In July 2021, the union government sanctioned 10 museums in commemoration of the contributions of tribal freedom fighters. The museums under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, ‘Support to Tribal Research Institutes’, recognise the heroic and patriotic deeds of the tribal people who fought against the British.
In his Independence Day speech of 2016, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, had announced the decision to sanction the museums as part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav’, a central scheme. Following this, the Tribal Affairs Ministry had held consultations with the states. In 2017–18, the union government approved six museums: in Rajpipla (Gujarat), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Lambasingi (Andhra Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Kozhikode (Kerala), and Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh), at an estimated cost of Rs. 250 crore. Four more tribal museums in Hyderabad (Telangana), Tamenglong (Manipur), Kelsih (Mizoram), and Ponda (Goa) were approved between 2018 and 2021. Nine out of the ten museums are under construction.
The museums would inform about the proud tribal history while providing a fresh impetus to tourism. They would preserve and promote the music, crafts and handicrafts, and art-skills of tribal communities that have been passed down from generations.
The museums are as follows:
- Bhagwan Birsa Munda Museum, Ranchi (Jharkhand)
The 25-acre Bhagwan Birsa Munda Smriti Udyan Sah-Swatantrata Senani Sangrahalaya was inaugurated on November 15, 2021 during the celebration of the country’s first Tribal Day (Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas), in the memory of Bhagwan Birsa Munda, a legendary folk hero and freedom fighter. It has been set up in the prison in Ranchi, where Birsa Munda, popularly known as Dharti Aaba, died at the age of 24 in 1900.
The museum houses a 25-feet tall statue of Birsa Munda as well as of other tribal freedom fighters of the region including Budhu Bhagat, Sidhu-Kanhu, Nilambar-Pitambar, Diwa-Kisun, Telanga Khadiya, Gaya Munda, Jatra Bhagat, Poto Ho, Bhagirath Manjhi, and Ganga Narayan Singh.
The project was completed at a cost of Rs 37 crore, of which Rs. 25 crore was provided by the Centre.
A display in the museum is dedicated to Birsa. It has a light-and-sound show and a mixed media mural with motion sensor, interactive multi-touch walls, and a hologram projection. Conservation and restoration of the heritage Old Birsa Munda Jail has also been undertaken.
- Rajpipla Museum, Garudeshwar (Gujarat)
The 70-acre museum complex at Garudeshwar near Rajpipla in Narmada district (Gujarat), the biggest of the 10 tribal museums, would present the story of the tribal freedom fighters in three phases: Pre-1857, 1857 to the end of the 19th century, and the 20th century up to Indian independence. With a cost of Rs. 137 crore, the project, earlier scheduled for completion by 2020, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Memorial and Museum, Raipur (Chhattisgarh)
The anthropological museum and memorial, being built in Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh, showcases the history of the tribal society and culture in the region and the heroic saga of Veer Narayan Singh. The foundation of the building was laid on August 9, 2021, on the World Indigenous Day. Being built at a cost of Rs. 26 crore, it aims to promote research, training, and development for preservation and revitalisation of the tribal culture.
Veer Narayan Singh (1795–1857), a landlord from Sonakhan, Chhattisgarh, is considered the ‘first Chhattisgarhi freedom fighter’. His ancestors were from Gond tribal group. His campaign against the British began when, in 1856, he was caught for looting a trader’s grain stocks and distributing it amongst the poor on a year of severe famine. He was imprisoned but escaped (1857) to attack the British with an army of 500 men who were crushed. Veer Narayan Singh was executed at the Jaistambh Chowk, Raipur.
- Lambasingi Tribal Museum, Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)
The tribal museum at Tajangi near Lambasingi in Chintapalle mandal, Visakhapatnam district, is being built in the memory of freedom fighter Alluri Sitaram Raju, and his close associates Gantam Dora and Mallu Dora. It will showcase their life stories and other related aspects like their weapons—the bow and arrow.
The museum, being built at a cost of Rs. 35 crores (Rs. 20 crore from the state government and Rs. 15 crore from the central government), is to be completed by March 2023.
The 22-acre museum complex will be developed into four zones. The three galleries in Zone-A will depict the tribal condition prior to the British rule along with the social, cultural, and economic conditions of the tribals in the Tajangi region. Zone-B would portray the period of British rule; Zone-C, will showcase the tribal life during the pre-Independence era and their struggle for freedom; and Zone-D will throw light on the current standards of the tribals in the state.
The museum will have an amphitheatre and audio-video facilities for screening films on the freedom fighters, tribal artifacts-adorned walls, a state-of-the-art restaurant, a tourist resort reflecting tribal culture, and a park.
The Freedom Fighters The British rulers had banned paddy cultivation in the name of ‘protected forests’ and did not pay wages to the tribal workers. Alluri Sitaramaraju led a rebellion in the 1920s which involved the looting of police stations in Chintapalli, Krishna-devi-peta and Rajavommangi, the string of attacks yielding enough weapons to signal the beginning of a sustained rebellion (the Rampa Rebellion).
The attacks against the British Raj in Visakha Agency area involved his trusted lieutenants, the brothers Gam Gantam Dora and Gam Mallu Dora, who not only enlisted the support of locals but also identified hideouts.
The British deployed a company of the Assam Rifles in a campaign that lasted nearly one year from December 1922. Trapped in the forests of Chintapalli, Sitaramaraju was tied to a tree and shot dead in Mampa village.
Lambasingi is known as the ‘Kashmir of Andhra Pradesh’.
- Shri Badal Bhoi State Tribal Museum, Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh)
The Shri Badal Bhoi State Tribal Museum in Chhindwara is the oldest and the biggest tribal museum in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Built in 1954, it was declared a state tribal museum in 1975. The latest project, at a cost of 38.26 crore, involves developing it with more facilities to boost tourism.
Showcasing the contributions of freedom fighters TantyaBheel, Bheema Nayak, Khajaya Nayak, among others, the museum displays a collection of antiques and rare tribal items showcasing the culture and lifestyle of 47 tribal communities: their clothes, ornaments, tools, arms, and art.
The museum is named after the tribal revolutionary leader Shri Badal Bhoi who led the Gond protest in the region against the British. The protests saw besieging of the collector’s bungalow (1923) which led to Badal Bhoi’s imprisonment. After his release, he initiated the Rail Roko movement in which trains were stopped from taking out the precious forest minerals and other resources of the region, as these belonged to the locals. He was arrested in 1930 for breaking the forest law when he entered the forests and seized their produce. He was killed in captivity in 1940.
Before independence, the place was used by the British to train its IAS officers.
- Tribal Museum, Kozhikode (Kerala)
A museum is being built at the Kozhikode-based Kerala Institute for Research, Training and Development Studies of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (KIRTADS) in memory of freedom fighters from tribal communities and for conservation of their culture.
The Rs 16-crore museum would shed light on the heritage of tribal freedom fighters like Thalakkal Chanthu of the Kurichiya community. Along with the normal concept of a museum, it would strive to enrich tribal languages, music, culinary practices, and skill development.
The museum has, however, been under controversy. Activists feel that the idea is to reduce tribes people to only “museum pieces” without protecting their interests. This is part of an upper-class mindset that sees tribal communities as ‘relics of the past’ without addressing their current needs such as land, education, and representation in governance.
Thalakkal Chanthu Thalakkal Chanthu was a general in the army of Pazhassi Raja. He joined the force led by Edachena Kunkan to fight against the British East India Company which extorted a huge amount of grains as tax and resorted to land grabbing.
The first resistance was in 1800; the continuous resistance saw an attack on the Panamaram Fort on October 11, 1802 which served as the warehouse to store the granary collected from the people as tax. There were fierce confrontations and victories against Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Willington (the ‘Kottayam War’). But with the help of local men who were lured with money and land, Thalakkal Chanthu was captured and hanged on the Coli tree in the same Panamaram Fort in November 1805.
- Ramji Gond Memorial Tribal Museum, Hyderabad (Telangana)
The Ramji Gond memorial museum is to be set up in Telangana, according to a Telangana tribal welfare ministry statement in November 2021.
The tribal museum, part of a Rs 25-crore complex, would mainly have exhibits, photographs, and paintings depicting the day-to-day life of the different ethnic denominations in old Adilabad district.
Ramji Gond (d. 1860) was a freedom fighter who fought a guerrilla campaign against the British to defend his Gond kingdom.
- Rani Gaidinliu Tribal Museum, Luangkao (Manipur)
On November 22, 2021, the foundation stone was laid for the ‘Rani Gaidinliu Freedom Fighters Museum’ in Luangkao village, located at Tamenglong district in Manipur.
The museum project, with an estimated cost of Rs. 15 crore, would help preserve and exhibit artefacts related to tribal freedom fighters who fought against the British in the Anglo-Manipuri War, Kuki Rebellion, and Naga movements, among others.
Rani Gaindinliu was born in Luangkao in 1915. At the age of 12, she became associated with the freedom fighter and religious leader Haipou Jadonang. Haipou who led the Heraka movement based on the ancestral Naga religion and envisioned an independent Naga kingdom.
After Haipou’s execution, Rani Gaidinliu took up the leadership of the movement. She was imprisoned and released only after 14 years in 1947.
For her role in the struggle, Rani Gaidinliu was called the ‘Daughter of the Hills’ and awarded the title of ‘Rani’ by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1972, she was awarded Tamara Patra by the union government for her contribution to the freedom movement. She also received the Padma Bhushan in 1982. In 1996, she was awarded the Bhagwan Birsa Munda Puraskar posthumously. The union government issued a commemorative postage stamp in her honour and a Rs 100 commemorative coin in 2015 on the occasion of her 100th birth anniversary. The Coast Guard honoured her, commissioning a fast patrol vessel (FPV), ICGS Rani Gaidinliu, in 2016.
- Museum at Mualongo, Kelsih (Mizoram)
A museum commemorating the contributions of Mizoram’s freedom fighters is to be set up in Mizoram’s Mualongo, Kelsih. The Rs 15-crore project was sanctioned in 2019–20.
- Tribal Museum, Ponda (Goa)
A museum would be set up in Ponda, Goa, to showcase the contribution of tribal heroes during the Indian freedom struggle in the state.
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