The adaptation of tribes to the conditions of modern society is a problem of great importance for the world. Different states have been solving it in different ways. The democratic India has chosen the path of integration, the drawing of tribes (they are also called adivasi - the aborigines, etc.) into the system of modern economic, social and political relations (or, as they say in India, into the "mainstream" of social development). The hope is connected with the bourgeois modernization, the development of individual initiative and competition, the formation of a middle class. This policy is definitely giving its results. The tribes have enlarged their participation in the state bodies on all levels. A perceptible success has been reached in the sphere of education. As for overcoming the adivasi's poverty here the results have proved to be far more modest. And while the developed tribes enter the "main stream" with a relative ease for those less developed ones (and such are the majority) the integration leads to the deterioration of their social and economic situation, the destruction of their traditional culture and organization. The spontaneous protests of the adivasi against poverty and the absence of rights, often accompanied by violence, cause a violent response on the part of the state and society, strengthen their mutual alienation. The many years of India's experience show that the tribes' problem cannot be solved by the state only. The efforts of the whole society are necessary for it.