Jaisamand Lake: A Historic Visit

 

Jaisamand Lake is the country's second-largest man made lake after Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar. Jaisamand lake covers an area of about 100 sq km, surrounded by the Jaisamand Wildlife Reserve, which is home to a variety of flora and fauna. It is also known by the locals as the Dhebar lake.

In the spring season the Queens of Udaipur set to visit this place for fun and to enjoy the flawless environment. On the marble dam, there is a temple committed to Shiva. The lake was constructed by Maharaja Jai Singh in 1685 CE, while he was building a dam over the Gomti river. The 'Ocean of Victory', as its name proposes, was initiated on June 2, 1691. It has three islands which were inhabited by Bhil and Mina tribes. The two greater islands are called ‘Baba ka Magra’ and the little island is known as ‘Piari’. There is additionally a gigantic dam at the height of over 1200 ft on the lake. The Jaisamand lake is perfect, wonderful and a nature lovers. Far from the disturbance of the city, this spot of most extreme harmony is an unquestionable requirement visit.

Jaisamand lake remained Asia's greatest man-made lake until the Britishers shaped Aswan Dam in Egypt amid 1902. The shortage of water amid Jai Singh's reign brought about the development of this huge lake. Maharaja Jai Singh named it after himself and considered it the ‘Ocean of Victory’ or Jaisamand. Jai Singh circulated gold same as of his weight amid the debut function of the dam which occurred on second June 1691.

Anthropological Museum in India

 

Introduction

 

The term museum is derived from Greek word museion which means temple of muses, the goddesses protecting arts and sciences. The museion or musaion which was founded by Ptolemaies (who died in 283 B.C.) in Alexandria was centre for learning and scholarship in the world of ancient Greece and an important establishment of Hellenic civilization, housing rich collection. It was temple of muses, occupying a large building in the royal quarter of the town functioning as a centre of research and education. Hence the primary purpose of the museum was religious.

 

During the 9^th to 12^th centuries of the middle ages of European history, museum stood as the ‘House of Relics’. Its main function was the preservation and the saturation of relics of saints who played an important role in the political and cultural life of the day. In Asia early social museum like institution did exist to keep the collective memory of people alive. In India stupa containing the bodily relics of the Buddha was an embodiment of sacredness and spiritual value. A stupa realizing the social objectivity was an earlier manifestation contacting back the social reality and providing theoretical museology in India, even as early as in 3^rd century B.C.

                 

 Ancient and medieval Indian literature is full of such terms like ‘Alekhyagriha’, ‘Vithi’, ‘Chitrasala’, ‘Chalan Chitrasala’ etc. which stand for galleries housing paintings sculptures and terracotas. These were however the royal museums where ordinary people had no access. The various Sanskrit place viz. Pratima by Bhasha and Naisandhiyacarita of Sriharsa belonging to 12^th century A.D. respectively speakof the permanent and mobile exhibition galleries attached to the royal courts. The audio visual shows and pata-citra (scroll paintings) were intended basically for public enjoyment and instruction, one of the important functions of the modern museum.

The era of Renaissance from 14^th to 16^th century A.D. marked the qualitatively a new change in the history of museum movement. Increased interest in social and natural objects, representing scientific knowledge, were of special interest to the neo-rich class of the changing society. The growing demand for curious (Latin ‘curiositas’ meaning thirst for knowledge) and rarities (Latin ‘raritas’ viz. rare things) gave rise to big collection of authentic objects. The term museum for a collection was first introduced in the late 15^th century. The search for rare cultural and natural objects gained momentum soon after the Renaissance.

                   

 During eighteenth and nineteenth century various national museums were opened in various parts of the globe. The first National Museum in the world was British Museum which was created in 1753. The First Public Museum of America was founded in Charleston , South California in1773. It was in 1793 France announced the opening of the palace of Louvre as the museum of the Republic. Spain had opened National Museum of Natural Sciences in 1776. In most of the national museums of the world specific galleries were created / earmarked for the ethnographic or anthropological collection.

 

The most widely accepted current definition of a museum is that incorporated in the Statutes of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and adopted at the Eleventh General Assembly of ICOM in Copenhagen in 1974 and modified at the Sixteenth General Assembly of ICOM which took place at Hague, Netherlands in 1989.  This defines a museum as:

a non-profit making, permanent institution, in the service of society and of its development, and open to public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates, and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.

The above definition clearly suggests that the major thirst of museum is largely under the domain of anthropology or ethnography.

Anthropological Museums play a vital role for conserving cultural heritage through collection, preservation and exhibition of ethnographic objects. Collection of ethnographic objects is made from remote corners of the country’s innumerable folk and tribal villages. The ethnographic collection of an Anthropological Museum consists of household articles like bamboo and cane baskets, rain hat and rain coat (made out of leaves), wooden toys, mat, wooden seat, earthen vessels, bark cloth, wooden mortar and pestle, wooden measuring pots, ladle, walking sticks, digging sticks and membrane musical instruments; agricultural implements like wooden plough, leveler, hoe and sickle; hunting and fishing implements like bow and arrows, spear, fishing trap, fishing net, etc., and decorative objects like jewellery, dress materials and paintings. Save and except of the ethnographic objects, collection of anthropological museum consists of palaeo-anthropological evidences-fossil hominids; prehistoric tools. 

 

Contribution of Museums in the Development of Anthropological Schools

 

 Museums and museum personnel played a key role for the development of anthropological thoughts and schools. General Augustus Pitt-Rivers ( Lane Fox ) organised a museum in Oxford, following the evolutionary theory to show the succession of ideas and development. In this museum foremost British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor one of the pillars of the evolutionary school carried out his research. In Germany the doyens of “Diffusionist School” namely Adolf Bastain, Fredrich Ratzel and Fritz Grabner carried out research on ethnological study of the diffusion of culture traits by utilising Royal Museum, Berlin as their platform of study and research. The idea of research in American Museum with rich ethnographic and anthropological collection namely Peabody Museum of Archaeology and ethnology at Harvard University, National Museum of Natural History in New York took concrete shape when Fredrick Putnam became the Curator of the Peabody Museum. He was assisted by Franz Boas. Boas build up Columbian Field Museum for accommodating specimen collected by him and his students. The scholars associated with Boas and the said museum namely Clark Wissler and A.L. Kroeber and others developed ‘Culture Area’ concept.

 

 A.C. Haddon and a team of anthropologists including C S Myer, W H R Rivers, S H Ray, William McDougall and C G Seligman carried out “The Torres Strait Expedition” during 1880’s. The said collections of artefacts taken back to Britain by A. C. Haddon are among the most comprehensive and well-documented ever obtained museum objects. They are scattered through seven museums, which include the Museum of Mankind (the Department of Ethnography, British Museum), the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, the Horniman Museum and the National Museum of Ireland. For the first time the whole range of these outstanding artefacts is fully described and illustrated with 450 black and white photographs. This catalogue at last makes them available for study by anthropologists, museum curators, and all others interested in the history and ethnography of Melanesia and Australia. A.C. Haddon Museum at Cambridge University is one of the finest ethnographic museum of the world.

 

Establishment of Indian Museum and Creation of Anthropological Survey of India

                      

 In 1814 the Asiatic Society of Bengal accepted the offer of a Danish Botanist Dr. Nathaniel Wallich as an honorary curator of The Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society. Gradually the bulk of collection was growing to such an extent that by the end of 1860 the society had no way but to request the Viceroy to set up an imperial museum. At the request of the society the Government of India constituted the Board of Trustees for the proposed museum in 1865. Subsequently the Indian Museum Act was passed and the museum was renamed as Indian Museum.

 

  "Initially the museum had two section, Archaeology and Anthropology in one and Botany, Zoology and Geology in the other. Due to the absence of qualified anthropologist among the staff members of the museum the anthropological collection were also looked by the archaeologist."(Sarkar,2005:7). Sir Herbert H. Risley an eminent ethnologist, the author of various books on colonial ethnography including The Tribes and Castes of Bengal and Peoples of India when appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Museum in 1904 proposed to transfer the anthropological collection from the industrial sections to the zoology section. Government of India, Department of Education created a separate Zoological Survey of India in 1916 out of the zoological and anthropological sections of the Indian Museum. 

                  

Dr. N. Annandale, a noted zoologist and in-charge of the newly created Zoological Survey of India had some unique experience in conducting fieldwork both in Faroe Islands and Malay Pennisula (Malaysia). He setup a physical anthropological laboratory in the premises of the Indian Museum. From 1916 to 1919 he took up anthropometric measurements of the Anglo-Indians of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and made critical observation of their physical features. He handed over the entire data to Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis for statistical analysis. The report of the analysis was incorporated in the Records of the Indian Museum, a special volume (No. XXIII).

 

Dr. R.B. Saymour Sewell after taking the charge of Zoological Survey of India felt the urgent necessity of a whole time officer for taking care of the anthropological collection. Thus, Dr. B.S. Guha a product of Harvard University and had his training in primitive arts and industries with noted anthropologist Professor R.B. Dixon was appointed as an anthropologist to look after the anthropological collection of the Zoological Survey of India in 1927 and was confirmed in 1929. He Dr. Guha made extensive fieldwork in NEFA (now known as Arunachal Pradesh), Nagaland, Andaman Islands and many other parts of the countries. Dr. Guha did research work based on anthropological collection of Indian Museum and also with the Indian population of both past and present. Racial classification of Indian population as a part of 1931 Census made by Dr. Guha was the outcome of his monumental research and survey work on the present day Indian population. He also initiated study of skulls comprised with pre and proto-historic crania from several places such as Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Taxila and from various south Indian megalithic sites. These skulls were under the charge of the anthropology section of the then Zoological Survey of India. Dr. Sewell the then Director of Zoological Survey of India with the help of Dr. Guha introduced a new bulletin under the title “Anthropological Bulletin from the Zoological Survey of India”. The anthropological collection of the Indian Museum was under the zoological section of the Indian Museum From 1911 to 1915.

 

Since 1916 this collection came under the Zoological Survey of India and remained attached to it till 1945. The Government of India formed the Department of Anthropology (now known as Anthropological Survey of India) in 1^st December 1945 at Varanasi with Dr. B.S. Guha as the founder director. Dr. Guha took away all the anthropological specimen and gallery from the Zoological Survey of India and created a newly formed Department of Anthropology on 1^st December, 1945 at Varanasi which was later shifted to Kolkata as its Head Office and renamed as Anthropological Survey of India.

 

Museums of the Anthropological Survey of India

During the Fourth Five Year Plan (1969-74) the Anthropological Survey of India proposed to establish a chain of Anthropological Museums for its Head Office - Kolkata, and the Regional Offices, with a view to documenting and preserving the bi-cultural heritage of the people, tribal groups in particular of our country which was materialized and implemented in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1975-78). And  zonal museums were gradually opened.

Since the first Zonal Museum was opened at the sub-regional office at Jagdalpur on 7^th April 1978, and new museum have been opened at Nagpur (September, 1978 and with newly modernized gallery in 2012 in a newly renovated building), and the third at Shillong (April, 1979). Similarly museum (Central Museum) was inaugurated in Calcutta (23 september,1981) at its Ripon street building, at Dehra Dun (1995), and at Port Blair (2004) though the museum of Port Blair functioning since 1953.  Zonal Anthropological Museums at the Western Regional Centre, Udaipur was formally inaugurated 11 March, 2013 and the ZAM of Southern Regional Centre, Mysore  was functioning since 1965 and got its momentum in 1977 after joining the Assistant Keeper in this regional centre and in 2001 after shifting museum collection in the new building  with  the modernization  of museum  gallery.

 

 Over the last seven decades the Survey has accumulated and preserved a large number of ethnographic specimens representing the wide range of heterogeneous cultural heritages of the Indian people. The purpose was to make thematic display of these collections in order to make people aware of the rich cultural traditions of Indian communities through the dissemination of such bio-cultural information.

 

Central Museum of Anthropological Survey of India is located in Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal. The Geographical area covered is the entire country. It has unique collection of numerous ethnographic specimens from all over India. Besides, artifacts collected from other countries are also on display. Some of the outstanding objects are wooden carved images of guardian spirit of Red Kaffir of Pakistan, battle axe of stone and whale bone of Mawe tribe of New Zealand, wooden effigy and painted magical board of Nicobarese of Nicobar Island, dancing board of the Andamanese, indigenous musical instruments, bark clothes, etc. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Great Andamanese,the  Nicobarese, the Chenchu, the Toto, the Tangsa, the Nocte, the Asur, the Birhor, the Munda, the  Santal, the Gamit, the  Agaria, the Gond, the Baiga, the  Bondo, the Juang, the Saora, the Lepcha, the Kannikar, the Riang are of special attraction. The central museum is now not opened to the public and a new central museum will be opened in the Salt Lake Campus of the Anthropological Survey of India after shifting the objects and exhibits from the central museum at Ripon Street.

                                                          Central Museum, Kolkata                                  

     Zonal Anthropological Museum of Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre is located at Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Island. The geographical areas Covered are the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Jarawa, the Sentinelese, the Onge, the Great Andamanese, the Nicobarese and the Shompen. The zonal museum in Port Blair is an important tourist centre and situated in the heart of the town. This is the only museum in Anthropological Survey of India where entry ticket is introduced for viewing the museum galleries. The display depicts the story of human evolution in general and total picture of tribal lives of Andaman and Nicobar islands in particular.

                                         Zonal Museum, Port Blair                                         

Zonal Anthropological Museum of the Central Regional Centre is located at Nagpur, Maharashtra. The geographical areas covered are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Bhil, the Gond, the Korku, the Varli, the Kawar, the Baiga and the Pardhan. The number of specimens acquired is about 2000. This museum gives an insight about the human evolution and variation through biological change and story of mankind from prehistoric era to contemporary age.

                                            Ghotul-Youth Dormitory on Display, Jagdalpur

Zonal Anthropological Museum of the Sub-Regional Centre located at Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh. The geographical areas covered are Chhattisgarh and adjoining states of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The nucleus of the Sub-Regional Centre of the Anthropological Survey of India was established at Jagdalpur in the form of Zonal Anthropological Museum (ZAM) on the 11^th December, 1972, and was inaugurated formally on 7^th April 1978. The ZAM was given the status of a Sub-Regional Centre on the 20^th December, 1976. The Centre, since then started functioning independently with the same administrative power as that of other Regional Centres of the Anthropological Survey of India. Shri Sundarlal Tripathi, a freedom fighter, renowned scholar and eminent social worker of Bastar, took all the initiative in establishing this Zonal Anthropological Museum. As a result of his untiring efforts, Prof. Humayan Kabir, and then Education Minister, Govt. of India, finally approved the proposal of establishing a Zonal Anthropological Museum in the heart of a tribal milieu of Bastar under the guidance of Dr. Surajit C. Sinha, former Director of the Anthropological Survey of India. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Dandami Maria, the Binjhwar, the Baiga, the Korku, the Muria, the Munda, the Abujh Maria, the Halba, the Dorla, the Dhurwa, the Bhatra, and the Gadaba.

  Zonal Anthropological Museum of the North-West Regional Centre is located at Dehradun the state capital of Uttaranchal. The geographical areas covered are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarnchal. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Gaddi, the Jaunsari, the Bhotia, the Bhoksa, the Kinnaura, the Lahuli, the kashmiri, the Raji, the Swanglas, and the Ladakhi Bodh. Visitors of this museum can get an idea about the evolving life styles of Himalayan and sub Himalayan region.

                                                            Zonal Museum, Dehradun

Zonal Anthropological Museum of North-East Regional Centre is located at Shillong, Meghalaya. Geographical areas covered are Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh. (Tripura being covered by the Eastern Regional Cetre, Kolkata). A few communities from whom cultural artifacts were collected are the Adi, the Khasi, the Garo, the Mizo, the Lalung, the Nishi, the Monpa, the Wancho, the Mishmi, the Naga, and the Khampti. In April, 2001 the centre acquired its own building at Mawblei. This region (established in October, 1953) celebrated its golden jubilee events by organizing a special exhibition on Tribal World of Verrier Elwin –Creative Excellence of Tribes in October, 2002.

 

Zonal Anthropological Museums of Western Regional Centre is located at Udaipur, Rajasthan. Geographical areas covered are the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat as well as union territory of Daman and Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Havelli. A few communities from whom specimens were collected are the Bhil, the Mina, the Garasia, the Rathawa, the Saharia, the Damor, the GaruliaLoahar, the Rajput, the Tadri and the Gamti. A permanent exhibition was mounted in Golghar in the premise of Western Zonal Cultural Centre, at Udaipur from 2001 to 2018 and the museum was known as Gol Museum which was a primary place of attraction for the visitors of Udaipur and other parts of Rajasthan. During Shilpgram Utsav the museum regularly organized an exhibition It will not be out of the context to state that during last week of December every year lakhs of visitors visited both Gol museum and exhibition organized by the Zonal Anthropological Museum, Udaipur.  This Zonal Anthropological Museum was shifted to its new museum building at Pratap Nagar, Udaipur in March, 2007 and Zonal Anthropological Museum, Udaipur was formally opened to the public after its inauguration in March, 2013. 

 

                                                   Zonal Anthropological Museum, Udaipur

Zonal Anthropological Museums of Southern Regional Centre is located at Mysore, Karnataka. The geographical areas covered are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep. The Zonal Anthropological Museum of the Southern Regional Centre started collection of objects in the year 1965 and situated at southern regional centre, Mysore, the heritage city of Karnataka. The Southern Regional Centre of Anthropological Survey of India was established in April 1960 as the fourth regional office of the Anthropological survey of India, at Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu.  Later it was shifted to Mysore in July 1962.  This regional office covers the jurisdiction of four southern states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and two union Territories, i.e. Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. This zonal museum has developed a visual storage in its new building (acquired in December, 2001) at Bogadi.

                                                    Display In Zonal Museum, Mysore

In short, Zonal Anthropological Museums play a key role in establishing links with the universe of research as well as in disseminating the finding of research. Each of the above museums has specimens on household artifacts, crafts items, musical instruments, artifacts related to economic pursuits , dress and ornaments, objects related to religious activities from different ethnic groups . The zonal museums give emphasis on depiction of bio-cultural heritage of people of the concerned zones. The museums disseminate knowledge through permanent galleries and by organizing thematic exhibitions, showing the documentary film made by the anthropological Survey of India, both in urban and rural areas of the country. All the specimens displayed in the museum are collected through field research, so the culture matrix of each specimen is properly documented. At present a thematic exhibition, on “Human Origins, Genome and People of India” has been mounting since 2004 for understanding the human being in time and space with special reference to India in various cities like New Delhi, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Bhopal, Guwahati, Kohima, Imphal, Itanagar, and Shillong. Now the curatorial staffs are being engaged to enrich its reserve collection through a systematic collection plan. A conservation programme was also initiated in the year 2006 under the National Project “Documentation and Dissemination” for the care and conservation of the museum specimens of all the museums of Anthropological Survey of India. Under this conservation programme museum curators were engaged in both preventive  conservation and curative conservation to the damaged specimens along with digital documentation. The programme on “Conservation And Documentation of Museum Specimens of Anthropological Survey of India”  continued till 2010 and curators of the Museums visited seven Zonal Anthropological Museums (Nagpur, Udaipur, Mysore, Shillong, Jagdalpur, Dehradun, Port blair) and one Central museum situated at Kolkata and was engaged in conservation of selected ethnographic specimens of museum both from the display as well as reserve collection.

Anthropological and Ethnographic Galleries in Some Other Museums of India

 

After successful museum movement launched by Asiatic Society and Indian Museums, the museum movement soon spread in the major cities of southern and western India like Madras (now Chennai), Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram), Bombay (now Mumbai), Baroda (now Vadodara) and so on. Madras Literary Society an auxiliary of the Asiatic Society of London gave a spur to this movement in the South. Under the initiative of the Society and with the active assistance of the Court of Directors of the East India Company was open in the Collage of Fort ST. George in 1851 with Surgeon E.G. Belfour as its head. Ethnology was given a place in this museum in 1878 with the acquisition of bricks collection. Ethnology section of the museum was developed during 1885 to 1910 when Edgar Thurston was the Superintendent of the Museum.

He also acted as the Superintendent of Ethnography of Madras Presidency. Thurston along with developing the anthropological collection of the museums took photographs of the so called native tribes, prepared lantern slides, depicting the tribal life style, made photographic records of the tribal music and brought out bulletin for publication of his ethnographic survey. The product of his survey- “The Castes and Tribes of South India” in seven volumes were published in 1909. Apart from Ethnography the pre-historic collection of museum was enriched by the gifted specimens of Robert Brucefoot who also prepared the catalogue for the museum. Adichannalur skulls and other skeletal fragments found from the South Indian megalithic burials offered ample scope for developing the physical anthropological collection in this museum. With the intervention of Baron von Eickstedt the well known German anthropologist, Dr. F.H. Gravely a naturalist revived anthropological research so well started by Thurston. Diwan Bahadur K. Rangachari who worked with Thurston was appointed part time ethnologist in 1927. To help him noted social anthropologist Dr. Ayinapalli Aiyappan was appointed as Anthropological Assistant (post later renamed as curator) in Madras Government Museum in 1929 and he continued in the same post up to 1940. He became the Director in 1941 and continued up to 1958.  A Literary Society, of Bombay Branch of Royal Asiatic Society and Anthropological Society of Bombay were also responsible for building of the ethnographical collections in Western India. Dr. Iravati Karve was associated with Anthropological Society of Bombay and did a valuable service for development of ethnographic museums in Bombay and Pune. Trivandrum Museum was developed in 1857 with ethnographic collection  collected and preserved by general Collins. Due to the effort of Sir Richard Temple the then commissioner of Central Province the collection of Central Museum Nagpur was built in 1863. The Baroda Museum, 1895 and Lady Wilson Museum (Dharampur, Valsad, Gujarat), 1910 had also developed by the gifts of the ethnographic objects of the then native rulers of the respective state.

The Assam Research Society and the Andhra Historical Research Society started their museum in 1912 and 1928 respectively. During the tenure of Prof. N.K. Bose the then Director of Anthropological Survey of India, a major gallery known as habitat group case (Diorma) on major tribal groups like Khasi, Garo, Naga, Khond, Onge, Nicobarese etc. at a particular stage of cultural development was installed in Indian Museum, Kolkata ( Das, 1989). Varrier Elwin played a pivotal role in the development of district cultural centre in the Tribal Research Institute, NEFA(now Arunachal Pradesh) as early as 1951. He conceived the idea of a cultural centre, a museum and a library under one shed for 36 major tribes scattered in six districts at his time. He conceived the idea of development of the museum through field expedition and exploration. Elwin believed that with the passage of time these centres or museums infused a sense of pride among the local population towards their own art, artefacts and heritage(Elwin, 1959,1960 and Das, ibid). Elwin himself collected a considerable number of art objects from NEFA which later on became the part of National Museum collection. Rai Bahadur Sarat Chandra Roy the father of Indian ethnography built a small museum in Ranchi consisting of ethnographic specimens of the aboriginal tribes of Chotanagpur an archaeological finds which he excavated from various Asura sites of Central India. Noted anthropologist Prof. Minendra Nath Basu of University of Calcutta did his Ph.D and published monograph titled Museum Method as early as 1943. Prof. Basu and his son Malay Nath Basu who was also anthropologist by training developed Department of Anthropology Museum in the University of Calcutta. Noted anthropologist and museologist Dr. Sabita Ranjan Sarkar developed Anthropology Gallery of Indian Museum and was also an instrumental in the development of some galleries of Indira Gandhi Rastriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, Don Bosco Museum, Shillong and so on.

Anthropology Museum of the Department of Anthropology, Delhi University had rich ethnographic collection gifted by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, former Prime Ministers of India. Eminent anthropologist Dr. Nityananda Patnaik developed an open-air museum under the title “Museum of Man”. This museum has been conceived by the Tribal Research and Training Institute, Bhubaneshwar. The open-air form gives the impression of a living museum with regular folk activities, dance performance and other facets of intangible cultural heritage. Shilpgram, Udaipur of West Zone Cultural Centre and many other Zonal Cultural Centre took the idea either from the said museum or from the Indira Gandhi Rastriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal which is truly an anthropological museum in letter and spirit.

Various Tribal Museums developed by Cultural Research Institute, Kolkata, MLV Tribal Research and Training Institute, Udaipur, Tribal Research Institute, Arunachal Pradesh, Tribal Research Institute of Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad and so on were developed under the able guidance of noted anthropologist  Dr. Amal Kumar Das, Dr. N.N. Vyas, Dr. A.K.Das, Prof. T.B.Naik and so on. All the tribal museums were nothing but ethnographic or anthropological museums.

P.K.Bhowmick a noted applied cum action anthropologist also developed an ethno-archaeological museum under the name Radh Sanskriti Sangrahalaya. Dr. Arun Kumar Chatterjee former Keeper of anthropology section of Indian Museum and former Chairman of INC, ICOM and many of his colleagues of anthropology discipline developed anthropology and musical instrument gallery of Indian Museum. Dr. Sachin Roy an eminent anthropologist also developed National Museum and was an inspiration for the development of Indira Gandhi Rastriya Manav Sangrahalaya. Another anthropologist of repute Dr. Atul Chandra Bhowmik played a significant role for the development of museum both in the Anthropology department and Museology Department of the University of Calcutta. Dr. N.C. Choudhury, former Deputy Director of Anthropological Survey of India and one of the founder of Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, North Bengal University not only developed the museum of the Anthropological Survey of India in its initial phase but he also wrote a scholarly article titled A note on museum development in India in the Bulletin of Museum Association of Bengal as early as in1962.

 

Development of Anthropology Gallery in the National Museum, New Delhi

The anthropology section was started in the National Museum in 1960 and the gallery was thrown to the public from1961 and Sachin Roy and others played a lead role. The anthropology gallery in the National Museum, New Delhi was largely developed by Prof. A. K. Das who is one of the few vastly experienced museum experienced Curators in the field of Ethnographic and Anthropological Museum. The regional variations of dress and costumes, head-gear, foot-wear, ornaments etc. were partly highlighted in the display and collection in the said gallery. While developing the gallery Prof. Das opted for the object oriented display. Diffusionist idea of well known anthropologist N. K. Bose which was based on his monumental work “Peasant Life in India” which was culminated in the theory of ‘Unity in Diversity’ ( Bose, 1961) formed the basis of collection and display of materials in the Anthropology Gallery of National Museum.

 

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (National Museum of Mankind), Bhopal: A True Anthropological Museum in India

The Cultural Activities and Humanities Sub-Commission of the 9^th Conference of Indian National Commission for Co-Operation with UNESCO recommended that “A Museum of Man” depicting the different aspect of cultural stages in India should be setup. The Sub-Commission further recommended that immediate action should be taken to salvage the varied ethnographic materials spread all over the country before they are completely lost. Dr. Grace Morley observed that probably no museum subject in India needs more attention than anthropology. Prof. L. P. Vidyarthi commented that while small countries in Europe have more than one museum of man, in India we do not have a single. In 6^th All India Museum Camp organised by Ministry of Education, Government of India a strong recommendation was made to set up a specialised museum of anthropology at national level.

In response to the request  made from different quarters the Government of India set up National Museum of Man (now renamed as Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya [IGRMS]) during middle of 1970s. Dr. Sachin Roy Keeper (Anthropology) National Museum, New Delhi was appointed as the officer on Special Duty to look after the museum initially. The museum is dedicated for depiction of story of bio-cultural evolution and variations of human kind in time and space. The museum is committed to demonstrate the simultaneous validity of human cultures and plurality of alternatives for articulations. A nucleus office of the museum was opened at New Delhi in March 1977. In 1979 it was shifted to Bhopal acquiring an allotment of 200 acre campus at Shamla hills. The headquarter of IGRMS is located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh while a regional centre is functioning at Mysore, Karnataka since 2002. One of the major mandate of this museum as Sachin Roy observed is to interpret the cultural history of India in the background of its natural wealth.

 At present the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (National Museum of Mankind) is spearheading an interactive Museum Movement in India. It aims to celebrate the simultaneous validity of various valuable cultural patterns evolved since time immemorial. The museum is working for national integration, and promotes research and training and inter-institutional networking for salvage and revitalization of vanishing but valuable cultural traditions and highlights the unity and diversity which is the basic concept of Prof. Bose’s monumental work “ Peasant Life in India”. The museum also organizes exhibitions to present an integrated story of biological evolutions and variations. The IGRMS, through its exhibitions and salvage activities, demonstrates the aesthetic qualities of India's traditional life styles; local indigenous knowledge and mores, and caution the people against unprecedented destruction of ecology, environment, local values, customs, etc. Thus IGRMS, Bhopal developed a national museum with true anthropological spirit although its concept was criticized by an eminent scholar of anthropology and museology  (Das, 1989).

 

Conclusions

Many studies have been carried out in the context of anthropological and ethnographic museums of India (Bose, 1943; Roy, 1967, 1972; Choudhury, 1976, Dwibedi, 1980; Morley, 1980; Das, 1989; Bhatnagar,1999; Soni, 2005; Upadhyaya, 2011 and others). But it is the need of  the hour to document history of anthropological and ethnographic museum of India not only in order to develop more and more true anthropological museums in India which is notionally distinct from ethno-archaeological museums or ethnographic and biological anthropological museums. In reality true anthropological museum needs to be developed in a story telling fashion with the development of galleries on biological anthropology, social-cultural anthropology which obviously incorporates ethnography, palaeo-anthropology, prehistoric Archaeology and anthropology of linguistics or linguistic anthropology. In the anthropological museum effort should also be made to integrate four branches of anthropology in a holistic manner and to depict bio-cultural evolution and variation of mankind in time and space. Concept and contribution of some of the noted anthropologists like Elwin (1959 &   1960), Bose ( 1961), Das (1989) and others should also be considered while developing anthropological museums in India.

 

                                

Educational Hurdles Faced by the Thoti Tribe of Andhra Pradesh

 

 

 

Educational Hurdles Faced by the Thoti Tribe of Andhra Pradesh

 

Introduction:

The word ‘education’ has become a buzzword in the debates of educationists, philosophers and social scientists from time to time. Generally it is conceived as training for better life and better social adjustment in a community or group. Education is a phase of the social process, which is fostered by society for the purpose of preparing its members for community life in the group. It gives opportunity to a child to develop the physical, mental and spiritual powers including the development of overall personality.  The education experts have also opined that education is catalytic for developing the economy by mediating the man power demand and labor supply.

 

According to Plato (1852), “education refers to the training given to socially accepted habits, virtues and instincts of children.”Saiyidan (1928) believes that “education is essentially a social affair and the school is charged by society with the duty of training and bringing up the youth.” It gives the opportunity for any social systems the given communities for learning and transmitting the culture and in socializing the individuals for good human beings.

           

Education is a cultural process which includes schooling as well as training on other aspects of social life i.e., values, customs, norms, antiquities, and so on. Though education is universal, its content varies from culture to culture and in temporal space and time. The main aim of education is to impart knowledge and transmit it from generation to generation. It provides ways and means for improving the present state of an individual through different systems and institutions. The over all progress of any country depends on the development of education.

 

The educational development is a prerequisite for social and economic development of any community. This is particularly true in the case of communities like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other down-trodden people.

 

 As a result of such efforts, policy makers recognized the importance of education in nation building and thus more attention is being paid to this subject. It is fact that the tribal people in India are socially, economically, politically, and educationally backward and that intensive effort is required to protect them from exploitation and to bring them to the level of development. Anthropologists and Sociologists have observed that culture contacts with out proper education and preparation are harmful to the tribes and it creates many adjustment problems.

 

Education, which is part of total culture, means knowledge. It has a vital role to play and its aim is to develop insights and skills of people to deal effectively with their problems. It is a process of growth and development of human personalities and knowledge. More often education is equated with schooling, but in functional view education is equated to learning. The latter is very radical, in the sense it considers education is inherently life long process, starting in infancy and continuing through out adulthood.

 

The concept of education varies according to time and space, society, culture and at individual level. In all societies irrespective of tribal or non tribal, the aim is to impart knowledge, to pass on knowledge from one generation to another and to show ways and means for improving up on the existing knowledge. Importance of education in terms of literacy has been universally recognized irrespective of diverse societal patterns.  For tribals, it is more essential as they were economically and educationally backward since ages. Indian Constitution has identified the problems of Tribal people among the weaker sections of society and has made special provisions to check their exploitation and fillip to their upliftment. Education has been accepted as one of the main means of achieving this objective. Special educational incentives such as opening of Ashram schools, reservation of seats in educational institutions, provision of scholarships, mid-day meal etc., have been introduced for the benefit of tribal education. In spite of all these measures education has made little progress among the tribals.

 

Article-46 of the Indian Constitution lays down that the States shall promote the educational and economic interest of the weaker sections of the people and in particularly the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitations.  To fulfill this objective, efforts have made by the Central and State governments and accordingly made budgetary allocations, but results are not up to the mark. Under these circumstances, various Non-Governmental Organizations swung into action to ameliorate the educational development of the tribal people.

 

In the post Independent India, various Commissions and committees have been constituted to study the aspects of tribal welfare and development and to make recommendation for improving education standard of the backward communities. They mainlyinculded report of U. N. O. Dhebar  Commission (1961) on the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes, the report of the committee of special Multipurpose Tribal Blocks by Verrier Elwin (1960), the report of the Backward Classes Commission study team on social welfare headed by SmitiRenuka Roy (1959), another report of the Backward Classes Commission headed by Kalekar, and report of the National Seminar on Tribal Education in India organized by the Tribal Education Union of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, etc. All these reports deal with tribal communities in India as a whole, but in implementation level, no effort has been made to overcome theeducational problems of the country in general and the problems of tribal areas in particular.

As per 2001census in addition, any other tribal block in a district , other than afore said 54 identified districts , which has Scheduled tribal male literacy rate is 21 % and tribal female literacy rate is 35% as per 2001 census are also covered.

 

Methodology and Data collection:

The present study is basically a qualitative as well as quantitative study aimed at understanding the status and problems of education of Primitive Tribal Group. The study was conducted among Thoti tribe in Danora village of Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh and concentrated primarily on the community and the available schools in the village for data collation (government Primary, and High Schools, and Ashram Schools, Balawadi and Anganwadi Centers) namely Altogether there are 10 schools in Danora village and all these schools are covered under the present study.

 

In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, anthropological techniques are conceived as important for the study. These are mainly observation, structured ,scheduled, case study, group discussions, and formal and in formal interviews using detailed interview guide.

 

 The study is evaluative cum exploratory in the nature; a systematic and planned procedure was followed for undertaking this research work. Fieldwork is conducted from 15 -12-07 to 15 -01 – 07 . A structured scheduled was prepared for the collection of data. With this tool, maximum information regarding demographic particulars and literacy levels is collected. Since the respondents like students and parents are agriculture labourers, the researcher stayed in the study village and met them early in the morning and evening time for collecting the data. Initially the researcher had continuous interaction with the respondents for rapport building. Apart from informal interviews, structured interviews were conducted for collection of data from the school teachers and students and parents and drop out students in Danora village.

 

Data from secondary sources such as books, articles, published and un published  reports, Census reports, and government documents have been collected to get an overview of the existing literature and present status of tribal education in Andhra Pradesh. Statistical information on the existing schooling facilities in the district and study area is collected from ITDA and Education departments.

 

Sample size:

Out of the 28 villages with Thoti population in AdilabadDistrict , the village Dhanora is purposively as its is the only village with a maximum of 75 households with in the study village with regard to selection of subjects no sampling is adopted rather all categories of individuals like students, teachrs,parents, dropouts,and schools in the study are considered for study.

 

Study Area:

In order to select the study village, a Pilot study was conducted in 2007 in UtnoorMandal of Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh. Keeping in view the objectives of the study, Danora village is selected for understanding of the status of Thoti education in the context of external interventions. The study village is situated in interior and having 75 K.m. distance from Utnoor nearby town. The main concentration of Thoti tribe located in the area of Dhanora village of Adilabad District. The villagers depend on forest and other natural resources for their sustenance. Fieldwork was conducted for a period of  December 15 – 12 -07 to 15  - 01 – 07 one month i.e., January 2007 continuously for collecting the requisite information. During Pilot study, frequent visits were made to the study village to understand the local situation and also to acquire familiarity with the local people.

 

 

Data collection:

The data collection has been done keeping in view the main objectives of the study during the course of the study. Initially, all the schools were surveyed with the help of key informant by visiting every school in the study village. Detailed Census schedule was used for the collection of data pertaining to the demographic and other details such as age, sex family details, education, landholdings, occupational patterns, material belongings, etc.

 

Intensive informal discussions with the teachers on enrolment and other relevant figures at village and school level for tribal students who appeared annual examination, number of passed and failed etc. Attendance  register of students  are very carefully examined  to find out the dropout students etc. Government and non-government officials and other functionaries were interviewed to understand the development process and its impact on education in the study area. Efforts were made to capture the natives’ perceptions on education and its advantages in socio-economic development.

 

Observation is an important  tool of anthropological fieldwork. The same has been used to get a better understanding of emic view of Thoti on formal education. It further helped the researcher in eliciting factors responsible for drop-out. Participation in economic activities and rituals in the village was given the opportunity in understanding the native’s perceptions on education. As a part of this, researcher also assisted them in their economic activities agricultural works, and accompanying them to weekly market, etc. It facilitated to have access with individuals and people less interested in open discussion. 

 

The teachers, parents and students of the area were interviewed through interview method. Group discussions were conducted to elucidate the attitude of parent towards sending their children to school, occupation of the earning members in the family number ofteachers and their qualification and experience the data related to different problems of education in the study area.It has also provided insight into the socialization and other non-formal methodsof  education by the Thoti community.

 

In the entire fieldwork, special emphasis was given to record the Thoti beliefs and practices in the village. BhumiPanduga and other resource related rituals and life cycle rituals were collected and customs and conventions behind those practices were probed.

 

Finally, data from all these sources have been verified through a discussion with a cross section of people, including teachers, village officials and representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the villages.

 

Tribal Education in India:

The development of literacy among the Scheduled Tribes is very low when compared other categories of population.  However tribal education status is different in Mizoram and Lakshadweep. It has reached 80 to 85 percentages.  In other North-East States like Nagaland, Sikkim, Manipur the rate is more than 60 percent (Census, 1991).

 

Where as states like Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Goa and  Tripura educational status is less than40 percentage when compared to all India average and Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Arunachal Pradesh it is between 30 to 40 percentage.  Other States like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh and UnionTerritory i.e., Dadra Nagar Haveli it has remained below 30.

 

Education development among the Tribes in the Andhra Pradesh:

The provision of free and compulsory primary education foe all children up to the age of 14 is a constitutional commitment under article 45. In Andhra Pradesh ,compulsory primary education act was introduced in the year  1961 for  the children in the age group 6 to 11 years with the adoption a of sub plan as a strategy for development in the tribal areas of nine Scheduled districts in Andhra Pradesh , the government has initiated education development among the tribal along with other economic and health programmes.

 

The new deal for the tribal not only impressed the tribal beneficiaries but also laid foundation for optimistic faith in potentiality of education as an instrument, which can help the tribal to reach new heights. The strategy has been adopted to bridge the gap between the tribal and non tribals to reduce the gap and regional imbalances. The ITDA is striving hard for implementation if educational development schemes covering a wide range of activities for bringing about qualitative improvement of the education in tribal areas of AdilabadDistrict .

 

There was an impressive increase in educational institutions since the inception of programmes are tribal developmental blocks in the area. The real education growth started and gained momentum during the five year plan period. Consequent on recognition of vital role played education in all around development process. Higher allocations were made and new programmes like Maabadi,SarvaShikshaAbhiyan all India educational survey (NEP) were added to educational sectors. Even though ,huge investment was made in this sector the results were not commensurate with the development efforts put in as the rate of literacy remained low. In order to enhance the educational status the tribals, the government has provided certain educational   facilities and concessions like scholarships for day scholars, notebooks ,stationary,clothing,hostels  facilities and midday meals, free ration to the student family.

 

Anthropology and education , and out of their works emerged a special branch of anthropology of education. Some of the concepts like culture, socialization or enculturation, innovation, diffusion which are of special relevance to education, particularly the education of ethnic minority learners and aboriginal groups.

 

The education system in the tribal communities of Adilabad agency socio- economic and cultural background, tribal welfare education institution tribal developmet agency area of (ITDA) Utnoor incurred towards the maintence of these institutions, supply of books and dress material to the students and steps taken for the improvement of students enrollment, tribal parents and students attitudes towards formal education, role of the teacher to strengthen the education system in the area incidence of dropouts, reasons for dropouts and tribal peoples perception about the value of education.

 

The study tried out in the ITDA area of Utnoor, which falls under Adilabad District of Andhra Pradesh . A sample of six schools and Dhanora village were covered for the study. A about 296 parent respondents were selected in order to know their attitude, value and opinion towards the educational functioning of the schools in the selected tribal village of ITDA Utnoor. The conventional anthropological methods like participant observation and scheduled, interview and case study were used to collect the data. Secondary sources of data were collected from ITDA Utnoor the study.

 

 

Several innovations on the educational development under way, attempts to remove backwardness of the Scheduled tribes through education have been slow owing to various drawbacks primary being the lack of basic educational knowledge and awareness every person shall be able to benefit by education through basic learning of expression and numeric ability.

 

The most primitive tribes majority of the tribal population stand below the poverty line and facing the problems like indebtedness, illiteracy, malnutrition and exploitation. The interior tribals still live relatively in isolation since India’s independence our government is spending some amount for improving the literacy rate the tribals, apart from other population.

 

All most all the communities living in the rural and urban and tribal areas availed the government sponsored formal education to educate their children, but the tribes has proved to be slow in availing such facility due to certain cultural barriers, constraints and limitations. In order to improve the literacy rate among the tribals certain special provisions extended to them, but still the development in the educational sphere taking place in a slow pace manner in the tribal areas of certain states including Andhra Pradesh.

 

 

Traditional Institutions of Education:

 

There has been a lot of cultural change among Oraons, but they have still preserved their traditional educational center of institution known as the Dhumukuria. It is in this Dhumukuria that traditions are passed from mouth to mouth, from older age group of youths and from youths to younger to younger ones. The parents and the elders of the village initiate the child into different customs and traditions of their community and group.

 

The Jonkh - Erpa for the boys and Pello –Erpa the girls were once found in almost all villages. But at present they are not much active. Earlier it was an effective economic originastion for purposes of food quest, a useful seminary for the training of youth men in their social and other duties and institution for magical religious observances calculated to secure success in

hunting and augment the procreative power of the young men so as to increase the number of the hunters in the tribe.

In tribal societies skills and knowledge are transmitted to the younger generation through the process of socialization and also we see special institutions for this purpose the Oraon of Chota Nagpur had their own traditional institution for imparting education to its young once. Dhamukuria known as Joinkherpa is the youth dormitory for boys. Similarly youth dormitory for girls is popularly and local known as ‘’Peerapa’’

 

Oraon boys were admitted to the membership of the Dhamukuria at about eight years of age and the membership is compulsory. In the dhamukuria institutions tribal children are properly and educated in order to face future eventualities of life and cope ages with the cultural requirements. Apart from informal education the Oraon of barambe have the facilities of formal education . Such facilities for formal education are extended to them       through the institutions formed by government or by missionaries however the response to such facilities is very poor.

 

1.      Holding the school in the evening

2.      Making reading materials available to them free of cost

3.      Midday meals should be served to attract the students and their parents.This will be minimize the diseases growing out of the hunger 

4.      The teachers should not only be tribals but should be also have necessary zeal and aptitude for the development of their own brethren

5.      Non formal education may also be fruitfully tried among them.

 

Illiteracy and exploitation:

The tribal populations exploitations by minor government officials , as well as money lenders, landlords and other agents of vested interest , can largely be traced to their illiteracy and general ignorance of the world outside the narrow confines of their traditional environment .

Their inability to cope with the many novel forces impinging now a days on tribal villages and on an economy which had remained virtually unchanged for centuries is by no means due to any innate lack of intelligence. As long as they operate with in their familiar atmosphere, tribals evidence as much personality, skill and even true wisdom as they are faced by social attitudes rooted in a different system they become insecure and often behave in a manner detrimental to their own interest.

Brought up in a system in which all communications are by word of mouth, and hence used to trusting verbal statements , they get confused by constant reference to documents and written rules , which increasingly determine all aspects of rural life. Unable to read even the receipt given by an official and obliged to put their thumb impressions on documents which they cannot understand, they are easy victims of any fraud or misrepresentation which more educated exploiters are likely to devise.

 

It is obvious , therefore , that a medium of literacy is indispensable as a first step towards enabling tribals to operate with in the orbit of the advanced communities dominating the economic and political scene. The disadvantages under which illiterate tribals labour are multiplied in the case of those who do not even speak and understand the language of the dominant population , and hence can not communicated with officials except through better educated fellow tribes acting as interpreters.

Student’s problems:

Most of the tribal habitats are not provided with the school due to their geographical inaccessibility and smallness of the community. As such the nearest school may be at a distance of 2 – 4 kilometers. Tribal students are  faced by this problem of  distance of schools so they are not going to school regularly.

Experience has shown that the boy or the girl is an economic asset to a tribal family and therefore sending them to school upsets the traditional pattern of division of labour as referred by Elwin (1963). It is well known that girls usually help their mothers at home in all possible ways  and boys work in the field in the agricultural seasons .In non agriculture seasons they are usually engaged in the collection of petty forest produces and firewood , grazing goats and cattle, hunting and fishing under these circumstances the parents just can not send them to school at all. 

Elwin (1963) has stressed that the factors of the school in NEFA should  aim at and has suggested that school become much a tribal institution as Dormitory to attract students. He has expressed his view about the school textbooks and suggested the importance of language so that the students can follow teaching without much difficulty.

FurerHaimendorf (1944) has traced out the back ground and discussed the problems among the Gond tribal children who faced lot of problems at the time of reading and writing because they faced language problems which is taught in the classroom.

Village dormitory is a kind of training institution for unmarried boys and girls. Dormitory is a kind of school where the tribal youths of either sex learn how to perform their conjugal and social duties as also the lore of the clan. Existence of dormitories hasbeen reported among the tribal societies jakuns of Malaya ,thebattacks of Sumatra , the irgots of Phippines , the Borror and most of the American tribes (Grigson 1944)

The dormitories are chiefly meant for imparting social education to the tribal children. The Tribal areas, sense cooperation and competition and sexual maladjustment among the students . The author Nityananada (1958) feels the government prescribed regional   language should also be taught to the tribal children along with their own language. He has discussed the various problems faced by the tribal children in the primary ashram schools. Educational systems among the tribals should be taught with a well planned system of education especially meant for tribal areas. N.V.Bapat (1961) has given suggestions that girls education should get priority and various measures to bring improvement among the tribals in the field of education have been made. 

Problems of education of Scheduled Tribe students with particular reference to the  extent to wastage and extent to which the Scheduled tribes shows their preference for different types of education. Enrollment of scheduled tribes enrollment by type of institution bring the period 1960 to 1961 problems of enrollment of the scheduled tribe children at different stages of education has also been discussed.

Verrier Elwin (1963) has also suggested that school should become as much as a tribal institution of Morung (dormitory). The studies of Aiyappan (1948), G.K. Koppihar (1956) recognizes the importance of vocational and incentive based education in tribal schools as tribal children are showing less interest towards rigid and academic type of formal education. The works of Vyas and Choudhary (1990) research on the problems of ‘Drop-outs in Tribal Situation’ in Rajasthan reveals that the stagnation is the major problems in Drop-out rates.

In an evaluative study conducted by Jha (1985) on hostels and ashram schools of tribal girls, it is observed that like majority of beneficiary schemes meant for tribals, the economically rich amongst the tribal community availing the education facilities of these newly formed hostels and ashram schools.

The number of poor students admitted in hostels was much lower than the number expected and the organizers of these hostels were neither trained nor qualified. The hostel rooms were overcrowded and did not havebasic facilities.

 

Teacher problems:

The teachers working in tribal area schools are encountered with certain specific problems in discharging their duty of teaching, which may include communication problem. Can understand the regional language which the teacher speaks, the account and the high vocabulary used are difficult for them to fallow. 

The teachers while teaching in the  class they face language problem  as they are not in a person to speak tribal dialect. Even though the students.  While teaching if they used visual charts and documentary films the students understand lessons easily. Lack of proper administrative and supervision of schools in the tribal areas is also important constraint this is difficulty to solve as communication being bad and terrain difficult, the schools in such areas are hardly visited by the inspecting staff. This is also partly due to low level of motivation and commitment among inspecting staff. Which are again matched by the low level of motivation and commitment among the teachers. 

Poor residential facilities for teachers further make them resort to get themselves transferred from schools regularly. In rainy seasons particularly they absent themselves from schools for want of protection from rain. Teachers faced many problems because of proper residence in the tribal areas the teachers staying out side of the tribal community.

 

Among Saora tribal students Panda found that the Oriya  boys and girls possessed better personality adjustments than the least an cultured Saora boys and girls with the aim of understanding out the nature of impediments and hurdles to the over all educational programmes of the tribal people of Orissa Panda (1989) conducted empirical study and some of his findings are:

1.      Medical facilities provided to tribal school children was very poor

2.      A majority of teachers felt that the syllabus was not suitable to the daily usage of tribal children.

3.      Teachers participation in workshop / seminars was very poor

4.      Teachers properly teaching in the classrooms

5.      Many students teaching should not understood

6.      Many students felt that they were unable to pursue their studies well because they had in sufficient reading and writing materials

7.      The relationship between teachers and students was cordial

8.      Teachers having knowledge to tribal languages  / dialects people cultural taits of tribal people should be given appointment preferably the local educate people who are willing to stay and serve in the tribal areas should be appointed

9.      Educated wives of the teachers serving in the tribal areas should be appointed to attract more number of tribal girls.

Socio - Economic problems:

Among the tribal people economic conditions observed to be very poor and therefore large proportion of tribal parents, who get their children enrolled in primary schools due to persuasion of teachers and others , withdraw their children from school when they need their assistance in household or economic activities.

It is common observation to find that a majority of tribal parents withdraw their wards from the school when they need them during agricultural season. It is generally found that a Scheduled tribe child becomes economically useful to the family at the age of 10 or even below as such his going to school at this age is clear economic loss. For girl students there is yet another reason for dropout. Many tribal parents do not desire their daughters who are in primary school to go beyond primary schooling.

A large proportion of them educate girls only up to the educational level for which facilities are locally available .Most village schools in the tribal area have facilities for education up to standard fourth only then children go for work helping the parents and earning money. Tribal people in general are poor and are found at low economic statues. Low motivation for learning, low self estimate and the like create problems in their education.

This is partially because of the existing system of education which is primarily based on urban, non tribal middle class culture. The typical school with its urban middle class values, medium of instruction, system of evaluation with non tribal teachers does not suit the tribal environment. The concepts, ideas and themes alien to the tribal people are generally contained in the textbooks. Which generate negative attitude and inferiority complexion among the tribal learners .Even the non tribal teachers have developed negative ethnic stero types and prejudices against the tribal people. If the teacher’s expectation is low then the pupil tends to satisfy him by his poor performance.

Parent’s problems:

Parents play important role for the child to join the school . In tribal areas most of the parents are either illiterates or not highly educated to value the system of formal education.

Due to the persistent poverty the tribal parents depended up on the children’s  economic support in the tribal areas and hence they look at the child as an immediate economic asset. Under this perception the tribal parent cannot visualize the importance of education and feel that keeping children in schools is  non - remunerative (Yatindra Singh 1994).

The parents of the children should be assured that higher education to their wards would not in any way keep them way from their children. The scholarships and stipends to the tribal students studying in schools and colleges should be disbursed on time to prevent students and their parents from borrowing money on high interests from others. So that payment of their scholarships should be decentralized and it should be paid in the first week of every month . The amount of scholarship to be tribal students be enhanced appropriately as the present one compared to the living is very low. As children are normally helpful to parents in their assistance in their activities rather than sending them to schools.

A review of the studies on tribal education give a panoramic picture of the issues related with and the problems encountered in the course of spread of literacy among the tribes. As each tribe is a cultural entity by itself with its own world view the depth of each problem  varies from tribe to tribe and location to location. And the case of the most backward tribes is much different from the other tribes. Here  attempt is made to understand the cultural fabric of Thoti and their and their literacy levels with the following objectives.