Is Tribe a Homogeneous Category? Evidence From Tripura in North-East India

Abstract

Anthropological–sociological studies since the colonial period in India largely saw tribes as homogeneous, unchanging and undifferentiated groups which were free from conflicts or exploitation. This article critiques this notion of tribe and shows heterogeneity within tribes through an analysis of the social history of Tripura in the north-east region of India and mass movement of tribal organisations like the Ganamukti Parishad therein in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. As a princely State, Tripura showed the presence of socio-economic exploitation and contradiction between social strata in the second half of nineteenth century. In the late 1940s, the GMP formulated a notion of tribe that intersected the categories of peasant and class. It was the result of this formulation that class unity between tribal and non-tribal (Bengali) peasantry was an important pivot in its mass movement during this period. In addition, the development of landed class among Tripura tribes over the last few decades is a new and important feature of the state’s agrarian structure, and was further proof of the development of socio-economic heterogeneity within tribes. This article, thus, argues for a dynamic notion of tribe that changes with time and has close linkages with other categories like peasant and class.