Adivasis of Jharkhand’s Tana Bhagat community up in arms, demand self-rule

A letter by Akhil Bhartiya Tana Bhagat Committee (ABTBC), Latehar district, which according to the protesters was supposed to have been given to the authorities, read: “Anusuchit chhetra mein prashasanik thana, anumandal zila adalatein aur uccha nyayalaya, Samvidhan ke upbandhon ke viruddh kritya karte hue karyarat hain. Inhe tatkal bandh karein. (The operation of police stations, divisional district courts and the high court in the Scheduled areas is against the Constitution, and should be shut down immediately).”

This was in April this year, when a group of protesting Tana Bhagats had locked the office of the collectorate, including the Deputy Commissioner’s office, demanding cancellation of panchayat polls in the district, claiming it was unconstitutional.

Then, October 10, over 500 Tana Bhagats, armed with sticks and sickles, gathered outside Latehar district court and demanded complete self-rule with no courts or government interference. They locked the court premises, bringing work to a standstill. As the matter escalated, the protesters damaged its iron grille and pelted stones, prompting the police to resort to lathicharge. Out of the 228 people named in the FIR on the incident, over 30 were arrested.

Two years ago, they had come out in protest, blockading rail tracks at the Tori Junction in the Chandwe area of Latehar district, stranding many trains, including the Rajdhani Express, for hours.

The State response

While police continue to keep vigil outside the court and district collectorate premises, Latehar SP Anjani Anjan said, “The men and women who claim to be of the Tana Bhagat sect, had marched with sickles and lathis. They called the police and judiciary as thieves and abused them. It resulted in violence. We arrested 30 people. As per our input, there is a small group that has hijacked the Tana Bhagat movement, and indulged in the violence. But we still don’t know who they are. Our investigation continues.”

In Kaima village, around 10 km from the district headquarters, most of the elderly belonging to the Tana Bhagat sect and live in 21 houses, are on the run. Three people from the village, including ABTBC secretary Bahadur Tana Bhagat, have been arrested. Sahbir Tana Bhagat, who said he had participated in both protests, added he still can’t fathom how the protest turned violent.

“We follow the god Dharmesh and believe in non-violence, eat vegetarian food cooked only by members of our community… We believe the 5th Schedule provisions are not followed in many districts of Jharkhand, and had earlier gone to meet the Governor, and have submitted our petition even at the high court,” he said.

The previous district administration had gifted tractors to these communities “at government expense”, and had also reimbursed the fees of 22 Tana Bhagat students—to the tune of Rs 6.8 lakh—who were enrolled for a year-long certificate course in political science at Jharkhand’s Raksha Shakti University.

A source in the administration said, “After their protest on the rail tracks, the district administration linked certain schemes to the community and gave them 10 tractors for free. Even then, they went ahead and locked the premises of the collectorate building for four days. It would seem they are being influenced by people belonging to other tribal communities.”

A government source said: “The Tana Bhagats are demanding sovereignty, which is illogical. In the Latehar violence, there was a clear presence of people from outside their sect. The government needs to look into the matter urgently, so that it does not blow up like the Pathalgadi incident.”

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren told The Indian Express: “We have a close association with Tana Bhagats. This group never acts like this [the violence in Latehar]. I’ve ordered officers to take up the issue with urgency… There appears to be some people who are interfering and giving the sect a bad name.”

Tana Bhagats: The Origin Story

The Tana Bhagat sect was founded by Jatra Oraon of Chipri Nawatoli in the Bishunpur area of Gumla, who claimed he had received a divine message from the Oraon god Dharmesh, and asked his followers to join the movement.

In the seminal book, Jharkhand: Itihaas evam Sanskriti by B. Virottam, one of the incidents related to the Tana Bhagats, an Oraon religious sect that claims to follow the “Gandhian way of life”, describes a violent side of their lives. It refers to the community’s participation in the 1942 Quit India Movement in Chotanagpur following Mahatma Gandhi’s call, and the setting on fire of Bishunpur Police Station in Gumla on August 18 by a group of Tana Bhagats, as a mark of their protest.

Professor Ramesh Sharan, the ex-VC of Vinoba Bhave University in Hazaribagh, and has been researching the Tana Bhagats in association with the Tribal Research Institute in Ranchi, said the Tana Bhagats were later also influenced by Birsaits—a sect founded by freedom fighter Birsa Munda as an agrarian agitation and anti-conversion movement against the British. He said, “The problem is they have remained scattered throughout…They participated in the Ramgarh session of the Indian Congress that was attended by Mahatma Gandhi, and supported the Independence movement. The violent streak is very uncommon.”

He added that there was also a problem with the 5th Schedule. “It says tribal communities will function as per their customary laws. But there is no further expansion on the idea. So chances of multiple interpretations, even misinterpretations, remain. Plus, they seem to be wrongly influenced.” Hinting at a possible cause behind the recent actions of the sect, he further said: “There are 3,718 Tana Bhagats families with 22,676 members spread across eight districts, but in Latehar alone, there are close to 4,600.”

Questions of identity

Back in Kaima village, at the Upgraded Middle School, there are 40 Tana Bhagat students. Ravi Anand, the headmaster in-charge, said due diligence is maintained to feed mid-day meals to Tana Bhagat children. He said: “Twice a week, we give eggs to other students and fruits to Tana Bhagat students, as they maintain a strict dietary code. The cook too belongs to the Tana Bhagat community. If someone unintentionally touches their utensils, the Tana Bhagat students refuse to eat. Only four out of the 25 students present on Friday ate our cooked mid-day meals, as the cook had gone to meet her husband, who was arrested in the Latehar violence.”

Anand also pointed out that from the land records the children had submitted as caste certificates at school, he had found out that the forefathers of many of those who carried Tana Bhagat as their surnames, had registered as Oraon in the past. He added: “The government needs to determine if they are truly Tana Bhagats.”