History

Brief general historical overview
India emerged as a modern democratic nation-state in 1947 after a struggle for independence from British rule that was characterized by the first large-scale use of non-violent resistance and civil disobedience as a means of social protest. It became a republic in 1950, with the completion of a constitution that guaranteed "liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship". India's history since independence has been marked by disunity and intermittent periods of virtual chaos. India has fought a number of wars against its neighbours, most notably four wars against Pakistan, and one against China, and unrest continues to this day in the north-western region of Kashmir and with regular Hindu-Muslim clashes.
 
With a socialist-inspired economy up to the early 1990s, India continued to make slow progress away from the position the British had left the country in. Tt was only after extensive economic reforms in the early 1990s, however, that India's economy began to grow at a high rate. Today, in the 21st century, India is considered an emerging economic superpower.
 
Historical developments of importance to indigenous peoples 
Historically, the economy of most indigenous tribes was subsistence agriculture or hunting and gathering. In the early 20th century, however, large areas fell into the hands of non-tribals, on account of improved transportation and communications. Around 1900, many regions were opened up by the government to settlement through a scheme by which inward migrants received free ownership of land in return for cultivating it. For indigenous people, however, land was often viewed as a common resource, free to whoever needed it. By the time indigenous people had accepted the need to obtain formal land titles, they had lost the opportunity to lay claim to lands that might rightfully have been considered theirs. The colonial and post-independence regimes belatedly realized the need to protect indigenous people from the predations of outsiders, and prohibited the sale of tribal lands. Although an important loophole in the form of land leases was left open, tribes made some gains in the mid-twentieth century, and some land was returned to indigenous people despite obstruction by local police and land officials.

With the passing of the Constitution of India in 1949, indigenous peoples were officially recognized by the Indian government as "Scheduled Tribes", eligible for certain affirmative action measures.

In the 1970s, indigenous people again came under intense land pressure, especially in central India. Migration into tribal lands increased dramatically, as tribal peoples lost title to their lands in many ways – lease, forfeiture from debts, or bribery of land registry officials. Other non-tribals simply squatted, or even lobbied governments to classify them as tribal to allow them to compete with the formerly established tribes. In any case, many tribals became landless labourers in the 1960s and 1970s, and regions that a few years earlier had been the exclusive domain of tribals had an increasingly mixed population of tribals and non-tribal people. Government efforts to evict non-tribal members from illegal occupation have proceeded slowly; when evictions occur at all, those ejected are usually members of poor, lower castes.

Government policies on forest reserves have also affected indigenous people profoundly. Government efforts to reserve forests have precipitated armed (if futile) resistance on the part of the indigenous people involved. Intensive exploitation of forests has often meant allowing outsiders to cut large areas of trees (while the original indigenous inhabitants were restricted from cutting), and ultimately replacing mixed forests capable of sustaining indigenous life with single-product plantations.

Source: Wikipedia