Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed tribal icon Birsa Munda on his 150th birth anniversary and said he sacrificed everything to protect the honour and glory of the motherland. On the occasion various other leaders also paid the freedom fighter homage and called him a tribal hero. President Droupadi Murmu on Friday led the nation in paying tributes to tribal icon Birsa Munda on his birth anniversary which is observed as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas. President Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla offered floral tributes at the statue of Birsa Munda at the Prerna Sthal in Parliament complex. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chair Harivansh was also present.
Who was he?
- The freedom fighter was born in 1875 in present-day Jharkhand. Birsa Munda had challenged British rule and is credited with mobilising tribals against the empire. He died in British custody at a young age of 25 years.
- Birsa Munda spearheaded a tribal religious millenarian movement that arose in the Bengal Presidency (now Jharkhand) in the late 19th century. The revolt mainly concentrated in the Munda belt of Khunti, Tamar, Sarwada and Bandgaon.
- Birsa received his education in Salga under the guidance of his teacher Jaipal Nag.
- Later, Birsa converted into a Christian to join the German Mission School but soon dropped out after finding out that Britishers were aiming to convert tribals to Christianity through education.
- The cause of the Munda revolt was the 'unfair land grabbing practices by colonial and local authorities that demolished the tribal conventional land system'
- Birsa is credited for reviving the traditional tribal culture which was mostly negatively affected by British Christian missionary works.
- Many tribals under his sect had already converted to Christianity. He opposed and criticised the Church and its practices such as levying of taxes and religious conversions.
