Syllabus: Paper II > 1.2 Palaeo-anthropological evidences from India > Narmada basin (Narmada Man)
L. P. Vidyarthi and D. N. Majumdar on Indian Tribes — 2016 Paper II
Question · 2016 · Paper II · 15 Marks
Compare the contribution of L. P. Vidyarthi and D. N. Majumdar to the study of Indian tribes.
Model Answer
VAID ICSApproach
Demand of Question: Compare the two scholars on field regions, concepts, methods and applied orientation, showing intellectual continuity from Majumdar’s empirical tribe-in-transition studies to Vidyarthi’s ecological-symbolic and action-anthropology frameworks.
Structuring the Response: Brief profiles -> Majumdar’s contributions -> Vidyarthi’s contributions -> direct comparison -> critical assessment -> conclusion.
Key Dimensions to Cover: D.N. Majumdar: Ho, Korwa, Tharu, Races and Cultures of India, tribal change, physical-cultural integration; L.P. Vidyarthi: The Maler (1963), Nature-Man-Spirit Complex, Sacred Complex, Tribal Culture of India, applied/action anthropology; teacher-student lineage.
Model Answer
Introduction
D.N. Majumdar and L.P. Vidyarthi belong to successive generations of Indian anthropology. Vidyarthi was trained in the Lucknow tradition shaped by Majumdar, yet he extended tribal studies from descriptive ethnography toward ecological-symbolic models and applied anthropology.
Body
D.N. Majumdar: Majumdar combined social and physical anthropology and conducted field studies among the Ho, Korwa, Tharu and other north and central Indian communities. Works such as A Tribe in Transition and Races and Cultures of India emphasized that tribes were historically changing populations interacting with caste society, markets and administration. He used village-tribe surveys, anthropometry, blood-group studies and culture-contact analysis, helping establish a biosocial style of Indian anthropology. His institutional contribution through Lucknow University and The Eastern Anthropologist was equally important.
L.P. Vidyarthi: Vidyarthi developed more explicit conceptual models. In The Maler: The Nature-Man-Spirit Complex in a Hill Tribe (1963), he showed how ecology, subsistence and supernatural belief form an integrated adaptive system. His Sacred Complex framework, first developed for Hindu Gaya, later influenced analyses of tribal-regional interaction. He also systematized Indian tribal studies in The Tribal Culture of India and promoted action/applied anthropology for development.
Comparison: Majumdar’s strength was empirical breadth, biosocial integration and the study of tribes in transition; Vidyarthi’s was conceptual synthesis, ecological-symbolic analysis and explicit development orientation. Both rejected the image of tribes as frozen isolates and treated fieldwork as the basis of policy-relevant anthropology.
Limitations: Some of their categories reflect mid-twentieth-century assumptions about bounded tribes and acculturation. Contemporary work adds gender, political economy, rights and indigenous agency.
Conclusion
Majumdar laid a broad empirical and institutional foundation; Vidyarthi converted that foundation into distinctive Indian concepts and a stronger action-anthropological programme. Together they helped shift tribal anthropology from description to explanation and intervention.
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UPSC Anthropology Optional 2016 — Paper II
28 questionsSyllabus: Paper II > 9.3 Contributions of anthropology to the understanding of regionalism, communalism and ethnic and political movements
Syllabus: Paper II > 9.2 Role of anthropology in tribal and rural development
5(b) Bio-genetic variability of Indian tribes
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 6.1 Tribal situation in India > Bio-genetic variability
Syllabus: Paper II > 4. Emergence, growth and development of anthropology in India > Scholar-administrators and tribal studies
Syllabus: Paper II > 1.1 Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization > Contributions of the tribal cultures to Indian civilization
1(e) Ethno-archaeological evidences for the survival of hunting-gathering traditions in India
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 1.3 Ethno-archaeology in India > Survivals and parallels among hunting and foraging communities
Syllabus: Paper II > 7.1 Problems of exploitation and deprivation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes
Syllabus: Paper II > 7.1 Constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes > Fifth and Sixth Schedules
Syllabus: Paper II > 6.3 Impact of urbanisation and industrialization on tribal populations
Syllabus: Paper II > 8.1 Impact of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and other religions on tribal societies > Islam
1(d) Impact of Jainism on Indian society
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 3.4 Impact of Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity on Indian society > Jainism
Syllabus: Paper II > 5.1 Indian Village > Indian village as a social system
4(c) Compare the contribution of L. P. Vidyarthi and D. N. Majumdar to the study of Indian tribes.
15 Marks
Syllabus: Paper II > 4. Emergence, growth and development of anthropology in India > Contributions of Indian anthropologists
1(b) Linguistic elements in Indian population
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 2. Demographic profile of India > Linguistic elements and their distribution
6(b) Examine the nature of interplay of little and great traditions in the context of globalization.
15 Marks
Syllabus: Paper II > 5.3 Indigenous and exogenous processes of socio-cultural change > Interplay of little and great traditions
1(a) Significance of Mesolithic findings from Belan Valley
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 1.1 Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization > Prehistoric > Mesolithic > Belan Valley
Syllabus: Paper II > 9.1 Role of N.G.O.s in tribal development
Syllabus: Paper II > 7.3 Regionalism and demand for autonomy
1(c) Relevance of caste in contemporary Indian politics
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 3.2 Caste system in India > Caste in contemporary politics
Syllabus: Paper II > 6.3 Development of forest policy and tribals > Forest Rights Act, 2006
4(a) Give a detailed appraisal of skeletal remains from Chalcolithic culture of undivided Punjab.
20 Marks
Syllabus: Paper II > 1.1 Evolution of Indian Culture and Civilization > Neolithic-Chalcolithic > Skeletal evidence
Syllabus: Paper II > 3.2 Caste system in India > Theories of origin of the caste system
Syllabus: Paper II > 2. Demographic profile of India > Ethnic elements > Racial classification and the Negrito question
Syllabus: Paper II > 5.1 Indian Village > Traditional and changing patterns of settlement
Syllabus: Paper II > 7.2 Social change and contemporary tribal societies > Impact of development programmes and welfare measures
5(d) Tribe as a colonial construct
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > 6.1 Tribal situation in India > Definition and construction of the category 'tribe'
Syllabus: Paper II > 3.2 Caste system in India > Tribe-caste continuum and Sanskritization