The varying status of the Bhuiyas in Bihar, Chota Nagpur and Orissa
is a good instance of the different ways in which the primitive
tribes have fared in contact with the immigrant Aryans. Where the
country has been completely colonised and populated by Hindus, as
in Bihar, the aboriginal residents have commonly become transformed
into village drudges, relegated to the meanest occupations, and
despised as impure by the Hindu cultivators, like the Chamars of
northern India and the Mahars of the Maratha Districts. Where the
Hindu immigration has only been partial and the forests have not
been cleared, as in Chota Nagpur and the Central Provinces, they may
keep their old villages and tribal organisation and be admitted as
a body into the hierarchy of caste, ranking above the impure castes
but below the Hindu cultivators. This is the position of the Gonds,
Baigas and other tribes in these tracts. While, if the Hindus come
only as colonists and not as rulers, the indigenous residents may
retain the overlordship of the soil and the landed proprietors among
them may be formed into a caste ranking with the good cultivating
castes of the Aryans. Instances of such are the Khandaits of Orissa,
the Binjhwars of Chhattisgarh and the Bhilalas of Nimar and Indore.