UPSC Anthropology 2026 — Paper II

(a) A compact note with two linked halves: (i) what the Dravidian language family is - its internal classification, antiquity and demographic weight in India, and (ii) which Indian tribal communities actually speak Dravidian languages, named branch by branch. A list of the four literary languages alone does not answer the second half. (b) Explain Clifford Jolly's 1970 'Seed-Eaters' model: the gelada baboon analogy, the dietary-ecological premise, the suite of dental, masticatory, postural and manual changes it predicts, and its two-phase scheme - plus a line of evaluation. It is a note on a specific named model, not a general account of hominid origins. (c) A note on the Tana Bhagat movement: who began it, when and among whom; its socio-religious reformist content; its agrarian and anti-colonial turn; its convergence with the national movement; and how anthropologists classify it. Both the religious and the agrarian-political faces must appear. (d) Identify and describe the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of India's islands - i.e. the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The note must name them correctly, state the PVTG criteria and their origin, give demographic and cultural facts, and cover the protective legal regime and current threats. (e) Assess K. S. Singh's specific contribution to the study of tribal movements - his Birsa Munda monograph, his edited comparative volumes, his periodisation and typology of movements, and his anthropo-historical method. A general biography of Singh or an account of the People of India project alone will not answer it.

• Robert Caldwell (1856)
• South / South-Central / Central / North Dravidian
• Gondi (Gond)
• Kurukh (Oraon)
• Malto (Sauria Paharia / Mal Paharia)
• Kui and Kuvi (Kondh)
• Toda, Kota, Irula
• Kolami (Kolam)
• Brahui (Balochistan)
• about one-fifth of India's population
• Clifford J. Jolly (1970), Man
• Theropithecus gelada
• small-object / seed feeding
• T-complex
• canine and incisor reduction
• thick-enamelled molars, robust deep mandible
• precision grip
• Phase I and Phase II
• critique from dental microwear / isotopes
• alternative to the hunting hypothesis (Washburn, Dart)
• 1914
• Jatra Bhagat (Jatra Oraon)
• Oraon / Kurukh of Chotanagpur
• Dharmes (supreme deity)
• rejection of spirit worship, ojha and animal sacrifice
• no-rent / no-begari campaign
• Non-Cooperation Movement 1920-22, khadi and charkha
• Sanskritisation (Srinivas)
• revitalisation movement (Wallace)
• S. C. Roy / K. S. Singh
• Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa, Sentinelese, Shompen
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Nicobarese - not a PVTG
• Dhebar Commission (1960-61)
• 75 PVTGs; 1975 and 1993; renamed 2006
• four PVTG criteria
• ANPATR 1956
• Andaman Trunk Road
• Policy on the Jarawa Tribe, 2004
• North Sentinel Island
• Kumar Suresh Singh (1935-2006)
• Director-General, Anthropological Survey of India
• 'The Dust-Storm and the Hanging Mist' (1966)
• Birsa Munda and the Ulgulan (1899-1900)
• 'Tribal Movements in India' (edited volumes)
• 'Tribal Society in India: An Anthropo-historical Perspective' (1985)
• anthropo-historical method
• diku and land alienation
• People of India project
• phases/typology of tribal movements

(a) Set out the scholarly controversies surrounding the jajmani concept - not merely describe the institution. The answer must present the debates as debates, naming the opposed positions and their authors: harmony versus exploitation, ritual versus economic basis, whether 'jajmani' is a valid analytical category at all, its regional ubiquity, and whether it has declined or merely transformed. (b) 'Discuss' a given proposition: show what Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA) is - launch, outlay, coverage, components - and then map its interventions explicitly onto specific Sustainable Development Goals, ending with a reasoned judgement on how far the claim holds. (c) Two distinct sub-questions must both be answered: (i) the archaeobotanical and archaeozoological evidence for Harappan crops and domesticated animals, with sites named; and (ii) the competing scholarly positions on the Indus script. Answering only one half caps the answer at roughly half marks.

• W. H. Wiser, 'The Hindu Jajmani System' (1936), Karimpur
• jajman and kamin (yajamana)
• T. O. Beidelman (1959)
• Harold Gould
• Pauline Kolenda (1963)
• Louis Dumont, 'Homo Hierarchicus'
• C. J. Fuller, 'Misconceiving the Grain Heap' (1989)
• Peter Mayer, 'Inventing Village Tradition' (1993)
• Jan Breman, 'Patronage and Exploitation' (1974)
• balutedari (Maharashtra) / mirasi (Tamil Nadu) / halipratha (Gujarat)
• M. N. Srinivas's dominant caste
• Oscar Lewis and Victor Barnouw (Rampur)
• Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, launched 2 October 2024
• Birsa Munda - 'Dharti Aaba'
• about Rs 79,156 crore outlay
• about 63,000 villages and 5 crore tribal people
• 25 interventions, 17 ministries; Ministry of Tribal Affairs nodal
• PM-JANMAN (2023) for the 75 PVTGs
• Jal Jeevan Mission, PMAY-G, PMGSY, EMRS, Van Dhan Vikas Kendra, Ayushman Bharat
• SDG 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 15 named explicitly
• 'leave no one behind'
• PESA 1996 and Forest Rights Act 2006 / Xaxa Committee 2014
• barley and wheat (Triticum sphaerococcum)
• cotton at Mehrgarh
• rice at Lothal and Rangpur
• millets at Rojdi
• zebu (Bos indicus)
• the horse controversy - Surkotada, Bokonyi versus Meadow and Patel
• Kalibangan ploughed field
• Chanhudaro brick with animal footprints
• undeciphered; about 400-450 signs; Mahadevan's 417
• Asko Parpola - Dravidian hypothesis
• Iravatham Mahadevan
• S. R. Rao - Indo-Aryan reading
• Farmer, Sproat and Witzel (2004) non-script thesis
• Rajesh P. N. Rao et al., Science (2009)
• no bilingual inscription

(a) 'Critically examine the salience' requires both an exposition of what F. G. Bailey's Bisipara work established and a judgement on how far it still matters. The concepts of the economic frontier, the tribe-caste continuum defined by access to land, and the political arena/encapsulation must be set out, and then weighed against the Dumont-Bailey debate and later criticism. (b) 'Discuss the impact' requires a balanced, evidence-based account of what Christian missionary activity has done to tribal society in Chotanagpur/Jharkhand - the historical course of missionisation, its educational, linguistic, legal and political consequences, its costs to indigenous religion and institutions, and the contemporary cleavages it has produced. A one-sided celebration or condemnation will not score. (c) Explain what general comparative analogy is - as distinct from the direct historical approach - and then show, with named Indian ethnoarchaeological studies, how it has actually been used to interpret archaeological remains. 'With examples' is mandatory: examples must be specific studies, communities and sites.

• F. G. Bailey; Manchester school / Max Gluckman
• Bisipara, Kondmals, Kandhamal district, Odisha
• 'Caste and the Economic Frontier' (1957)
• 'Tribe, Caste and Nation' (1960)
• the economic frontier and the rise of the distillers
• tribe-caste continuum defined by access to land
• political arena and encapsulated political structure; bridge-actors
• 'Stratagems and Spoils' (1969)
• the Dumont-Pocock critique and Bailey's 'For a Sociology of India?'
• M. N. Srinivas's dominant caste / Surajit Sinha for comparison
• Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Mission, Ranchi, 1845
• Constant Lievens (1885) and land litigation
• J. B. Hoffmann, 'Encyclopaedia Mundarica'
• Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act, 1908
• Chotanagpur Unnati Samaj (1915); Jaipal Singh Munda; Adivasi Mahasabha (1938)
• Sarna religion, sarna sthal, pahan
• dhumkuria (Oraon youth dormitory); Sarhul and Karam
• Sarna code demand (Jharkhand Assembly resolution, 2020)
• Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2017
• Article 342 - conversion does not affect ST status
• G. S. Ghurye's denationalisation charge
• general comparative analogy versus the direct historical approach
• Robert Ascher's 'new analogy' (1961)
• Lewis Binford, middle-range theory
• F. R. Allchin, 'Neolithic Cattle Keepers of South India' (1963); Deccan ashmounds, Utnur, Kupgal
• K. Paddayya; Budihal; Hunsgi-Baichbal
• V. N. Misra and Malti Nagar; Bagor; Van Vagri
• Kenoyer, Vidale and Bhan; Khambhat agate beads; Chanhudaro and Lothal
• Agaria/Asur iron smelting; Elwin's 'The Agaria' (1942)
• Carol Kramer, 'Pottery in Rajasthan' (1997); Daniel Miller, Dangwara
• living megaliths among Khasi, Naga, Gadaba, Bondo, Maria Gond
• equifinality; uniformitarianism; Wylie's relational analogy

(a) account for: state the phenomenon > the causes in order of weight > conclusion | (b) explain: definition/context > points in order > small example > short close | (c) critique: the claim > its strengths > its weaknesses > your judgment Full marks: Precise policy names, specific tribal groups, and clear analytical distinction between biological and social categories.

• Elwin's shift from the protective 'national park' idea (The Baiga, 1939) to integration, against Ghurye's assimilationist critique (1943)
• 'A Philosophy for NEFA' (1957; 1959) and Nehru's five principles of the tribal Panchsheel
• NEFA measures: Adviser for Tribal Affairs, an anthropologically trained frontier cadre, the Inner Line, local-language schooling, working through village councils
• Committee on Special Multipurpose Tribal Blocks (Elwin Committee, report 1960)
• Appraisal of how far the principles were realised in later policy
• Defines somatometric (measured) and somatoscopic (observed) traits
• Names the main schemes: Risley (Census 1901, nasal index), Guha (1935, six elements) and others (Eickstedt, Sarkar, Majumdar)
• Typological fallacy versus continuous, clinal variation and high within-group variability
• Technical flaws: non-concordant, polygenic and environmentally plastic traits (Boas, 1912), observer bias, small non-random samples
• Conflation of race with caste, language and region (the 'Aryan' and 'Dravidian' labels)
• Dongria Kondh (a PVTG), the sacred Niyamgiri hills and Niyam Raja; Kalahandi and Rayagada, Odisha
• Bauxite mining by the Orissa Mining Corporation with Vedanta for the Lanjigarh alumina refinery
• Saxena Committee (2010) and the refusal of Stage-II forest clearance
• Supreme Court, Orissa Mining Corporation v. MoEF (April 2013): Gram Sabhas to decide under FRA 2006 read with PESA
• Rejection by all twelve Gram Sabhas (2013); MoEF refusal of clearance (January 2014)

(a) Identify India's Buddhist tribal communities region by region, distinguish the two Buddhist traditions they follow, and note their characteristic social-religious features and constitutional position. A general note on Buddhism, or on Ambedkarite Navayana Buddhists (who are overwhelmingly Scheduled Castes, not Scheduled Tribes), does not answer it. (b) Set out the controversy over where the Narmada hominin belongs on the hominin family tree: the discovery facts, the successive taxonomic assignments and the evidence each rests on, the subsidiary disputes over sex, postcrania and dating, and why the question matters. The word 'debate' requires competing positions, not a single verdict. (c) State what Article 371A provides for Nagaland - its origin, the four subjects on which Parliament's laws do not apply without the State Assembly's consent, the Governor's special responsibilities and the Tuensang arrangements - and indicate its anthropological significance and present-day frictions. (d) Explain L. P. Vidyarthi's concept of the Nature-Man-Spirit Complex: where it came from, what the three components are and how they interlock, why it counts as an indigenous conceptual contribution, and what its limitations are. (e) Assess L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer's contribution to anthropology in India: the ethnographic surveys he produced, his role in founding academic anthropology at Calcutta, the character of his method, and a brief critical judgement.

• Monpa (Tawang) and Sherdukpen - Arunachal Pradesh
• Bot/Boto and Changpa - Ladakh
• Lahaula and Spiti Bhot - Himachal Pradesh
• Bhutia, Lepcha, Sherpa, Tamang - Sikkim
• Khamti and Singpho - Theravada
• Chakma and Mog - Theravada
• Mahayana/Vajrayana versus Theravada
• gompa and lama
• Bon and Mun/Bongthing substrata
• Article 342; Sixth Schedule councils; Ladakh's Sixth Schedule demand
• Arun Sonakia, Geological Survey of India, 1982
• Hathnora, Sehore district, Madhya Pradesh; Narmada river
• partial calvaria; Surajkund Formation; Late Acheulian tools
• Stegodon / Elephas namadicus fauna
• Homo erectus narmadensis - original assignment
• K. A. R. Kennedy et al. (1991) - archaic Homo sapiens
• cranial capacity around 1200 cc
• de Lumley and Sonakia - evolved Homo erectus / Arago and Petralona affinity
• A. R. Sankhyan - clavicle and rib
• no absolute date, no ancient DNA
• Constitution (Thirteenth Amendment) Act, 1962
• Sixteen-Point Agreement, 1960; Naga People's Convention
• Nagaland statehood, 1 December 1963
• the four protected subjects - religious/social practices, customary law and procedure, administration of civil and criminal justice by customary law, ownership and transfer of land and its resources
• resolution of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly
• Governor's special responsibility for law and order
• Tuensang regional council
• Article 371G for Mizoram
• Nagaland is outside the Fifth and Sixth Schedules
• women's reservation in urban local bodies controversy
• L. P. Vidyarthi
• 'The Maler: A Study in Nature-Man-Spirit Complex of a Hill Tribe in Bihar' (1963)
• Maler / Sauria Paharia of the Rajmahal hills
• nature, man and spirit as one interlocked complex
• Gosain (supreme deity)
• the demano (shaman) and the manjhi (headman)
• swidden / kurwa cultivation
• sacred complex ('The Sacred Complex in Hindu Gaya', 1961)
• Robert Redfield / cultural ecology influence
• critique of static harmony
• L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer (1861-1937); 'father of Indian anthropology'
• Cochin ethnographic survey, 1902; H. H. Risley's all-India survey
• 'The Cochin Tribes and Castes' (2 volumes, 1909 and 1912)
• 'The Mysore Tribes and Castes' (4 volumes, with H. V. Nanjundayya)
• University of Calcutta; Sir Asutosh Mookerjee; Department of Anthropology, 1920
• students - B. S. Guha, K. P. Chattopadhyay, T. C. Das, D. N. Majumdar
• Rao Bahadur; Royal Anthropological Institute
• Kadar, Nayadi, Muthuvan and other Kerala hill tribes
• Nayar matriliny (marumakkathayam)
• his son L. A. Krishna Iyer wrote 'The Travancore Tribes and Castes'

(a) A critical appraisal of the Ganga basin Mesolithic organised around three explicitly named classes of evidence - artefacts, faunal remains and human skeletal remains - from excavated sites, followed by an assessment of how secure the interpretations are. All three classes must be covered and at least three sites named. (b) 'Discuss the impact' of democratic institutions - franchise, reserved representation, panchayati raj and PESA, Sixth Schedule councils, the Fifth Schedule machinery, the courts - on tribal populations. Both the empowering and the corrosive effects must be argued, with the displacement of traditional political institutions treated explicitly. (c) Two parts, both required: (i) an account of the prevalence of sickle cell disease among Indian tribal populations - its genetics, why it is concentrated there, its geographical and community distribution and its clinical burden; and (ii) the initiatives taken by the affected states, which should also include the national mission they operate under.

• Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha, Damdama (Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh)
• Chopani Mando (Belan valley); Lekhahia; Baghai Khor; Morhana Pahar
• G. R. Sharma; V. D. Misra; J. N. Pal
• geometric microliths on chert, chalcedony, agate - raw material imported from the Vindhyas
• bone and antler tools at Mahadaha and Damdama
• querns and mullers; hearths; wattle-and-daub floors; crude pottery at Chopani Mando
• Bos, sheep/goat, deer, rhinoceros, fish and molluscs; the contested domestication claim
• largest Mesolithic skeletal series in South Asia; K. A. R. Kennedy and J. R. Lukacs
• tall robust stature; low caries; enamel hypoplasia; embedded projectile point at Sarai Nahar Rai
• extended supine burials, head to the west, with grave goods; multiple burials at Damdama
• Articles 330 and 332; 47 Lok Sabha seats reserved for STs; 104th Amendment (2019)
• Article 244(1) Fifth Schedule and Tribes Advisory Council; Article 244(2) Sixth Schedule
• ten Autonomous District/Territorial Councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram
• PESA, 1996 in ten Fifth Schedule states
• Forest Rights Act, 2006 - Gram Sabha
• Article 338A - National Commission for Scheduled Tribes
• Munda-Manki, Parha, Manjhi-Pargana, dorbar shnong - traditional institutions displaced
• Droupadi Murmu (2022); Jaipal Singh Munda
• Mizo Accord 1986; creation of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 2000
• Xaxa Committee (2014); Samatha (1997); Niyamgiri (2013)
• HBB gene, sixth codon, glutamic acid replaced by valine, HbS
• HbSS disease versus HbAS trait
• heterozygote advantage against Plasmodium falciparum; balanced polymorphism
• Arab-Indian haplotype and high fetal haemoglobin
• Lehmann and Cutbush (1952), Nilgiri tribes
• Bhil, Gond, Madia, Korku, Baiga, Kondh, Paniya
• Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Telangana
• National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, launched 1 July 2023 at Shahdol; elimination by 2047
• screening of about 7 crore people aged 0-40 in 17 states; genetic cards
• hydroxyurea; Gujarat's 2006 programme; Sickle Cell Institute Chhattisgarh
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016

(a) 'Assess' requires both an account of what colonial scholars produced on the tribes of North-East India - named authors and named monographs - and a judgement on the value and the limitations of that body of work. A list of book titles without assessment, or a critique without the ethnography, will not score. (b) Take a clear position on whether caste exists as a social category among India's non-Hindu communities, ground it in the theoretical debate, and then illustrate it with named groups among Muslims, Christians and Sikhs at least. The instruction 'illustrate with suitable examples' makes named communities mandatory. (c) Give an account of DAPST: what it is, the Tribal Sub-Plan lineage from which it descends, how the earmarking and monitoring mechanism works, what it finances, and how well it has performed. An account of tribal welfare schemes in general, without the DAPST mechanism, misses the question.

• J. H. Hutton, 'The Angami Nagas' and 'The Sema Nagas' (1921)
• J. P. Mills, 'The Lhota Nagas', 'The Ao Nagas', 'The Rengma Nagas'
• P. R. T. Gurdon, 'The Khasis' (1907)
• A. Playfair, 'The Garos' (1909)
• T. C. Hodson, 'The Meitheis' / 'The Naga Tribes of Manipur'
• J. Shakespear, 'The Lushei Kuki Clans' (1912)
• N. E. Parry, 'The Lakhers' (1932)
• morung, feasts of merit, head-hunting, genna
• Inner Line, Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873; Excluded Areas, Government of India Act 1935
• Fuerer-Haimendorf, 'The Naked Nagas' (1939); Ursula Graham Bower
• colonial construction of bounded tribal identities
• Ashraf, Ajlaf, Arzal
• Sayyid, Sheikh, Mughal, Pathan; Ansari/Julaha; Qureshi; Halalkhor
• Ghaus Ansari (1960); Imtiaz Ahmad (1973); Zarina Bhatty; Susan Bayly
• Louis Dumont, 'Homo Hierarchicus' - the contrary position
• Syrian Christians and the Knanaya/Southist division; Dalit Christians
• Duncan Forrester, 'Caste and Christianity' (1980); Rowena Robinson
• Jat, Khatri, Ramgarhia, Mazhabi, Ravidasia Sikhs; separate gurdwaras and deras
• Surinder Jodhka; Ronki Ram
• Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, paragraph 3; Sikhism 1956; Buddhism 1990
• Sachar Committee (2006); Ranganath Misra Commission (2007)
• Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes; in force from 2017-18
• Tribal Sub-Plan, Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79); Scheduled Tribe Component
• Shilu Ao Study Team (1969); S. C. Dube Task Force (1972)
• earmarked share of ministry scheme budgets; non-divertible and non-lapsable
• around 40 ministries and departments; Ministry of Tribal Affairs as nodal
• ITDP/ITDA, MADA pockets, clusters, PVTG projects
• Article 275(1) grants; Eklavya Model Residential Schools; MSP for Minor Forest Produce; Van Dhan Vikas Kendras; TRIFED
• PM-JANMAN and DAJGUA
• Xaxa Committee (2014) and the demand for a statutory basis
• Andhra Pradesh/Telangana and Karnataka sub-plan Acts

(a) 'Critical appraisal' of a named scholar's thesis: state Surajit Sinha's argument that tribe and caste are not isolated categories but parts of a single Indian civilisational field, show the evidence and the intellectual lineage on which it rests, and then weigh it against its critics - especially the North-East exception and the dispossession critique. (b) Identify and substantiate the principal challenges facing tribal communities in India today, across land and displacement, forest rights, health and education, governance, conflict, identity and gender. Breadth with evidence is required; an undifferentiated lament about 'backwardness' will not score. (c) Enumerate and explain the constitutional provisions safeguarding Scheduled Castes - definitional, social, educational and economic, political and service-related - with the correct article numbers. The question is about Scheduled CASTES: the Fifth and Sixth Schedules and Scheduled Areas belong to Scheduled Tribes and are not the answer.

• Surajit Sinha (1926-2002); Director, Anthropological Survey of India
• 'State Formation and Rajput Myth in Tribal Central India' (1962)
• 'Tribe-Caste and Tribe-Peasant Continua in Central India' (1965)
• Bhumij-Kshatriya movement in south Manbhum
• Rajputisation / Kshatriyisation of tribal chiefs; the little kingdom
• N. K. Bose, 'Hindu method of tribal absorption' (1941)
• Redfield and Singer - great and little traditions; Marriott's universalisation and parochialisation
• M. N. Srinivas - Sanskritisation
• Andre Beteille, 'The Concept of Tribe with Special Reference to India' (1986)
• Virginius Xaxa - the indigeneity and dispossession critique
• Ghurye's 'backward Hindus' and Elwin's isolation as the rejected alternatives
• land alienation despite CNT Act 1908 and Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act 1949; Samatha (1997)
• development-induced displacement; STs about 8.6 per cent of population but a far larger share of the displaced
• Forest Rights Act, 2006 - low recognition of community forest resource and habitat rights
• Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 and the Rules of 2022
• NFHS-5 and the National Multidimensional Poverty Index; Bang Committee on Tribal Health (2018)
• ST literacy about 59 per cent (Census 2011)
• PESA, 1996 implementation gap; Tribes Advisory Councils
• left-wing extremism; Nandini Sundar v. State of Chhattisgarh (2011); AFSPA; Manipur conflict from 2023
• Sarna code demand versus the de-listing campaign; endangered tribal languages
• Xaxa Committee (2014)
• Article 341 and Article 366(24); Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950
• Article 338 - National Commission for Scheduled Castes; 89th Amendment, 2003
• Article 17 - abolition of untouchability; PCR Act 1955; SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989
• Article 15(2) - access to shops, wells, tanks, roads and places of public resort
• Article 25(2)(b) - temple entry; Article 29(2)
• Articles 15(4) and 15(5); Article 16(4), 16(4A), 16(4B)
• Article 335 and its 82nd Amendment proviso; Article 46
• Articles 330 and 332 - 84 Lok Sabha seats reserved for SCs
• Articles 243D and 243T; Article 325; Article 334 and the 104th Amendment, 2019
• Article 23 - prohibition of forced labour