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Birsa Munda



Birsa Munda



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Birsa Munda


Birsa Munda, photograph in Roy (1912:72)
Born15 NOVEMBER 1875
Ulihatu, Ranchi, India
Died9 June 1900
Ranchi Jail, Ranchi, India

Birsa Munda (1875– June 9, 1900) was a national leader in the late 19th century political independence movement during the British Raj in India. Birsa Munda is named with great respect as one of the freedom fighters in the Indian struggle for independence against British colonialism. His achievements in the freedom struggle become even greater considering he accomplished this before his 25th year. Birsa's devotion to his people was such that he was almost revered as God by his followers. By the time he was in his 20s, his activities in the tribal areas of Jharkhand state (earlier Bihar) had already begun to worry the British establishment to a considerable extent. He was finally caught by the British on 3 February 1900 when he was only 25 years old. He died soon afterwards in mysterious circumstances on 9 June 1900 in Ranchi Jail.







Contents

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[edit] Early Childhood


Birsa was born in the year 1875 on a Thursday, and he was named after the day of his birth according to the then prevalent Munda custom. The folk songs reflect popular confusion and refer to both Ulihatu and Chalkad as his birth-place. Ulihatu was the birth-place of Sugana Munda, father of Birsa. The claim of Ulihatu rests on Birsa’s elder brother Komta Munda living in the village and on his house which still exists albeit in a dilapidated condition.


Birsa’s father, mother and younger brother, Pasna Munda, left Ulihatu and proceeded to Kurumbda near Birbanki in search of employment as labourers or crop-sharers (sajhadar) or ryots. At Kurmbda Birsa’s elder brother, Komta, and his sister, Daskir, were born . From there the family moved to Bamba where Birsa’s elder sister Champa was born followed by himself.


Soon after Birsa’s birth, his family left Bamba. A quarrel between the Mundas and their ryots in which his father was involved as a witness was the immediate reason for proceeding to Chalkad, Sugana’s mother’s village, where they were granted refuge by Bir Singh , the Munda of the village. Birsa’s birth ceremony was performed at Chalkad.



[edit] After childhood


Birsa’s early years were spent with his parents at Chalkad. His early life could not have been very different from that of an average Munda child. Folklore refers to his rolling and playing in sand and dust with his friends, and his growing up strong and handsome in looks; he grazed sheep in the forest of Bohonda. When the grew up, he shared an interest in playing the flute, in which he became adept, and so movingly did he play that all living beings came out to listen to him. He went round with the tuila, the one-stringed instrument made from the pumpkin, in the hand and the flute strung to his waist. Exciting moments of his childhood were spent on the akhara ( the village dancing ground). One of his contemporaries who went out with him, however, heard him speak of strange things.


Driven by poverty Birsa was taken to Ayubhatu, his maternal uncle’s village. Komta Munda, his eldest brother, who was ten years of age, went to Kundi Bartoli, entered the service of a Munda, married and lived there for eight years, and then joined his father and younger brother at Chalkad. At Ayubhatu Birsa lived for two years. He went to school at Salga, run by one Jaipal Nag. He accompanied his mother’s younger sister, Joni, who was fond of him, when she was married, to Khatanga, her new home. He came in contact with a pracharak who visited a few families in the village which had been converted to Christianity and attacked the old Munda order.


He remained so preoccupied with himself or his studies that he left the sheep and goat in his charge to graze in the fields covered with crops to the dismay of their owners. He was found no good for the job and was beaten by the owner of field. He left the village and went to his brother at Kundi Bartoli, and stayed with him for some time. From there he probably went to the German mission at Burju where he passed the lower primary examination.He also studied at Chaibasa at Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Mission school run by German missionaries. It was here where he was transformed into a fighter for tribals. A Father at the school was narrating the children about the Kingdom of Heaven. The young Daud Purty(baptised name of Birsa) questioned the Father where was this Kingdom of Heaven when there was so much exploitation of tribals by zamindars and landlords in their own homeland.



[edit] The Formative Period (1886-1894)


Birsa’s long stay at Chaibasa from 1886 to 1890 constituted a formative period of his life. The influence of Christianity shaped his own religion. This period was marked by the German and Roman Catholic Christian agitation. Chiabasa was not far for the centre of the Sardars’ activities influenced Sugana Munda in withdrawing his son from the school. The sardar agitation in which Birsa was thus caught up put the stamp of its anti-missionary and anti-Government character on his mind. Soon after leaving Chaibasa in 1890 Birsa and his family gave up their membership of the German mission in line with the Sardar’s movement against it.


He left Corbera in the wake of the mounting Sardar agitation. He participated in the agitation stemming form popular disaffection at the restrictions imposed upon the traditional rights of the Mundas in the protected forest, under the leadership of Gidiun of Piring in the Porhat area. During 1893-4 all waste lands in villages, the ownership of which was vested in the Government, were constituted into protected forests under the Indian Forest Act VII of 1882. In Singhbhum as in Palamau and Manbhum the forest settlement operations were launched and measures were taken to determine the rights of the forest-dwelling communities. Villages in forests were marked off in blocks of convenient size consisting not only of village sites but also cultivable and waste lands sufficient of the needs of villages.


In 1894, Birsa had grown up into a strong and handsome young man, shrewd and intelligent. He was tall for a Munda, 5 feet 4 inches, and could perform the feat of repairing the Dombari tank at Gorbera damaged by rains. His real appearance was extraordinary pleasant : his features were regular, his eyes bright and full of intelligence and his complexion much lighter than most of his people.


During the period he had a spell of experience typical of a young man of his age and looks. While on a sojourn in the neighbourhood of village Sankara in Singhbhum, he found suitable companion, presented her parents with jewels and explained to her his idea of marriage. Later, on his return form jail he did not find her faithful to him and left her. Another woman who served him at Chalkad was the sister of Mathias Munda. On his release form prison, the daughter of Mathura Muda of Koensar who was kept by Kali Munda, and the wife of Jaga Munda of Jiuri insisted on becoming wives of Birsa. He rebuked them and referred the wife of Jaga Munda to her husband. Another rather well-known woman who stayed with Birsa was Sali of Burudih.


Birsa stressed monogamy at a later stage in his life. Birsa rose form the lowest ranks of the peasants, the ryots, who unlike their namesakes elsewhere enjoyed far fewer rights in the Mundari khuntkatti system, while all privileges were monopolized by the members of the founding lineage the ryots were no better than crop-sharers. Birsa’s own experience as a young boy, driven form place to place in search of employment, given him an insight into the agrarian question and forest matters; he was no passive spectator but an active participant in the movement going on in the neighbourhood.



[edit] The Making of a Prophet


Birsa’s claim to be a messenger of God and the founder of a new religion sounded preposterous to the mission. There were also within his sect converts form Christianity, mostly Sardars. His simple system of offering was directed against the church which levied a tax. And the concept of on God appealed to his people who found his religion and economical religion saving them the expense of sacrifices. A strict code of conduct was laid down : theft, lying and murder were anathema ; begging was prohibited.


The stories of Birsa as a healer, a miracle-worker, and a preacher spread, out of all proportion to the facts. The Mundas, Oraons, and Kharias flocked to Chalkad to see the new prophet and to be cured of there ills. Both the Oraon and Munda population up to Barwari and Chechari in Palamau became convinced Birsaities. Contemporary and later folk songs commemorate the tremendous impact of Birsa on his people, their joy and expectations at his advent. The name of Dharti Aba was on everybody’s lips. A folk songs in Sadani showed that the first impact cut across the lines of caste Hindus and Muslims also flocked to the new Sun of religion. All roads led to Chalked.



[edit] Birsa Munda and his Movement


The British colonial system intensified the transformation of the tribal agrarian system into feudal state. As the tribals with their primitive technology could not generate a surplus, non-tribal peasantry were invited by the chiefs in Chotanagpur to settle on and cultivate the land. This led to the alienation of the lands held by the tribals. The new class of Thikadars were of a more rapacious kind and eager to make most of their possessions.


In 1856 the number of the Jagirdars stood at about 600, and they held from a portion of village to 150 villages. By 1874, the authority of the old Munda or Oraon chiefs had been almost entirely effaced by that of the farmers, introduced by the superior landlord. In some villages the aborigines had completely lost their proprietary rights, and had been reduced to the position of farm labourers.


To the twin challenges of agrarian breakdown and culture change, Birsa along with the Munda responded through a series of revolts and uprisings under his leadership. The movement sought to assert rights of the Mundas as the real proprietors of the soil, and the expulsion of middlemen and the British. He was treacherously caught on 3 February 1900 and died in mysterious conditions on 9 June 1900 in Ranchi Jail.Though he lived for a very short span of 25 years,he aroused the mind-set of the tribals and mobilised them in a small town of Chhotanagpur and was a terror to the British rulers.









14


Orissa Review * August - 2004


The life history of Birsa Munda will go down


in the history of the tribals as a story of


emancipation of his own people, who were


subjected to prolonged suppression by the


Britishers. He was a


visionary. He realised that the


Britishers have come to this


land to torture the masses and


carry wealth abroad. He is


reckoned as a freedom


fighter who led the tribals


essentially to prevent land


grabbing by the non-tribals


ending them up as bonded


labourers in their own land.


He had organised his first


protest march for remission


of forest dues. It was at this


time the great famine of 1895


broke out. Birsa Munda


presently is being


worshipped as 'Bhagaban' in the newly created


State of Jharkhand.


Birsa was born in the year 1874. Though


lived a very short span of 25 years, he aroused


the tribal mind-set and mobilised them in a little


town of Chhotnagpur and was a terror for the


British Rulers. True to his greatness and


achievements to free the tribals, he was called


'Dharti Abba'. A visitor is overwhelmed to see


his statue erected in the steel city of Rourkela


as a befitting tribute to this great tribal leader


who had fulfilled his mission by compelling


the Britishers for the promulgation of the


Chhotnagpur Tenancy Act,


1908. This legislation being an


offshoot of his struggle


prohibited alienation of tribal


land and also provision for


restoration of the alienated


land. He invoked the tribals to


take pride of their ancestor's


patriotism and to maintain their


cultural ethos.


The tribals were suppressed


for long by the Dikus (nontribals)


and the intermediaries


like Thikadars and money


lenders including Zamindars


tried to exploit the tribals


constantly. The tribals who


were for centuries the owners of the land and


engaged in cultivation could not stand the trials


before the British Court and the primitive


practice of verbal agreement on land ownership


could not be recognised by law. Finally the


tribals ended themselves up as bonded


labourers in their own land of origin.


The level of discontentment which grew


out of sustained discontentment struck at the


Birsa Munda - The Great Hero of the Tribals


Satyanarayan Mohapatra


15


Orissa Review * August - 2004


very root of their age-old customs and practices


and against this background Birsa organised


his struggle to free the tribal folk from the brink


of survival and he commenced his protest march


on 1st October 1894 for remission of forest


dues. He gave his clarion call to the tribals in


his own language "


Maharani raj tundu jana


oro abua raj ete Jana


 


 


". In otherwords he


wanted the tribals to end the rule of the queen


and re-establish their own kingdom.


Birsa accordingly spearheaded the tribal


movement in the region of Chhotanagpur and


brought the tribal community under a single


umbrella. He instigated the masses by putting


examples of their ancestors and their burning


patriotism which now spread like wild fire.


Birsa saw to it that a gallant struggle was to be


fought reawakening patriotism among his


masses, which was almost at the waning state.


His organisational skill, motivating the masses


to regain freedom from the power grabbers like


the Thikadars, Zamindars and money-lenders


and restoration of full ownership rights as


tillers of the soil are exemplary in the history


of the tribals.


After our Constitution coming into force


a lot of safeguards have been bestowed upon


the tribals to save them from exploitation from


the affluent class. Many a legislations have


been passed both by the Parliament and the State


Legislatures to protect them from the land


grabbing by the non-tribals. Their inherent


indebtedness and alcoholism which continued


to be endemic, and of late considerable tribal


land has been acquired for various development


projects for industrial, power and irrigation


purposes leading to large scale displacement


and alienation of their tenancy rights. In return


the little that is given to the tribals as


compensation package is grossly inadequate.


This has given rise to discontentment.


Birsa Munda's dream can be realised


only if the tribals are restored with their land


within a limited time frame by suitable


enactment. It is high time that the oppression


of the private money lenders should be stopped.


Govt. plans such as tribal sub-plan and


Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDP)


and Modified Area Development Approach


(MADA) should be implemented in right


earnest under single window administration.


In the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru


Tribal people should develop along the lines


of their own genius and we should avoid


imposing anything on them forcibly. We should


try to encourage in every way their traditional


arts and culture." Then only Birsa Munda's


revolt to save the tribals from the age-long


repression by awakening them from the deep


slumber both as a prophet and saviour can be


fully realised. Birsa died Jail in 1900 at the


budding age of twentyfive.


Satyanarayan Mohapatra, a retired Under Secretary to


Government of Orissa, lives at L-3/78, Acharya Vihar,


Bhubaneswar - 751013.


 

BIRSA MUNDA


Each section of our large population contributes to the making of the nation in the same manner as each flower helps to make a garden. Every flower has right to grow according to its own laws of growth; has the right to enrich and develop its own colour and form and to spread its own fragrance to make u the cumulative beauty and splendour of the garden.


The tribes have developed their own culture and made their contribution to the cultural richness of the country. It is unnecessary to cause them to change their customs, habits or diversions so far as to make themselves indistinguishable from other classes. To do so would be rob rural and pastoral life of its colour and stimulating diversity.


Early Childhood


Birsa was born in year 1875, Thursday was the day of his birth, and he was named after the day of his birth according to the Munda custom. The folk songs reflect popular confusion and refer to both Ulihatu and Chalkad as his birth-place. Ulihatu was the birth-place of Sugana Munda, father of Birsa. The claim of Ulihatu rests on Birsa’s elder brother Komta Munda living in the village and on his house which still exist in a dilapidated condition.


Birsa’s father, mother and younger brother, Pasna Munda, left Ulihatu and proceeded to Kurumbda near Birbanki in search of employment as labourers or crop-sharers (sajhadar) or ryots. At Kurmbda Birsa’s elder brother, Komta, and his sister, Daskir, were born . From there the family moved to Bamba where Birsa’s elder sister Champa was born followed by himself.


Birsa was born in a house built of bamboo strips without a mud plaster or even a secure roof; a crop-sharer or ryot could not boast of a better house. Folk songs relating to his birth seek to embroider the event with the Biblical parallels : a comet or a flag-star moved across the sky from Chalkad to Ulihatu; a flag flew on a mountain top. At school when a teacher once saw Birsa’s palm, he observed on it the mark of the cross and predicated that he would recover the kingdom one day.


Soon after Birsa’s birth, his family left Bamba. A quarrel between the Mundas and their ryots in which his father was involved as a witness was the immediate reason for proceeding to Chalkad, Sugana’s mother’s village, where they were granted refuge by Bir Singh , the Munda of the village. Birsa’s birth ceremony was performed at Chalkad.


Sugana Munda’s elder brother, Bara Kan Paulus, had been converted to Christianity at Ulihatu long before Birsa was born. Sugana and his younger brother became Christians at Bambna; Sugana rose to be a pracharak (catechist) of the German mission. On conversion he adopted the Christian name of Masihdad and Birsa of Daud Munda, also called Daud Birsa. Birsa’s family stayed at Chalked till the uprising (ulgulan).


 


Birsa’s early years were spent with his parents at Chalkad. His early life could not have been very different from that of an average Munda child. Folklore refers to his rolling and playing in sand and dust with his friends, and his growing up strong and handsome in looks; he grazed sheep in the forest of Bohonda. When the grew up, he shared an interest in playing the flute, in which he became adept, and so movingly did he play that all living beings came out to listen to him. He went round with the tuila, the one-stringed instrument made from the pumpkin, in the hand and the flute strung to his waist. Exciting moments of his childhood were spent on the akhara ( the village dancing ground). One of his contemporaries who went out with him, however, heard him speak of strange things.


Driven by poverty Birsa was taken to Ayubhatu, his maternal uncle’s village. Komta Munda, his eldest brother, who was ten years of age, went to Kundi Bartoli, entered the service of a Munda, married and lived there for eight years, and then joined his father and younger brother at Chalkad. At Ayubhatu Birsa lived for two years. He went to school at Salga, run by one Jaipal Nag. He accompanied his mother’s younger sister, Joni, who was fond of him, when she was married, to Khatanga, her new home. He came in contact with a pracharak who visited a few families in the village which had been converted to Christianity and attacked the old Munda order.


He remained so preoccupied with himself or his studies that he left the sheep and goat in his charge to graze in the fields covered with crops to the dismay of their owners. He was found no good for the job and was beaten by the owner of field. He left the village and went to his brother at Kundi Bartoli, and stayed with him for some time. From there he probably went to the German mission at Burju where he passed the lower primary examination.


The Formative Period (1886-1894)


Birsa’s long stay at Chaibasa from 1886 to 1890 constituted a formative period of his life. The influence of Christianity shaped his own religion. This period was marked by the German and Roman Catholic Christain agitation. Chiabasa was not far for the centre of the Sardars’ activities. Birsa was amidst them’ Eliazer of Kasmar, Gidun of Piring. Yohanna of Chapari, Mika of Dabgama, Tenga of Katingkel and Bhutka of Rugri were his own men. One day while delivering a sermon in the Chaibasa mission attended by Birsa, Dr Nottrott expatiated on the theme of the Kingdom of Heaven, and assured them that if they remained Christians and followed his instructions, he could get back all lands they had lost. Birsa took it to heart. But he received a rude shock when the brak with the missionaries came in 1886-7 and the latter started calling the Sardars cheats. He criticized Dr Nottrott and the missionaries in trenchant terms. They refused to have him in their school any longer, and he was expelled. This was a turning point in his life; he exclaimed saheb, saheb ek topi hai (all whites, the British and the missionaries, wear the same cap) it was also likely that the Sardars might have influenced Sugana Munda in withdrawing his son from the school. The sardar agitation in which Birsa was thus caught up put the stamp of its anti-missionary and anti-Government character on his mind.


Soon after leaving Chaibasa in 1890 Birsa and his family gave up their membership of the German mission in line with the Sardar’s movement against it. He apostatized to the Roman Catholics and remained with them for a little while before lapsing into hearthenism. This also followed the pattern of the Sardar agitation which turned to the Roman Catholic mission, seeking support for their claims, and the, disappointed, returned to the old faith. For a year he also served in the house of Munda at Kander, where his eldest sister Daskir lived.


It was probably in 1890 that he went to Bandgaon and came in contact with Anand Panre. Anand Panre, a munshi to Jagmohan Singh. The zamindar of Bandgaon, was a Swansi. He was well versed into rudimentary form of Vaishnavism that prevailed in the area and with the Hindu epic-lores, and enjoyed some reputation and influence. Birsa occasionally accompanied him Gorbera and Patpur, but spent most of his time at Bandgaon with him or his brother Sukhnath Panre. He stayed with the Panres for three years. He also met a Vaishnav monk who visited the baraik at Bamani and preached there for two months. He adopted the sacred thread, worshipped the tulsi plants. Wore the sandal mark , familiarized himself with the Hindu concept of epochs and prohibited cowslaughter. At Patpur, his disciples claim, he had the vision (darsan) of Mahaprabhu Vishnu Bhagwan. Which marked the consummation of the Vaishnav influence on their master.


He left Corbera in the wake of the mounting Sardar agitation. During these years he did not keep himself only to the Panres. He participated in the agitation stemming form popular disaffection at the restrictions imposed upon the traditional rights of the Mundas in the protected forest, under the leadership of Gidiun of Piring in the Porhat area. During 1893-4 all waste lands in villages, the ownership of which was vested in the Government, were constituted into protected forests under the Indian Forest Act VII of 1882. In Singhbhum as in Palamau and Manbhum the forest settlement operations were launched and measures were taken to determine the rights of the forest-dwelling communities. Villages in forests were marked off in blocks of convenient size consisting not only of village sites but also cultivable and waste lands sufficient of the needs of villages.


Outside the blocks lay the protected forest areas in which rights were regulated, even curtailed. These orders were sometimes not understood by local officers who acted as if all right of forest-swelling communities had been curtailed. Petitions were submitted by Jeta Maniki of Gudri, Rasha Maniki, Moni Maniki of Durkarpir claiming the resumption of what they called were their old ancestral right to free fuel. grazing etc. Birsa led a number of ryots of Sirgida to Chaibasa with a petition for the remission of forest dues. Men form six other villages had preceded him. Nothing came of it. The Chotanagpur Protected Forests Rules framed under the Indian Forest Act came into force in July 1894. Viewing Birsa’s involvement in the Sardar agitation with concern, Anand Panre advised him not to let him emotion overpowers him; but he would not turn a deaf ear to the inner voice. His three years’ apprenticeship under the Panres came to an end in 1893-4.


In 1894, Birsa had grown up into a strong and handsome young man, shrewd and intelligent. He was tall for a Munda, 5 feet 4 inches, and could perform the feat of repairing the Dombari tank at Gorbera damaged by rains. His real appearance was extraordinary pleasant : his features were regular, his eyes bright and full of intelligence and his complexion much lighter than most of his people.


During the period he had a spell of experience typical of a young man of his age and looks. While on a sojourn in the neighbourhood of village Sankara in Singhbhum, he found suitable companion, presented her parents with jewels and explained to her his idea of marriage. Later, on his return form jail he did not find her faithful to him and left her. Another woman who served him at Chalkad was the sister of Mathias Munda. On his release form prison, the daughter of Mathura Muda of Koensar who was kept by Kali Munda, and the wife of Jaga Munda of Jiuri insisted on becoming wives of Birsa. He rebuked them and referred the wife of Jaga Munda to her husband. Another rather well-known woman who stayed with Birsa was Sali of Burudih.


Birsa stressed monogamy at a later stage in his life. Birsa rose form the lowest ranks of the peasants, the ryots, who unlike their namesakes elsewhere enjoyed far fewer rights in the Mundari khuntkatti system, while all privileges were monopolized by the members of the founding lineage the ryots were no better than crop-sharers. Birsa’s own experience as a young boy, driven form place to place in search of employment, given him an insight into the agrarian question and forest matters; he was no passive spectator but an active participant in the movement going on in the neighbourhood.


The Making of a Prophet


Birsa’s claim to be a messenger of God and the founder of a new religion sounded preposterous to the mission. There were also within his sect converts form Christianity, mostly Sardars. His simple system of offering was directed against the church which levied a tax. And the concept of on God appealed to his people who found his religion and economical religion saving them the expense of sacrifices. A strict code of conduct was laid down : theft, lying and murder were anathema ; begging was prohibited.


Slowly, the messenger of God began to be identified with God himself. The people approached him as tier Singbonga or the Sun God, the good spirit who watches over them and can do no ill. He was looked upon as an incarnation of Khasra Kora who had destroyed the Asurs. They said the Sun (which they worship) was above the Birsa was below ; later on , it was given out that the he was Bhagwan himself. Later Birsaites formed themselves into a sect worshipping him as such.


The stories of Birsa as a healer, a miracle-worker, and a preacher spread, out of all proportion to the facts. The Mundas, Oraons, and Kharias flocked to Chalkad to see the new prophet and to be cured of there ills. Both the Oraon and Munda population up to Barwari and Chechari in Palamau became convinced Birsaities. Contemporary and later folk songs commemorate the tremendous impact of Birsa on his people, their jay and expectations at his advent. The name of Dharti Aba was on everybody’s lips. A folk songs in Sadani showed that the first impact cut across the lines of caste Hindus and Muslims also flocked to the new Sun of religion. All roads led to Chalked.


Birsa Munda and his Movement


The British colonial system intensified the transformation of the tribal agrarian system into feudal state. As the tribals with their primitive technology could not generate a surplus, non-tribal peasantry were invited by the chiefs in Chotanagpur to settle on and cultivate the land. This led to the alienation of the lands held by the tribals. The new class of Thikadars were of a more rapacious kind and eager to make most of their possessions.


In 1856 the number of the Jagirdars stood at about 600, and they held from a portion of village to 150 villages. By 1874, the authority of the old Munda or Oraon chiefs had been almost entirely effaced by that of the farmers, introduced by the superior landlord. In some villages the aborigines had completely lost their proprietary rights, and had been reduced to the position of farm labourers.


To the twin challenges of agrarian breakdown and culture change Birsa along with the Munda responded through a series of revolts and uprising under his leadership. The movement seek to assert rights of the Mundas as the real proprietors of the soil, and the expulsion of middlemen and the Britishers. He was treacherously caught on 3 February 1900 and died in mysterious conditions on 9 June 1900 in Ranchi Jail.


 http://www.rrtd.nic.in/Birsa.html


Munda Rebellion is one of the prominent 19th century tribal rebellions in the subcontinent. Birsa Munda led this movement in the region south of Ranchi in 1899-1900. the ulgulan, meaning 'Great Tumult', sought to establish Munda Raj and independence. The Mundas traditionally enjoyed a preferential rent rate as the khuntkattidar or the original clearer of the forest. But in course of the 19th century they had seen this khuntkatti land system being eroded by the jagirdars and thikadars coming as merchants and moneylenders.





This process of land alienation had begun long before the advent of the British. But the establishment and consolidation of British rule accelerated the mobility of the non-tribal people into the tribal regions. The incidence of forced labour or beth begari also increased dramatically. Unscrupulous contractors, moreover, had turned the region, into a recruiting ground for indentured labour. Yet another change associated with British rule was the appearance of a number of Lutheran, Anglican and Catholic missions. The spread of education through missionary activities made the tribals more organised and conscious of their rights. Tribal solidarity was undermined as the social cleavage between the Christian and non-Christian Mundas deepened. The agrarian discontent and the advent of Christianity, therefore, helped the revitalisation of the movement, which sought to reconstruct the tribal society disintegrating under the stresses and strains of colonial rule.


Birsa Munda (1874-1900), the son of a sharecropper who had received some education from the missionaries came under Vaishnava influence and in 1893-94 participated in a movement to prevent village wastelands from being taken over by the Forest Department. In 1895 Birsa, claiming to have seen a vision of god, proclaimed himself a prophet with miraculous healing powers. Thousands flocked to hear the 'new word' of Birsa with its prophecy of an imminent deluge. The new prophet became a critic of the traditional tribal customs, religious beliefs and practices. He called upon the Mundas to fight against superstition, give up animal sacrifice, stop taking intoxicants, to wear the sacred thread and retain the tribal tradition of worship in the sarna or the sacred grove. It was essentially a revivalist movement, which sought to purge Munda society of all foreign elements and restore its pristine character. Christianity influenced the movement as well and it used both Hindu and Christian idioms to create the Munda ideology and worldview.


An agrarian and political note was then injected into what initially was a religious movement. From 1858 onwards, Christian tribal raiyats had been on the offensive against alien landlords and beth begari through lawsuits. This was the mulkai ladai or the struggle for land, also known as the Sardari ladai. The complexion of Birsa Munda's religious movement changed through its contact with the Sardar movement. Initially the Sardars (tribal chiefs) did not have much to do with Birsa, but once his popularity swelled they drew on him to provide a stable base for their own weakened struggle. Though influenced by the Sardars, Birsa, however, was not their mouthpiece and despite the common agrarian background of the two movements, there were considerable differences between them. The Sardars initially professed loyalty to the British and even to the Raja of Chhotanagpur and only wanted the elimination of intermediary interests. Birsa, on the other hand, had a positive political programme, his object being the attainment of independence, both religious and political. The movement sought the assertion of the rights of the Mundas as the real proprietors of the soil. This ideal agrarian order, according to Birsa, would be possible in a world free from the influence of European officials and missionaries, thus necessitating the establishment of the Munda Raj.


The British, who feared a conspiracy, jailed Birsa for two years in 1895, but he returned from jail, much more of a firebrand. A series of nocturnal meetings were held in the forest during 1898-99, where Birsa allegedly urged the killing of thikadars, jagirdars, rajas, hakims and Christians.


The rebels attacked police stations and officials, churches and missionaries, and though there was an undercurrent of hostility against the dikus, there was no overt attack on them except in a couple of controversial cases. On Christmas Eve 1899, the Mundas shot arrows and tried to burn down churches over an area covering six police stations in the districts of Ranchi and Singhbhum. Next, in January 1900, the police stations were targeted and there were rumours that Birsa's followers would attack Ranchi on 8 January, leading to panic there. On 9 January, however, the rebels were defeated. Birsa was captured and died in jail. Nearly 350 Mundas were put on trial and of them three were hanged and 44 transported for life.


The government attempted to redress the grievances of the Mundas through the survey and settlement operations of 1902-10. The Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908 provided some recognition to their khuntkatti rights and banned beth begari. Chhotanagpur tribals won a degree of legal protection for their land rights. [Sanjukta Das Gupta]

http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/M_0389.htm

Mahasweta Devi



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Mahasweta Devi at a reading in New Delhi

Mahasweta Devi (Bengali: মহাশ্বেতা দেবী Môhashsheta Debi) (born 1926 in Dhaka in what is now Bangladesh) is an Indian social activist and writer. Her only son Nabarun Bhattacharya is also a renowned author in his own right.







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[edit] Biography


Mahasweta Devi was born in 1926 in Dhaka, to literary parents. Her father Manish Ghatak was a poet and a novelist and elder brother of noted filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak, and her mother Dharitri Devi was also a writer and a social worker. Her first schooling was in Dhaka, but after the partition of India she moved to West Bengal in India. She joined the Rabindranath Tagore founded Vishvabharati University in Santiniketan and completed a B.A. (Hons) in English, and then finished an M.A. in English at Calcutta University as well. She later married renowned playwright and actor Bijon Bhattacharya.



[edit] Career


In 1964, she began teaching at Bijoygarh College (an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta system). During those days, Bijoygarh College was an institution for working class women students. Also during that period, she also worked as a journalist and as a creative writer. Recently, she is more famous for her work related to the study of the Lodhas and Shabars,the tribal communities of West Bengal, women and dalits. She is also an activist who is dedicated to the struggles of tribal people in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In her elaborate Bengali fiction, she often depicts the brutal oppression of tribal peoples and the untouchables by potent, authoritarian upper-caste landlords, lenders, and venal government officials. She has written of the source of her inspiration:



I have always believed that the real history is made by ordinary people. I constantly come across the reappearance, in various forms, of folklore, ballads, myths and legends, carried by ordinary people across generations....The reason and inspiration for my writing are those people who are exploited and used, and yet do not accept defeat. For me, the endless source of ingredients for writing is in these amazingly, noble, suffering human beings. Why should I look for my raw material elsewhere, once I have started knowing them? Sometimes it seems to me that my writing is really their doing.


At the Frankfurt Book Fair 2006, when India was the first country to be the Fair's second time guest nation, she made an impassioned inaugural speech wherein she moved the audience to tears with her lines taken from the famous film song by Raj Kapoor (the English equivalent is in brackets):



This is truly the age where the Joota (shoe) is Japani (Japanese), Patloon (pants) is Englistani (British), the Topi (hat) is Roosi (Russian), But the Dil... Dil (heart) is always Hindustani (Indian)... My country, Torn, Tattered, Proud, Beautiful, Hot, Humid, Cold, Sandy, Shining India. My country.





[edit] Recent Activism


Mahasweta Devi has recently been spearheading the movement against the industrial policy of the government of West Bengal, the state of her domicile. Specifically, she has stridently criticized confiscation of large tracts of fertile agricultural land from farmers by the government and ceding the land to industrial houses at throwaway prices. She has connected the policy to the commercialization of Santiniketan of Rabindranath Tagore, where she spent her formative years. [1] Her lead resulted in a number of intellectuals, artists, writers and theatre workers join in protesting the controversial policy and particualrly its implementation in Singur and Nandigram.


Recently she praised Gujarat for strides made in development at the grassroots level and criticised the West Bengal government saying that 30 years of Left rule has achieved "very little" in that state.[1]



[edit] Works



  • Hajar Churashir Ma (No. 1084's Mother, 1975)
  • Aranyer Adhikar (The Occupation of the Forest, 1977)
  • Agnigarbha (Womb of Fire, 1978)
  • Choti Munda evam Tar Tir (Choti Munda and His Arrow, 1980)
  • Imaginary Maps (translated by Gayatri Spivak London & New York. Routledge,1995)
  • Dhowli (Short Story)
  • Dust on the Road (Translated into EnglishBy Maitrayee Ghatak. Seagull, Calcutta.)
  • Our Non-Veg Cow (Seagull Books, Calcutta, 1998,Translated from Bengali by Paramita Banerjee.)
  • Bashai Tudu (Translated into EnglisBy Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak and Shamik Bandyopadhyay. Thima, Calcutta, 1993)
  • Titu Mir
  • Rudali
  • Breast Stories (Translated into English by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak. Seagull, Calcutta, 1997)
  • Of Women, Outcasts, Peasants, and Rebels (Translated into English By Kalpana Bardhan,University of California, 1990.)
  • Ek-kori's Dream (Translated into English by Lila Majumdar. N.B.T., 1976)
  • The Book of the Hunter (Seagull India, 2002)
  • Outcast (Seagull, India, 2002)
  • In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (Translated into English by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak. Methuyen and Company, 1987. New York, London)
  • Till Death Do Us Part
  • Old Women
  • Kulaputra (Translated into Kannada by Sreemathi H.S. CVG Publications, Bangalore)
  • The Why-Why Girl (Tulika, Chennai.)
  • Dakatey Kahini


[edit] Major awards




[edit] References



  1. ^ The Mainstream December 23, 2006: Do We Really Want Rabindranath?



[edit] External links









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