Indian Tribal Culture

Quite often, one comes across “culture” being interpreted narrowly as art and crafts merely. But we would rather go by an extract of broad understanding of culture, as defined by Britannica Ready Reference Encyclopaedia:

“Culture…consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies and symbols. Variations among cultures is attributable to such factors as differing physical habitats and resources; the range of possibilities inherent in areas such as language, ritual and social organisation; and historical phenomena such as development of links with other cultures…….” .

India’s tribal population is as diverse as the country itself. The English word “tribe” appears to be appropriate here.

Some of the local Indian terms, on the other hand, may have connotations that are hard to gauge for outsiders (e.g. the political agenda underlying the introduction of “vanavasi” for adivasi).

The definition above is fairly elaborate. But when we consider tribal culture, I feel it is desirable to include ethnicity also as a factor of variations not only between non-tribal and tribal cultures, as also among many groups of tribal communities. Nevertheless, the extract appears to be sufficiently comprehensive though it might not cover all the vast spectral quality features of human life. In any event, one would like to go by holistic route to appreciate culture of a community.

The habitat and natural resources endowment determine the choice of occupations and avocations of the concerned group. Even now quite a large number of tribal clans and communities live in forested and hill areas though a larger number used to in the past. Their occupations have been linked to hunting, employment in forestry (logging etc.), collection and value-addition of varied items of forest produce and, wherever and whatever land was available, farming.

Some other communities having moved to valleys and plain areas took mainly to farming. The forest-hill-dwellers needed to be living close together to be able to meet the hazards of animal and human predators. That infused into them the spirit of communitarians, of looking after one another, helping each other, of living together harmoniously. The total ecologic setting influenced their style of living in contrast to the individualism of modern man.

The two contrasting sets of life lived for centuries hundreds or thousands of miles apart from each other created a gulf of alienation from each other. The plains people advanced ahead of the remote hills-forest dwelling tribes owing mainly to better infrastructure and means of communication in the plains enabling continual effervescent cultural contacts. The stigmatized latter were pushed to the bottom of the caste heap.

Dependent a great deal on environment for their existential and spiritual needs, the tribal people have been reverent towards forest and ecology. They draw from nature as per their need abjuring greed, adhering to the principle of sustainable development. Spiritually, their deities and ancestral spirits reside in the environment all around, accessible to the living through their priests and shaman. Having adopted a life-style in consonance with the given ecologic conditions, the wider society should accept them as equal and respected citizens.

One instance among a legion- the Jarawa tribe of A&N Isles, a PVTG, which avoided for generations contact with the society around, has nevertheless been looked after the A&N administration. An official party of Delhi visitors were outraged to see an officer of the Administration not only reprimanding a member of the Jarawa tribe for chewing tobacco but also rummaging his bag to collect and throw away into bushes the entire quantity of tobacco it contained. Tobacco is not grown by them-the habit would likely have been picked up from a government official. The act hit the self-respect writ large on the face of that tribal individual. A culture marinated in superiority needs to be replaced by one kneaded in equality

The quintessence of the tribal milieu is that tribal life is suffused with holistic daily and seasonal rhythms, unlike the life of vast majority of modern humans for whom the rhythm is more limited like the day comprised of 6-8 hours of work and the balance for the routine activities of upkeep of the body. For the latter, generally, mostly non-participatory entertainment follows at the week-end, breaking the monotonous quotidian routine; the arts, whether performing or plastic, have tended to become the preserve of the professional. On the other hand practise of arts, crafts, music, dance, and specially their spontaneity, cater to joie d’vivre of tribal folks, as a part of their everyday culture. Amazingly, penury and poetry walk hand in hand, encapsulated in a Munda saying: ‘Sen ge susung, Kaji ge durung’, meaning to ‘walk is to dance, to speak is to sing’.

Rituals and Festivals

Most of the rituals and festivals of the tribes of central India are associated with their economic activities, i.e. related to hunting, fishing, agriculture etc. The agriculturalalist tribes perform different rituals at different stages of agricultural period for protection of crops from wild animals and insects, good rain, better crops etc.

For example, Soharae, the harvesting festival, is the most important festival of the Santal. The other important festivals are Baha, Maghsin, Eroksin and Karam. Similarly, the Mundas also observe different agricultural festivals, like Garam Dharam, Maghe Parav, Sarhul, Halchar etc. Due to the regular contact with the wider Hindu pantheon, spread of education, popularity of printed and electronic media, and availability of easy communication facility they gradually started to adopt some rituals and festivals of their neighbouring people. They celebrate their traditional rituals and festivals at their village and house levels side by side participate in various religious activities of their neighbours.

Examples may be cited of the Gonds, the Bhils of central India who celebrate Holi and Diwali as one of their important festival. The Puspunei, Ambanua, Asadhi, Akshya Tirtiya, Dhananua etc. are their main festivals of the Juangs. The religious syncretism is clearly evident among the Juang. After coming in contact with their neighbouring wider pantheon they have also started worshipping different Hindu gods and Goddesses like, Laksmi, Mahadev, Parvati, Durga, Jagannath, Balabhadra, Rama and Sita, etc. The photographs of these deities are kept both in the houses and majang (youth dormitory) and worshipped at various occasions.

Social Structure

Mostly the tribes of central India are monogamous but the practice of polygamy is also occasionally present. The practice of sorrorate and levirate is socially accepted. The tribals of central India follow tribe endogamy and clan exogamy and because of that the marriage within the gotra (clan) is strictly prohibited and members of clan are considered as brothers and sisters.

Arranged marriage is generally preferred but love marriage, capture marriage, negotiation marriage, exchange marriage are also socially approved. Although it is gradually vanishing, but still some tribal groups of central India are having their youth dormitories which is playing an important role for maintaining the law and order in the society and giving traing to the youth. This youth dormitories also play major role for selection of life partners.

The Ghutul of the Murias of Chhattisgarh is the best example of it which play an important role for controlling the memebrs of the society. Bride price is usually prevalent among the tribals of central India. Although, the tribals like to live together and close by close, but in the present time, because of the impact of modernization, industrialization, urbanization, education etc the number of joint and extended families are graduaaly decling from the tribals. The tribals who are living in urban and industrial areas prefer for nuclear family.

For this reason, we have decided to use the words “tribe” and “tribal cultural heritage” in a respectful manner; and wherever possible, specify the name by which members of any particular community refer to themselves. In this context, it is helpful to take the following discussion into account :

A question of identity

According to the UN the most fruitful approach is to identify, rather than define indigenous peoples. This is based on the fundamental criterion of self-identification as underlined in a number of human rights documents.

The term “indigenous” has prevailed as a generic term for many years. In some countries, there may be preference for other terms including tribes, first peoples/nations, aboriginals, ethnic groups, adivasi, janajati. Occupational and geographical terms like hunter-gatherers, nomads, peasants, hill people, etc., also exist and for all practical purposes can be used interchangeably with “indigenous peoples”.

In many cases, the notion of being termed “indigenous” has negative connotations and some people may choose not to reveal or define their origin. Others must respect such choices, while at the same time working against the discrimination of indigenous peoples.