The initiatives of reinventing mahua liquor are welcome but these are not without any unwanted ripples. There are grave concerns that need to be addressed.

 

Is there any mechanism to assure that the collectors are going to get a fair share - which doesn't only mean to be monetary but recognition too? How to ensure that the intellectual credit is given where it's due? How to safeguard that this is not going to be another cultural appropriation or marginalization of the already marginalized people?

 

Who knows if tomorrow some business entity jumps in and claims that the mahua spirit is theirs? It is rather easy to appropriate a traditional ethno-practice because ethno-practices lack documentation. And history of such appropriations aren’t uncommon throughout the world.

 

Thankfully there are some historical research works on mahua that can help to establish its indigenous legacy.

 

Other than these external market linked factors, there are within community concerns too.

 

The Madhya Pradesh Govt policy ensures that tribal participation is a must in any mahua distillery or business to work, but what about an individual tribal distiller whose livelihood is this? There's still a lack of legal provision that empower a tribal distiller to distill mahua, to practice the associated indigenous knowledge with dignity, without being harrassed? 

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The issues don't just end here. “What about the menace of alcoholism?”, an alarm raised by Siddheshwar Sardar of Paryavaran Chetna Kendra, an Adivasi himself, fighting for Adivasi rights and problems within the society.

 

“This atmosphere of promoting mahua is great, but it may have severe repercussions in the tribal societies. A section of the community is already suffering from the cancer of alcoholism. ‘Nasha Mukti Abhiyan’ (get rid of alcohol movement) is very much our need, not such promotion. If the government promotes this, how will you send the message of the problem of alcoholism. Govt cannot unsee this grave concern ”, he elaborated.

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Well... we couldn’t find enough articles devoting a major share of it talking about these issues at length. But these caveats (if not all) found space indeed. Below are a few such article sections - 

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• Who benefits from mahua’s revival?

• Rebranding indigenous liquors… who stands to gain?

• Is mahua being exploited?

• Change in legal framework is a must