Statue of revered Birsa Munda
Several local organisations mainly active in the tribal (Janjati/Vanvasi) dominated regions of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh have called for a nationwide shutdown on December 30 for including the Sarna Dharma (reliogion) code in the census, according to the reports.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the representatives of such tribal bodies such as Lohardaga Sarna Samiti, Kendriye Sarna Samiti, Aadivasi Sengel Abhiyan and Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad on Thursday, December 14.
According to the information recieved, former Member of Parliament and founder of Adivasi Senegal Abhiyan, Salkhan Murmu was also among the attendees who while interacting with the media asserted that “around 15 crore nature worshipper tribals of India needs Sarna religion; it is a matter related to our identity and participation; it is our life line.”
“Till the census of 1951, there was a provision for that, after which the Congress government discontinued it. Now the people associated with Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were forcibly trying to categorise us as Hindus. In the census of 2011 around 50 lakh tribals had opted for Sarna Dharma while the number of people who chose Jain as their religion was only 44 lakhs, we are more in numbers than them hence if they can be given a choice, why can’t we have that option, added the former lawmaker from Odisha.”
Janjati Suraksha Manch hits back
Meanwhile, reacting to the call for a shutdown for the inclusion of the Sarna religion code, Raj Kishore Hansda, National Co-Conveyer of the Janjati Suraksha Manch (JSM), a revered Vanvasi body working actively against illegal conversion and in support of a nationwide De-listing exercise, said that the demand put up by the former MP, Salkhan Murmu is nothing but a threadbare demand which cannot be implemented according to the constitution and census rules.
Hansda further asserted that the Britishers who failed to defeat those people leaving in the remote regions of the country had given them different names, such as nature worshippers, superstitious, and notorious tribes, for their own political gain. Though after Independence, the whole Janjati society has been cateogrised as Hindu in all the eight title for the census.
Further, while highlighting the menace of illegal conversion in the Janjati-dominated regions, Hansda said that under the influence of foreign conspirators, a few Janjati leaders have been putting up the demand for a separate religious code for a few years, and the demand for the Sarna religious code is prominent among them. This demand can never be fulfilled, but still, efforts are being made to promote separatism in the name of a separate Sarna code in Janjati-dominated states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.
Handa, further emphasised that people associated with such movements are helping the cause of foreign conspirators who are making desperate attempts to implant the seeds of separatism in innocent Janjati youths.
The whole idea behind this conspiracy is to cut a section of the Janjati society from Hinduism, which will further ease the work for converting them to other religion. Look what has happened in Punjab and similar attempts have been going on in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, added Hansda in a press release issued on December 15.
It is to be noted that a section of the people hailing from the Janjati community have been hitting the streets in support of a separate religion code in recent few years in Jharkhand. The followers of the proposed Sarna sect claimed their disassociation with the Sanatana Dharma mainly on the grounds of nature worshipping.
However, the demand for a separate Sarna code has been so far met by fierce opposition from the other section of the Jnajati society itself, which claimed that any such demand for a separate religion code for Janjatis is part of a larger conspiracy aimed at dividing the community to promote illegal conversion and that the community is an inalienable part of the Sanatan fold.
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