Again, the aristocratic or landholding sections of several existing tribes are at present, as has been seen, permitted to rank with the good Hindu cultivating castes.

In a few cases, as the Andhs, Halbas and Manas, the tribe as a whole has become a Hindu caste, when it retained possession of the land in the centre of a Hindu population.

These have now the same or a slightly higher position than the village menial castes.

On the other hand, those tribes which were subjugated and permitted to live with a servile status in the Hindu villages have developed into the existing impure castes of labourers, weavers, tanners and others, who form the lowest social group.

The tribes which still retain their distinctive existence were not enslaved in this manner, but lived apart in their own villages in the forest tracts and kept possession of the land.