New Delhi: Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (September 26) requesting for the inclusion of a separate tribal religious code ‘Sarna’ in the census, the Telegraph reported.
A majority of Jharkhand’s tribal community are Sarna followers and worship nature. They have been fighting for a separate religious identity in India for decades and have staged agitations in Delhi and other parts of the country over the last few years.
While highlighting the declining population of tribals in Jharkhand from 38% to 26% over the past eight decades in his letter, Soren wrote: “The culture, worship method, ideals and beliefs of the Sarna religion are different from all the prevalent religions. The concern of protecting the traditional religious existence of tribals based on nature is certainly a serious question. The demand for tribal/Sarna religious code is being raised so that this nature-worshipping tribal community can be confident about its identity.”
In 2020, the Jharkhand state assembly had passed a resolution in a special session demanding the Sarna religious code to be included in the census and submitted it to the Union government. But no decision has been taken by the BJP-led government in this regard, the Telegraph report said.
Soren, who is leading a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) coalition government in the state, and is a member of the newly formed Opposition alliance INDIA bloc, also pointed out that not only Jharkhand but the tribal community of the entire country has been struggling for the last several years to protect their religious existence, the Telegraph reported.
“When the demand for a Uniform Civil Code is being raised by some organisations, a positive initiative on this demand of the tribal/Sarna community is absolutely necessary for their protection. You are aware that there are many such groups in the tribal community which are on the verge of extinction and if they are not protected on the principle of social justice, then their existence along with their language and culture will also come to an end,” the letter said.
He also mentioned how a separate column for the tribal population to identify their faith existed in the 1871-1951 census surveys. While it was later removed, the tribal community was able to assert their religion through the ‘Others’ category which remained separate from the six identified religions. However, that too was removed in 2016, Down to Earth reported
Tribal rights organisations have also opposed the Union government’s move to drop the option of ‘Others’ from the religion section of the census. They claim that Sarna adherents would be forced to either skip the column or declare themselves members of one of the six specified religions: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain or Sikh, the Telegraph report said.
“I am proud to be a tribal and being a tribal chief minister, I humbly request you in the interest of the tribals not only of Jharkhand but of the entire country that you agree to the long-awaited demand of the tribals for the Sarna religious code and take a positive decision as soon as possible,” Soren’s letter said.
