The Tana Bhagat Movement

The Tana Bhagat movement began in 1914 among the Oraons of the Chotanagpur plateau under Jatra Bhagat. It combined religious purification with non-violent refusal of taxes and forced labour, and later merged with the national movement under Gandhi.

Start — 1914 | Founder — Jatra Bhagat (Jatra Oraon) | Community — Oraon | Method — non-violence

Origin

• Began in 1914 in the Gumla and Bishunpur side of the plateauबार-बार पूछा जाता है
• Founder — Jatra Bhagat, also called Jatra Oraon
• Community — the Oraon, whose language is Kurukh
• The word tana is linked to the idea of pulling away from spirit worship and impurity
• It grew out of the earlier Bhagat reform current among the Oraons

The Tana Bhagat code

• Give up liquor, meat and animal sacrifice
• Stop worship of spirits and ghosts; worship one god, Dharmes
• Refuse to pay illegal cesses and begari, the forced unpaid labour
• Refuse to work as labourers for landlords on unjust terms
• Practise ahimsa — the movement was non-violent from the beginning
• Wear simple clothing and follow a disciplined daily code

From tribal reform to national movement

Why it is important

• It is the clearest case of a tribal movement using non-violence before Gandhi's mass campaigns
• It connects Jharkhand's tribal politics to the national freedom struggle
• Tana Bhagats are remembered for refusing to pay taxes to the colonial state
• The community later pressed for restoration of land lost during the movement years
• It shows reform, economic refusal and nationalism arriving together in one movement

Names and terms

• Jatra Bhagat — founder, 1914
• Dharmes — the supreme god in Oraon belief
• Begari — forced unpaid labour, a central grievance
• Kurukh — the language of the Oraon community
• Turia Bhagat, Devmania and Sibu Bhagat — names that appear as later leaders

The Bhagat current before 1914

• Oraon society had already seen reform preachers called bhagats in the nineteenth century
• Earlier streams such as the Kabirpanthi and Bachidan bhagats pushed vegetarianism and abstinence
• These reformers rejected spirit worship and the expense of sacrifice
• The Tana Bhagat movement is the point where this reform current becomes political
• That is why exam answers should call it a socio-religious movement, not just a revolt
• It also explains why the movement spread fast — the ground was already prepared