Burdwan, Aug. 11 -- Concerned over the weakening of its linguistic and cultural identity and the decline of traditional occupations, the Mahali - a marginal tribal community of Bengal, has stepped up efforts to establish a separate identity in official records.
Community leaders say Mahali have been recorded as Santals in official documents, a confusion they claim has persisted since the pre-independence era.
The community traditionally share several common surnames like Murmu, Tudu, Mandi, Besra - mostly familiar with the Santal tribe, which, as the Mahali renaissance leaders guess, was the root cause behind such a big mess that they said "has already taken a severe toll on the Mahali community."Besides, the extinction threat "has appear...