Sarna to secure tribal ethos?

In Jharkhand, the proposed religion rooted in nature worship promises to protect the Adivasi identity

Amidst the hullabaloo over Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)’s triumph in the recent polls, one demand has gained fresh traction. Consolidating tribals and minorities in favour of JMM, Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s promise for a new Sarna religious code blunted the BJP’s high-decibel infiltration narrative. The demand for the inclusion of Sarna Dharma as a new religion in the ensuing census to enumerate the tribal population is an assertion of tribal identity. With BJP flagging the demographic shift vis-à-vis tribes since the Jharkhand Assembly passed a special resolution on ‘Sarna Adivasi Dharam’ in 2020, the Santhal Parganas belt could be the next theatre where the well-nurtured Hindutva ecosystem would play out. By endorsing the Sarna religious code, BJP and the saffron brigade claim to protect Adivasis from Christian proselytisation. Regional outfits like JMM, local politicians, and activists call for the implementation of the code to protect Adivasis from Hindu paternalism.

By enforcing this dichotomy, a tribal perspective is discouraged in both cases, reducing the scope of Adivasi groups to defend their angst against or fall prey to dominant ideologies. The Sarna Code is, typically, described as a tool of identity politics and considering the census as an imperative marker for policymaking in India, Sarna has been used as a contrivance by various stakeholders. It has been claimed that some forms of indigenous activism can repudiate or compromise an Adivasi capacity to act as individual mediators. Depictions of their cultural identity tend to incarcerate Adivasis in their traditions, customary practices, and forest habitat. Sarna has revived the deliberation over whether tribal religion is a distinct ecological way of life or a faith system.

Sarna is the name attributed to Adivasi communities – mainly Santhal, Munda, Oraon, and often Ho – in Jharkhand and neighbouring states. Advocates of a discrete Sarna religious code contend that it is a key to protecting their faith and Adivasi traditions, and stemming religious conversion. The plea has been at the heart of many agitations in Jharkhand, which has a 26.2% Scheduled Tribe population, according to the last census. In the 2011 census, those who were not part of the six acknowledged religions had the option of choosing ‘others’ and close to five million recognised themselves as Sarna in the ‘others’ column. Till 1941, tribals had a separate column in the census which was expunged after post-independent India’s first census, in 1951. Does the denial of the Sarna identity distort census figures?

Many Sarna Adivasis believe they are losing out on minority benefits their converted Christian siblings can avail. Thus, being classified as a different religion would entitle native Sarna tribals to avail minority concessions. The moot question remains. Will the new code entitle Sarna to avail both Scheduled Tribe and minority doles? Availing of SC/ST benefits along with minority benefits is deemed unconstitutional. The irony is that we recognise them as STs in the census but negate their right to religious or cultural identity.

Linked to local ecology

Dr Usha Ramanathan, jurist and member of the Xaxa Committee on Socio-economic Status of Tribal Communities (2014), asserts that the Sarna Code ‘is a reaction to the erosion of tribal way of life’. Are tribal crusaders championing Sarna because it is a move against ‘mainstreaming’ which seems to threaten tribal identity? Their plummeting tribal populace may voice that possibility of erasure considering there is incessant tribal migration and assimilation in the Santhal Pargana heartland (Pakur, Dumka, Sahebganj, Rajmahal). Many Sarna activists feel this is a specific syncretism of environs and sentiment attached to local ecology. For instance, the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act states that tribal land is non-transferable and can only be inherited within families. Despite this, informal land transfer to non-tribals through unofficial deeds has been prevalent for decades. The official records or khatiyan would still list the original tribal landholders as owners.

On the one hand, the aspect of worshipping nature, rivers, forests, and trees is described as essential to Adivasi culture. Representing Sarna is grounded in instituting a pure way of practising their culture. Contrarily, this narrative has also been utilised by majoritarian votaries, probing ‘Does Hinduism not worship nature?’ calling into question the intention behind Sarna.

There have been many attempts to portray the Sarna religion as a potential for ethnic or feminist environmentalism in an aspirational praxis, unbridled by traditions. Such ascription and subversion of spiritual import or notions of space can best be understood as conducive to the code. Thus many anthropologists opine that religious beliefs of tribals per se are
an ecological manifestation of their survival that sustains a cherished bonhomie with nature.

(The writer is a commentator on politics and society)