The isolationist debate regarding tribals argued protection from:
(A) Money lenders
(B) Traders
(C) Police
(D) Industry
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (A) and (B) only
(A) Money lenders Correct. The isolationist side argued that tribals needed protection from moneylenders, who were intent on reducing them to detribalised landless labour.
(B) Traders Correct. Traders are named together with moneylenders and Hindu and Christian missionaries as the groups from whom tribals needed protection.
(C) Police Incorrect. The isolationists feared outsiders who would take away tribal land and labour; the police are not among the groups they wanted tribals protected from.
(D) Industry Incorrect. Industry is not part of the isolationist argument of the 1940s, which named traders, moneylenders and missionaries.
Note: The passage on the isolation versus integration debate of the 1940s in the chapter ‘Social Institutions: Continuity and Change’ was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. It has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter is still there.
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.…” |