Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
In the areas where tribal populations are concentrated, their economic and social conditions are usually much worse than those of non-tribals. The impoverished and exploited circumstances under which adivasis live can be traced historically to the pattern of accelerated resource extraction started by the colonial British government and continued by the government of independent India. From the late nineteenth century onwards, the colonial government reserved most forest tracts for its own use, severing the rights that adivasis had long exercised to use the forest for gathering produce and for shifting cultivation. Forests were now to be protected for maximising timber production. With this policy, the mainstay of their livelihoods was taken away from adivasis, rendering their lives poorer and more insecure. Denied access to forests and land for cultivation, adivasis were forced to either use the forests illegally (and be harassed and prosecuted as 'encroachers' and thieves) or migrate in search of wage labour.
'Tribes' are believed to be?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → People of forest
Option (2) People of forest — Correct. The jana or tribes were believed to be ‘people of the forest’, because their distinctive habitat in the hill and forest areas shaped their economic, social and political life. The passage shows the same tie: when the colonial government reserved the forests, the mainstay of their livelihood was taken away and their lives became poorer and more insecure.
Note: The passage of Q1-Q5 is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘Patterns of Social Inequality and Exclusion’, from its pages on adivasi struggles, word for word. Read that section through, including the paragraph that follows the passage; Q2 and Q5 are answered there.
NCERT (2025-26): “Adivasi Struggles … 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.…” “…From the late nineteenth century onwards, the colonial government reserved most forest tracts for its own use, severing the rights that adivasis had long exercised to use the forest for gathering produce and for shifting cultivation. Forests were now to be protected for maximising timber production. With this policy, the mainstay of their livelihoods was taken away from adivasis, rendering their lives poorer and more insecure. Denied access to forests and land for cultivation, adivasis were forced to either use the forests illegally (and be harassed and prosecuted as ‘encroachers’ and thieves) or migrate in search of wage labour.…” |