Month: September 2024

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 Confronting Marginalisation

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JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 Confronting Marginalisation

→ Religious solace, armed struggle, self improvement and education, economic uplift – there appears to be no one way of doing things. Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, women and other marginal groups argue that simply by being citizens of a democratic country, they possess equal rights that must be respected.

→ Invoking Fundamental Rights:

  • The marginalised have drawn on the rights in two ways: first, by insisting on their Fundamental Rights, they have forced the government to recognise the injustice done to them. Second, they have insisted that the government enforce these laws.
  • In some instances, the struggles of the marginalised have influenced the government to frame new laws in keeping with the spirit of the Fundamental Rights.
  • Article 17 of the Constitution states that untouchability has been abolished, this means that no one can henceforth prevent Dalits from educating themselves, entering temples, using public facilities, etc.
  • Untouchability is a punishable crime now.
  • Article 15 of the Constitution notes that no citizen of India shall be discriminated
    against on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. This has been used by Dalits to seek equality where it has been denied to them.
  • Dalits can ‘invoke’ or ‘draw on’ a Fundamental Right (or Rights) in situations where they feel that they have been treated badly by some individual or community or even by the government.
  • By granting different forms of cultural rights, the Constitution tries to ensure cultural justice to such groups.
  • The Constitution does this so that the culture of these groups is not dominated nor wiped out by the culture of the majority community.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 Confronting Marginalisation

→ Laws for the Marginalised:

  • There are specific laws and policies for the marginalised in our country.
  • There are policies or schemes that emerge through other means like setting up a committee or by undertaking a survey, etc.

→ Promoting Social Justice:

  • As part of their effort to implement the Constitution, both state and central governments create specific schemes for implementation in tribal areas or in areas that have a high Dalit population.
  • One such law/policy is the reservation policy that today is both significant and highly contentious.
  • The laws which reserve seats in education and government employment for Dalits and Adivasis are based on an important argument.
  • Governments across India have their own list of Scheduled Castes (or Dalits), Scheduled Tribes and backward and most backward castes. The central government too has its list.
  • Students applying to educational institutions and those applying for posts in government are expected to furnish proof of their caste or tribe status, in the form of caste and tribe certificates.

→ Protecting the Rights of Dalits and Adivasis
In addition to policies our country also has specific law’s that guard against the discrimination and exploitation of marginalised communities.

→ The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

  • In order to indicate to the government that untouchability was still being practised and in the most hideous manner, Dalit groups demanded new laws that would list the various sorts of violence against dalits and prescribe stringent punishment for those who indulge in them.
  • The Act contains a very long list of crimes some of which are too horrible even to contemplate.
  • The Act does not only describe terrible crimes but also lets people know what dreadful deeds human beings are capable of.
  • The Act distinguishes several levels of crimes. Firstly, it lists modes of humiliation that are both physically horrific and morally reprehensible and seeks to punish.
  • Secondly, it lists actions that dispossess Dalits and Adivasis of their meagre resources or which force them into performing slave labour.
  • At another level, the Act recognises that crimes against Dalit and tribal women are of a specific kind and, therefore, seeks to penalise anyone who assaults or uses force on any woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonour her.

→ Adivasi Demands and the 1989 Act:

  • The 1989 Act is important for another reason – Adivasi activists refer to it to defend their right to occupy land that was traditionally theirs.
  • Activists have asked that those who have forcibly encroached upon tribal lands should be punished under this law.
  • C.K. Janu, an Adivasi activist, has also pointed out that one of the violators of Constitutional rights guaranteed to tribal people are governments in the various states of India.
  • She has also noted that in cases where tribals have already been evicted and cannot go back to their lands, they must be compensated.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 Confronting Marginalisation

→ Conclusion:

  • The existence of a right or a law or even a policy on paper does not mean that it exists in reality.
  • People have had to constantly work on or make efforts to translate these into principles that guide the actions of their fellow citizens or even their leaders.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes History Chapter 7 Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities

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JAC Board Class 7 Social Science Notes History Chapter 7 Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities

→ Society was divided according to the rules of varna in most parts of the subcontinent. These rules were prescribed by the Brahmanas and were accepted by the rulers of large kingdoms. The difference between the rich and poor increased.

→ Beyond Big Cities: Tribal Societies

  • There were other kinds of societies present as well in the subcontinent who did not follow the social rules and rituals dictated by the Brahmanas. Nor they were divided into numerous unequal classes. These types of societies are called tribes.
  • There was a distinctive bond of kinship among the members of each tribe. The main source of livelihood was agriculture but there were hunter-gatherers or herders as well. There were some tribes who were nomadic and moved from one place to another.
  • Many large tribes usually lived in forests, hills, deserts and places difficult to reach. The tribes retained their freedom and preserved their separate culture in various ways.

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes History Chapter 7 Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities

→ Who were Tribal People?

  • Tribal people did not keep written records but they preserved rich customs and oral traditions. And these were passed down to each new’ generation.
  • Some powerful tribes controlled large territories as people were found in almost every region of the subcontinent.
  • The Khokhar tribe in Punjab was very influential and powerful during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Later, the Gakkhars became more important. Kamal Khan Gakkhar, the chief was made mansabdar by Emperor Akbar.
  • The Langahs and Arghuns in Multan and Sind, dominated extensive regions before they were subdued by the Mughals.
  • The Balochis were another large and powerful tribe in the north-west.
  • The shepherd tribe of Gaddis lived in the western Himalaya.
  • The Nagas, Ahoms and many others too dominated the north-eastern part of the subcontinent.
  • Chero chiefdoms had emerged by the twelfth century in Bihar and Jharkhand. Akbar’s famous general Raja Man Singh attacked and defeated the Cheros in 1591.
  • The Mundas and Santals were among the other important tribes that lived in Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa (now Odisha) and Bengal.
  • The Kolis, Berads and numerous other tribes were found in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka.
  • Far away south there were large tribal populations of Koragas, Vetars, Maravars and many others.
  • The tribe of Bhils were spread across western and central India.
  • Another tribe, the Gonds were found in good numbers across the present-day states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

→ How Nomads and Mobile People Lived?

  • Nomads who lived on milk and other pastoral products and moved over long distances with their animals are called nomadic pastoralists. They also exchanged wool, ghee, etc., with settled agriculturists for grain, cloth, utensils and other products.
  • The most important trader nomads were the Banjaras. Their caravan was called tanda.
  • To transport grain to the city markets, Sultan Alauddin Khalji used the Banjaras.

→ Changing Society: New Castes and Hierarchies

  • As the society grew, people with new skills were required hence, smaller castes, or jatis, emerged within varnas.
  • Artisans such as smiths, carpenters and masons were also recognised as separate jatis by the Brahmanas. Jatis became the basis for organising society rather than varna.
  • New Rajput clans, the Kshatriyas became powerful by the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They belonged to different lineages such as Hunas, Chandelas, Chalukyas and some others. Among them, some had been tribes earlier. They moderately replaced the older rulers especially in agricultural areas.
  • The tribal people had to follow the Rajput clans to the position of rulers as they set an example for them.

→ A Closer Look The Gonds

  • The Gonds practised shifting cultivation as they lived in a vast forested region called Gondwana or “country inhabited by Gonds”.
  • The Akbar Nama reveals the Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga that had 70,000 villages.
  • The kingdom was divided into garbs and each was controlled by a particular Gond clan. It was further divided into units of 84 villages called chaurasi. The chaurasi was again subdivided into barhots which were made up of 12 villages each.
  • The Gond raja of Garha Katanga Aman Das, assumed the title of Sangram Shah. His son, Dalpat, married princess Durgawati, the daughter of Salbahan, the Chandel Rajput raja of Mahoba.
  • She was very capable and brave and started ruling on behalf of her five-year old son, Bir Narain. In 1565, she was defeated by the Mughal forces under Asaf Khan and preferred to die than to surrender. Her son also died fighting after sometime.

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes History Chapter 7 Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities

→ The Ahoms

  • In the thirteenth century, the Ahoms migrated to the Brahmaputra valley from present-day Myanmar. They created a new system of the bhuiyans means landlords.
  • They used firearms in 1530s and by that the Ahoms built a large state. They could even make high quality gunpowder and cannons by the 1660s.
  • In 1662, the Mughals under Mir Jumla attacked the Ahom kingdom but they were defeated.
  • The state depended upon forced labour. Those who were forced to work for the state were called paiks.
    The new methods of rice cultivation was also introduced by Ahoms.
  • The society was divided into clans or khels. A khel often controlled several villages.
  • The Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods. During the reign of Sib Singh (1714-1744), Hinduism became the predominant religion. But they did not completely give up their traditional beliefs after adopting Hinduism.
  • The historical works known as buranjis were written first in the Ahom language and then in Assamese. It was a very sophisticated society. Theatre was encouraged a lot.

→ Conclusion:
This period saw more interaction between varna based society and the tribal groups. Few established extensive states with well- organised systems of administration hence, became politically powerful.

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

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JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

JAC Class 8th History Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation InText Questions and Answers

Page 85

Question 1.
Imagine you are living in the 1850s. You hear of Wood’s Despatch. Write about your reactions.
Answer:
Students need to do it on their own.
Hint:

  1. As an Indian one would be quite as¬tonished to reject knowledge of the east in total.
  2. Wood’s Despatch identified grave errors in our education system.
  3. The British believed that by learn¬ing English education we would be more rational, scientific but they have failed to understand our most reversed spiritual text.

Page 88

Question 2.
Imagine you were born in a poor fam¬ily in the 1850s. How would you have responded to the coming of the new system of government regulated path- shalas?
Answer:
I would have responded against the new system of government regulated pathshalas because children from poor families like me were able to attend the pathshala as the time table was flexible but the new system don’t have flexibility and have strict rules.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

Question 3.
Did you know that about 50 per cent of the children going to primary school drop out of school by the time they are 13 or 14? Can you think of the various possible reasons for this fact?
Answer:
The various possible reason for this fact are:

  1. Poverty
  2. Unemployment
  3. Child labour
  4. Unavailability of schools in villages and backward areas
  5. Due to lack of knowledge and illiteracy, people don’t give importance to education.

Question 4.
Imagine you were witness to a debate between Mahatma Gandhi and Macaulay on English education. Write a page on the dialogue you heard.
Answer:
Students need to do it on their own with the help of teacher.
Hints:
Mahatma Gandhi:
In. the minds of millions of Indians, English education has created a feeling of inferiority.

Macauley:
People need to be more civilized and this can be done only by English education.

Mahatma Gandhi:
Education should be such that could help Indians to restore their self-respect and sense of dignity.

Macauley:
A single shelf of a good European Library is worth than the whole native Indian literature. And so on….

JAC Class 8th History Civilising the Native, Educating the NationTextbook Questions and Answers

(LePsRecair)

Question 1.
Match the following:

William Jones promotion of English education
Rabindranath Tagore respect for ancient cultures
Thomas Macaulay gurus
Mahatma Gandhi learning in a natural environment
Pathshalas critical of English education

Answer:

William Jones respect for ancient cultures
Rabindranath Tagore learning in a natural environment
Thomas Macaulay promotion of English education
Mahatma Gandhi critical of English education
Pathshalas gurus

Question 2.
State whether true or false:
(a) James Mill was a severe critic of the Orientalists.
(b) The 1854 Despatch on education was in favour of English being introduced as a medium of higher education in India.
(c) Mahatma Gandhi thought that promotion of literacy was the most important aim of education.
(d) Rabindranath Tagore felt that children ought to be subjected to strict discipline.
Answer:
(a) True
(b) True
(c) False
(d) False

(Let’s Discuss)

Question 3.
Why did William Jones feel the need to study Indian history, philosophy and law?
Answer:
William Jones felt the need to study Indian history, philosophy and law because only those texts could reveal the real ideas and laws of the Hindus and Muslims and only a new study of these texts could form the basis of future development in India.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

Question 4.
Why did James Mill and Thomas Macaulay think that European education was essential in India?
Answer:
James Mill and Thomas Macaulay thought that European education was essential in India because the education should be useful and practical. They also thought that Indians are need to be civilized and should be made familiar with the Western culture and modernisation.

Question 5.
Why did Mahatma Gandhi want to teach children handicrafts?
Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi wanted to teach children handicrafts because he felt that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul. Literacy to read and write by itself did not count as education. People had to work with their hands, team a craft, and know how different things operated This would develop their mind and their capacity to understand.

Question 6.
Why did Mahatma Gandhi think that English education had enslaved Indians?
Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi thought that English education had enslaved Indians because of the following reasons:

  1. British education created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians.
  2. It made them see Western civilisation as superior and destroyed the pride they had in their own culture.
  3. Indians educated in these institutions began admiring British rule.

(let’s Do)

Question 7.
Find out from your grandparents about what they studied in school.
Answer:
Students need to do it on their own.

Question 8.
Find out about the history of your school or any other school in the area you live.
Answer:
Students need to do it on their own.
(Hint: Can write about as when the school was built and who built it. How many students are there? How the ‘ students make the school proud?)

JAC Class 8th History Civilising the Native, Educating the NationImportant Questions and Answers

Multiple Choice Questions

Question 1.
William Jones, a junior judge in Supreme court arrived in Calcutta in the year .
(a) 1785
(b) 1783
(c) 1789
(d) 1790
Answer:
(b) 1783

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

Question 2.
……….. started the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
(a) William Jones
(b) Henry Thomas Colebrooke
(c) Nathaniel Halhed
(d) All of these
Answer:
(d) All of these

Question 3.
………. felt that the Indian languages should be the medium of teaching.
(a) Mahatma Gandhi
(b) Rabindranath Tagore
(c) Subhash Chandra Bose
(d) William Jones
Answer:
(a) Mahatma Gandhi

Question 4.
The poet who reacted against the introduction of Western education in India was………
(a) Premchand
(b) Rabindranath Tagore
(c) Sarojini Naidu
(d) None of the above
Answer:
(b) Rabindranath Tagore

Question 5.
William Carey was a…..
(a) Teacher
(b) British Officer
(c) Scottish missionary
(d) Merchant
Answer:
(c) Scottish missionary

Question 6.
In 1781, a madrasa was set up in ………to promote the study of Arabic, Persian and Islamic law.
(a) Calcutta
(b) Delhi
(c) Bombay
(d) Surat
Answer:
(a) Calcutta

Question 7.
The English Education Act was introduced in the year.
(a) 1855
(b) 1846
(c) 1875
(d) 1835
Answer:
(d) 1835

Question 8.
Charles Wood was the:
(a) President of the Board of Control of the Company.
(b) Governor General in India.
(c) Viceroy.
(d) English Professor.
Answer:
(a) President of the Board of Control of the Company.

Question 9.
In Shantiniketan, school was started by
(a) Aurobindo Ghose
(b) Mahatma Gandhi
(c) Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel
(d) Rabindranath Tagore
Answer:
(d) Rabindranath Tagore

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

Question 10.
Adam found that there were over ….. pathshalas in Bengal and Bihar.
(a) 2 lakhs
(b) 3 lakhs
(c) 1 lakhs
(d) 4 lakhs
Answer:
(c) 1 lakhs

Very Short Answer Type Question 

Question 1.
What do you mean by linguist?
Answer:
A linguist is a person who knows and studies several languages.

Question 2.
William Jones was a linguist as well. What languages he knew?
Answer:
William Jones knew Greek, Latin, French, English, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit.

Question 3.
Who sharply attacked the orientalists?
Answer:
James Mill and Thomas Babington Macaulay attacked the Orientalists.

Question 4.
Who had the opinion that Colonial education created sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians?

Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi had the opinion that Colonial education created sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians.

Question 5.
In which places the universities were first established by the company in India?
Answer:
Calcutta, Madras and Bombay were the places where the universities were first established by the company in India.

Question 6.
Which year did the East India Company decide to improve the system of vernacular education?
Answer:
After 1854 the Company decided to improve the system of vernacular education.

Question 7.
What do you mean by Orientalists?
Answer:
Orientalists are those who had a scholarly knowledge of the language and culture of Asia.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

Question 8:
In pathshalas, what kind of education was given to the children?
Answer:
In pathshalas, teaching was oral and the guru decided what to teach in accordance with the needs of the students.

Question 9.
What type of task was assigned to the pandit by the Company?
Answer:
The type of task was assigned to the pandit by the Company was to visit the pathshalas and try to improve the standard of teaching.

Question 10.
In which way were Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College viewed by the British?
Answer:
The Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madarsa and Benaras Sanskrit College were viewed as ‘temples of darkness that were falling of themselves into decay’.

Short Answer Type Question

Question 1.
What was the reason for the establishment of the Hindu College in Benaras?
Answer:
The reason for the establishment of the Hindu College in Benaras in 1791 was to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the administration of the country.

Question 2.
In which way Mahatma Gandhi view literacy?
Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi viewed literacy as not the end of education nor even the beginning. It is only one of the means whereby men and women can be educated Literacy in itself is not education.

Question 3.
What did Thomas Macaulay urge the British government in India?
Answer:
Thomas Macaulay urged that the British government in India stop wasting money in promoting Oriental learning as it was of no practical use.

Question 4.
The East India Company opposed to missionary activities in India. Why?
Answer:
Until 1813, the East India Company was opposed to missionary activities in India because it feared that missionary activities would provoke reaction amongst the local population and make them suspicious of British presence in India.

Question 5.
What do you understand by Wood’s Despatch?
Answer:
The Court of Directors of the East India Company in London in 1854 sent an educational dispatch to the Governor General in India. This was issued by Charles Wood, the President of the Board of the Company and hence, it has come to be called as Wood’s Despatch.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

Question 6.
What were the provisions of English Education Act of 1835?
Answer:
The provisions of English Education Act of 1835 were as follows:

  1. English was made the medium of instruction for higher education.
  2. Promotion of Oriental institutions such as the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College was stopped These institutions were seen as ‘temples of darkness that were falling of themselves into decay’.
  3. English textbooks began to be produced for schools.

Question 7.
Explain the measures introduced by the British following the 1854 Wood’s Despatch.
Answer:
Following the 1854 Wood’s Despatch, several measures were introduced by the British as follows:

  1. Education departments of the government were set up to extend control over all matters regarding education.
  2. Steps were taken to establish a system of university education. Universities were established in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.
  3. Attempts were also made to bring about changes within the system of school education.

Question 8.
Many British officials criticised the Orientalists. Why?
Answer:
From the early nineteenth century many British officials criticized the Orientalist vision of learning because they said that knowledge of the East was full of errors and unscientific thoughts. Eastern literature was non-serious and light-hearted Hence, they argued that it was wrong on the part of the British to spend so much effort in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit language and literature.

Question 9.
William Jones discover many things in Calcutta. What were they?
Answer:
William Jones mainly discovered the ancient Indian heritage. He discovered through his studies on ancient Indian texts on law, religion, arithmetic, medicine, science, philosophy. Soon he discovered that the interests were shared by many British officials living in Calcutta that time.

Question 10.
List the main features of educational method followed in pathshalas.
Answer:
The main features of educational method followed in pathshalas were as follows:

  1. There were no formal schools.
  2. Teaching was oral and guru decided what to teach.
  3. The system of education was flexible.
  4. In some places, classes were held in open spaces.
  5. There were no fixed school fees, no books, no annual exams, no regular time-table.

Long Answer Type Question

Question 1.
Describe in brief the irregularities of pathshalas which were checked by the Company.
Answer:
Steps taken by the Company to check the irregularities of pathshalas were:

  1. It appointed a number of government pandits. Each incharge of four to five schools. The task of the pandit was to visit the pathshalas and try to improve the standard of teaching.
  2. Each guru was asked to submit periodic reports and take classes according to a regular timetable.
  3. Teaching was now to be based on textbooks and learning was to be tested through a system of annual examination.
  4. Students were asked to pay a regular fee, attend regular classes, sit on fixed seats and obey the new rules of discipline.

Question 2.
Which type of education did Mahatma Gandhi want in India?
Answer:
Mahatma Gandhi’s views on education was as follows:

  1. Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect.
  2. Mahatma Gandhi strongly felt that Indian languages should be the medium of teaching. Education in English crippled Indians, distanced them from their own social surroundings, and made them ‘strangers in their own lands’.
    Civilising the “Native”, Educating the Nation
  3. Speaking a foreign tongue, despising local culture, the English educated did not know how to relate to the masses.
  4. He argued that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul. Literacy to read and write by itself did not count as education.
  5. People had to work with their hands, learn a craft, and know how different things operated This would develop their mind and their capacity to understand.

Question 3.
Explain about Rabindranath Tagore and his school Shantiniketan.
Answer:
Rabindranath Tagore like many, also did not approve Western education wholeheartedly. At the time when several Indians urged the British to open more and more schools, colleges and universities in order to spread English education in India, Rabindranath Tagore reacted strongly against such education. He was a great educationist though he hated going to school because he saw it oppressive. In fact, he wanted to establish a school where the children were happy and were free to explore their thoughts and desires without feeling any suppression.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions History Chapter 7 Civilising the Native, Educating the Nation

He advocated for giving children natural surroundings where they would be able to cultivate their natural creativity. In the year 1901, Rabindranath Tagore established Shantiniketan. He regarded it as an ‘abode of peace’. He set up his school 100 kilometres away from Calcutta in a rural setting in order to provide children a very peaceful environment. Here, they could develop their imagination and creativity. Tagore had the opinion that existing schools were killing the natural desires of the children to be creative. Hence, it was necessary to help them develop their curiosity by providing them good teachers who could understand them. By establishing an institution like Shantiniketan he did a great job in the field of education.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Solutions

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 7 Understanding Marginalisation

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JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 7 Understanding Marginalisation

→ What Does it Mean to be Socially Marginalised?

  • To be marginalised is to be forced to occupy the sides or fringes and thus not be at the centre of things.
  • In the social environment too, groups ‘ of people or communities may have the experience of being excluded. Their marginalisation can be because they speak a different language, follow different customs or belong to a different religious group from the majority community.
  • They may also feel marginalised because they are poor, considered to be of ‘low’ social status and viewed as being less human than others.
  • They experience a sense of disadvantage and powerlessness vis-a-vis more powerful and dominant sections of society who own land, are wealthy, better educated and politically powerful.
  • Economic, social, cultural and political factors work together to make certain groups in society feel marginalised.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 7 Understanding Marginalisation

→ Who are Adivasis?
Adivasis, the term literally means ‘original inhabitants’ are communities who lived and often continue to live in close association with forests.

  • Around 8 per cent of India’s population is Adivasi and many of India’s most important mining and industrial centres are located in Adivasi areas – Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Bhilai among others.
  • • There are over 500 different Adivasi groups in India.
  • Adivasis are particularly numerous in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and in the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
  • Adivasi societies are also most distinctive because there is often very little hierarchy among them.
  • Adivasis practise a range of tribal religions that are different from Islam, Hinduism and Christianity.
  • It often involves the worship of ancestors, village and nature spirits, the last associated with and residing in various sites in the landscape – ‘mountain-spirits’, ‘river- spirits’, ‘animal-spirits’, etc.
  • Adivasis have always been influenced by different surrounding religions like Shakta, Buddhist, Vaishnav, Bhakti and Christianity.
  • Adivasis have their own languages (most of them radically different from and possibly as old as Sanskrit), which have often deeply influenced the formation of ‘mainstream’ Indian languages, like Bengali.
  • Santhali has the largest number of speakers and has a significant body of publications including magazines on the internet or in e-zines.

→ Adivasis and Stereotyping:

  • Often Adivasis are blamed for their lack of advancement as they are believed to be resistant to change or new ideas.
  • Adivasis are invariably portrayed in very stereotypical ways – in colourful costumes, headgear and through their dancing.
  • This often wrongly leads to people believing that they are exotic, primitive and backward.

→ Adivasis and Development:

  • Metal ores like iron and copper, and gold and silver, coal and diamonds, invaluable timber, most medicinal herbs and animal products (wax, lac, honey) and animals themselves (elephants, the mainstay of imperial armies), all came from the forests.
  • Forests covered the major part of our country till the nineteenth century and the Adivasis had a deep knowledge of, access to, as well as control over most of these vast tracts at least till the middle of the nineteenth century.
  • Often empires heavily depended on Adivasis for the crucial access to forest resources.
  • In the north-east, their lands remain highly militarised.
  • India has 104 national parks covering 40,501 sq km and 543 wildlife sanctuaries covering 1,18,918 sq km. These are areas where tribals originally lived but were evicted from.
  • When they continue to stay in these forests, they are termed encroachers.
  • Having gradually lost access to their traditional homelands, many Adivasis have migrated to cities in search of work where they are employed for very low wages in local industries or at building or construction sites.
  • 45 per cent of tribal groups in rural areas and 35 per cent in urban areas live below the poverty line.
  • Many tribal children are malnourished. Literacy rates among tribals are also very low.
  • Destruction in one sphere naturally impacts the other. Often this process of dispossession and displacement can be painful and violent.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 7 Understanding Marginalisation

→ Minorities and Marginalisation

  • The term minority is most commonly used to refer to communities that are numerically small in relation to the rest of the population.
  • It encompasses issues of power, access to resources and has social and cultural dimensions.
  • Safeguards are needed to protect minority communities against the possibility of being culturally dominated by the majority. They also protect them against any discrimination and disadvantage that they may face.
  • The Constitution provides these safeguards because it is committed to protecting India’s
    cultural diversity and promoting equality as well as justice.

→ Muslims and Marginalisation

  • Recognising that Muslims in India were lagging behind in terms of various development indicators, the government set up a high-level committee in 2005.
  • Chaired by Justice Rajindar Sachar, the committee examined the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India. The report discusses in detail the marginalisation of this community.
  • The social marginalisation of Muslims in some instances have led to them migrating from places where they have lived, often leading to the ghettoisation of the community. Sometimes, this prejudice leads to hatred and violence.
  • The experiences of all the groups point to the fact that marginalisation is a complex phenomenon requiring a variety of strategies, measures and safeguards to redress this situation.

→ Conclusion:

  • Marginalisation is linked to experiencing disadvantage, prejudice and powerlessness.
  • Marginalisation results in having a low social status and not having equal access to education and other resources.
  • Marginalised communities want to maintain their cultural distinctiveness while having access to rights, development and other opportunities.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes