According to the 1981 census, the tribal population of India comprising over three hundred communities was 51.63 million persons, constituting 7.76% of India's total population. Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan account for 60% of the entire Scheduled Tribal population in the country. However, the detailed demographic data on most of the tribal populations are lacking.
While demography as such is comparatively a new discipline, tribal demography can handily be assessed to have crossed the stage of infancy. One is reminded of Wattal's book Population Problem in India (1934) and his mention of 'Fertility of Animists' (a term used for the tribal societies). "India's Population-Facts and Policy", published in 1946 by Chandra Sekhar, had a couple of pages on aboriginal population. It must be admitted that it was Mamoria who for the first time in 1957 brought out a book exclusively devoted to tribal demography in India.
The raison d'etre for undertaking a study on tribal demography is to be sought in the planned development of the Scheduled Tribes to a very large extent. Some academic interest was generated side by side during the decade 1950-60.
However, one of the major factors that gave positive direction to the demographic studies on the tribals was the publication of 1961 series monographs on Scheduled tribes by Indian census organisation. Later Roy Burman and Nag addressed themselves to the problems of tribals including population policy and family planning.
It is unfortunate that many established departments of anthropology and sociology in various universities and institution do not impart a basic course in tribal demography. In an era of planned development, the significance of tribal, demography, as a distinct specialization of social demography, can hardly be ignored. An urgent need was felt to have a text dealing exclusively with Tribal Demography based on intensive fieldwork. To begin with, we thought, nothing could be more befitting than making a micro-level study of Gonds, one of the largest tribal populations of India.
The authors owe a profound sense of gratitude to Professor Dr. S.R.K. Chopra, Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra who has been a constant source of inspiration and moral support. Dr. V. Bhalla and Dr. S. Prakash of Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, helped the authors at various stages of the work. The authors are indebted to them also.
The authors acknowledge their gratitude to Prof. R.C. Chandna, Department of Geography, Panjab University for his continued interest in the population study. Sincere thanks to Mr. K.C. Kaistha of Department of Sociology and Dr. B.N. Ghosh, Department of Economics, Panjab University, for evincing their interest in the work and for their useful suggestions. The authors are indeed indebted to the faculty members of the department of Anthropology, Panjab University. Drs. R.N. Vashisht, B.S. Karir, S. Kaul and Mr. C.J. Edwin rendered timely help for which the authors are grategul to them. Lastly, the authors are also grateful to Gian Publishing House, Delhi for publishing this book in a short time.
Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist