UNIT 24 ETHNICITY

Structure
24.0 Objectives
24.1 Introduction
24.2 Ethnicity : The Problem, Definition and Identity
24.2.1 The Problem of Ethnicity
24.2.2 Definition of Ethnicity
24.2.3 Ethnic Identity : A Psycho-Sociological Reality
24.3 Ethnicity : The Various Perspectives of Analysis
24.3.1 Perspectives on Ethnicity
24.3.2 Some Characteristics of Ethnicity
24.3.3 Latent and Manifest Identities
24.4 Pluralities and Larger Identity
24.4.1 Quest for a Larger Identity
24.4.2 The Emergence of India as a Nation
24.5 Deprivation, Disparity and the State’s Response
24.5.1 Regional and Ethnic Identities
24.5.2 Jharkhand Movement as an Example
24.5.3 The Indian State’s Response
24.6 Let Us Sum Up
24.7 Key Words
24.8 Further Readings
24.9 Answers to Check Your Progress

24.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you should. be able to:
z understand what the term ethnicity means;
z explain various perspectives on ethnicity;
z analyse the major reasons for the emergence of an ethnic movement; and
z relate it to various factors which come into play.

24.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous unit, you read about the problems of minorities. In this unit, we
will get to know about ethnicity, a phenomenon which has become a thorny
issue. This unit will start with the definition of ethnicity and outline some of
the perspectives on ethnicity. We will also be explaining the importance of
identity for a group which provides an ethnic movement the impetus and a
motive. Towards the end of the unit we will explain to you how ethnicity is
greatly shaped by disparities and deprivations; a modern problem of
development initiatives.
57
Identity, Dignity and
Social Justice 24.2 ETHNICITY: THE PROBLEM, DEFINITION
AND IDENTITY
You must have heard the word ethnicity or ethnic problems. The word ethnicity
comes from the root word ethnic which loosely means race. An ethnic
community does not strictly have a racial connotation. A community can be
distinct from others in many ways: their racial stock or origin being one of
them. A community may distinguish itself from others by way of a particular
or distinctive culture, language, religion or a combination of all these. Because
of this distinctive aspect the ethnic communities often come in conflict with
other communities with whom they come in contact.
In this section we will understand this problem of ethnicity by first
understanding what ethnicity means and the nature of identity of ethnic
communities.

24.2.1 The Problem of Ethnicity

Ethnic activity and separation came in a big way in the post colonial, newly
emerging nations like Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria etc. This was
easly and crudely explained away as tribalism, backwardness etc. But ethnic
activity affected even the developed West; the problem of Welsh and the Scots,
Wallon-Flemish conflict in Belgium, the Basques in Spain, to name only a
few. Even the seemingly egalitarian conflict-free melting pot America has
been shattered by black ethnic activity. The erstwhile Socialist block, now,
and for a long time, has been cauldron of ethnic crisis, with Crotian, Serbians,
Bosnians, Slovak, Czech etc. in a conflict. In fact, ethnicity has now become a
worldwide phenomenon.
The problem of ethnicity and national building has been widely discussed
over the past few decades. The phenomenon of ethnicity has become all intrinsic
component of the socio-political realities of multi-ethnic or plural cultural
societies, specially in a country like India.
In India, with its variety of pluralities, in terms of language, race, religion and
so on ethnic conflict has become a part of the political scenario. In most
countries, including ours, the processes of development and change have
generated conditions for ethnic conflict, as the fruits of these development
processes have come to be distributed unevenly. Also the nature and character
of the 1ower structure and rule of the political leadership have their role to
play.

24.2.2 Definition of Ethnicity

The definition of concept in any field of social science is usually difficult. And
a term such as ethnicity is loaded with meanings, values and prejudices and
therefore, is even more difficult to define.
Ethnicity pertains to the word ethnic which is a distinction of mankind based
on race. Ethnicity has now lost the original connotation. “It is now employed
in a broader sense to signify self-consciousness of a group of people united, or
closely related, by shared experience such as language, religious belief, common
58
heritage, etc. While race usually denotes the attributes of a group, ethnic identity
typifies creative response of a group who consider themselves marginalised in
society” (Barun De and Sunanjan Das, 1992: 69). Barth and Benedict Anderson Ethnicity
feel that boundary is an important criterion for self defintion by ethnic group,
to separate themselves from ‘others’.
Let us see how the identity of a group is defined vis-a-vis another Community
and how this identity becomes psychologically and socially important for a
member or members of the community.

24.2.3 Ethnic Identity : A Psycho-sociological Reality

William G. Sumner observed that people have their own group as the center of
their lives, and rate all other groups with reference to their own. He called this
tendency of individuals to cling to their clan ethnocentricism. It is a generalised
prejudice.
Why do human beings slip so easily into ethnic prejudice? Human beings
have a natural tendency to form generalisations, concepts and categories. Their
categories are close to their first-hand experiences. They also categorise basing
on hearsay, fantasy and emotions. This process of social categorisation leads
to the formation of an “in-group” and “out-group”. All groups develop a way
of living with characteristic codes and beliefs. Therefore, the formation of
ethnic attitude is functionally related to becoming a group member. According
to the social categorisation theories given by H. Tajfel (1981) as well as J.C.
Turner (1982), every social group attempts to achieve an identity in
contradiction to the “out-group” Identity can be broadly characterise as the
process by which an individual is bound to his/her social group and by which
he/she realises his/her social self. In the context of the Indian political identity,
such a formulation has several implications. The emotional fervour associated
with linguistic issues can perhaps be viewed in the context of this definition of
social identity structure of the different language groups in the country.
The normative character of ethnic prejudices involve far more than the fact
that attitudes are shared by members of a majority or minority group. Each
member is expected to hold such attitudes and various kinds of pressures are
brought on those who fail to conform to it. A sense of identity is a very natural
human tendency but when an ethnic identity is consolidated and used as a
reference point for mobilisation to share in the power structure, the mobilisation
becomes far more effective.
While ethnic attributes are categorisation for the purpose of classification which
is a static formulation, ethnicity is a dynamic process, whereby a group of
people or community regroups itself as an adaptive strategy in response to
specific demands of the situations.
Various scholars have looked at this phenomenon in various ways. We will
have a quick look at some of the approaches to the study of ethnicity in our
next section.
Check Your Progress 1
1) What are the various basis on which a community considers itself as
distinct and different from others?
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Identity, Dignity and ...................................................................................................................
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2) Write in few lines what you understand by the concept of identity.
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24.3 ETHNICITY: THE VARIOUS

PERSPECTIVES OF ANALYSIS
Ethnicity has given new forms and meanings with changing process such a
imperialism and modernity. Consequently ethnicity has become an important
field of study for social scientist. There are varieties of assumptions regarding
ethnicity.
There are some scholars who see the ethnic problem in terms of assimilation
and integration; wherein an ethnic group is absorbed into the mainstream group
or a dominant ethnic group : an assimilation of this kind in effect is
homogenisation to create a nation state. To diffuse tension and to protect the
dominated group it is also suggested to co-opt the marginalised group.
There are social scientists who see ethnicity as a natural bond between people,
immutable or primordial (Geertz 1963:109). Thus the formation of political
identity is seen by them as stemming from this primordial loyalty.
There are still others who essentially see no difference between class interest
and ethnic interest. They argue that ethnicity is another alternative avenue for
mobility (Berge 1976). Loyalty which goes in the way of mobilisation.
In this section and sub-section which will follow, we have given few ideas on
ethnicity by some scholars who have worked in this area. Though there are
conflicting and differing opinions on ethnicity some common points can be
gathered from these various understanding.

24.3.1 Perspectives on Ethnicity

The conception that ethnicity is culturally pre-determined with its primordial
loyalties and sentiments is largely discounted among social scientists. By and
large scholars agree that an ethnic group is essential a social group when it is
mobilised for collective action in pursuit of the interest of the group.
Writing on the politics of ethnicity in India and Pakistan, Hamza Alavi feels
that the boundaries of ethnic categories are not ‘objectively’ pre-given, for
whenever there is change of interest or situation, realignment has occurred as
60 is evident from experiences. A so called objective criterion like, religion can
be abandoned in favour of another like region or language. Alavi further states
that the ethnic community, therefore, is not simply a politically mobilised
condition of a pre-existing set of people, described as an ethnic category. The Ethnicity
ethnic categorisation itself is dependent in some way in the very emergence
of, the community. Experience shows that both ethnic category and ethnic
community are simultaneously constituted in a single movement.
Writing about ethnicity and nation-building in Sri Lanka, Urmila Phadnis says
that ethnic identity is a significant but not a sufficient requisite for evoking
ethnicity. It is the mobilisation and manipulation of group identity and interest
by the leadership that leads to ethnicity. Ethnicity is used as an ideology and
also as a device to wrest greater concessions and shares in the power structure.
Dipankar Gupta also argues that the manifestation of ethnicity in Indian politics
is not so much an outcome of popular grass-root passions as it ts a creation of
vested political interests. He applies the notion of ‘conspiracy’ to ethnic politics
in India to draw attention to the deliberate and calculated manner in which
such politics is fashioned. He justifies his approach by asking the question as
to, why from a variety of ethnic identities that abound in one society only
certain ethnic dyads are politically activated and that too very selectively at
certain points of time?
K.S. Singh and Sandra Wallman (1988) feel that ethnicity is being increasingly
used to denote people with a distinctive set of bio-cultural and bio-social
characteristics. Ethnic differences is recognition of contrast between us and
them. In their opinion. ethnicity is an excellent tool for identification of the
aspirations of a community for delineating its boundary, and for preserving its
identity. These are some perspectives or approaches to study ethnicity.

24.3.2 Some Characteristics of Ethnicity

Following are some of the characteristics of ethnicity.
1) Ethnicity relates to ascriptive identities like caste, language religion, region
etc.
2) Inequality in terms of sharing power between two ethnic groups results
into conflict. The ethnicity is socially mobilised and territorially confined.
It has numerically sufficient population, and is a pool of symbols depicting
distinctiveness. It has a reference group in relation to which/whom a sense
of relative deprivation (real or imagined) is aggregated
3) Being left out of the developmental process or even being a victim of
uneven development, ethnicity causes ethnic movements.
4) Ethnicity is manifested in Indian politics not merely due to grassroot
discontent but is also a creation of vested political interest.
5) Ethnic groups that use ethnicity to make demands in the political arena
for alteration in their status, in their economic well-being, etc. are engaged
very often in a form of interest group politics.
Before we try to understand the role of ethnicity in Indian politics, it is important
to stress that whatever the difference between ethnic groups, the focus of their
interaction finally boils down to the centrality of politics of who gets what,
when and how? As already stated the focus of interests of an ethnic group, is
to get some benefits for itself. The group often uses ethnic criterion like religion,
language or caste to mobilise itself to give identity to itself which separates it 61
from other group or groups. Thus, delineation of boundary of an ethnic group
Identity, Dignity and of community is an important aspect of ethnicity markers. But exactly which
Social Justice
one will get projected at a specific point of time would usually depend on
where or how the person draws the boundary. Since delineation of the nature
of boundary rests on the conditions existing at a given moment, the whole
exercise becomes a response to the specific conditions. This adds fluidity to
the situation and makes the identity projection a dynamic phenomenon. The
nature of identity shifts along with changing circumstances and calls for change
in boundary or a change in identification. The seeming singularity of identity,
by and large, conveys a notion only. In reality, plurality of identities appears
much more widespread than it ordinarily appears to be.

24.3.3 Latent and Manifest Identities

With plurality of identities, it is important to appreciate that all the identities
of individuals or groups cannot be noticeable at a time. In fact, among various
identities only one becomes manifest or apparent at a given point of time and
the rest of the identities remain subsurface or latent. It may be repeated here
that exactly which type of identity becomes manifest at a specific hour would
depend on the nature of the immediate boundary delineation. It is, thus, through
the interplay of latent and manifest identities that ethnicity expresses itself in
a dynamic process. In general, whether an individual would identify himself/
herself as a Hindu Rajput or a Bihari would depend, by and large on the existing
conditions and felt needs of a given moment. A person ordinarily exercises
his/her in order to work out what response it would be most appropriate at the
given situation and acts accordingly. Thus, he/she contributes to the overall
dynamics of the process.
Activity
Do you feel a sense of identity with the community you belong? If so, write
in few lines the reasons why you have this feeling of identity?

24.4 PLURALITIES AND LARGER IDENTITY

India as we know has cultural economic and social heterogeneity. The complex
ethnic plurality of our nation is a known fact. The ethnic groups vary in sise,
culture, consciousness of group identity etc. and very often clear boundaries
can be demarcated between group. The system on the whole is highly segmented
and heterogeneous.
In such a system what are the ways in which these groups have incorporated
into a nation state?
In the sections to follow we will discuss this constant dynamics; the quest for
a larger identity at one level and pursuance of ethnic identities at the other
level.

24.4.1 Quest for a Larger Identity

There is a general notion that narrow loyalties are expression of retrogradation
or prejudice. This originates from the concern for broader identity and lack of
appreciation of the fact that plurality of identity is a reality. In fact, emergence
of ethnicity all around primarily on cultural counts has put the boundary of
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any nation-state under severe stress. Implicitly assuming the political boundary
as something very sacred, the quest for larger identity is usually emphasised.
No doubt, this serves some immediate political purpose,(s). But at the same Ethnicity
time, this emphasis on a large identity like nation ignores the reality of plural
identities and their possible interplay and thus reverts back to the nation where
religion, language etc. become static categories of ethnic attributes. At this
stage, will be beneficial to understand how nationality or a nation has originate
India. This we hope will clear, some confusions regarding the conflicting
relationship between ethnicity and nationality.

24.4.2 The Emergence of India as a Nation

Geographically, Indian Sub-continent has facilitated the existence of numerous
groups belonging to various racial stocks, speaking different languages and
having different patterns of culture. Centuries of living together has not removed
these differences. At the same time, the different groups moved in a unison in
the political, economic and social spheres. The different groups were united
by a common historical destiny which created a psychological unity. Though
diverse practices were allowed, Hinduism retained a pan-Indian quality.
Language too played its role in uniting the diverse elements: Sanskrit in ancient
India provided the bridge between various pluralities, while Urdu, English
and Hindi sought to do the same in later times. Thus, there existed a pan-
Indian culture as well as various diverse, regional, local and ethnic culture
what we may call as great and little traditions respectively.
Politically and administratively, India came under one umbrella under the
centralised rule of Ashoka’s Kalinga empire. Later the strong centralised
monarchy under the Moghals created a pan-Indian sentiment. At the same
time, several political powers, small identities had emerged in India. These
were like the kingdoms of Marathas in Maharashtra, Sikhs in the most of Punjab
in the North-West and in Bengal in the East. These territorial identities were
not always well defined.
By the time of the British took over the reign of India, the change was enormous.
With the British came the printing press, new system of education, new means
and modes of communication and transportation and ideas of secular state,
fraternity and liberty. Years of discontent with the British rule and its policies
resulted in the first indigenous revolt in 1857. “The failure of the movement of
1857 to drive British out of India led to rethinking amongst educated Indians
about alternative ways and means of getting rid of foreign domination. They
commented that new education, science and technology had to be accepted in
order to forge a new Indian national identity. If Indians could strive as a single
entity. The task wold be easily and quickly accomplished. Thus, in the second
half of the 19th century, organisations with the prefix ‘Indian’ began to appear”
(Gopal, 1992: 42). The growth of national feeling was facilitated by
infrastructural facilities and conditions such as printing press, new means of
communication and transportation, etc. as mentioned above. This growing
consciousness was implicit in the growth of such pan-Indian organisation like
British Indian Association and later the Indian National Congression in 1885.
Indian nationalism reached a maturity and became the uppermost concern,
though there were occasions when ethnicity and plural identities were in conflict
with nationalism. The latter, very often, appeared as integral part of Indian
nationalism. Although secular ideas of nationalism were on the rise the question
of regional identities were not dead and buried, rather, they were just relegated 63
to the background. Thus, we not only had pan-Indian organisations like Indian
Identity, Dignity and National Congress, there were organisations at the regional level like the Justice
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Party with its undertones of ethnic chauvinism in the Madras Presidency.
However, “Secular nationalism, in the face of foreign rule kept ethinic and
caste identities under control. It did not subdue them, but made compromises”
(Ibid).
Once the freedom was won all the subduced forces surfaced again in the
independent democratic India. Political power came to be the key to economic
prosperity and enhanced social status. Henceforth, conscious attempts have
been made by vested interests to whip up ethnic identity and invariably all
political parties have made compromises with ethnic demand. Thus, we can
see that the articulation of ethnicity or ethnic movements has closely been
related to the power structure, the democratic process and initiation of socio-
economic development.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Write in few lines the opinions of K.S. Singh and Sandra Wallman on
ethnicity.
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2) Who coined the word ethnicity?
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3) What are the principal arguments given by the tribals for their demand of
a separate state of Jharkhand?
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24.5 DEPRIVATION, DISPARITY AND THE

STATE’S RESPONSE
A careful observation will reveal that ethnic movements are generally the
expressions of deprivation and disparities in sharing of privileges. The
Jharkhand Movement, for example, was a movement essentially to fight the
64 exploitation of tribes by non-tribes not only in terms of natural resources but
in terms of subjugation of their culture.
24.5.1 Regional and Ethnic Identities Ethnicity

What can be gathered from the above is that state is essentially accommodative
of some of the ethnic demands. This has diffused the ethnic tension and conflicts
in the country. And in some sense this enhanced the mobility and bargaining
power of the ethnic group.
The post-Independent India has seen a lot of changes. We have made some
new strides in development activity. Amidst this, there have emerged new
classes and groups which have asserted for their separate identity and have
enabled them to claim a larger share in the fruits of development. They have
also realised that in a federal political structure like ours, which has a strong
central state. the best way of carving out more power is to capture power at the
state level.
Soon after Independence the most powerful manifestation of ethnicity in India
was the demand for creation of state or province on linguistic basis. The State
Reorganisation Committee was formed in 1956 and boundaries of the states
were redrawn on the linguistic basis. This forming of linguistic states was a
manifestation of ethnic identity. This process reinforced the regional and
linguistic identity and ethnicity. Thus, the demand for separate state on various
accounts like ethnicity, language, etc. soon became a part of the political
scenario. Various political parties were formed at the state level which were,
by and large, identified with ethnic elements.

24.5.2 Jharkhand Movement as an Example

The tribal belt of Central India comprising the portion of Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Orissa has seen the rise of the Jharkhand Movement, which agitated
for the formation of a separate state for tribals and which they succeed in
achieving. The Jharkhand Movement is a good example of politics of ethnicity.
The movement drew its sustenance mainly from the growing discontent among
tribals on account of their land alienation, exploitation and political neglect of
their problems at the national level.
The Jagirdari system in the 18th century turned tribals into more tenets. And
they were exploited shamelessly by non-tribals. In the wake of this there were
a series of tribal uprisings between 1789-1900 A.D.
The Christian Missionaries entered the area of the middle of the 19th century.
They made available for the tribals the facilities of education and helped,
increase employment opportunities and economic improvement for them. A
few educated tribal Christians organised Chhota Nagpur Unnati Samaj (CNUS)
in 1928 for the tribal upliftment.
The turning point came when a separate province of Orissa was carved out of
Bihar in 1936. The Chhota Nagpur Unnati Samaj and its new incarnation was
Adibasi Sabha in 1938, emerged as the dominant political party under the
leadership of Jaipal Singh, a British educated tribal of the area and this party
demanded, for the first time, a separate tribal province.
The principal arguments given for the demand of separate state were: the
physical characteristic of the area is such as there is a large concentration of
65
the tribals. Their mental make-up, language culture and values are totally
different from those of non-tribals. Also, the tribals felt that the welfare and
Identity, Dignity and developmental works both provided and carried out for them are pittances in
Social Justice
comparison to the mineral wealth and forest resources exploited from the region.
The tribals had a strong fear of losing their identity as they were in minority
surrounded by the non-tribals.
The tribals were marginalised at all levels. This had generated tremendous
frustration among them. This harsh reality had provided the ground for effective
propaganda which had facilitated the growth of an internal solidarity and out-
group antagonism. There was an antipathy among them towards the non-tribals
or Dikus. Interestingly, the definition of Dikus has changed with changing
context. Originally Dikus were Zamindars and their non-tribal employees. Later
non-tribals of upper castes background were identified as such. At present, the
people from North Bihar are branded as Dikus.

24.5.3 The Indian State’s Response

The Indian constitution, has recognised the ethnic diversities and ensured that
these diversities may not be obliterated. At the same time, the constitution has
also felt that ethnicity should not stand in the way of political, social, economic
and cultural progress of people in the country. Provisions such as universal
adult franchise granted to the people irrespective of their caste, race, language
etc. granted to the people secular participation in various social and economic
activities. The state has also turned to be reformist and has intervened to promote
the lot of weaker sections and minorities.
Let us have look at some of the government policies to have an idea of the
nature of ethnic demands and the State’s response. “The most important of
such demands came from religion and linguistic groups the resultant fear of
dismemberment of the nation, appears to have made such demands totally
unacceptable to the government. Whereas, demand for linguistic reorganisation
of the State have been considered despite initial reluctance. Further, a policy
of accommodation is clearly visible on the official, language issue. Brass (1978)
lists down four rules which regulate the attitude of government towards ethnic
demands. They are: (1) All demands short of secession will be allowed full
expression, but sessionist demand will be supressed, if necessary, by armed
forces (2) Regional demands based on language and culture will be
accommodated but those demands based on religious differences will not be
accepted. (3) An ethnic demand will be accepted only when it achieves broad
popular support in the region and (4) the views of other groups involved in the
dispute is essential for problem solving” (Nair, K.S., 1985: 106).

24.6 LET US SUM UP

One often hears a great deal about ethnicity and ethnic movement without
really knowing what these mean. In our unit on ethnicity we have attempted to
bring across to you the meaning of ethnicity. We have also mentioned about
various perspectives on ethnicity and we hope that you would realise that
ethnicity can be looked from various angles. The problem of ethnicity cannot
be seen only as an identity problem but a problem of deprivation and lop-sided
development. By presenting the case of the Jharkhand movement, we have
drawn attention to the underlying basic problem of deprivation and exploitation
66 covered in any ethnic movement.
It can be said in the end that ethnic movements are basically movements Ethnicity
demanding for a larger share of the fruits of development and for this they
adopt various strategies of mobilisation. The ethnic identity having a strong
emotive appeal mobilises people into strong cohesive groups which then go
on to make their demands felt whether real or imaginary.

24.7 KEY WORDS

Boundary : A line that marks a limit in terms of
identity. A boundary separates one group
from the other by pointing to the distinctive
aspects of each group.
Ethnocentricism : It is a word coined by W.G. Sumner and
used in his book ‘Folkways’. It is a
technical term for the view of things in
which one’s own group is the centre of
everything and all other groups are scaled
and rated generally inferior to it.
In-group : A social group of people having the same
interests and attitudes.
Out-group : A social group of people other than those
of in-group and their interests and attitudes
are also different from those of the former.
Latent : Concealed and not visible, lying
undeveloped but capable of developing.
Manifest : That which is clearly seen.
Mobilisation : In this context, it would mean to mobilise
people into active participation in an ethnic
movement.
Primordial : Existing from the beginning. That is why
it is said to, be very basic. For example,
identity to one’s group by way of language,
ethnic stock etc. is primordial because it
seems to have always existed.

24.8 FURTHER READINGS

Banton Michael, 1983. Ethnicity, Ethnic Group, Macmillan Student
Encyclopedia of Sociology, (In Michael Mann, ed.) Macmillan Press: London.
Brass, Paul, 1992. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison, Sage:
New Delhi.
Galser N. and D.P. Moynihan: 1975. ‘Ethnicity’, Harvard.
Singh S.K. (ed.) 1992, Ethnicity Caste and People, Manohar : New Delhi.
67
Identity, Dignity and
Social Justice 24.9 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
Check Your Progress 1
1) An ethnic community may consider itself distinct and different from other
on the basis of a shared culture, language, race, religion or combination of
all these.
2) William G. Sumner observes that people have their own group as the centre
of times and rate all other groups with reference to their own. Identity is
this process where an individual is bound to his/her social group by which
he/she realised his/her social self.
Cbeck Your Progress 2
1) K.S. Singh and Sandra Wallman feel that the word ethnicity is being used
to denote people with distinctive set of bio-cultural and bio-social
characteristics which draws a line between us and them. They are of the
view that ethnicity is an excellent tool for identification of the aspirations
of a community for delineating its boundaries and presenting its identity.
2) The term ‘ethnicity’ was first used by W.G. Sumner in his book ‘Folkways’
(1906)’.
3) Some of the principal arguments given by the tribals for the demand of a
separate state-of Jharkhand were that the tribals are different from non-
tribal in terms of language, culture, values, physical and mental makeup.
They feared that they will lose their identity of being minorities. They
also argued that the welfare and developmental measures provided by the
government are pittances as compared to the mineral wealth and forest
resources extracted from the tribal dominated areas.

68
 References
REFERENCES
Anderson, B., 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism, Verso: London.
Ansari, Iqbal A., 1989. The Muslim Situation in India, Sterling : New Delhi.
Bailey F.G., 1960. Tribe Caste and Nation : A Study of Political Activity an
Political Change in Highland Orissa, Manchester University Press:
Manchester.
Banton Michael, 1983. Ethnicity, Ethnic Group, Macmillan Student
Encyclopedia of Sociology, (In Michael Mann, ed.) Macmillan Press: London.
Barth, F. (ed.), 1969. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries : The Social Organization
of Cultural Differences, Little Brown: Boston.
Barun De and Sunanjan Das, 1992. Ethnic Revivalism : Problems in the Indian
Union in S. K. Singh (ed.). Ethnicity Caste and People, Manohar New Delhi.
Benjamin, Joseph. 1989, Scheduled Castes in Indian Politics and Society, ECS
Publications
Bentley, G. Carter, 1983. ‘Theoretical Perspectives on Ethnicity and
Nationalism’. Sage Race Relations Abstacts. VIII(3) 1-53.
Berghe, Van den., 1976. ‘Ethnic Pluralism in Industrial Societies’. Ethnicity
232-55.
Beteille, Andre (ed.) 1969, Social Inequality : Selected Readings, Penguin:
New Delhi.
Brass, Paul, 1992. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison, Sage:
New Delhi.
Clude, L., 1955. National States and National Minorities, H.U.P.
Fuchs, S., 1972. ‘Land Scarcity and Land Hunger Among Some Aboriginal
Tribes of Western Central India’ in S.K.Singh (ed.) Tribal Situation in India.
Shimla.
Furnivall, J.S. 1953, Colonial Policy and Practice, Cambridge University Press:
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