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In News:

• The State Government of West Bengal declared that soon they will introduce a motion in the State Assembly to recognize the Sarna religion of the tribals.
• The state government's decision to recognize Sarna dharma is seen as an attempt to reach out to the tribal population for upcoming Panchayat polls.

Sarna religion:

• Sarnaism is a religious belief based on worship at Sarna, the sacred groves in the Chota Nagpur Plateau region in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
  • The highest number of followers of the Sarna religion is in Jharkhand, followed by West Bengal.
• According to local belief, a village deity resides in the sarna, where sacrifice is offered twice a year.
  • Their belief system is alternatively known as "Sarna Dharma", or "Religion of the Holy Woods".
• The followers of Satanism worship a village deity as the protector of a village called Gaon khunt, Gram deoti, Singbonga, or by other names by different tribes.
  • The Supporters also worship Dharti ayo or Chalapachho Devi, the mother goddess identified as the earth or nature.
• The main festival of Sarnaism is Sarhul, a festival in which devotees worship their ancestors.
• The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has suggested that the Sarna religion be accorded an independent category in the religion code of the Census of India.
  • Several tribal organisations and Christian missionaries are demanding a distinct census code for Sarnaism.
• The followers of the Sarna faith believe in “Jal, Jungle, Zameen” and its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
• Nearly 50 lahks tribal in the entire country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not an officially recognised religion.
  • While many follow the Hindu religion, some have converted to Christianity.
• Recently, the Jharkhand government convened a special session and passed a resolution to send the Centre a letter to recognise the Sarna religion and include it as a separate code in the Census of 2021.

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/bjp-skips-all-party-meeting-tmc-set-to-table-2-motions-8430527/

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