question_answer 6)

 What was Birsa's vision of a golden age? Why do you think such a vision appealed to the people of the region?  

Answer:

Birsa was born in the mid-1870s in a family of Mundas, a tribal group that lived in Chhotanagpur. As an adolescent, he heard tales of the Munda uprisings of the past and saw the sirdars or leaders of the community urging the people to revolt. They talked of a golden age when the Mundas had been free of the oppression of dikus and sand that there would be a time when the ancestral right of the community would be restored. Birsa was deeply influenced by many of the ideas he came in touch with in his growing up years. His movement was aimed at reforming tribal society, he urged the Mundas to give up drinking liquor, clean their village and stop believing in withcraft and sorcery. In 1895 Birsa urged his followers to recover their glorious past. He talked of a golden age in the past-a satyug (the age of truth)- when Mundas lived a good life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and orchards, practised cultivation to earn their living. They did not kill their brethren and relatives. They lived honestly. Birsa also wanted people to once again work on their land, settle down and cultivate their fields.   Birsa's vision appealed to the people because people had to suffer at the hands of the landlords, moneylenders and were made devoid of their rights to exploitative British policies