India has witnessed a sea change in its social structure and political culture since Independence. Despite the developmental model that the country opted for, the hangover of the Raj continued to encourage fissiparous tendencies dividing the Indian populace on the basis of religion, ethnicity and caste hierarchy. This book argues for the need to develop a fresh approach to dismantling the stereotypes that have boxed the study of India’s tribal communities. It underlines the significance of region-specific strategies in place of an overarching umbrella scheme for all Indian tribes. The author studies tribes in the context of changing political and social identity, gender, extremism, caste dimensions, development issues, and offers a new perspective on tribes to accommodate the diversity and transformations within culture over time and through globalization. Lucid, accessible and rooted in contemporary realities, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of sociology and social anthropology, tribal studies, subaltern and third world studies, and politics.

This comprehensive account reflects the thinking,insight and experience of very senior Indian anthropologists.The concerns expressed involve macro-mapping of India tribal scenario in its diverse perspective.Challenges and alternative from another front which has been debated upon in various phases of descriptions.Where do the Indian tribes stand at the tuen of the century is so well documented in this volume that anyone interested in them would have no alternative but to join the stream of these anthropological thinkers and empiricists who realize that many odds continue to mark the philosophy,policy,ground level reality etc.