Bagun

Jamshedpur, April 19: Bagun Sumbrui has found his Boswell.

Shuikar Purty, a former bureaucrat who is now associated with an NGO, has decided to chronicle the life and times of Sumbrui, politician, tribal chieftain and connoisseur of the good things of life.

Purty has dug out several nuggets of information from Bagun?s colourful life. For example, few know that Muktidani, the leader?s fourth wife and his comrade-in-arms until her death a couple of years ago, was a ?prize? won by Bagun in a football match many years ago. He brought the girl to Chaibasa and quietly married her. Years later, he made the marriage public.

Purty resigned as deputy secretary in the health ministry in 2002 and settled down in Chaibasa, where he is attached to an NGO working among the adivasis of West Singhbhum.

What made him choose Bagun as a subject? ?It was my idea to pen the biography. His public life has spanned more than six decades and yet the intellectual section of the society, both tribal and non-tribals, have underrated him and taken him lightly unlike someone like Shibu Soren, who was a disciple of Bagun Babu in the initial stages of his political career,? said Purty, who will be assisted in his endeavour by Bir Singh Sinku, an intellectual of Chaibasa.

Purty, like James Boswell, who penned The Life of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D, arguably the greatest biography in English, wants to present to the world a man of many facets. ?Our intention is to depict a true picture of the Singhbhum leader, who in spite of being a Class VII dropout, has been one of the most successful leaders of the state. He is the only leader who has won the Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat five times (At present, Sumbrui is an MP). Except for him, no one has been able to retain the seat. Similarly, he has been a Munda (chief of a group of villages) for 15 years, mukhiya for 12 years and MLA four times. Doesn?t he deserve a better deal,? said Purty, whose father was a school friend of Bagun Babu.

The biography will deal with his success stories, his struggle in life, association with Jaipal Singh and Jharkhand movement, his marriages ? legend has it that he married 52 times, but Sumbrui refuses to confirm or deny ? and his failures. ?The younger generation of Singhbhum should know about this ageing tribal leader, who perhaps does not have a parallel,? said Purty.

Sumbrui has had a chequered career. He has worked as a tailor, was attached with missionaries active in Singhbhum, worked as a petty contractor. He is also the only tribal leader of Singhbhum to have interacted with political stalwarts like Indira Gandhi, Daroga Prasad Rai, Karpoori Thakur and Lalu Prasad.

Purty and Sinku have begun the groundwork for the biography, which will be published both in English and Hindi. The duo hopes to finish it in a year or so.

“We have just begun gathering information about Bagun Babu. We will approach elders of his ancestral village on the outskirts of Chaibasa, his family members, childhood friends, political associates, scholars like Ashok Kumar Sen to get feedback. We will also visit the libraries of Parliament and the Bihar Assembly to get information him. It’s a tough task but worth doing. I am sure we will get to know many other things once we interact with those who knew him for a long time,” Purty said.

About a week ago, Purty had approached Bagun Babu to seek his permission.

“My life has been an open book. So what’s the need for a biography,” he had asked. After much persuasion, Sumbrui relented provided that facts about his life are placed in the right perspective.

“I also assured them of providing information. Let’s hope they do a good job,” said Sumbrui.