Chapter - Review:
- Tribes are people who do not follow norms laid down by society.
- Most of the tribes were dependant on agriculture. Others were herders or hunter-gatherers.
- Tribes were even nomadic and moved from one place to another.
- Many tribes lived in forests, hills, deserts and other places which were difficult to reach. They preserved their culture and heritage through oral tradition.
- There were even clashes between tribes and powerful caste-based societies.
- Contemporary historians and travellers from medieval India hardly give any information about the tribes.
- Many of the tribes emerged as politically powerful groups through their areas of influence and activities varied.
- Some of the powerful tribes were Khokhar tribe in Punjab; Langahs and Arghuns in Multan; Gaddis in the Himalayas;
- Kolis and Berads of Gujarat; Gonds of Chhattisgarh, Bhil tribe in Central India, etc.
- The tribal societies underwent a change as a result of interaction with the Hindu and Islamic societies.
- The pastoral nomads moved from one place to another with their herd of animals.
- They survived on milk products and exchanged ghee, wool, etc. with farmers for grains, cloth, utensils, etc.
- The most important trader nomads were Banjaras. Their caravan was called ‘tanda’. Sultan Alauddin Khilji used Banjaras to move grain to the city markets.
- Pastoral tribes thus basically reared and sold animals like horses and cattle to the prosperous people.
- In the fields of trade and agriculture, there emerged a multi-caste population in many villages on account of the spread of Islam.
- Sufi and Bhakti movement preached equality between different castes and religious groups.
- Inter-caste marriages started between Rajputs and Muslim nobles.
- With the growth of the economy, new jatis and varnas emerged.
- Many tribes became part of rule changes.
- Gonds were sometimes referred to by their tribal dialect, Gondi. They practised shifting cultivation.
- The Gonds rose when Delhi Sultanate declined.
- The Gond kingdom Gondwana in southeastern Madhya Pradesh was founded in the 15th century.
- The Ahom tribe is traced to some tribes living in south-east Asia who had travelled overland through the forests of Assam.
- The religion and culture of Assam is a fusion of the local traditions and of migrant tribes.
- The Ahoms belonged to a warrior class and built roads and irrigation system even before establishing their rule.
- The Ahoms formed the new kingdom by suppressing the older political system of Bhuiyans.
