Why everybody desires to personal Birsa Munda

An enigmatic tribal icon from the flip of the final century all of the sudden turns into the toast of all political events. why? as a result of adivasi votes are essential in a spate of upcoming elections

Kolkata,ISSUE DATE: Dec 5, 2022 | UPDATED: Nov 25, 2022 19:24 IST

Left: PM Narendra Modi pays tribute to Birsa Munda at Parliament House (Photo: ANI) | Right: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on the icon’s start anniversary celebration in Jhargram, Nov. 15

LAND, FOREST, IDENTITY, FAITH: The themes that relate to India’s tribal communities appear as historical and unchan­ged because the jungles of Chhotanagpur the place, on a monsoon-soaked evening in 1895, a 21-year-old youth named Birsa Munda skilled an epiphany. It was the onset of a remar­kable story; an inflection level in Adivasi historical past. The one change that got here with electoral democracy is that identification is now additionally political—within the occasion politics sense. For a person who’s a totemic determine of insurrection for Adivasis—certainly, of armed resista­nce to exploitation by all outsiders—it’s ironic how each occasion is scrambling for a chunk of Birsa.

Edited By:

Aditya Mohan Wig

Published On:

Nov 25, 2022