The tribal communities represent an important social category of Indian social structure. The tribals are said to be original inhabitants of India. India is a country of multiracial stock. Different types of groups occupy different parts in India, having their own cultural characteristics and levels of development.. A number of groups are still in primitive stage and they are very often referred to as “tribals”, “primitives”, “adivasis” and so on. The tribal population in India, according to the 1991 Census was 67.76 million. This was almost equal to the population of Britain. A present India has the second largest tribal population in the world next only to Africa. Tribals in India are spread over the length and breadth of the country. “Tribes” in the Indian context today are normally referred to in the language of the Constitution as “Scheduled Tribes”. It was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the chairman of the drafting committee of the constitution, who preferred the concept of Scheduled Tribe to “Adivasis” for it enumerates the tribes and hence has a specific meaning. The tribal people who are regarded as the earliest among the present inhabitants of India have survived here with their unchanging ways of life for centuries. Many of them are still in a primitive stage and are far from the impact of the modern civilization.
