Amita Baviskar's In The Belly Of The River

The main point of the article is that oftentimes, the benefits of progress can be harmful to tribal peoples since these tribal peoples cannot control their resources or create a distinct relationship with the market.

As a first generation Indian-American, I am no stranger to being a part of a distinct community while observing two unique cultures. Traveling to India exposed me to a dynamic population with rich diversity comprising of numerous languages and differing religions. Though these individuals may have had differing customs from their neighbors, there were similar ambitions to conquer grinding poverty. This poverty can be clearly noticed by seeing citizens sleeping on floors of a railway station, or the lack of air conditioning in searing hot weather. The frailty and mortality of the human condition was starkly visible in India. As a fellow human, I was humbled not only by the lack of privilege and opportunity of many citizens, but also by their

“Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians.”. According to Sherman Alexie the Indian culture are expected to fail and how the Indians accept that they all do not know much. He hates that this is the case so he wants them to change the way they think. He also talks about the lack of education in the reservations and how they can change it. The author expresses the struggle of bad reading and writing education for Indians, and persuades that he wants the Indian youth to have a better education.

The caste system has been extremely stable in India for over two thousand years. It is only since the more modern, independent state of India was formed that the system has come under any scrutiny at all. It is presently outlawed, but many of the practices, attitudes and traditions remain ingrained in Hindu society (University of Wyoming, 1997).

Many people believe that in the 1940’s most of India’s problems involving independence was to do with divisions within India rather than British imperialism. In this essay I will be looking at both points of view and finally giving my opinion. I will be using three sources also to help me show both sides of the story. I will also be using my further knowledge to add a wider range of knowledge.

Throughout the years many historians have compilated and examined why Indian people were so desperate to gain back their independence from the British Empire during their rule over India, from 1612 to 1947. The reasoning can most definitely be found as the British discriminated against Indian people as they believe that they were inferior; it is no surprise that Indian people fought so hard for their independence. Throughout the British Raj, they placed and put forward unbelievably racist acts and laws which discriminated against Indian people. Which of course led to Indians to rebel against the British rule and which the British reacted with causing massacres. Explaining the nationalistic many India’s felt during the British Raj.

Looking upon Indian society for comparison, it is seen that the primary factor of the caste system is built

Perhaps the lengthy, storied, and rich pasts of these people may cause them to cling to their traditions even though we understand that their way of life is no longer viable, as indicated by the extinction of tribes like the Ona (Nolan and Lenski 2014: 118). Unfortunately, the continued maintenance of hunter-gatherer ways may actually be explained as maladaptive for the survival of these societies – in essence, a form of intrasocietal selection maintained by elders for the benefit of preserving dying traditions at the expense of group survival. Many countries in various regions of the world are still significantly behind the curve in comparison to developed nations even without considering hunter-gatherer populations. Although the exact causes of this phenomenon remain up for debate, the promotion of problematic cultural aspects may worsen the already dramatic results of geographic isolation in affected areas; for instance, rigid socioeconomic castes inhibited India’s development of technology (Diamond 2005: 119). Debates about relativism remain controversial, but it appears rather clear that all cultural elements are not equally conducive to survival or dominance – although preservation is a noble end, certain practices may need to be gradually phased out to ensure the survival/equality of all, and

The British rule in India can be summarised in two facts which are “India’s per capita income went stagnant from 1757 to 1947” and “the life expectancy of Indians fell by 20 percent” (Davis, 2000). This shows that the British rule in India was not one in which India flourished but it deteriorated. The British brought about changes in all spheres of life. There brought about many social, cultural and economic changes however, this paper will only focus on the economic aspect of colonialism. The British tried to commercialise Indian agriculture and therefore, promoted cash crop farming. They forced farmers to move away from traditional and subsistence based farming and practice cash crop farming. This shift caused many farmers to suffer as they did not get much share in the profit even though the demand for cash crops like cotton and wheat was very high. The farmers fell into poverty and lived in terrible conditions whereas, the middle

Many tribes suffer from exclusion, neglect, and under-development due to their cultural isolation from the mainstream. Urbanization has led people to migrate to other cities that are more beneficial. Cities with better economy, lower costs, and the increased of division of labor are one of the benefits people migrate to better structural cities. Laws that issued the right of tribe’s greater opportunities to shape their own future and still have the same benefits as the people in cities have been long forgotten and ignored. Despite the efforts, tribes have been most underdeveloped. Tribes go find a better future and shift to urban areas. The need for movement to the urban areas is the only option for the tribal people to gain the benefits as

This is where people were segregated into five categories: Brahmins, which are priests and teachers, Kshatriyas, warriors and rulers, Vaishyas, farmers, traders and merchants, Shudras, labourers, and Dalits, which were outcasts from society. People who would otherwise be able to shape a future for themselves were instead robbed of opportunity and put at a disadvantage compared to people who are of a higher caste. Discrimination and exploitation of those in a lower caste was also very normal. Not only is this prevalent in India with its caste system, but all over the world people are discriminated against because of their profession, social status, or wealth, instead of being judged by who they are as a

India is known for its highly-restricted or even cruel, inhuman caste system. This caste system will follow an Indian’s life forever, until he died. An Indian can’t choose which caste to be but only nature-born. This caste system highly prevent to social development in India. Recently, this system even destroys the normal, happy life of normal Indians. They fight against caste system for love but ends up suiciding.

Tribe are conflated with ethnic groups (Crone, 1986), used synonymously with biologically-based primitive societies (Gellner, 1969), as an organizational mid-point along an evolutionary spectrum bounded by hunter-gatherers at one end and states at the other, or as a territorially-defined political group with distinct dispute settlement norms (Tapper, 1990). Since tribal societies have diverse forms of sociopolitical organization (Eickelman, 2002), anthropologists dismiss the ambiguous term as ill-suited for use within the social sciences (Southall, 1970). Regardless, ideas about tribes, tribalism, and tribal societies persist as descriptors of ethnicity, citizenship, or political identity. According to Ibn Khaldun, the tribe is “a self-contained social organization based on lineage and imbued with autonomy, having social, economic, political, military and cultural functions” (Khaldun, 1967). This definition captures many of the various meanings associated with the term; however, Khaldun’s inclusion of autonomy hints at an important aspect of tribes in relation to modern states. Tribes and tribal societies are independent polities that offer an alternative to the state (Crone, 1986; Gellner, 1969; Hager, 1983), so their autonomy is an important component of their political power. However, the extension of the modern state within tribal societies resulted in the loss of tribal

The saying goes—land divides, seas unite. But waterways bring also a good deal of misery to the people by causing devastating seasonal floods In India, for example, the sub-Himalayan regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal and Assam are heavily flooded by the rivers of the Gengetic basin and the Brahmaputra, almost every rainy season. It brings untold sufferings to the people of these low-lying plains.

The Indian population is generally classified on two bases: linguistic and religious. The religious classification is more impressive and arresting for the foreigner. One who is interested in the struggle of the masses must