THE JS DESK
Ranchi, Sept 27: Chief Minister Hemant Soren today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pass the Tribal/Sarna Dharma Code in the interest of the tribals.
The chief minister, in a letter to Modi, has said the people of the tribal society are worshipers of ancient traditions and nature and consider worshiping trees, mountains, and protecting forests as their religion.
“According to the census data of 2011, about 12 crore tribals live in the country. Their number is more than one crore in Jharkhand. A large population of Jharkhand follows the Sarna religion. The living scriptures of this oldest Sarna religion are water, forest, land, and nature itself. The culture, worship method, ideals, and beliefs of Sarna religion are different from all the prevalent religions,” Soren has pointed out.
“So, the concern for protecting the traditional religious existence of tribals is certainly a serious question,” he has said.
The chief minister said 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, demanding the inclusion of nature-worshiping tribals/Sarna religion followers in the census code. The concern of protecting the traditional religious existence of tribals based on nature is certainly a serious question,” he said in his letter.
“Today the demand for Tribal/Sarna Dharma Code is being raised so that this nature-worshiping tribal community can be confident about its identity. At present, when the demand for a Uniform Civil Code is being raised by some organizations, positive initiative on this demand of Tribal/Sarna community is absolutely necessary for their protection,” Soren has pointed out.
Soren maintained that there are many such groups in the tribal community that 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 chief minister said that in the last eight decades, a sequential analysis of the population of tribals of Jharkhand shows that the percentage of their population has decreased from 38 to 26 percent in Jharkhand. “There is a continuous decline in the percentage of their population, as a result of which it is natural to have an adverse effect on the policies of tribal development under the Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution,” he said.
Tribal/Sarna code essential
The chief minister, in the letter, has said that in view of the circumstances, a separate tribal / Sarna code is necessary to identify the Sarna or nature-worshiping tribals as distinct from Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain followers and to protect their constitutional rights. “If this code is found, then their population can be clearly estimated and then the language, culture, history of us tribals can be protected and promoted and our constitutional rights can be protected,” he added.
“It is noteworthy here that there was a provision of a separate code for them in the census column of the year 1951, but due to certain reasons, this arrangement was abolished in the subsequent decades. Therefore, the Tribal/Sarna Code is very necessary for the proper development of the tribal community and in view of this, a proposal in this regard has also been passed in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, which is currently pending for decision at the Central Government level,” Soren has said.
