Tribes

Two prominent scheduled tribes of this region are the bhils and the meenas. The total population is about 31,25,506 of the scheduled tribes in the state. The bhils are mostly concentrated in the hill-locked districts of udaipur, dungarpur and banswara while the meenas are settled mainly in the jaipur, sawai- madhopur and udaipur districts.

Other scheduled tribes are the garasias and the sahrias. The garasias are concentrated in the pali and sirohi districts, while the sahrias are limited to a pocket of two tehsils in the kota district.

the bhils form the most significant tribal group in the state. The most undeveloped tribal group are the sahrias. All the scheduled tribes of Rajasthan are incorporated in the hindu social order.

Tribal settlements

The scheduled area includes dungarpur, banswara and the pratapgarh tehsil of chittorgarh district. The heavily concentrated tribal area comprises kherwara, kotra, gogunda, the phalasia tehsils of udaipur district, the abu road tehsil of sirohi district and the achnera and arnod panchayatsamities of chittorgarh district. In sparsely populated tribal area, the non-tribal population is predominant. This area includes tonk, bhilwara and alwar districts.

The tribal population in Rajasthan is concentrated in belts running from sirohi through the udaipur, dungarpur, chittorgarh and banswara districts to the bundi, kota, sawai, madhopur, tonk and jaipur districts.

The bhils are not gypsies. The whole of the bhil country which is the south-western part of Rajasthan is mountainous, embracing the wildest area of the aravallis. The bhils live in pals or clusters of detached huts among the hills, each hut standing on a small mound in the midst of its path of cultivated land. The settlement or pal is divided into a number of paras or phalas which afford cover and protection in case of attack. A cluster of huts within a single enclosure forms a typical bhil habitation in Rajasthan.

A garasia settlement is not a cluster of houses. The dwellings are scattered over slopes of hills and mounds and the fields extend in front of them. These solitary dwellings are made of bamboo and leaves and lightly plastered over with cow-dung.