All-round development of STs will be real tribute to Birsa Munda: Prez

On the 150th birth anniversary of Birsa Munda celebrated as "Janjatiya Gaurav Divas", President Droupadi Murmu on Friday said that working relentlessly for the all-round development of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities is the real tribute the nation can pay to the tribal icon and other freedom fighters from the tribal areas.

Murmu also penned an article to mark the occasion, as she paid rich tributes to the "unsung heroes" of history.

Offering floral tributes at the statue of Birsa Munda in the Parliament complex, the president said, "I believe that working relentlessly for the all-round development of ST communities is the real tribute the nation can pay to Bhagwan Birsa Munda and other freedom fighters from the tribal areas.

 

"It is a matter of immense satisfaction for me that the Rashtrapati Bhavan too has taken new initiatives to reach out to the ST communities."  In the article titled "Bhagwan Birsa Munda at 150: Celebrating the Spirit of Janjatiya Gaurav", which was shared by her office on X, Murmu said there was a time when Birsa Munda and others were named among the "unsung heroes" of history.

In recent times, however, their valour and sacrifices have come to be appreciated in the true light, she said.

"During 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav', we celebrated the glorious history of India's culture and achievements, which helped people, especially the youth, learn more about the valiant contributions made by the great patriots who remained lesser known earlier," the president said.

This new engagement with history received a fillip when the government in 2021 decided to celebrate Birsa Munda's birth anniversary on November 15 as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas to remember the contributions made by the tribal freedom fighters, she said.

Stating that commemorating Birsa Munda's legacy puts the long underrepresented tribal narrative at the centre of the country's history, she said this is all the more relevant today as it teaches the modern world crucial lessons in living in harmony with the nature and conserving the ecology.

"When I was a child, I used to see my father seek forgiveness for hacking even dried woods which were used for fuel. Typically, tribal societies are content as they put far more premium on collective goodness than individual ambitions," she said.

This distinctive feature of the tribal societies must to be nurtured for a better future of the humankind, Murmu said.

"This is the precise reason behind the broader effort of the government, launched during the last decade, to give due recognition to the importance of the tribal communities in India's socio-cultural fabric. The government has announced a series of programmes and schemes with a view to take welfare beyond slogans to the ground," the president said.

For a more holistic approach to tribal development and welfare, the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan was launched last month to fill the gaps in social infrastructure in nearly 63,000 tribal villages, she said.

Murmu also remembered her extensive interaction with the representatives of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) at the Rashtrapati Bhavan as a "humbling experience".

"They shared their joys and sorrows with me. If there is one accomplishment I am proud of, it is the fact that our tribal brothers and sisters see me occupying the highest constitutional office as an unprecedented recognition of all of us," the president said.

"In celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda, we are celebrating this feeling which I am sure all of us share. I believe Birsa Munda's ideals are a source of pride and inspiration for the youth of not only the tribal communities, but of all communities in every part of the country. His aspirations -- freedom, justice, identity and dignity -- are the aspirations of every youth," she added.

The president also recalled how during her childhood hearing the "legends of Bhagwan Birsa Munda made me and my friends feel very proud of our legacy", as she shared certain pro-people aspects of the revered tribal icon's life.

"In a short life of only 25 years, the boy from Ulihatu in today's Jharkhand became the hero of people's resistance against colonial exploitation," she said.

Known as "Dharti Aba" (Father of the Earth), Birsa Munda organised the "Ulgulan" or the Munda rebellion against British oppression in the late 1890s, Murmu said.

Noting that Ulgulan was much more than a rebellion, she said, "It was a fight for both justice and cultural identity. Birsa Munda's astute understanding brought together, on one hand, the right of tribal people to own and cultivate their lands without interference, and on the other hand, the importance of tribal customs and social values. Like Mahatma Gandhi, his struggle was guided by a quest for justice and truth."  The saga of his sacrifice is also one of the crucial links in the history of the great revolutionaries stemming from India's tribal communities, she said.

"Their struggles underline the unique tradition of this land, where no community is ever apart from the mainstream. Forest-dwellers, subsumed under the ST category today, have always been part of the national collective," Murmu added.