Which of the following is not true in respect of tribes as a communit…

The correct answer is Option 4: None of the above

Statement 1: Did not have a political form or state. Correct. Tribes did not have a state or political form of the normal kind. They were organised differently from state-based societies.

Statement 2: Were neither Hindus nor peasant. Correct. Tribes were generally defined as communities that neither belonged to the Hindu caste system nor were peasants.

Statement 3: Did not practice a religion. Correct. Tribes did not practice a religion with a written text. Instead, they followed their own oral religious traditions, beliefs, and rituals.

NCERT: ‘Tribe’ is a modern term for communities that are very old, being among the oldest inhabitants of the sub-continent. Tribes in India have generally been defined in terms of what they were not. Tribes were communities that did not practice a religion with a written text; did not have a state or political form of the normal kind; did not have sharp class divisions; and, most important, they did not have caste and were neither Hindus nor peasants. The term was introduced in the colonial era. The use of a single term for a very disparate set of communities was more a matter of administrative convenience.