Tribal rights organisations in Jharkhand have decided to hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on December 6 and 7 demanding the addition of Sarna religion code in the 2021 census.

During their Satyagraha demanding a separate religious code for the member of the tribal community, several tribal rights activists and supporters of the Sarna code will also hand over a memorandum to the President, Prime Minister, Home Minister and Minister of Tribal Affairs in the national capital, said Dr Karma Oraon, the chief of Rashtriya Adivasi Samaj Sarna Dharma Raksha campaign, a nationwide movement dedicated to this.

Besides, conferences will also be held on November 28 at Khunti and on December 16 at Jaspur in Chhattisgarh to mobilize tribals to demand a separate religion code for their community.

Condemning the recent statement by BJP leader Karia Munda that all tribals were “essentially Hindus”, Oraon said that Munda was only a puppet of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishand (VHP), and he in no way represents the entire tribal community.

Ravi Tigga, a member of the the Raji Padha Sarna Puja Committee, said that the movement for giving a separate religious identity to the tribal people has been gaining momentum in tribal belts across the country, and the government will soon have no option but to agree to the demands of the tribal community.

Central Sarna Committee president Phoolchand Tirkey said, “The Constitution under Article 25 has granted freedom to preach and practice religion of one’s choice to every citizen of India, but the Centre is snatching this right granted to tribals by the Constitution.”

The Jharkhand Assembly passed a resolution for inclusion of Sarna Code in the Census and sent it to the Centre last year. In the special session of the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Hemant Soren had said that the Sarna Dharma Code is important for the tribals and he did not want any politics over it.

Sarna followers are nature worshippers who do not consider themselves Hindus and have been fighting for a separate religious identity in India for decades. Lakhs of tribesmen who were born in Sarna-following families got converted to Christianity over the past century after the advent of the missionaries, claim tribal gurus.

A major tribal movement for a separate religious identity has been brewing in Jharkhand and neighbouring states for the past couple of years. In 2014, thousands of Sarna followers handed over a memorandum to then Union minister P Chidambaram and demanded recognition of Sarna as a separate religion. Back then, they had also staged protests at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, but their pleas went unheeded. In 2015, about 30,000 tribesmen held a nation-wide campaign for the same.