The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 2, is part of R. V. Russell’s monumental ethnographic compilation, produced under the British colonial administration in the early twentieth century. Organised as an encyclopaedic survey, it documents the customs, occupations, religious practices, marriage rules, and traditions of the many castes and tribal communities of central India.
Compiled from official inquiries and local informants, the work reflects the classificatory mindset of colonial anthropology while preserving a vast amount of detail about social life now valuable to historians and sociologists. Modern readers should approach its framework critically, but the volume remains an important historical source on the diversity of Indian society, its hierarchies, and the everyday lives of its peoples at the turn of the century.