Tribes of Odisha and Issue of Social Inclusion, Exclusion and Cultural Assimilation

Abstract

In India, there is an amalgam of 437 tribes, and in Odisha the number is 62. According to 2011 Census, in Odisha the total strength of the tribal population is approximately nine million which constitutes 22.19% of the total population of the State. (Total population of Odisha is estimated to be 41,947,358).Culture and society are dynamic. Social exclusion issues in India are gaining more relevance by the day. This is primarily because while India as a country is growing at a decent growth rate, not all sections of society have been able to take advantage of this growth. Social exclusion has got at its centre the idea that some individuals are outside the society in one way or the other. There is a lot of controversy over the present day development paradigm of tribal development. The tribal people have been facing problems from both inclusion into and exclusion from the dominant development paradigm of the country. The tribal societies have experienced religious and other cultural inclusion into the so called universal or dominant culture and consequently faced the problem of identity crisis. Exclusion from infrastructure and health and education etc has led them to a situation where they find it difficult to cope with the outside world, in the present day situation. The paper tries to find out what are the means and aims of exclusion and inclusion and the consequences of the same with some instances on the tribes of Odisha.