Where Santal wisdom shelters
Beyond Sitakot in Dinajpur's Nawabganj the sal trees gather. Although unlikely locals believe Nawabganj National Park might be the last remnants of the forest where Sita of the Hindu epic Ramayana lived in exile.
From field and farmhouse, the cycle van finds the track into this darker, not-less-beautiful world. Beyond is Ashurer Beel, a waterhole favoured for picnics, famed for migratory birds.
And suddenly in the forest are faces… not the middle-class motorcycle-riding ones of picnickers but curious, distinctly non-Bengali faces…
The national park keeps another history. Under its canopy, at its edges, Santal wisdom takes shelter.
In Gabriel Hemrom's leafy yard a little beyond the park boundary, in Alekuti village, women sit on the ground preparing date leaves for weaving. Another is busy with jungle potatoes, which are soaked in water for several days and eaten with molasses-like jaggery, known in Bangla as 'gur'.
Alekuti is home to forty Santal families. “Our ancestors are from Dumka,” says forty-year-old Hemrom, father of three sons. “But we were all born here.”
As in Bangladesh, Santhals are one of the most populous minority peoples in India. Mainly they live in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Jharkhand. Dumka is a district in the last of these states. There are also Santals in Nepal.
The village's forested location reflects Santali tradition of forest clearing and subsistence farming. They are also famed hunters, with bow and arrow. But in Alekuti, along with some small-scale farming, most earn as they can through cycle-van riding or day labour. It isn't much of a living.
“For the poor, food is always a problem,” says Hemrom.
In contrast to Alekuti's dire economic reality, in India it's not uncommon for Santals to be city-dwellers working as doctors, engineers, public servants…
In Alekuti meanwhile are traces of the well-developed culture of which any Santal can be proud. Most visibly it's in the painted designs on the walls of their well-constructed mud-brick homes. By tradition Santals present history and daily life in wall paintings, although the Alekuti examples are modest.
“Those who can paint do so,” says Hemrom.
The Austroasiatic Santhali language, of the Munda languages and distantly related to Khasi, Khmer and Vietnamese, is well-studied. Its unique script, called Ol Chiki and invented in 1925 by Pandit Raghunath Murmu, has thirty letters.
Santals have preserved their language well; but in Alekuti there are difficulties. “Our children used to study Santali at the mission schools in Dhanjuri and Patarghat,” says Hemrom, “but now they only learn at home. We use our own alphabet but it's explained in English.” Including Bangla, Alekuti relies on three languages.
Hemrom estimates that like his, 50 – 70% of the village families converted to Christianity some thirty years ago. The small church is attended by visiting clergy.
The remainder observe the old religion, worshipping Marang buru or Bonga as supreme deity. It features a court of spirits to regulate aspects of the world, from whom blessings are sought through prayer and offering. There are evil spirits to be protected from.
Traditionally, Santal villages feature a sacred grove where spirits live and festivals occur. In Alekuti neighbours participate in rituals of both religions.
“We dance and sing in Santhali and Bangla,” says Hemrom, “The children enjoy festivals the most.”
In political history Santals can also take pride. In response to land grabbing and enslavement, on 30 June 1855 leaders Sidhu Murmu and Kanu Murmu mobilised 30,000 Santals to fight the British.
Caught by surprise, the Santal Rebellion met with some success, but ultimately bows and arrows proved no match for British guns. Battles were akin to massacres. Many Santals, including the two celebrated leaders, were killed; and subsequently the Nawab of Murshidabad used elephants to trample Santali huts.
More recently, the Santal community was instrumental in successfully advocating the creation of India's Jharkhand state, carved from southern Bihar in 2000. Statehood for Jharkhand would better represent the various minority peoples accounting for 28% of the state population, Santhals the largest group.
Yet Hemrom speaks of his heritage humbly. “Everybody likes his own culture,” he says.
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