Syncretism is a process of cultural borrowing astutely handled by the borrowers in a culture. It is taken up by the borrowers in a culture. It is taken up by the informed and learned members of that society which borrows cultural elements from another with the positive motive and providing therewith the traditional justification. Instances of syncretism have been referred to by Nabendu Dutta-Majumdar in his outstanding Santal study and by McKim Marriot in his study of Indian society at Kisangarhi. Both the studies have been conducted in pluri-cultural situations. Obviously these pluri-cultural situations indicate cultural inequality and differentiation amongst the constituent social groups or communities.
In his Santal study Dutta-Majumdar found that the Santals were socially and economically encysted by the dominant neighbouring Hindus. During the Pre-independence era some Santals unequivocally accepted cultural superiority of Hindus Vis-a-vis their culture. It may be mentioned here that the general trend, before independence, was Hinduisation by tribals in general. Some tribals were more attracted towards the Hindu fold than others. The processes of Hinduisation among the tribes have been studied by many scholars and there is denial of the fact that the process of caste formation among some of the tribes was a conspicuous sociological phenomenon.
McKim Marriot has elaborately discussed the multi-caste cultural situation in the multi-caste village of Kisangarhi although higher castes people lived in distinct hamlets, which are located at a distance from Dalit or Scheduled Castes settlements in the same proximity. Marriot has drawn attention to the higher culture of higher caste Hindu life of the erstwhile asprushyas. He has drawn the attention of Anthropologists, Sociologists and Indologists the fact that goddess Lakshmi is worshipped by the Hindus as the presiding goddess of wealth and economic well-being. She is worshipped daily morning and evening and offered special prayers and offerings on important hlindu festival occasions.
She is not only worshipped as a household deity but also as probably the most important goddess which the Hindu family propitiates. In every Hindu courtyard and one invariably comes across of a Tulasi (Holy Basil) plant enshrined and worshipped. The plant symbolises goddess Lakshmi for every devout Hindu. In the village Kisangarhi, the scheduled caste families have planted Tulasi plants in their respective courtyards and worship regularly and daily not as a sanskritic goddess but as a folk deity. They offer both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods to the goddess and the Holy Basil alter.
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For caste Hindus, Holy Basil symbolises goddess Lakshmi who is propitiated as a sanskritic deity with elaborate Brahmanic customs and traditions. There might have been some deviations in some cases in view of individual caste variation due to hierarchical position in the social order. The erstwhile untouchable castes sometimes identify Tulasi Mata as the presiding deity of epidemics and certain inherent diseases and whenever necessary during the outbreak of an epidemic for their eradication of that epidemic from their hamlet.
The deity is worshipped individually as well as collectively as the epidemic is a threat to collective survival. This sort of justification and reinterpretation has been studied by Mc Kim Marriot. The reinterpretation is a means of cultural defense of the process of cultural borrowing. Through reinterpretation the borrowers make an attempt to obviate the factor of borrowing and thereby claiming the nativistic element in the whole episode. The fact of reinterpretation is always aimed at concealment of cultural borrowing which is probably considered as derogatory and cultural deprivation.
This sort of attitude and practice amongst some sections of certain Orissan tribes, namely the Gadaba, the Didayi, the Kandha, the Saora, the Juang, the Bhuiyan, the Bhumij and the Santal, who have Planted and worshipped Tulasi or Holy Basil plant in their respective courtyards, they have perfectly syncretised the Tulasi with their respective goddesses of wealth and well-being. They worship in accordance with their tribal mode of propitiation of benevolent goddesses. Some even identify Holy Basil plant as an incarnation of mother earth and offer both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food items. They are all assortive that they have not borrowed the propitiation of Tulasi plants from their Hindu neighbours. They tried to reinterpret and justified to defend their cultural practices as part of their indigenous cultures. But one thing is clear, like their Hindu neighbor they primarily worship Tulasi for their prosperity and well-being.