Political identities and dilemma in Jharkhand Movement, India

Question of ‘environmental revivalism' and its consequences

Abstract

The fragile political development and the desperation to have a separate state of Jharkhand was a common phenomenon in the last hundred years of struggle for separate Jharkhand state out of the so called tribal districts of Bihar. In the early phases, to facilitate tribal demands, Jharkhand politics depended heavily on their voices, formed organizations to promote socio-economic rights but later we see a different pattern of politics, which affected the original emotional demands, in other words a shift from emotional platform to a more intellectual platform. Such transition did not always have taken right paths, factions come into play in a big way, and therefore it tended to bypass the basic demands like environmental and ecological restoration. Evident suggests that the entire political development underwent severe lacuna in regard to united movement. However in the late 1970s onwards there was a remarkable shift towards the demands of the earlier decade which considerably shortened the period towards a separate state.