There was a
time when famous Airports were Meenambakkam, Palam, Dum Dum, Santacruz and the
like .. .. later they have been named after famous Indian personalities – do
you know the name of the airport at Ranchi. .. Tributes to a man born this day –
145 years ago !!
Cheteswar Pujara for sure
will have sweet memories of this stadium at Ranchi - Jharkhand States Cricket
Association International Cricket Stadium, that is the
home ground of the Jharkhand cricket team and for two games of Chennai Super Kings. In the 3rd test at Ranchi in Mar
2017 - visiting Australia scored 451
& 204/6. With Pujara’s double ton
India made 603/9d. Thirty minutes before
lunch, Peter Handscomb joined Shaun Marsh amid a Ranchi tumult. Their captain
Steven Smith had just shouldered arms to let Ravindra Jadeja bowl him,
symptomatic of a tired mind, the over after Matt Renshaw had also fallen.
Australia were still 89 runs short of making India bat again; the hosts were
circling hungrily. Five hours later, Handscomb was still there and Marsh not
long departed. The Test match was drawn, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy bout
remained locked at 1-1.
No post on
Cricket but on a legend, who not only
fought the British, but also championed the rights of tribal people and helped
abolish the feudal system that plagued the Adivasi lands in Jharkhand and
Bihar.
On March 3,
1900, Birsa Munda was arrested by the British police while he was sleeping with
his tribal guerilla army at Jamkopai forest in Chakradharpur. He died in Ranchi
jail on June 9, 1900 at a young age of 25. Though he lived a short span of life
and the fact that the movement died out soon after his death, Birsa Munda is
known to have mobilised the tribal community against the British and had also
forced the colonial officials to introduce laws protecting the land rights of
the tribals. Birsa’s achievements as a young tribal revolutionary has continued
to be celebrated over decades now and he has successfully carved out a space
for himself in popular and folk literature, academia, and mass media.
Searched about
Birsa Munda, when Amit Shah posted on twitter photos of him paying floral tributes
to legendary tribal leader Bhagwan Birsa Munda ji in Bankura, West Bengal. Birsa’s
courage, struggles and sacrifices continue to inspire all of us.
Birsa Munda [15 November 1875 – 9 June 1900] was a great freedom fighter from tribal
Jharkhand, religious leader, and folk
hero who belonged to the Munda tribe. He spearheaded a tribal religious
millenarian movement that arose in the Bengal Presidency (now Jharkhand) in the
late 19th century, during the British Raj, thereby making him an important
figure in the history of the Indian independence movement. The revolt mainly concentrated in the Munda
belt of Khunti, Tamar, Sarwada and Bandgaon. His portrait hangs in the Indian
Parliament Museum; he is the only tribal
leader to have been so honored.
Birsa Munda was born at Ulihatu in Bengal Presidency, Ranchi
District, Bihar—now in Khunti district of Jharkhand—on a Monday, and hence
named after that day, according to the then prevalent Munda custom. The folk
songs reflect popular confusion and refer to both Ulihatu and Chalkad as his
birthplace. Ulihatu was the birthplace of Sugana Munda, father of Birsa. The
claim of Ulihatu rests on Birsa's elder brother Komta Munda living in the
village, where his house still exists albeit in a dilapidated condition. Birsa's early years were spent with his
parents at Chalakkad. His early life could not have been very different from
that of an average Munda child. Folklore refers to his rolling and playing in
sand and dust with his friends, and his growing up strong and handsome in
looks; he grazed sheep in the forest of Bohonda. When he grew up, he shared an
interest in playing the flute, in which he became expert. He went round with
the tuila, the one-stringed instrument made from the pumpkin, in the hand and
the flute strung to his waist. Exciting moments of his childhood were spent on
the akhara (the village wrestling ground).
Driven by poverty Birsa
was taken to Ayubhatu, his maternal uncle's village. He went to school at Salga, run by one Jaipal
Nag. He accompanied his mother's younger sister, Joni, who was fond of him,
when she was married, to Khatanga, her new home. He came in contact with a
Christian missionary who visited a few families in the village which had been
converted to Christianity and attacked the old Munda order. As he was sharp in
studies, Jaipal Nag recommended him to join German Mission School but,
converting to Christianity was compulsory to join the school and Birsa thus
converted to Christianity and was renamed as Birsa David, which later became as
Birsa Daud. Birsa's long stay at
Chaibasa from 1886 to 1890 constituted a formative period of his life. This
period was marked by the German and Roman Catholic Christian agitation. In
light of freedom struggle, Sugana Munda withdrew his son from the school. Soon
after leaving Chaibasa in 1890 Birsa and his family gave up their membership of
the German mission and ceased to be Christian and reverted to his original
traditional tribal religious system.
He left Corbera in the
wake of the mounting Sardar agitation. He participated in the agitation
stemming from popular disaffection at the restrictions imposed upon the
traditional rights of the Mundas in the protected forest, under the leadership
of Gidiun of Piring in the Porhat area. During 1893–94 all waste lands in
villages, the ownership of which was vested in the Government, were constituted
into protected forests under the Indian Forest Act VII of 1882. In Singhbhum as
in Palamau and Manbhum the forest settlement operations were launched and
measures were taken to determine the rights of the forest-dwelling communities.
Villages in forests were marked off in blocks of convenient size consisting not
only of village sites but also cultivable and wastelands sufficient of the
needs of villages. In 1894, Birsa had grown up into a strong young man, shrewd
and intelligent and undertook the work of repairing the Dombari tank at Gorbera
damaged by rains.
Birsa stressed monogamy at
a later stage in his life. Birsa rose from the lowest ranks of the peasants,
the ryots, who unlike their namesakes elsewhere enjoyed far fewer rights in the
Mundari khuntkatti system; while all privileges were monopolized by the members
of the founding lineage, the ryots were no better than crop-sharers. Birsa's claim to be a messenger of God and the
founder of a new religion sounded preposterous to the missionaries. There were
also within his sect converts from Christianity, mostly Sardars. His simple
system of offering was directed against the church which levied a tax. The
concept of one God appealed to his people who found his religion and economical
religion healer, a miracle-worker, and a preacher spread. The Mundas, Oraons,
and Kharias flocked to Chalkad to see the new prophet and to be cured of their
ills. Both the Oraon and Munda population up to Barwari and Chechari in Palamau
became convinced Birsaities. Contemporary and later folk songs commemorate the
tremendous impact of Birsa on his people, their joy and expectations at his
advent. The name of Dharti Aba was on everybody's lips. A folk song in Sadani
showed that the first impact cut across the lines of caste Hindus and Muslims
also flocked to the new Sun of religion.
Birsa Munda started to
advise tribal people to pursue their original traditional tribal religious
system. Impressed by his teachings, he
became a prophet figure to the tribal people and they sought his blessings. To the twin challenges of agrarian breakdown
and culture change, Birsa along with the Munda responded through a series of
revolts and uprisings under his leadership. In 1895, in Chalakkad village of
Tamar, Birsa Munda renounced Christianity, asked his fellow tribesmen to
worship only one God and give up worship of bongas. He declared himself a
prophet who had come to recover the lost kingdom of his people. He said that
the reign of the Queen Victoria was over and the Munda Raj had begun. He gave
orders to the raiyats (tenant farmers) to pay no rents. The Mundas called him
Dharati Aba, the father of earth.
Due to a rumor that those
who didn't follow Birsa would be massacred, Birsa was arrested and sentenced to
two-year imprisonment. On 28 January 1898, after being released from jail he
went with his followers to Chutia to collect the record and to re-establish
racial links with the temple. He said that the temple belonged to the Kols. The
Christian missionaries wanted to arrest Birsa and his followers, who were
threatening their ability to make converts. Birsa went underground for two
years but attending a series of secret meetings. During this period he visited
the Jagannath temple. It is said that around 7000 men and women assembled
around Christmas of 1899, to herald the ulgulaan (revolution) which soon spread
to Khunti, Tamar, Basia, and Ranchi. The Anglican Mission at Murhu and the
Roman Catholic Mission at Sarwada were the main targets. The Birsaits openly
declared that the real enemies were the British and not Christian Mundas and
called for a decisive war against the British. For two years, they attacked
places loyal to the British.
On 5 January 1900, Birsa's
followers killed two constables at Etkedih. On 7 January, they attacked Khunti
Police station, killed a constable, and razed the houses of local shopkeepers.
The commissioner, A. Fobes, and deputy commissioner, H.C. Streattfield, rushed
to Khunti with an army of 150 to crush the rebellion. The British
administration set a reward of Rs 500 for Birsa. The British forces attacked
Munda guerillas at Dumbari Hill, indiscriminately firing on and killing
hundreds of people. Birsa escaped to the hills of Singhbhum. He was arrested at
Jamkopai forest in Chakradharpur on 3 March 1900. According to Deputy
commissioner Ranchi, 460 tribals were made accused in 15 different criminal
cases, out of which 63 were convicted. One was sentenced to death, 39 to
transportation for life and 23 to imprisoned for terms up to fourteen years.
There were six death,
including that of Birsa Munda in the prison during trials. Birsa Munda died in
the jail on 9 June 1900. His birth anniversary, which falls on 15 November, is
still celebrated by tribal people in as far as Mysore and Kodagu districts in Karnataka,
and official function takes place at his Samadhi Sthal, at Kokar Ranchi, the
capital of Jharkhand. Today, there are a
number of organizations, bodies and structures named after him, notably Birsa
Munda Airport Ranchi, Birsa Institute of Technology Sindri, Birsa Munda Vanvasi
Chattravas, Kanpur, Sidho Kanho Birsha University, Purulia, and Birsa
Agricultural University. The war cry of Bihar Regiment is Birsa Munda Ki Jai
(Victory to Birsa Munda).
In 2004, a Hindi film, Ulgulan-Ek Kranti (The Revolution) was made by Ashok Saran. Deepraj Rana played Birsa Munda in the film, and 500 Birsaits (followers of Birsa) appeared as extras. In 2008, a Hindi film based on the life of Birsa, Gandhi Se Pehle Gandhi (Gandhi Before Gandhi), was directed by Iqbal Durran, based on his own novel of the same name. Birsa Munda Airport (IATA: IXR, ICAO: VERC), is the primary airport serving the city of Ranchi, the capital city of the Indian state of Jharkhand.
15.11.2020
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