Abstract
FURTHER consideration was given to the position of the aboriginal tribes under the provisions of the India Bill in Committee of the House of Commons on May 9 and 13, when an amendment to Clause 6 was moved by Mr. Cadogan (Finchley, U.) proposing the extension and modification of the excluded and partially excluded areas named in the schedule thereto. The “anthropologists”, as Mr. Winston Churchill happily termed the supporters of the amendment, urged with vigour the necessity for a much wider application of the principle of exclusion, by which jungle and hill peoples living under tribal conditions remain outside the jurisdiction and administration of the Provincial Governments and are entrusted to the care of the Federal Governor. It is evident that while the Government is in sympathy with the principle, difficulty has been felt as to the limits to which its application is a practical possibility. The Under Secretary to the India Office (Mr. Butler) explained what these difficulties are. While mainly administrative, especially where ‘pockets' of aboriginal tribes live among a more advanced population, they also entail the possibility of a retrocession where some cultural advance has already been made.
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“Backward Tracts” in the India Bill. Nature 135, 835–836 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135835d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135835d0