Education in Tribal India: A study of West Bengal

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The book deals with educational development among the tribals in West Bengal, which is one of the vital issues in modern India. The study was carried out among four tribal communities, who belong to different traditional economic types, namely, the Lodha-gatherer hunter, Mahali-bamboo artisan, Kora- earth worker and the Santal-settled agriculturist in a tribal populated area in Paschim Mednipur District of West Bengal. The studied people live in the same ecology enjoying almost the same educational facilities (at the primary level) as well as educational privilege in the pursuit of their education.

The outcome of this empirical research work gives a comprehensive and comparative picture on demography, ethnography, economy and different aspects of literacy among the tribal communities. Moreover, the study identified a number of educational problems and suggested some important measures for the development of education among them. Readers will find different educational results in the light of environment and cultural background.

It is not a tedious book and is a very informative one. This piece of work will certainly be useful to research scholars in Anthropology and other allied disciplines. The administrators and educational planners will find it very useful.

NABAKUMAR DUARY (b. 1965) received his M.Sc. degree in Anthropology with specialisation in Social-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Calcutta and Ph.D. degree from the Ranchi University. He worked in the Institute of Social Research and Applied Anthropology, Kolkata, as a Research Fellow and received the prestigious fellowship from the Anthropological Survey of India (An. S.I.). At present Dr. Duary is working in the An. S.I., Kolkata. He has published over three dozen research papers in edited books and academic journals. He had co- edited a book entitled Some Aspects of Indian Society and Culture in 2005. The focal area of his research is tribal and folk culture of India and he has conducted intensive fieldwork among the primitive tribal groups and major tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. He has also made a significant contribution in the field of tribal culture and folk painting. He has a deep interest in the discipline of Anthropology and is associated with many professional anthropological research organizations.

The importance of education as an institution has a great role to play in the modernising any of society. In India it has passed through every sphere of our life. It is also regarded as a path of salvation. Organised system of education came late. The role of education in improving the quality of life cannot be over ruled. The human society can not achieve maximum prosperity if they fail to make effective participation in development process. The rights of the tribal communities in this process cannot be achieved unless they make considerable progress in the field of literacy.

Dr. Nabakumar Duary has made a valuable attempt in this context. He presents a valuable case study on education of the tribals like the Lodha (gatherer-hunter), Mahali (bamboo artisan), Kora (earth worker) and the Santal (settled agriculturist) in West Bengal, 2001 under my guidance at Ranchi University. It is an outcome of extensive anthropological fieldwork in tribal concentrated block of Narayangarh in Medinipur district (now under Paschim Medinipur). He had successfully endeavoured to present the tribal micro picture with respect to education. This book is out come of his Ph.D. thesis entitled Tribal Education in Medinipur District of West Bengal, 2001 under my guidance at Ranchi University, Ranchi. This study throws light on literacy, level of education and the impact of economy and culture in their formal education, infrastructure facilities, management in the study area and described in detail major problems and prospect concerning educational development among them.

This empirical research work gives a comprehensive and comparative picture of demographic structure, ethnographic aspect and different techno-economic conditions of four tribal groups. The book has critically and meticulously analysed the role of demographic structure, economic condition and cultural background for educational development of tribals.