Step 1: Definition:
A tribal community is a group of people who share a common ancestry, territory, language and culture, and who traditionally live outside (or on the margins of) the mainstream caste-based Hindu social order.
Step 2: Distinguishing features:
Tribal communities are typically characterised by a distinct geographic habitat (often forest or hilly regions), a subsistence-based economy (hunting, gathering, shifting cultivation), kinship-based social organisation, and their own customary laws, beliefs and rituals, generally outside the varna system.
Final Answer:
A tribal community is a socially and territorially distinct group, bound by common kinship, language and custom, and constitutionally recognised in India as a "Scheduled Tribe".