How have tribes been classified in India?

Solution :  Tribes have been classified based on their innate and acquired characteristics. Tribal Societies are classified as follows:

• Traits that are inherited • Traits that are acquired

Permanent Characteristics —

 (i) Based on language

 (a) Indo-Aryan – 1% of tribes speak it; 

(b)Dravidian – 3% of tribes speak it; 

(c)Austric – 3% of tribes speak it; 

(d)Tibeto-Burman – 80% of tribes speak it.

1. ii) By population 

(a) Andaman Nicobar Islands 

(b) Gonds, Bhils, Santhals, Oraons, Minas, Bodos, and Mundas 

(c) India’s tribals accounted for 8.2 percent of the overall population.

iii) According to region

 (a) North East

1.Assam accounts for 30% of the total.

2. Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland – 60%

(b) Rest of India’s Ecological Habitat

Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Odisha

1.Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and Maharashtra

2. Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh

(c) State Population 

1.Rest of India

2. The North East – 11%

1. iv) Based on physical traits 

(a) Mongoloid

 (b) Australoid 

(c) Negroit 

(d) Dravidian 

(e) Aryan

2) Acquired Characteristics

(i)Subsistence

 (a) Fishermen 

(b) Shifting Cultivators 

(c) Peasants

 (d) Plantation and Industrial Workers

1. ii) Assimilation extent

(a) Tribes assimilated into Hindu civilization by sanskritisation, acculturation, and acceptance of the Shudra fold They were accepted into Hindu society based on their views and financial circumstances.