of tenancy was a remarkable success. The aggregate area transferred to the lessee amounted to

36.5% of the net sown area in the State, or 42.9% of the area excluding plantation crops. This was

followed by the agrarian reform bill, which was adopted by the Kerala assembly in June 1959. Its

outcome, the Kerala Agricultural Relations Bill (KARB) was a land mark in the history of Kerala.

It contained three important features.

(1) No holding of land by permanent tenants, including farm servants and mortgagees, would be

subject to resumption by the landowners. The rent to be paid by tenants was reduced to a maximum

of one fourth of the gross produce, and to much less, as low as one twelfth, in the case of less

fertile land.

(2) All rights of the landlords in land held by the tenants were vested in the State which then would

act as an intermediary in transferring (part of) sixteen annual installments of the fair rent to the

landowner. After paying all installments, the ex-lessee would receive full ownership of the land.

The total abolition of tenancy involved in this arrangement was an exemplary feature of the KARB.

(3) All land above the ceiling limit (15 acres of double cropped land per family, with no additional

allowance for adult or minor family members) was to be distributed by the Land lords.



The KARB was a radical departure, not in terms of an anti-capitalist agenda, but in terms of "its

democratic revolution which aimed at breaking the backbone of feudalism and semi-feudalism of

all kinds, and parasitic landlordism, with a serious concern for development of the forces of

production" .But the implementation of this comprehensive land reform programme was scotched

by the overthrow of the first government, the verdict of the Kerala High Court against certain

provisions of the bill and the presidential disapproval. The KARB, after the extended legislative

procedure, was sent to the President of India on 27 July 1959. Four days later, on July 31, 1959,

the government was dismissed by the President, arguing on the basis of Article 356 of the

Constitution that law and order in the State had been eroded. This argument was with reference to

the prevalence of a violent agitation, the Liberation Movement (Vimochana Samaram). The ideas

which the first government had introduced in 1957, remained intact, and the jenmi landlords in

Kerala, and the political parties representing their interests, apparently had changed their tactics.

Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963 is the principal land reform law in the State of Kerala and was

included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

Efficacy of Land Reforms: The major economic problems of the newly independent nation could

be income-poverty, hunger, illiteracy, lack of schooling, avoidable disease, and subject to what

were among the worst forms of class, caste, and gender oppression in the world. To solve the

agrarian question is to free the countryside of landlordism, old and new; to free the working

peasantry and agricultural workers from their present fetters and to guarantee them the means of

income and livelihood; to redistribute agricultural land; to provide the rural working people with

house-sites and homes; to create the conditions for the liberation of the people of the oppressed

castes and tribes and of women; to ensure universal formal education; and to achieve the general

democratization of life and progressive cultural development in rural India. Kerala was one of the

few States which took brave step of land reforms in early years, where the landless agricultural

workers were provided land to settle down. The result was highest public health and distribution

of basic educational facilities and least slum dwelling.

The Land Reforms Bill of 1959 introduced by the first ministry had the very clear objective of

breaking landlordism. It wanted to realize the slogan of “land to the tiller” which had been the

promise of the freedom struggle. The idea was to make tenants the owners of the land they

cultivated and to ban future tenancy in all forms. Resuming land for “own-cultivation” which was



a euphemism for tenancy-at-will or wage-based cultivation, and which had been the bane of land

reforms undertaken by other governments, was not permitted.

Few political groups have decided to launch agitations for restructuring the land ownership pattern

in the State by taking up its earlier slogan `land to the tiller.' Agitations, demanding the

continuation of agrarian reforms are also in operation. A call for a second round of land reforms

in Kerala has also triggered friction within the government and among various segments of the

society. It was pointed out that the reforms in Kerala had several historic achievements to its credit.

The process broke the backbone of landlordism and abolished the jenmi system. By 1993 it had

conferred ownership rights / protection on 28 lakh tenants, and 6 lakh acres had been accrued to

tenants. Much of the recent criticisms have come from economists who argue the reforms haven't

achieved their real purpose as most beneficiaries were not from the lowest rung of society.

According to them, an impression of success was created as several intermediate castes and the

middle class are benefited from the reforms. The results of the reforms have been that the tenants

(`kudiyans'), who were actually the middle class sections in the State, became the owners of the

land while the genuine landless farmers and the poor agricultural workers were driven away to

settlement colonies. It was also argued that while the middle classes in rural Kerala had gained

substantially from land reforms, these had not substantially benefited the landless agricultural

labourers, the tribal people or the fisher folk. As land reforms are considered the one outstanding

achievement of the Kerala development experience, the obvious question to ask is why this has

not solved the food problem once and for all. After 50 years of land reforms, Kerala depend on

Andhra Pradesh for rice Tamil Nadu for vegetables and Karnataka for meat. It proves that the land

reform did not increase agricultural production or rural employment in the State. In fact, one of

the most visible results of the land reform legislation was the extreme fragmentation of land, In

Travancore; tenant-friendly regulations came into effect from 1829 onward, and were strengthened

through subsequent reforms. Land was concentrated under royal control, and tenants in effect

became tenants of the state, with permanent occupancy rights and low rents.

In Kerala a clear caste structure was existing early period, in the higher portion of hierarchy

arranged by Namboothiris, Nairs, Ambalavasis and other groups come in Brahmanic category,

they are the real owners of the land in Kerala and they are the dominant caste group, and below

these groups arranged the intermediaries they are the service caste of Brahmin category in their



land the tenants worked as peasants of agricultural labourers, they have no a direct connection with

the owners of land. The family members of tenants worked in the land of a jenmi traditionally for

low wages. System of tenants and share-cropping system was the peculiarity of Indian agrarian

society. With the evolving of land reforms more and more changes coming in Kerala rural social

structure such as the lands of dominant castes are distributed to the tenants and stopping the share-

cropping system. Besides these, the power structure of rural society also changed, with the loss of

land the dominant position of higher caste also lowered, and the power structure of the basis of

principle of Democracy such as Panchayath Raj, adult Franchise etc. In post-land reform period

the agriculture occurred in land of dominant caste with the help of peasants but some time that was

not profitable to them when they do farming with family member, but they haven’t an agricultural

tradition so their land remaining as fallow.

2.4 Migration, Globalization and rural social transformation

Indian society is primarily a rural society though urbanization is growing. The majority of India’s

people live in rural areas that are 67 per cent, according to the 2001 Census. They make their living

from agriculture or related occupations. This means that agricultural land is the most important

productive resource for a great many Indians. Land is also the most important form of property.

But land is not just a ‘means of production’ not just a ‘form of property’. Nor is agriculture just a

form of livelihood. It is also a way of life. Agriculture is the single most important source of

livelihood for the majority of the rural population. But the rural economy is not just agricultural

economy. Many activities that support agriculture and village life are also sources of livelihood

for people in rural India. For example, a large number of artisans such as potters, carpenters,

weavers, ironsmiths, and goldsmiths are found in rural areas. They were once part and parcel of

the village economy. Their numbers have been steadily lessening since the colonial period. Rural

life also supported many other specialists and crafts persons as storytellers, astrologers, priests,

water-distributors, and oil-pressers. The diversity of occupations in rural India was reflected in the

caste system, which in most regions included specialist and ‘service’ castes such as Washer men,

Potters, and Goldsmiths. Some of these traditional occupations have declined. But increasing

interconnection of the rural and urban economies has led to many diverse occupations. Many

people living in rural areas are employed in, or have livelihoods based in, rural non-farm activities.

For instance, there are rural residents employed in government services such as the Postal and



Education Departments, factory workers, or in the army, who earn their living through

nonagricultural activities. Community land ownership is another feature of rural society; it is a

simple society with low density of population. A simple stratification system based on caste is the

peculiarity of rural social structure.

Migration and globalization are the two factors, which brought changes in rural social structure.

Both of these are the result of a bundle of social changes like industrial revolution, urbanization,

development of science etc. Even though migration occurred in earlier societies, the modern period

migration had made total changes in rural social structure. Migration means the permanent or

temporary movement of people from place of destination to place of origin. Mainly the rural urban

migration is occurred in society. Urbanization is a social condition which provides more and more

opportunities like more choices in employment, education; open and untouchable free society etc.

Rural society is a caste ridden society there people have no freedom to choice the occupation on

the basis of skill, education etc. the occupation was earlier determined by their caste,

unemployment, poverty, untouchability etc. are the face cut of rural society which push the rural

population to urban society and the above mentioned conditions found in urban society worked as

pull factors of migration. Globalization also leads to migration. Globalization means the growing

interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures and populations, brought about by cross-

borders in goods and services, technology and flows of investment, people and information. Both

of these factors made more and more changes in rural social structure that are summarized below:

1. Transformation of caste society to class society: Rural society is a caste ridden society;

globalization and rural-urban migration destruct the caste society and emerge the class society.

Rural society displayed a fourfold caste stratification system such Brahmins, Kshtriyas,

Vaisyas and Shudras, besides more and more sub-castes also found in rural society. After

globalization and rural urban migration there can be see the emergence of class society, the

class status is achieved status and individual can change his class status at any time, which is

fixed on the basis of economic status.

2. Decline of agrarian economy: Rural economy was agrarian economy, globalization shrinking

the agrarian sector. The international norms imposed by WTO (World Trade Organization)

and other multilateral organizations have reduced government support to agriculture. Greater



integration of global commodities markets leads to constant fluctuations in price. The high

dependence on seeds and fertilizers sold by the MNCs also destruct the rural agriculture.

3. Transformation of joint family to nuclear family: The increasing migration coupled with

financial independence has led to the breaking of joint families into nuclear ones. The western

influence of individualism has led to an asprational generation of youth.

4. With the rapid urbanization the rural society also covered by urban society: With the rapid

urbanization the rural people are highly migrated to urban areas when the urban society also

widens so it covers the land of rural area so the migration destructs rural society.

Rural social structure was the peculiarity of Indian society, which is transformed with the effect of

the factors like migration and globalization. These two factors are produced by the

industrialization, urbanization, growth of science and technology etc. These made social,

economic, political changes in rural society. Certain important changes are explained above.



MODULE 3

GOVERNACE IN RURAL SOCIETY

Governance is the peculiarity of each and every society, which means the controlling of the

behaviour of individuals for smooth functioning of society. Since the human life started in society

primitive form of the governance system was existing society. In accordance with time changing

the society also developing, a developing from of governance system started to develop. In early

societies the behaviour of individual was controlled by the informal agencies of social control like

family, caste organizations, village communities, and other community organization for

controlling the behaviour of its members. India is the society of villages where more and more

controlling organizations are existed for the comfortable lives of people. Panchayath raj is a

governance agency evolved in post-independence period. This module mainly analyses the

historical emergence of the rural governing system till present society. It provides an idea about

the evolutionary emergence of rural governing system with special reference to the relevance of

.governing system in rural society.

3.1 Rural governance: Village Panchayath, Caste Panchayath, Dominant Caste

Rural society is a type of society predominantly found in India during early period. It is a simple

society low density of population, caste system and agrarian economy etc. are the peculiarity of

rural society. Rural governance simply means to control the bahaviour of people in rural society

through formal and informal agencies such as dominant caste, Caste Panchayath and village

Panchayath. Only the governance is not the function of these organizations but the developmental

activities and planning of development are the other functions of these organizations. This part

provides an idea about the historical emergence of the rural governance system. First known rural

governance system in India was Dominant caste, and then caste Panchayath developed, at last the

village Panchayath take the charge of rural governance.

Dominant caste

Dominant caste is a structural component and the governing body of rural society so become an

inevitable concept in the study of rural society. The concept dominant caste in sociology was

introduced by a well known Indian sociologist M N Srinivas in his study of Rampura Village in



Mysore. This module depicts the concept dominant caste as a governing body of rural society. M

N Srinivas analyzed dominant caste as critically the traditional conception of dominant caste. In

traditional conception of higher caste means the caste groups who are arranged on the top of the

caste hierarchy, they are Brahmins or other groups similar to Brahmins which is different from

State to State in India. But they may not numerically higher. They have large amount of land.

Srinivas criticize this conception and define dominant caste as a caste dominates when it wields

economic and political power, it has a high rank in caste hierarchy, high numerical strength as

compared to other caste groups, it should own a sizable amount of the arable land locally available,

have strength of numbers, and occupy a high place in the local hierarchy. When a caste has all the

attributes of dominance, it may be said to enjoy a decisive dominance.

Caste is a stratification system existing in India which is based on the fourfold classification of

Varna. The Brahmins are arranged on the top of hierarchy, they are purified caste and twice born.

Generally Brahmins, Khatriya and Vaishya are known as purified caste and twice born; they are

arranged on the top of hierarchy they are considered as the dominant caste in India they determine

the governance of Indian rural society. Shudras and untouchables are the polluted and impure. The

higher position of governing body not democratically fixed, which is based on caste status and this

position traditionally handed over to other members on the basis of seniority of members. Then

caste Panchayath or Jati Panchayath emerged as a governing body in rural society.

Caste Panchayath

India is a caste ridden society. Caste simply means a hierarchical stratification system, which is

the peculiarity of Indian rural society. Mainly castes in Indian rural society are arranged in a

fourfold hierarchy such as Brahmins, who are arranged on the top of hierarchy, then Kshatriyas,

then Vaisya and then Shudra. Untouchables or Panchamam are at the bottom of hierarchy. Even

though the caste system started in India as a division of labour, in accordance with time changing

it controls all spheres of life like governance, birth, death, food habits, inter-dining, social

interaction etc. In India, most indigenous local consultative bodies have had a caste origin. The

term Panchayath is closely related with the term Pancha in Sanskrit, meaning a council of five

members. Caste Panchayath is also called caste council or Jati Panchayath. It is a traditional

judicial system based on caste. It is simply the caste specific juries of elders for villages. Before

the introduction of British courts, justice was administered by the masters, or one’s caste fellows.



There is no precise evidence to show how and when the caste councils came into existing.

However, there is a general agreement that these were created only after settled village life became

possible. Since each village is composed of more than one caste, each caste has been following the

norms, rules and behaviour pattern vastly different from other castes. The source of these norms

and rules are the cultural scriptures and ethnic or cultural callings maintained by the caste councils.

The term Jati Panchayath is used to denote the idea of caste Panchayath. Jati and caste are the two

terms interchangeably used to denote the same idea of caste. Within most castes there were

Panchayath meeting to hear cases and arbitrate between fellow caste members involved in disputes

and punish offenders against caste rules and customs. Inter-caste Panchayath were also formed to

hear disputes between members of different castes. There were also regional caste courts in some

places hearing cases in which the people involved were from different villages.

The caste Panchayath commonly exists in all parts of India then with the emergence of village

Panchayath in post- independence period, it gives way to village Panchayath. But in certain States

of India we can see the evidences of caste Panchayath. In northern India, the caste Panchayath is

generally composed of five elder members of the renowned families, persons of acknowledged

qualities of leadership, wealthy and capable of impartial judgement. These five people are called

Panchas. Head of the caste council is called Mukhiya or Pradhan. Theoretically the meetings of

caste Panchayath can be summoned whenever there is a breach of the caste rules and such breach

is brought to the notice of the caste Panchayath. Some of the major offences which the caste

Panchayath takes cognizance are as follows:

Reach of the caste rules.

Marriage that violates the caste norms and rules.

Breaches of rules of endogamy and exogamy.

Inter-dining with those who are outcaste.

Failure to fulfill marriage agreements or conditions.

Refusing to pay community subscription.

Divorce without mutual consent.

Disputes between in-laws.

Apart from the above, there are many petty offences which are brought into cognizance of the

caste Panchayath. The nature of punishment depends on nature of the offense and perpetrators are



generally asked for either apology or some other kind of punishment. The highest punishment

given to accused of excommunication. Jurisdiction of the caste council may be limited to one

village or may be extending to a cluster of villages such as four, eight, sixteen, and twenty four,

thirty and so on. In older times, the area of influence of caste Panchayath extended to eighty four

villages.

For centuries, the caste Panchayaths have worked effectively as judicial-cum-social institutions

with mandatory sanctions issue writs over its members. In fact the writ or order of caste Panchath

ran supreme in all spheres of life of its members. However, with changing times the effectiveness

of these bodies has waned. Neither these bodies nor their verdicts are legally recognized by modern

courts of law. The reasons ascribed to their gradual disappearance include- change in

circumstances; improved mobility and interaction among people; establishment of statutory courts;

introduction of secular village Panchayath with legal as well as constitutional backing. Modern

laws banning the evil practices, government support or protection to inter-caste marriage, stringent

government action over honor killing, abolition of untouchability, no legal sanction on

excommunication etc. Nevertheless, these developments have been hardly able to undermine some

of the Panchayaths such as Khaps in Northern India. In Villages, still people are fearful of

excommunication.

Village Panchayath

Village Panchayath is a statutory institution, emerged for the first time under the British rule.

Before village Panchayath, the traditional village councils are worked as a governing agency, it is

experienced a decay as a result of the village administration by the agencies of the Central

Government, extension of jurisdiction of Civil and Criminal courts to the rural areas, growth of

modern education, communication, introduction to the new land revenue system, police

organization and such other factors during the British period. The British government with a view

to preserve and stabilize its political control over rural areas gradually adopted various measures

for recognizing the village Panchayath. They passed various laws for the establishment of local

self governing bodies.

This is the basic or grassroots level of Panchayath Raj. It is constituted by the components like

Grama Sabha, Grama Panchayath and Nyaya Panchayath. Gramasabha consists of all adult



residents within a village or group of village, generally two meetings of Gramasabha held in a

year and in these meetings Gramasabha as a General Body of the people hear Annual Statement

of the Account, Audit or administrative report of Panchayath. It recommends new development

projects to be under taken by Panchayaths. It also helps in identifying poor people of the village

so they may be given economic assistance. Gram Panchayath is another part of village

Panchayath, the members of it is directly elected people. The number of members of Grama

Panchayath is fixed on the basis of population. Grama Panchayath held election on the basis of

single member constituency, 1/3 of seats are reserved for women. Chairperson of Gram

Panchayath are called President/Pradhan/Sarpanch, these names are used in different States of

India. Gram Panchayaths generally held their meetings once in a month. Nyaya Panchayath is

another part constitute the village Panchayath, it is the set up to provide speedy and inexpensive

justice. One Nyaya Panchayath is set up for 5 or more Gram Panchayath for tenure 3 to 5 years. It

is generally deal with petty civil and criminal cases and can impose fine upto Rs.100.

The above mentioned bodies are the oldest governing organizations in India. India is a caste ridden

society, so the dominant caste was a governing body in India, it is regionally different. Each caste

groups have their own governing body but the serious problems are handled by the dominant caste

in a rural region. Then castes Panchayaths are organized as a governing body, then the village

Panchayaths are organized with the coming of British administration in India. The growth and

spread of a well developed judicial system occurred with British administration, which leading to

the decline of dominant caste and caste Panchayaths as governing bodies.

3.2 Panchayath Raj- Decentralization of power in Village society

In early times village societies are controlled by various governing bodies like dominant caste,

caste Panchayaths, Village Panchayaths etc. With the coming of British administration in India

and the post-independence period more and more changes are coming in governing bodies. Caste

Panchayaths exists in village society during the time starting of settled life, then village Panchayath

emerged with the coming of British administration then in post- independence period Panchayath

Raj came into prominence as a democratic political institution.

Panchayath Raj in India owes its origin to the findings and recommendations of the Study Team

on the working of Community Projects and National Extension Services (NES) under the auspices



of the Committee on Plan project, which is popularly known as Balwantrai Mehta Committee.

From the point of view of Mehta Committee the major shortcomings of the Community Projects

and National Extension Service lies in its failure in generating the necessary enthusiasm among

rural people for the programme and its implementation. According to the Committee each

development block has an Advisory Committee composed of official and non-official

representatives but they have no roots amongst the people and have no powers and responsibilities.

All planning and execution is done by the block staffs, they are responsible for the proper and

timely utilization of the block funds. The Committee opined that the block administration functions

more bureaucratically and has not identified the spirit behind the programme. For generating

people’s enthusiasm for the programme the Committee recommended that all development

programmes in the block areas should be entrusted to representative institutions that can be evoke

local interest and initiative and the block staff and other officials should be placed at the disposal

of those institutions. The Study Team also recommended for the provision of sufficient funds and

sources of revenue for these local institutions to enable then to discharge their new duties. With

this view in mind, the Committee suggested the formation of the three-tier system of local

Government that is at village, at block and at district level. The three-tier system consisted of

directly elected Panchayaths at village level, Panchayath Samiti at block and Zilla Parishad at

district level. The Panchayath Samiti should have a life of five years and should posses the power

to scrutinize and approve the budgets of village Panchayaths. Its function should include the

development of agriculture, improvement of cattle, promotion of local industries, welfare work,

public health and administration of primary schools etc. As almost the entire rural development

work would come within the purview of the Panchayath Samiti, the Study Team suggested the

following resources should be assigned to them. (1) The percentage of land revenue collected

within the block, which should not be less than 40% of the State’s net land revenue (2) Cess on

land revenue (3) tax on profession (4) surcharge of duty on transfer of immovable property (5) rent

and profit accruing from property (6) net proceeds of tools and leases (7) pilgrim tax, tax on

entertainment, primary education Cess, proceeds from fairs and markets (8) share of motor vehicle

tax (9) voluntary public contributions and (10) government grants. To ensure the necessary

coordination between the Panchayath Samitis, a Zilla Parishad should be established consisting of

the presidents of Panchayath Samitis, members of the State legislature and of the Parliament,

representing the area and the district level officers. The Chairman of the Parishad would be the



Collector. The Parishad would have the power to examine and approve the budgets of the

Panchayath Samitis. It would also generally supervise the activities of the Panchayath Samiti but

it would not be invested with any executive functions. Ashok Mehta committee was a committee

closely related with Panchayath Raj, which was appointed in 1977 to suggest measures to revive

and strengthen the declining Panchayath Raj system in India. The committee suggested that the

three-tier system should be replaced with two-tier system: Zilla Parishad (district level) and

Mandal Parishad (a group of villages). The committee’s another recommendation related with the

appointment of district level as the first level of supervision after the State level. Zilla Parishad

should be the executive body and responsible for planning at the district level. The institutions like

Zilla Parishad and Mandal Panchayath to have compulsory taxation powers to mobilize their own

financial resources. G V K Rao committee was another committee related with Panchayath Raj.

The committee critically evaluates the Panchayath Raj system, due to bureaucratization the

developmental activities were not reach to the people in lower level of society.

The modern Panchayath Raj system was introduced in India by the 73rd constitutional amendment

in 1993, although it is based upon the historical Panchayath Raj system of the Indian Subcontinent

and is also present in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The system came into prominence

following a proposal submitted in 1986 by the L M Singhvi Committee to make certain changes

to the Panchayath Raj institutions which had already existed in early Indian history and which had

been reintroduced in 20th century, the modern Panchayath Raj system was formalized and

introduced in India in April 1993 as the 73rd Amendment to the constitution. In India, the System

now functions as a system of governance in which Gram Panchayaths are the basic unit of local

administration. The system has been three levels; Gram Panchayath at village level, Mandal

Parishad or Block Samiti or Panchayath Samiti at block level and Zilla Parishad at district level.

The Panchayath Raj System exists in all States except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram and in

all Union territories except Delhi.

The Panchayath Raj System was first adopted by the State of Bihar by the Bihar Panchayath Raj

Act of 1947. It was a continued legacy of the local self government started by Lord Ripon in the

British era. Later, it was implemented by Rajasthan in Nagpur district on 2nd October1959.

Rajasthan was the first State to introduce the Panchayath Raj system in India after independence.

During the 1950s and 60s other State governments adopted this system as laws were passed to



establish Panchayaths in various States. Maharashtra was the 9th State to implement the Panchayath

Raj system.

On 24th April 1993, the constitutional (73rd amendment) Act of 1992 came into force in India to

provide constitutional status to the Panchayath Raj institutions. The amendment was extended to

Panchayaths in tribal areas of eight states namely: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,

and Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan beginning of 24th December 1996.

Panchayath Raj system has certain objectives which are given below:

i) Increasing agricultural production.

ii) Development of rural industries.

iii) Fostering cooperative institutions.

iv) Full utilization of local manpower and other resources

v) Assisting the weaker sections of the community

vi) Progressive dispersal of authority and initiative with emphasize on the role of voluntary

organization.

vii) Fostering cohesion and encouraging the spirit of self-help within the community.

These are the functions of Panchayath Raj system, besides these, the three tier system has different

functions at village level, block and district level. The three-tier of Panchayath Raj institutions are

of a supervisory nature. The district Panchayath acts as the agency of the State, the taluk

Panchayath acts as the agency of the district Panchayath and the village Panchayath as that of the

taluk Panchayath for fulfilling certain previously laid down targets. At village level the main

functions of the Panchayath are provision of a water supply, maintenance of minor irrigation,

school buildings, family planning, development and cooperation, construction of wells and latrines

etc.

Functions of the Panchayath Samiti

Panchayath Samiti is the second layer of three-tier system of Panchayath Raj system, which is

worked in block level. It works through Standing Committees for production programmes, social

service and finance, taxation and administration. Block Development Officers are regarded as on

deputation to the Panchayath Samiti and are liable to be transferred in consultation with the



Pradhan. The Samiti Pradhan exercises administrative control over the Vikas adhikari and staff

within the block. Panchayath Samiti has certain functions for the development of rural society suck

agricultural improvement, development, cooperation, sanitation, primary education, social

education, cottage industries and emergency relief.

Functions of Zilla Parishad

Zilla Parishad is the third layer of three tier system of Panchayath Raj, which is worked in district

level. Their major function is the coordination and consolidation of the plans of the Panchayath

Samiti, supervision of the activities, and distribution among the Panchayath Samitis of the adhoc

grants allotted to the district by the State Government etc. Pramukh of Zilla Parishad can visit,

guide and advice the Panchayath Samiti. Coordination between the work of the various

departments is secured through the District Development officer, who is normally the Collector

and he is responsible to see that the amount placed at the disposal of the Panchayath Samiti are

being properly utilized and that the Vikas adhikaris of this team are discharging their functions

adequately as extension staff.

Panchayath Raj system is a well developed form of governing system still existing in India. Even

though certain criticisms have to the system, which is more or less better. The system was now

running in Indian rural society and which are leading to the development.

3.3 Community Development Programme in India

Community means a group of people who live in a geographical area and have an interest in each

other for the purpose of making a living. Community development programme simply means the

movement designed to promote better living for the community with the active participation and

or the initiative at the community. It is a method by which people of villages are involved in

helping to improve their own economic and social conditions and thereby they become more

effective groups in programmes of their national development. It is the process of change by which

people’s efforts are united with those of group authorities to improve their economic, social and

cultural conditions of communities, into the life of the nation and to enable them to contribute fully

to national programmes.



Community Development programme (CDP)

Based on the experiences within the country and abroad, the recommendations of the Fiscal

Commission (1949) and the Grow More Food Enquiry Committee (1952) the CDP was launched

on October 2, 1952 the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. At the initial stage in 1952 there were 55

community projects in 3 blocks. Each of the community development projects covered an area of

about 450-500 sq.miles with about 300 villages and a population of about 2 lakhs. Each project

area has been divided into three development blocks. A development block consisted of about 100

villages with about 150-170Sq.miles and a population of about 60-70 thousands. Each block was

further divided into groups of 5-10 villages. Each such group formed the area of operation for a

village level worker (Gram Sevak) who was the basic level extension functionary in the

community development programme.

Objectives of community development in India

The main objective of Community Development Program in India was the village development.

Its broad objectives are the economic development, social justice and democratic growth. It

attempts to secure as good a balance as possible among these three objectives and inter-relate them

in a manner that they support one another. More specifically, objectives of the Community

Development Programme are:

i) To assist each village in having effective Panchayath, cooperative and school.

ii) Through these village institutions, plan and carry out integrated multi-phased family, village,

block and District.

a) Increasing agricultural production.

b) Improving existing village crafts, industries and organizing new ones.

c) Providing minimum essential health services and improving health practices.

d) Providing required educational facilities for children and an adult education programme.

e) Providing recreational facilities and programmes.

f) Improving housing and family living conditions and

g) Providing programmes for village women and Youth.



Administration of CDP prior to Panchayath Raj

For implementation of CDP at the national level there was a central committee with prime minister

as Chairman. This committee was to lay down broad policies and to provide general supervision.

It was also responsible for economic development. The committee was assisted by an Advisory

Board consisting of the secretaries of developmental departments of central ministries. Under

Central Committee there was Community Projects Administration (CPA). At the beginning CPA

was very small and it grew up as a big organization. Therefore from September 20th, 1956 a

separate central Ministry was created known as ministry of community development. This

Ministry has overall in-charge of the programme. This department prepared national basis

programmes, budgeting, directing and coordinating throughout the country.

For implementation of CDP at the State level there was a State Development Committee or a

similar body. This body was entrusted with the extension of CDP and NES. This committee was

presided over by the chief Minister and consists of all Ministers of development departments. The

development Commissioner acted as Secretary to this committee, who has three fold functions

such as i) He had two functions in the centre first is to receive programme guidance from the centre

and report progress and second is give suggestions to the centre.

ii) He coordinated the programme at block levels. He also assures proper and adequate

supervision.

iii) He maintained an administration relationship with the District Collector who in turn is

responsible for planning, coordination, executing and evaluating the work of each block in

his district.

For implementation of CDP at District level there was district collector is the chairman of the

district planning of Development Committee. He is assisted in carrying out this development

responsibilities by BDOs. The district development committee consists of all Heads of Department

in the district. It has both officials and non-officials as members. The responsibility of

implementation of CDP at block level is vested in BDO, who is assisted by a team of experts in

agriculture, cooperation, animal husbandry, cottage industries etc. These technical personnel were

assigned with the development works at block level. Block Development Committee consists of

representatives of Panchayath, cooperatives, progressive farmers, social workers, MPs and MLAs



of the area. In Village level Community Development Programme was implemented by Gram

Sevak who acts as a multi-purpose man at village level. Each Gram Sevak has in-charge of about

7 or 10 villages. He is in-charge of both village and family development. He is guided and assisted

by various technical specialists at the block level. He is the last official administrative person in

the administrative chain for carrying out this nationwide programme for village development.

As seen at every level along with the official set up, non-officials participation has also been

emphasized. This programme is often called as peoples’ programme. There is great stress on the

peoples’ participation not merely in the execution of the programme but also in its planning.

National Extension Services (NES)

National Extension Services was a developmental programme implemented in rural areas of India,

which is implemented in the areas not covered by CDP, so that entire country would get the benefit

of development. The NES was implements from 2nd October 1953. When compared to CDP, the

NES was less intensive in character. Since CDP and NES had the same basic ideas, they were

integrated both at the centre and State. With effect from April 1958 there was no distinction

between CD blocks and NES. All NES blocks became CD blocks was achieved by October 1963.

NES covered almost all the villages in the country. For this national programme apart from the

existing system, a new administrative organization was built. A central level planning commission

itself headed by Prime Minister acted for direction and coordination of development. It was

assisted by an advisory board comprising of secretaries of several Central Ministries concerned.

An administrator for CDP was appointed to work under the control of the Central Committee for

the overall management of the Programme. As part of the implementation of NES at State level, a

State development committee under the chief minister was set-up with several ministries as its

members. It was assisted by the State level advisory abroad with development department

secretaries. A development commissioner was responsible for management of the programme. As

like CDP, NES implemented through different levels like Centre, State, District, and Block and

village level. It has a complicated organizational pattern prior to Panchayath Raj such at Centre

the programme was implemented by the officials as Ministry of community development and

cooperation and the non-officials in Central level was parliament through central committee the

Prime Minister as chairman. At the State level the NES was implemented with State development

commissioners and which is implemented by the State legislature through State Development



Committee, the Chief Minister as Chairman. At district level NES implemented by District

Planning Officer or District collector with the District Development Committee, district collector

as its chairman. At block level Block Development officer implemented this programme with the

support of Block Advisory Committee. At village level it is implemented by Gram Sevak through

Village development councils or Village Panchayath.

Even though the NES was similar to CDP, it has its own objectives which are given below:

a) To change the outlook of village people.

b) To make the people participate effectively in development programmes.

c) To develop village leaders accepted by all and

d) To increase the employment and production.

Even though NES are implemented through a wider organizational pattern it has certain defects

which are mentioned below:

1. Uneven distribution of benefits

2. Absence of clear cut priorities

3. Lack of self reliance and mutual aid and

4. Inadequate emphasize on development of cottage and small scale industries and agriculture.

3.4 People’s Planning Programme: A critical appraisal

Peoples planning programme was launched by the state government on 17th August 1996 by

ensuring people’s participation in the decentralized planning process starting from the stage of

preparation of plan it. Seventy Third and Seventy Fourth amendment’s in the Indian Constitution

put forward the objective of democratic decentralization. The government decided to implement

the ninth Five year plan as People’s Plan, giving the local self Governments powers in the process

of plan formation and implementation, with a view to realize the true spirit of the constitutional

amendments. People’s Planning also known as Janakeeya Asoothranam. It is conducted through

different phases like, in the first phase gram sabha were convened and people at the local level

mobilized to asses felt needs. In the second phase, development seminars were held in every village

Panchayaths followed by formation of task forces for the preparation of development projects.

12,000 task forces were formed that worked out to around 12 task forces per village Panchayath.

In the third phase development reports were prepared according to a format suggested by the State



planning board, giving details such as the nature of activities envisaged and financial and

organizational aspects.

Stages

A yearlong campaign spanning six stages marked the planning process leading to the formation of

the first annual plan (1997 – 98) of the Ninth five year plan (1997 – 2002). The state Planning

Board played an active role in helping the local self governments to formulate the plan with

people’s participation. Several training programmes were organized by the Planning Board for the

education and capacity building of people’s representatives, officials and voluntary activists and

experts. Above half lakh individuals participated in this massive learning programme. Many

handbooks and training manuals were published as the part of the training programme. The six

stages of People’s Plan campaign are summarized below

One - Gramasabha meetings

People’s representatives and voluntary activists were provided training in organizing

Gramasabhas and Ward sabhas (in Municipalities) to discuss the developmental issues.

Gramasabha meetings were convened in each ward of the local body in which hundreds of people

attended and discussed local development issues by forming different sectoral groups. Practical

solutions were also suggested in these discussions.

Two - Development seminars

The local self governments prepared detailed development report which analyzed local

development issues and the local resources available. Development seminars were held at the

Panchayath / Municipality level to discuss the development report and the suggestions of the

Gramasabhas. Local level plans and project ideas were formulated in these seminars.

Three - Task Forces

Task Forces including experts selected at the development seminars held meetings and prepareddetailed project proposals for the annual plan.Four - Plan document

The local self government institutions held their council meetings in which annual plan documentfor the local bodies were finalized by prioritizing the projects based on the funds devolved fromthe state government and locally available resources.



Five - Block and District Panchayath Plans

Block and District Panchayath samities finalized their annual plans by integrating and

supplementing the project proposals from below.

Six - District Planning Committee

District Planning Committees which are statutory bodies formed as per the constitution examined

the plan proposals of each local body in the district, duly recommended by technical expert groups

in various sectors, and gave approval to the plans which fulfilled the guidelines. Funds were made

available for the implementation of the projects approved by District Planning Committees.

Just as the different stages in the planning process the implementation of the plan projects was

organized through a series of stages. These included selection of beneficiaries in the Grama sabha,

formation of local beneficiary committee for implementation and monitoring committee for

supervision, all of which were aimed at ensuring people’s participation and transparency in the

development process.

Criticism

This program was not fully a success in Kerala, which is highly criticized by the thinkers. The

main criticism was about its officials, the task forces did not function as effectively as was

expected. The main weakness was that adequate number of experts could not be attracted to the

task forces. The participation of officials was also far from satisfactory. The training given to the

task forces was also inadequate. The weaknesses of people planning program also displayed in

technical details and financial analysis. The program was being politicized to suit partisan interest.

This program has not a sound administrative support which led to conflicts between an

inexperienced political executive and an experienced administrative executive.



MODULE 4

TRIBAL SOCIETY IN INDIA

The module mainly analyzes who are the tribes in India, their demographic features, their

problems, approaches, planning and programmes for tribal development and the tribe-caste

continuum. Through analyzing these, the students get an idea about the early Indian society. the

module also provide an idea about the problems facing by tribes in real life. Tribal groups in India

are considered to be the earliest inhabitants of the country. Indian constitution called them as

Scheduled Tribes, in common parlance they call as Adivasis, in which ‘Adi’ means first or earliest

‘vasis’ means the residents. Adivasis means early inhabitants of the earth. Tribes are a group of

people, they are living in a common territory and claims that derived from a common ancestor,

and believe in a common religion, which is different from the religion of non-tribes, tribes’ religion

is simple and closely related with nature, they speak a common dialect which may not have a

written form, and they are following a common culture. The Constitution Order 1950 declared 212

tribes located in 14 states as ―Scheduled Tribes. The Government of India today identifies 533

tribes with 62 of them located in the state of Orissa.

4.1 History of Indian tribes, Demographic features

Tribes are a social group of local communities, which lives in a common area, speaks a common

dialect and follows a common culture. Various sociologists and Anthropologists define tribes but

these definitions are not sufficient to denote the tribes fully. It is too difficult to give a suitable

definition. Their conceptualizations highlights certain characteristics of tribal groups like they are

a collection of people living in a common territory, they have a common name, common language,

common ancestor, a simple form of religion, common culture etc. Tribes are known in various

names like adivasis, aborgins, and Scheduled tribes.

The tribal populations in India have a long history. They have migrated to distant places in pre-

historic and historic times. Guha states that Indian tribes mainly derived from three racial groups

such as the Proto-Australoids, this group is characterized by dark skin color, sunken nose and

lower forehead. These features are found among the Gond (Madhya Pradesh), the Munda

(Chotanagpur), the Ho (Bihar) etc.), the Mongoloid, this group is characterized by light skin color,

head and face are broad, the nose bridge is very low and their eyes are slanting with a fold on the



upper eye lid. These features are found among the Bhotiya (Central Himalayas), the Wanchu

(Arunachal Pradesh), the Naga (Nagaland), the Khasi (Meghalaya), and the Negrito, this group is

characterized by dark skin color, round head, broad nose and frizzle hair. These features are found

among the Kadar (Kerala), the Onge (Little Andaman), the Jarwa (Andaman Islands). The present

popular meaning of a ‘tribe’ in India is a category of people, included in the list of the scheduled

tribes. Tribal populations are relatively isolated and closed groups, forming homogeneous units of

production and consumption. Being backward in economic terms, they were exploited by the non-

tribals. In none of the Indian languages there was a term for tribes. In earlier times, they were

known by their specific names such as the Gond, the Santhal, the Bhil etc. In modern Indian

languages, new words like Vanyajati, Vanvasi, Pahari, Adimjati, Adivasi, Anusuchit jati, have

been coined to designate the people called as tribe. Though much work on the history of tribes has

not been done, the names of tribes like the Kurumba, the Irula, the Paniya in South India; the Asur,

the Saora, the Oraon, the Gond, the Santhal, the Bhil in Central India, the Bodo, the Ahom in

North-East India, occur in old classical Indian literature. Some of the tribal populations, like the

Gond in Central India, the Ahom in North-East India, had large kingdoms. In brief, in ancient and

medieval periods of India it appears that the so-called tribal populations interacted with other

populations in a variety of ways in the region of their habitation.

The modern phase of the tribal history begins with the advent of the British. The British have keen

interest to establish their rule in all parts of the country and were also looking for resources for

their industries. In the process, vast areas of India were opened up and brought under centralized

administration. They not only levied new rents for land but also made new land settlements. The

areas, which were relatively secluded but rich in natural resources, experienced entry of a new

variety of people, namely forest contractors, labourers, officials, neo-settlers, moneylenders etc.

At this stage for a variety of reasons, the British thought of protecting the indigenous populations

by bringing a regulation in 1833. Certain parts of Chotanagpur were declared as non-regulated

areas, which meant that normal rules were not applicable on such areas for example; outsiders

were not allowed to acquire land in these areas. The administrators of such areas acquired vast

discretionary powers. Later on this policy was extended to other areas too. In 1874, the British

passed Scheduled Area Regulation Act and in due course the idea of a distinct and special

arrangement in such areas got accepted. In the meanwhile, the concept of a tribe as a social



category was emerging, which was meant to distinguish them from the Hindu, the Muslim, and

other organized religious groups through an over simplified assumption that the tribes were animist

while the latter were not. By the Act of 1919, the idea of wholly excluded area and partially

excluded area emerged for some of the areas where tribal populations were concentrated. These

areas were excluded from the application of normal rules. The 1935 Act incorporated these

provisions and a policy of reservation emerged for the people so notified for it. While these policies

were emerging, the British Government was still not sure how to classify the people, who were

neither Hindu nor Muslim. Their confusion is apparent from the terms they used to classify tribal

populations in their decennial censuses. In different censuses the terms used were animists, hill

and forest tribe, primitive tribes, and tribe.

Following Independence, the policy of protection and development for the population identified

as tribe has been made into a constitutional obligation. A list of tribes was adopted for this purpose.

In 1950, this list contained 212 names, which was modified by successive presidential orders. In

2003, the list contained 533 names. The Constitution, however, does not provide a definition of a

tribe. The people who have been listed in the Constitution and mentioned in successive presidential

orders are called scheduled tribes. This is the administrative concept of a tribe.

Tribes have been defined as a group of indigenous people with shallow history, having common

name, language and territory, tied by strong kinship bonds, practicing endogamy, having distinct

customs, rituals and beliefs, simple social rank and political organization, common ownership of

resources and technology.

Scheduled Tribe (ST) population represents a heterogeneous group scattered in different regions

of India. The differences are noticed in language, cultural practices, socio-economic status and

pattern of livelihood. The STs are confronted with problems like forced migration, exploitation,

displacement due to industrialization, debt traps and poverty. The scheduled tribe (ST) population

is 104.2 million, which is 8.6 percent of the total population of India (Census 2011). Madhya

Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, West

Bengal, and Karnataka are the States having a large number of ST populations. The overall areas

inhabited by the tribal population constitute a significant part of the underdeveloped areas of the

country. About 93 per cent of them live in rural areas and are engaged in agriculture and allied

activities. The sex ratio among the STs is 990 which are relatively better than the general



population i.e. 940 (Census, 2011). The infant mortality rate among the ST children is 62.1 which

are 57 for the other social groups. The child mortality rate among the tribes is 35.8 which are much

higher than the other social groups i.e. 18.4 percent. The demographic figures reveal that the tribal

population is the most disadvantaged, exploited and the neglected lot in India. Majority of the

tribes used to reside in the remote forest areas, remain isolated, untouched by civilization and

unaffected by the development processes. This situation has changed to a great extent over the

years. The Infant mortality rate of STs in India is 84%, in rural areas it is 85% and in urban areas

it is 61%.

Regional Variations of Tribes in India

North Eastern Region

North East India comprises the States like Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya,

Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. The region is surrounded by foreign territories like

Bhutan, Tibet-China, Burma, and Bangladesh on the north-south and the east. The long narrow

passage in the west connects the region with West Bengal and the rest of India. It represents a kind

of ethnological transition zone between India and the neighboring countries. This region is the

homeland of about 145 tribal communities of which 78 are larger groups; each with a population

of more than 5000 persons. They constitute around 12 per cent of the total tribal population of

India. In Mizoram, the tribes constitute 94.75 per cent of the total population of the State. The

percentages of STs to the total population in the States like Assam, Manipur and Tripura, is 12.4,

35.1 and 31.8 respectively (Census, 2011). The PTGs in Tripura include Riang and Maram Naga

in Manipur. This region depicts extreme heterogeneity in terms of distribution of tribal populations

in different areas including their social structures and culture. The sex ratio in the States like

Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland and Manipur is much higher compared to other regions

(Census, 2011).

Eastern Region

Eastern India comprises of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand. The diversity of East India

is evident from its population, nature and the types of tribes residing in this region. Multinational

corporations are attracted to exploit the natural resources and reserves at the cost of tribal

livelihood. This is leading to involuntary displacement of people from their homeland.



Development projects in the eastern India particularly in the State of Orissa are initiated in the

areas with tribal dominated populations due to rich natural resources. Due to these projects the

tribal lands continue to be passed on to the hands of non-tribals in Orissa and some of the investors

in the area of Niyamgiri hills in Rayagada district. The same trend is witnessed in other districts

like Kalahandi, Koraput, Malkangiri, Kandhamal and Balasore district. Tribals are alienated from

their land and land alienation is one of the important reasons of poverty and dispossession of tribals

in Orissa. Consequently some other problems exist like deforestation, loss of agricultural land,

environmental degradation, and marginalization of the STs. There is low pace of development in

Jharkhand, at the same time the state has one of the richest mineral reserves in India. The major

tribes in Orissa are Birhor, Gond, Juang, Khond, Korua, Oraon, Santhal, Tharua, etc. and the tribes

like Asur, Birhor, Korwa, Lepcha, Munda, Santhal, are found in West Bengal. The major tribes in

Bihar are Banjara, Birhor, Korwa, Munda, Oraon, Santhal, etc. and the tribes like Biga, Banjara,

Chero, Chik Baraik, Gond, Ho, Kisan, Kora, Lohra, and Santhal etc. are found in Jharkhand.

Santhal is the common and most populated tribe in the eastern region. It is important to note that

the maximum number of tribes i.e. 62 in Orissa and large number of PTGs reside in eastern India;

with 13 PTGs in Orissa, 9 in Bihar and Jharkhand and 3 in West Bengal. The PTGs in Orissa are

Chuktia, Bhunjia, Birhor, Bondo, Didayi, Dongria Khond, Juang, Kharia, Kutia Khond, Lanjia

Saura, Lodha, Mankirdia, Paudi Bhuyan and Saura. Many PTGs live entirely on forest resources,

but have adopted settled agriculture since more than a decade. Shifting cultivation used to be their

main economic pursuit but now their livelihood source has been transferred to stable farming and

noticed among Chuktia Bhunjia. Some of these PTGs are losing their identity and even some of

them are getting extinguished due to the rapid urbanization.

Central region

The central India tribal belt is rich in natural resources. Stretching from Madhya Pradesh (MP),

and Chhattisgarh, it is one of the poorest regions of the country. More than 90 per cent of the STs

belong to rural area and they are directly or indirectly dependent upon agriculture. Though some

of them have small land holdings, agricultural practices are quite primitive and productivity is low.

Central region also depicts high rate of infant mortality among ST population and situation is worse

among the PTGs like Birhor, Korwa, Abhujmaria, Kamar and Baiga in Chhattisgarh.

Western region



The States like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and UTs like Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar

Haveli represent the Western part of the country. Bhil is a common tribe found in all three major

States of Western India. The other tribes found in Gujarat are Dhodia, Gond, Siddi, Bordia, etc.

The major tribes in Rajasthan are Damor, Garasia, Meena, Sahariya etc. The common tribes

residing in Maharashtra are Bhunjia, Chodhara, Dhodia, Gond, Kharia, Nayaka, Oraon, Pardhi and

Rathwa. The PTGs in Gujarat are Kolgha, Kathodi, Kotwalia, Padhar and Siddi. PTGs residing in

Maharashtra are Katkari/Kathodi, Kolam and Maria Gond.

Northern Region

North India includes States like Himachal Pradesh (HP), Jammu & Kashmir, UP and Uttarakhand

(previously known as Uttaranchal). The tribes found in UP and Uttaranchal are Bhoti, Buxa,

Jaunsari, Tharu, Raji, etc. The major tribes found in Himachal Pradesh are Gaddi, Gujjar, Lahuala,

Swangla, etc. and tribes in Jammu & Kashmir (J& K) are Chddangpa, Garra, Gujjar and Gaddi.

The PTGs in U.P and Uttarakhand are common and they are Buksa and Raji.

Southern Region

States like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil nadu and Karnataka are included in the Southern region.

The main occupations of the tribes in the Southern region are settled agriculture, podu (shifting)

cultivation and collection of Non-Timber Forest Produce. The tribes in Andhra Pradesh are Bhil,

Chenchu, Gond, Kondas, Lambadis, Sugalis etc. The major tribes in Kerala are Adiyam, Kammar,

Kondkappus, Malais, Palliyar, etc. The common tribes residing in Tamil nadu are Irular, Kammara,

Kondakapus, Kota, Mahamalasar, Palleyan and Toda. The tribes residing in Karnataka are Bhil,

Chenchu, Goud, Kurumba, Kammara, Kolis, Koya, Mayaka, Toda, etc. Higher number of PTGs

resides in southern India; with 12 PTGs such as Chenchu, Bodo Gadaba, Gutob Gadaba, Dongria

Khond, Kutia Khond, Kolam, Konda Reddi, Kondasavara, Bondo Porja, Khond Porja.

4.2 Integration of the Tribals with the Non-tribals: Tribe-caste continuum

Tribe is a collection of people who living in geographically isolated areas like hilly areas, deep

forests, mountains etc. and they are speaking a common language in pre-literate form, they

followed a common culture, they have common religion, which is simple and closely related with

nature. The term tribe firstly used by the British administrators then Constitution receives and



follows this term till today. The concept of tribe is totally different from the concept of caste. Caste

is the peculiarity of Indian social structure, which is a stratification system. It‘s origin is closely

related the Varna system. Caste is a collection of families, bearing a common name, claiming a

common descent from a mythical ancestor human and divine, professing to follow the same

hereditary calling. It is generally a segmental division of society, and it is hierarchically arranged,

it follow certain rules such as restrictions on feeding, restrictions on occupational choice and

restriction on marriage. Even though these two concepts are different, we can see certain

similarities. The concept of continuum was initially coined by Robert Redfield, in his work The

Folk culture of Yucatan. Hitherto, he projected a serialized transformation from one cultural form

and social system to the other end of another cultural form and social system. Here he adopted the

‘Folk-urban’ continuum model. This conceptualization provided the tenacity for tying

evolutionary trends. Influenced by this schematic model, other scholars borrowed this conceptual

framework and rechristened it as ‘Tribe-Caste Continuum’. F.G. Bailey, while studying ‘Kondh’

and ‘Oriya’ political system, used this concept. He suggested, “We view caste and tribe as the

opposite ends of a single line. At different points along the line the particular societies may be

located according to their proximity to either the organic caste model or segmentry tribal model.”

Bailey labeled ‘Oriya’ caste society as organic and tribal ‘Kondh’ society as segmentry and argued

that their kinship values and religious beliefs are not far detached from one another. Thus we see

that the tribe-caste continuum studies in India bear the roots of imperialism from the school of

American Cultural Anthropology. Terms like Great and Little tradition, Universalization and

Parochialization are modeled for India.

Tribe-caste continuum means transformation of a tribal group into a caste group. In the ancient

society caste originated on the basis of division of labor. The tribe evolved on the basis of

community feeling of communities inhabiting a definite geographical area. Several differences

between tribe and caste are known but there is trend in a gradual change from tribe to caste. A tribe

can enter the Hindu society by adopting the clan and name of the caste. The Toda tribes in Nilgiri

Hills there are a certain amount of specialization of functions as in the caste system. Some tribes

manage to settle down at the peripheries of villages accept menial jobs from caste Hindus and

eventually get into the Hindu fold. Members of the tribal groups may adopt the surname or gotra

of a caste and also marry into the caste. Tribes when enter the caste fold lose their identity.

Historians say that tribe caste continuum is part of epoch change. The tribe-caste continuum in



India may be viewed as part of the general process of acculturation which has been continuing

since ages.

Scholars of tribe-caste continuum have often used social manifestations of religion, broadly

referred to as ritual and belief while describing the transition from one polar category to another.

People identified tribal religions as founded on psychological fears rather than on philosophical

explanations of unknown. It is also argued that movement from simple to complex forms of

religion is without any obstacles or social contradictions. Under this thought the exponents of tribe

caste continuum argue, the transition was spread over a long span of time. About 70% of the tribal

people have been characterized as Hinduisized without being Hindus and as indistinguishable from

the inferior ranks of caste order. The range of variations in this category of tribals is immense and

the polar categories of tribe and caste do not any longer prove useful.

It is felt that through culture contact and diffusion of cultural traits, the guiding principles of socio-

religious change are determined. As Sachidananda argues, “In India, however, most of the groups,

which are how regarded as tribal have been in contact with Hindu society for many centuries past.

Directly or indirectly, they have imbibed influences from Hinduism.” Apparent empirical

similarities are analyzed as continuities. The transition shows change from segmentry to

hierarchical societies. Some scholars also feel that the movement from the tribal pole to the caste

pole involves progress in ethnic heterogeneity, roles specialization, and social stratification,

emergence of the elite and increased interaction with network of civilization centers. These

features or specific characteristics are said to be completely missing in tribal societies.

M.N. Srinivas and Redfield may be considered as the pioneers for making others believe in tribe-

caste continuum in the context of India. They contend that acculturation defines the tribe-caste

mobility in India. It seems that the primary concern of these scholars is the social mobility of the

group and not of the individual. In the process of restructuring normative content of social

organization, individuals accept dominant trends of the group to which they belong. This trend can

be exemplified by relevant references as follows:

Michael York writes, “the Gond, Kolam and Naikpod are basically equivalent tries though

separate. The equivalence is affected by the fact that the Naikpod can now be marginally included

in the Telugu caste ideology and can claim greater ritual purity by not eating beef and pork.”

Sachidananda says, “The tribe caste situation in Bihar is interesting. Out of a total population of



42,40,770 enumerated as belonging to the fold of scheduled tribes, as many as 30,30,195 reported

their religion to be Hinduism’. D.N. Majumdar writes, “The transformation of a tribal group into

a group in the greater Hindu society with a distinct position in the caste hierarchy may come about

without any occupational specialization within the group or by the group as a whole. It will also

be shown that admission into the caste hierarchy has been achieved entirely through the process

of Sanskritisation.” Another feature of this argument is that the tribes are interacting with a caste

category and not with individuals in a society. As the importance is attached to rank, hierarchy,

ritual, pollution and purity, they dominate all other considerations of modalities of interaction.

People are adapted to the dominant trends visible in the society in which they participate. This

phenomenon is described as neo-caste system in which a traditional model which was based on a

series of dyadic relationships and was without any overall organizations and covering ideology,

now becomes more systematic and caste-like. Thus commentators on social exchange on the tribe

caste continuum find the presence of the process of Hinduisization and Sanskritisation. The

position claimed or achieved by a tribal group in the caste hierarchy is determined by the ownership

of land, possession of wealth and past or present rank in tribal structure. In a situation where these

status resources were lacking, a tribe gravitated towards that caste group in the hierarchy that was

compatible with its economic and occupational level.

There are many tribes in Bihar and Jharkhand such as the Bhumij, Kherwar, Chero, Gond etc.

They belong to that category whose members have adopted the Hindu faith. They retain their clan

and totems and some elements of their tribal belief. To a great extent, the Gonds are absorbed to

Hinduism. The transformation of a tribe into a caste is subsumed in the wider phenomenon of the

absorption of that community into Hinduism. The different communities of Gond in Bihar and

Jharkhand can be seen at different stages of assimilation. Their movement on the tribe-caste

continuum scale may be viewed as the common process of transition taking place in India.

4.3 Tribal problems in India

The tribals, who constitute 8.6% of the total population of India, are distributed in various States

of the country and are facing many problems. Some of these problems are peculiar to some areas

while some others are common to tribals of all the areas. Many of these problems are the direct

outcome of the changes that are taking place in the tribal community. Tribes are generally live in



hilly areas that is the forest, they have peculiar culture, language etc. Following are the problems

suffering by tribal people are given below:

1. Geographic isolation: Most of the tribes in India are in a way geographically isolated from the

rest of population. Some of them are living in the unapproachable physical areas such as deep

valleys, dense forests, hills, mountains etc. It is difficult for them to establish relation with

others and hence socially they are away from the mainstream society. This kind of seclusion

has retarded the tribal development. Displacement due to industrialization or any other cause

of regional development compels the tribes to displace them from their own land.

2. Social problems: They are suffering from various social problems due to their blind belief in

their traditional customs. More and more inhuman customs are followed by tribes in India,

they are not bothered about the harmfulness of that customs, child marriage, infanticide, rising

number of unmarried mothers, homicide, black magic etc.

3. Cultural problems: Tribes have a peculiar culture which is different from the culture of

mainstream society. Their language and culture are different so they are suffering from various

cultural problems. Due to Hinduisization and Christianization the tribes have lost their genuine

culture. They maintain a close relationship with their land and forest areas, with the

intervention of outsiders destruct their original culture. They have a specific language, which

is pre-literate, government provides various developmental programmes like compulsory

education, free food etc. to tribes which makes certain cultural confusions among them.

4. Economic problems: The tribal people are economically the poorest people of India. Majority

of them live below poverty line. The tribal economy is mainly based on agriculture and they

collected forest product as part of their livelihood. The complex forest laws and modern

agricultural system, the exploitation of outsiders etc. leading them to poverty. Unemployment

and underemployment are the other problems which are leading to economic problems. The

peculiarity of land ownership, there has some limitations to hand over the lands to non-tribes,

which is a big barrier of economic development.

5. Problem of health and sanitation: Health and sanitation are a big challenge in tribal society.

They are mainly dependent forest products for their livelihood, with the emergence of complex

forest laws they cannot freely use the forest products, and due to lack of nutritious food more

and more health problems are suffering by them. Sickle cell anemia, cancer, other infectious

diseases etc. are suffering from lack of nutritious food. They are not bothered about the



advanced treatment system. Due to lack of sanitation they are suffering from various dangerous

diseases.

6. Educational problems: Illiteracy is a major problem of the tribes. More than 80% of them are

illiterate. Literacy among them has increased but compared to general literacy rate in country,

which was very low. Tribals who are far away from the contact of the civilized world have no

faith in formal educational organization. Many of them do not know anything about education,

schools, colleges, universities, degrees etc. They feel no urge to educate their children. In early

period children help their parents in agriculture. The tribal speak their own language, which is

not similar to the civilized society’s language. This language difference was another serious

problem of hindering tries from education.

7. Indebtedness: It is a serious problem suffering from tribes in India. Their income was not

sufficient to fulfill their needs, when they borrowing money from money lenders or any other

persons. Besides for their basic needs, they borrow money for marriage of their daughters,

delivery of their daughters etc.

8. Poverty: Poverty is a serious problem suffering from tribes. Due to traditional form of

agriculture, high exploitation of forest by non-tribes, complex forest laws etc. leading to the

poverty of tribes.

These are the major problem suffering from tribes. Besides these, tribes suffering more and

more problems like sexual exploitations, displacement, discrimination etc.

4.4 Approaches, planning and programmes for Tribal Development

Tribes are a group of people living in hilly areas, deep forest and mountainous regions; they have

their own languages, culture, religion etc. They are living in secluded from the mainstream society.

They have equal right with men in mainstream society, so Indian Constitution and government

following a positive approach to bring them in mainstream society, due to lack of proper planning

they still remaining in undeveloped condition.

The Constitution of India envisages that the State shall promote with special care the educational

and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and in particular the scheduled tribes

and scheduled castes and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. A

period of 10 years was set initially to achieve the goal but as the problem was deep rooted and

many faceted a single decade was bound to persist through decade. Since independence India has



been actively thinking for the upliftment of her tribal people. Jawaharlal Nehru, a nationalist leader

of India who sought the tribes to develop along the lines of their own genius and further assured

that in caste should there be and imposition in the name of their development. Nehru respects their

culture, which was proved his addressing speech in all India Conference of Tribes in Jagdalpur in

March 1955.

In a democratic State, one group of people should not remain outside the mainstream society. Brief

account of tribal population distribution speaks about the need and significance of bringing them

into the mainstream. Out of the total Scheduled Tribe population of 67.76 million, about 49% of

the Scheduled Tribe population lives in three States, viz. Madhya Pradesh (27.73%), Maharashtra

(10.80%) and Orissa (10.3 8%), while Hariyana, Punjab, Chandigrah, Delhi, Pondicherry do not

have a single Scheduled tribe.

About 93% of the Scheduled Tribe population is rural based. Out of the major 15 States, only three

states, viz. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had more than 10% of the Scheduled Tribe

population residing in rural areas, the respective percentages being 14.94, 12.47 and 12.01. The

percentage share of Scheduled Tribe population in the total population of the following States is:

Andhra Pradesh (7.6%), Assam (3.4%), Bihar (7.0%), Gujarat (8.I %), Kerala (3.5%), Madhya

Pradesh (4.8%), Orissa (5.1%), Rajasthan (4.6%), Utter Pradesh (5.9%) and West Bengal (5.2%).

After independence, planned development started and broadly three different approaches:

1. Isolationist,

2. Assimilationist and

3. Integrationist - were advanced. These approaches are presented, in brief, below.

1. Isolationist Approach

The first approach was a legacy of the British regime, and is usually described as 'leave them

untouched'. The policy was to isolate the tribal population from the masses. The British took

deliberate efforts not to develop communication in the tribal areas. Tribals were kept away from

the rest of the population. Verrier Elwin (1934) supported the establishment of a sort of 'National

park' or 'specimens in a human Zoo' of the tribals and advised that their contact with the outside

should be reduced to the minimum. But, this approach was not followed for long.



2. Assimilationist Approach

The 'Assimilationist' approach is the approach which paved the way for the tribal people to mingle

with the neighboring non-tribals. In India, the process of assimilation took place in different parts

of the country, resulting in the gradual acceptance of Hindu culture by the tribals. The main

criticism against this approach was that, this tried to change the tribals by imposing upon them the

non-tribal customs and traditions. The advocates of this approach supported a direct assimilation

without waiting for a slow and long-drawn change-over. The approach is also considered to be a

failure.

3. Integrationist Approach

The past experience of the policies of isolation and assimilation, forced the planners to take the

middle way between the two; which is called the integrationist approach. This approach was

mainly the brain-child of Jawaharlal Nehru. The policy of integration consists of two types of

measures for tribal development such as i) Protective measures, and ii) Promotional measures.

i) Protective Measures

It means the measures taken by the authority for protection of tribal people through protecting their

culture, tradition, land etc. It mainly consist of land polices, forest policies and the policies to

protect tribal culture and traditions. Though the policy of protection and development is

undoubtedly same in itself, it is difficult to say that whether development is possible without

upsetting the harmony that exists in the placid tribal life. The protective measures are provided in

the Constitution of India as mentioned in the preceding section. All these provisions provide for

protection of tribals as well as for promotion of their development and welfare. These provisions

not only put an end to the policy of indifference which had been followed during the pre-

independence period but also gave testimony to tribal development and welfare programmes,

making them a Constitutional obligation for the future governments of the country. In nutshell, the

broad areas covered by the Constitutional provisions in respect of tribal development include the

following.

1. Statutory recognition of tribal communities

2. Creation of scheduled areas for the thorough development of the tribals.



3. Special representations in the parliament, in the legislative assemblies and the local bodies.

4. Special privileges in the form of reservation of a certain percentage of posts in government

services and seats in educational institutions.

5. Recognition of the right to use local language for administration and other purposes and to

profess one's faith.

In addition to the above, three provisions of the constitution deserve special mention. According

to the Fifth Schedule, Union Executive is given the power of giving direction to the States in

matters relating to the administration of scheduled areas. The Sixth Schedule designates tribal

areas in Assam and Meghalaya where Autonomous District Councils and Regional Councils have

been constituted with powers to make laws for management of land, forests, shifting of cultivation,

appointment or succession of chief and headman, inheritance of property, marriage and divorce,

social customs and matters relating to village or town administration. Article 275(1) of the

Constitution provides for grant-in-aid from the Union to the States for promoting the welfare of

the Scheduled Tribes or for raising the level of administration of the Scheduled Areas. The

Constitution also provides for making institutional arrangement for appointment of the National

Commission for Protection of Scheduled Tribes under Article 338 of the Constitution of India.

This is because with the Constitution (89thAmendment)Act, 2003 the erstwhile National

Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was later replaced by two separate

Commissions, namely, i) the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), and ii) the

National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST).

iii) Promotional Measures

These measures include development and welfare programmes undertaken by the government after

independence (through plans) and implemented by different agencies including the voluntary

agencies to make the tribal life better through the integrationist. All these protective and

promotional measures aim at advancing their social, economic, educational, linguistic, cultural,

political interests and rights of STs. Thus, tribal development, in the true sense and in the present

context of India, is in fact a post-independence concept and draws the spirit from the constitution

itself. These efforts have, thus, become part and parcel of well planned process of development.



Policies and Programmes of Tribal Development

Tribal communities have been geographically, ecologically and culturally linked to forest habitats.

In India, there are several local communities who depend on forest for primary or supplementary

nutrition, ethno-medical practices, energy and various other life supporting needs. Communities

have been affected by restrictions to forest access under protection laws. Most often, these laws

draw their validation from a western perception of nature, very unlike the reciprocal relationship

perceived by these communities. Most forest-dependent local communities in India are either

marginally settled cultivators or shifting cultivators who supplement their nutritional sources with

some hunting and gathering. A few communities depend almost exclusively on hunting and

gathering from forests. Large tracts of forest are essential to their survival strategies.

Special Policy Measures

India's forests are home to millions of people, including many Scheduled Tribes, who live in or

near the forest areas of the country. Forests provide their sustenance in the form of minor forest

produce, water, grazing-grounds and habitat for shifting cultivation. Moreover, vast areas of land

that may or may not be forests are classified as "forest" under India's forest laws, and those

cultivating these lands are technically cultivating forest land. The reason for this latter

phenomenon is India's forest laws.

Rights of Forest-Dwelling Tribes on Forest Lands

The 1952 forest policy classified forests into protected forests for ecological balance, national

forests for commercial use, village forests for community use and tree lands to improve the

physical condition of the country. It was in fact retrogressive as the earlier, colonial policies left

some space for subsistence use and did not touch the private CPR (common pool resource) forests.

The only silver lining was a soft approach to conversion from shifting cultivation. India's forests

are governed by two main laws, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the Wild Life (Protection) Act,

1972. The former empowers the government to declare any area to be a reserved forest, protected

forest or village forest. The latter allows any area to be constituted as a "protected area", namely a

national park, wildlife sanctuary, tiger reserve or community conservation area. Under these laws,

the rights of people living in or depending on the area to be declared as a 'forest' or 'protected area'

are to be "settled" by a "forest settlement officer." This basically requires that officer to enquire



into the claims of people to land, minor forest-produce, etc. and, in the case of claims found to be

valid, to allow them to continue or to extinguish them by paying compensation. Studies have

shown that in many areas this process either did not take place at all or took place in a highly faulty

manner. Thus, 82.9% of the forest blocks in undivided Madhya Pradesh had not been settled as of

December 2003.

While all the hilly tracts of Orissa were declared government forests without any survey. In Orissa,

around 40% of the government forests are "deemed reserved forests" which have not been

surveyed. Those whose rights are not recorded during the settlement process are susceptible to

eviction at any time. This "legal twilight zone" leads to harassment, evictions, extortion of money

and sexual molestation of forest dwellers by forest officials, who wield absolute authority over

forest dwellers' livelihoods and daily lives; The Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest

Dwellers (Recognition of-Forest Rights) Act 2006.

The 1988 forest policy was some improvement in that it conceived people's involvement and some

protection for customary access rights, though with some riders like linking the access rights to

the carrying capacity of the forest. There was also some conception of capacity building among

forest communities and regenerating forest through planned silviculture. This is how the concept

of Joint Forest Management (JFM) came into being as a participatory model for managing forest.

Planned silviculture and JFM sounded better on paper than they have actually been at the ground

level. Eucalyptus monocultured forest has replaced precious native biodiversity in Chhattisgarh,

Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa and categories of protected areas include national parks,

reserved forests, forests and biosphere reserves. In some places, Community forest Management

(CM), intended to be a more participatory model, is used instead of JFM. National parks have been

exposed to eco-development models, supposedly to build capacity among local communities: the

models include eco-tourism and Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) extraction. National parks

typically have a core area with mega fauna and a fringe area which is administered like a JFM

forest. Many of the national parks have human populations in their core areas. Protection practices,

however, vary from one State to another, though there is some standardization by the central

government.

In the age of globalization, the question of ensuring justice to local communities by restoring their

access to the forest is something that has enormous implications, larger than just the issue at hand.



Equally, it is a very contentious issue when seen in the context of protecting biological diversity,

and it involves many different collectivities and interest groups. The protection accorded to the

forest to the exclusion of local communities has been seen as a violation of human rights, while

conflict between the State machinery and the people is detrimental to wildlife protection. The

ethical implications of environmental protection and the responsibility of the human species to the

rest of nature also require thorough consideration. In such situation, the link between forest and

peoples is, thus, not just a contested ground within India, far less a theme that touches the lives of

only the beneficiaries of forest-access legislation. The key issues here are: the survival of a shared

wealth of biological and cultural diversity; a necessary rethinking of the link between human

beings and the rest of nature in terms of cultural values; and also, an issue of conceptualizing the

relations between the global and the local. It is, therefore, necessary to interpret the local realities

in anthropological terms to evolve the best and most locally compatible conservation practices that

will protect and enhance biological and cultural diversity. The key lies in identifying those modes

of indigenous discourse that, to use the words of Jeffrey McNeely (1993), "support diversity as a

value". What is called for is, in essence, an informed dialogue. To protect biological and cultural

diversity in India, we propose a larger and more inclusive dialogue at a very basic level, between

local cultures and communities, their civil society institutions and those representing them in

advocacy, i.e. the academic fraternity, public intellectuals, Local scholars and the government.

One form of dialogue very important to conservation practice is the interaction of indigenous or

local knowledge with western science. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Forest Rights

Act describes it as a law intended to correct the "historical injustice" done to forest dwellers by the

failure to recognize their rights.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act,

2006: It is a key piece of forest legislation passed in India on December 18, 2006. It has also been

called the "Forest Rights Act", the "Tribal Forest Rights Act”, the "Tribal Bill", and the "Tribal

Land Act." The law concerns the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and other sources,

denied to them over decades as a result of the continuance of colonial forest laws in India.

Supporters of the Act claim that it will redress the "historical injustice" committed against forest

dwellers, while including provisions for making conservation more effective and more transparent.

The demand for the law has seen massive national demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands

of people. However, the law has also been the subject of considerable controversy in the English



press in India. Opponents of the law claim it will lead to massive forest destruction and should be

repealed. A little over one year after it was passed, the Act was notified into force on December

31, 2007. On January1, 2008, this was followed by the notification of the Rules framed by the

Ministry of Tribal Affairs to supplement the procedural aspects of the Act. The new Scheduled

Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognize The new Scheduled Tribes (Recognition

of Forest Rights) Bill needs to be contextualized in the cultural specificities of forest dependent

peoples, particularly "tribal" peoples, their indigenous knowledge systems, and the need to revive

a supportive relationship between local communities and the native biodiversity. The main

shortcoming of the bill is its insistence on recognizing the rights of people scheduled in a particular

area, which is typically a state level list. Maharashtra has set a benchmark of best practice in

recognizing "tribal land", based on more practical and credible criteria than ''documentary

evidence", but the bill should evolve a standard practice mandatory for all States. Civil society

institutions could catalyze consensus between peoples on land occupation with the help of

academia and governance and informed by anthropological knowledge of the cultural link with

forest. Mechanisms of land transfer should ideally target collectivities rather than individuals as

beneficiaries, given especially the communal nature of customary landholding in many of the

forest areas. Distribution of forest lands also raises another pertinent issue: to what extent the

administration can ensure that the lands distributed would not be put to uses incompatible with

conservation of biological diversity.

Programmes for Tribal Development

The tribal majority areas in the country are broadly divided into three categories, viz.

1) Predominantly tribal states/union territories,

2) Scheduled area, and

3) Non-Schedule areas in the States.

All the tribal-majority States and Union Territories are placed in a special category for availing

funds. The development and administration of tribal areas is accepted as a special responsibility

of the central government even though they are integral parts of the concerned States. Several

programmes and schemes have been divided into two categories, viz.



I) Central sector programmes which are fully financed by the central government, and

II) The centrally sponsored programs which are partly financed by the central government and

rest of the expenditure meted out by the concerned State government.

According to D. Sharma financial resources for developmental programmes in a State may

comprise the following elements:

1. Investment in the central and centrally sponsored schemes;

2. State revenues; and Share from certain central revenue;

3. Plan assistance from the central government; and

4. Grants under Article 275 (1) on the basis of the recommendations of the Finance Commission.

The utilization of State funds is broadly classified under two categories, viz. Plan and non-plan.

The plan technically covers all those items which are included in the State or the Central plan. The

non-plan includes expenditure on general administration as also on the maintenance of

development schemes.

The Special Central Assistance (SCA) for tribal sub-plans is allocated between different States on

the basis of three criteria: 1) tribal population of Sub-Plan area; 2) the geographical area of the

Sub-plan; and 3) the per capita gross output of the state.

The weightage for these three elements has been fixed in a certain proportion. While the first two

criteria are simple, the quantum of assistance on the basis of the third criterion is determined with

reference to the difference between the inverse of the State's per capita gross product and the

inverse of the per capita gross national product. The financing agencies rendering their services in

the tribal areas are Central Government, State Governments, and institutions such as commercial

banks, co-operative banks, NABARD and voluntary organizations. Tribes are suffering from

poverty its causes are illiteracy, unemployment, under-employment and low productivity in

agriculture and allied areas. Since farmers in TSP area have land-holding mostly on hill slopes,

the fertility of land is very low. Further, droughts and soil erosion are now recurring features in

the tribal areas. This has reduced employment opportunities of the tribals. Therefore, for improving

the economic status of tribals, special programmes was launched, during 1980s they are given

below:

a) The Asset Programme, and



b) The Employment Programme.

The Asset Programme aims at the overall integrated development of rural life through the removal

of poverty and unemployment in rural areas. In this programme, productive assets are directly

given to the poor. It is believed that income generated from these productive assets would not only

be sufficient to repay the bank loans but will help the assisted families to cross the 'poverty line'.

This programme is popularly known as Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP). The

Employment Generation Programmes, on the other hand, aim at providing employment through

public works during the adverse agricultural season. The employment programme asserts that

poverty persists because of the lack of employment opportunities. The earlier employment

schemes were ad hoc in nature but the employment programme launched from 1980 onwards

became popularly known as National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) and considered as

permanent plan programme. A number of employment-oriented and developmental programmes

for tribals have been introduced by the government of India. In all the major programmes of

country emphasis has always been laid on tribals among other weaker and backward sections of

the society. These include Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Jawhar Rosgar

Yojana (.TRY), Prime Ministers Rosgar Yojana (PMRY) and Training of Rural Youth for Self-

Employment (TRYSEM). IRDP scheme is absolutely for rural people those belonging to below

poverty line and other programmes are for both rural as well as urban youth. All these schemes are

implemented in the state by District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA's) in collaboration with

Commercial and Co-operative Banks. The main thrust of the development strategies has been on

the removal of poverty in tribal areas.

Mainstreaming of Scheduled Tribes: Five Year Plans and Tribal Development

The Government of India through planning commission, among others, formulated strategies and

programmes for tribal development as part of Five Year Plans of India. A brief account of the

tribal development and welfare programmes during different plans is presented below.

First Five Year Plan (1951-1956)

The First Five Year Plan outlined a positive policy for assisting the tribals as under.



1. Assisting them to develop their natural resources and to evoke a productive economic life

wherein they will enjoy the fruits of their own labour and will not be exploited by more

organized economic forces from outside.

2. It is not desirable to bring about changes in their religious and social life, except at the initiative

of the tribal people themselves and with their willingness or consent.

3. It is accepted that there are many features in tribal life which should not only be retained but

also developed.

4. The qualities of their dialects and the rich content of their arts and crafts also need to be

appreciated and preserved.

Taking into consideration the conditions of the tribal people, the First Planning Commission

quoted that "There may be a good deal of justification for such (isolation) a policy of non-

interference; but it is not easily practicable when tribal life has been influenced by social forces

from without, and tribal communities have reached a certain degree of acculturisation

accompanied by the penetration of communications in the tribal areas, and of social services for

the betterment of their lives." In the First Five Year Plan, Community Development Projects for

all round development of rural areas especially the weaker sections were started. However, the fact

is that the first five year plan did not pay due special attention toward. The development of tribal

areas, because only certain isolated piecemeal attempts such as educational schemes, welfare

schemes, etc. were introduced.

Second Five Year plan (1 956-1 961)

During this plan the Ministry of Home Affairs provided fund to the Ministry of Community

Development to establish Special Multipupost7 Tribal Blocks (SMPT) in areas with prominent

tribal population. During the second five year plan, recognizing the socio-economic conditions

prevailing in the tribal areas, concrete development schemes were planed. Novel administration

systems were introduced, with creation of multi-purpose tribal projects in certain selected tribal

areas.

Third Five Year plan (1 961 -1 966)

Based on the recommendations of review (Verrier Elwin Committee) of SMPT Blocks, during the

Third Plan period SMPT Blocks were renamed as Tribal Development Blocks (TDB) and



suggested that theory be opened in all areas where over 60% of the population were tribals. Thus,

based on the recommendations of Verrier Elwin committee, tribal development block system had

been implemented under third five year plan.

Three Annual Plans (1 966-1 969)

During this period no special funds were provided for tribal development. However, in 1969-70 a

decision was taken to extent the total life of TDBs to 15 years.

Fourth Five Year Plan (1969-1974)

During the Fourth Five Year Plan, a series of programmes were conceived and launched to address

specific target groups. The Small Fanners Development Agencies (SFDA) and Marginal Fanners

and Agricultural Labourers Development Agencies (MFAL) were the first two in the series. In

these cases, attention was shifted from area development to development of identified individuals

who qualified for special attention according to certain objective criteria. The Drought Prone Area

Programme (DPAP) was another measure in the same direction, but with a difference. Here, the

attention was given to the problem faced by an entire region which is depressed because of its

agro-climatic situation. The specific target-group approach, however, was adopted to pay greater

attention to the weaker sections of the society. Tribal Development Agencies (TDAs) were

established on the pattern of SFDA to address the problems of the tribal population. Six tribal

development agencies were started during the Fourth Plan. Each Tribal Development Agency

covered a group of TD Blocks. Tribal Development Agencies were expected to comprise elements

of economic development, social services and prospective measures.

On the eve of commencement of fourth five year plan, 489 tribal development blocks had come

into existence for the economic betterment of scheduled tribe areas with large concentration of

tribal populations. As one of the drawbacks of the functioning of TDBs it became clear that their

activities were, however, not properly integrated with the general development plans for the

region. The Fourth Plan tried to rectify the drawback by adopting the integrated area development

approach.



Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79)

During the middle of the Fourth Five Year Plan, i.e. in the year 1972, tile Planning Commission

set up a "Task Force on Development of Tribal Areas" with Vidyarthi as the Chairman. The task

force observed that, the problem of the tribals reflected in primitive methods of agriculture, land

alienation, indebtedness, adverse effects of industrialization, low rate of literacy, poor health and

nutrition, etc., had not been solved (Rhownick). The committee opined that one of the important

factors for the lack of impact so far was that development of Scheduled Tribes and tribal areas had

been looked upon as a problem of 'welfare' as distinguished from 'development'.

Taking into account the recommendations of the task force and other previous committees, during

the Fifth Five Year Plan, an altogether new approach was adopted towards tribal development in

the form of Tribal Sub-plan. It envisaged the total development of the tribal areas and provided

the mechanism for integrating the developmental activities of the government and the semi-

government organizations by financing through the Integrated Tribal Development Project

(ITDP). The Sub-Plan aimed at narrowing the gap between the levels of development of tribal and

other areas, and to improve the quality of life of the trihd4communities in general. The First Sub-

Plan (974-79) accorded the highest priority to elimination of exploitation. For each Integrated

Tribal Development Project (ITDP), an Integrated Area Development Plan focusing attention on

the specific problems of the area and the tribal people has been formulated. The Sub-Plan areas in

each state, thus, comprised a number of viable projects. In view of weakness of earlier area-based

programmes viz. tribal development blocks and tribal development agencies a new strategy was

evolved in the fifth five year plan for the foundation of sub-plan for the area of tribal concentration.

This is intended to achieve an intensity of attention to the tribal areas and devised measures to suit

their local ethos. About 213 of tribal population in the county are estimated to be covered by sub-

plans as were in operation in the fifth plan.

Sixth Five Year Plan (1 980-85)

The Sixth Plan continued the Sub-Plan approach of the Fifth Plan by supplementing it through

target-beneficiary approach with the objective of narrowing the gap between the level of

development of the tribals and other developed communities and bringing about a qualitative

change in the life of a tribal community. ; The strategy of development lays emphasis on



consolidation of the gains of protective measures, programmes of full employment, education and

health services.

The broad objectives of the Sixth Plan were:

i) A progressive reduction in the incidents of poverty and unemployment

ii) Improving the quality of life through minimum needs programme

iii) A reduction in inequalities of income and wealth; and

iv) Infra-structure development for further exploitation of potential of the tribal region. The

programmes under different sectors of development are required to be intensified with suitable

modifications to remove the present inadequacies in implementation. The States have to give due

importance to the integration of programmes in the field and effective delegation of powers to the

Project Authorities in ITDPs. The approach in the Sixth Plan for the development of backward

areas in general was to rely, to a greater extent, on the development of agriculture, village and

small-scale industries, subsidiary occupations and related services and also the Minimum Needs

Programmes and Area Development Programmes. Improvement of economic status of the tribals

was the main concern and suitable programmes of horticulture, cattle development, poultry,

piggery, etc. were carried out. More emphasis was placed on family-oriented progrmmes than on

infrastructure development unlike in the previous Plans.

In the sixth five year plan, it was noticed that certain pockets of tribal concentration outside the

tribal sub-plan area were still left out of the tribal sub-plan strategy. It was, therefore, decided

during the sixth plan that pockets of center-groups villages or pockets having minimum of 10,000

populations of which at least 50 percent are scheduled tribes, should be covered for Intensive

Integrated Development and Modified Area Development Approach (MADA), under the tribal

sub-plan.

Seventh Five Year Plan (1985 -90)

The basic premises of the Tribal Sub-Plan continued in the Seventh Plan also. During the Seventh

Plan the Tribal Sub-Plan strategy comprised the following.



Identification of the Development Blocks where tribal population is in majority and their

constitution into ITDPs with a view to adopt there an integrated and project-based approach

for development.

Marking of funds for the Tribal Sub-Plan and ensuing the flow of funds from the control of

State plan, sectoral outlays and from financial institutions.

Creation of appropriate administrative structures in tribal areas and adoption of appropriate

personnel policies.

The programme of tribal development with ITDP pattern was continued in the Seventh Plan also

without any basic or major changes in the approach, pattern or structure but better co-ordination

was sought between various agencies, and social services were given priorities. For the seventh

plan period (1985-1901), about 40 lakhs scheduled tribe families below the poverty line were

targeted to be provided economic assistance. In this plan, 3 new ITDPs have been added in Sikkim,

by scheduled tribe population concentration norms as a special case and by the end of 1987-88

totals of 184 TTDPs were functioning. ITDP areas covered 3 13.21 lakhs tribal population.

Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97)

The Eighth Plan largely emphasized the reorientation of administrative structure at all levels for

functional co-ordination, integration and effective delivery of services. The strategy specifically

aimed at improving the living environment of the tribals by giving them better social and civic

amenities and facilities, the working group has recommended that the objective of the Seventh

Plan would continue for the eighth plan period. The objectives for the Eighth Plan in this regard

are detailed below.

Progressive reduction in poverty and creation of employer-lent thereby providing reduction in

income inequalities.

Improving the quality of life through a minimurn needs programme.

Development and strengthening of infrastructure for further economic exploitation of the

Tribal Sub-Plan area.

Development of confidence of tribals along the desired lines through intensive educational

efforts.



In the Eighth Five Year Plan, Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) area, Modified Area Development Approach

(MADA), Scattered Development Plans, and Primitive Tribe Development Plans have been

stressed. Despite the effects to diversify economic activities in non-formal sectors, the

predominant source of livelihood in TSP area continued to be agriculture. The main thrust was on

the development of fisheries, sericulture, and horticulture, plantation on waste land, growing

vegetables to provide supplemental income and new avenues of employment to the tribals. Human

resources developments through education, vocational craftsman-training were taken up to

improve the skills of the tribals. Expansion of irrigation facilities 'and electrification of tribal

settlements, expansion of irrigation wells, fertilizers, improvement of cattle-breed and mining

activities have also been taken up. In this plan, family-oriented schemes have been also stressed to

uplift the tribal families. The community development programmes were given second priority.

The eighth plan gave importance to Tribe Sub plan and the schemes specifically targeted for the

welfare and development of scheduled tribes to ensure that the scheduled castes and scheduled

tribes are able to derive adequate benefits and felt that a national policy on rehabilitation of people

displaced by large development projects will need to be evolved. It also emphasized the

empowerment of women belonging to the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes.

Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002)

The strategy in this Plan was to achieve a seven percent growth rate for the economy. The main

objectives of the Ninth Plan were the generation of adequate productive employment, eradication

of poverty, empowerment of women and socially disadvantaged groups. It aimed at ensuring food

and nutritional security for all, particularly the vulnerable sections of society. The principal task

of the Ninth Plan was to usher in a new era of people-oriented planning, in which not only the

government at the Center and the States but also the people at large, particularly the poor can fully

participate.

A participatory planning process is an essential precondition for ensuring equity as well as

accelerating the rate of growth of the economy. The government of India enacted an amendment

to the constitution of India (73rdAmendment) for all wing representation of backward and

marginalized communities, e.g. Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and women in Panchayath Raj

institutions. It is now felt that the hits of development could be multiplied manifold with the



involvement of people at the grass-root level in the process of development. The approach for the

Ninth Five year Plan has drawn attention to the need for national policy for tribal development.

Effects will be made to ensure that the tribal economy is protected and supported against threats

from the external markets. The ownerships/patent rights of the tribal people in respect of minor

forest produces vis-a-vis the use of medicinal plants will be protected as per the provision of

intellectual property rights (IPR). Ninth Plan processes aimed at fulfilling the ambition of tribals

towards the initiation of 21st century and bring them more nearer to national mainstream.

This plan adopted the following strategies to empower socially disadvantaged groups like the

scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes, and other backward classes and minorities.

Creation of an enabling environment that is conducted for SCs, STs. OBCs and minorities to

exercise their right freely, enjoy their privileges to be able to lead a life with confidence and

dignity.

Adoption of a three-pronged strategy of: i) social empowerment; ii) economic empowerment;

and iii) social justice, in empowering these disadvantaged groups.

Ensuring removal of disparities; elimination of exploitation and suppression and providing

protection to the disadvantaged groups.

Ensuring the development and benefits to 'reach the unreached through equitable distribution

and with social justice.

Ensuring participation of the socially disadvantaged groups in the process of planning, not

merely as the beneficiaries but to take part effectively in the formulation of the need- based

programmes I projects, their implementation, supervision and monitoring.

Accelerating the ongoing process of improving the socio-economic status of the disadvantaged

groups through effective implementation of various programmes and, thus, brings them on par

with the rest of the society.

Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007)

Focus was on increasing the forest and tree cover to 25% by 2007 and 33% by 20 12, and tackling

the unresolved problems of the tribes. The tenth plan formulated a comprehensive national policy

for empowering tribes through their integrated development, which will lay down the

responsibilities of the different wings of the government with appropriate accountability.



Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-2012)

Its strategy was inclusive growth. In the process of inclusion, the plan paid special attention to the

needs of the scheduled tribes and other socially disadvantaged groups.

Tribals are the people with same rights as the people in main stream society, due to various reasons

they still exist in the down trodden position. Government put forward various measures to uplift

them, but owing to lack of planning and bureaucratization these programs not reach to them so

they remaining in down trodden position in society.

References

1. RAJ, HANS Rural Sociology (1992), Surjeet Publications

2. Shanin (1971), Peasant and Peasant societies, Peguine books Harmondaworth

3. Desai, A.R. (1961); Rural Sociology in India Popular Prakashan, Bombay.

4. Doshi, S.L. & Jain, P.C. (2006); Rural Sociology, Rawat Publications, Jaipur.

5. Srinivas, M.N. (ed.) (1995), India’s villages, Asia Publishing House, New Delhi.

6. Ghurye G. S The Scheduled Tribes

********

rural and tribal societies in indiasdeuoc.ac.in/sites/default/files/sde_videos/i sem ma...rural and...

Documents