A team of activists, writers and journalists have indicated that the friction between Gurjarat based Satipati cult now active in several villages across the State and the villagers led to the killing of Burugulikera village in West Singhbhum few weeks ago.
In an attempt to understand the role of Pathalgadi movement in the Chaibasa massacre, a fact-finding team comprising activists, writers and journalists visited Burugulikera village as most of local media reported that the beheading of seven people in Burugulikera village of Gudri block in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand on January 22 and January, was due to Pathalgadi movement.
The team had representatives of Adivasi Adhikar Manch, National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM), Marxist Coordination Committee, Ulgulan Sena and Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabhha.
Addressing a press meet on Monday in the State Capital one of the team member, Aloka Kujur said that initial media reports indicated that the pro-pathalgadi faction of the village had murdered members of the anti-pathalgadi faction for opposing their movement. Speaking on reason of the killing, Kujur said that the fact-finding team found that more than half of the total number of families of the village was followers of the AC (ante-Christ) known as Satipati cult.
“The cult was led by Ranasi Budh and a few others, accused of killing James Budh and six others of the village. The cult, active since the past year in the village, asked people to submit their Government’s Identity Cards,” she added.
“More than half of the families submitted the documents, while James and others did not.
The documents were not forcefully taken but people were sometimes told that they would not be considered Adivasis or be expelled from the village if they did not submit. People were asked to submit their khatiyan (land documents) too which many did not. James Budh, upmukhiya of the Gram Panchayat, used to get benefits of Government schemes and objected to the call for giving up schemes. Ranasi Budh’s wife Mukta Horo was the ex-Mukhiya and they also used to get benefits of schemes.
The Satipati cult supporters also asked others not to go to Church or celebrate Sarna (Adivasi) festivals. These were causes of friction between the two factions,” said Kujur.
Elaborating about findings of the team Kujur said, “On 16 January, a day after local Maghe Parv (an Adivasi festival), James Budh and his friends attacked the houses of Ranasi Budh and four others. “ On 19 January, Ranasi Budh and other Satipati cult supporters brought the attackers from their homes to a meeting, to allegedly discuss the attack on their houses. From the testimonies of Satipati supporters and family members of the victims, it emerged that the seven people were beaten to death in the meeting and then beheaded.”
As exposed in the Pathalgadi movement and the recent indication of people’s support for the Satipati cult, the movement and cult are primarily driven by the continuing alienation of Adivasis, attack on their natural resources and lack of development based the Adivasis’ needs and worldview.
For example, there is a massive dam erected by submerging a large area in Pansua, a few Kilometres away from Burugulikera but the village does not get water from the lake.