Denotified Tribes A Sociological Analysis

Refers to the criminal tribes from India.

Social stigmatization is a virtual curse imposed on certain Indian social sections by the colonial government as part of their contextual political strategies by late nineteenth century. The so-called denotified tribes (formerly known as ex-criminal tribes) in Indian society occupy this state-made category. According to the latest survey reports, India has 198 groups belonging to nomadic and denotified tribes: unorganized, scattered and utter nobodies. Social justice is alien to them and economic disempowerment eventually resulted in slavery, bonded labour and poverty. Public welfare measures pay scant attention to the issue of reform and rehabilitation of these sections and, they are made to suffer from an identity crisis today. Most of these communities are split under reserved categories: Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. The work tries to present a narrative detailing the conditions of denotified tribes during colonial and post-colonial India. And the undeclared wish in doing so is to seek the attention of those in policy-making and decision-making bodies under the Indian government. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

This book is based on intense research work and consultation conducted over a long period, presents circumstances under which certain tribes in Andhra Pradesh are placed to keep on living through criminal activities. It explains why particular tribes become crime-prone and why and how they have been branded and notified as criminal tribes. It deals with the structure of the village criminal-tribe settlements and approaches the problem of tribal criminology from a structural perspective. It studies the criminal behaviour that could be related to social situations that prevail in the two ex-criminal settlements in Andhra Pradesh and examines the structure and organization of this group as well as changes that have been taking place as far as their criminal activities are concerned. The analysis in this book focuses on the sociological and anthropological circumstances under which the criminal tribes become criminals and continued to be called as criminals although most of them as a group have since stopped criminal activities.

This volume examines the processes and impacts of exclusion on the Adivasis (tribal or indigenous people) in India and what repercussions these have for their constitutional rights. The chapters explore a wide range of issues connected to the idea of exclusion — land and forest resources, habitats and livelihoods, health and disease management, gender relations, language and schooling, water resources, poverty, governance, markets and technology, and development challenges — through case studies from different parts of the country. The book argues that any laws intended to safeguard the fundamental rights of Adivasis must acknowledge the fact that their diverse and complex identities are not homogenous, and that uniform laws have failed to address their systemic marginalisation since the colonial era. This work appeals for a serious and meaningful political intervention towards tribal development. The volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of tribal and Third World studies, sociology and social anthropology, exclusion studies and development studies.

This book presents multidisciplinary critical engagement in Tribe-British relations, the interfacing between colonial mind and tribal worldview, and some of their contemporary implications to conceptualise tribal space and mobilisation at national, regional, and native levels. The approach, argument, and theoretical underpinnings introduce a new perspective dimension of enquiry in tribal studies and enlarge its scope as a distinct academic discipline. It provides theoretical and methodological insights and an innovative analytical frame for a grand intellectual engagement beyond the boundary of conventional disciplines but within the interactive matrix of India’s social, cultural, political, religious, and economic space. The book is a pioneering work in the emerging field of tribal studies and a vital reference point for students and academics and non-academics alike who are engaged in tribal issues.

This book is about the presence of the absent— the tribes of Punjab, India, many of them still nomadic, constituting the poorest of the poor in the state. Drawing on exhaustive fieldwork and ethnographic accounts of more than 750 respondents, it explores the occupational change across generations to prove their presence in the state before the Criminal Tribes Act was implemented in 1871. The archival reports reveal the atrocities unleashed by the colonial government on these people. The volume shows how the post-colonial government too has proved no different; it has done little to bring them into the mainstream society by not exploiting their traditional expertise or equipping them with modern skills. This book will be of great interest to scholars of sociology, social anthropology, social history, public policy, development studies, tribal communities and South Asian studies.

Constructing the Criminal Tribe in Colonial India provides a detailed overview of the phenomenon of the “criminal tribe” in India from the early days of colonial rule to the present. Traces and analyzes historical debates in historiography, anthropology and criminology Argues that crime in the colonial context is used as much to control subject populations as to define morally repugnant behavior Explores how crime evolved as the foil of political legitimacy under military Examines the popular movement that has arisen to reverse the discrimination against the millions of people laboring under the stigma of criminal inheritance, producing a radical culture that contests stereotypes to reclaim their humanity