Social exclusion : a discourse on tribal societies in Assam / C.J. Sonowal.

The term 'social exclusion' originated in French social policy in the 1970s. The idea of Social exclusion is primarily based on the understanding what social inclusion is. The concept of inclusion may be defined as a mechanism of encompassing of the entire population in the performances of the individual function systems. The situation opposite to this concept may be seen as social exclusion.

'Disadvantage as a construct has been widely used for conceptualization of social exclusion. Sociologists have paid greater attention to identity-based forms of disadvantage'. Such disadvantage reflects the cultural devaluation of groups and categories of people in a society. Caste, tribe, ethnicity and religion are examples of such group identities. Social exclusion may also be seen as an institutionalized form of inequality, the failure of a society to extend to all sections of its population, the economic resources and social recognition which they need in order to participate fully in the collective life of the community.

Karbi tribe lives predominantly in Karbi Anglong district. The tribe has the history of political exclusion under the colonial rule as per "Excluded and partially Excluded area" administration arrangement. Presently, the district comes under 6th Schedule jurisdiction of constitution of India. The traditional Karbi domain has witnessed diverse kinds of changes in their social, cultural, economic and political life along with unequal development and social, economic and political exploitation. On the other hand, the Sonowal Kachari tribe resides in the plains of Assam who are included in the similar administrative and socio-political domain like many other non-tribal and tribal population of the state. Being tribal people and the original inhabitant of the state, the Sonowal Kacharis also have experienced social exclusion in one or the other form.

The book is the product of a research study sponsored by the ICSSR in the year 2014. The primary objective was to investigate the process of social exclusion these two tribal groups undergone through, employing the various perspectives of Social Exclusion current in academic domain.