SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, Nov. 18: Budhni Majhiyain, who had inaugurated the hydel power station at DVC Panchet dam in Dhanbad alongside the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on December 6 1959, died on Friday. She was 85.
She breathed her last in the DVC Panchet Dam Hill Hospital in Dhanbad.
She was probably the first labourer in the country who got the opportunity to inaugurate a dam. Her ancestral village Khorwana in then Manbhum district had been submerged for the construction of the dam.
Who was Budhni, the ‘tribal wife’ of Nehru?
The story of Budhni Majhiyain, a Santhal tribal, whose life became a testament to nation-building in a way that could never have been imagined, has evoked interest among writers and activists over the years.
It so happened that in 1959, the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, was invited to inaugurate the newly constructed Panchet Dam. The officials selected two project workers, 15-year-old Santhal girls Budhni and Robon Majhi, to welcome the Prime Minister.
At his request, the dam was inaugurated by Budhni Manjhiyan. During the programme, she had been asked to garland Nehru to welcome him. Nehru also handed over a garland to Budhni. This one incident changed Budhni’s life forever.
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After the inaugural function, according to various newspaper reports, at night a panchayat of the Santhali society was called to discuss the incident. To her utter shock, Budhni was told that according to tribal tradition, she was now the wife of Nehru as he had given her a garland.
However, as Nehru was not a tribal, Budhni was thrown out of the village and boycotted from Santhali society on the charge of marrying a non-tribal man.
At that time, Budhni was a worker in Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). She worked there for some time, but she was sacked in 1962. The DVC did not make the reason for sacking Budhni public. Later, she struggled there for seven years.
Thereafter, she met a man named Sudhir Dutta, who befriended her. However, both couldn’t marry because of fear of the society. But they remained together and had a daughter who too was not accepted by her community.
In 1985, Nehru’s grandson and then PM of India, Rajiv Gandhi learnt about Budhni’s story. She even went to meet Rajiv in Odisha. Later, the DVC took her back on the job.
