Like the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes are also social groups that are duly recognised by the Constitution of India. The jana or tribes were believed to be 'people of the forest' whose distinctive habitat in the hill and forest areas shaped their economic, social and political attributes. However, ecological isolation was nowhere absolute. … After the Independence of India in 1947 the government's monopoly over forests continued.
The passage omits a line on the policy of capital-intensive industrialisation. What did that policy require that was concentrated in Adivasi areas?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Mineral resources and power-generation capacities
Option (1) Timber reserves and land for commercial plantations — Incorrect. Timber was the aim of colonial forest policy, which reserved forests to maximise timber production. Commercial plantations are places where tribal people migrated for wage work.
Option (2) Mineral resources and power-generation capacities — Correct. Capital-intensive industry runs on minerals and power. These lay in Adivasi areas, so Adivasi lands were rapidly acquired for new mining and dam projects.
Option (3) Forest produce and cheap labour for factories — Incorrect. Forest produce is what adivasis gathered for their own living until the colonial state cut their forest rights. Cheap labour came from tribal people who migrated to factories and mines for wage work.
Option (4) Fertile land and water for irrigation canals — Incorrect. Fertile land and canal water serve farming and irrigation. The policy in the passage was industrial, and dams were built to generate power for it.
NCERT (2026-27): “Adivasi Struggles … |