Colonial Transformation of Tribal Society in Middle India K S Singh The paper begins with a brief discussion of the conceptual framework which has governed the study of tribal societies in general. It then goes on to consider the relationship between history and anthropolgy, and between colonialism and anthropology. It describes the nature of the colonial trans- formation of the tribal society in relation to the political system, social structure, economic and agrarian institutions and movements and shows how and where the processes of colonial transformation in the tribal and peasant societies in India ran parallel and diverged, and how they related to the over-arching colonial system. An attempt is made towards the end to identify the areas where anthropologists and historians may explore the possibilities of collaboration in the investigation of tribal society.
