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The Rediff Special/The Jharkhand struggle

Long and winding road...

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Eighty years after it began, the movement for the creation of Jharkhand, a tribal state in south Bihar, is nowhere near fruition. Naturally, the eight decades gone by has seen many ups and downs, and the central government itself has changed its stance on the issue frequently.

What began way back in 1918 as an awareness programme by Christian missionaries to restore the legitimate aspirations of the tribals of south Bihar, has today become a political and social tinderbox.

History books chronicling south Bihar's progress mention that a certain Father Lugan conceptualised the Jharkhand movement, his aim being to provide tribals in the region basic education, self-reliance and "free living".

However, because of various reasons, the movement received little momentum till the early 1940s. Around the time that the rest of the country was waging a non-violent struggle to secure independence, Jharkhand leaders like Birsa Munda, Siddhu Kanu Bhagat and Jaipal Singh seized the initiative and set about recruiting young tribal men and women to carry forward their own cause. Birsa Munda, who eventually came to be regarded as 'bhagwan' by tribals of the region, unleashed his Ulganan or awareness movement which attracted followers by the score.

But despite all the rhetoric and the bluster, all that happened was that the cauldron was kept simmering; without an end in sight to the tribals' struggle.

In 1949, during the Bihar assembly election, the Jharkhand Party performed beyond expectations. However, since the Congress was the main party behind the country's freedom movement, the Jharkhand Party as it was merged with the Congress.

For the next 16 years, the movement inexplicably tapered off, although the firebrand leaders consistently spoke of bringing about their dream for Jharkhand state. Realising that something had to be done quickly to prevent the degeneration of the movement, all the leaders in the region gathered for a meeting to discuss ways of recharging it, resulting in new tribal leaders coming to the fore. Prominent among these were Nirmal Mahto, Shibu Soren and Shailendra Mahto.

With the aid of careful 'indoctrination' of the youth among tribals in the Chotanagpur region in south Bihar and adjoining areas, the 'Diku' movement started for giving primacy to 'sons of the soil' and throwing out 'outsiders' from the region. The latter included zamindars who had got possession of large tracts of land.

Came the Emergency in 1975 which compelled the leaders of the Jharkhand movement to go underground. When it re-surfaced, a few Jharkhand dissidents formed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. But it was only in 1980, that students from the Jharkhand region took up the cause with the setting up of the All Jharkhand Students Union, The rationale behind this move was that the struggle could not be sustained without involving the youth of the region. This first president of AJSU was Suraj Singh Nesra. This organisation worked without affiliating itself to any party.

The struggle for Jharkhand peaked during 1981and 1986, which was when realisation dawned among Jharkhandis that south Bihar provided the country with 46.5 per cent of its mineral wealth and that in return the locals were not getting anything. That was how the theory of economic blockade took roots in the region. Alarmed by this, the then central government called the Jharkhand agitationists to the negotiating table and talks for ostensibly solving the problem.

The first round of talks thus began in 1987, and went on sporadically till 1989. This was when the central government tried to manage the movement by influencing some local leaders through allegedly unfair means. As a result, violence erupted in south Bihar.

According to Mukesh Baba, general secretary of the Jharkhand People's Party, the central government tried to disrupt the movement allegedly with the help of leaders like Shibhu Soren and Suraj Mandal, both accused in the JMM bribery scandal. It was emphasised that these two Jharkhand leaders were given a carte blanche to use government agencies in a bid to stifle the movement. Baba alleges that these two were generally perceived in south Bihar as the Centre's agents, and includes the names of Subodh Kant Sahay and the late Gyan Ranjan (Congress) among such alleged "agents" who operated from Delhi.

Apart from south Bihar, the Jharkhandis' demand encompasses tribal areas belonging to West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

Baba contends that the BJP has called the state Vananchal instead of Jharkhand, but rules that the party is not sincere in its efforts and that it merely wants to extract political mileage from the issue. The proposed new state includes 18 districts and 14 parliamentary seats of south Bihar.

These are Garhwa, Palamau, Chhetra, Hazaribagh, Giridih, Santhal Parganas, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Singhbhum (East), Singbhum (West), Ranchi, Gumla, Lohardagga, and Godda.

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