The transformation of UP’s Vantangiya community

Indian society is extraordinarily diverse, and Indian culture has historically accommodated varied ways of living and using natural resources. Forests have long been home to human communities that depended on them for their livelihoods while also maintaining deep cultural relationships with the environment. Yet socio-economic disadvantage, geographical isolation and administrative neglect left many forest-dwelling communities marginalised. The Vantangiya community of Uttar Pradesh is a striking example. For decades, its members lived in forests, contributed to colonial and post-colonial afforestation programmes, but remained deprived of basic civic amenities and development opportunities.

The history of the Vantangiyas dates to the early twentieth century, when the British expanded afforestation programmes across North India. Poor and landless labourers were settled in forests to cultivate crops and tend tree plantations, becoming known as Vantangiyas. The community comprises people from different castes, with many from backward-caste and Dalit communities. ‘Taungya’, from Bamar, means a cultivation field on a hill. The Taungya system combines agriculture with forestry, with crops cultivated before trees are planted on the same plot. German botanist Dietrich Brandis introduced a teak-based Taungya system in Myanmar in 1856. India later adopted the system for reforestation, particularly after large-scale colonial exploitation of forests. By the early nineteenth century, England’s oak forests had been severely depleted by logging, creating a timber crisis for the Royal Navy. India’s forests consequently became an important timber source. From the 1820s, large quantities were extracted and exported. The expansion of railways from the 1850s intensified demand because wood was required for fuel and railway sleepers. As forests around railway lines were rapidly depleted, India introduced the Taungya system in 1890 to facilitate reforestation.

The Sal-based Taungya system was introduced in the Gorakhpur Forest Division in the early twentieth century and proved successful. Labourers cleared allotted plots, cultivated crops and planted Sal trees before being moved after four or five years. Independence in 1947 did not immediately change their situation. Vantangiyas continued working in afforestation programmes, owned little or no agricultural land and lived in temporary huts. Repeated displacement left many without documents establishing their citizenship or access to government welfare schemes. The situation deteriorated in the early 1980s when the Forest Department reportedly sought agreements from Vantangiyas stating that their rights over forest land would end after completion of afforestation. The community refused to sign. They were subsequently treated as encroachers, resulting in conflict in 1985 in which two people died, and more than two dozen were injured. The Vantangiyas thereafter organised the Vantangiya Vikas Samiti to articulate their demands. A significant political intervention came with Yogi Adityanath’s election to the Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur in 1998. He took up the community's concerns both in Parliament and on the ground. Recognising that education and healthcare were essential to integration, he mobilised institutions associated with the Maharana Pratap Shiksha Parishad and Guru Shri Gorakshnath Hospital. A temporary school was established in Tinkonia No. 3 Forest village in Chargawan block. Named Hindu Vidyapeeth, it became a symbol of efforts to bring education to a community that had remained outside the mainstream. Yogi Adityanath also began celebrating Diwali with residents of Tinkonia No. 3, a tradition that continues. The Forest Rights Act, 2006, provided an important legal framework by recognising the rights of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers. Vantangiyas in Gorakhpur obtained residential and agricultural land rights. Yet their settlements did not receive revenue-village status. This administrative exclusion meant many government programmes related to housing, healthcare, drinking water, roads, education, and MGNREGA could not be implemented effectively. The community therefore continued its struggle for recognition as revenue villages and integration into the Panchayati Raj system, receiving sustained support from Yogi Adityanath.

The decisive turning point came in 2017, when Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and declared the Vantangiya settlements in Gorakhpur district as revenue villages. Settlements including Tinkonia No. 3, Rajahi Azad Nagar, Rajahi Khale Tola, Aambag and Chilbilwa consequently gained access to government welfare programmes. In 2018, projects worth approximately Rs 215 lakh were launched, followed by projects worth around Rs 1.32 crore in 2019.  By then, 895 toilets and 788 houses had been constructed, 647 families received electricity connections under Saubhagya, 895 Antyodaya ration cards were issued and more than 600 people received Ujjwala connections. In 2020, projects worth Rs 65.77 lakh-including paved pathways, community toilets, Panchayat buildings and Anganwadi centres-were inaugurated or launched. The government also provided housing approvals, ration support, uniforms, and sweaters. In 2021, the government inaugurated or launched eight development projects involving roads and other basic infrastructure. The Vantangiya experience is therefore more than a story of material development. It represents a transition from administrative invisibility to citizenship in practice. Revenue-village recognition opened the door to Panchayati Raj institutions and government schemes, while roads, houses, electricity, healthcare, education, sanitation and social-security benefits improved everyday life.

The larger lesson is that inclusive development requires more than welfare expenditure. Communities historically excluded from formal administrative structures first need recognition, documentation and institutional inclusion. The transformation of the Vantangiya villages demonstrates how administrative reform, political representation and targeted welfare programmes can combine to advance social integration.

Yogi Adityanath’s sustained engagement with the Vantangiya community — from Gorakhpur MP to Chief Minister — shows how political intervention can turn marginalised communities' demands into policy action. The Vantangiya story thus provides an important example of how inclusive governance can restore dignity, expand citizenship and enable historically isolated communities to participate more fully in India’s development journey.

Deependra Mohan Singh teaches Sociology at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, and Mahendra Kumar Singh is a political commentator and teaches Political Science at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University; Views presented are personal.