Tribe-caste interaction in Sambalpur: a case study of shrine of Bhimdevta in Gainpura
- 1995
- p.251-65
- Jul-Sep
The change of focus in social science research becomes imperative either when there is new data or when the process of interpreting the existing data undergoes change. The present paper seeks to understand primarily the latter and suggests a re-assessment. Extensive field work by scholars present varied nature of the social realities, we can not rule out the existence of both isolated tribes as well as of those tribal people and caste-Hindus who have been living side-by-side for centuries. Although tribal people have been generally found in relative isolation in Orissa and else where in India, they have not been completely shut off from interaction with the greater society or greater culture or community like the caste-Hindus. But the Brahminical interpretation of social and cultural change is a familiar one and continues to influence the social science research activities. The present paper reflects that in a given empirical situation there is every possibility of co-existence of the tribal and the caste characteristics. - Reproduced