Fractured ethnic space of rabha tribe of North Bengal

Abstract

In recent time North Bengal is turning out to be the seedbed of social unrest as different ethnic groups are out to establish their own ethnopolitical space. The Rabha, a small indigenous tribal group, who inhabit the forest and non-forest villages, were a single united group in terms of their socio-cultural system in the pre-independence period, but in post-independence period they seem to be a fragmented lot. They are fragmented along political and religious lines; the entry of Christianity, in particular, has brought about boundaries within the ethnic community.