Home Minister Amit Shah stated on Sunday that the BJP will consider a separate Sarna code for tribal people in the decennial census if elected to power in Jharkhand, which may be seen as a major break from the Sangh Parivar’s stance on Adivasis.
Shah, while releasing BJP’s “Sankalp Patra” for the assembly elections in Jharkhand, said, “The BJP, if voted to power in Jharkhand, will deliberate on the Sarna religious code issue, and take appropriate decisions.”
According to a top RSS official in Ranchi who spoke to the news agency, the statement was made only with election pressures in mind.
“The BJP found itself on a sticky wicket on this issue. There had to be some accommodation of tribal sentiment,” the functionary said. “It has only been said that the BJP government will deliberate on the issue. Whether or not the demand is actually met is another issue.”
However, asked if even the suggestion BJP could deliberate on the Sarna issue goes against the Sangh Parivar’s long-term ideological position on tribals, the functionary said, “At most, they (tribals) can be seen only as being as separate as Jains or Buddhists. In actuality, they are more Hindu than anyone else … nobody can separate vanvasis from the Hindu fold.”
“Tribals themselves say something and do something else. They say they want Sarna, but they go to temples, celebrate all Hindu festivals. Even Hemant Soren goes to temples. The demand for Sarna is bogus,” he said.
Adding, “But because it was made to corner the BJP, it has been said that the BJP will deliberate on it.” There is a need to separate the cultural and ideological side of religion, and its political side, the functionary maintained.
However, Shah’s remarks have caused a stir among the RSS, notably in Jharkhand.
“We have for years gone around telling vanvasi they are Hindu, and we have made significant strides,” an RSS functionary said. “They all celebrate Durga Puja, Vijayadashami, Diwali with so much gusto now. Every tribal village has temples, and tika-sporting youths … to say that BJP will consider or deliberate Sarna code undoes all our hard work,” he added.
Demands for a separate Sarna code, supported by the ruling JMM, are at an all-time high in Jharkhand, where tribal communities make up 26% of the population, according to the 2011 census.
The indigenous communities list “Others” as their religion on the census since they do not consider themselves to be members of any organised religion, including Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism. They have been calling for the creation of a special column for the Sarna religion, which they view as an affront to their faith.
Since the RSS, the BJP’s ideological tutor, has consistently insisted that indigenous people who have not converted to Christianity are part of the Sanatan Dharma, the matter has been difficult for the party.
For many years, the RSS and Sangh Parivar have maintained that India’s tribal communities are Hindu, and that Christian missionaries and “anti-national” forces are to blame for the notion that they practise a distinct religion, as a part of conspiracy to break India.
“Tu Main, Ek Rakht (you and I have the same blood)” is really the rallying cry of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA), an RSS affiliate that works with tribal tribes in India. It highlights the shared ancestry of Adivasis and non-Adivasi Hindus in India.
Since tribal communities are not seen as having arrived in India from outside, unlike Islam and Christianity, they have always raised serious concerns about the Hindutva ideology. The majority of historical accounts claim that they were the first people to live in India; this is encapsulated in the name “Adivasi,” which tribal people prefer to use to identify themselves.
However, the RSS does not use the word “Adivasi” for tribals since according to the Hindu nationalist reading of history, the autochthones of India were the Aryans of the Vedic times, and not the tribals, who the RSS prefers calling vanvasi or “forest-dwellers”.
“The idea that there are inhabitants of this land whose existence here predates the Aryans, and who don’t call themselves Hindu destabilises the whole history cobbled up by Hindutva,” said Lakshmi Narayan, a Ranchi-based tribal activist. “They can say what they want but no Adivasi will believe that a BJP government will give them the Sarna code.”
The ruling JMM, however, has completely backed the demand for a separate religion, and tribal communities who vehemently stress their separation from Hindus have cornered the BJP on the matter.
Former BJP MP Kariya Munda, who served eight terms from Khunti, said that Sarna is a site of devotion. It resembles a masjid or gurdwara. Can a masjid or gurdwara be considered a distinct dharma? Munda enquired. “Sarna and Sanatan are identical in every way. He claimed that the sole political goal of this demand was to weaken the BJP’s support among Sanatani tribal people.
“Obviously, the BJP won’t allow that to occur.”
