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Accepted Paper:

Historical perspectives of Dhimals: struggle for identity of an indigenous people of North Bengal  
Subir Biswas (West Bengal State University)

Paper short abstract:

This paper is an attempt to identify almost all the documents on Dhimals, which has a historical importance in the field of anthropological research, and also to conclude the status of Dhimals as per previous writings.

Paper long abstract:

The Dhimal of North Bengal had categorized as non-Aryan tribe by eminent scholars of pre-Independent India. However, several years after Independence, they have been going through a non-recognition period simply by wiped out from Govt records. Recently they have been classified as Other Backward Classes (OBC) of West Bengal. Even in terms of education, occupation or Social-Cultural context they are very similar to tribal communities of West Bengal even primitive one. Therefore, they (Dhimals) demand for Scheduled tribe status instead of OBCs.

The present paper is an attempt to identify almost all the documents on Dhimals, which has a historical importance in the field of Anthropological research, and also to conclude the status of Dhimals.

Panel P049
Indigenous people and their culture: struggle for identity and survival?
  Session 1