A research student visits a hill village in central India. Elders tell her that their community once practised shifting cultivation on slopes it held in common. Over the generations, some families came to be counted within caste Hindu society at a low level of the hierarchy. More recently, a large reservoir for a power station flooded their best fields, and mines opened nearby, drawing workers mainly from distant towns. The student wants to understand both the older history of the community and its recent changes.
Which of the following statements about development and its effects on tribal communities like the one in the passage is NOT correct?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Forests on which tribals depended started to be systematically exploited after independence.
Option (1) National development, particularly in the Nehruvian era, involved building large dams, factories and mines. — Incorrect. This statement is correct. Nehruvian development rested on large dams, factories and mines, which fits the reservoir and the mines in the passage.
Option (2) Tribal areas were located in mineral rich and forest covered parts of the country. — Incorrect. This statement is correct. Tribal areas lay in mineral rich and forest covered parts of the country, which is why tribals paid a disproportionate price for development.
Option (3) Dispossessing tribals of their land was a byproduct of setting up hydroelectric power plants. — Incorrect. This statement is correct. Tribals lost land as a necessary byproduct of mining and of using good sites for hydroelectric power plants, like the flooded fields in the passage.
Option (4) Forests on which tribals depended started to be systematically exploited after independence. — Correct. This statement gets the timing wrong. Systematic exploitation of forests began in British times, and after independence the trend only continued.
NCERT (2026-27): “Tribe – The Career of a Concept … “The loss of the forests on which most tribal communities depended has been a major blow. Forests started to be systematically exploited in British times and the trend continued after independence. The coming of private property in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage.” |