Rural Urban and Tribal Community

The Rural Community

The earliest human communities were perhaps the loosely organised aggregations of a few
facilities that carried on mutually interdependent activities in gathering food and defending
themselves against their enemies. Gradually man acquired skills and knowledge in
agriculture food and begin to live settled life in villages. It is difficult to define villages but
generally it is understood as a small area with a small population which follows agriculture
not only as an occupation but also as a way of life.

Characteristic Features of Village/ Rural Communities

The rural community marked by several features the important one are the following :-

 Community Consciousness: The dwellers of rural community have a sense of unity. The
relation between the people is intimate. They personally know each other customs and
traditions.
 Role of Neighborhood: - In rural community neighborhood plays a important role. These
is not enough individuality and people pay attention to their neighbor in his sorrows
and joys in the village people assist each other and thus they have closest
neighbourhood relations.
 Joint Family :- In rural communities we can still see very strong joint family system.
People live together in a close tie with their brothers and sisters. The agriculture
occupation also requires the cooperation of all the members.
 Faith in Religion :- The rural people have deep faith in religion and deities. Their main
occupation is agriculture which largely depends upon the change of nature. The rural
people acquire an attitude of fear and respect towards natural forces and start
worshipping them.
 Simplicity: - The rural people live a simple life and remain far away from the evils of
modern civilization generally they are simple people believing in God. Their behavior is
natural not artificial and they live a peaceful life.

Characteristic Features of Urban Community

 Namelessness – According to the observations of Bogardus urban communities have a
reputation for namelessness. By virtue of its size and population there cannot be a
primacy group. The members of a city do not come into primary contact with each
other usually they met and speak without knowing each others name, basically life of
the citizens of a city are mechanical. A citizen may live for several years in a city and
may not know the names of one third of the people who live in the same city area.
 Homelessness – Homelessness is another distinguish feature of city community. The
problem of shelter in a city is very common and many people pass their life homeless
in city and are forced to live in slums.
  Class Extremes – Class extremes characterize urban community. In a city one can find
the richest as well as the poorest people, the people rolling in luxury and living in a
grand mansion as well as the people leaving on pavement and hardly getting two
meals a day.
 Social Heterogeneity: - The urban areas are more heterogeneous than the rural areas.
We can see a cosmopolitan culture and melting pot of races, people and culture and is
a most favorable breeding ground of new biological and cultural hybrids.

Social distance: - Social distance an urban area is mainly focused due to anonymity and
heterogeneity. The city dwellers feel lonely. Most routine contracts are impersonal and
segmented, formal politeness takes the place of genuine friendliness.

Energy and Speed :- Residual of urban area work with tremendous energy and speed day
and night which stimulate other also to work, similarly in urban areas people indulge in too
many activities and inconceivable efforts, urban life also produces greater emotional tension
and insecurity that is unlike rural communities.

Urban Community
Generally by an urban area we mean an area with high density of population which
characterized by its size heterogeneity, social differentiation and stratification, mobility,
environment and system of interaction. The census of India 2011 defines urban area as
follows:-

 All places with municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area
committee etc.
 All other places which satisfied the following requirements:
 A minimum population of 5000
 At least 75% of the working population engaged in non-agriculture pursuits and
 A density of population at least 400 persons per square kilometer.

Tribal Community
According to Oxford dictionary ”A tribe is a group of people in a primitive or barbarous stage
of development acknowledging the authority of chief and usually regarding themselves as
having a common a ancestor.”

D.N. Majumdar define tribe as a social group with territorial affiliation, endogamous with no
specialization of functions ruled by tribe officers hereditary or otherwise united in language
or dialect recognizing social distance with other tribes or castes.
The constitution of India defines scheduled tribes under Article 366(25) as “such tribes or
tribal communities or parts of groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed
under Article 342 to be scheduled tribe for the purpose of this constitution”

The established criterion followed for specification of a community as scheduled tribe are
indication of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact
with the community at large and backwardness.

T.B. Naik has given the following features of tribes in Indian context

 A tribe should have least functional interdependence within the community.

 It should be economically backward (i.e. primitive means of exploiting natural
resources, tribal economy should be at an underdeveloped stage and it should have
multifarious economic pursuits)
 There should be a comparative geographical isolation of its people.
 They should have a common dialect.
 Tribe should be politically organized and community panchayat should be influential.
 A tribe should have customary laws.