Remembering Shibu Soren: The leader of a people

Indian Express

2 days ago

It was 2019. The Jharkhand assembly elections had already been announced. On an early winter morning, I was sitting beside the ageing Shibu Soren at his house in Dumka. A huge crowd, cutting across caste, creed and community, had gathered there and was waiting for their leader to flag off the campaign for the day. When we finished our conversation, Soren stood up and wished them good luck.
Two kilometres away, another crowd had gathered for the same reason — Prime Minister Narendra Modi was about to come and address the election campaign.
Days later, Soren's magic worked again. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) formed the government, and broke all previous records.
Soren's death marks the end of an era in the national life of Adivasis. He instilled in them a sense of political struggle. Soren was destiny's child. The gruesome murder of his father, Sobaran Manjhi, who was a teacher at a school in Gola near Nemra, his ancestral village, changed his life. Sobaran stood against exploitation by moneylenders and was eventually killed when Shivcharan, as Shibu was known in his early life, was still very young.
This incident turned Shivcharan into an adult overnight. From Shivcharan, he became Shibu, later Guruji and then Dishom Guru — all through a life dedicated to eradicating moneylending, exploitation and oppression of Adivasis in the region. Legend has it that Shivcharan had promised that he would not shave his beard until he took revenge for his father's murder. However, his revenge did not stop at curbing moneylending. The struggle led him to mainstream politics and resulted in the formation of Jharkhand as a separate state in 2000.
After the murder of his father, Soren raised a band of youth and led a movement against moneylenders in his region, who used to collect exorbitant interest against loans. Failure to pay them off would result in crops being snatched from the tribal farmers' lands. Often, the moneylenders would grab their lands and till them. Against this practice, Soren led a dhan katni (harvesting) movement. His supporters harvested the standing crops that the moneylenders had grown on the 'grabbed' lands.
Due to the violent nature of the movement, many FIRs were filed against Soren. But the police could never catch him. In 1972, Soren, along with veteran communist leaders Binod Bihari Mahato and A K Roy, formed the JMM. However, he continued to lead the life of a fugitive due to police lookouts and his conflict with the moneylenders. To his own people, Soren was a messiah, but to others, including the then-ruling Congress, he was anathema. Stories of Soren soon reached the corridors of power — both in Patna and in Delhi. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi reportedly wanted him 'under control'.
A young Indian Administrative Service officer, K B Saxena, was sent to Dhanbad as its deputy commissioner to deal with him. Saxena, however, soon learnt that the government's notes on Soren were not all true. Eventually, Saxena met Soren in the deep forest of Tundi, where Soren ran a ratri pathshala for the people in the region. He found Soren's struggle legitimate and convinced him to surrender before the law. He even sent a letter to Mrs Gandhi briefing her on Soren's life and struggle. This letter changed Soren's political destiny. When he surrendered in 1975, Congress was willing to join hands with the JMM, under the leadership of united Bihar's chief minister, Jagannath Mishra. Mishra arranged a meeting between Soren and Mrs Gandhi.
In 1980, Soren became an MP and emerged as the undisputed leader of the tribal people, who had long been fighting for a separate state. Although he was accused in many cases of violence, including the Chirudih massacre, he was acquitted in all these cases, one after another.
From 1980 to 2000, Soren led the Jharkhand statehood movement from the front. He worked with leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Lalu Prasad, and many others to achieve his goal — statehood for Jharkhand.
The tribal people of India will remember Soren for his grit, determination and leading the struggle for political self-determination, while for the people of Jharkhand, he will always be alive — in their thoughts and in their resilience.
The writer is head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, St. Xavier's College, Ranchi