BharatNotes De-notified Tribes
noun phrase (plural)Usage in a UPSC answer
The Renke Commission (2008) recommended that de-notified tribes be included in the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe lists to provide them constitutional protection and welfare access.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
de-notified tribes (n phrase), notify (v), notification (n), notified (adj)
Root
Latin de- = reversal + notificare = to make known (nota = mark + facere = to make) + Old English tribus = division of people
Etymology
The Criminal Tribes Act (1871) was repealed and 'de-notification' occurred under the Habitual Offenders Act (1952); the Renke Commission (2008) documented their continued marginalisation and recommended inclusion in SC/ST lists for constitutional protection
Memory Hook
DE-NOTIFIED = removed from the colonial NOTICE/LIST; British NOTIFIED them as criminals, post-Independence India DE-NOTIFIED (removed) that label — but stigma remained
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
Communities that the colonial state had listed as 'criminal tribes' and which were removed from that list after independence. The chain to state precisely is: the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, passed in the suspicion that followed the Revolt of 1857 and aimed at mobile, forest-based, pastoral, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities; the Act repealed in 1949, beginning in Madras province; the communities de-notified in 1952; and the Habitual Offenders Act, 1952 enacted in its place. That last step is the examinable irony, since habitual-offender legislation reproduced much of the suspicion the repeal was meant to end.
Don’t Confuse It With
De-notified tribes were removed from the colonial criminal-tribes list. Nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes are classified by mobility rather than by that colonial listing, and the categories overlap without being identical. Scheduled Tribes is a distinct constitutional category, and many DNT communities are not scheduled at all, which is precisely why their entitlements remain contested.
Hindi Meaning
विमुक्त जनजातियाँ (vimukt janjātiyān), literally liberated tribes.
Common Questions
- Who are de-notified tribes?
- Communities that were listed as criminal tribes under the colonial Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 and were removed from that list after independence, the Act being repealed in 1949 and the communities de-notified in 1952.
- What replaced the Criminal Tribes Act?
- The Habitual Offenders Act, 1952, which many argue carried forward much of the same suspicion of the communities the repeal was meant to free.
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