Documentation of Jharkhand Movement

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The present study had been taken up by the Ranchi Field Station of Anthropological Survey of India at the instance of the then Director General of the Survey, Dr. K. S. Singh, IAS in the year 1990. Data collection for the same was started at the end of the same year. A plan had been prepared to interview as many Jharkhand leaders as possible. Under this plan data was mainly collected in Chotonagpur and Santal Pargana areas of Bihar State. However, some parts of West Bengal, especially Jhargram area; and Baripada and Rourkela areas of Orissa also were visited. About 55 persons associated with different parties and associations which supported Jharkhand movement were interviewed and their views on Jharkhand movement and Jharkhand problems were tape recorded. Besides them a number of informants were interviewed at Ranchi. Among them are included Dr. Ram Dayal Munda and Dr. B. P. Keshri. Both of them are closely connected with the present phase of Jharkhand Movement. As the office of the Field Station was housed in their department of Tribal and Regional Languages they were quite often available for any information required about Jharkhand movement. B. P. Keshri was very kind enough to give us a set of Jharkhand Coordination Committee publications. These publications are very useful and informative for the purpose of the present project. We are very much indebted to both Dr. Munda and Dr. Keshri for their help and cooperation. We cannot express our gratitude to all the infromants by their names. The list of their names will be quite long and will include many JMM MLAs and common people. However, I should mention the names of Sri N. E. Horo, Late B. B. Mahto, Shri Teklal Mahto, Late Devendra Manjhi, Shri Khudiram Mahto and Shri T. K. Rapaz who allowed us patiently to interview them.we are thankful to them for their kindness. We would like to thank shri A. K. roy for giving us a book on Jharkhand Movement. Our thanks are due to Shri S. B. Mullick who has been very kind to give us published materials on Jharkhand movement and discussed with us many matters connected with it. Shri Sadhan Sengupta, Superintending Anthropologist, had been kind enough to read the proof carefully. While doing it he noticed some errors in the text which were removed before the book was finally printed. For all this we are very much grateful to him.

Of the different regional movements for autonomy which are going on at present, Jharkhand movement is the oldest one. It started in the beginning of the second decade of the present century and passed through different stages. Originally it was a student union which was formed to help the needy students. Then it transformed into an organization, called Unnati Samaj, which aimed at improving the economic condition of the tribals. Unnati Samaj renamed itself as Adivasi Mahasabha in 1938 by uniting different tribal organizations. By this time the tribal leaders had acquired political ambitions and they started contesting elections. In Jaipal Singh, Adivasi Mahasabha found a very dynamic leadership and it metamorphosed into a political party in 1947 opening its door to non-tribal also. The journey of Jharkhand movement has been very long. But it has not reached its destination even though several organizations, both political and non-political, have mushroomed and a host of intellectuals of leftist and rightist brands have articulated the grievances and problems of the Jharkhandis.

**Contents and Sample Pages**