Read about the Major Tribes of India found in every state of India with their religion, customs, arts, beliefs etc.

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG)

• Earlier known as a Primitive tribal group.
• Sub-classification of Scheduled Tribe.
• Vulnerable Group.
• Resides in 18 States and 1 UT.
• Total of 75 groups were identified as PVTG.
• Dhebar Commission (1960-1961) found that within the Scheduled Tribe classification an inequality existed in the rate of development of certain tribes over others.
  • As a result in the fourth Five Year Plan the sub-category “Primitive tribal group” was created within the grouping of Scheduled Tribe to identify groups considered to be especially lacking in modern development.
  • PVTG list was created by the Indian Government with the purpose of better improving the living standards of endangered tribal groups based on priority.
• Features of this tribe
  • Pre-agricultural system of existence,
  • Practice of hunting and gathering,
  • Zero or negative population growth,
  • Extremely low levels of literacy in comparison with other tribal groups.

Shompen Tribe

• Shompen TribeAbout Tribe
  • Indigenous people of the interior of Great Nicobar Island.
  • Designated as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).
  • They practice a hunter-gatherer subsistence economy.
  • The traditional attire for men is a short, thin loincloth made of bark cloth, covering only the genitals without a ‘tail’ of cloth in front.
  • Women wear a knee-length skirt of bark cloth, occasionally with a shawl of bark cloth covering the shoulders.
  • Decorations include bamboo ear plugs (ahav), bead necklaces (naigaak) and armbands of bamboo (geegap).
  • The main weapons are the bow and arrow.
  • Numerous types of spears, spear throwers, fire drills and a hatchet are the main tools.
  • A polling station was set up in their area for election of 2014. Shompen people for the first time participated in the democratic process.
• Threat to tribe
  • Due to proposed Great Nicobar Development Plan, hectares of land on Great Nicobar Island will be reclaimed and may impact 1,700 people including many Shompens.

Warli Tribe

News – Warli tribe in Mumbai objects to construction of Shivaji museum.

• Indigenous tribe of western India.
• Have their own animistic beliefs, life, customs and tradition and thus, have adopted many Hindu beliefs.
• Warli speak the unwritten Varli language which belongs to the southern zone of the Indo-Aryan languages.
• Have sub castes such as Murde varli, Davar varali.
• Found in –
  • Jawhar, Vikramgad, Mokhada, Dahanu and Talasari talukas of the northern Palghar district and parts of Nashik and Dhule as well as Navapur taluka of Nandurbar of Maharashtra,
  • Valsad, Dangs, Navsari and Surat districts of Gujarat,
  • UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
• Warli painting is the cultural intellectual property of the tribal community.
• They were traditionally semi-nomadic. They lived together in small-scale groups with a headman leading them.
• However, recent demographic changes have transformed the Warli today into mainly agriculturists. They cultivate many crops like rice and wheat.
• Warli women wear toe-rings and necklaces as a sign of being married.
• Some Warli practice polygyny.

Gond Tribe

• Group of aboriginal peoples.
• Designated as Scheduled Tribes.
• Refer to themselves as “Kōītōr” (Kōī, Kōītōr).
• Found in the states of
  • Madhya Pradesh,
  • Maharashtra,
  • Chattisgarh,
  • Telangana,
  • Andhra Pradesh,
  • Bihar,
  • Odisha.
• Speaks Gondi, an unwritten language of the Dravidian family.
  • Gondi is claimed to be related to the Telugu language.
  • Some Gond have lost their own language and speak Hindi, Marathi, or Telugu, depending on which is dominant in their area.
• No cultural uniformity.
• Religion of all Gond peoples centres in the cult of clan and village deities, together with ancestor worship.
  • Many Gond people practice their own indigenous religion, Koyapunem (), while some follow Sarnaism.
  • The Gonds worship ancestral deities known as Angadevs, which Brahminical Hindus claim are a representation of the goddess Mahakali.
• A typical Gond reaction to death has been described as one of anger, because they believe death is caused by demons.
  • Gonds usually bury their dead, together with their worldly possessions, but due to partial Hinduization, their kings were occasionally cremated, as per Vedic practices.
  • Hinduization has led to cremation becoming more common.
• The most developed are the Raj Gond, who once had an elaborate feudal order. Local rajas, linked by ties of blood or marriage to a royal house, exercised authority over groups of villages.
  • The Raj Gond continue to exist outside the Hindu caste system, neither acknowledging the superiority of Brahmans nor feeling bound by Hindu rules such as the ban on killing cows.
• The highlands of the Bastar region in southern Chhattisgarh are the home of three important Gond tribes –
  • Muria –
    • Known for their youth dormitories, or ghotul, in the framework of which the unmarried of both sexes lead a highly organized social life.
    • They receive training in civic duties and in sexual practices.
  • Bisonhorn Maria –
    • Bisonhorn Maria, so called for their dance headdresses, live in less-hilly country and have more-permanent fields that they cultivate with plows and bullocks.
  • Hill Maria –
    • The last, who inhabit the rugged Abujhmar Hills, are the most isolated.
    • Their traditional type of agriculture is slash-and-burn (jhum) cultivation on hill slopes; hoes and digging sticks are still used more than plows.
    • The villages are periodically moved, and the commonly owned land of each clan contains several village sites occupied in rotation over the years.

Bagata Tribe

Recently News :- The Bagata tribal people who laboured on the Lower Sileru Hydro-Electric Project construction, still live without electricity and remain in darkness.

• An aboriginal tribe of India.
• Primarily living in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
• Also known as Bagatha, Bagat, Bagodi, Bogad, or Bhakta.
• Trace their community name to devoted warriors (Bhaktas) of the former rulers.