“We have learnt that both the tribal activists — Chandra Mohan Mardi, a native of Peterwar block in Bokaro district, and Kanhuram Tuddu, a native of Sonua block in West Singhbhum district — were taken into preventive detention by the respective district police on Monday late night from their residences. Two other activists, Prithvi Murmu and Vikram Hembrom, have also been detained by Bagbera police in Jamshedpur,” announced Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan national president and former BJP MP of Mayurbhanj (in Odisha) Salkhan Murmu to the media.

Modi is scheduled to visit Ulihatu in Khunti district on Wednesday to pay respect to revered tribal icon Birsa Munda. Adivasi (tribal) activists had threatened self-immolation if Modi during his visit to Ulihatu did not make an announcement on the long-standing demand of a separate Sarna religion code, the indigenous faith of Jharkand adivasis..

“Notwithstanding such excesses by the police against tribal activists, one of our women activist Premshila Murmu, also a resident of Sonua in West Singhbhum district, has threatened to self-immolate herself near the Birsa Munda statue in Sakchi, Jamshedpur, on Wednesday afternoon if the Prime Minister fails to make any announcement on Sarna dharma code,” Murmu added.

Shockingly however, later in the evening, Premshila was also taken into preventive custody by Parsudih police. Murmu also stated that he along with his wife (Sumitra) would undertake a fast between 10am and 1pm near the Sakchi roundabout in protest against the delay in the announcement of the Sarna code. Adivasi activists will also stage protests near statues, busts or photos of Birsa Munda at different district headquarters in Jharkhand on November 15, his birth anniversary, demanding the announcement of the Sarna code.

Bokaro superintendent of police, Alok Priyadarshi said the tribal activist (Mardi) has been taken under preventive detention and would be released on Wednesday. “Since he had threatened self-immolation, which is illegal, the police have placed him under preventive detention and would release him on Wednesday evening,” Priyadarshi said.

Adivasis (tribals) in Jharkhand, a majority of whom are Sarna followers and nature worshipers, have been agitating consistently for a separate religious identity in India for decades and in recent years have staged agitations in Delhi and other parts of the country.

Adivasis argue argue that the implementation of a separate Sarna religious code in census surveys would allow the tribals to be identified as followers of the Sarna faith. Tribal organisations have claimed that with Centre dropping the “Others” option from the religion column for the next census, Sarna adherents will be forced to either skip the column or declare themselves members of one of the six specified religions — Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh.

Sabrangindia has done this in-depth analysis of the long tradition behind the Sarna faith in 2020. This may be read here.

This 2020 report had explained how, for years, tribal communities in the state asked for a separate ‘Sarna’ religion code in Census and other administrative forms. Their demand for a distinct religious identity has intensified recently in anticipation of the Census 2021. Various Adivasi parties including the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) – current ruling party – supported indigenous groups by observing demonstrations and writing letters to Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

“Adi-dharma [Adivasi dharma] was practised much before sanatan dharma. Yet, their demand for a separate religion is denied, in turn denying their identity. Adivasis are forcefully converted to other religions. What kind of existence can one have if they don’t have an identity,” asked JMM General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.

Sarna is a place of worship as well as a naturalist religion practised among Adivasi communities. Unlike Hindu rituals wherein people worship idols, adivasis who adhere to Sarna as a religion worship natural elements such as the sal tree or Mother Earth. This belief system is considered Hinduised due to certain similarities between the two faiths. However, adivasis claim that its blind grouping into Hinduism has adversely affected their population count.

A brief analysis of Census records shows that the Adivasi population has reduced from 38.03 percent of the state population in 1931 to 26.02 percent of the state population in 2011. This showed that the tribal population in Jharkhand had reduced by 12 percent in eight decades alone. The demographic table of Adivasis in Jharkand can also be seen in the report.

Related:

Sarna code: More than just a political tactic

Sarna code, a possible headache for right-wing supporters?

The post Jharkhand tribal activists agitating for a separate Sarna Code, arrested ahead of PM Modi’s visit appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Adivasis in at least five states are planning to hold a Rail Roko (block railways) protest on November 30 to demand inclusion of the Sarna Code in the Census. As per a report in The Telegraph, the protest is being spearheaded by Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan, a tribal organisation having a presence in Jharkhand, Odisha, Bengal, Bihar and Assam.

The group is led by Salkhan Mumru who is a former Member of Parliament from Mayurbhanj in Odisha, and is currently based out of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. Mumru told the publication, “We have a significant number of our members in these five states and they would be mobilised for the rail roko agitation. We are ready to withdraw the agitation if the Centre calls us for talks or agrees to include Sarna in the religion column of the next census.”

It is noteworthy that the states where the agitation is planned are all associated with mining activity, and therefore depend heavily on railways for transportation of the extracted ore.

Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan plans to spend the next two months mobilizing tribals for the Rail Roko protest and also hold smaller peaceful protests. Mumru had in August met with President Draupadi Mumru and communicated the demand for inclusion of the Sarna Code in the Census to her as well.

Is Sarna a separate religion?

Sarna literally means a grove of trees, and followers of the Sarna religion hold groves of Sal trees, indigenous to the Chota Nagpur Plateau region, to be sacred. Sarna is an animist religion followed by a vast majority of Adivasis of indigenous tribal people of India residing in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and even some in West Bengal and Assam. They insist that despite being essentially nature worshipers, and even having festivals dedicated to ancestor worship, their religion is distinct from Hinduism. Sarna followers have therefore been demanding that it be recognised as a separate code in the Census, so that they can identify officially as non-Hindus.

In a December 2020 interview to Down to Earth, Sonajharia Minz, Vice Chancellor, Sido Kanhu Murmu University, explained, “According to the tribal ethos, community is part of an ecosystem and not the master of it. The tribal religion is different from Hinduism as it does not have a figure of god.” She further said, “There is a supreme spirit that does not have a name and is worshipped. There is reverence for nature in the form of trees, mountains and rivers, as they are seen as the manifestation of that supreme spirit. The denial of this identity distorts the census figures.”

In the same article[1] titled Sarna Dharam Code: Of Adivasi identity and eco-nationalism, Ambika Aiyadurai, Anthropologist, Assistant Professor, IIT Gandhinagar, offered another take on the importance of including the Sarna Code in the Census. She said, “Both Christianity and Hindutva groups (in northeast India) are competing with each other to bring the tribal communities under their respective folds. To resist this, there have been serious attempts to institutionalise the indigenous faith of the respective tribal communities, to create space for their own faith. Indigenous people are often caught up in a struggle to maintain their unique indigenous identity.”

This is significant given how while on the one hand the continued presence of a variety of Christian missionaries in different tribal areas since before Independence had led many tribals to convert to Christianity, one the other Hindutva groups are trying to conflate the identity of all tribals with that of Hindus.

Since Census data plays a key role in development of policies related to Adivasis i.e people hailing from indigenous communities and tribes, followers of Sarna feel that assigning a separate code for Sarna religion in the Census would allow authorities to get an actual picture of just how many Sarna followers there are across the country and this in turn could help them in formulating better policies for tribals. When the tribal identity is conflated with that of Hindus or people of any other religion, their actual numbers are not represented properly. This impacts recognition of tribals and access to benefits related to reservations and welfare measures.

Recommendations and advocacy for inclusion of Sarna Code in Census

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has recommended way back when the 2011 Census was to be conducted, that Sarna be assigned a separate religion code in the Census. Rameshwar Oraon who was the chairman of the NCST at that time was quoted by Times of India as saying, “Their demand deserves adequate attention and I would suggest independent religion code should be accorded to Sarna in the religion code of the Census.”

According to Navbharat Times, when people were given the option to write Sarna in the ‘other’ column under religion, nearly 50 lakh people identified as Sarna followers, with 40 lakhs hailing from Jharkhand alone!

In fact, on November 11, 2020, the Jharkhand State Assembly passed a unanimous resolution to demand the inclusion of a separate Sarna Code in the 2021 Census. The proposal was tabled by Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren who had said previously at an online conference of Harvard University in February that year, “Tribals were never Hindus. They have a distinct social and religious identity. They are nature worshippers and yet efforts have been made to club them with Hindus.” At that time, Soren had attracted much flak for this assertion, mainly from right-wing Hindutva groups who have long held the belief that all tribals are Hindus.

Salkhan Mumru, while reiterating this demand for a separate Sarna Code in the Census, told The Telegraph, “We are surprised as tribals, who are mostly nature worshippers, are denied this recognition. The 50-lakh tribal people, who had put their religion as Sarna in the 2011 census, although it was not a recognised code, are more than the Jains and Buddhists. The Adivasis are not Hindus, Muslims and Christians.”

In December 2021, over 500 tribals had held a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar under the aegis of Rashtriya Adivasi Samaj Sarna Dharma Raksha Abhiyan. The four-hour long protest culminated with memoranda being given to then President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Union tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda and registrar general and census commissioner of India Vivek Joshi.

Karma Oraon, who is the former head of anthropology department in Ranchi University and advisor, Rashtriya Adivasi Samaj Sarna Dharma Raksha Abhiyan, was quoted by The Telegraph as saying, “The inclusion of separate Sarna religion code would help in the preservation of separate tribal identity both culturally and in terms of religion.”

[1] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/sarna-dharam-code-of-adivasi-identity-and-eco-nationalism-74569

Related:

Sarna code, a possible headache for right-wing supporters?

Sarna code: More than just a political tactic

Adivasi identity at stake

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