Question

write a short note on munda

Answer 1

The Munda people are an Adivasi ethnic group of India. They speak the Mundari language, which belongs to the Munda subgroup of Austroasiatic languages. The Munda are found in the northern areas of east India concentrated in the states of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. Munda also reside in adjacent areas of Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh as well as in portions of Bangladesh. The group is one of India's largest scheduled tribes. Munda people in Tripura are also known as Mura, and in Madhya Pradesh they are often called Mudas.

Answer 2

Birsa Munda

Birsa was born in the mid-1870s. The son of a poor

father, he grew up around the forests of Bohonda,

grazing sheep, playing the flute, and dancing in the

local akhara. Forced by poverty, his father had to move

from place to place looking for work. As an adolescent,

Birsa heard tales of the Munda uprisings of the past

and saw the sirdars (leaders) of the community urging

the people to revolt. They talked of a golden age when the

Mundas had been free of the oppression of dikus, and

said there would be a time when the ancestral right of

the community would be restored. They saw themselves

as the descendants of the original settlers of the region,

fighting for their land (mulk ki larai), reminding people

of the need to win back their kingdom.

Birsa went to the local missionary school, and

listened to the sermons of missionaries. There too he

heard it said that it was possible for the Mundas to

attain the Kingdom of Heaven, and regain their lost

rights. This would be possible if they became good

Christians and gave up their “bad practices”. Later Birsa

also spent some time in the company of a prominent

Vaishnav preacher. He wore the sacred thread, and

began to value the importance of purity and piety.

Birsa was deeply influenced by many of the ideas he

came in touch with in his growing-up years. His

movement was aimed at reforming tribal society. He

urged the Mundas to give up drinking liquor, clean their

village, and stop believing in witchcraft and sorcery. But

we must remember that Birsa also turned against

missionaries and Hindu landlords. He saw them as

outside forces that were ruining the Munda way of life.

In 1895 Birsa urged his followers to recover their

glorious past. He talked of a golden age in the past – a

satyug (the age of truth) – when Mundas lived a good

life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs,

planted trees and orchards, practised cultivation to

earn their living. They did not kill their brethren and

relatives. They lived honestly. Birsa also wanted people

to once again work on their land, settle down and

cultivate their fields.

What worried British officials most was the political

aim of the Birsa movement, for it wanted to drive out

missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu landlords, and the

government and set up a Munda Raj with Birsa at

its head. The movement identified all these forces as

the cause of the misery the Mundas were suffering.

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