In Jangalmahal, West Bengal CM Promises UCC, Anti-Conversion Law, Ignores Jobs, Tribal Rights
What is the future of work and livelihoods for the people of Jangalmahal? What is the government’s plan to bring back the large number of youth from the region who, unable to find jobs in their villages and towns, driven by economic desperation, are migrating to different parts of the country in search of work?
Instead of announcing concrete initiatives on these pressing issues, Suvendu Adhikari, Chief Minister of West Bengal, put the spotlight on preventing religious conversions in Jangalmahal.
Speaking to journalists on August 11 at a review meeting on the work of the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad held at the Bankura Zilla Parishad Auditorium, the chief minister said that steps would be taken to prevent religious conversions in the Paschimanchal region.
The chief minister did not say how many people in the area had actually changed their religion in recent times.
“UCC will be introduced within a few days,” he said. One state, one chief minister, one law – Uniform Civil Code,” he said. “We are all equal”, Adhikari added.
According to him, once the Uniform Civil Code is implemented, only two tasks will be left for the government to complete.
What are those tasks? First, after the proposed code, the government will pass a stringent law to prevent religious conversions. Alongside it, he said, a new law will be introduced to regulate the buying and selling of land.
At a time when unemployment and migration continue to push young people from Jangalmahal out of their homes in search of work and a living, why has preventing religious conversation emerged as a priority? Is not creating jobs and ensuring sustainable employment in the region important for the government?
On August 12, the chief minister said in Bankura that the previous government had allocated Rs 20 crore from the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad, of which only Rs 6 crore had been spent. “After we came to power, in the eight-month budget, we have allocated Rs 1,600 crore for the development of Paschimanchal,” he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Subhendu Adikari gives a new spin to development at a meeting held in the the Bankura Zilla Parishad Auditorium on August 11. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee
Paschimanchal Unnayan Parsad at a glance
The Paschimanchal Parshad was officially established on May 18, 2000, by a resolution of the Development and Planning Department of the West Bengal government. It later came under the administrative control of a new Department of Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs, created in July 2006 when the seventh Left Front government was in power in the state.
It was established to ensure overall social and economic development of people living in the forested and relatively backward areas of southern West Bengal, which include Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur, Paschim Bardhaman and Birbhum.
“The region is home to several tribal communities, along with the Kurmis and people belonging to Scheduled Caste communities. The development of these historically disadvantaged communities was accorded special attention under the initiative,” said Susanta Ghose, former Minister of Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad during the Left Front government.
“The initiative was conceived as a comprehensive development programme for the region,” he told The Wire.
He claimed that dams and other irrigation facilities were developed to support agriculture, roads were built through forested and hilly terrains and alternative farming practices were promoted. All of this was aimed at improving the economic condition of the vulnerable and socially backward residents of these areas.
A comprehensive master plan for the region was also prepared with the assistance of IIT Kharagpur.
However, Ghose says, just as these developmental efforts were underway, Jangalmahal was engulfed in a wave of Maoist violence. Bloody attacks claimed numerous lives and severely disrupted the work across the region.
According to Ghose, after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power, development work in the Paschimanchal areas gradually lost direction and now functioned without a clear long-term vision for the region.
The former minister’s found an echo on Thursday (August 13) in several parts of Ranibandh, Raipur in Jangalmahal, where residents recalled how the Parshad once provided direct support to the most disadvantaged families.
“During the Left Front government, we received financial assistance from the parshad for cultivation babui grass from which rope is made. Poor tribal and non-tribal families were given goats, chickens and ducks to help them become self-reliant. Women were provided with sewing machines, which they used to make plates and bowls from sal leaves. All of these initiatives stopped under the TMC government”, said Fakir Hansda, a farmer from Kulyam village in Ranibandh.
Several other residents, such as Bijli Shabar of Jovi village, narrated similar experiences.
But the immediate concern of the people here was what lay ahead for the younger generation. “Our young people are leaving the area in large numbers to find work. Will the new government bring them back and provide them with jobs,” they asked.
Several women residents said they were yet to receive the money promised under the Annapurna Yojana by the new government.
“The hundred-days employment scheme has stopped in our villages. Has the government said when it will resume,” Jayanta Shabar, a youth at Bardanga village of Ranibandh wanted to know.
People here are familiar with the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad not merely by name, but because many of them directly benefited from its schemes in the past. Yet, according to Rohini Mahato, the leader of Kendu leaf workers and Ranibandh resident, people have seen little that ‘landmark’ effort by the Parshad during the TMC's 15 years in power.
Several residents said they would welcome it if the BJP-led government gave greater importance to the parshad and revived its development programmes which could create livelihoods and strengthen the local economy.
Same old schemes promised, 'conversions', 'foreign funding' foregrounded
The chief minister held a meeting on August 11 with the Block Development Officers of all 74 blocks under the Parshad jurisdiction at the Bankura Zilla Parishad Auditorium.
At the end of the meeting, he told reporters that the Parshad would focus on the implementation of six flagship schemes of the state and central governments.
The schemes identified for priority implementation are Annapurna Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, VB G- RAM-JI, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Yojana and the Jal Jeevan Mission.
Adhikari said these schemes would be prioritised in Paschimanchal Unnayan areas, with the stated objective of accelerating development and improving access to essential welfare services.
This is the same press conference at which he announced that the Uniform Civil Code would be introduced in the state soon. He then alleged that attempts were being made in the forested areas of Jangalmahal to exploit the economic vulnerability of people to change their religion – with the help of foreign funds.
Also read: Objecting to Papers on Adivasi Religion, Government Body Cans Philosophy Meet
“We have seen instances in these forest areas where people’s economic hardship is exploited to encourage religious conversion using foreign funds,” he said.
“In the name of religious institutions, fundamentalists and radical groups are bringing money from abroad and carrying out illegal activities from within the country. This must be stopped. Therefore, a stringent law will be brought in to deal with religious conversion” the chief minister said.
Site of a cancelled Adivasi Utsav in Jangalmahal, West Bengal, August 2026. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee
But is religious conversion actually taking place on any significant scale in Jangalmahal?
Many residents of this the vast and underdeveloped region are demanding evidence. They want the government to disclose where, when and how many people have allegedly been converted.
The historical record suggests that during the British period, a small number of Adivasi people in the areas such as Sarenga in Bankura, Jhargram and Purulia came into contact with Christian missionaries through their welfare and charitable activities and subsequently embraced Christianity.
These conversions, residents point out, took place nearly a century ago. They say there is little evidence of any comparable trend in Jangalmahal.
Instead, many residents allege that for nearly 15 years, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and organisations associated with it have been attempting, in the name of social and welfare activities, to promote a Hindutva-oriented narrative among tribal communities.
Tribal communities in the region follow their own faith, called Sari or Sarna. “We do not worship idols. We worship nature,” any resident following Sarna you ask would say. Yet, they also allege that the BJP and RSS refuse to recognise their distinct religious identity and describe the Adivasis as “Banabasi Hindus” (Forest-dwelling Hindus).
Also read: Adivasis Must Be Allowed to Register Their Religions in the Census
Residents cite several instances from Jhilimili in Ranibandh and Haludkanali in Raipur, where programmes involving tribal communities’ participation included readings from the Gita and the Ramayana. Several people allege that numerous schools established and run by RSS-linked organisations across Jangalmahal are indirectly promoting Hindu religious ideas among students and their parents.
The political context, they argue, is equally significant. Since the BJP came to power in the state, the government has introduced a series of rules and directives that critics say disproportionately target minorities. At the political level too, they allege religious minorities have faced repeated attacks from Hindutva groups. In Subhash Gram village in the Sonarpur area, for instance, a church under construction was reportedly attacked a few days ago by a saffron group.
Against this backdrop, many people in Bankura see the chief minister’s warning, issued from government meetings, about bringing in a stringent law against religious conversion as part of a familiar political pattern associated with the Sangh Parivar.
But for the residents of Jangalmahal, this leaves the central question unanswered: if religious conversion is being cited as an urgent threat, where is evidence and why has it suddenly become a priority over the region’s longstanding questions of employment, migration and economic development?
In this context, what is also troubling people in the area is why the state government did not observe Biswa Adivasi Day (World Indigenous Peoples’ Day) this year.
The pandal erected in Jhargram for the Biswa Adivasi day celebrations, dismantled after the state government directed officials to call off the programme. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee
Every year on August 9, on this day, the West Bengal government would organise state-level programmes at numerous locations. District administrations would also hold programmes across the state. The government would honour distinguished and accomplished members of Adivasi communities for their contributions to different fields.
This year, Jhargram had been chosen to host the state-level programme. Preparations were underway and a large pandal had been erected for the event.
But on August 5, the principal secretary to the state’s Tribal Development Department issued letters directing cancellation of any official events to mark Biswa Adivasi Diwas. The instruction was sent to all district magistrate and other concerned officials across the state. Soon after, the pandal erected in Jhargram was dismantled. No district went held government-sponsored Adivasi day celebrations this year.
The letter cancelling events for World Day of Indigenous People, issued by the Principal Secretary of the Tribal Development Department of West Bengal. Photo: Madhu Sudan Chatterjee
The decision has left many in Jangalmahal deeply disturbed. Why was a programme that had been observed every year suddenly cancelled, they ask.
For many tribal people, the answer is linked to the larger political debate over their identity.
The RSS does not recognise us as Adivasi in the way we identify ourselves. Is that why even our day of recognition and celebration has now disappeared, ask residents.
The cancellation, they say, has caused a deep sense of hurt in a region where questions of Adivasi identity, dignity and cultural autonomy have remained central to public life.
For the people of the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parshad area, the silence surrounding the cancellation of Adivasi day has touched a raw nerve – who gets to define who an Adivasi is, and who gets to decide which identity is officially recognised?
This article went live on August twenty-eighth, two thousand twenty six, at thirty minutes past twelve at noon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
