Tribal outfits to rally for Sarna ‘religion’ tag

February 21, 2016 Editor 1 Comment

News Courtesy: Times of India, February 20, 2016

Jamshedpur: Five tribal outfits on Friday decided to call a bandh in five states, namely Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam, on March 30 to protest against the Union government for not recognizing the Sarna faith as a religion.

The five outfits who will rally together include the Jharkhand Disom Party, Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan, Akhil Bharatiya Sarna Dharam Mandwa, Akhil Bhartiya Majhi Pargana (Pargana Mandwa) and Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Mahila Morca.

The decision to call a bandh was taken at a meeting in the residence of JDP founder Salkhan Murmu. “We do not know why the Centre has not recognized the Sarna faith as a separate religion yet,” said Murmu to the media. He said religion is a fundamental right of the people under Article 25 (1) of the Constitution. “The government should honour the sentiments of adivasis who follow the Sarna faith,” he added.

Murmu said people who follow Jainism and Buddhism is comparatively low than those following the Sarna faith.

“The Centre has recognized the religious identity of people having faith in Jainism and Buddhism. Why has our faith not been given a religious status?” said the former MP.

The tribal outfits also criticized the Raghubar Das-led state government for not “following up with the groundwork subsequent to the announcement made by senior government officials about protecting all places of worship of the Sarna faith.”

“Principal secretary (Sanjay Kumar) to the chief minister announced (through news media) in October last that the state government would make necessary arrangements to protect Jaherthan (Sarna followers’ place of worship). Nothing concrete has been done in this regard,” said Sonaram Soren, a member of Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan.