13. Discus the geographical classification of tribes.
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The variations in Indian tribes can be incredibly intimate and complex. As such it is not possible to accurately classify them into different groups based solely on cultural characteristics. However, considering that numerous tribes in India are essentially non-nomadic in nature, many tribes take residence in forest areas or clusters in villages in the vicinity of forests. As such, regional groupings or more precisely, zonal classifications can be attempted based on the geographical distribution of tribes in India.
S. Guha’s Classification
Nadeem Hasnain in his book Tribal India notes the geographical distribution of tribes in India drawn from the observations by the anthropologist B. S. Guha. Guha provided a theoretical system for classification based on the geographical distribution of tribes in India. Guha has classified the geographical distribution of tribes in India into three broad zones –
The north and north-eastern zone;
The central zone; and
The southern zone
According to Guha, the sub-Himalayan region and the hills at the eastern frontier of India make up the north and north-eastern zone. This classification can also include the tribal people of Tripura, Assam and Manipur at the eastern sections of the zone and also the tribal communities of eastern Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, northern Uttar Pradesh and eastern Punjab located in the northern portion. There are numerous tribal groups living in this zone and some of whom includes many sub-sects of Naga tribes living in the areas around the state of Nagaland, the Tharu in Uttar Pradesh and the Lepchas in Sikkim, etc. Although this zone covers a very large area, the population densities are not high as in other regions in India. Given the geographical characteristics of this region, most of the tribes here are engaged in terrace or shifting cultivation and face from economic backwardness.
The central zone which can also be called the middle zone, comprises of a mountainous belt and plateaus till the Gangetic plains at its northern part and the Krishna River at its southern portion. This zone is also separated from the north-eastern zone by the space between the Garo hills and the Rajmahal hills. Tribal groups in this zone mostly come from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa, also with extensions of tribal communities in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Maharashtra and southern Rajasthan. Some important tribal groups of this zone include the Gond, the Bhil, the Khond Bhumji, the Bhiya, the Santhal, and the Munda. Although most of the tribes in this region practice shifting cultivation, some tribes such as the Santhal, the Gond, the Munda and Oraon have adopted plough cultivation due to their interactions with the local rural populations.
The southern zone falls south of the Krishna River from Wynaad to Cape Comorin. Tribal communities occupy parts of Andhra Pradesh, Travancore, Coorg, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Cochin. Some of the tribal groups that reside in this zone include the Toda, the Yeruva, the Chenchu, the Paniyan, the Irula and the Kurumba, etc. Some primitive tribes such as the Kadar, the Malvadan, the Kanikkar, and the Malakuravan live in dense forests along the ranges in Travancore and Cochin and are among the most economically backward communities in the world. With the exception of some tribes such as the Kota, the Badaga and the Toda, most of the tribes in this zone gather food by hunting and fishing.
Hasnain notes that Guha in his system of classification of the geographical distribution of tribes in India had left out the tribes living in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Hasnain includes the tribes living in these regions as a fourth zone comprising of tribal groups such as the Jarawa, the Onge, the Andamanese, the Nicobari and the Sentinelese (Hasnain, 1999). Apart from the classification of tribes based on the geographical distribution of tribes in India, tribal groups can also be based on linguistic characteristics, race, economic – or occupational characteristics, classification based on the level of cultural distance from the rural-urban groups and religious beliefs. However, in such a classification, some ambiguities might present themselves in some categories of tribes and a clear cut demarcation may not always be possible in many cases.
Importance of the Geographical Distribution of Tribes