Question

What evidence would you offer against the view that ‘tribes are primitive communities living isolated lives untouched by civilisation’?

Answer 1

There is no reason to believe that tribes are out of contact with the rest of world or have always been the oppressed section of the society. This can be said because of the following reasons:

1. Gond Kingdoms in central India such as that of Garha Mandla or Chanda.
2. Many of the Rajput Kingdoms of central and western India emerged through a process of stratification among adivasi communities themselves.
3. Adivasi often exercised dominance over the plains people through their capacity to raid them and through their services as local militias.
4. They also occupied a special trade niche, trading forest produce, salts and elephants.

Evidences substantiating tribes as primitive communities:

1. Tribes have not a state or political form of the normal kind.
2. They have no written rules on religion.
3. They are neither Hindus nor peasants.
4. Primarily they are engaged in activities like food gathering, fishing, hunting, agriculture etc.
5. The habitat of tribes is in dense forests and mountainous regions.