Kudumi Mahato

The Kudumi Mahato are a community found in India. They are also known as Kurmbi, Kudmi, Kurmi Mahto/Mahato (not to be confused with Kurmi^[1]) or Kudumi Mohanta/Mahanta. They are categorised as an Other Backward Class.^[2]

Official classification

The Kudumi were classified as a Notified Tribe by the British Raj under the terms of the Indian Succession Act introduced in 1865 as they have customary rules of succession.^[3] Subsequently, in 1913, they were classified as a Primitive Tribe. Despite being a tribe, they were omitted from the list of communities listed as tribes in the 1931 census.^[4] Again, they were omitted from the Scheduled Tribe list drawn up in 1950, for reasons that are unknown. In 2004 the Government of Jharkhand recommended that they should be listed as a Scheduled Tribe rather than Other Backward Class which, however, did not get approved.^[5]

Kurmali Language

Kurmali_language is the mother tongue of the Kudumi Mahato. Kurumali sub dialect of Mayurbhanja state ^[6] agrees very closely with the Kurmali Thar ^[7] of Manbhum district.In Manbhum this language is principally spoken by people of the Kurmi caste, who are numerous in the Districts of Chota Nagpur, and in the Orissa Tributary States of Mayurbhanja. They are an aboriginal tribe of Dravidian^[8] stock and should be distinguished from the Kurmis of Bihar who spell their name differently, with a smooth instead of a hard ‘r’.

References

See also

• Jhumur, a dance of the tribe