Tribal Politics in India

Abstract

Tribal people are those people whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguished them from the other sections of the national community, whose status in the society was regulated wholly or partially by their own customs and traditions or by special laws or regulations. The primitive tribal societies were self-sufficient. In that period, the livelihood activities of the tribes were centered on the forest in which they lived in but due to the introduction of different forest policies in colonial and Post-colonial India and the degradation of the forest, traditional rights of the tribes over forest were no longer recognized as rights. So, special provisions were needed for the protection of their rights in the independent India.Article 366(25) of the Indian constitution defined the term ‘Scheduled tribes’ as “such tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities” as are deemed under Article 342 to be scheduled-tribes for the purpose of this constitution. In India, tribal communities live in various ecological and geo-climate conditions ranging from plains to forests, to hills and inaccessible areas. There are two broad types of scheduling in the Indian constitution- Area based and Community based.