- The mahua flower, an integral part the Central Indian landscape, is a raw material used in delicacies and beverages for generations by tribal communities.
- A geographical indication (GI) tag awarded to mahua products can bring economic benefits for the communities that harvest the flowers, but the process has many challenges.
- The views in the commentary are that of the authors.
India is celebrating two decades of its journey for products with a ‘Geographical Indication’ (GI) tag — a certification that identifies a product as originating from a specific location, giving it unique qualities or reputation linked to that region. In July this year, India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry launched a web catalogue showcasing India’s GI-tagged products. In March, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) organised the Bharat GI Mahotsav in Lucknow, showcasing GI-tagged products.
While Indian artisans and rural entrepreneurs flocked to Lucknow for the event, hundreds of kilometres away, the nondescript village of Garea in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand is home to another potential candidate for the GI tag.
In dry forests like those in Garea, the end of March marks the season of mahua flower collection, which fuels an important seasonal livelihood. In addition to collecting and drying the flowers for sale, the women here have renewed an ancient, nearly forgotten practice — preparing mahua laddu (a sweet) and achaar (pickle).
“Mahua laddu or achaar is nothing new. The tribal groups of central India have been preparing these delicacies for generations. The onslaught that mahua liquor (the local liquor made from mahua flowers) faced during the colonial period, later on stigmatised mahua and all the traditional practices associated with it– be it culinary or cultural,” explains Pinaki Ghosh, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Chair of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), who promoted many artisanal products with unique geographical identities.
“Mahua is a treasure trove – be it laddu, achaar or liquor – that has its uniqueness. As an IPR professional, I can vouch for the importance of GI for mahua – both in India and abroad. It’s sad that we missed mahua for so long. Even after two decades of having the first GI in India, we don’t have GI for mahua,” Ghosh exclaims.
The importance of GI tags
A GI tag indicates that a good has distinctive quality, historical reputation, cultural significance and strong ties with a specific geographical region. The historical connection for the item needs to be established through archaeological, literary, or historical records.
GI recognises such goods on a national level, promotes livelihoods of local communities that grow or manufacture the products, opens up new market including export opportunity and prevents unauthorised use of the GI names under The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. It also creates trust, reliability and easy traceability for consumers.
For example, the GI branding of Bastar dokra metal work in Chhattisgarh helped preserve the traditional occupation, created a market for these goods, and boosted employment. Uttarakhand buransh (rhododendron flower squash), Santiniketan leather goods in West Bengal and Marthandam honey in Tamil Nadu are other examples of GI-tagged products. Tourists who now visit these areas keep an eye out for these products.
Mahua products can bring similar economic benefits for local communities that harvest the flowers. In fact, local entrepreneurs and self-help groups have been trying their luck in different pockets of India to benefit from this heritage item. A GI tag can boost such initiatives.
Read more: Bioresource access and benefit-sharing: How far have we come in India?
How can mahua get a GI tag?
Desmond Nazareth, founder of craft and heritage alcohol brand DesmondJi says, “Mahua products need recognition – be it laddu or liquor. And GI is a great device for that.” In 2018, DesmondJi produced the first officially bottled mahua liquor as an IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor). “Goan feni, an alcoholic beverage, has a GI tag and is used as a branding tool. Mexican tequila is a good international example in this context. The Mexican government recognised tequila with a GI in the 70s and it is still popular around the world. There is every reason why mahua liquor should have the same recognition. Similarly, other products of mahua could also have GI tags.”
But getting a GI tag isn’t easy. For a natural good like mahua that has such a wide distribution and connection with so many adivasi communities, it can be even more challenging.
Currently, a GI tag is awarded for five categories of goods – agricultural, handicrafts, manufactured, natural and food items. For manufacturing goods such as beverages (like Goan feni or Arunachal’s marua millet beverage) or food items like laddu (say Tirupati laddu or Joynagar moa), it is difficult to prove the specificity of the item as against the goods of same nature found in any other region. To show that natural and human factors of the region make the item unique, one needs to conduct several chemical tests and consider expert opinions.
For natural produce like the mahua flower, lab test reports could provide evidence of uniqueness due to a certain geographical environment that is needed. There could be multiple GIs for the natural produce, i.e., the mahua flowers themselves or the products manufactured from them.
The way ahead for mahua
“Due to the wide geographical spread of mahua trees, we need to ascertain if the species are different or the same and whether the products that are made from mahua flowers are unique in different regions. If the species are the same, we can have one GI for the flowers with multiple states as applicants, as we have for Basmati rice found in different regions of India. If the products are different, then we may have multiple GIs as we have for rasogolla (two GIs registered — one in West Bengal, another in Odisha). It’s a complex task but worth the effort,” says Ghosh.
As it appears, there is still a long way to go for mahua. Lack of published research works hinders the journey of the mahua flower towards a GI. Ghosh and his team have started collecting evidence in historical records, and are approaching experts. “It would be great to see a mahua pavilion in the next GI Mahotsav,” Ghosh adds.
Meanwhile, the women in Garea continue to celebrate the wonder of mahua through their skills. Sangita (Kumari), who led the women self-help group of Garea to revive mahua laddus, received the first order of a hundred laddus from her maternal village of Morangi, Hazaribagh to be distributed at a wedding.
Abhijit Dey is currently exploring the adivasi-mahua relationship as part of his Ph.D. at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Akriti is an academic fellow of WBNUJS, whose research area is Geographical indications.
Banner image: Women preparing mahua laddu. Image by Mukesh Mahato.
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