KUDMI COMMUNITY
1. Context
Kudmi community, which is demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and the inclusion of their language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, lifted their agitation following assurances from the West Bengal government
The community had been sitting on protest in the Junglemahal areas of West Bengal and parts of Jharkhand. Last week, they blocked National Highways and railway tracks in Bengal’s West Midnapore and Purulia and some areas of Jharkhand for five days
2. Who are Kudmis?
- Kudmis are mainly a peasant community, with their population concentrated in the Junglemahal areas or the Chota Nagpur plateau of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha
- Some Kudmis are also found in Assam and northern West Bengal, who have migrated from the Chota Nagpur plateau region
- During the British rule, they were in the Scheduled Tribe or Aboriginal community list, and were regarded as a primitive tribe, like the Munda, Oraon, Bhumij, Kharia, Santhal, and others
3. Reasons for their Exclusion from ST list
- After 1950, when the Scheduled Tribe list was prepared in independent India, Kudmis did not find a place on it
- Ever since, they have been fighting for their identity as a Scheduled Tribe
- The Kudmis argue that in the British era, various documents listed them as a tribe and an aboriginal community of India, and they want that identity restored
- According to community members, during the British rule, some affluent Kudmis wanted to elevate their social status as “kshatriya” in the Hindu caste hierarchy, while other members opposed this “sanskritisation”
- Not only Kudmis, many other adivasi communities participated in that movement
- Unfortunately, they were excluded from Scheduled Tribe list after independence
- Now they are demanding their original identity. It is also true that, like other adivasi communities, their socio-economic condition has not changed
- Another section of the Kudmi population alleges that they were excluded from the ST list to show an increase in the population of the Hindu community
4. Demands
Over the past decade, in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, an intensified movement was witnessed by the Adibasi Kudmi Samaj and its allied organisations, mainly led by former Jharkhand Movement crusader Ajit Prasad Mahato
Since then, the community has been vocally demanding inclusion in the ST list
Several social and political organisations also have emerged to champion the case, such as the Purbanchal Adibasi Kudmi Samaj, Kudmi Sena, Abga Kudmi Sena, Kudmi Samannay Samiti, Kudmi Unnayan Samiti, Kudmi Bikash Morcha, and United Kudumi Samaj
Source: indianexpress
