NCERT 8th Class (CBSE) Social Science: Tribal Communities

Question: How Did the Different Tribal Groups Live in the nineteenth century?

Answer: In the 19th century, tribal people in different parts of India were involved in a variety of activities:

1. Some Were Jhum Cultivators: Some tribes engaged in Jhum (shifting) cultivation.In this type of cultivation, small patch of land were cleared off trees. The cultivators then burnt the vegetation and spread ash from the firing (which contained potash) to fertilize the soil.They used equipment like axe and hoe to prepare the soil for cultivation, but they did not plough the land to sow the seeds. Instead, they scattered the seeds on the field.Once the crops were ready and harvested, they moved to another field.Shifting cultivators were found in the hilly and forested tracts of north-east and central India.
2. Some Where Hunter – Gatherers: Some tribal groups earned their livelihood by hunting animals and gathering forest produce. They saw the forests as essential for their survival.The Khonds were such a community living in the forests of Orissa. They ate fruits and roots collected from the forest, used many forest shrubs and herbs for medicinal purposes, and sold forest produce such as wood and honey in the local markets.At times they also exchanged goods, getting what they needed in return for their valuable forest produce.But a time came when supplies of forest produce shrank, and more and more tribal people left their forests and familiar ways of life to go in search of work and better lives.Tribal groups needed to buy and sell in the village markets to get the goods that were not produced within their localities, and this led to an unhealthy dependence on traders and moneylenders.Traders often bought forest produce from the tribal at cheap prices, but sold their goods to the tribal at very high prices. As a result, tribal often ended up taking high-interest loans from moneylenders.So as far as the tribal were concerned, markets and commerce often meant exploitation, debt, and poverty.
3. Some Herded Animals: Many tribal groups such as the pastoralists lived by herding and rearing animals, moving around seasonally with their herds of cattle or sheep.The Van Gujjars of the Punjab hills and the Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders, the Gaddis of Kulu were shepherds, and the Bakarwals of Kashmir reared goats.
4. Some Took to Settled Cultivation: Many tribal groups preferred to settle down instead of moving from one place to another. They began to use the plough to farm the lands, and gradually got rights over the land they lived on.British officials found settled tribal groups like the Khonds and Santhals to be more civilized than hunter gatherers or shifting cultivators, and those who lived in the forests were often considered to be wild and savage.

Question: How did the colonial rule affect the lives during the British rule?

Answer: The lives of tribal groups changed during British rule in many strange and unexpected ways:

1. Effects on Tribal Chiefs: The tribal groups were considered important people, because it is they who controlled their territories. Under the British rule they lose their administrative power and were forced to follow law made by British officials in India.Before the British arrived, tribal chiefs were important people; they had some money and the right to manage their lands and people.But under the British rule, they lost much of their powers and were asked to discipline their tribe on behalf of the British government.This subjugation meant that the tribal chiefs lost the authority among their people, and gradually also the will to fulfill their traditional functions.
2. Effects on Shifting Cultivators: The British wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators, because as settled peasants they were easier to control and administer. The British also wanted a regular revenue source for the state. So they introduced land settlements, that is, they measured the land, defined the rights of each individual to that land, and fixed the revenue the farmer had to pay to the state.But the British effort to settle Jhum cultivators was not very successful, because when their fields did not produce good yields, shifting cultivators who took to plough cultivation often suffered a lot.Facing widespread protests, the British had to ultimately allow the right to carry on shifting cultivation in some parts of the forest.
3. Forest Laws and Their Impact: The British brought about several changes in the forest laws which severely affected the lives of many tribes. The British, for example, extended their control over all forests and declared that forests were state (government) property.The British wanted timber, so the forests that produced it were classified as reserved forests where people were not allowed to move freely and practice Jhum cultivation. As a result, several Jhum cultivators moved away to other areas and lifestyles.Colonial officials decided to give jhum cultivators small patches of land in the forests to cultivate, on the condition that they would have to provide labour to the Forest Department.Naturally, many tribal groups revolted against the alien and unfair colonial forest laws.
4. The Problem with Trade: During the 19th century, traders and moneylenders began to come into the forests. They offered cash loans to the tribal people and asked them to work for wages.
5. The Case of the Silk Growers:In the 18th century, Indian silk was in demand in European markets, and the East India Company officials tried to encourage silk production in India to meet their growing demands.The Santhals of Hazaribagh reared silk cocoons, and silk traders sent in their agents who gave loans to them to collect the cocoons. The growers were paid 3 to 4 rupees for a thousand cocoons, which were then exported to Burdwar or Gaya and sold at five times the price. This made the British traders richer and the Indian tribes poorer.
6. The Search for Work: The plight of the tribal who had to go far away from their homes for work was even worse; they were often recruited in large numbers to work the tea plantations of Assam and the coal mines of Jharkhand. To the tribal, those new homes and jobs were not just unfamiliar but actually very unpleasant and dangerous, and they gradually lost their culture and tradition, their health, self-respect, and their familiar ways of life in the forest.