Prof. Sunil Khilnani profiles Birsa Munda, the young, charismatic healer who led his tribal community in revolt against the British and whose life, more than a century after his death, poses the question: ‘Who owns India?’ | Listen to the programme on the BBC Radio 4 website >>
Munda’s rebellion had shaken the foundations of the British empire, fighting the British army’s advanced weapons with bow and arrows. He died under mysterious circumstances in the Ranchi jail, and has, since then, been remembered as a martyr. – Sushmita in The Wire >>
Scattered across the subcontinent, India’s tribal peoples or Adivasis, match in size the populations of Germany or Vietnam. Yet the land rights of India’s original inhabitants are regularly overridden in the name of development. One of history’s great defenders of Adivasi rights was Birsa Munda, born in the late 19th century in what is now the north-eastern state of Jharkhand. At a time of famine and disease across northern India his community looked to the Birsa for healing and leadership. The young man who claimed he could turn bullets to water led a rebellion against the British, their Indian middlemen and Christian missionaries.
The question ‘Who owns India’ takes Sunil Khilnani to a tribal community who are losing their land and access to food, fuel and water with the growing encroachment of luxury housing complexes – second homes for city dwellers. We also hear from author and political activist Arundhati Roy. “The fact that Adivasis still exist,” she says, “is because people like Birsa Munda staged the beginnings of the battle against the takeover of their homeland.
Though he died at the age of just 25, Birsa Munda has become a lasting symbol of tribal resistance. He’s the only Adivasi whose portrait hangs in the Indian Parliament. “His was a firework of a life,” says Sunil Khilnani, “but a life whose embers still burn”.
Producer: Jeremy Grange
Executive Producer: Martin Smith
Original Music composed by Talvin Singh.
Source: BBC Radio 4 – Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, Birsa Munda: Have You Been to Chalkad?
Address: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05xqbm8
Date Visited: Fri Apr 22 2016 14:41:20 GMT+0200 (CEST)
Find up-to-date information provided by, for and about Indian authors, researchers, officials, and educators
Search tips: in the search field seen here, type the name of any tribal (Adivasi) community, region, state or language; add (copy-paste) keywords of special interest (childhood tribal education language sacred grove women); specify any issue you want to learn more about (biodiversity ecology ethnobotany health nutrition poverty), including rights to which Scheduled Tribes are entitled (Forest Rights Act Protection from illegal mining UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) | More search options >>
For a list of websites included in a single search, click here. To search Indian periodicals, magazines, web portals and other sources safely, click here. To find an Indian PhD thesis on a particular tribal community, region and related issues, click here >>

“the charismatic tribal leader who shook the British Empire” >>
Learn more about
- Archery
- Birsa Munda
- Chhattisgarh
- Childhood and children
- Childrens rights: UNICEF India
- Chotanagpur
- Colonial policies
- Customs
- Games and leisure time
- History
- Martial arts
- Munda
- People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) | RuralIndiaOnline.org
- Santal Hul
- Success Story
- Video | Hul Sengel: The Spirit of the Santal Revolution (1855) – Jharkhand
- Video | Munda songs and dances – Jharkhand
- Video | Tribal culture and natural resources: The Chota Nagpur (Chotanagpur) plateau of eastern India – Jharkhand
Explore India’s tribal cultural heritage with the help of several interactive maps, specially created for visitors to this website:
- An alphabetical journey across India: from Andaman to West Bengal
- Northeastern India: the “Seven Sister States” & Sikkim
- Visit a museum in India: Indigenous art, anthropological & ethnographical collections
- A virtual journey across time and space: from Gondi-Harappan to present & future
- Locations for video documentaries & external media contents
- Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (Govt. data) & Endangered languages (PLSI data)
- Places associated with press reports and blogs about India’s tribal cultural heritage
- A virtual journey across India: from Ladakh to Gujarat