A large number of people from various tribal communities of five states, including Jharkhand, Odisha, and Assam, staged a demonstration in Delhi on Thursday, demanding that the Centre recognise their religion as 'Sarna'and ensure their enumeration under this category during the upcoming census.
The agitators also took a pledge to intensify their struggle in order to get the government recognition of the 'Sarna dharma code' and held a mass prayer at Jantar Mantar, seeking the blessings of their deities and revered leaders.
The agitation was organised to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the Santhal Rebellion against the British on June 30, 1855.
The members, the majority of whom belonged to the Santhal tribe, raised their demands under the aegis of the Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan (tribal empowerment campaign) from as many as 250 scheduled tribes-dominated blocks from 50 districts of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam.
"We are here to demand that the government recognises our religion as 'Sarna' and include a provision in the upcoming census for enumeration of Adivasis under this category," Salkhan Murmu, a prominent tribal leader from Jharkhand, who is spearheading the movement, told PTI.
"We wanted to call on President Ram Nath Kovind to convey our feelings and urge him to recognise our religion as Sarna, but could not get an appointment with him. So, we submitted a memorandum of our demands to the President through the police," he added.
Murmu, who was a BJP MP from Odisha's Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha constituency for two consecutive terms from 1998-2004, said tribals in the country have their own religion, religious practices and customs, but it has not yet been recognised by the government.
"We Adivasis are neither Hindus nor Christians. We have our own way of life, religious practices, customs, culture and religious thoughts, different from any other religion. We worship nature and not idols. There is neither Varna system in our society or any sort of inequality," he said.
(With inputs from agencies)