CASTES AND TRIBES

India’s population comprises a diversity of ethnic and religious groups. Among these are the groups listed in the Constitution as Scheduled Castes and Tribes whose welfare and progress, through legislation and other measures, is the special responsibility of the central and state governments.

Member of the Scheduled castes are mainly of Hindu stock. Several, however, have moved out of this classification by professing Buddhism (as in Maharashtra) or Christianity (as in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu). By and large, the members of the Scheduled Castes are not ethnically different from neighboring Hindu Communities, they have only been socially disadvantaged in the past. They are generally found in large numbers in coastal area (e.g. fisherman) and in the plains where they work as landless laborers.

The largest community neither  specifically Hindu nor Muslim is the one that is rather vaguely labeled as ‘Scheduled Tribes’, not necessarily because they are tribal or live in the back of the beyond, but because their origins are tribal and they profess none of the major religions of the subcontinent. These ‘tribes’ are generally found in the hilly and jungle tracts, their concentration being especially great in districts covering the Vindhyas and Satpura ranges in Central India and Chotanagpur, Western and Eastern Ghats and the North eastern hills.

These scheduled Tribes derive from the four major human stocks; Negroid Australoid, Mongoloid and Caucasoid. There is evidence of Australoid stock in the tribal population of the south and the centre (e.g. the Mundas and Santals, south the Narmada-Chota Nagpur line). The tribal people of the north, on the other hand, show marked Mongoloid characteristics. They occupy a broad band of country from Laddakh in Kashmir through Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

India has 3000 and more castes. The salient feature of the caste system is that it is intensely hierarchical even today. Rigid as the system is in rural India, the Scheduled Castes (the ‘Untouchables’) have improved their position, mainly through ideologically-inspired administrative fiats of government and local political bodies. Today, the Scheduled Castes and others classified as Backward Classes have greater opportunities to break out of restrictions of caste and become upwardly mobile.

The Scheduled Castes and Tribes population has been increasing steadily since 1951, not only in numbers but also in proportion to the overall population. The Scheduled Castes population was 64 million in 1961, 80 million in 1971, 105 million in 1981 and 158 million in 1991, their share in the national population growing by 1.1 per cent. As per the 1991 census the proportion of SC and ST population to the total population is about 16% and 8% respectively. The tribal population is smaller but it has increased at about the same rate; 30 million in 1961, 38 million in 1971 and 52 million in 1981, their share growing by 1%. The literates among the scheduled castes in 1981 comprised about 16.9 million males and 5.5 million females while among the Tribes it was 6.4 million males and just about 2 million females. Female literacy was below the all-India average (24.8%) in both cases; male literacy was only slightly better when compared with all-India average of 46.9%.

Nearly half the Scheduled Castes working population of 37.8 million are agricultural workers, employed by others, while more than half the tribal working population of 22 million are cultivators, working for themselves. Cultivators among the Schedules Castes account for only a little more than a quarter of their numbers, while agricultural workers among the Tribes are about one third. Other Workers’ are 20.3% and 11.5% of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes working population respectively. Negligible numbers in both groups are in any kind of modern occupations like industry.

A very substantial proportion of scheduled Castes is found in Kooch Bihar district in the north-east. In nine districts in the north-Jalpaipuri in West Bengal, Mirzapur, Sitapur and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, two districts of Himachal Pradesh, and three districts of the Punjab - the share of Scheduled Castes is more than a third of the total district population. In the tribal north-east and Jammu & Kashmir the share of Scheduled Castes is the lowest below 1% of district population.

In at least a third of the districts in the country, especially in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the Scheduled Castes population is between 15 and 25 per cent. This would amount to several thousands in a district and, in some cases, in such heavily populated areas as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, can even exceed 3,00,000 in a district. The districts with Scheduled Castes comprising only 0.5 per cent of the population are in Western India, mainly in Maharashtra. This population has been substantially reduced in this area with the conversion of many to Buddhism after independence, influenced by their leader Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The tribal belts of Central India in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa also have very small scheduled Castes Populations.

Whereas the Scheduled Castes population is distributed widely within a particular district, the Tribes are more usually found in concentrated groups, occupying in some cases a stretch of villages and hamlets. These concentrations of Tribes are generally to be found in forested hills and ranges. The Tribes are thus often referred to as ‘hill’ people. The districts in the north-eastern Assam-Burma hills, three districts in Madhya Pradesh, The Dangs in Gujarat, a couple of districts in Himachal Pradesh and the Union territories of Lakshadweep, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and the Nicobar Islands have the highest concentrations of tribals (60-100 per cent). Other significant concentrations (40-60 per cent) are in southern Gujarat and the Chota Nagpur plateau of southern Bihar, northern Orissa and eastern Madhya Pradesh. The districts - around the hill areas also have a fair concentration of tribals because of tribal migrants. Most of Uttar Pradesh, northern Bihar, southern Tamil Nadu, coastal Kerala and the Saurashtra peninsula in Gujarat have minute tribal populations. Punjab, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir have no tribal populations.

Tribal areas

Three distinct regions of tribal population in India may be identified:

I.    The north and north-eastern zone, which consists of the sub-Himalayan region and the mountain ranges of the Eastern Frontiers of India of the TistaValley, and the Jamuna-Padma portion of the Brahmaputra. The easternmost tribal concentration is found in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura. The tribal areas of eastern Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Terai area of U.P. also fall in this zone. In this zone live 4.68 million tribes, forming 12.33% of the total tribal population. The important tribes in this region are Aka, Dafla, Miri, Gurung, Mishmi, Naga, Kukis Lushais, Khasis, Garos, Lepchas, Bhoksa, Khasa, Bhunia, Majhi, etc.

ii.   The central or the Middle zone consists of plateaus and mountainous belts between the Indo-Gangetic plain to the north and roughly the Krishna river to the north. In this zone, we have another massing of tribal people in M.P. with extensions in U.P, southern Rajasthan, northern Gujarat, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Southern Gujarat and Bastar form the peripheral areas of the zone. The tribes living in this region form the largest assemblage of India’s aboriginal population numbering 30.7 millions or 81.05% of the total tribal population. The important tribes inhabiting this zone are the Savara, Jadaba and Bondo of the Ganjam district, the Juang, Kharia, Khand, Bhumij and the Bhuiya of the Orissa hills, the Mundas, the Santhals, the Oraons, the Hos and the Bixhors in the Chhotanagpur plateau, the Kattaris, Kols and the Bhils along the Vindhya ranges and the Gonds in M.P. and Andhra Pradesh.

iii.  The southern zone fall south of the river Krishna stretching from Wynaad to Cape Comorin. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu fall in this zone. This zone contains 2.46 million tribal people, i.e. 6.49% of the total tribal population. The important tribes of this zone are the Chenchus of the Nellaimallois hills across the Krishna into Andhra Pradesh, Todas living in the lower slopes of Coorg Hills, the Irulas, Chenchus, Paniyans and Kurumbas of Wynaad etc.

In addition to these major zones, there is a fourth small and isolated zone consisting of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The main tribes living in this zone are the Jarawas, Onge, North Sentinelese, the Andamanese and the Nicobarese. This zone contains only 47.6 thousand thousand tribals, i.e.,  about 0.13% of the total tribal population.

Scheduled caste and tribes (2001 census)