Criminal Tribes Act
Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 4 "The Colonial Era in India"
Meaning
The Criminal Tribes Act was a British law of 1871. It labelled hundreds of communities in India as 'criminal tribes'. This meant the colonial state treated a whole group as criminal from birth, not just a person who had done something wrong. Many of these communities were wandering traders, herders or forest peoples whose way of life the British distrusted. The law led to decades of harassment, and it was one of the tribal grievances against colonial rule.
Example
Under the Act, men from a listed community had to register with the police and report to them regularly, and they could not move about freely. After Independence the Act was repealed in 1949. The communities were 'denotified' in 1952, and today they are called Denotified Tribes.
Don't confuse with
- Scheduled Tribes: a category in the Constitution of independent India that gives tribal communities protection and benefits. It is not a colonial label of criminality.
Related concepts
- Rangpur uprising 1783
- Poligar wars
- Veerapandiya Kattabomman
- Velu Thampi Dalawa
- Paika rebellion 1817
- Kittur Chennamma
- Ahom revolt 1828