F.G. Bailey made an important contribution to the study of Indian tribal societies by examining the relationship between tribe and caste. His work challenged the idea that tribes and castes are completely separate and isolated social categories. Through his studies, particularly in Odisha, Bailey explained how tribal communities and caste groups interact with each other and how social change can produce a continuum between tribal and caste social systems. The concept of the tribe-caste continuum refers to the gradual transition or overlapping relationship between tribal and caste societies. Earlier anthropologists often treated tribe and caste as two distinct types of social organisation. Tribes were generally associated with relatively egalitarian communities, kinship-based organisation, common territory and traditional customs, whereas caste was characterised by hierarchy, occupational specialization,