“We have done everything from blocking trains in Jangal Mahal to protesting in Delhi. Nothing has happened so far. Everyone is ignoring our demand for ST status.”

This was a very angry Prakash Mahato, a resident of Jhargram town in West Bengal. His fury was directed towards both the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for ignoring the Kurmi community’s demands to be included in the Scheduled Tribe list.

In 2017, the TMC government had sent a proposal to the centre recommending the inclusion of Kurmis in the ST list. “But the centre wrote back asking for justification and comments from the state government on two points,” said Prakash. “The state government till date has not responded, offering different excuses.”

“Everyone is just playing with our demands,” he added.

This discontent echoes through Jangal Mahal, which comprises the districts of Jhargram, Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura. It’s home to four Lok Sabha constituencies – Jhargram, Purulia, West Medinipur and Bankura – where Kurmis form a significant electoral base of about 30 to 40 percent of votes. Voting in these constituencies takes place on May 25.

The Kurmis were officially delisted from the ST list prior to independence. Their agitations to be included have spanned decades, intensifying in Jangal Mahal over the last few years. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, they threw their weight behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reportedly hoping that he would grant ST status to their community in the future. The BJP eventually won from all three constituencies, but locals bitterly said Modi’s promise is still unfulfilled. 

So this year, the electoral dynamics have changed. The Kurmis, under an umbrella group called the Adivasi Kurmi Samaj, are fielding independent candidates in all three constituencies, their way of thumbing their noses at the TMC and BJP.

“We have our own candidates because no party is serious about our demands. What is the point of electing candidates who can’t even raise our issues in Parliament?” asked Prakash. “The centre can revoke Article 370 and grant ST status to the Pamer community but in our case, they need ‘comments and justification’.”

The Adivasi Kurmi Samaj has fielded its leader Ajit Mahato in Purulia and Subhajit Singh Karmali in Bankura. In Jhargram, it officially announced its support for the Jharkhand People’s Party candidate Surja Singh Besra. 

Importantly, the Jhargram Lok Sabha seat is reserved for STs. JPP candidate Besra belongs to the Mahali tribe and, according to AKS members, has “long supported” the Kurmis’ demand for tribal status. 

The AKS’s decision is expected to impact the BJP’s chances of winning from Jangal Mahal, especially considering the party won by a margin as narrow as 12,000 votes in Jhargram in 2019. In the same constituency, the BJP and TMC have fielded Pranat Tudu and Kalipada Soren, respectively, both of whom hail from the Santhal tribe, which constitutes about 51.8 percent of the population in West Bengal. 

An AKS leader, who did not want to be named, acknowledged to Newslaundry that they expect their decisions to impact the BJP over the TMC. 

“In 2019, PM Modi said he would fulfil our demand but did nothing for us. That’s why you saw Kurmi votes shift to the TMC in the 2021 assembly polls. Mamata Banerjee has done something for Kurmis, like sending the report to the centre, even if it was for political reasons,” they said.

Yet Banerjee’s move is no longer enough to win the Kurmis’ loyalty. In the 2023 panchayat polls, the AKS fielded independent candidates which the AKS leader credited for ensuring the BJP won no seats.

“So, following this trend, I believe our entry into the electoral fray will certainly damage the BJP’s electoral prospects more than the TMC’s,” the leader added.

 A split – but not a monolith

In Purulia, the sitting MP is Jyotirmoy Mahato, who won by a huge margin of over two lakh votes in 2019. Jyotirmoy is up for reelection, contesting against Shantiram Mahato from the TMC, Nepal Mahato from the Left-Congress alliance, and Ajit Mahato from the Adivasi Kurmi Samaj.

All four are from the Kurmi community, which reportedly makes up over 50 percent of voters in Purulia. While the TMC’s poll manifesto this year promises to “actively work with the centre” to grant ST status to the Kurmis, the BJP manifesto says nothing.

In Purulia, Newslaundry met local resident Bibhuti Mahato at a TMC rally addressed by general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Bibhuti, who insisted he didn’t “support any party”, agreed that the Kurmis going it alone will adversely impact the BJP. “Many Kurmi leaders who backed the BJP in 2019 are now contesting elections,” he said, referring to candidates like Ajit Mahato and Nepal Mahato. “

But Bibhuti warned that Kurmis cannot be expected to vote as a monolith – they’re also “divided in terms of their political affiliations so Ajit Mahato’s candidature is a significant factor.” 

Ajit Mahato’s candidature is expected to divide Kurmi votes, especially among those who are strong supporters of the Kurmi movement. Other parties have predominantly fielded Kurmi candidates, so their support bases may be divided, while Ajit Mahato himself would represent that segment that’s against both the TMC and BJP for ignoring their demands to be given tribal status.

Concerns about the Kurmi vote have trickled down to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers too. The RSS has been active in Jangal Mahal for decades, expanding after Maoist insurgency died down and the TMC came to power in 2011. From 2008 to 2011, large parts of the area experienced the Maoist-orchestrated movement against the CPIM government in West Bengal. There was a spree of murders of CPIM leaders and workers – over 400 in Jangal Mahal, if the CPIM is to be believed. In the 2011 assembly polls, the TMC was voted to power and security forces gradually pushed out the Maoists.

Bitter CPIM leaders in Jangal Mahal indirectly blame the TMC for the rise of the BJP-RSS.

“The TMC government tortured our cadres. Many left us in fear and joined the BJP, especially in 2016, thinking they would save them,” said Pradip Sarkar, district secretary of the CPIM in Jhargram.

Nivendu Vikas Hota, 76, a retired schoolteacher and local CPIM leader in Jhargram, said the RSS has been active in Jangal Mahal since the 1970s but “not like what they do in other parts of the country”. “They mainly work on education through various schools they set up in Adivasi areas,” he said. “The number of RSS-affiliated schools in this area in the 1970s was 20, now it has reached 200 under the TMC.”

In West Bengal, the number of RSS shakhas has grown from 580 in 2011 to 1,280 in 2014 and then 1,492 in December 2016, according to its own data. This purportedly grew by 25 percent in 2022. But RSS functionaries aren’t too optimistic about the outcome of the 2024 polls in Jangal Mahal. 

“It won’t be the same as the last Lok Sabha elections,” said an RSS worker in Purulia. “This time, there will be a fight as Kurmi voters are likely to split.” Another RSS worker said they’re busy “conducting meetings and planning to deploy our workers at the booth level” to attempt to keep the Kurmis with the BJP.

Yet V Muraleedharan, a senior BJP leader and minister of state for external affairs, told Newslaundry his party isn’t worried about the impact of the Kurmis’ support – or lack of it.

“Even if we consider it a factor for argument’s sake, Modiji is coming to power again,” said Muraleedharan, who was in Purulia to attend a BJP meeting in Tilu Jhadu. “So it is Modiji who can grant ST status to Kurmis. Therefore people are definitely going to vote for BJP.”

A struggle spanning decades

In Bamundighi village in Jhargram’s Belpahari, Newslaundry met Satramohan Mahato, 85, a writer in Kurmali language who explained that Kurmis are merely asking for their “rightful” status since they had been delisted.

“What is happening as a result is our children are not getting the benefits of reservation,” he said. “If you go to any government office, you will see one or two from the Santhal community. This is because they have the benefit of reservation. STs also get benefits in joint entrances and in hostel accommodation, etc. But we are deprived of all these benefits. This is why our movement is important.”

AKM candidate Ajit Mahato told Newslaundry that he believes certain people are “trying to instigate other tribes” against the Kurmis’ demand for ST status. 

“There has been support for our demand from other STs in the past,” he said. “During the Jharkhand movement, all tribes were in support of the Kurmis. All the Santhal leaders were with us and we did the Jharkhand movement jointly. Even Sibu Soren was a guest at a Kurmi meeting. The Kurmis’ demand is part of the constitution of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.” He added that it was “Brahmins” who were trying to “divide” tribes now. 

Prakash Mahato from Jhargram agreed about an “instigation”. He claimed that it’s because “others” are worried that if the Kurmis get ST status, the ST population will increase, paving the way to declare these areas for autonomous administration under the Fifth Schedule. “This is why there have been attempts to spark a clash between Kurmis and  STs,” he told Newslaundry. 

Sundry voices from other tribal communities hinted at this lack of support, but predominantly due to worries that they’d have to now compete for reserved jobs and posts. For instance, in Jhargram, Shyamal Mura, a member of the Mundra community, told Newslaundry that the Kurmi agitation is “only to get reservation”. 

But Parameshwar Mahato, a retired government employee in Vaishnavpur village in Jhargram, said they still have some tribal support. “Those who live next to us in the village are not opposing our demand. Opposition is mainly from those who have already established themselves by reaping the benefits of being STs.”

In Purulia, Fulpada Hasda, who belongs to the Santhal tribal community, told Newslaundry that the Kurmis cannot be considered STs since they “practise Hinduism”. “We are STs and we worship nature,” he said firmly. “That’s not the case with Kurmis.”

This isn’t precisely true. Several Kurmi leaders told Newslaundry their traditional religion was called Sarna – traditionally followed by many Adivasi communities and involving the worship of nature. According to Sashadhar Mahato, a member of the Adivasi Kurmi Samaj in Belpahari, Hinduism grew popular when “elite” Kurmi leaders here began to identify themselves as Kshatriyas, influenced by the All India Kurmi Kshatriya Mahasabha.

“These Kurmis of the AIKKM are different from us. They were mostly in Bihar, they started wearing the sacred thread as worn by Brahmins,” he explained. “They held conferences in many places including Jangal Mahal, and some Adivasi Kurmi leaders joined them.”

In most Kurmi villages we visited in Jangal Mahal, we found religious structures called harimanch. Proponents of ST status for Kurmis called this “baggage” since these structures linked them with Hinduism.

Hamlet Baskey, a schoolteacher in Belpahari, said very few Adivasi communities presently follow Sarna. “Maybe around 30 percent of Santhals and 90 percent of Kurmis no longer follow our Sarna dharma,” he said. “According to Sarna dharna, one should not perform any ceremony with Brahmins. But many Santhals and Kurmis do. This is one of the core problems with our Adivasis.”

Newslaundry was told that several Kurmis in Jangal Mahal now skip Brahmin priests for their events, hoping to quash insinuations that they aren’t “really tribal” otherwise.

But in Jangal Mahal, there’s also a wave of anti-incumbency against both the BJP and TMC. Locals complained about “corruption” under the TMC while also criticising the BJP’s sitting MPs in Jhargram and Purulia. 

In Jhargram, the BJP has now fielded Dr Pranat Tudu, a radiologist. Its sitting MP Kunar Hembram resigned in March citing “personal reasons”. Hembram was deeply unpopular for being absent from his constituency during the Covid pandemic, Newslaundry was told. Meanwhile in Purulia, locals called their MP Jyotirmoy Mahato “inaccessible” and said he had an “attitude” problem. 

As for the TMC, 30-year-old Debasish Kar, a resident of Bankura’s Kamalpur village, said he holds the party responsible for unemployment in West Bengal. “Corruption is everywhere, from the allotment of government housing and distribution of rations, to the payment of wages for the government’s 100-day job guarantee scheme,” he added.

But not everyone thinks the Kurmis going solo will solve their problems. 

“Independent candidates will get some votes but the overall impact will be minimal,” predicted Sahadev Mahato, a retired schoolteacher in Singra village in Jhargram constituency who had participated in the Kurmis’ protests before. “Kurmis are associated with various political parties. Voting for an independent candidate will not bring much benefit. If we vote for a political party, there will be some advantages from welfare schemes, like the Laxmi Bhandar scheme and 100-day job guarantee.”

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