Jharkhand : Tribals protested and said, Center should recognize ‘Sarna’ as the religion of tribals
People from different tribal communities from five states, including Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam, staged a demonstration in the capital Delhi on Thursday calling on the Center to recognize their religion as ‘Sarna’ and ensure their enumeration under this category during the upcoming census. demanded to do. The agitators also resolved to intensify their struggle to get the government’s recognition of ‘ Sarna Dharma Samhita ‘ and took the blessings of their deities and revered leaders by offering mass prayers at Delhi ‘s Jantar Mantar . The demonstration was organized to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the Santhal rebellion against the British on June 30 , 1855.
The members, most of whom belonged to the Santhal tribe, raised their demands under the aegis of Adivasi Sengal Abhiyan (Tribal Empowerment Campaign) from 250 ST-dominated blocks in 50 districts of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam.
“We are here to demand that the government recognize our religion as ‘Sarna’ and include a provision in the upcoming census to count tribals under this category,” said Salkhan Murmu, a tribal leader from Jharkhand. ” We wanted to meet President Ram Nath Kovind to express our feelings and urge him to recognize our religion as Sarna , but did not get time to meet him , ” he said . Therefore , we submitted a memorandum of our demands to the President through the police . Murmu, a BJP MP from Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha constituency of Odisha for two consecutive terms from 1998-2004, said that the tribals in the country have their own religion, religious practices and customs, but it has not been recognized by the government yet. He said , ‘ We Adivasis are neither Hindu nor Christian.
He said , ‘ We Adivasis are neither Hindu nor Christian . We have our own way of life , religious practices , customs , culture and religious ideas , which are different from any other religion . We worship nature, not idols. There is neither varna system nor any kind of inequality in our society. He claimed that in the absence of the government’s recognition of tribal religions, members of Scheduled Tribe communities in the country are misled to adopt other religions.
He said, ‘India is home to more than 12 crore tribal people. They have been recognized as a Scheduled Tribe , but unfortunately their religion is not recognized , as it is fundamental under the Constitution . Murmu said, ‘Since all tribals worship nature and their religious thoughts, behaviour, culture and customs are different from any other religion, we demand that our religion be recognized as Sarna. He said that Sarna can be accepted as a generic name for the religion of all the ‘ tribals of the country , as it means ‘ place of worship ‘ in the Santhali language . He said that 1,000 people had arrived in trains from five states but not all could join the protest as the police refused to allow them citing some court orders and restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 .
