Social Studies VSQ (2 Marks)

Some special features of tribal societies are:

• They did not follow the social rules and rituals which the Brahmanas prescribed.
• They were not divided into many unequal classes.
• Members of the society were united by kinship bonds.

Trees and bushes in a forest area are first cut and burnt. The crop is sown in the ashes. When this land loses its fertility, another plot of land is cleared and planted in the same way.

Nomadic pastoralists lived in milk and other pastoral products. They also exchanged wool, ghee, etc. with settled agriculturists for gain, cloth, utensils and other products.

Nomadic pastoralists are the people who travel long distances with their animals in search of fodder. They live on milk and other pastoral products. They also exchange wool, ghee etc. with settle communities for grain, cloth, utensils and other products.

Nomadic pastoralists moved over long distances with their animals. They lived on milk and other pastoral products. They also exchanged wool, ghee, etc., with settled agriculturists for grain, cloth, utensils and other products. They bought and sold these goods as they moved from one place to another, transporting them on their animals.

Ahom society was divided into clans or khels. There were very few castes of artisans, so artisans in the Ahom areas came from the adjoining kingdoms. A khel often controlled several villages. The peasant was given land by his village community. Even the king could not take it away without the community’s consent.

The Ahom kingdom of medieval Assam was based on a type of forced labour system known as the Paik system. The paiks rendered direct service to the king. The paik rendering service was rotated. Each village had to send a number of paiks by rotation. People from heavily populated areas were shifted to less populated places, which led to the break up of the Ahom clans.

The Gonds lived in a vast forested region called Gondwana or “country inhabited by Gonds”. They practised shifting cultivation. The Gonds were found in great numbers across the present-day states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Garha Katanga was a rich state. It earned much wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants to other kingdoms. When the Mughals defeated the Gonds, they captured a huge booty of precious coins and elephants. They annexed part of the kingdom and granted the rest to Chandra Shah, an uncle of Bir Narain.

Many societies did not follow the social rules and rituals prescribed by the Brahmanas. They were not divided into numerous unequal classes also, these groups were called tribes.

Rani Durgawati was married to Dalpat, the son of the Gond raja of Garha Katanga, Aman Das. Dalpat, however, died early. After his death, Rani Durgawati, being very capable, began to rule on behalf of her five-year-old son, Bir Narain. She extended her kingdom veiy soon. In 1565, when the Mughal forces under Asaf Khan attacked Garha Katanga, she put up a strong resistance. Finally, she was defeated. But she did not surrender, Instead she preferred to die.

Suhungmung is considered as one of the real builders of the Ahom state. He undertook the first population census of his kingdom and brought different classes of craftsmen from outside his state and established them in his kingdom.

Paiks were the labourers who were forced to work in Ahom state. Bhuiyans were the landlords.

Cheros were the tribes of present-day Bihar and Jharkhand. They were attacked and defeated by Raja Man Singh, the general during Akbar's reign in 1591.

It earned much wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants to other kingdoms.

Almost all adult males served in the army during war. At other times, they were engaged in building dams, irrigation systems and other public works. The Ahoms also introduced new methods of rice cultivation.

Trees and bushes in a forest area are first cut and burnt. The crop is sown in the ashes. When this land loses its fertility, another plot of land is cleared and planted in the same way. This is called shifting agriculture.

The Banjaras were important trader nomads. They usually moved in caravan known as tanda. A tanda contained as many as 6 or 7 hundred persons. They carried their wives and children along with them. They owned their oxen. They bought grain where it was cheaply available and carried it to places where it was dearer. From there, they again reloaded their oxen with anything that could be profitably sold in other places. The Banjaras did not travel more than 6 or 7 miles a day. They preferred cool weather. After unloading their oxen, they freed them to graze.

Sultan Alauddin Khalji used the Banjaras to transport grain to the city markets. Under the Mughals the Banjaras carried grain on their bullocks from different areas and sold it in towns. They transported food grain for the Mughal army during military campaigns.

A clan is a group of families having a common ancestor. For example tribes were divided into different clans.

The Indian subcontinent is an area of great ecological and ethnic diversity.Its characteristic features in the early ages were various kinds of political features:

• The centralized bureaucratic state.
• The kin-based tribe headed by autocratic chief.
• The tribal confederacy.
• The extended empire.

Caste- based and tribal societies depended on each other for their diverse needs. This relationship was one of conflict and dependence and so, this led to a change in society.

The Gonds comprise the largest tribal group in India. The large Gond kingdom was divided intogarhs. A particular Gond clan controlled each garh. Each garh was further divided into units of 84 villages called chaurasi. The chaurasi was subdivided into barhots which were made up of 12 villages each.

The main occupation of the tribal people was agriculture. But there were also hunter-gatherers or herders. Most often they combined these activities to make full use of the natural resources of the area in which they lived. Some tribes were nomadic moving from one place to another.
A tribal group controlled land and pastures jointly, and divided these amongst household as per its own rules.

Pastroralism or Pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry; the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, sheep etc.

The early Ahom state had a simple economy. The primary occupation of the Ahoms was agriculture. They introduced new methods of wet rice cultivation. During wars almost most men served in the army. In normal situations, they had to indulge themselves in the construction of embankments, irrigation systems and other public works.

Among the Kshatriyas, new Rajput clans became powerful. They belonged to different clems like Hunas, Chandelas, Chalukyas and others. Many of these came to be regarded as Rajputs and replaced the old rulers. These rulers used their wealth to create powerful states.

Transhumance is a practise followed by pastoral nomads. It is a kind of mobility zone in high mountains associated with pastoralists. During Summer these communities take their flock of sheep and cattle to higher mountains for gazing. During Winter they come down to lower reaches of mountains where they grow grass.

The Ahoms migrated to the Brahmaputra valley from present-day Myanmar in the thirteenth century. They created a new state by suppressing the older political system of the bhuiyans (landlords). During the sixteenth century, they annexed the kingdoms of the Chhutiyas (1523) and of Koch-Hajo (1581) and subjugated many other tribes.

The administrative system of these kingdoms was becoming centralised. The kingdom was divided into garhs. Each garh was controlled by a particular Gond clan. This was further divided into units of 84 villages called chaurasi. The chaurasi was subdivided into barhots which were made up of 12 villages each.

Mongols were the best-known pastoral and hunter-gatherer tribe in history. The basis of military and administrative systems of Mongols was the support of different ethnic and religious groups.

The history of the Gonds was different from that of the Ahoms in the following ways:

1. Gonds lived in Gondwana while Ahoms lived in Brahmaputra valley.
2. Gonds practiced shifting cultivation while Ahoms did not practice shifting cultivation.
3. Gond kingdoms were large, Ahom kingdom was small.
4. Gond kingdoms were divided into garhs, Ahoms built a large state.
5. Gonds did not use fire-arms, Ahoms used fire-arms for the first time in the history of the subcontinent.