“Sir, I am proud to be a Jungli, that is the name by which we are known in my part of the country.”
On December 19, 1946, Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda had roared this statement in the Constituent Assembly. While most leaders from the post-Independence era have been celebrated by oppressor caste mainstream media and academicians, Munda has been hitherto sidelined outside Jharkhand over the years.
This intellectual had an MA with honours in Economics from Oxford. he had also received the university’s representative colours – an award earned by exceptional athletes – for hockey, and then for football, rugby and tennis. He was the first Adivasi to qualify for the Indian Civil Service examination and secured the highest marks in the interview, but he quit the services to captain the Indian hockey team, which won India’s first-ever Olympic gold in the year 1928. Subsequently, he returned to the Chhotanagpur region and fought for the rights of the tribal community and those on the margins as a Member of Parliament.
This man, whose achievements go beyond tabulation, lived several lives in one.
Born in 1903 in Khunti, Jharkhand — a member of the Munda tribe, Munda’s original name was Pramod Pahan. As the first Indian to be appointed as a covenanted mercantile assistant in the Royal Dutch-Shell group, Munda’s life steps are not only personal; but are also national milestones. However, when he returned to India and took charge as a principal at the Rajkumar College, Raipur, endeavouring to impart holistic education, he was forced to leave because the anti-tribal Maharajas whose sons studied there wanted to have an English principal. So, he left for Gold Coast, Africa for a teaching assignment. Tribulations persisted even when he later joined as the Foreign Secretary of the Maharaja of Bikaner.
Gradually, Munda commenced his struggle for indigenous rights. Back in those resource-scare days when he mass-mobilised Adivasis, they walked from different corners of the Chotanagpur region on their feet, carrying rice, pulses and utensils on their shoulders, spending the night in whichever village they had reached by then, and a lot of times, even inside the forests, with the threat of wild animals. Once, the sturdy Munda himself carried an old woman to the top of a hill for a get-together, in which he gifted back to the inhabitants the gift he had received from them.
In the Constituent Assembly, he explicated how the non-aboriginals of India have ruthlessly tormented the Adivasis. He even directly reprehended the oppressor caste members who dared to trivialise him. There were only six Adivasis in the Constituent Assembly at the time and he vociferously questioned the unfair representation. In a country hell-bent on patriarchal gender roles, Munda spoke of how women from the Chotanagpur region are competent “with bows and arrows, lathis and belas and so forth“, and have been braving wild animals for thousands of years. He further asked about gender inclusion in the Constituent Assembly by stating,
“By Adivasis I mean, Sir, not only men but also women…While I find my own name in it, I am bound to point out that there is no name of any tribal woman in the Advisory Committee. How has that been left out?… That never occurred to the people who were responsible for the selection of members of the Committee.”
In a world where politicians blurt ambiguous statements, Munda spoke his mind in electrifying English in the Assembly and when he came home to the Chotanagpur region, he conversed with his people in whichever native language they were comfortable with. He fought for every oppressed human as he vociferously said,
“What I am interested in is…my people—I do not mean only the tribal people; I mean all the backward people.”
He understood the power of the pen and started a weekly named Adibasi Sakam in 1940 in English, Hindi and Mundari. He didn’t charge any money and didn’t take any advertisements. While Munda asked the parliamentarians to look above party politics, when he and his party members contested elections, they received all kinds of threats and violence from many directions.
Also read: Exclusion Inclusion
In The Life and Times of Jaipal Singh Munda, Santosh Kiro writes how Munda outrightly criticised the capitalist business-houses who exploit the Adivasis, for he had himself said, “If you are going to bring more Baniyas and money lenders, heaven help the Adivasis in the jungles.” Further, Munda criticised the parliamentary reports and committees for never endeavouring to learn properly about Adivasis.
Munda asserted tribal culture and fought for bringing in education and economic welfare for them. And while he comprehended the necessity for engineering advancements, he contended how the rehabilitation of displaced Adivasis has been inhumane and has turned them into landless labourers. He articulated on the material as well as the cultural rehabilitation of Adivasis — that Adivasi self-respect be understood and their endeavour to contribute towards national growth be respected. He distrusted the oppressor caste officials, ministers and judiciary who were destroying the aboriginal lifestyle and whom he termed “entirely unsuited” and “devoid of sympathy” for the tribals — his apprehensions are till today a despondent reality.
When Munda passed away on March 20, 1970, the chartered flight bringing his dead body struggled to land for half an hour at the Ranchi airport, for the masses had crowded beyond the eyes could see. The tiny airport of Ranchi back then did not have a boundary wall and the people had packed up even the runways. Such was the love he received.
Munda stood for the distinguished history and distinctive identity for a separate state of Jharkhand. Even though he passed away before this happened, he is here in spirit and culture. Among the grotesque tales written through the oppressor caste gaze which denigrate Adivasis, Munda’s life asserts, liberates and reverberates with what he stated in the Constituent Assembly:
“You cannot teach democracy to the tribal people; you have to learn democratic ways from them. They are the most democratic people on earth.”
Ankita Apurva was born with a pen and a sickle.
Featured image credit: Wikipedia/Editing: LiveWire