The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c14.s2: Areas of Isolation—Tribal India

The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c14.s2

Language: English

Areas of Isolation—Tribal India

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Lastly, we come to those areas, which have become the blind-alleys of civilization in India. The knowledge of the development in the favourable areas, and the material life in the unfavourable environments, helps us to understand the stage when they were isolated. The essence of civilization is the progressive emancipation of man from the influence of his natural environment by its understanding, exploitation and finally its mastery. Thus there is always at any time, an essential equilibrium between the various factors like the physical environment, and human communities in relation to their material culture and technological achievement. When any one of these factors changes, the ecological balance is upset. Then the "adaptive vitality" of man provides an answer, which ultimately results in the progress or stagnation of the relevant human communities, depending on their degree of adjustment to the new conditions. It is idle to speculate, what would have happened if the Neolithic revolution did not take place in the Middle East. Yet, it is more interesting to recall that certain factors, which we need not enumerate here, operated in its favour.

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But in areas, where these conditions were not favourable, certain communities had remained predominately in a food gathering and hunting economy, supplemented by primitive agriculture and stock-raising. This is not conducive to progress. This phenomenon can be very well-studied in Africa, where Prehistoric studies have made great progress. We see a continuous development of human cultures through the major part of the Pleistocene and Holocene ending in Mesolithic stage (Capsian) about 5000 B.C. At that stage, the Neolithic revolution took place. It is only in the vast alluvial plains of the Nile, that large scale agricultural communities could flourish and carry forward the torch of civilization. The rest of Africa survived in a primitive economy. In this process the desiccation of North Africa and the expansion of the deserts on either side of the equatorial forests sealed the fate of the continent.¹

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¹ "Growth and development were unequal and erratic across this vast continent of many climates and types of vegetation—or lack of vegetation." DAVIDSON BASIL. "India and Africa", *Times of India*, June 12, 1958.

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This very situation on a smaller scale and with less disastrous effects, can be seen in India. As Prof. Haimendorf explains, "it is a phenomenon peculiar to India, that throughout the ages, great civilizations have arisen without obliterating or absorbing all that has gone before; the older and the more static cultures gave way not by disintegrating, but by seeking refuge in remote areas, uncongenial to civilization based on advanced agricultural economy. There can be no doubt that the so-called aboriginals, inhabiting such refuge areas, represent comparatively old and primitive types."

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We have already defined these *culs de sac*, where people have managed to survive in a perfect ecological equilibrium in small communities with simple life suited to their technological attainments.

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A study of the material life, specially in relation to their tools and weapons is very instructive, and at the same time throws light on the possible survival of early types of tools. This requires a more detailed investigation, to counteract some recent misleading inferences based on superficial comparisons of conditions in Africa and India, ignoring the more vital geographical and historical factors. Hence an attempt is made below to describe the material outfit of Tribal India.

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According to Prof. Haimendorf, the Chenchus are more or less, non-agricultural, food-gathering communities and their sole tools are pointed digging sticks, sometimes reinforced by a trapezoid piece of iron.¹ The Kadar, according to Prof. Ehrenfels, leads more or less a similar life and is in no way better equipped. They erect bamboo dykes in the tanks and the fish are killed with a bamboo or a jungle knife.² The Reddis represent an economy based on primitive agriculture and stock-raising, supplemented by wild plants and tubers. They freely use the iron implements. But in Eastern and Central India, we have more highly advanced tribes with a higher material culture and social institutions and rituals. But they represent a much more interesting case of a real refugee survival and adaptation to a different environment. While the simpler life of the peninsular tribes brings about a more perfect adjustment of their needs and resources, the tribes of Central India have a more advanced, but somewhat semi-parasitical economy. They partly depend on the institution of professional castes (to encourage specialization) and division of labour and on trade with the technically advanced people. Elwin gives a fine reflection on the whole economic life of Middle Indian tribes.

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¹ HAIMENDORF, C. F., "Culture Strata in Deccan", Man 1948, Art. No. 99.

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² HAIMENDORF, 1948.

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"The actual rules of the tribe and caste operate to restrict greatly the materials that may be used; only special classes—and they are few of them—may work iron; pottery is taboo to all aboriginals and is now a monopoly of the Hindu caste; weaving also, except with bark yarn, is generally avoided. Baskets and mats are made by many tribes, or by VIII. (1) The village of Kuttuvada near Papikonda (*Reddis of the Bison hill*).
(2) A Kolam house in Boramgutta (*Rajgonds of Adilabad*). By Courtesy—Prof. Haimendorf IX. (1) A Reddi village in the Godavary gorge—Telladibbala (Reddis of the Bison hill)
(2) Houses in the Rampachodavaram. By Courtesy—Prof. Haimendorf.

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³ EHRENFELS, U. R. Kadars of Cochin, Madras, 1952, pp. 27 and 35.

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(1) A Reddi village in the Godavary gorge—Telladibbala (Reddis of the Bison hill)

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(2) Houses in the Rampachodavaram. By Courtesy—Prof. Haimendorf.

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X. A typical Bhil village in the interior of Panchmahals, Gujarat. By Courtesy—Y. V. Surendranath.

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[Figure: XI. (1) A Kolam dibbling millet with a digging stick.
(2) A Kolam hoeing his field Rajgonds of Adilabad. By Courtesy—Prof. Haimendorf.]

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sections of them, but it has remained for the castes specially devoted to it to develop it into an art. Work in brass is strictly forbidden and the Ghasia is one of the most despised of the Hindu castes. This leaves nothing but mud and wood with which the tribal artist can work".¹

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¹ ELWIN, VERRIER. *The Tribal Art of Middle India*, Oxford, 1951, p. 2.

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He has also explained the curious result of this viz. the employment of the members of the lower caste Hindus to do some of their essential ritualistic objects. The Bison Marias employ the Hindu carpenters of the plains to carve their wooden funerary posts. Similarly, the wandering smiths, called Loharias, who move with all their family and workshop equipment in one or two carts, set-up their smithies outside the villages and towns. Valentine Ball has left a detailed account of the primitive furnaces used by the Agurihas for smelting the iron ores.² These factors operate to break the isolation of these tribes to some extent.

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² Agurihas are one of the 12 tribes among the Munda group of Chota Nagpur plateau and Central India. They are professional iron smelters. "The furnaces of the Agurihas are generally erected under some old tamarind tree on the outskirts of a village, or under sheds in a hamlet where only Agurihas dwell, and which is situated in convenient proximity to the ore or to the jungle where charcoal is prepared. The furnaces are built of mud and are about three feet high, tapering from below upwards from a diameter of rather more than two feet at base to eighteen inches at top, with an internal diameter of about six inches, the hearth being somewhat wider..........A bed of charcoal having been placed in the hearth, the furnace is filled with charcoal and then fired. The blast is produced by the usual kettle drum like bellows, which are worked by the feet ......From time to time, ore and fuel are sprinkled on the top of the fire, the proportions used not being measured, but probably the operators are guided by experience as to quantities of each which produce the best results. From time to time, the slag is tapped off by a hole pierced a few inches from the top of the hearth. Ten minutes before the conclusion of the process, the bellows are worked with extra vigor and the supply of ore and fuel from above stopped. The clay luting of the hearth is then broken down, and the ball of giri, consisting of semi-molten iron, slag and charcoal, is taken out and immediately hammered, by which a considerable proportion of the included slag, which is still in a state of fusion, is squeezed out..........In some cases, the Agurihas continue the further process, until after various re-heatings in open furnaces and hammering, they produce clean iron......" BALL, VELENTINE, "On the Auranga and Hutar coalfields and iron ores of Palamau and Toree", *Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India* XV, Art. 1, pp. 121-122.

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Mrs. Iravati Karve has discussed the interrelation between the so-called primitive tribes and the other people and has shown the contrast between the position in India with that of America, NewZeland and Africa, where the "Whites and the primitives developed apart in space and time". In India the primitives and others lived together for over two or three thousand years. The primitives have almost all the social institutions and elaborations of the non-primitive, while the Hindus actively share all the beliefs of the primitives."³

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³ KARVE, IRAVATI, "Kinship Organisation in India", Deccan College Monograph series No. 11, Poona, 1953, p. 21.

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Besides, we should not forget that the so-called tribal areas are also the chief sources of raw materials like minerals and timber. This has probably enabled a harmonious development of the higher cultures of the plains and the lower cultures of the hills and forests, maintaining each other's economy and institutions without much interference. Since none of the Indian tribes use or manufacture chipped stone implements and weapons, it is a very moot point to consider when this change took place. But if one were to see the very rapid spread of metals after their introduction, the chances of a long survival of stone tools are remote. But this problem needs to be investigated as an essential adjunct to our Prehistoric studies. To give a single example, which can be easily verified, it is the Chakradharpur area of the Chota Nagpur basin in the valleys of Sanjaya and Vijaya. In the summer of 1953, it was noticed that none of the Uraon and other tribal village sites yielded any stone implements and at the abandoned sites in the vicinity of the rivers an entirely new type of pottery different from that in current use occurred. At these sites we made a large collection of stone implements. Probably small scale soundings in selected tribal areas will solve this problem.

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Finally, to use a popular expression, when did these tribes 'miss their bus' in their march to progress? To explain their origins and movements is beyond my competence. But if their economic life is an index, one can easily see that they stopped short of large scale agriculture (except in a few tribes in south India) and the consequent economic and social developments. As a matter of fact, the very significant cultural stratification among the tribes, so well pointed out by Prof. Haimendorf, may itself throw light on the stage at which the particular tribes were displaced into the hill country. Many tribes in Central India have retained these traditions of movements and displacement. Similarly, the history and tradition of Gonds speaks eloquently of this process of expansion of the higher cultures at the expense of the lower. The most significant factor contributing to the distinctive Indian pattern as contrasted with that of Africa or Australia, is the even distribution of nuclear zones with fertile soil and favourable climate all over the sub-continent. This has enabled a much larger community of people to tread the path of progress leaving their more obstinate brethren in the hills and forest belts.