ABSTRACT
The main task before planners, administrators and politicians was the removal of social and economic inequalities and establishment of an egalitarian society. Their main concentration was on the accelerated development of tribals to enable them to catch-up with main stream development. The tribals remain stigmatized, branded and dishonoured in the absence of legally responsive mechanisms. There is an imperative need to study the status of basic human rights, administrative attitudes and violations of human rights by law-enforcing authorities in case of tribal societies. Colonial rule classified native population of India as wandering tribes, criminal classes and communities. Police records of the British Raj codified the behaviour of native population. The gypsy way of life and trading activities of the criminal communities were described as vagrancy or lust for wandering. Colonial administrators considered that members of criminal communities looked different from ordinary human beings in their physical appearance.
