Important Questions for CBSE Class 11 English Woven Chapter 4 - Tribal Verse

A. Very Short Answer Questions: (1 Marks)

1. Word-Meaning:
(i) Canonized 

Ans: Officially declared to be a saint

(ii) Utterances

Ans: Remark

(iii) Repository 

Ans: Storehouse

(iv) Onlooker

Ans: Eye witness

(v) Itinerant 

Ans: Travelling

2. The roots of India’s literary can be traced to what?

Ans: The roots of India’s literary tradition can be traced to the rich oral literature of the Adivasis (tribes).

3. The verses by the tribal are the expression of what?

Ans: The verses in the form of songs or chants express the close relationship between the world of tribal existence and the world of nature.

4. What has caused the marginalisation of the tribes? 

Ans: The forces of urbanisation, print culture and commerce have resulted in the marginalisation of the tribes, their literary cultures as well as their languages.

5. Why are efforts made to conserve tribes? 

Ans: Various efforts have been made to conserve tribes because they are different from the materialistic world. They have their own communities and rules and rituals all over the world. The government and various human rights organisations are making attempts to collect and conserve tribal languages and their literature.

B. Short Answer Questions: (2 Marks) 

1. What are some languages spoken by different tribes? 

Ans: Some languages spoken by different tribes are Munda, Kondh, Adi, and Bondo. However, they are bilingual and speak the language of the state too.

2. What is a feast for the folklorists, anthropologists, and linguists, but nothing to a literary critic?

Ans: The feast for folklorists, anthropologists, and linguists, but nothing for a literary critic, is the literary composition of languages that are not considered literature.

3. How are nomadic Indian communities united? 

Ans: Some nomadic Indian communities are broken up and spread over long distances, but survive as communities because they are united by their oral epics.

4. What characteristics could be hard to understand about the tribes? 

Ans: It can be hard to understand how the tribes are capable of dancing, singing, crafting, building, and speaking so well, too, without any guidance or tutoring or institutional training.

5. What is a belief about the tribal creations concerning conventions or rules? 

Ans: It is a belief that tribal creations do not have any rules or regulations, but they do accept the principle of association between emotion and descriptive patterns.

C. Short Answer Questions: (3 Marks)

1. What are the songs followed by different tribes?

Ans: The songs followed by different tribes are:

(i) Munda Song (Song of Birth and Death): - This song is sung at the time of the birth of a daughter or a son. It is a tradition of the Munda tribes.

(ii) Kondh Song: - This song is sung by the Kondh tribes at the death of a person to stop troubling the living.

(iii) Adi Song (Recovery of lost health): - This song is sung in the ritualistic religious language of the Adi tribe by the maternal uncle of a sick person. However, the language is different from their conversation language.

2. How have tribal groups become important subjects? 

Ans: The tribal groups have become important for the following reasons: -

(i) Some tribes, such as the Santhal, have become important subjects in leading fictional streams such as Bangla literature and even well-developed Santhali literature.

(ii) Tribes such as the Munda and Santhal have played a major role in the socio-political movements of their regions.

(iii) Birsa Munda spent his whole life fighting against colonialism and the exploitation of labour.

(iv) Through their participation in the Jharkhand movement, the Santhals have emerged as a prominent regional and state-level group.

3. What do you know about the Munda song of the Munda tribe? 

Ans: The ceremonies and rituals of the Munda tribes are linked to birth, death and marriage. They live in close harmony with nature and their lives are synchronised with the changing measures of nature, the seasons, and the rising and setting of the sun. The specific Munda song is sung to rhythmic folk tunes at the time of the birth of a daughter or a son. It is believed that while doing this, the tribe connects itself with nature. A cowshed full of cows is related to the birth of a daughter, whereas its depletion is associated with the birth of a son. This is because a daughter is considered a more precious asset than a son.

4. What do you know about the Kondh song of the Kondh tribe? 

Ans: The Kondh tribe have faith in performing various rituals on the occasion of birth, death, puberty, and marriage. Each with specific folk songs and dances for the specific occasion. This tribe believes in the presence of gods and spirits in both kind (benevolent) and spiteful (malevolent) manners. They are distributed over the districts of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh. People of this tribe speak the Kondh language, though most of them are bilingual.

The Kondh song is sung by the Kondh tribes at the death of a person to stop troubling the living. The song begins by stating that the dead spirit will only accept offerings if the other members of the family continue to live and prosper. They disclose their readiness to do anything to make the spirit happy, but, in return, the spirit must also guarantee not to cause any nuisance with their visits.

5. What do you know about the Adi song of the Adi tribe? 

Ans: The Adi song (Recovery of lost health) is sung by the Adi tribe. It is actually a mantra that is recited in Miri Agom to tempt the spirit of good health back into the body of an ill person. They believe that a person falls ill when the spirit of good health discards the body due to some shock. The song is chanted in a ritual and is performed by the maternal uncle of the ailing person. The Adi tribe has two major languages-Adi Agom and Miri Agom. Miri Agom is a highly rhythmic language used for chanting during their rituals, while Adi Agom is a language for a routine conversation.

D. Long Answer Questions: (5 Marks)

1. What is one of the main characteristics of the tribal arts?

Ans: One of the main characteristics of the tribal arts is their unique way of constructing space and imagery. It is often described as' hallucinatory’. Tribal artists often seem to interpret verbal or pictorial space as demarcated by an extremely flexible 'frame' in their oral and visual forms of representation. The limit between art and non-art is non-existing. A tribal classic can begin its narration with a trivial everyday event. The tribal paintings merge with living space as if the two were the same. And within the account itself, or within the painted imagery, there is no intentional attempt to follow a series. The episodes are retold and the images are created to take on the mixed-up outline of dreams. The creativity of the tribal artist lies in adhering to the past, but at the same time, it is challenging.

2. What was considered as the ‘new literature’? 

Ans: The author says that the works, verbal or graphical, by the tribal artists have been translated into the English language as they have had a humongous impact on the colonials. The work of contemporary Indian writers, who are inherited from a multilingual tradition several thousand years, was categorised as "new literature." The literary community in India saw this classification as colonial, and Western scholars had no idea how colonial it was. They were unaware of the fact that it was funny to the literary community in India. Therefore, the world must understand that the literature of the tribes or the Adivasis is not a new movement or a fresh ‘trend’ in the field of literature as it has always existed. The only difference is that the people were unaware of it. What might be new is the current effort to see ingenious appearances in a tribal language not as ‘folklore’ but as literature and to hear the tribal tongue not as a vernacular but as a language.

3. Write a note on Munda Tribe. 

Ans: The tribe Munda is native to some parts of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. The other name for Munda is Horohon or Mura, which means the headman of a village. This tribe is one of the most studied tribes by the people and has an entire encyclopaedia on them, ‘Encyclopaedia Mundarica', in 16 volumes, written by the Reverend John Baptist Hoffman and other Jesuit scholars. The Munda relatives were the first Adivasis to resist colonialism and revolted continuously over agrarian issues. The ceremonies and rituals of the Munda tribes are linked to birth, death and marriage. They live in close harmony with nature and their lives are synchronised with the changing measures of nature, the seasons, and the rising and setting of the sun. The specific Munda song is sung to rhythmic folk tunes at the time of the birth of a daughter or a son. It is believed that while doing this, the tribe connects itself with nature. A cowshed full of cows is related to the birth of a daughter, whereas its depletion is associated with the birth of a son. This is because a daughter is considered a more precious asset than a son.

4. Write a note on the Kondh Tribe.

Ans: The term ‘Kondh’ is derived from the word Konda, a Dravidian word that means hill. The tribe is divided into many segments. They are distributed over the districts of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh. The religion of the Kondhs is known as Kondh. It is a mixture of the traditional faith of Adivasis and Hinduism. People of this tribe speak the Kondh language. Most of them are bilingual and speak the major language of the state to which they belong. The Kondh tribe has faith in performing various rituals on the occasion of birth, death, puberty, and marriage. Each with specific folk songs and dances for the specific occasion. They do not practice the dowry system, but they have fixed a price for the bride that the groom has to pay in cash or any kind. The Kondh song is sung by the Kondh tribes at the death of a person to stop troubling the living. The song begins by stating that the dead spirit will only accept offerings if the other members of the family continue to live and prosper. They disclose their readiness to do anything to make the spirit happy, but, in return, the spirit must also guarantee not to cause any nuisance with their visits.

5. Write a note on the Adi tribe? 

Ans: Adi is a generic term that refers to hill people and includes a variety of groups. The name or the term is used for all the hill tribes living around the Brahmaputra valley. But mostly, their population is found in the East and West Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The belief of this tribe relies on every object in the universe. The tribe believes that all living things, including humans, animals, trees, and birds, have a spirit that needs to be nourished and worshipped. Among humans, hunting is not only considered a need for survival but an action of courage and skill, but the tribe believes that one must hunt only for survival and for voracity. The Adi song (Recovery of lost health) is sung by the Adi tribe. It is a mantra that is recited in Miri Agom to tempt the spirit of good health back into the body of an ill person. They believe that a person falls ill when the spirit of good health discards the body due to some shock. The song is chanted in a ritual and is performed by the maternal uncle of the ailing person. The Adi tribe has two major languages-Adi Agom and Miri Agom. Miri Agom is a highly rhythmic language used for chanting during their rituals, while Adi Agom is a language for a routine conversation.