The nature of social change in tribal society of north east India
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That Tarak Chandra Das, a doyen among the pioneers of professional Anthropology in India made a notable contribution in his ethnographic study on the Purums of Manipur is well known. But it is also true that Das became internationally famous through the writings of western scholars, notably by the British social anthropologist, Rodney Needham. A major reason for Das's fame can be attributed to his ethnographic contribution on the study of kinship and social organisation of the Purum community of north east India. Both the foreign admirers and Indian successors of Das however, missed the core of Das's viewpoint and social commitment for undertaking the Purum study. A critical reading of T.C. Das's works revealed that the decade of the 1940s was a watershed in the anthropological journey of Das and it began with his sparkling and neglected analysis of ground realities of the transforming north east India documented in the Sectional Presidential address in the Indian Science Congress and his Anthropos paper on the Chirus. Das's insightful ethnographies on the Chiru and Purum should not be treated simply as the empirical storehouse for western anthropologists for testing their theories nor they only be cited as examples of 'how to conduct a solid ethnography' being viewed by his Indian disciples, These were studies with a purpose and social commitment. North East India provided new windows for Das to look at Indian Anthropology for the future and his insights remained relevant till today.
The nature of social change in tribal society of north-east India:
Society is self-motivated it means that it is never static. Human groups change gradually or rapidly under the pressure of interior and/or outside forces.
Tribal culture is tremendously varied in India. In the tribal society of Chota Nagpur and head-to-head areas, survival agriculture is the prevailing method of the economy.
The tribal society is not constantly democratic. The Aimol Kukis of Manpur are separated into two exogamous moieties—one of which is superior to the other.