Problems and Prospects of Tribal Development in North-East India

The tribe as a social formation may be identified in two ways: first as a stage in the history of evotution of societies; second, as a society organised on the basis of kinship ties which enables it to be a multi-functional grouping. A tribe can thus outgrow its primitiveness and retain its social boundary, an essential feature of its identity. Within this conceptualisation of the tribals, what have been the constraints to their development in north-east India THE problems and prospects of tribal development may be considered along two axes: (a) as ethnic entities and (b) as status-class.