Birsa Munda
June 9th marks the death anniversary of Birsa Munda (15 Nov.1875- 9 June 1900) . He belonged to the Munda tribe.
Considered the architect of freedom for indigenous people of Chotanagpur in Eastern India.
Birsa organised a group to resist tooth and nail the British colonial invasion.
First the colonial invaders occupied the tribal territory by the force of their gun and arrogance. Birsa, as a young man, found it anomalous that an invader occupied the land and dictated terms. Even tribal land was auctioned off to non tribals. The British introduced land survey to claim authority over tribal land and imposed land tax.
Birsa said no land tax would be paid. The British must go. His slogan was, ‘Let Queen’s kingdom end and let our kingdom be.’
He and his troupe did a lot of guerilla attacks. Finally, perhaps betrayed by some one, he was caught in a remote jungle. He was imprisoned in Ranchi jail with his followers. Today this jail is known as Birsa Munda jail. Reports say he died in the jail vomiting blood. Was he poisoned? Possibly.
At the age of 25 Birsa had achieved much. He injected a sense of indigenous identity and urge for justice in his followers. They revere him as Birsa Bhagwan or the Divine Birsa.
