Tribal religions in India

Roughly 8.6 per cent of India's population is made up of "Scheduled Tribes" (STs), traditional tribal communities. Whilst most members of these tribes have adopted variants of Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity, a considerable number still adhere to their traditional tribal religions, with varying degrees of syncretism.

Scheduled Tribes distribution map in India by state and union territory according to the 2011 Census.

Numbers

According to the 2011 census of India, about 7.9 million out of 1.21 billion people did not adhere to any of the subcontinent's main religious communities of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, or Jainism. The census listed atheists, Zoroastrians, Jews, and various specified and unspecified tribal religions separately under the header "Other Religions and Persuasions".[1]

Of these religious census groupings, the most numerous are Sarna (4.9 million respondents), Gondi (1 million), Sari Dharma (506,000), Donyi-Poloism (331,000); Sanamahi (222,000) and Khasi (139,000), with all other religions numbering less than 100,000 respondents, including 18,000 for "tribal religion", 5,600 for "nature religion", and 4,100 "animists".[1]

Customs

The tribal people observe their festivals, which have no direct conflict with any religion, and they conduct marriage among them according to their tribal custom. They have their own way of life to maintain all privileges in matters connected with marriage and succession, according to their customary tribal faith. In keeping with the nature of Indian religion generally, these particular religions often involve traditions of ancestor worship or worship of spirits of natural features.[2]

The various tribes can be categorised into different major linguistic groupings, such as Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, and Andamanese.[3]

About 25% of the Munda people and Oraon people, and 60% of the Kharia people of Bihar (population about 130,000), are Christian. Tribal groups in the Himalayas were similarly affected by both Hinduism and Buddhism in the late 20th century. The small hunting-and-gathering groups in the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been under severe pressure of cultural assimilation.[4]

Recognition

According to the Indian legal system, all the native or indigenous religions of India fall broadly under Hinduism, since the constitution does not classify only Vedic religions as Hinduism as used in the colloquial norm. The term "Hindu" is derived from Persian meaning "Indo" (or Indian), hence the official word "Hinduism" broadly refers to all the native cultures of the Indian subcontinent. The 1955 Hindu Marriage Act "[defines] as Hindus anyone who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew".[5]

See also

References
  1. "C-01 Appendix: Details of religious community shown under 'Other religions and persuasions' in main table C01 - 2011" (xlsx). Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. 21 January 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  2. National Council of Educational Research and Training. "Social and Political Life - III". Publication Department, NCERT, 2009, p.83.
  3. "Tribal Languages in India – Introduction (1/4)". 2019-09-24. Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  4. "The Green Revolution in India". U.S. Library of Congress (released in public domain). Library of Congress Country Studies. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  5. Cavanaugh, William T. (2009), The Myth of Religious Violence : Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict, Oxford University Press, p. 88
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