Today morning, news emerged that security forces had killed Central Committee member of the Maoist Party and Adivasi warrior Prayag Manjhi, along with eight other activists, in a staged encounter near Lugu Hills, close to Lalpania in Bokaro district, Jharkhand.
This is the first time I have heard the name of Prayag Manjhi, an Adivasi son who rose to the level of a Central Committee member. Among those killed alongside him, at least three others also bore the surname Manjhi—a common surname among Adivasis.
The very moment I heard that name, I was reminded of Tilka Manjhi, the first Adivasi warrior who fought against British colonialism.
Tilka Manjhi, the famed Santhal Adivasi warrior also known as Jabra Pahadiya, was the first to resist the loot of British colonialism by waging war against the East India Company forces. Between 1771 and 1784, he mobilised the Adivasis of the Chotanagpur region and launched attacks on British soldiers using traditional weapons like bows and arrows. Along with the local Pahadiya Sardar tribe, he carried out a lightning attack on the British army camp in Ramgarh. His war cry was “The land is ours!”
Tilka Manjhi was eventually captured by the British army and, in 1784, was publicly hanged from a banyan tree in Bhagalpur, Bihar.
For the past two hundred and fifty years, he has stood as a source of inspiration for every Adivasi struggle against plunder and oppression.
Today’s ruling establishment, which has named Bhagalpur University after Tilka Manjhi, has now shot dead Prayag Manjhi—who carried forward that very legacy of Tilka Manjhi’s resistance. Just as Tilka Manjhi was hanged two hundred and fifty years ago…
Tearful salutes to Prayag Manjhi…
