Unpacking the Identity Crisis Among Asur Community in West Bengal: A Sociocultural Appraisal

The central trope of this article is to unpack the identity crisis of the Asur in Bengal. With a mixed-method approach, the study seeks to explore the nuances of the identity crisis. I have contextualized their crisis based on two larger debates: the inversion of West Bengal’s hegemonic tradition—Durgapuja and Mahishasur as a failure counterculture hero. The study revealed their present condition of economic impoverishment and their dependency largely on the tea garden. They are spread over numerous districts in North Bengal. The Asur have a lower literacy rate (45.1%) than that of West Bengal (77.08%). It is also significantly lower than the literacy rate among West Bengal’s tribal people (57.97%). Since independence, both the national and state governments have launched a number of educational schemes for tribal pupils. Thus, the article flags off the socio-economic cause and other nuances behind the Asur community’s indemnity crisis.