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Paper 2 – Section B – Social Structure
(ii) Caste System:
(a) Perspectives on the study of caste systems: GS Ghurye, M N Srinivas, Louis Dumont, Andre Beteille.
(b) Features of caste system.
(c) Untouchability – forms and perspectives
(iii) Tribal communities in India:
(a) Definitional problems.
(b) Geographical spread.
(c) Colonial policies and tribes.
(d) Issues of integration and autonomy.
DEFINING TRIBES
Tribe is a social group identified with a definite geographical area or territory, known by a common name, speaking a common dialect, sharing a common culture, rules, belief and rituals. They also exhibit features of endogamy, and usually have a distinct economy based on mutual cooperation and interdependence. According to D N Majumdar, a ‘tribe’ is culturally and linguistically a homogeneous group which does not follow any major religion such as Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, etc. He emphasizes two important characteristics of ‘tribes’ in the Indian context. According to Majumdar ‘tribe’ a territorial group having
a traditional territory to which the emigrants always refer as their home and the second feature he mentions about the kinship, which operate as a strong associative, regulative and integrating principle. Ghure define tribe, his major focus in regard to show them a labelled Hindu which we can see in his definition of tribes when he argues tribes as backward Hindus who are not yet perfectly integrated with the caste system.
DEFINING CASTE
The term Caste is derived from a Portuguese term ‘Casta’ meaning breed or race. According to Béteille (1995) a caste is ‘a small and named group of persons by endogamy, hereditary membership and a specific style of life which sometimes includes the pursuit by tradition of a particular occupation and is usually associated with a more or less distinct ritual status in a hierarchical system, based on concepts of purity and pollution.’ the caste has a specific features of its hereditary nature, having a traditional occupations, ascribe hierarchical rank, endogamy, and the practice of pollution rites. Caste system rank people
from birth ascribed group membership rather than by individual attributes. It has an endogamous and hereditary feature.
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CASTE-TRIBE CONTINUUM IN INDIAN SOCIETY
Indian society has a special character of dichotomy or continuum. Tribe and caste are the cultural pillars of the Indian society from time immemorial. The caste originated in ancient Hindu society, with a view of division of labour on the basis of profession and occupation. The tribe came about because of the evolution of community feeling in a group inhabiting a definite geographical area. The concept of tribe-caste continuum in India originates with the work of Surjeet Sinha on Bhumij tribe. Sinha was inspired by Redfield’s two concepts of folk-urban continuum and peasant society and culture.
The transformation of a tribe into a caste is subsumed in the wider phenomenon of the absorption of the community into Hinduism. The ideology and the phenomenology of the caste and the tribe are different from earlier days. It is argued that tribal is a forest dweller and they are adimjati (original inhabitant), janjati (folk-people), adimjati (primitive people) vanwasi (inhabitant of forest) pahari (hill dwellers) having some specific life pattern. Not only the tribe, caste also had a peculiar characteristic of hierarchy, purity and pollution, and specific type of the belief and rituals. The caste and tribal, both have a specific
culture. The cultural traits have a tendency to spread from place to place. This type of spread up is a kind of a cultural expansion having an impact on other society culture.
The tribal society living in a close contact of the Indian village have an unimaginable diversity along with the caste features. Unconsciously and consciously tribal communities adopting the Hindu myth, ritual belief and the adaptation which is not a one way process but Hindu society is inclusive and the culture is more advanced and stronger than the tribal. Earlier the tribal society who referred to as an isolated society has come in contact with different caste communities and has different degree of cultural contacts leading the process of the continuum.
THINKER’S VIEW
According to N.K Bose there are many similarities in customs between tribes and castes and they are interdependent. Marriage within the clan is forbidden both in the tribe as well as in the caste. Both generally don’t encourage marriage outside the group.
According to Herbert Risley the convention of endogamy is not rigidly enforced in the tribe where as such is the case in a tribe. But this view is not acceptable since the law of endogamy is enforced with extreme rigidity in some tribes.
According to D.N Majumdar the tribe looks upon Hindu ritualism as foreign and extra -religious even though indulging in it and the in the worship of God and Goddess where as in the caste these are necessary part of the religion.
According to Bailey tribe and caste should be viewed as continuum. He seeks to make distinction not in terms of totality of behavior but in more limited way in relation to the political economic system. Briefly Bailey’s argument is that a caste society is hierarchical while a tribal society is segmentary and egalitarian. But in contemporary India both caste and tribe are being merged into a different system which is neither one nor the other.
CONCLUSION
The tribes in India have been influenced by certain traditions of the communities around them. Major neighboring community in all the areas has always been Hindus. As a result from the very period there have been several points of contact between the Hindus of the area and tribal communities living within it. The ethnographic records establish that the contacts varied from semi-isolation to complete assimilation.