Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities PDF

7 TRIBES, NOMADS AND SETTLED COMMUNITIES Y ou saw in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 how kingdoms d rose and fell. Even as this was happening, new e...

7 TRIBES, NOMADS AND SETTLED COMMUNITIES Y ou saw in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 how kingdoms d rose and fell. Even as this was happening, new e arts, crafts and production activities flourished in towns and villages. Over the centuries important h Fig. 1 political, social and economic developments had Tribal dance, T s Santal painted scroll. i taken place. But social change was not l the same everywhere, because different R kinds of societies evolved differently. It is b important to understand how, and why, this happened. C E u p In large parts of the subcontinent, society N e was already divided according to the rules © er of varna. These rules, as prescribed by the Brahmanas, were accepted by the rulers of large kingdoms. The difference between the high and low, and between the rich and poor, b increased. Under the Delhi Sultans and the Mughals, this hierarchy between social o classes grew further. t t Beyond Big Cities: Tribal o Societies n There were, however, other kinds of societies as well. Many societies in the subcontinent did not follow the social rules and rituals prescribed by the Brahmanas. Nor were they divided into numerous unequal classes. Such societies are often called tribes. TRIBES, NOMADS AND 91 SETTLED COMMUNITIES  Members of each tribe were united by kinship bonds. Many tribes obtained their livelihood from agriculture. Others were hunter-gatherers or herders. Most often they combined these activities to make full use of the natural resources of the area in which they lived. Some tribes were nomadic and moved from one place to another. A tribal group controlled land and pastures jointly, and divided these amongst households according to its own rules. ? Many large tribes thrived in different parts of the d On a physical subcontinent. They usually lived in forests, hills, e map of the deserts and places difficult to reach. Sometimes they subcontinent, h clashed with the more powerful caste-based societies. identify the areas In various ways, the tribes retained their freedom and s in which tribal T i people may have preserved their separate culture. l lived. R But the caste-based and tribal societies also b depended on each other for their diverse needs. This E relationship, of conflict and dependence, gradually u caused both societies to change. N C e p Who were Tribal People? © er Contemporary historians and travellers give very scanty information about tribes. A few exceptions apart, tribal people did not keep written records. But b they preserved rich customs and oral traditions. These were passed down to each new generation. Present- o day historians have started using such oral traditions t to write tribal histories. t Tribal people were found in almost every region of o the subcontinent. The area and influence of a tribe varied at different points of time. Some powerful tribes n controlled large territories. In Punjab, the Khokhar tribe was very influential during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Later, the Gakkhars became more important. Their chief, Kamal Khan Gakkhar, was made a noble (mansabdar) by Emperor Akbar. In Multan and Sind, the Langahs and Arghuns dominated extensive regions before they were subdued by the Mughals. The Balochis were another large and powerful OUR PASTS – II 92  Map 1 Location of some of the major Indian tribes. ed T s h R l i E u b N C e p © er tribe in the north-west. They were divided into many b smaller clans under different chiefs. In the western Clan Himalaya lived the shepherd tribe of Gaddis. The A clan is a group o distant north-eastern part of the subcontinent too was of families or t entirely dominated by tribes – the Nagas, Ahoms and households many others. claiming descent t from a common In many areas of pr esent-day Bihar and o ancestor. Tribal Jharkhand, Chero chiefdoms had emerged by the organisation is n twelfth century. Raja Man Singh, Akbar’s famous often based on general, attacked and defeated the Cheros in 1591. kinship or clan A large amount of booty was taken from them, but loyalties. they were not entirely subdued. Under Aurangzeb, Mughal forces captured many Chero fortresses and subjugated the tribe. The Mundas and Santals were among the other important tribes that lived in this region and also in Orissa and Bengal. TRIBES, NOMADS AND 93 SETTLED COMMUNITIES  The Maharashtra highlands and Karnataka were home to Kolis, Berads and numerous others. Kolis also lived in many areas of Gujarat. Further south there were large tribal populations of Koragas, Vetars, Maravars and many others. The large tribe of Bhils was spread across western and central India. By the late sixteenth century, d many of them had become settled e agriculturists and some even h zamindars. Many Bhil clans, nevertheless, remained hunter- T i s gatherers. The Gonds were found l in great numbers across the R b present-day states of Chhattisgarh, E Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and u Andhra Pradesh. N C e pHow Nomads and Mobile © er People Lived Nomadic pastoralists moved over long distances with their animals. b They lived on milk and other pastoral products. They also o exchanged wool, ghee, etc., with t settled agriculturists for grain, cloth, utensils and other products. o t Fig. 2 n Bhils hunting deer by night. Fig.3 A chain of mobile traders connected India to the outside world. Here you see nuts being gathered and loaded on the backs of camels. Central Asian traders brought such goods to India and the Banjaras and other traders carried these to local markets. OUR PASTS – II 94 They bought and sold these goods as they moved from one place to another, transporting them on their Nomads and animals. itinerant groups The Banjaras were the most important trader- Nomads are nomads. Their caravan was called tanda. Sultan wandering people. Many of them are Alauddin Khalji (Chapter 3) used the Banjaras to pastoralists who transport grain to the city markets. Emperor Jahangir roam from one wrote in his memoirs that the Banjaras carried grain pasture to another on their bullocks from different areas and sold it in with their flocks towns. They transported food grain for the Mughal d and herds. army during military campaigns. With a large army Similarly, itinerant e there could be 100,000 bullocks carrying grain. groups, such as h craftspersons, pedlars and T s entertainers travel i The Banjaras l from place to place R Peter Mundy, an English trader who came to India practising their b during the early seventeenth century, has described different E occupations. u the Banjaras: Both nomads and C In the morning we met a tanda of Banjaras with14,000 oxen. p itinerant groups They were all laden with grains such as wheat and rice... often visit the N e These Banjaras carry their household – wives and children – same places every © er along with them. One tanda consists of many families. Their year. way of life is similar to that of carriers who continuously travel from place to place. They own their oxen. They are b sometimes hired by merchants, but most commonly they are themselves merchants. They buy grain where it is cheaply t o available and carry it to places where it is dearer. From there, they again reload their oxen with anything that can be t profitably sold in other places … In a tanda there may be as o many as 6 or 7 hundred persons … They do not travel more n than 6 or 7 miles a day – that, too, in the cool weather. After unloading their oxen, they turn them free to graze as there is enough land here, and no one there to forbid them. ? Find out how grain is transported from villages to cities at present. In what ways is this similar to or different from the ways in which the Banjaras functioned? TRIBES, NOMADS AND 95 SETTLED COMMUNITIES  Many pastoral tribes reared and sold animals, such as cattle and horses, to the prosperous people. Different castes of petty pedlars also travelled from village to village. They made and sold wares such as ropes, reeds, straw matting and coarse sacks. Sometimes mendicants acted as wandering merchants. There were castes of d Fig. 4 Bronze crocodile, entertainers who performed in different towns and e Kutiya Kond tribe, villages for their livelihood. Orissa. Changing Society: New Castes and T s h i Hierarchies R l As the economy and the needs of society grew, people b with new skills were required. Smaller castes, or jatis, E u emerged within varnas. For example, new castes C appeared amongst the Brahmanas. On the other p hand, many tribes and social groups were taken into N e caste-based society and given the status of jatis. © er Specialised artisans – smiths, carpenters and masons – were also recognised as separate jatis by the Brahmanas. Jatis, rather than varna, became the b basis for organising society. o Deliberations on jati t t A twelfth-century inscription from Uyyakondan Udaiyar, in Tiruchirapalli taluka (in present-day Tamil Nadu), o describes the deliberations in a sabha (Chapter 2) of Brahmanas. n They deliberated on the status of a group known as rathakaras (literally, chariot makers). They laid down their occupations, which were to include architecture, building coaches and chariots, erecting gateways for temples with images in them, preparing wooden equipment used to perform sacrifices, building mandapas, making jewels for the king. OUR PASTS – II 96  Among the Kshatriyas, new Rajput clans became powerful by the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They belonged to different lineages, such as Hunas, Chandelas, Chalukyas and others. Some of these, too, had been tribes earlier. Many of these clans came to be regarded as Rajputs. They gradually replaced the older rulers, especially in agricultural areas. Here a developed society was emerging, and rulers used their wealth to create powerful states. The rise of Rajput clans to the position of rulers set d an example for the tribal people to follow. Gradually, e with the support of the Brahmanas, many tribes h became part of the caste system. But only the leading tribal families could join the ruling class. A large T i s majority joined the lower jatis of caste society. On the l other hand, many dominant tribes of Punjab, Sind and R b the North-West Frontier had adopted Islam quite early. E They continued to reject the caste system. The unequal u social order, prescribed by orthodox Hinduism, was C p not widely accepted in these areas. N e The emergence of states is closely related to social © er change amongst tribal people. Two examples of this Fig. 5 important part of our history are described below. A Gond woman. b A Closer Look Shifting The Gonds cultivation o Trees and bushes t The Gonds lived in a vast forested region called in a forest area Gondwana – or “country inhabited by Gonds”. They t are first cut and practised shifting cultivation. The large Gond tribe burnt. The crop is o was further divided into many smaller clans. Each clan sown in the had its own raja or rai. About the time that the power ashes. When this n of the Delhi Sultans was declining, a few large Gond land loses its kingdoms were beginning to dominate the smaller fertility, another Gond chiefs. The Akbar Nama, a history of Akbar’s plot of land is reign, mentions the Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga cleared and that had 70,000 villages. planted in the same way. The administrative system of these kingdoms was becoming centralised. The kingdom was divided into TRIBES, NOMADS AND 97 SETTLED COMMUNITIES  garhs. Each garh was controlled by a particular Gond clan. This was further divided into units of 84 villages called chaurasi. The chaurasi was subdivided into barhots which were made up of 12 villages each. The emergence of large states changed the nature of Gond society. Their basically equal d society gradually got divided e into unequal social classes. h Brahmanas received land grants from the Gond rajas and became T i s more influential. The Gond chiefs l now wished to be recognised as R b Rajputs. So, Aman Das, the Gond E raja of Garha Katanga, assumed u the title of Sangram Shah. His C p Map 2 son, Dalpat, married princess Gondwana. Durgawati, the daughter of N e Salbahan, the Chandel © er Rajput raja of Mahoba. Dalpat, however, died Fig. 6 early. Rani Durgawati b A carved door. Gond tribe, Bastar was very capable, and area, Madhya Pradesh. started ruling on behalf o of her five-year-old son, t Bir Narain. Under her, the t kingdom became even more extensive. In 1565, o the Mughal forces under n Asaf Khan attacked Garha Katanga. A strong resistance was put up by Rani Durgawati. She was defeated and preferred to die rather than surrender. Her son, too, died fighting soon after. OUR PASTS – II 98  Garha Katanga was a rich state. It earned much wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants to other kingdoms. When the Mughals defeated the Gonds, they ? captured a huge booty of precious coins and elephants. Discuss why the Mughals were They annexed part of the kingdom and granted the rest interested in the to Chandra Shah, an uncle of Bir Narain. Despite the land of the Gonds. fall of Garha Katanga, the Gond kingdoms survived for some time. However, they became much weaker and later struggled unsuccessfully against the stronger Bundelas and Marathas. The Ahoms The Ahoms migrated to the Brahmaputra valley from ed h present-day Myanmar in the thirteenth century. They T s created a new state by suppressing the older political l i system of the bhuiyans (landlords). During the R sixteenth century, they annexed the kingdoms of the b Chhutiyas (1523) and of Koch-Hajo (1581) and E subjugated many other tribes. The Ahoms built a large C p u state, and for this they used firearms as early as the 1530s. By the 1660s they could even make high- N e quality gunpowder and cannons. © er Map 3 However, the Ahoms faced many invasions from the Tribes of eastern south-west. In 1662, the India. Mughals under Mir Jumla b attacked the Ahom kingdom. Despite their brave defence, the o Ahoms were defeated. But t direct Mughal control over the region could not last long. o t The Ahom state depended upon forced labour. Those n forced to work for the state were called paiks. A census of the population was taken. Each village had to send a number of paiks by rotation. People from heavily populated areas were shifted to less populated TRIBES, NOMADS AND 99 SETTLED COMMUNITIES  places. Ahom clans were thus broken up. By the first half of the seventeenth century the administration became quite centralised. Almost all adult males served in the army during war. At other times, they were engaged in building dams, irrigation systems and other public works. The Ahoms also introduced new methods of rice cultivation. Ahom society was divided into clans or khels. There were very few castes of artisans, so artisans in the d Fig. 7 Ear ornaments, Koboi Ahom areas came from the adjoining kingdoms. A khel e Naga tribe, Manipur. often controlled several villages. The peasant was given land by his village community. Even the king could h not take it away without the community’s consent. T i s Originally, the Ahoms worshipped their own tribal l gods. During the first half of the seventeenth century, R b however, the influence of Brahmanas increased. E Temples and Brahmanas were granted land by the u king. In the reign of Sib Singh (1714-1744), Hinduism C p became the predominant religion. But the Ahom kings did not completely give up their traditional N e beliefs after adopting Hinduism. ? © er Ahom society was very sophisticated. Poets and scholars were given land grants. Theatre was Why do you think encouraged. Important works of Sanskrit were b the Mughals tried translated into the local language. Historical works, to conquer the known as buranjis, were also written – first in the Ahom o land of the language and then in Assamese. t Ahoms? t Conclusion no Considerable social change took place in the subcontinent during the period we have been examining. Varna-based society and tribal people constantly interacted with each other. This interaction caused both kinds of societies to adapt and change. There were many different tribes and they took up diverse livelihoods. Over a period of time, many of them merged with caste- based society. Others, however, rejected both the caste system and orthodox Hinduism. Some tribes established OUR PASTS – II 100 extensive states with well-organised systems of administration. They thus became politically powerful. This brought them into conflict with larger and more complex kingdoms and empires. The Mongols Find Mongolia in your atlas. The best-known pastoral and hunter- gatherer tribe in history were the Mongols. They inhabited the ELSEWHERE grasslands (steppes) of Central Asia and the forested areas further d north. By 1206 Genghis Khan had united the Mongol and Turkish e tribes into a powerful military force. At the time of his death (1227) he was the ruler of extensive territories. His successors created a h vast empire. At different points of time, it included parts of Russia, s Eastern Europe and also China and much of West Asia. The Mongols T i had well-organised military and administrative systems. These were l based on the support of different ethnic and religious groups. ER b Imagine C p u N e © er You are a member of a nomadic community that shifts residence every three months. How would this change b your life? t o t Let’s recall o 1. Match the following: n garh tanda khel chaurasi labourer caravan clan Garha Katanga Sib Singh Ahom state Durgawati paik TRIBES, NOMADS AND 101 SETTLED COMMUNITIES  2. Fill in the blanks: (a) The new castes emerging within varnas were KEYWORDS called ____________.  (b) _____________ were historical works written by the varna Ahoms. jati (c) The ____________ mentions that Garha Katanga d tanda had 70,000 villages. e garh (d) As tribal states became bigger and stronger, they h chaurasi gave land grants to _________ and ________. barhot T l i s 3. State whether true or false: bhuiyans ER b (a) Tribal societies had rich oral traditions. u paik khel N C e p (b) There were no tribal communities in the north- western part of the subcontinent. © er buranji (c) The chaurasi in Gond states contained several census cities. b  (d) The Bhils lived in the north-eastern part of the o subcontinent. t t 4. What kinds of exchanges took place between nomadic pastoralists and settled agriculturists? no Let’s understand 5. How was the administration of the Ahom state organised? 6. What changes took place in varna-based society? OUR PASTS – II 102  7. How did tribal societies change after being organised into a state? Let’s discuss 8. Were the Banjaras important for the economy? 9. In what ways was the history of the Gonds different d from that of the Ahoms? Were there any similarities? h e T i s Let’s do R b l 10. Plot the location of the tribes mentioned in this chapter E on a map. For any two, discuss whether their mode u of livelihood was suited to the geography and the C environment of the area where they lived. N e p 11. Find out about present-day government policies © er towards tribal populations and organise a discussion about these. b 12. Find out more about present-day nomadic pastoral groups in the subcontinent. What animals do they o keep? Which are the areas frequented by these t groups? o t n TRIBES, NOMADS AND 103 SETTLED COMMUNITIES