Contribution of Indian Tribals to Modern Civilization

According to one estimate there are 427 Scheduled Tribe communities in India with a population of 67,758,380 as per 1991 census. The prerogative for their development in modern India ensues from Article 46 of the Constitution of India, which reads thus: "The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social justice and all forms of exploitation". The word 'tribe' has not been defined anywhere in the Constitution of India. But it states in Article 342 that the Scheduled Tribes are tribes or the tribal communities or parts of groups within tribes or tribal communities which the President may specify from time to time by public notification. As these communities are presumed to constitute the oldest ethnological segment of the Indian society, the term "Adivasi (Adi' means oldest and 'vasi' means inhabitant) is commonly used to designate them. India, a Secular, Democratic and Socialistic Republic has been pursuing a policy of cultural pluralism ever since it became independent. Pandit. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had declared that: "We should help the tribal people to develop along the lines of their own tradition and genius, teaching them not to despise their past, but to build upon it" (quoted in Elwin, 1963: 5) Keywords: Secular, Democratic, Republic, Tribe communities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and Adivasi.