Development of the Madhabpur Village : The Dynamics in a Village of Ethnic Minority in West Bengal, India

This paper illustrates the current picture of Madhabpur village, where the Santal people, one of the ethnic minority tribes, live in West Bengal, India, with a view to analysing the impact of the dynamics of development on the village. The Santal are rich in culture but poor. Their origin is different from the mainstream population, and they were called forest people as they lived in forests and hills. They lived on hunting, fishing, gathering and shifting cultivation, which made them self-sufficient. They enjoyed a kind of isolation. They have their own economic life, traditional culture, and social value system. The Santal have a political body to administer the village, which consists of six senior members. Due to changes in and around their world, they were no longer able to maintain their life style. They have been facing the need to cope with these changes. The Santal are now chiefly engaged in agriculture, but many of them are land-less farmers and work as cultivators or workers employed on a day to day basis, where exploitation is commonly practised. The government has implemented the Panchayat Raj system in villages, through which development schemes have been implemented. Social welfare associations and development NGOs also have introduced new development projects in villages. Therefore, Madhabpur village now has three authorities to follow: the state government, NGOs and the traditional authority. The village people are at the mercy of these new movements.国立情報学研究所の「学術雑誌公開支援事業」により電子化されました