The architect of Jharkhand

"I pray for his long and healthy life," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president of the Jharkhand unit, Babulal Marandi, told Business Standard fervently a few weeks ago, learning that Shibu Soren was grievously ill.

- ADITI PHADNIS

"He has given a lot to public life and I pray he can contribute more".

Marandi can be counted as one of Soren's bitterest critics and the only one who ever defeated him in a Lok Sabha election. It was not to be. Shibu Soren (81) died on Monday and leaves a legacy of tribal assertion through democratic politics, in a long line of leaders that include Birsa Munda and Jaipal Singh Munda. If there had been no Shibu Soren, Jharkhand would probably never have been born.

Jharkhand has a strong sense of identity. Earlier, the great unifying factor was the "foreigner" (diku), the non-tribal. Initially, Jharkhand tribals resisted efforts by the Mughals and the British to overcome their rich land and luxuriant forests. But when the Hindu traders and Muslim farmers moved in and modern law and administration was established, tribals found themselves becoming marginalized. British authority and its accompanying array of devices facilitated the process of pauperizing them. The administration was manned by dikus and the introduction of paper currency was alien to the tribals. Their villages went to principally Muslim landlords who wanted access to the forests and the communities that lived there as cheap labour.