The Birsaite Way

THE RAIN BREAKS the stillness of Charid village in Jharkhand’s Khunti district. Shyam Singh Pahan drives his two-wheeler through the narrow, slushy road wearing a bright pink raincoat and trousers—an exception to the white cotton clothes he has worn all his life, like other followers of 19th-century tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda. Pahan is the only villager seen outside the tiled-roof mud houses, amidst the wilderness of trees and thick vegetation. “They are all in the paddy fields. I am also heading there,” he shouts through the deafening downpour.

After some prodding, he agrees to make some calls on his mobile phone, one of the few amenities of contemporary life that they use, to gather a few Birsaites, as fol­lowers of Birsa Munda are called, at a house nearby. Inside a dark kitchen, the women and children, all wearing white, are having their morning meal of rice from small steel bowls, sitting on the mud-coated floor. The power comes and goes. It does not bother them. The only idol in the house is that of Birsa Munda, their ‘bhagwan’ on whose footsteps they continue to live and fight, 124 years after he died at the age of 25 in Ranchi jail during the British Raj.

An old woman in a white sari comes out and wipes two plastic chairs. She speaks only Mundari, the language of the Munda tribe. The men, dressed like their revered icon, wearing white dhotis up to their knees, white gamchhas, white cot­ton threads, beard, long hair and bare feet, say they got freedom from the British in 1947, but that freedom remains “incom­plete” even today. “Our fight for jal, jangal, zameen (water, forest, land) continues non-violently. We got freedom but we are not fully free,” says Bir Ram Phurti, a middle-aged farmer. For the Birsaites of the Munda tribe, life still revolves round Birsa Munda’s “ulgulan (rebellion)”, one of the most known tribal uprisings during India’s struggle for independence, sparked off by “unfair land grabbing” practices during British rule.

The Birsaites make it a point to empha­sise that their faith is different from Sarna, at the core of which is the sacred grove, practised by other tribes of the Chota Nag­pur Plateau, covering parts of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. “We believe in ahimsa, so we do not harm any living being. We don’t give daan of flowers and prasad, perform sacrifices or prostrate before any idol. We pray to na­ture,” says Mago, a young farmer. There are around 10-15 Birsait families in the village, falling in Murhu block of Khunti district, one of the main targets of the revolt in late- 19th century by Birsa Munda and his fol­lowers, fighting for traditional tribal rights.

Vegetarian unlike many other ethnic groups, the Birsaites are also teetotallers. Theirs is a life of simplicity and minimal­ism, dedicated to the ideals of their demigod who wears the aura of history and folklore. The men, women and children live by the same code of conduct, prescribed by Birsa Munda. Mago, for whom he is associated with divinity, goes quickly and gets two sheets of paper listing their niyams (rules) in Hindi—barring them from stealing, violence, eating non-vegetarian food, wear­ing leather products or consuming intoxi­cants, and stipulating that they protect all living beings.

As it continues to rain, Mago shows the way to the house of a septuagenarian Birsait, Mangara Munda, in neighbouring Anigara village, all the way eulogising Birsa Munda, who he believes is born in various avatars “wherever there is evil”. Mangara’s two wives—Suniharo and Mangiri—have just finished their morning meal cooked in a wood-fired chullah. The women, wearing white saris and bereft of ornaments or any other adornments, only speak Mundari, so Mago translates. Like some other village women, they too got an LPG cylinder under the Ujjwala scheme but could not afford to refill it. Right in front of the main door is an image of Birsa Munda’s bust, wearing a white headdress. Mangara returns home from the farm drenched and changes into fresh white clothes. Asked how old he is, he thinks for a moment and says, “I was born in 1946. You can count.” He recalls the struggle of his ancestors dur­ing British rule, and how his grandfather Achu Munda, who had also gone to jail in Hazaribagh during the freedom struggle, started following Birsa. His father Moti Rai Munda, was in the Army for 15 years dur­ing the Raj, after which he quit and settled in Garhwa near Palamu, where he bought 90 acres of land for ₹840 in 1951 and started farming. Mangara did not go to school be­cause his father believed education would drive his children away from farming. Mangara’s daughters, now married, did go to school, but they too work on the farm.

“For jal, jangal, zameen, Birsa Munda gave up his life fighting the British, royalty, zamindars and thekedars. Now the British and rajas are not there, but we are still fight­ing the zamindars and thekedars who have taken our land. We are continuing with his ulgulan peacefully,” says Mangara. He also spells out that Birsaites are neither Hindu nor Christian.

Though Birsaites have not risen up in arms since the ulgulan of arrow shooting and burning in the late 1890s, when the tribal activist led the Mundas against the British, KS Singh writes in his book Birsa Munda and His Movement (1874-1901): “It is no wonder that two disparate movements, the National Congress move­ment in Chota Nagpur and the regional Jharkhand movement drew their inspira­tion from the Birsa movement with good reasons: one stressed its anti-British content, the other its ethnicity and exclusiveness.”

On the winding highway lined by forests on both sides, at the entrance of Lumbai village in Bandgaon is the statue of Birsa Munda, wearing a white dhoti and holding a bow and arrow.

In the village of around 100-odd houses, of which nearly 40 are of Birsaite families, most of the men and women are working in the paddy fields in the much-awaited rain. Inside 72-year-old Chada Munda’s godown is a poster of Birsa Munda and machines to remove the chaff from the rice grain. Hegoes into his house and brings a photograph of his son Buddu Munda standing with Presi­dent Droupadi Murmu and descendants of Birsa Munda when she visited Ulihatu, his birthplace, around 50km from Ranchi, on his birth anniversary on November 15 in 2022. “When the president came, he was invited and we went with a memorandum, but the police took it from us. We could not meet her. So, last year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Ulihatu, we did not go. What is the point?” Buddu and others, who interacted with her, conveyed that they wanted government to grant better basic facilities like education for their chil­dren, power and land rights.

When it comes to politics, Birsaites are guarded. Most complain that no gov­ernment keeps its promises. Villagers of Charid lament that when Modi visited Birsa Munda’s memorial at Ulihatu, the first prime minister to do so, on his birth anniversary, which has been declared Jan Jatiya Gaurav Diwas (day of tribal pride), only a few Birsaites were chosen to welcome him. Mago says that since he was aware of the restrictions being put in place at the event, he did not go to Ulihatu last year.

Outside Chada Munda’s house is a mural saying ‘Birsa Aaba—Satya ahimsa Bhagwan, dharm Birsa Samaj, Prakriti se Prem (Birsa, god of the earth, of truth and non-violence; religion of Birsa sect—love of nature)’. He explains that even marriages are held in simple Birsaite tradition, with the bride and bridegroom wearing white, exchanging threads and pledging that they will stand by each other. “We follow Bhag­wan Birsa Munda’s niyam which is to be as simple and natural as possible, the way one is born.” His 10-year-old grandson, Samu, who also follows the Birsaite culture of wearing white clothes, not cutting his hair and walking on bare feet, except when he goes to school, says he wants to be a doctor.

THE FUTURE OF THE Birsaite movement and how far subsequent generations will carry on the legacy is a question that faces the community, which fears alien influences disrupting its tribal traditions, but is also keen on a better life. Though not many have given up their white attire and moved out, academics in the state see it as inevitable. According to Ikir Gunjal Munda, who was a lecturer at Central Uni­versity of Jharkhand and is the cofounder of Rumbul, an organisation dedicated to conservation of tribal culture, very few Bir­saites have moved into the mainstream, pursuing higher studies or business. “I know at least one family which has. They don’t wear white clothes any longer but call themselves Birsaites. I can imagine the community must be having a hard time when the world is moving ahead, but I can only assume. One will have to ask them.” Unlike Mangara Munda’s father, who did not want his children to get educated for fear that they would leave the land and move away, children of the Birsaites are go­ing to school. Samu’s father Buddu Munda says the community will progress if its members go on to become doctors and en­gineers, though someone will have to take care of the land. “If all move out, who will do the farming? After all everyone needs food,” says Buddu, who had studied till Class 10.

“The backward looking and revivalistic content of their movement, the old policy of isolation and status quo cannot form the basis of their development in a fast moving, dynamic world. But the process of the tran­sition from the old to the new order could be made less painful through their proper education, and with a sympathetic understanding and handling of their problems. While they will join on their own the mainstream of national life, their essential individuality and the colour and artistry in their life have to be preserved and fostered,”writes Singh in his book, one of the most researched works on Birsa Munda. He cites in it that an inquiry in the early 1960s re­vealed that the Birsaites were a much larger community, about 10,000 strong, spread over above 100 villages of Singhbhum, Khunti and Ranchi districts.

Eight years after Birsa Munda’s death, the British enacted the Chota Nagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, 1908, barring non-tribals from buying tribal land. In 2016, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government headed by Raghubar Das, the first non-tribal chief minister of the state which has a tribal population of 26 per cent, made amend­ments to the Act, allowing tribal land to be used for development purposes without changing its ownership. The amendments, however, stirred a hornet’s nest, sparking unrest among the tribals, giving ammuni­tion to the JMM led opposition in the state and Murmu, who was the state’s governor then, returning the bill asking how it will help the masses. The BJP lost the 2019 elec­tion and the amendments did not see the light of day. The Birsaites, a minuscule of the tribal population sprinkled in villages of mostly Khunti and Paschim Singhbhum region, believe it was Birsa Munda’s fight for jal, jungle, zameen, that forced the British to bring the CNT Act.

“The movement continued to seek the assertion of the rights of the Mundas as the real proprietors of the soil, and the expul­sion of middlemen and intermediaries. But this ideal agrarian order, to the Mundas in 1899-1900, was possible only in a world free from the influence of the Europeans, both officials and missionaries. The establish­ment of the Raj under Birsa was, thus, the supreme political end. Further, the Birsaite religion and Birsa Raj were inseparable: the Mundas had to recover not only their lost Kingdom but also their old religion as expounded by their master,” writes Singh, who began his career as an IAS officer, rein­vented Birsa Munda through his research, learnt Mundari, and even organised Birsa Melas at Chalkad in the early 1960s.

While Singh agrees that Birsa’s move­ment was a continuation of the Sardar agita­tion, he goes on to write: “[T]he Sardars were primarily against the middlemen and the dikus; Birsa was against the government. The Sardars were unscrupulous; Birsa laid down a strict ethical code. The Sardars, at one stage, aimed at the achievement of au­tonomy under the British; Birsa at complete independence, both political and religious, the establishment of a Birsa Raj and the Birsaite religion.” He says Birsa came to the rescue of the “tottering” Sardar movement in 1892-95, which had been reduced to mere petition-mongering, and provided it with a clear-cut and positive politico-religious direction and content.

Singh explains how Birsa, a preacher identifying himself as a messenger of God, with stories of miracles and healing associ­ated with him, grew into a prophet, in the book published in 1966. Singh writes of his experience returning to the Munda country after 16 years: “During this time, the Birsa cult has developed further, a process which has been considerably aided by the defini­tive account of Birsa and his movement. Statues of Birsa have been put up, institu­tions and suburban areas have been named after him, and his birthday and the day of his death have been declared public holi­days. Various political currents have tried to establish their links with this man and his movement.” He adds, however, that the conditions of Birsaites remain unchanged: “isolated and poor though a few of them have taken advantage of the overall devel­opment to emerge as progressive peasants.”

Much more has changed since. Besides the Modi government in 2021 declaring Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary as Jan Jatiya Gaurav Diwas, a 150-foot-tall statue of Birsa Munda called the ‘Statue of Ulgulan’ was announced by Sudesh Mahto, former deputy chief minister and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) chief, in 2016; a por­trait of Birsa is on display in the Parliament Museum and the Ranchi airport is named after him. Leaving the Birsa Munda airport, one wonders if Samu will fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor or be a farmer living by Birsaite norms. Perhaps he will find a balance between the two.

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