Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences Volume V, No 4. Quarter IV 2014 ISSN: 2229 – 5313 1 EXCLUDING THE ‘EX-CRIMINAL TRIBES’: UNDERSTANDING DOMINATION AND INTERPLAY OF CASTE IN INDIA Dattatreya Bhandalkar PhD Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India ABSTRACT The ‘Ex-criminal Tribes’ of India comprise a significant population in our country who were once declared as ‘Criminals’ by the British with the enactment of Criminal Tribes Act, 1871.These tribes, now referred as ‘De-notified’ tribes, continue to remain stigmatized and discriminated by dominant sections, deprived of access and excluded of opportunities to exercise the basic human rights. Caste as a character of societal structure played a significant role. This paper emerged out of an empirical research undertaken as part of the pre-doctoral study. It is sincere attempt to bring to the forefront the views and experiences of the Ramoshi tribes in Maharashtra about being “De-notified” in society. It illustrates the responses of other dominant sections in society about how they perceive the ‘Ramoshis’. The ‘Ramoshis’ were one among many tribes, declared as ‘Criminal’s by the British. The caste structure interplayed within the context leading to exclusion in context of livelihood, access to common resources available at villages, employment opportunities, participation and representation in village decision making processes, appropriate treatment by other sections of society, etc. The paper exemplifies the existence of power relations and interplay of caste politics with the reality of social exclusion existing among the tribal. This exploratory research, qualitative in nature, adopted a Case study approach which helped the researcher to understand the reality of the De-notified tribes. Key words: Ex-criminal tribes, interplay of caste, criminalization, exclusion