The Jharkhand State Assembly sent a resolution to the Union government asking for a separate religion code for the tribal population in the upcoming Census 2021 exercise.
What is about the Sarna resolution?
The resolution named it ‘SarnaAdivasiDharam’.
The followers of ‘Sarna’ are usually nature worshippers.
They have been demanding recognition of it as a distinct religion for decades.
Why they are demanding it?
At present, under the census, there are codes for only six religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism.
While filling in these columns, a tribal resident has to identify himself or herself as one of these or as ‘others’, but cannot specify his / her religion as a different one.
In census surveys during 1871-1951, there was a separate category for the tribal population. But later, this was dropped.
For the Census 2011, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes did recommend the addition of this code.
It is believed that 50 lakhs tribal in the entire country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not a code.
What is the Sarna religion?
The followers of Sarna faith believe pray to nature.
The holy grail of the faith is “Jal, Jungle, Zameen”.
Its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
