Lok Sabha Question No. 2019 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-11
Subject: Inclusion of Kurmi Community in ST List
Ministry: TRIBAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: Shri Chandra Prakash Choudhary

## INCLUSION OF KURMI COMMUNITY IN ST LIST

## 2019. SHRI CHANDRA PRAKASH CHOUDHARY:

Will the Minister of TRIBAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) the number of times the proposals to cover Kurmi community in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) has been received from the Government of Jharkhand so far;

(b)  whether Kurmi community was described as aboriginal tribes and Kurmi community of Chotanagpur region was considered different from Kurmi of Bihar as per the 1931 census report and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether Kurmi community was excluded from the ST list when the same was being prepared in 1950 and if so, the details thereof along with the reasons therefor;

(d) the process likely to be followed to cover Kurmi community in the ST list; and

(e) whether the recommendation to cover several communities in the ST list from the State Government of Jharkhand is pending with the Union Government and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRIBAL AFFAIRS (SHRI DURGADAS UIKEY)

(a): The Government of Jharkhand had sent a proposal dated 08.12.2004 and 06.01.2005 for inclusion of Kurmi/Kudmi  (Mahto)  community  in  the  list  of  Scheduled  Tribes  of  Jharkhand.  The  proposal  was  not accompanied by Ethnography Report and hence the State Govt. was requested to send the proposal with Ethnography  Report.  Later,  the  Government  of  Jharkhand  had  sent  ethnographic  report  in  respect  of Kurmi/Kudmi (Mahto) but the report did not recommend the inclusion of 'community in the STs list of Jharkhand.

(b) & (c): The information provided by the Office of the Registrar General of India in this regard as per Annexure .

(d) & (e) : Government of India on 15.6.1999 (further amended on 25.6.2002 and 14.9.2022) has laid down the  modalities  for  deciding  the  claims  for  inclusion  in,  exclusion  from  and  other  modifications  in  Orders specifying Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes lists. As per the modalities, only those proposals which have  been  recommended  and  justified  by  the  concerned  State  Government  /  UT  Administration  and concurred with by Registrar General of India (RGI) and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)

are to be considered and legislation amended. All action on the proposals is taken as per these approved modalities.  Examination  of  proposals  for  inclusion,  exclusion  and  modification  of  a  community,  as  per approved modalities is a continued process. Many such proposals may, therefore, remain under examination at different levels.

Annexure

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Census of India,

1931

VOLUME VII

BIHAR AND ORISSA

PART L-REPORT

By W. G. LACEY, I.C.S.,

Superintendent of Census Operations,

Bihar and Orissa.

SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT PRINTING,

BIHAR AND ORISSA, PATNA

1933

APPENDIX V. The Kurmis of Chota Nagpur.

Mention has been inade in ('hapter XIl of the claim to Kshatriya siatus

## It was at first supposed that this claim was

mainly in

Bihar proper advanced by the Kurmi caste.

confined to those Kurmis who reside and customs are

United Provinces and whose traditional pursuits are cultivation domestic service. For census purposes it has always proved impossible to distinguish this community from the Kurmi Muhtos of the C'hota Nagpur as their habitat is not in all cases a reliable tables therefore they all appear together simply as however, generally been assumed in previous census reports that the Kurmi Mahtos are a semi-aboriginal people. whose ancestors Santal and Bhumij tribes. Instructions were accordingly issued on the present occasion that a return of, Kurmi-Kshatriya might be accepted in the case only of the Bihar communitv. These instructions gave rise to a flood of protest. The " All-India Kurmi-Kshatriya Association up the cudgels on behalf of the Kurmi Mahtos, and stoutly affirmed that the Kurmi-Kshatriyas of the western provinces are the same, can he produced before the Government. invited to produce these proofs Ixsociation showed no great eagerness to respond and eventuali took refuge in the following generalities which, besides being unsupported by evidence or illustration, would considerable experience of the Kurmi Mahtos:-\_"(1) sub-sections are similar. (2) The occupations are the same. (3) The habits similar." But the favourite authority of those who kinship of the two communities is Dalton's Descriptice Ethnology of Bengal (1872), in which the following passages oceur :— " In the Province of Chota Nagpur the ancestors of the people now called Kuruis appear to have oblained a footing among the aboriginal tribes at a very remote period, and in more one part of Manbhun have maintain the

" Though the

- Bihar this honour is accorded to them. The social custons and religions observances vary much in different districts. are found in with on-Aryan tribes, they conforma fo snany neares exainples, swerve ronsiderably 'The Kurmis employ Bralians as priests in all cerenionies except muarriages."
- There are traditions of struggle between them and Kolarian aborigines of these regions, and, thongh the latter generally some places Kurmi villages established on know from the pillars or cenotaphs still conspicuous, were once occupied by Bhumil or Mannas, and in others vestiges of ruined temples appertaining to Hindu or Jaina settlements, both most likely belonging to successive generations of the i mistle thy fore fahiles, cupied mation in Bengal is not ligh. They are not even jaluchuranion or a tribe from whose hands a Hindu of the higher castes wonld drink water, but in

2. An entirely different view was taken twelve years later by Risley in his Tribes and Castes of Bengal. In his opinion Dalton's remarks about caste bearing the same name in Chota Nagpur and Orissa belonged to an entirely different type. He found them to be " short, sturdy and of very dark complexion. resembling in feature the around them .. Tn Manbhum and north of Orissa it is diffcult 291

their physical appearance

" referred only to the Kurmis of Bihar, and the

292

APPENDIX V-THE KURMIS OF CHOTA NAGPUR.

boiled rice prepared by Kurmi; and according to one tradition they regard

who spell their name differently with a smooth instead of a hard r. two quite distinct tribes have been mixed up in the census Many of these people speak a known as Kurmali. although, as Sir George Grierson points out, in Manhum not confined to the Kurmis alone but is spoken by people of other tribes also.. where it is spoken by undoubted aborigines, it is known as Sadri Kol. This language is a corrupted form of Magahi, but, to quote again from Sir George Grierson, " in this belt Magahi is not the language of It is essentially a tribal language corrupted form of Bengali. is the language of the aboriginal tribe bearing With regard to the spelling of Kurmi with a hard r, it has heen verified from the local officials that this differentiation is observed still. may possess real significance, but the general tendency in Chota Nagpur to make the r hard is a circumstance that should be borne in mind. 4. In the District Gazetteer of Manbhum (1910) Mr Coupland writes that the distinction between the Kurmis of Bihar and those of Chota Nagpur, them as half brethren of their own sprung from the same father, who begot the Kurmis on the elder and the Santhals on the younger of two sisters. Telo distinet ter indig rested toe sections these te is noticed at ling the After finding that " the sections in use the Kurmis of Chota Nagpur are purely totemistic and that a large portion of the totems are capable of being identified " the conclusion that the Chota Nagpur Kurmis are derived from the Dravidian stock and are perhaps a Hinduised branch of the Santhals." 3. In Volume V (2ż) of his Linguistic Survey of India Sir George Grierson writes that the Kurmis of Chota Nagpur are an aboriginal tribe of Dravidian stock and should be distinguished from the Kurmis of Bihar

exactly with the Manjhi of the Santhals, the Sardar of the Bhumij and the Munda of the Ho races." The Kurmi Mahtos are included among the tribes exempted from the Indian Succession-Act. By a printing appeared in the original notification (issued about 20 years ago) as " Kurmi, Mahto " and in the revised notification which was issued very recently the word " Kurmi" only is retained. There is no doubt that, until quite recent the two communities were agreed in repudiating any connection with one another. The Bihar contingent would commonly allude to their namesakes of Chota Nagpur as the and the latter were asserting their independent identity. dining was entirely out of the guestion. presently be seen that these restrictions have been formally abolished by resolutions passed in solemn conclave, and although it is probably true that the Kurmis of Chota Nagpur no longer take the same pride in their ancestry that they used to do, no authentic case has come to notice of inter-marriage between the two peoples. The Superintendent of the Leper Hospital at Purulia writes that " a Kurmi constable from North Bihar at present resident in this hospital was very scornful when I suggested his eating with our local Kurmi pâtients." The same correspondent states that, in spite of Risley's observations about the (then) prevalent totemism of the caste, he himself had for years been unable to find a Kurmi with a totem name. " Within the last few months, however, at a village 21 miles from here That his named bas Bai (paddy bir villager sey a proud of me. very proud of being a Kurmi, C'he question at issue has in lat ears been agitated in courts c in the case of Ganesh Mahto hib Charan Mahato, which wa taken to the High Court (A. I. R. 1931 Patna, 305), both parties were

APPENDIX V.--THE KURMIS OF CHOTA NIPUR.

293

Chota Nagpur Kurmis and they both admitted that they were aboriginal governed

It was eventually held that.

where parties to a suit admitted that originally they were aboriginals but their families had subsequently become Hindus and had adopted the Hindu religion. it was upon the party alleging that they were not governed by the ordinary indu law of inheritance and succession to prove any special custom or rule of ustom prevailing among, e.g.. the Kurmi Mahtos of C'hota Nagpur. This establish the kinship between the twn Kurmi castes while of considerable interest in itself, clearly does not help to More pertinent to this 004. 1021) that the term dorita in chot Magle Mates race only Tid implies nothing as to religion; on the other hand, the term Hindu has in Chota Nagpur reference only to religion. There can be no question but that the Kurmi Mahtos are completelv Hinduized and have been for many years. are in general much better educated. much than the other aboriginal tribes or the low-caste Hindus, and have succeeded in retaining self respect in a degree which uncommon among primitive tribes converted to Hinduism. It is doubtless this circumstance which is now leading them not only to identify themselves caste which happens to bear the same name but also to join with that caste in affirming their Kshatriya origin. 6. Whatever the motives mas he, there has certainly been a great deal of agitation in this behalf during the last decade In the year 1923 caste subhas were held in more than one centre of Manhhum district and varinus

resolutions were passed. It was decreed that Kurmis should no longer cat chickens or drink wine: Kurmi women should not work as casual lahourers gradh ceremony should take place on the twelfth day after death, as with the Kshatriyas of Bengal. instead of on the tenth day as heretofore. The 17th session of the all India Kurmi Kshatriya couference was held at Muzaffarpur in the year 1929. and three delogates from Manbhunı were present as representatives of the Chota Nagpur Kurmis. "There it was settled that there is no difference between the Kurmis of Chota Nagpur and the Kurmis of Bihar proper. C'he three delegates returned home from the conference after taking the sacred thread." This was followed in the same year by another large subhu at Ghagarjuri in Manbhum, which was attended by a representative of the Kurmis of the United Provinces. and " it was settled that the Kurmis of Chota Nagpur and akin to each other and there will be intermis ne aotator marries among the said kur" no that " the join closely with the all-India kurmi (shutriya Association and will be guided by the directions of it." gathering " it was explained that the Kurmis are Kshatriyas and they have right to wear sacred thread, and some fifty Kurmis wore the sacred thread the conference with genuine Brahman priests." the foregoing a Kurmi Mahto and a member of the legal professon, aures that thereafter this apenuous wara ben to take fangepe, toughest ene at" ingenuous continues:\_" caused a great sensation among the Kurmis, and the caste got the courage of raising And there was such wonder in the mind of the non-Kurmis of Manbhum that Panchet raja, having come up from the ancient Kobattle royal family of the district, accepts the Kurmis as Kurmi Kshatriyas. interest in the upliftment of the Kurns. social leaders of this community to carry out the resolutions coot no a great an are art the medio the al rai Real In 1931 the session of the all-India Kurmi Kshatriya conference was held in Manbhum, and was signalized by the

294

APPENDIX V.—THE KURMIS OF CHOTA NAGPUR.

" some orthodox Kurmis residing in Para and Barabhum

S. made protest

Nagpur; for transier of their holdings to nonaboriginals is not permitted. It may be that the true position in this respect appreciated prepared toronto such palege for the gether too and or be they believe will accrue to them in their new status; and it is quite true that protection as the other aboriginal tribes of the locality. As already stated, it is not possible to give accurate statistics of the Kurmi Mahto community, but something over enumerated on the Chota. Nagpur plateau, and the overwhelming majority of these (about half of Manbhum district) would undoubtedly be Kurmi meetings against the use of sacred thread by Kurmis, thread is increasing day by day in all parts of the district of Manbhum the best interests of the Kurmi Mahto community. best maybe of toned urmi Mathi movement late to pa tate receive the benefit of a special measure of protection from the revenue laws

Mahtos.