The Rabhas, like many other tribal groups of West Bengal, are one of the Scheduled Tribes inhabiting mostly in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts of West Bengal. I got interested to study these people not because they were a Scheduled Tribe and little-known, but because they had a peculiar social system the matrilineal system which persisted significantly among a section of them who inhabited in the settlements inside the reserve forests while the same system was steadily declining among the other section of this ethnic group, the village dwelling ones, for their keen urge to get a place in the local Hindu society thereby inheriting a new social system, patriliny. Friend-Pereira's observation in 1911 that, 'they are in a stage of transition from matriarchal to patriarchal form of life,' inspired me to examine the Rabha society in West Bengal to see whether they were also following the same path of trans-formation i.e., shifting from one social system to another as did their congeners in Assam in the past. Surprisingly enough that what Friend Pareira marked among the Rabhas of Assam as early as 1911 still holds good among the present day Rabhas of West Bengal. My preliminary investigation has eonfirmed my hypothesis that the matrilineal Rabhas of West Bengal, due to different external and/or internal factors, have kept their journey on to form a new patrilineal society.
My study shows that of the two ecological sections of the Rabhas, the forest inhabiting ones (the Forest Rabhas), has still preserved their traditional matriliny to a great extent (though no doubt they are also changing), but their village dwelling brethren have discarded many of their traditional matrilineal traits to give place to the patrilineal Hindu cultural traits. This type of change, though unique, it is most probably present among almost all matrilineal societies of India, the nature and extent of such change may, of course, vary slightly from one such group to another. I have studied this type of change among the Rabhas of West Bengal with the idea that it may throw new light on the study of culture change in the Indian society with particular reference to the culture change among the tribal society of India. I firmly believe that the students of anthropology and allied ideas from this study and may be research work among other matrilineal way. disciplines will get new interested to undertake societies in an identical.
It was a rainy morning of Mid-August of 1962 when I first entered the Rabha land of the district of Jalpaiguri. In the midst of heavy downpour, I got down from the metre-gauze train on the platform of a tiny station of Kamakhyaguri. It was all over muddy as rain water had covered many places. Croaking of frogs from the rain-soaked bushes of the Western Duars could be heard all around. With great difficulty I could reach the dilapidated Dak bungalow near the market place. Hearing of my visit some local people came to meet me and one of them was Sri Dabendra Nath Das, the undisputed Rabha leader, the first Rabha I met.
I could not meet any other Rabha for the next two days as I had to keep myself confined for two days in the Dak-Bungalow because of the non-stop heavy downpour. After the stoppage of rain, I heard the very disheartening news of the floods. The rivers like the Raidak, the Ghorumara, the Torsa had flooded many areas, and the flood water had reached only a few miles away from Kamakhyaguri. This was my first independent field work outside Calcutta. I was all alone. In that forest clad, animal infested, malarious and flood-stricken area and in that dreadful rainy season I felt, in a natural course, very much disheartened and perturbed.
But I had no way to flee. Rail connection was disrupted because of the flood. I halted in that Dak-Bungalow for two more days, and I gradually stabilized my mind and regained my courage and determination of undertaking research work among these people. Then one morning I moved to Dakshin Manasi, a village where a good number of the Rabhas live, crossing at many places, knee deep water and slush. I settled myself ultimately in the out-house of a very generous Rajbansi started my work.
My first visit to the settlement of the Forest Rabhas (The terms "the Forest Rabha" and "the Village Rabha" have been used for the convenience of the study and to distinguish between the two sections of the Rabhas of West Bengal. See also Das & Raha, 1967: Introduction) was, in the same way very interesting. Purodha bastee, the first Forest Rabha settlement I visited, was within the Reserve Forest. The area is under dense forest full of wild animals. The peculiar and mysterious environment of the reserve forest gave me a very new feeling-a feeling mixed with fear, joy, delightfulness and adventure. Thereafter I spent a total of eighteen months in various Rabha settlements in the Forest bastees in the midst of the Reserve Forests full of wild animals, and the villages in the neighbourhood of the reserve forests.
Before my first visit to the Rabha land, I had acquainted myself with almost all the published literature about the Rabhas which threw much light on their past culture. I framed up a problem before I undertook my field work as I realised that a modern scientific study generally began with a problem which constituted its geneneral objective. Social scientists like Radcliffe-Brown (Fortes, 1949: VII), Leach (1962: 1), Fortes (1949: VII) and others, have favoured hypothesis as the starting point of studies in social science. Getting a clue from the past records, I built up the hypothesis that the Rabha society was changing from one social system to another-from matrilineal social system to another-from matrilineal social system to patrilineal one, for various factors. I got very much interested in this type of change among the Rabhas, accordingly planned to undertake a research study among them, with the hope to see the same type of change if any, among the present day Rabhas of West Bengal. In a later phase I found that my hope had been fulfilled.
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