Planning and development of tribal regions in india
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Development Planning for the Tribal Areas in India!
The tribal areas are relatively backward. Their relative isolation obstructed the winds of change; even culture contacts with the outside world brought in many problems. It was surmised that the changes occurring among the tribal’s were associated with the fact of culture contact. Contact with outside settlers is an age-old phenomenon.
Through such contacts, the tribes got involved in a sort of tribe-caste continuum to the extent that those tribes that freely interacted and even shared the same habitat were treated as castes. Processes of Hinduization and Sanskritization changed their socio-religious profiles.
Many of the tribal deities got enshrined in the ‘temple of Hinduism’ and many elements of the Hindu Great Tradition got parochialized in the tribal settings. With the advent of British colonial rule, the tribal’s came in contact with Christianity and adopted several elements of Westernization, including modern forms of government and a legal system that challenged customary law.
In the post-independence phase, the programmes of planned development and externally induced cultural change have affected the ways of life of these people. The phenomenon of cultural contact is held responsible for a variety of problems faced by the tribal’s.
The problems relate:
(i) The exploitation of the tribal’s by outside contractors, moneylenders, and politicians;
(ii) The problem of land alienation and bonded labor;
(iii) Health related problems, including venereal diseases;
(iv) The effort of Christian missionaries during British rule to convert the tribal’s to Christianity and, consequently, to discard many of their traditions;
(v) Depopulation;
(vi) The British policy of divide and rule, resulting in the creation of identity crisis and hurting the national solidarity being forged by the freedom fighters; and
(vii) Adverse effects on tribal customary law, particularly with regard to land rights and transfer of land.
Initially disturbed by the vanishing tribal cultures and the fact that tribal societies was being afflicted by the ill-effects of culture contact, such as spread of venereal diseases, skin ailments, serfdom, and even prostitution, many advocated preservation of the tribal cultures.
As a consequence, some anthropologists were charged with ‘keeping the tribal’s in a zoo’. Verrier Elwin, who strongly argued the tribal case, contested the allegation, but maintained that tribal rights must be respected.
As against this, some Indian scholars, particularly social reformer Thakkar Bapa and sociologist G.S. Ghurye, advocated a policy of assimilation into mainstream Hindu society. Both these arguments were regarded as extremist viewpoints. Neither was it possible to keep the tribal’s in constant isolation, nor to merge their identities through assimilation.
In the ensuing debate in the 1950s, it was made clear that there was a need to properly plan the programmes of culture change. The problems of the tribal people should first be carefully and scientifically studied and then appropriate strategies evolved to solve them. An ad hoc and overly enthusiastic approach of philanthropy could be more damaging to the cause of the tribal’s. What anthropologists such as S.C.
The tribal areas are relatively backward. Their relative isolation obstructed the winds of change; even culture contacts with the outside world brought in many problems. It was surmised that the changes occurring among the tribal’s were associated with the fact of culture contact. Contact with outside settlers is an age-old phenomenon.
Through such contacts, the tribes got involved in a sort of tribe-caste continuum to the extent that those tribes that freely interacted and even shared the same habitat were treated as castes. Processes of Hinduization and Sanskritization changed their socio-religious profiles.
Many of the tribal deities got enshrined in the ‘temple of Hinduism’ and many elements of the Hindu Great Tradition got parochialized in the tribal settings. With the advent of British colonial rule, the tribal’s came in contact with Christianity and adopted several elements of Westernization, including modern forms of government and a legal system that challenged customary law.
In the post-independence phase, the programmes of planned development and externally induced cultural change have affected the ways of life of these people. The phenomenon of cultural contact is held responsible for a variety of problems faced by the tribal’s.
The problems relate:
(i) The exploitation of the tribal’s by outside contractors, moneylenders, and politicians;
(ii) The problem of land alienation and bonded labor;
(iii) Health related problems, including venereal diseases;
(iv) The effort of Christian missionaries during British rule to convert the tribal’s to Christianity and, consequently, to discard many of their traditions;
(v) Depopulation;
(vi) The British policy of divide and rule, resulting in the creation of identity crisis and hurting the national solidarity being forged by the freedom fighters; and
(vii) Adverse effects on tribal customary law, particularly with regard to land rights and transfer of land.
Initially disturbed by the vanishing tribal cultures and the fact that tribal societies was being afflicted by the ill-effects of culture contact, such as spread of venereal diseases, skin ailments, serfdom, and even prostitution, many advocated preservation of the tribal cultures.
As a consequence, some anthropologists were charged with ‘keeping the tribal’s in a zoo’. Verrier Elwin, who strongly argued the tribal case, contested the allegation, but maintained that tribal rights must be respected.
As against this, some Indian scholars, particularly social reformer Thakkar Bapa and sociologist G.S. Ghurye, advocated a policy of assimilation into mainstream Hindu society. Both these arguments were regarded as extremist viewpoints. Neither was it possible to keep the tribal’s in constant isolation, nor to merge their identities through assimilation.
In the ensuing debate in the 1950s, it was made clear that there was a need to properly plan the programmes of culture change. The problems of the tribal people should first be carefully and scientifically studied and then appropriate strategies evolved to solve them. An ad hoc and overly enthusiastic approach of philanthropy could be more damaging to the cause of the tribal’s. What anthropologists such as S.C.
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