e n

Asurs of Chhota Nagpur

The fast-shrinking Asur community is a matter of great concern. At stake are the rights of an ancient people as mining companies dig up their land and push them further into the margins. But we were also witness to a defiant Asur culture

Chasing political stories day in, day out had turned me into a robot. That was what being the coordinating editor of a newspaper with limited resources entailed. I was working for Tarun Mitra in Patna. Then, one day, I received a call from Pramod Ranjan, the editor of Forward Press, Delhi. “Will you come along to meet the Asurs?”

At the most I could spare two days. But I needed to shed my robot-ness for a while. “When do we leave?”, I asked. On 1 November 2015, Pramod arrived in Ranchi from Delhi. I was supposed to reach Ranchi from Patna by train. But I worked till late in the night and missed the Patna-Ranchi Jan Shatabdi scheduled to leave early next morning. I ended up boarding a bus.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: Asurs of Chhota Nagpur

 

 

 

 

 

About The Author

FP on the Road

Under the 'FP on the Road' initiative, the Forward Press editorial team travels to different parts of India and tries to unearth the little-known facets of Bahujan society. Find all our travelogues by clicking 'FP on the Road'

Related Articles

For Ambedkar, Mahad Satyagraha was the end of a road and the beginning of a new one
The burning of the Manusmriti on 25 December 1927 during the Mahad Satyagraha marked the end of Ambedkar’s attempts to reform Hinduism, writes Siddharth
How the Tricolour can inspire us, the Bahujan, to fight for freedom in its truest sense
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd writes about imagining the nation and the flag not in terms of who were or are in power – Nehru and...
Journalism for Dalit liberation was a study in contrast during Hindi renaissance
While Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi was writing 'Draupadi-Vachan Banawali', portraying women as vile and lowly, Maithlisharan Gupta was singing paeans to Hindutva in his 'Vyas-Stavan',...