Birsa Munda Jayanti
(15 November 1875 – 9 June 1900)
P.A.Chacko
“Free our land and assert our rights!”. With that clarion call, Birsa Munda of Chotanagpur made a big difference in India’s liberation movement.
Birsa lived just 25 years. But, as a young tribal, his blood boiled when he saw the British administration steamrolling over the indigenous population and when he witnessed the tribal- occupied land getting alienated.
He gathered some followers and built up a strong movement. His followers called him Birsa Bhagwan, a honorific divine title
Birsa achieved much in a short time. He injected a sense of indigenous identity into the indigenous population and upheld the value of indigenous culture.
He was arrested and died in a British jail in Ranchi, the present capital of Jharkhand.