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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2026/Paper II/Ethnicity, Tribal Movements & Social Change
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2026 10 Marks Model Answer Available

Tana Bhagat Movement — 2026 Paper II

Question · 2026 · Paper II · 10 Marks

Tana Bhagat movement.

Model Answer

VAID ICS
Approach

• Demand of Question: Explain the Tana Bhagat movement as a tribal socio-religious and agrarian movement, tracing its transformation from Oraon reform to anti-colonial mobilization.

• Structuring the Response: Locate it in Chotanagpur and identify Jatra Oraon/Jatra Bhagat (1914); explain religious purification, anti-begar/rent protest and later Gandhian linkage; add an anthropological interpretation of revitalization, identity and selective acculturation.

• Key Dimensions to Cover: Jatra Oraon; 1914; Oraon; Dharmesh; liquor/sacrifice reform; begar, rent and diku exploitation; Non-Cooperation/Gandhian idiom; K.S. Singh; revitalization and ethnic assertion.

Model Answer

Introduction: The Tana Bhagat movement began in 1914 under Jatra Oraon (Jatra Bhagat) among the Oraons of Chotanagpur. It is best read as a layered movement in which religious reform generated a moral community that soon challenged agrarian and colonial domination.

Three interlinked dimensions

  1. Religious-moral reform: Followers emphasized worship of a supreme deity (Dharmesh), purity, abstention from liquor and meat/animal sacrifice, and rejection of practices they considered socially degrading. This was selective internal reform, not simply imitation of “upper-caste” Hinduism.
  2. Agrarian protest: The movement opposed begar (forced labour), excessive rents, taxes and exploitative intermediaries/dikus. Thus ritual reform became a language through which land, labour and dignity were defended.
  3. Nationalist convergence: From about 1920, Tana Bhagats adopted khadi, non-violence and Congress programmes, participating in Non-Cooperation and later nationalist mobilization. Local grievances were thereby articulated through a wider anti-colonial idiom.

Anthropological interpretation

  • Revitalization: In Anthony F.C. Wallace's sense, cultural stress generated deliberate reorganization of values and institutions.
  • Identity and agency: K.S. Singh's historical-anthropological approach helps show that such movements were not irrational “tribal disturbances” but purposive responses to altered land, power and cultural relations.

Conclusion: Tana Bhagat demonstrates the holistic character of tribal movements: religion, economy and politics were not separate spheres. Reform of the self and community became the moral basis for resisting exploitation while retaining a distinct Oraon identity.

2026 Kumar Suresh Singh's contribution in studying tribal movements. 2026 Discuss the impact of Christianity on the tribal population of Jharkhand. 2025 Regionalism and Autonomy 2025 Evaluate the impact of Christianity on Scheduled Tribe societies of North-East India.

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UPSC Anthropology Optional 2026 — Paper II

28 questions

5(a) Buddhist tribes of India.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > Tribal Situation in India > Religion among tribes > Buddhist tribes
2026Paper IITribal IndiaModel answer available

5(d) Nature-Man-Spirit-Complex.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > Tribal Situation in India > Ecology and religion > Nature-Man-Spirit complex
2026Paper IITribal IndiaModel answer available

1(c) Tana Bhagat movement.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper II > Tribal Movements > Reform and political movements > Tana Bhagat movement
2026Paper IIEthnicity, Tribal Movements & Social ChangeModel answer available