BHUBANESWAR : For the Santal tribe in Odisha, one of the oldest and largest tribal communities of the State, the nomination of their very own Droupadi Murmu to the highest office of the Indian Republic is historic.
She will become the first tribal and the second woman in the country after Pratibha Patil to enter the Raisina Hill in the seven decades of Independence. And this brings hope among her tribesmen for a better tomorrow in terms of education, language and livelihood. It will also further strengthen the Santal identity, said the community members who have not stopped celebrating ever since the news broke out.
Vice-Chancellor of Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University in Baripada, Kishore Kumar Basa, said other tribes focussed on livelihood but Santalis used education and the country’s reservation policy as a tool to rise above backwardness and illiteracy. The Santal population is over 7 lakh.
“It is a fact that today the Santals are more educated than any other tribes. Historically too, they had always asserted their tribal identity,” he said. Which is why compared to the other tribes in the State, many Santals have bagged important positions in Indian politics, bureaucracy and society at large.
Be it Pandit Raghunath Murmu who invented the Santali script Ol Chiki that found place in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution in 2003, tribal leader ‘Bhanj Bir’ Sunaram Soren who had led a tribal movement in Mayurbhanj, Pandit Murmu’s son Sidhlal Murmu who was an MP from Mayurbhanj from 1984 to 1989, former ministers late Chaitanya Prasad Majhi, Saraswati Hembram and Sudam Marandi, the current Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Girish Chandra Murmu or Union Minister for Tribal Affairs and Jal Shakti Biseswar Tudu. The list is a long one.
As per the Census-2011 report, while Odisha’s literacy rate is 74.45 per cent, that of the Santal community is 30.2 per cent which is higher than all the other tribal communities. “A large number of Santal youths from Odisha are also entering the bureaucracy now, just like the Meena tribe in eastern and southern Rajasthan. But this is the first time a Santal leader will become the first citizen of our country.
It is a matter of great pride for us,” said Santali writer Damayanti Besra, a Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi awardee, who hopes that under Murmu’s Presidential tenure Santali language will find a greater reach and students will be taught in the language at schools as mandated under National Education Policy. Bhimwar Murmu, grandson of Pandit Raghunath Murmu who is promoting Ol Chiki, also has similar hopes. Recalling Droupadi Murmu’s association with his grandfather, he said she was not only his student but also taught in the Adivasi Social Education and Cultural Association that Pandit Murmu set up in 1964 in Mayurbhanj.
Murmu’s nomination takes Santals to a historic high
However, sociologist Binay Kumar Pattnaik of IIT-Kanpur said Murmu’s nomination to the country’s highest post is a reason for celebration for all tribals, not just Santals and not only in Odisha but the entire country. “Because, this indicates social integration of tribal communities to the mainstream,” he added.
During her tenure as the Governor of Jharkhand in 2017, Murmu had returned bills proposing amendments to Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act that sought to give rights to tribals to make commercial use of their lands while ensuring that the land ownership is not changed. The Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act, 1876 prohibits
the sale of Adivasi land to non-Adivasis in Santhal Pargana region along Jharkhand’s border with Bengal.