It was a dream come true for Catholic Church leaders in Chotanagpur, in eastern India, when Jharkhand, a tribal heartland in what had been the Bihar state—became the 28th state in the Union of India.

“We are very happy. Our people finally have a state of their own, fulfilling their hopes and aspirations,” said a jubilant Archbishop Telesphore P. Toppo of Ranchi, the capital of the new state, after the November 15 ceremonies that formally separated Jharkhand, with its estimated population of 25 million, from Bihar. Archbishop Toppo—who is himself a member of the indigenous ethnic group (or “tribal” in Indian parlance) that dominates Jharkhand—saw the creation of the new state as “a gift of God to our people in the Jubilee year.” He emphasized that it was “providential” that the political separation took place during the Jubilee, and observed that the people of Jharkhand were “getting liberation from bondage,” in keeping with the Jubilee theme.

For decades the people of Jharkhand have sought to establish their own autonomous state in the tribal heartland. But until recently their hopes had been frustrated, due in large part to the greater political influence of Bihar. Only a few years ago the chief executive of the undivided Bihar state had stated that Jharkhand would achieve independence “only over my dead body.”

The Church’s role
How did the tribal state achieve its independence? Archbishop Toppo replied: “We have a Jharkhand state today, in the final analysis, because of the work of the Church.” In fact the movement for independence has, since its inception, been heavily identified with the Christian minority. “In the past they [India’s political leaders] blamed the Church for supporting the separatist movement,” the archbishop said. But now that independence has arrived, no such complaints can be heard, he remarked. “Now, they all are trying to champion the cause of Jharkhand and take credit for the formation of the state.”

It was not until late in the 18th century that Christian missionaries set foot in Jharkhand, the homeland for the tribal people of the Chotanagpur hills. (The area has the richest mineral deposits in India, but it is an isolated region—the name “Jharkhand” means “forest tract” —more than 600 miles southeast of New Delhi.) Over the years the Church set up hundreds of educational institutions, even in remote areas, for the education of the tribals who were generally treated as second-class citizens in their own homeland. These centers soon became rallying points for spreading awareness about tribal rights, and later they became staging points for the more active campaigning.

In fact, Catholics were in the forefront when demand for an autonomous Jharkhand tribal state was first aired in 1939 under colonial British rulers. Later the Church kept a low public profile on the demand for a Jharkhand state—”to avoid controversy,” the archbishop explains. But the Catholic leadership of the region has always remained, he said, “a staunch supporter and sympathizer of the Jharkhand cause.”

Protestant missionaries were the first Christians to bring the Gospel to Jharkhand, and the first Jesuit missionaries arrived only several decades later. Nevertheless more than two-thirds of the 3 million Christians in the state today are Catholics. Spread out over eight dioceses, the Catholic community in Jharkhand is still drawn almost completely from the tribal population. It forms one of the most vibrant Catholic communities in India.

Hindu opposition
Unlike other regions in which the indigenous tribes form the majority of the population, Jharkhand has produced its own Catholic clergy; the Ranchi archdiocese does not have a single “outsider” priest. In fact, Jharkhand has turned out to be India’s “new vocation garden,” threatening to rival the older and larger Syro-Malabar Church in the southern Kerala state in producing nuns and priests. The Ranchi archdiocese is now host to 40 different religious congregations, whose members find it easy to identify new recruits among the tribal population.

While the local Catholic Church continues to make every effort to identify with the local tribals, Archbishop Toppo reports that “vested interests” are now making a determined effort to isolate the Christian tribals, and turn the non-Christians against them. The archbishop does not name those “vested interests,” but clearly he is speaking about the Hindu fundamentalist organizations that have complained about Christian involvement with tribal groups all across India. The Hindu activists charge that missionaries are “appropriating” tribal customs and festivals, in order to lure the indigenous people into the Christian faith. Archbishop Toppo rejected such complaints, pointing to his native clergy, and stressing that the Church’s commitment to tribal identity is “nothing new.”

Hindu fundamentalist organizations such as Vanavasi Kalyan Samiti (Council for the Welfare of Forest-dwellers) are seeking to cause divisions within the indigenous tribes, Church leaders charge in their turn. “They have succeeded in this effort, to a great extent,” admits Archbishop Toppo. “Otherwise,” he asks, “how could one explain the irony that those heading the first government of our state had nothing to do with our struggle?”

Indeed, Babulal Marandi of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was sworn in on November 15 as the first chief minister of the Jharkhand state. Although tribal political parties like the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Jharkhand Liberation Front) had been at the vanguard of the campaign for autonomy, the division among the local separatist groups has helped the BJP to win a majority of the parliamentary seats from the tribal region in recent years. So while he acknowledged his joy at “the realization of the Jharkhand dream,” Father Anand Jojo of the Simdega diocese also lamented that “none of these who headed our freedom struggle are in the chairs as government ministers.” Father Jojo, the assistant deputy secretary general of the Indian bishops’ conference, allowed that “our joy has been dampened” by the failure of tribal leaders to emerge at the helm of the new state.

Archbishop Toppo now believes that the divisions within the tribal population occurred in part because “we were politically indifferent.” To date the Catholic Church has concentrated on administering a vast network of educational and health-care institutions. But now, the archbishop says:

It is time for us to be more active politically. We cannot allow those out to divide tribal people to get away with their plans. Tribal unity is the greatest priority for us.

Father Alex Ekka, a tribal from Jharkhand, asserts that the tribal population of Jharkhand is in reality around 60 percent and not the 27.7 percent in the 1991 census. Because the government has been “declassifying” some tribal groups as non-tribals in successive censuses, Father Ekka said, “our ratio has been brought down.” He went on to explain that demonstrating the “true ratio” of tribals is critical to the welfare of the tribals in their new state. If the tribal majority can be proved beyond doubt, pro-tribal legislation will be much easier in Jharkhand. “Such legislation is a ‘must’ to improve the lot of the impoverished tribals,” said Father Ekka.