Sarhul is one of the most significant tribal festivals celebrated across Jharkhand, mainly by the Uraon, Mundas, Santhals, and the Ho tribe, along with thirty other tribal groups. The festival lasts for three days, starting from the third day of the Chaitra, the first month of the Hindu calendar. The tribals pay their obeisance to the Sal tree for providing them with food, drink, shade, shelter, livelihood, prediction of harvest and weather, and even protection from the evil eye all year around.
The tribals in Jharkhand, clad in colorful and traditional sarees and dresses, perform traditional dances on the popular folk tunes of the region. Dances like Paika, Santhal, Sarna, Phagna, Bheja, Damkach, etc. are performed. Even though men participate enthusiastically in the festival of Sarhul to show their solidarity towards mother nature, the women in Jharkhand have lived in harmoniously with their natural environment since ages, and have evolved a culture and certain traditions that are in complete sync with the nature; hence the same has passed on to their festivals and worship rituals.
Jharkhand literally means land of forests, and as per a survey by the Forest Survey of India, this eastern state has a forest cover of about 30%, compared to the national average of 22%, which vindicates the Sanskrit term “Jharikhanda”, meaning a region of dense forest.
Natural resources and forest covers are naturally endowed to Jharkhand and form the very basis of it existence. The rich natural resources have also always attracted a lot of business interests in the name of development in this globalized world. This invasion, in the name of development and consequent uplifting of living conditions, leads to large scale exploitation of the natural resources leading to an adverse impact on the flora and fauna of the state.
Given their deep-rooted connection with nature and natural resources, tribal people also get exploited, especially the female population. In fact, rich natural and mineral resources in Jharkhand, have proved a bane and a boon since the exploitation of women and these resources go hand in hand. There has been a rampant acquisition of forest land for mining purposes with no regard to damage to forest cover and displacement of tribal folks.
A Centre for Science and Environment report says, “The very people for whom Jharkhand was ostensibly created are now being sacrificed in the name of their own state development.” The negative repercussion of growing mining and the pollution caused in the process has always had an impact on the biological capacity and health of the women.
Amidst all the development mayhem, it’s the women who suffer the most. Tribal female population has always been at the receiving end everywhere. But naturally, ecofeminism in Jharkhand takes its roots here. It’s the women who have always revolted, or, more aggressively, defended their habitat and environment. The case is similar with the tribal women of Jharkhand.
In the past, they had always been at the forefront of the tribal struggle against the foreign intrusion on their land. Be it against British India’s Forest Act in Chotanagpur region for expanding railways, or against feudal landlords and moneylenders who used to exploit them financially as well as sexually. They were also part of Santhal Hool, the famous Santhal rebellion against the British regime and zamindari system which stripped them of their natural rights to their land.
Tribal women have also participated in numerous other movements to safeguard nature and environment, like the Munda Uprising and certain political movements which aimed at claiming back land usurped by landlords and moneylenders.
Recently, I had the opportunity of meeting a group of women, in a tribal dominated village, Karra, about 35 km away from Ranchi, the state capital of Jharkhand. These women are mobilising their communities towards protection of forest land, restoration of green cover and against rampant and indiscriminate exploitation of other natural resources, through the recently concluded two-day global investors’ summit, Momentum Jharkhand. The Jharkhand government has shown expediency to acquire land to provide to industries, both domestic and multinationals, to set up development infrastructure in Jharkhand.
The summit aims to establish Jharkhand as an investment destination on the global stage. However, there has been a sustained opposition of government’s initiative by the tribal populations who fear that that in the garb of development, the business houses will usurp their property and natural habitat and resources. This movement has mostly been spearheaded by the female population.
The women of Karra are up in arms against such moves which they claim is to destroy the natural and forest reserves of the Jharkhand, and to render them devoid of their environment. They have termed this summit as a meeting of land grabbers and money makers who are looking to grab tribal land.
Recent amendments to the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act and the Santhal Parganas Tenancy (SPT) Act, have irked tribal and rights activists. They fear that amendments have paved the way for the state’s largely poor tribal people to lose their small land holdings to industrial, commercial and welfare projects. However, the government counters that the amendments made are going to benefit tribals in the long run.
Earlier the tribal families couldn’t use their land for commercial activities despite having large land holdings. This has changed with the changes in the act and now many activities can be carried out on these lands to prosper.
Historically too, Jharkhand has been home to a lot of industries and mineral extraction setups due to its rich reserves. Women opposing the government consider this as a move to perpetuate more exploitation of mother nature to which they feel connected.
The Jharkhand society, being highly patriarchal, has always inflicted twin domination, both on women and nature. The tribals do not provide land rights to women folks, and they are reduced to mere workers on their own land. These women want to expose and dismantle both the domination of nature and women in the name of globalisation.
Real growth and amelioration can only occur when women who are likely to be hit harder by environmental degradation and climate change are uplifted from their socio-economic backwardness, and made integral to sustainable development.
Thus, Sarhul lets us strive hard to make women an integral part of our ecosystem and give due credit to their sacrifice and efforts towards environmental sustainability and stability.