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Understanding Marginalisation
Start here: why this chapter matters
This is Chapter 5 of NCERT's Class 8 Social and Political Life – III (2024–25 reprint), the first chapter of Unit Four, ‘Social Justice and the Marginalised’. The PDF has 14 pages: a unit opener with a photograph (book p. 60), a Teacher's Note for the whole unit (p. 61), then the chapter (pp. 62–73), with no page offset. Its parts: what it means to be socially marginalised; a storyboard about an Adivasi family; who are Adivasis; stereotyping; Adivasis and development; minorities and marginalisation; Muslims and marginalisation (three data tables and the Sachar Committee); and a conclusion. We use seven concept sections. Every number is recomputed in the file with its year and source; anything beyond the book is marked †. No map is drawn. We describe Adivasis and Muslims exactly as the book does, and add data and positions only with sources.
- How this chapter relates to UPSC, honestly: social justice is heavily tested — GS1 (Indian society: tribes, minorities, diversity and marginality), GS2 (welfare of vulnerable sections, minorities, Scheduled Tribes) and Prelims (constitutional terms, tribes, minority provisions). This chapter gives the idea of marginalisation and the book's data; the detail — caste and tribe, the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, minority rights, inequality — is in the senior chapters.
- Senior chapters: lesy103 (Social Institutions — caste and tribe, who is a tribe); lesy105 (Patterns of Social Inequality and Exclusion — Adivasi struggles, social exclusion); lesy106 (The Challenges of Cultural Diversity — minorities, communalism, regionalism); keps202 (Rights — Articles 29–30); keps108 (Secularism); Class 10 jess403 (Gender, Religion and Caste).
- In this book and series: hess301 (The Indian Constitution — Fundamental Rights, minority safeguards), hess302 (Understanding Secularism), hess304 (Judiciary — rights enforced by courts); next, hess306 (Confronting Marginalisation — the SC/ST Act, the Forest Rights Act 2006, Dalit and Adivasi struggles); history hess204 (Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age).
- UPSC from this chapter: eight questions — Prelims 1996 (‘minority’ not defined), 1999 (religious and linguistic minorities), 1999 (poverty highest among tribals, 1990s), 2005 (tribal population and the North-East); Mains GS1 2021 (tribal knowledge systems), 2022 (tribal diversity and a single category), 2024 (cultural diversity and socio-economic marginalities); GS4 2016 (a case on land acquired from Adivasis). List and keys at the end.
| Word | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Marginalised | Forced to occupy the sides or fringes, not at the centre of things |
| Mainstream | The cultural context of the dominant community; also the groups seen as at the centre of society (glossary) |
| Adivasi | Literally ‘original inhabitant’ — communities who lived, and often still live, in close association with forests |
| Scheduled Tribes | The official term for Adivasis, from an official list (notified under Article 342 †) |
| Hierarchy | A graded arrangement of persons; those at the bottom have least power (glossary) |
| Stereotype | A fixed, oversimplified image of a group — e.g. Adivasis shown only as dancers |
| Displaced | Forced to move from homes for big projects such as dams and mining (glossary) |
| Militarised | An area with a considerable presence of armed forces (glossary) |
| Malnourished | Not getting adequate nutrition or food (glossary) |
| Minority | A community numerically small relative to the rest — but also a matter of power, access to resources and culture |
| Ghettoisation | The process by which an area comes to be populated largely by one community, often with few options of moving out (glossary) |
| Socio-religious community | A group defined by religion and social category, as used in the Sachar Report (e.g. Hindu SC/ST, Muslims) |
- Unit opener (p. 60): a black-and-white photograph of a large gathering, mostly women seated on the ground, many with heads covered, around one woman standing in the middle; hand-lettered Hindi placards are held up, one asking ‘what do we want?’ and answering ‘justice’. Uncaptioned. The point we take: people who feel left out organise and demand justice.
- Teacher's Note (p. 61): the series has moved from formal to substantive equality; this unit introduces marginalisation (exclusion from the mainstream) through three groups — Adivasis, Muslims and Dalits — chosen because the causes and experiences of their marginalisation differ. Chapter 5 covers Adivasis and Muslims; Chapter 6, how the government and the communities have tried to address marginalisation. Tools: data, poems, a storyboard and a case study; songs bridge social science and language. Teachers should handle contentious discussion maturely so that no child feels discriminated against, ridiculed or left out.
At a glance — the six ideas to carry away
- Marginalisation: pushed to the fringes; language, customs, religion, poverty or ‘low’ status; economic, social, cultural and political factors work together → no access to resources, no power to assert rights.
- Adivasis (‘original inhabitants’): ~8% of people (8.6%, Census 2011 †), 500+ groups (705 notified †), little hierarchy, own beliefs and languages (Santhali most published). Official term: Scheduled Tribes.
- Stereotyping: shown only as dancers in costumes → seen as ‘exotic, primitive, backward’ and ‘resistant to change’.
- Development and displacement: forests fed empires; from the 1830s migration to plantations (70 lakh Adivasis in Assam today, book); mines (>50% of those displaced are tribal), dams, 106 national parks + 573 sanctuaries (WII, Nov 2023); 45% rural / 35% urban below the poverty line (book).
- Minorities: more than numbers — power, resources, culture; safeguards (Arts 29–30 †) against cultural domination and discrimination.
- Muslims: 14.2% (Census 2011); lowest amenities in Table I (2008–09), literacy 57 (Table II), IAS 3%, IPS 4%, IFS 1.8% vs 13.5% population (Sachar, 2006); 25% of 6–14s out of school; only 4% in madarsas.
1. What does it mean to be socially marginalised?
To be marginalised is to be forced to occupy the sides or fringes, not the centre. The book starts in the classroom: if your tastes, accent, sport or dress differ from most, you may not be considered ‘in’, and you feel that what you say and do is not quite right or acceptable. In society, too, groups or communities may be excluded — because they speak a different language, follow different customs, belong to a different religious group from the majority, are poor, are considered of ‘low’ social status or are viewed as less human than others; sometimes they are viewed with hostility and fear. This sense of difference and exclusion leaves communities without access to resources and opportunities and unable to assert their rights. They feel disadvantaged and powerless against more powerful sections who own land, are wealthy, better educated and politically powerful. So marginalisation is seldom experienced in one sphere: economic, social, cultural and political factors work together. The chapter studies two communities considered socially marginalised in India today.
- Social exclusion: sociologists use it for processes that prevent groups from participating fully in society — economic, social and political (lesy105).
- Formal vs substantive equality (the Teacher's Note): equal rules on paper vs equal real chances; the Constitution allows special measures for disadvantaged groups (Arts 15(4), 16(4), 46 †) — hess306.
- Intersectionality: a person can be marginalised on several counts at once (for example as poor, tribal and a woman) — a term from feminist scholarship (†).
2. Who are Adivasis? An Adivasi family's story
The storyboard (pp. 63–64): Soma and Helen, an Adivasi family in Delhi, watch the Republic Day parade on TV with their grandfather (Dadu) and ask why Adivasis are always shown only dancing. Dadu remembers his beautiful village in Odisha, where everything came from the land and forests, which the people respected. Then they were told the forest was not theirs; forest officials and contractors cut much of it, and those who protested were beaten and taken to court, where they had no lawyers. ‘Companywallahs’ came for iron ore, promising jobs and money; some gave thumbprints without realising they were selling; only a few got token jobs; most refused. Then they were beaten and threatened until everyone had to sell; Dadu got a little money for 30 acres. Many were forced into seasonal work in towns; the money did not last; the family lived in a tiny rented room. Years later the father found a job in Delhi; the children missed school for years and, on return, were teased because they spoke Santhali and not Hindi. Now they have friends; Helen wants to make a film on ‘the adivasi story’. The book adds that Dadu's story is similar to the lives of millions of Adivasis. Who are Adivasis? The word means ‘original inhabitants’: communities who lived, and often still live, in close association with forests. About 8% of India's people are Adivasi, and many major mining and industrial centres — Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro, Bhilai — are in Adivasi areas. They are not homogeneous: there are over 500 groups; they are numerous in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and the north-eastern States; Odisha alone has more than 60. Adivasi societies often have very little hierarchy, unlike communities organised around jati-varna or ruled by kings. They practise belief systems different from other religions — worship of ancestors, village spirits (often at sacred groves) and nature spirits of mountains, rivers and animals — and have been influenced by Shakta, Buddhist, Vaishnav, Bhakti and Christian traditions while influencing others, such as the Jagannath cult of Odisha and Shakti and Tantric traditions in Bengal and Assam; in the nineteenth century many converted to Christianity, now very important in modern Adivasi history. They have their own languages, often very different from Sanskrit and possibly as old, which have influenced languages like Bengali; Santhali has the most speakers and a large body of publications, including online magazines. Two boxes add: tribals are also called Adivasis, and Scheduled Tribes is the government's term, from an official list, often grouped with Scheduled Castes.
- Pen-and-ink panels: two girls in sweaters and their grandfather in a woollen cap watch a TV showing dancers on a Republic Day float; the grandfather's face in close-up as he remembers; officials and contractors with felled trees as villagers carry wood; a road roller and labourers on a new road; a smiling man in a suit pointing, beside a file marked ‘acquire tribal lands’; men with sticks and guns as villagers flee; people walking away carrying bundles; a crowded shack with animals; the family in a city street with a tall monument behind; the girls in a classroom scene and finally laughing with Dadu.
- The point: displacement is a chain — loss of forest, loss of land, migration, poverty and lost schooling — and the stereotype on the TV hides it. Margin questions (p. 65) are answered in the in-text section.
- ‘Around 8 per cent’: Census 2011 counted 10.43 crore Scheduled Tribes, 8.6% of the population (†). ‘Over 500 groups’: 705 individual groups were notified as Scheduled Tribes at the 2011 Census (†); Odisha has 62 (†). Safe line: ‘8.6% of India's population (Census 2011), in over 700 notified groups’.
- Scheduled Tribes are notified State by State by the President after consulting the Governor; Parliament can change the list (Art 342 †). Art 366(25) defines STs only by reference to this list — so the Constitution has no descriptive definition of a ‘tribe’ (UPSC 2005, 2024).
- The North-East has the highest share of tribals in its States but only about one-eighth of India's tribal population; the largest numbers live in central and western India (Madhya Pradesh has the most †) — the trap in UPSC 2005.
- Santhali: in the Eighth Schedule since the 92nd Amendment, 2003 (†), written in Ol Chiki among other scripts. ‘Most speakers’ holds among tribal languages in the Eighth Schedule; Census 2011 recorded more speakers of Bhili/Bhilodi (about 1.04 crore), which is not in the Schedule (†). The Bhils are the most numerous Scheduled Tribe (†; UPSC 1979).
- Languages: Adivasi languages belong to several families — Austroasiatic (Santali, Mundari, Ho), Dravidian (Gondi, Kurukh), Tibeto-Burman (in the North-East) and Indo-Aryan (Bhili) (†). ‘Possibly as old as Sanskrit’ is the book's wording; write ‘many are distinct languages with long histories’.
- ‘Little hierarchy’ is a general contrast with caste society; some tribal societies have chiefs or clan ranks (†) — see the positions table in section 4.
3. Adivasis and stereotyping
In India we usually ‘showcase’ Adivasi communities in particular ways: at school functions, official events, books and films they are shown in colourful costumes, headgear and dancing, while little is known of the realities of their lives. This often wrongly leads people to believe they are exotic, primitive and backward, and Adivasis are often blamed for their lack of advancement as if they were resistant to change or new ideas. The book recalls from Class VI that stereotyping can lead people to discriminate against groups. Soma and Helen's question — ‘why do they always show adivasis as only dancing?’ — and Dadu's reply that Adivasi lives are very rich make the same point.
- Top: young men in red-and-black woven shawls with tall feathered headgear and spears, in a crowd. Bottom: a line of performers in white beating large drums on an open ground. Caption: such images of tribal communities in traditional costumes are often the only way Adivasis are represented, which leads people to think of them as ‘exotic’ and ‘backward’.
- The point: the book uses the same kind of picture it criticises, to make you notice how narrow it is. Exercise 6 asks what you would tell a friend who calls Adivasis ‘exotic’.
- Do not describe any tribe as ‘primitive’ or ‘backward’; the official category for the most vulnerable groups was renamed from ‘Primitive Tribal Groups’ to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in 2006 (†); there are 75 (†).
- Use the book's framing: Adivasis as communities with distinct knowledge, beliefs and languages, marginalised by processes — not by any lack in themselves.
4. Adivasis and development: forests, migration and displacement
Forests were crucial to all empires and settled civilisations: metal ores (iron, copper, gold, silver), coal and diamonds, timber, most medicinal herbs, animal products (wax, lac, honey) and animals such as elephants, the mainstay of imperial armies; forests also recharge rivers and matter for air and water. Forests covered most of the country till the nineteenth century, and Adivasis had deep knowledge of, access to and control over most of them at least till the mid-nineteenth century, so they were not ruled by large states; empires often depended on them for forest resources — the opposite of today's image of powerless communities. Before colonial times they were hunter-gatherers and nomads, practised shifting cultivation and also settled farming. Over the past 200 years, through economic changes, forest policies and political force by the State and private industry, they have increasingly been forced into work on plantations, construction sites, industries and as domestic workers; for the first time they do not control or have much access to forest territories. A box: from the 1830s, Adivasis from Jharkhand and nearby moved in very large numbers to plantations in India and abroad — Mauritius, the Caribbean, even Australia; India's tea industry in Assam was built on their labour; there are 70 lakh Adivasis in Assam today; the migration was full of hardship, and in the nineteenth century alone five lakh perished. A migrants' song (from S. Basu, Jharkhand Movement: Ethnicity and Culture of Silence) moves from the hope of green tea gardens to the overseers' harshness and the cry that a recruiter deceived them. Forest land has been cleared for timber, agriculture and industry; mineral-rich Adivasi areas are taken for mining and large projects, often forcefully and without following procedures. By official figures, over 50% of people displaced by mines and mining projects are tribal; a survey by organisations working among Adivasis found 79% of people displaced in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand were tribal. Hundreds of dams have submerged their lands; in the North-East their lands remain highly militarised. The Wildlife Institute of India (November 2023) lists 106 national parks (44,402.9 sq km) and 573 wildlife sanctuaries (123,762.56 sq km) — areas, the book says, where tribals originally lived and were evicted, and where those who stay are called encroachers. Losing land and forest means losing livelihood and food; migrants to cities earn very low wages and are caught in a cycle of poverty: by the book's figures 45% of tribal groups in rural areas and 35% in urban areas live below the poverty line; many tribal children are malnourished; literacy is very low. Displacement takes more than income — it takes traditions and a way of living. Gobindha Maran, displaced by a refinery project in Odisha, lists the farmland, cremation ground, temple, well and pond taken and asks how they will survive. Economic and social sides of tribal life are interconnected; dispossession can be painful and violent.
- Engraving (black-and-white): a European overseer in a hat and boots points a stick at labourers who carry loads and work around wooden crates — the plantation labour the box describes.
- Box and song: the migration story and the song summarised above (not reproduced). Margin questions: what the poem conveys; important metals and where they come from; five forest products used at home; who made four demands on forest land and how it would affect tribal people. Answers in the in-text section and the diagram above.
- Photograph (colour): a bare, reddish open-cast mining area with conveyor structures, machinery, heaps of rock and an old tyre, hills on the horizon. Caption: Niyamgiri Hill in Kalahandi district, Odisha, home of the Dongarria Konds, for whom it is a sacred mountain; a major aluminium company plans a mine and refinery that would displace them; they have strongly resisted, joined by environmentalists; a case is pending in the Supreme Court. The point: development projects can collide with a community's land, livelihood and sacred places.
- Box: around 10,000 plant species used by Adivasis (8,000 medicinal; 325 as pesticides; 425 as gums, resins and dyes; 550 as fibres; 3,500 edible) — knowledge lost when forest rights are lost.
| How should the State relate to tribal communities? Positions side by side (Beyond NCERT; no position endorsed) | Who | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Protection through separation | Verrier Elwin, anthropologist (1930s–40s writings) | tribal ways of life should be protected from outside exploitation, if necessary by keeping outsiders out |
| Assimilation | G.S. Ghurye, sociologist (The Aborigines — ‘So-called’ — and their Future, 1943) | tribes were ‘backward Hindus’ and should be absorbed into the wider society |
| Integration | Jawaharlal Nehru's ‘Tribal Panchsheel’ (1950s) | development should come ‘along the lines of their own genius’, respecting rights in land and forests and working through their own institutions |
| Community rights in law | Parliament: PESA, 1996; Forest Rights Act, 2006; Supreme Court, Niyamgiri (18 April 2013) | gram sabhas in Scheduled Areas get powers over resources; forest rights are recognised; in the Niyamgiri case the Court asked the gram sabhas to decide on religious and cultural claims (hess306) |
| Terms in debate | Adivasi movements and many scholars; the Government of India at the UN | ‘Adivasi’ asserts original inhabitance; India supported the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) while holding that all Indians are indigenous, and uses ‘Scheduled Tribes’ |
| NCERT (this chapter) | NCERT | Adivasis have been forced off their lands over 200 years; they want to keep their distinctiveness while gaining rights and development |
| Displacement and development — positions side by side (Beyond NCERT except the NCERT row; no position endorsed) | Who | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Projects are needed | governments and industry, in project and policy documents | mines, dams and industry supply power, water, metals and jobs for national growth; displaced people are to be compensated and resettled |
| Consent and fair terms | Parliament: Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 | social impact assessment; consent of 80% of affected families for private projects and 70% for public–private ones; rehabilitation and resettlement entitlements |
| Displacement costs are too high | affected communities, activists and many researchers | compensation rarely restores livelihoods; land, community and sacred sites cannot be bought back (the book's Gobindha Maran) |
| Conservation and rights | conservationists vs forest-rights advocates | some argue that wildlife needs inviolate areas; others that forest dwellers can coexist and must not be evicted without rights settled — the FRA provides a procedure for ‘critical wildlife habitats’ |
| NCERT (this chapter) | NCERT | land is often taken forcefully without procedure; displacement brings poverty and loss of culture |
- Niyamgiri is no longer ‘pending’: on 18 April 2013 the Supreme Court left it to the gram sabhas to decide whether the mine affected their religious and cultural rights; the twelve gram sabhas consulted rejected it, and the Environment Ministry refused forest clearance in January 2014 (†; check the latest). The Dongria Kondh are a PVTG (†). Safe line: ‘the 2013 Niyamgiri judgment recognised the gram sabha's role under the Forest Rights Act’.
- Tribal poverty figures carry no year or source in the book. Planning Commission (Tendulkar method) estimates for Scheduled Tribes: 2004–05 — 62.3% rural, 35.5% urban; 2011–12 — 45.3% rural, 24.1% urban (†; check). The book's 45% rural matches 2011–12, its 35% urban matches 2004–05. Safe line: ‘in 2011–12, 45% of rural STs were below the poverty line (Tendulkar)’; for newer data see NFHS-5 (2019–21) and multidimensional poverty reports — check the latest.
- ‘Literacy rates among tribals are very low’: Census 2011 — 59.0% for STs against 73.0% for all (7+, final) (†).
- ‘70 lakh Adivasis in Assam’: these tea-garden communities are not listed as Scheduled Tribes in Assam (they are in other backward classes there †); the figure is the book's.
- Protected areas: the WII figures (Nov 2023) change often; national parks and sanctuaries together cover about 5.1% of India's area (our computation). ‘These are areas where tribals originally lived’ is the book's general statement; write ‘many protected areas overlap with lands of forest-dwelling communities’.
- Plant species: the box's categories add to 12,800, more than 10,000 — uses overlap.
5. Minorities and marginalisation: why safeguards?
Unit 1 showed that the Constitution gives religious and linguistic minorities safeguards as part of the Fundamental Rights. The word minority usually means a community numerically small relative to the rest, but the idea goes well beyond numbers: it includes power, access to resources, and social and cultural dimensions. The Constitution recognised that the majority's culture influences how society and government express themselves, so size can be a disadvantage and lead to the marginalisation of smaller communities. Safeguards protect minorities against being culturally dominated and against discrimination and disadvantage. Under certain conditions, small communities may feel insecure about their lives, assets and well-being, especially when relations with the majority are fraught. The Constitution provides safeguards because it is committed to protecting India's cultural diversity and promoting equality and justice; the judiciary upholds them, and every citizen can approach the courts if their Fundamental Rights are violated.
- The Constitution does not define ‘minority’; it recognises religious and linguistic minorities only (Arts 29, 30; UPSC 1996, 1999). Minority status is judged State by State (T.M.A. Pai Foundation, 2002).
- National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 (statutory, not constitutional). Notified minorities: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis (1993) and Jains (2014).
- Linguistic minorities: Art 350A (primary education in the mother tongue) and Art 350B (a Special Officer for linguistic minorities).
- A Ministry of Minority Affairs was created on 29 January 2006.
- ‘As you have already read in Chapter 5, the judiciary …’: in this reprint the judiciary is Chapter 4 (hess304); this chapter is Chapter 5.
- ‘Every citizen’: Articles 14 and 21 protect every person; Arts 29–30 protect ‘sections of citizens’ and ‘minorities’ (†).
- Minority safeguards are rights of groups (to culture and institutions) alongside individual equality; do not confuse them with reservation in jobs, which the Constitution ties to backwardness, not religion (Art 16(4) †).
6. Muslims and marginalisation: what the data show
By the 2011 Census, Muslims are 14.2% of India's population and are considered a marginalised community because of their comparatively lower status of socio-economic development. Three tables, from different sources, show their situation. Table I (India Human Development Report 2011; data for 2008–09): households with a pucca house — Hindu 65.4, Muslim 63.8, Christian 69.3, Sikh 91.3%; electricity — 75.2, 67.5, 86.2, 96.0; tap water — 43.7, 35.8, 48.0, 49.3. Table II (Census 2011): literacy — All 74, Hindus 63, Muslims 57, Christians 74, Sikhs 67, Buddhists 71, Jains 86. Table III (Sachar Committee Report, 2006): Muslims' share of public employment — IAS 3%, IPS 4%, IFS 1.8%, Central PSUs 3.3%, State PSUs 10.8%, Banks and RBI 2.2% — against a population share of 13.5%. Recognising that Muslims lagged on development indicators, the government set up a high-level committee in 2005, chaired by Justice Rajindar Sachar, to examine their social, economic and educational status. It found that on many indicators their situation was comparable to that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; for example (Report p. 56), the average years of schooling of Muslim children aged 7–16 are much lower than those of other socio-religious communities. Boxes add that 25% of Muslim children aged 6–14 have never enrolled or have dropped out — much higher than any other socio-religious community (p. 58) — and that the Report debunked a common belief: only 4% of Muslim children are in madarsas, 66% attend government schools and 30% private schools (p. 75).
- Table I (p. 70): ‘Access to Basic Amenities, 2008–2009 (percentage)’ for Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh households — pucca house, electricity, tap water; source as above. Question: which communities have the most and least access?
- Table II (p. 71): ‘Literacy Rate by Religion, 2011’; question: highest and lowest literacy.
- Table III (p. 71): ‘Public Employment of Muslims’; question: what do these figures convey?
- Margin box (p. 71): the 25% out-of-school figure; question: are special measures needed? Photo box (p. 72): a boy holding up a slate with the alphabet written on it; the madarsa figures. The point of the set: several independent measures point the same way, and data can correct common beliefs.
| After the Sachar Report — positions and measures side by side (Beyond NCERT; no position endorsed) | Who | Position or measure |
|---|---|---|
| The diagnosis | Sachar Committee (set up 9 March 2005; report submitted 17 November 2006) | on many indicators Muslims' position comparable to SCs and STs; recommended, among other things, an Equal Opportunity Commission and a national data bank |
| Government measures | Union government (2006 onwards) | Prime Minister's New 15-Point Programme for minorities (2006); Ministry of Minority Affairs (2006); scholarships and area development programmes |
| Reservation for minorities | National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (Ranganath Misra Commission, report 2007) | recommended reserving 15% in jobs and education for minorities, 10% of it for Muslims; this was not implemented as such |
| Religion-neutral welfare | some commentators and public figures | argue that welfare should target poverty and backwardness, not religion, consistent with a religion-neutral State |
| Caste within communities | Pasmanda activists and some scholars | argue that disadvantage among Muslims is concentrated among backward-caste groups and should be addressed through backward-class measures |
| Follow-up review | Post-Sachar Evaluation Committee (chaired by Amitabh Kundu, report 2014) | reviewed progress since the Sachar Report |
| NCERT (this chapter) | NCERT | the data show comparatively lower socio-economic development; marginalisation needs a variety of strategies, measures and safeguards |
- Table II mixes two bases: ‘All 74’ is the provisional literacy rate for people aged 7 and above (final: 72.98% †), while the religion figures are literates as a share of the whole population, all ages (crude rates) — the all-India crude rate is 63.1% (763.5 million ÷ 1,210.9 million †). So Christians (74) are not ‘equal to the national average’, and Hindus (63) are not 11 points below it. On the 7+ basis the rates are higher for every group — for example, about 68.5% for Muslims and 94.9% for Jains (†; check Census table C-08). The order is the same: Jains highest, Muslims lowest. Safe line: ‘Census 2011: Muslims had the lowest literacy rate among religious communities’.
- Table III comes from the Sachar Report (2006) and reflects the early 2000s; the population share used is 13.5% (Census 2001: 13.4% †). These are stale — check the latest official service data.
- Table I is for 2008–09. For newer household data see NFHS-5 (2019–21), which reports amenities by religion — check the latest.
- Sachar: set up in 2005, report 2006; the madarsa figure is 4% of Muslim children enrolled (the Report also gives about 3% of all school-age Muslim children †).
- Quote the data with year and source; do not generalise from them about any individual or present-day group.
In-text questions and activities — answer outlines
Every margin question, table question and activity, in page order.
(p. 65) Explain at least three different reasons why groups may be marginalised.
(p. 65) Why was Dadu forced to leave his village in Odisha?
(p. 65) In your own city or village, who would you think are the marginalised groups? Discuss.
(p. 65) Can you name some Adivasi communities in your state? What languages do they speak? Do they live close to the forest? Do they migrate for work?
(p. 67) What metals are important in present-day India? Why? Where do they come from? Are there Adivasi populations there?
(p. 67) List five products you use at home that come from the forest.
(p. 67) By whom were these demands made on forest land: timber for houses and railways; land for mining; land for agriculture by non-tribal people; reserves for wildlife parks? How would this affect tribal people?
(p. 67) What do you think this poem is trying to convey?
(p. 69) In your opinion, why is it important that Adivasis should have a say in how their forests and forest lands are used?
(p. 70) Why do we need safeguards for minorities?
(p. 70) Table I: which communities have the most and the least access to basic amenities?
(p. 71) Table II: which communities have the highest and the lowest literacy rate?
(p. 71) Table III: what do these figures convey?
(p. 71) 25% of Muslim children aged 6–14 have never enrolled or have dropped out. Do you think special measures are required?
(p. 72 box) What myth did the Sachar Report debunk?
Exercises (page 73) — answer outlines
Eight exercises. Try first, then open.
1. Write in your own words two or more sentences on what you understand by ‘marginalisation’.
2. List two reasons why Adivasis are becoming increasingly marginalised.
3. Write one reason why the Constitution's safeguards for minority communities are very important.
4. What do you understand by the term ‘minority’?
5. Using the data in this chapter, give two reasons to support the statement ‘Muslims are a marginalised community’.
6. A friend watching the Republic Day parade says Adivasis look ‘exotic’ and seem to be dancing all the time. List three things you would tell her.
7. Help Helen by developing a short story on Adivasis.
8. Do you agree that economic and social marginalisation are interlinked? Why?
- Stored keys linked here: 1996 ((b) both true, R not the explanation — ‘minority’ is undefined in the Constitution, and the Minorities Commission was then non-constitutional, later statutory under the 1992 Act); 1999 ((c) religious and linguistic minorities); 1999 ((b) tribals in Bihar, Orissa, M.P. and Maharashtra had the highest poverty in the 1990s); 2005 ((b) is the incorrect statement — the North-East has about one-eighth of India's tribal population, not half). In 2005, statement (a) ‘no definition of the Scheduled Tribe’ is treated as correct: Art 366(25) refers only to the list under Art 342. All verified. No disputed key.
- Book slips with safe lines: ‘around 8%’ and ‘over 500 groups’ (8.6%, 705 notified, Census 2011); Santhali ‘largest number of speakers’ (among Eighth Schedule tribal languages); Niyamgiri ‘pending’ (decided 2013); poverty figures without year or source; Table II's mixed bases; Table III's stale data; ‘Chapter 5’ for the judiciary (Chapter 4); ‘used to be a link’.
What to remember
Numbers
One-liners
- Marginalisation: pushed to the fringes, cut off from resources and voice.
- Economic, social, cultural and political factors work together.
- Adivasis are not one group but hundreds, with little hierarchy and their own beliefs and languages.
- Showing Adivasis only as dancers hides their realities.
- Empires once depended on Adivasis for forest resources.
- Losing land means losing livelihood, food, customs and a way of life.
- A minority is about power and culture, not only numbers.
- Several independent data sources show Muslims' lower socio-economic status (2008–11 data).
- Marginalised communities want both distinctiveness and access to rights and development.
Traps to avoid
- Census 2011: STs 8.6% of India's population, in 705 notified groups — the book rounds to ~8% and ‘over 500’.
- The North-East has the highest tribal shares but only about one-eighth of India's tribal population.
- Scheduled Tribes are notified State-wise by the President (Art 342); the Constitution has no descriptive definition of ‘tribe’.
- The Constitution does not define ‘minority’ and recognises only religious and linguistic minorities.
- Table II's ‘All 74’ is a 7+ rate; the religion figures are all-ages rates (all-India crude 63.1%).
- Niyamgiri was decided in 2013 (gram sabhas), not pending.
- Assam's tea-garden Adivasis are not Scheduled Tribes in Assam.
- Sachar Committee: set up 2005, report 2006.
- Only 4% of enrolled Muslim children were in madarsas (Sachar).
- PVTGs (75), not ‘primitive tribes’ — renamed in 2006.
- The judiciary chapter is Chapter 4 in this reprint, not Chapter 5.
How to strategise
Prelims — what UPSC asks
- From this chapter: minorities — not defined in the Constitution; religious and linguistic only (1996, 1999); tribal poverty (1999); tribal population and the North-East (2005). Learn Census 2011 shares (STs 8.6%, Muslims 14.2%) and the Sachar dates as bare facts.
- Elsewhere: the largest tribe and State-wise ST population (1979, 1986) sit on lesy103; the Fifth and Sixth Schedules (2015, 2019, 2022, 2025, 2026), PESA (2013) and the Forest Rights Act (2013, 2019, 2021) belong with hess306 and keps207; national-minority advantages (2011) on keps202, keps108 and lesy106.
Mains — where it appears and how to answer
- From this chapter: GS1 2024 (cultural diversity and socio-economic marginalities) — the four-factor web and the three tables, each dated; GS1 2022 (tribal diversity vs a single category) — ‘500+ groups’ and the positions table; GS1 2021 (tribal knowledge systems) — the plant-species box and sacred groves; GS4 2016 (land acquired from Adivasis for mining) — the storyboard and the displacement positions table.
- Elsewhere: Scheduled Tribes and their constitutional provisions (2016), legal initiatives against discrimination of STs (2017) and tribal development and displacement (2025) are on lesy103, lesy105 and the geography chapters; colonial rule and tribals (2023) on hess204 and lehs301.
- Keep answers neutral: data with year and source; debates attributed; no characterisation of any present-day community, party or government.
Self-check
Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.
1. According to the book, marginalisation is usually:
2. Census 2011 put the Scheduled Tribe share of India's population at about:
3. The North-East's share of India's total tribal population is about:
4. In the book's Table I (2008–09), which community had the highest access to all three amenities?
5. Why is ‘All 74’ in the book's literacy table not comparable with the religion figures?
6. The Sachar Committee submitted its report in:
7. According to the Sachar Report, the share of Muslim children in madarsas was about:
8. The Constitution of India recognises:
UPSC questions from this chapter
Open any question to attempt it in the Question bank — your attempt is saved to your progress.
7. Social marginalisation, the economic link, and what the chapter concludes
Economic and social marginalisation of Muslims has other dimensions too. Like other minorities, Muslim customs and practices are sometimes distinct from what is seen as the mainstream. The book says that some — not all — Muslims may wear a burqa, a long beard or a fez, and these become ways to identify all Muslims; so they tend to be identified differently, and some people think they are not like ‘the rest of us’. This often becomes an excuse to treat them differently and discriminate against them. In some instances this social marginalisation has led to them migrating from where they lived, often leading to ghettoisation; sometimes prejudice has led to hatred and violence. A photograph shows Muslim women as an important part of the women's movement. The book draws the threads together: the Muslim example shows a link between economic and social marginalisation; with the Adivasis and with women (Class VII), it shows that marginalisation is complex and needs a variety of strategies, measures and safeguards. All of us have a stake in protecting the rights in the Constitution and the laws and policies made to realise them — without these we cannot protect India's diversity or realise the State's commitment to equality for all. Conclusion: each community is marginalised for different reasons and experiences it differently; marginalisation brings disadvantage, prejudice, powerlessness, low social status and unequal access to education and other resources. Other groups, such as Dalits, are discussed in the next chapter. Yet lives can and do change; no one is marginalised all the time in the same way; both groups have long histories of struggle and resistance, and marginalised communities want to keep their cultural distinctiveness while gaining access to rights, development and opportunities.