How JMM Changed Its Ideological Position From Left, Right To Centre

It was winter of 1957. A 15-year-old Shibu Soren was waiting for his father in the school hostel at Gola block of then undivided Hazaribagh district. However, his wait became never-ending. His father Sobaran Soren, a school teacher and a social activist- who had been fighting against the moneylenders- was murdered on his way to Gola. Though Shibu couldn’t meet his father ever again, he carried his ideology and fight with the promise that he would end the exploitation of the moneylenders in the Santhal region.

Within years, a young Shibu launched ‘Dhan Kato’ (Reap paddy) movement where they resisted the moneylenders from looting their lands. This agitation soon became popular in the other parts of the Chhotanagpur plateau and Shibu became a household name.

As these movements garnered strength besides the ongoing political mobilization of industrial workers -demanding the representation of Adivasis under the leadership of A K Roy- the political trajectory of southern Bihar was taking a crucial turn. On the other hand, Kudmi Mahatos of the Chhotanagpur region who had been demanding to be clubbed with their Kudmi brothers (in terms of identity) since 1920s in Bihar formed Shivaji Samaj. The Samaj run by Vinod Behari Mahato also wanted to join the fight with others.

In 1972, Soren, Mahato and Roy together addressed a meeting of more than a lakh people at Dumri. “Seeing the crowd, they decided to form a platform together to take the cause of Jharkhand forward,” says Qari Barkat Ali, a JMM veteran who has been a Central committee member of JMM for almost 20 years. During the same time, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha was already formed and A K Roy suggested to name it Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and in the following year, the organization was formed, adds Ali.

The major objectives as noted in the preliminary constitution of the JMM- apart from promising a separate state- also contained two significant points- firstly, “to end the exploitation of tribals by non-tribals” and secondly, “to bring about a radical change in the Jharkhand society in order to make it free from backwardness, inequality, ignorance and poverty”. But the major obstacle in the path of these objectives were, as Soren realised, was liquor consumption and lack of education. Xalxo notes, "In spite of engaging themselves in forcible harvesting of paddy from their alienated lands, the Santhals were demoralized both as individuals as well as community. They tried to drown their sorrow in the cesspool of alcohol as a means of temporary escape from an ugly reality.”

So, JMM took a turn towards social reforms and started four dedicated programmes- anti liquor campaign, literacy programmes for children, grain banks in rural areas, and direct-action campaigns to ‘recover the alienated lands in the region’. Sanjay Kumar and Praveen Rai while tracking the journey of JMM, write, “The JMM and the MCOR formed the Jharkhand Alliance between the workers and peasants based on a leftist ideology by redefining "Jharkhandi" as anyone who worked and "diku" as anyone who exploited others”.

In the very first few years the party though didn’t think of contesting elections, by 1980, it came to the conclusion that ‘unless we reach the houses like Lok Sabha and Assembly, we will not be able to convey our voice properly to the government’, says Ali. In 1980, JMM fought its first election with its symbol of arrow and bow and Shibu Soren became an MP from Dumka.

By this time, the main focus of the party centered around achieving the separate statehood for Jharkhand and to relieve Jhakhandis from the exploitation of the outsiders/dikus. So, the political considerations and ideological alliances were also made accordingly.

A section of BJP insisted on naming the state Vananchal and the party didn’t accept it, says general secretary of JMM Supriyo Bhattacharya. During this time only- in 1998- Shibu Soren held a press conference flanked by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav and joined Rashtriya Loktantra Morcha. Launching a scathing attack against the BJP, Soren said, “Why are they calling it Vananchal? We are Jharkhandis and no other name is accepted to us.”

In 2000, Jharkhand ultimately became a state- though the demands of including districts from West Bengal and Odisha were not met. But the popularity of JMM on the ground was not translated into votes. In the 2000 Bihar assembly elections prior to the separation of the state, JMM only got 12 seats out of 85 that it contested. With 3.5% vote share in the undivided Bihar, the party couldn’t have much impact. As it was decided that the party that won 2000 Bihar assembly elections would rule Jharkhand in the first term, BJP’s Babulal Marandi became the Chief Minister of the newly-formed state.

In 2004 Lok Sabha elections, JMM with its alliance partners CPI, RJD and Congress performed pretty well winning 13 out of 14 Loksabha seats. However, the very next year, in the assembly elections, the same alliance could only get 26 out of 81- 15 less than the majority mark. Still, Shibu Soren was the popular choice for the CM. “But his government could not sustain for more than 12 days as he failed to prove the majority,” says a political analyst.

Again, Jharkhand got a government backed by BJP and run by an independent Madhu Koda. Kumar and Rai while talking about the diminishing popularity of JMM in 2005 assembly elections, note that apart from upsurge in voters’ participation that led to the fragmentation in voting, ‘lack of unity and cohesion’ among the secular forces became one of the major reasons for the debacle.

The alliance of secular forces as failed to clinch victories in consecutive elections and an ‘ambitious’ Soren was getting ‘desperate’, Guruji took the support of BJP to form a government in 2009. Though the government sustained only for 153 days followed by another BJP-led government where Soren’s younger son Hemant became deputy- that even survived for 2.5 years- it instilled some political discontents within the party. Senior JMM leader and MLA Lobin Hembram who was brought into the party in 1980s by Guruji himself says, “We never supported it. We even went to Delhi to form the government with the Congress. But Hemant became the deputy CM and supported Arjun Munda.”

However, their political bonhomie didn’t sustain for long. Insisting on the implementation of domicile policy that was supposed to define Jharkhandis and prioritise them in government jobs and education, Hemant left Munda government leading to its fall.

Following a brief period of presidential rule- third at a row since the state came to existence- Hemant Soren for the first time became CM of the state with the support of the secular parties. However, in 2014, JMM went alone and faced electoral debacle- presumably due to persisting ‘Modi wave’- and BJP formed the government under the leadership of first non-Adivasi CM of the state- Raghubar Das.

In these first 14 years, the state witnessed so much political instability that not a single government could complete a full term and the objective of working for people’s rights over Jal, Jungle and Jameen remained unfulfilled. JMM leadership nevertheless attributes it to the BJP’s politics.

During Das’s tenure, the efforts of the BJP government to amend CNT and SPT act backfired and consolidated Adivasis in favour of JMM, says Geetashree Oraon, former education minister of Jharkhand. Though the then governor of the state Draupadi Murmu denied signing the bill that allegedly dilute the land protection acts and sent it back to the government facing huge protests, the JMM already gained the ground.

This is the first time JMM got 26 out of 28 Adivasi seats. “Actually, Adivasis vote for those parties whom they found to be credible. The promises of JMM worked in 2019 as they thought that the promises would be kept,” says Chamra Linda, an MLA and a senior leader of JMM.

Since 2019, Hemant repeatedly tried to woo the Adivasi constituencies and came up with Sarna code bill, domicile policy and 27 percent reservation for OBCs. Was it an effort to accommodate the non-Adivasis as well? “Till 2000, OBC reservation was 27 percent, but in 2001 Babulal Marandi abolished it and reduced it to 14 percent. We have only corrected it and JMM has a policy of taking everyone from the beginning”, says Bhattacharya.

Hemant Soren’s assertion of Adivasi identity through the words, “They can’t tolerate Adivasis riding BMW” resonated among the community. And it was reflected in the protests that had hit the streets after he was arrested by the ED. The fight for Sarna identity- the recognition of separate religion for Adivasis- has become the trademark of Hemant government, says a senior journalist. Champai Soren, the current CM, while talking about JMM’s Adivasi politics, says, “We are simply asking the central government to give us the Sarna status. We want to unite Adivasis-Moolvasis across the state to fight against the divisive politics of BJP.”

So, the journey of JMM that started with socialist struggle for land soon turned out to be a fight for separate state and rights to Jal Jungle and Jameen. In the first decade after the formation of the state though it took a rightist turn for some time with its coalition with BJP, it gradually fell back on its secular allies and plied on the identity politics. This turn from left to right to center- overall captures the journey of JMM. However, the words of Kalpana Soren, perhaps depicts it in the best way- “JMM was born from the coordination of socialism and leftist ideology” but is moving forward to incorporate all- the marginalized of the society.