A Discourse on Tribal Identity in Indian History

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to explore the tribal identity formation in India from historical perspective. It is argued that understanding of contemporary tribal identities requires a basic appreciation of the historical processes that have been determined the course of successive changes in socio-cultural, economic, ideological and political life of the tribes. Keeping in view of the Indian sub-continent, one can only generalize that the historical experiences would be as variable for different people as their interaction with their ecology and the neighboring cultures from time to time. In this context this paper assesses the changing discourse tribal identity formation in Indian history by exploring various historiographies.