Shibu Soren, Jharkhand’s tallest political leader and the man credited with steering the movement that led to the state being carved out of Bihar in 2000, died of a kidney disorder at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here on Monday morning. He was 81, and had largely withdrawn from public life since 2019 because of poor health.
He was born Shivcharan in undivided Bihar’s Ramgarh district on January 11, 1944. His father Sobran Soren was a Gandhian schoolteacher and a Congress activist from the Santhal tribe who campaigned against exploitation by moneylenders and was allegedly murdered by them in 1957.
In an interview with the fortnightly Young India in 1980, Shibu Soren said: “But a bigger shock came to me and my family when, after the brutal murder of my father, who was an active Congressman and a follower of Gandhiji, not even a single Congressman came to see his dead body.”
In his book, Jharkhand ki Samargaatha, Shibu Soren’s former comrade Shailendra Mahato writes: “When the police asked his mother the names of the suspects, she remained silent, but said that my (her) son will definitely take revenge for his father’s murder.”
Mahato adds: “Even after his father’s death, Shibu Soren continued his studies. He used to work as a labourer along with studies; somehow he studied till matriculation and started bearing the burden of the family.
“In 1966, Shibu Soren openly came out in protest against the money-lending system and in many places, tribals forcibly harvested crops grown on fields of moneylenders…. If a bearded man was seen anywhere, people started assuming him to be Shibu Soren.”
Soren promoted several youth and community groups before founding the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha with communist activists Binod Bihari Mahato and A.K. Roy in 1973.
In their 2009 article in the Economic and Political Weekly, academics Sanjay Kumar and Praveen Rai wrote: “JMM launched a series of reform movements in the region: first, an anti-liquor campaign which was seen as the main cause of rural indebtedness and selling of land in the region; second, the JMM launched literacy programmes and opened schools; third, the JMM began to implement credit institutions in rural areas by establishing ‘grain banks’; fourth, the JMM revived the old tribal tradition of people’s courts and, finally, in the agrarian areas the JMM resorted to direct action campaigns to recover alienated land in the region. As a result there were large-scale clashes and violence during the harvest sessions of 1974-75.”
At Chirudih in Jamtara district in 1975, a JMM rally was allegedly attacked by moneylenders, following which Soren’s followers stormed the premises of moneylenders and their henchmen.
At the end of it, 11 were dead, of whom 9 were Muslims. But Soren’s political acumen prevented this from taking a communal colour, and the Muslims of the area today are considered a JMM vote bank.
Soren went underground after the massacre. Decades later, in 2004, it briefly cost him the position of coal minister in the Manmohan Singh government when a court issued an arrest warrant against him in the case. He was eventually acquitted of the charges in 2008.
Mahato says in his book: “During this time, Shibu Soren also built an ashram in Pokhariya village, five kilometres away from Tundi (near Dhanbad) from where the movement was run during the Emergency. This ashram was the centre of the movement and from here the movement continued to expand in Santhal Pargana district as well. During those days, Shibu Soren was given the title of Dishom Guru (leader of the homeland)….”
Soren unsuccessfully contested the 1977 Lok Sabha election from Dumka. He won the seat in 1980 and went on to represent the constituency seven more times, his last win coming in 2014.
In their 2009 commentary, Kumar and Rai wrote: “The overtly Marxist phase of the movement thus practically ended with the electoral alliance between the JMM and the Congress in the 1980 elections and a formal split between the Leftist and Jharkhandi political groups followed soon.”
Soren and his JMM were mired in a bribery scandal in 1993, getting booked after they voted against a no-confidence motion against the Congress government at the Centre that year.
In 2006, Soren was convicted of murdering his aide Shashinath Jha in 1994. He had to quit the Manmohan cabinet again for this, but was acquitted the following year.
In the 1990s, South Bihar had faced almost weekly JMM bandhs, called to press for a separate state, which was finally born in 2000.
“But the irony was that Shibu Soren, the leader of the Jharkhand movement, was left helpless, powerless, very weak and miserable when Jharkhand was formed…,” Mahato writes.
“Shibu Soren himself met Prime Minister Atalji on 4 November, 2000, and Soren touched Atalji’s feet and asked for his blessings to become the chief minister, but did not get any result.”
Soren’s son and Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren told reporters: “I have no words to express the pain I feel at the loss of such a great man…. He protected the Adivasis of India under his shade like a tree.”
Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, were among the political leaders who paid their respects at the hospital.
In a post on X, Modi said: “Shri Shibu Soren Ji was a grassroots leader who rose through the ranks of public life with unwavering dedication to the people. He was particularly passionate about empowering tribal communities, the poor and downtrodden....”
As a mark of respect for Soren, Opposition MPs postponed a protest against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, and Rahul cancelled a news conference. A protest by the Congress on electoral malpractices in Bengaluru, scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed to Friday.
Rahul posted: “A strong voice for the tribal community, Soren Ji fought tirelessly for their rights and entitlements. His role in the formation of Jharkhand will always be remembered.”
Three days of state mourning have been declared in Jharkhand.