ABSTRACT
The government took control of the jungles and leased plots of forest to contractors. Some tribes were engaged in barter trade with the surrounding agricultural communities, exchanging forest produce such as herbs and honey, metal goods, tamarind, salt, clothes, honey and grain. The British government notified backward communities as criminals. Members born into these nomadic tribes were stigmatized as ‘born criminals’. Legally until the year 1871, when the traditional behaviour on the part of certain tribes became a problem for the British government, no tribe as a whole was dubbed as criminal tribes. The wandering tribes were kept under continuous watch and vigilance. With the repeal of the Criminal Tribal Act, many communities and families were legally set free from the draconian colonial criminal law. The Madras government felt that the criminal law existing in the country was sufficient to discipline Yerukulas. The colonial state treated the Yerukula tribe as one of the criminal classes in Madras Presidency.
