Social leaders from tribal-dominated states converged at Gandhi Peace Foundation Auditorium in New Delhi on Monday and decided to jointly stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar and submit a memorandum for inclusion of the Sarna code in the religion column in the next census.

“We will stage a satyagraha and dharna at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday and submit a memorandum justifying the inclusion of the Sarna code in the religion column in the upcoming Census. The memorandum will be addressed to President (Ram Nath Kovind), Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), Union home minister (Amit Shah), Union tribal affairs minister (Arjun Munda) and registrar general and census commissioner of India (Vivek Joshi),” said the former head of anthropology department in Ranchi University and advisor, Rashtriya Adivasi Samaj Sarna Dharma Raksha Abhiyan, Karma Oraon.

The academician informed that leaders from tribal parts of Odisha, Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Assam had also taken part in the meeting.

“The leaders from all the states unanimously decided that it was the need of the time to go to any extent for inclusion of Sarna religion code in the Census. We have been trying to draw the attention of the respective governments in the state and also in the Centre. Now we will hold a dharna in New Delhi itself to draw their attention. If still, those in power do not heed to our demands then we will decide on intensifying our agitation at a national level which impacts other parts of the country and for which the government would be solely responsible,” warned Karma Oraon.

Significantly, tribal groups of Jharkhand have been staging agitation for more than two decades and have threatened to boycott the census if Sarna as a separate religion code is not included in the Census claiming that with the Centre dropping the “Others” option from the religion column for Census 2021, Sarna adherents would be forced
to either skip the column or declare themselves members of one of the six specified religions: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh and in the process
damaging the separate identity of the tribals.

Tribal leaders at the meeting in New Delhi on Monday The Telegraph Picture

Tribals in Jharkhand are Sarna followers and are worshippers of nature and do not consider themselves Hindus. Only small numbers of people from Jharkhand’s 32 tribal groups — who make up more than 26 per cent of the state’s population — identify themselves as Christian, Hindu, or Muslim. Implementation of a separate Sarna religious code in census surveys would allow the tribals to be identified as followers of the Sarna faith during Census 2021.

The tribal leaders also threatened to stage an economic blockade if the government is passive to their demand.

“We are not going to be fooled this time. If the Union government does not take a stand on the inclusion of Sarna religion in the Census then we will stage a meeting soon and apart from giving a call for ‘no code no vote’ to harm ruling party prospects in the assembly polls and General elections we might also put up economic blockades in mineral-rich tribal states so that government decides in this connection,” Oraon said.