TRIBAL ECONOMY VIS-A-VIS URBANISATION- A STUDY ON MUNDA AND ORAM TRIBES OF LEPHRIPARA BLOCK OF SUNDARGARH

Tribal people form a major segment of the world population. They are found all over the world. They are called by different names such as "primitive, 'tribal,' 'indigenous,' 'aboriginal,' 'native,' and so on. India has a large number of tribal people. According to Ralph Linton tribe is a group or bands occupying a contiguous territory or territories and having a feeling of unity deriving from numerous similarities in a culture, frequent contacts and a certain community of interest. L.M Lewis believes that tribal societies are small in scale are restricted in the spatial and temporal range of their social, legal and political relations and possess a morality, a religion and world view of corresponding dimensions. Characteristically too, tribal languages are unwritten and hence the extent of communication both in time and space is inevitably narrow. At the same time tribal societies exhibit a remarkable economy of design and have a compactness and self-sufficiency lacking in modern society. The tribal societies in India are considered as the weakest sections of the population in terms of common socio-economic and demographic factors such as poverty, illiteracy, lack of developmental facilities.