Scheduled Tribe

Adivasi

• In Adivasi

  …have been known officially as Scheduled Tribes. In the early 21st century the Adivasi population of India was more than 84 million, with the majority living in the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland. Smaller numbers inhabit the hills and forests of central and southern India as well…

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Bihar

• 
  In Bihar: Cultural life

  Many villages of the Scheduled Tribes have a dancing floor, a sacred grove (sarna) where worship is offered by a village priest, and a bachelor’s dormitory (dhumkuria). The weekly market, hat, plays an important part in the tribal economies. Tribal festivals such as Sarhul, which marks the flowering of…

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education system

• 
  In India: Education

  …members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes—whose prior education often has been less than adequate—have put additional stress on the system. The fact that India’s best students often take their higher degrees abroad, many never to return, further exacerbates the problem of quality. Nevertheless, elite institutions continue to exist, and,…

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government

• 
  In India: Political process

  …members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes based on their proportion of the total state population. Those reserved constituencies shift from one election to the next. As candidates do not have to be and frequently are not residents of the areas they seek to represent, none runs the risk of…

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India

• 
  In India: Caste of India

  …many tribal peoples—officially designated as Scheduled Tribes—have also been given status similar to that of the Scheduled Castes. Tribal peoples are concentrated mainly in the northeast (notably Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland) and, to a lesser extent, in the northeast-central (Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha) regions of the country, as well as…

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Jharkhand

• 
  In Jharkhand

  …primarily by the Adivasis, or Scheduled Tribes (an official term applied primarily to indigenous communities that fall outside the predominant Indian caste hierarchy). Indian independence brought relatively little socioeconomic benefit to the people of the Jharkhand area, which led to widespread discontent with the Bihar administration, particularly among the tribal…

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Madhya Pradesh

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  In Madhya Pradesh: Population composition

  …officially classified as members of Scheduled Tribes (a category embracing indigenous peoples who fall outside the predominant Indian social hierarchy). Among the most prominent of these tribes are the Bhil, Baiga, Gond, Korku, Kol, Kamar, and Maria. Non-Scheduled peoples, who hold a higher status within the Indian social system, make…

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Odisha

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  In Odisha: Population composition

  Scheduled Tribes (the official government designation applied to indigenous peoples who fall outside the predominant Indian social hierarchy) and Scheduled Castes (formerly called “untouchables”; the official name for groups that occupy a low position within the caste system) together constitute some two-fifths of the population…

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Scheduled Castes

Tripura

• 
  In Tripura: Population composition

  …the Indian caste system) and Scheduled Tribes (a term generally applied to indigenous peoples who fall outside the traditional Indian social hierarchy). The Tripuri constitute more than half the tribal community. Other prominent tribal groups include the Reang, the Chakma, the Halam (a subgroup of the Kuki), the Garo, the…

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