Sarnaism

arnaism is a religious faith of the India predominantly followed by indigenous peoples of the Chota Nagpur Plateau region. It centers around the reverence of Sarna, the sacred groves of village communities where the village deity, Gram deoti resides. Sacrificial offerings are made twice a year. The ceremonies are performed by the whole village community at a public gathering with the active participation of village priests (pahan) and their assistants. Shamans, often called Manjhi or Ojha, play a significant role in Sarna. They act as intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds, conduct rituals, heal illness, and offer guidance to the community. The main festival of Sarnaism is Sarhul, a festival in which devotees worship their ancestors. During the festival, the pahan brings three water pots to the sarna. If the water pots reduce in level, they believe the monsoon will fail, but if it stays the same the monsoon will come as normal. Men then offer sakua flowers and leaves. Sarnaism is also referred to as Sarna Dharma or the Religion of the Holy Woods and is India's largest tribal religion. Adherents of Sarnaism believe in, worship, and honor a village deity as protector of village variously called Gaon khunt, Gram deoti, Dharmes, Marang Buru, Singbonga, and by other names by different tribes. Adherents worship Dharti ayo or Chalapachho Devi, the mother goddess identified with the earth or with nature. Some other honored nature deities are Jal (water), Jungle (forest), Zameen (land), Marangburu (mountains), and Shingbonga (the sun god). Tribes also pray to the trees and hills, and advocate for the preservation of forested areas. Sarna does not practice idol worship, nor pay heed to the Hindu Varna system. The followers of Sarnaism eat meat of every sort and still practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle until the 1980's and 90's. Since 1845, several attempts of indoctrination and forced conversion were carried out by western Christian missionaries in colonial India. These continued for a century and created sectarian conflict in the tribal areas of the Chota Nagpur region. The arrival of the first German Protestant missionaries in 1845 was followed by Roman Catholic missionaries. Smoldering resentment between Christian and Non-Christian tribrs errupted into flame in 1947–1948 when the British colonial rulers departed India. Recently, the Indian National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) proposed the inclusion of a separate category for the Sarna religion in the religion code of the Census of India. This comes in response to calls from various tribal organizations and sympathetic Christian missionaries advocating for the recognition of a distinct census code for Sarnaism.