The Indian Council of Historical Research has started a research fellowship for the study of Santa Kabi Bhima Bhoi of Odisha and his Mahima faith, which rejects idol worship and the caste system.

The council, which functions under the Union education ministry, announced the fellowship last week and invited applications. Last month, the University Grants Commission too approved Chairs to research the 19th-century saint-poet at Delhi University and the Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya of Chhattisgarh.

A researcher and a journalist expressed fear that these may be moves by the BJP-led government to project the Mahima faith as a sect of Hinduism, and to varnish its own image as “inclusive”.

Bhima Bhoi was one of the 64 followers of Mahima Gosain, founder of the Mahima faith whose adherents number a few lakh and are mostly confined to western Odisha.

A concept note put out by the ICHR says Bhima Bhoi, a blind mystic poet born to a tribal family in western Odisha, wrote and preached the Mahima philosophy which rejects the caste system, idol worship and the idea of priesthood.

“In theology preached by him, God was Alekh or indescribable, is without form or attributes,” the note says.

Jimuta Mishra, who researches the Mahima tradition, says its adherents are mostly Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and do not accept that they belong to a Hindu sect.

“They believe their faith is a religion in its own right,” he said. “But the BJP-RSS would want to portray them as Hindus.”

RSS and VHP leaders have regularly been visiting the highest Mahima pilgrimage centre — Mahima Gadi in Dhenkanal district — and participating in the faith’s main annual festival, the Joranda Mela.

Mishra said the dominant Hindu tradition postulates that Brahma is the creator of the universe.

“But the Mahima dharma says the universe was born out of a void. It is more egalitarian. Mahima adherents worship their gurus and nature and live austere lives,” he said.

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan belongs to Talcher in Anugul district, which has a sizable number of the Mahima.

Sishir Satpathy, a journalist in Dhenkanal who regularly covers the Mahima and the Joranda Mela, said the government may be promoting research on the Mahima tradition to present it as a Hindu sect.

He said the promotion of research on anti-caste icons and philosophies could help the RSS-BJP portray themselves as “more inclusive”.

“Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS chief, attended the Joranda Mela in 2016 and praised the Mahima adherents’ lifestyle and love of nature,” he said. “Every year nowadays, RSS and VHP people take part in the Joranda Mela.”

Satpathy said the Mahima faith was similar to the progressive philosophy espoused by Shri Narayana Guru of Kerala who had sounded a call for one caste, one religion and one God.

However, he said, there has been little research on, or publicity for, the Mahima faith.