Since the past ten years, the West Bengal state government has been organising the Jungle Mahal Utsav during the winter months in the south-western districts of the state, Malda and Alipurduar. The festival aims at reviving and preserving the art, craft and culture of tribal communities, who form the majority population of this region.
This year, a number of tribal organisations or sangathans came together to boycott the utsav held on January 20 and 21. At a press conference under the banner of West Bengal Scheduled Tribe Welfare Association (WBSTWA), the reason for the boycott was explained – the continuous disregard of genuine development of the Adivasi community.
Poster calling for the boycott of the Jungle Mahal Utsav, issued by the Paschimbanga Adibashi Kalyan Samity, Purulia District chapter. Photo: Author provided.
Jungle Mahal
The Jungle Mahal region comprises the districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia, Paschim Midnapore, Jhargram and Purba Burdwan, Paschim Burdwan, a nomenclature given by the British in 1805, when to curb the uprisings and streamline governance of this forested ‘frontier’ a new district by the same name was formed. The Jungle Mahals have had a tumultuous history witnessing past and contemporary movements for Jal-Jungle-Zamin (water, forest and land rights), recognition for their communities’ distinct language, script, culture and history, and Maoist movements.
The state government, in 2000, used the term Paschimanchal Unnayan Parishad Area (PUPA) to describe these backward regions and subsequently formed the Paschimanchal Unnayan Parishad for better implementation and monitoring of development work in these regions.
In 2006, a Department of Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs was formed to streamline these efforts. The department does not have a website and conversations with Adivasi community representatives, and visits to these districts, did not reveal much about the Parishad’s presence or work.
The call for boycott
“Lack of education opportunities and access has always been a major concern but the fact that we still have to take to the streets to demand basic facilities for our children is a matter of shame for the government,” said Sasikanta Murmu, assistant professor and head of department, political science, at the Mahatma Gandhi College, Purulia.
A report released by Pratichi Trust and Asiatic Society of Bengal in 2020 revealed the poor living standards of the Adivasi population in the state.
West Bengal has only seven Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS). The government maintained adivasikalyan website mentions that every EMRS has a capacity of 60 students per class, from VI-XII, thus totalling to 3,600 students per ERMS. However, the figure of enrolment displayed on the website stands at 2,728 students in all the 7 EMRS collectively, with those in the Jungle Mahal region at a dismal 1,950 students.
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The website figures reveal the Sikshree scholarship given to ST day scholars, has fallen drastically (2014-2022). “During the lockdown, many ST and SC hostels and ashram schools were shut and never reopened. The state government’s move to transfer monthly allowances of students to the students accounts directly instead of the headmaster’s did not reap positive benefits either,” says Ganapati Kisku, an old-time member of ASECA (Adibasi Socio Educational and Cultural Association), an organisation founded by the revered Pandit Raghunath Murmu.
Those working on this issue also claim that many schools and hostels available for those from SC and ST communities are lying shut.
‘No party truly cares about Adivasi issues’
The second major reason given for the boycott was the alleged misuse of ST certificates by people form non-ST communities. The tribal communities’ representatives and leaders believe that such fraudulent activity is not possible without the government being in the know.
Official poster for Jungle Mahal Utsav 2025. Photo: Author provided,
“In the 2023 Panchayat election of the state we saw all the three major parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress, selected non-ST candidates, holding a ST certificate wrongfully, to stand for elections in the reserved constituencies. At that moment we realised that no political party cares for the Adivasis and we ourselves will have to do something,” alleged Pasil Kisku, the State Secretary of WBSTWA.
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Formed in 2020, after several rounds of discussions with over 40 Adivasi-rights organisations, WBSTWA has worked relentlessly to investigate fake ST certificates. Ranging from political candidature to government school teachers and NEET students; the state government was forced to revoke approximately 1,650 false ST certificates in 2023-24, which the association claims is not even the tip of the iceberg.
“Similar to other Adivasis in the country, an ST certificate does not simply give us access to reservations but enables us to hold onto our land which is intrinsic to our very being,” said Tapan Kumar Sardar, president of Adivasi Ekta Manch, Bankura.
Adivasi and Indigenous politics
The decision to boycott was not sudden, as these are longstanding demands that tribal welfare and rights groups have been making from the block level to the state.
The most recent public gatherings and deputations took place in January 2025 and December 2024. In December hundreds of Adivasi communities from across the Jungle Mahals convened at the Backward Class Welfare Department in Kolkata. A similar meeting was held in January this year at the Tribal Development Department.
The Jungle Mahal is electorally crucial, having one out of the two reserved seats for an ST MP in the state. The 2024 general elections saw the prime minister campaigning for the BJP candidate while making elaborate promises, including the construction of a Ram mandir at the Ayodhya hilltop of Purulia district. Though the BJP made major inroads in Jungle Mahals and north Bengal in the 2018 Panchayat and 2019 general elections, its fate changed in the second round of both polls, reflecting the heterogeneity and complexity of Adivasi and indigenous politics.
Rajeshwar Tudu, of Prakriti Bachao Adivasi Bachao Maanch, working mainly on environmental issues, joined the press conference on the boycott, advocating the need for more awareness among the Adivasi communities with respect to their rights. He said, “the state government seems busy spending money and time diverting our attention to melas and football, while there is nothing wrong in these, we enjoy these but we have to oppose these since we cannot be deprived of our education and constitutional rights” for example it is going to be almost 20 years and no steps have been taken for proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, in the state, especially the southwest.
Echoing Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s short story, The Adivasi will not Dance, the recent call for this boycott has emerged as part of a collective voice from within the Adivasi and indigenous communities, who are demanding a more respectful recognition and dismantling of stereotypes.
Mrinalini Paul is a PhD research scholar at TISS, Mumbai.