Read the paragraph below and answer the following question.
The famous isolation versus integration debate of the 1940s built upon this standard picture of tribal societies as isolated wholes. The isolationist side argued that tribals needed protection from traders, moneylenders and Hindu and Christian missionaries all of whom were intent on reducing tribals to detribalised landless labour. The integrationists, on the other hand, argued that tribals were merely backward Hindus, and their problems had to be addressed within the same framework as that of backward classes. This opposition dominated the Constituent Assembly debates, which were finally settled along the lines of a compromise which advocated welfare schemes that would enable controlled integration. The subsequent schemes for tribal development - five year plans, tribal sub-plans, tribal welfare blocks, special multipurpose area schemes all continue with this mode of thinking. But the basic issue here is that the integration of tribes has neglected their own needs or desires; integration has been on the terms of the mainstream society and for its own benefit. The tribal societies have had their lands, forests taken away and their communities shattered in the name of development.
Name the process of excluding tribals and reducing them to decentralised landless labour.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Integration process
Option (1) Primordial process — Incorrect. ‘Primordial’ means original or ancient. Tribal identities today are formed by their interaction with the mainstream rather than by any primordial characteristics, so the word describes old traits, not a process that turns tribals into labour.
Option (2) Isolation process — Incorrect. The isolationists wanted tribals kept apart and protected from traders, moneylenders and missionaries, precisely so that they would not be reduced to detribalised landless labour. Isolation was meant to prevent this outcome, not to cause it.
Option (3) Integration process — Correct. The integrationists treated tribals as backward Hindus, to be brought into the framework of the mainstream. In practice this integration neglected the tribes’ own needs or desires and was on the terms of the mainstream society and for its own benefit. Tribal societies had their lands and forests taken away and their communities shattered, which is how tribals were left out of the gains and turned into landless labour.
Option (4) Modernisation process — Incorrect. Modernisation is the wider process by which a society takes up new technology, scientific thinking and modern values and institutions. It is not the name the passage gives to the policy that took away tribal land; that policy is integration.
Note 1: It seems that there is a mistake in the original NTA paper, which prints ‘reducing them to decentralised landless labour’ when it should read ‘detribalised landless labour’. The passage itself speaks of ‘reducing tribals to detribalised landless labour’, and ‘decentralised’ makes no sense for a worker.
Note 2: The section ‘Mainstream Attitudes towards Tribes’ of the chapter ‘Social Institutions: Continuity and Change’ was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This portion has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter is still there.
Note 3: The book does not name this process in so many words. It says the isolationists wanted tribals protected from traders, moneylenders and missionaries ‘intent on reducing tribals to detribalised landless labour’, and that integration, on the terms of the mainstream, took away tribal lands and forests; so the process the question describes is integration, the side the isolationists opposed.
NCERT (2025-26): “Tribal Identity Today … Forced incorporation of tribal communities into mainstream processes has had its impact on tribal culture and society as much as its economy. Tribal identities today are formed by this interactional process rather than any primordial (orginal, ancient) characteristics peculiar to tribes. Because the interaction with the mainstream has generally been on terms unfavourable to the tribal communities, many tribal identities today are centred on ideas of resistance and opposition to the overwhelming force of the non-tribal world.…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “…The famous isolation versus integration debate of the 1940s built upon this standard picture of tribal societies as isolated wholes. The isolationist side argued that tribals needed protection from traders, moneylenders and Hindu and Christian missionaries, all of whom were intent on reducing tribals to detribalised landless labour. The integrationists, on the other hand, argued that tribals were merely backward Hindus, and their problems had to be addressed within the same framework as that of other backward classes. This opposition dominated the Constituent Assembly debates, which were finally settled along the lines of a compromise which advocated welfare schemes that would enable controlled integration. The subsequent schemes for tribal development – five year plans, tribal sub-plans, tribal welfare blocks, special multipurpose area schemes all continue with this mode of thinking. But the basic issue here is that the integration of tribes has neglected their own needs or desires; integration has been on the terms of the mainstream society and for its own benefit. The tribal societies have had their lands, forests taken away and their communities shattered in the name of development.” |