{"id":16955,"date":"2024-06-11T01:50:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T20:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=16955"},"modified":"2025-04-05T01:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T19:40:13","slug":"birsa-munda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/birsa-munda\/","title":{"rendered":"Who was Birsa Munda?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Birsa Munda:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>He was a folk hero and a <strong>tribal freedom fighter<\/strong> who played a pivotal role in the Indian independence movement, particularly in the tribal regions of British India.<\/li>\n<li>He belonged to the <strong>Munda tribe<\/strong> in the <strong>Chhotanagpur Plateau area<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>He <strong>spearheaded an Indian tribal mass movement<\/strong> that arose<strong> in the Bihar and Jharkhand<\/strong> belts in the <strong>early 19th century<\/strong> under British colonisation.<\/li>\n<li>Munda rallied the tribals to fight<strong> against the forceful land grabbing<\/strong> carried out <strong>by the British government, <\/strong>which would turn the tribals into bonded labourers and force them to abject poverty.<\/li>\n<li>He <strong>influenced his people to realise<\/strong> the <strong>importance of owning their land<\/strong> and asserting their rights over it.<\/li>\n<li>Birsa <strong>encouraged the tribe to stick to their traditions<\/strong> and get back to their tribal roots.<\/li>\n<li>One of Birsa&#8217;s notable contributions was the formation of the <strong>Munda Rebellion<\/strong>, also <strong>known as the Ulgulan, <\/strong>or the<strong> Tamar Revolt<\/strong>, in the <strong>late 19th century<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The rebellion was a <strong>response to <\/strong>the <strong>oppressive policies of the British<\/strong> administration, including the introduction of the <strong>Forest Laws,<\/strong> that <strong>restricted tribal access to their traditional lands,<\/strong> and the imposition of <strong>exorbitant taxes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Birsa united various tribal communities under the banner of the Munda Raj and <strong>led a series of guerrilla warfare campaigns<\/strong> against the British forces.<\/li>\n<li>Birsa Munda&#8217;s leadership during the Munda Rebellion <strong>earned him the title<\/strong> of <strong>&#8220;Bhagwan&#8221; or &#8220;Birsa Bhagwan<\/strong>&#8221; among his followers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>He often <strong>took inspiration from Munda traditions<\/strong>, <strong>Christianity, and Hinduism<\/strong> to guide his followers in rituals and prayers.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>His struggle<\/strong> against exploitation and discrimination against tribals <strong>led to a big hit<\/strong> against the British government <strong>in the form of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act<\/strong> being passed <strong>in 1908<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The act <strong>restricted the passing on of land from<\/strong> the <strong>tribal people to non-tribals.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Birsa also played a <strong>crucial religious role<\/strong> among the Munda people.\n<ul>\n<li>He <strong>founded the faith of Birsait<\/strong>, a <strong>blend of animism and indigenous beliefs<\/strong>, which emphasized the <strong>worship of a single god<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>He <strong>became their leader<\/strong> and was given the <strong>nickname, \u2018Dharti Aba\u2019<\/strong> or the <strong>father of the earth.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>He died on June 9, 1900, at age 25.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>In recognition of his impact on the national movement, the <strong>state of Jharkhand<\/strong> was <strong>created on his birth anniversary in 2000<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>November 15<\/strong>, <strong>the birth anniversary<\/strong> of Birsa Munda, was <strong>declared \u2018Janjatiya Gaurav Divas by<\/strong> the <strong>Central Government in 2021.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What is Chota Nagpur Plateau?<\/h3>\n<p>Known to be one of the most important industrial regions of India, the Chota Nagpur Plateau is a dissected plateau.Located in the north- eastern edge of the Indian peninsula, the Chota Nagpur Plateau covers much of the state of Jharkhand as well as adjacent parts of Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Covering a total area of approximately 65,000 sq. km, the Chota Nagpur Plateau has the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the north and east of the plateau and the basin of the Mahanadi River lies to the south.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/india-news\/jharkhand-guv-cm-pay-homage-to-birsa-munda-on-his-death-anniversary-101717926690899.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jharkhand Guv, CM pay homage to Birsa Munda on his death anniversary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Birsa Munda was a folk hero and a tribal freedom fighter who played a pivotal role in the Indian independence movement, particularly in the tribal regions of British India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}