Jaipal Singh Munda

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Jaipal Singh Munda
File:File:Jaipal Singh Munda- File Picture.jpg



Office Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha











Born 1903-01-03
Born Takra Pahantoli, Ranchi, Bengal presidency, British India (now Khunti district, Jharkhand)[1]
Died Template:Death date and age
Place of death New Delhi, India



Political party Indian National Congress (1963–1970)


Jharkhand Party (1949/1950–1963)

Spouse Template:Married
Template:Married


Alma mater St John's College, Oxford



Jaipal Singh Munda (3 January 1903 – 20 March 1970) was an Indian politician, writer, and sportsman. He was a member of the Constituent Assembly, which debated the new Constitution of the Indian Union. He also captained the Indian field hockey team to a gold medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

Later, he emerged as a campaigner for the causes of Adivasis and the creation of a separate homeland for them in central India. He is popularly known as "Marang Gomke" (meaning Great Leader in Santali) by the Adivasis of Chhotanagpur.[2][3]

Early life

Jaipal Singh Munda, also known as Pramod Pahan, was born to Radhamani and Amru Pahan in a Christian Munda family,[4][5][6] on 3 January 1903 in Takra-Hatudami, Pahan Toli village, which was then part of the Khunti subdivision (now a district) of Ranchi in the Bengal presidency of British India (present-day Jharkhand).[7][8][1]

During his childhood, Munda's job responsibility was to look after the cattle herd. After receiving his early education in the village, he was brought by Rev. Kushalmai Sheetal to St. Pauls Church School. In 1910, he gained admission to St. Paul's School, Ranchi, which was run by the Christian missionaries of the SPG Mission of the Church of England. A gifted field hockey player, Munda was also a brilliant student who displayed exceptional leadership qualities from a young age.Template:Peacock inline Noticing his potential, the missionaries took him to England for higher studies, where he graduated with Honours in Economics from St. John's College, Oxford.[9]

Munda was part of the Indian hockey team for the 1928 Olympic Games. Under his captaincy, the team played 17 league-stage matches, winning 16 and drawing one. However, due to a dispute with the English team manager, A. B. Rosser, Munda left the team after the league phase and could not participate in the knockout stage. In the final, the Indian team defeated Holland 3–0 to win the gold medal.

After returning to India, Munda became associated with Mohan Bagan Club of Calcutta and established its hockey team in 1929, leading them in various tournaments. Following his retirement from active hockey, he served as the Secretary of Bengal Hockey Association and as a member of the Indian Sports Council.

Career

Jaipal Singh Munda was selected to work in the Indian Civil Service, from which he later resigned. In 1934, he became a teacher at the Prince of Wales College at Achimota, Gold Coast, Ghana. In 1937, he returned to India as the Principal of the Rajkumar College, Raipur. In 1938, he joined the Bikaner princely state as foreign secretary.[10]

Munda thought that with his varied experience he could be more useful to the country if he worked in the sphere of education. He wrote letters to the Bihar Congress President, Rajendra Prasad, asking to be allowed to contribute to Bihar's education sector, but received no positive answers. In the last month of 1938, Munda visited Patna and Ranchi. During this visit, he decided to enter politics by seeing the poor condition of the tribal people.[11]

Munda became president of Adivasi Mahasabha in 1939. In 1940 at Ramgarh session of Congress, he discussed with Subash Chandra Bose the need to form separate state Jharkhand. Subash Chandra Bose replied that such request will affect the freedom struggle.[12] In the 1946 Indian provincial elections, he lost the Khunti constituency to Congress candidate P.C. Mitra. However, he was subsequently elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in the Constituent Assembly election by the Bihar Legislative Assembly to represent tribal communities in drafting the Constitution of India. After the independence of India, the Adivasi Mahasabha re-emerged as Jharkhand Party in 1949-50 and it accommodated non-tribal people to achieve long-term goals.[13][3]

Electoral history
Election House Constituency Party Votes % Result
1967 Lok Sabha Khunti Template:Party name with colour 46,737 25.99 Template:Won
1962 Ranchi West Template:Party name with colour 103,310 52.56 Template:Won
1957 139,197 60.25 Template:Won
1951 139,275 60.86 Template:Won
1946 Bihar Legislative Assembly Khunti n/a n/a n/a Template:Lost


He contested the first general election of independent India from Ranchi (West) as a candidate of the Jharkhand Party and won with a 60.85% vote share. The Jharkhand Party also won 32 seats and became the main opposition party in the 1952 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. In 1955, the party submitted a memorandum to the States Reorganization Commission, advocating for the creation of a separate Jharkhand state comprising the tribal regions of South Bihar. The proposal was not accepted due to the region’s linguistic diversity, the absence of a common link language, the minority status of the tribal population, and concerns about the economic implications of such a separation.[14][15] However, In the subsequent assembly elections of 1957 and 1962, the party’s representation declined, with 31 and 20 seats won, respectively. Similar his vote share declined to 60.25% and 52.56% in the 1957 and 1962 general election, subsequently, through he managed to remain in seat.

Munda fied with the declining popularity of the Jharkhand Party and the rejection of the demand for a separate state by the States Reorganization Commission, merged the party with the Indian National Congress in 1963. However, not all members of the party’s rank and file joined the Congress.[14] Following the merger, he contested the 1967 general election from the Khunti Lok Sabha constituency (reorganized from the previous Ranchi (West) constituency) as a Congress candidate. He won the election with a 25.98% vote share, in margin of 5,277 votes and remained in office until his death in 1970.

Role in the Constituent Assembly debates

Munda was a gifted speaker and represented the tribal population of India at the Constituent Assembly, which was responsible for drafting the Constitution of India. The following is an excerpt from a famous speech made by him, where, while welcoming the Objectives Resolution, he highlighted the issues faced by the Indian tribals: Template:BlockquoteJaipal Singh[16] was a part of 3 Committees including Advisory Committee.[17] A seven-member delegation of Naga leaders consisting of Angami Zapu Phizo, T. Sakhrie, Kezehol and others went to Delhi in July 1947 to declare their intention of a sovereign, independent Naga territory. There, they met Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Mahatma Gandhi, as well as Munda, who warned the Nagas against the folly of fighting a war against the Government of India forces. As a precautionary measure, 3000 Assam Rifles troops were already stationed in the Naga Hills by then.[18] During a Constituent Assembly debate, Singh rebuked the Nagas for seeking Independence. He pointed out that the situation in the Naga Hills might become very serious and dangerous soon. Along with others in the Interim Government, he had received a few telegraphs on the intention of the Nagas declaring independence. He stated,

The Naga Hills have always been part of India and have never been anything like the Indian States; but the Nagas have been led to believing that they are not part of India and that as soon as the Dominion of India comes into being, the Naga Hills could be exclusively the property of the State of the Nagas... Those of us who came into contact with them [Nagas leaders who went to Delhi to represent their case] tried to tell them the plain truth. But I think it is necessary that something should be said on the floor of this Assembly clarifying the position... [In the latest telegram the Naga leaders rejected] an offer from the Assembly to come into the Union. There has been no question of any offer. No offer was necessary or called for. The Naga Hills have always been a part of India and will remain so.[19]

Personal life

Jaipal Singh Munda married Tara Wienfried Majumdar, the daughter of P. K. Majumdar and Janaki Agnes Penelope Majumdar (daughter of Hemangini and W. C. Bonnerjee, the president of Indian National Congress), in a Christian marriage ceremony in Darjeeling in 1931. He and Tara had three children: two sons Birendra and Jayant, and a daughter, Janki.[20] Tara Majumdar was a cousin of General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri and a granddaughter of Congress President Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee.[21][22] Munda’s second marriage was to Jahanara Jeyaratnam, the daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil who joined the Indian Civil service in 1954.[23] He had one son with Jahanara, Ranjit Jeyaratnam.[20][24]

Jaipal Singh Munda died of cerebral hemorrhage on 20 March 1970 at his residence in New Delhi. He was 67, and left behind four children — a daughter and three sons. One of his sons is Jayant Jaypal Singh. He is the CEO of Calcutta cricket and football club.[25]

Legacy

A stadium named after him opened in Ranchi in 2013.[26]

Jaipal Singh Munda stadium was opened in Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarakntak by VC Prof. T.V. Kattimani in 2019.

"Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda Overseas Scholarship" -Recently the state government of Jharkhand under the able leadership of Chief Minister of Jharkhand Shri Hemant Soren has announced and launched an overseas scholarship scheme for students of Jharkhand to pursue master's degree and M.Phil. course in reputed institutions in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This scholarship is fully funded and the government of Jharkhand has also signed an MoU with the Government of England for educating the youths of Jharkhand, especially from the scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, minorities and backward classes. This scholarship is named after the great leader Jaipal Singh Munda in which the government aims to uplift the students belonging to socially and economically vulnerable groups and give them opportunity for a quality education henceforth bringing hope in the lives of youths of Jharkhand and instilling in them the thought to give back to their state and being a part of Jharkhand developmental story. In the year 2022,about 20 students were selected for this prestigious scholarship and these students are currently pursuing their courses in reputed institutions of United Kingdom.

Published works

  • Lo Bir Sendra : an autobiography : A memoir of Jaipal Singh Munda published in 2004. Edited by Rashmi Katyayan and published by Prabhat Khabar Publications, Ranchi.
  • Adivasidom: a collection of the articles and speeches of Jaipal Singh Munda, written in the 1940-50s, published in July 2017. Edited by Ashwini Kumar Pankaj and it was published by the Pyara Kerketta Foundation, Ranchi.

See also

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jaipal Singh - Making Britain. www.open.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Teligraph
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 This is Our Homeland: A Collection of Essays on the Betrayal of Adivasi Rights in India. EQUATIONS(27 January 2018). Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  4. ↑ House Of The People Whos Who (1952). Internet Archive(2016-10-23). Retrieved 2026-01-06.
  5. ↑ The Tribals of Bihar. India International Centre Quarterly({Template:Date).
  6. ↑ Voices of difference: Partition memory and memories of Muslims in Jharkhand, India. Critical Asian Studies({Template:Date).
  7. ↑ The making of a people's prince. Telegraph India(2003-11-15). Retrieved 2026-01-06.
  8. ↑ A 'Jungli' In The Constituent Assembly: Jaipal Singh Munda, Bordia, Radhika. NDTV(26 January 2017). Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  9. ↑ Jaipal Singh. www.tribalzone.net. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  10. ↑ Jaipal Singh Munda - Mainstream Weekly. www.mainstreamweekly.net. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  11. ↑ मरङ गोमके जयपाल सिंह मुंडा{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Vikalp Prakashan, Delhi(2015). ISBN 978-938269531-8
  12. ↑ Unsung Heroes of Jharkhand Movement{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}(1 January 2017). ISBN 9789352660001
  13. ↑ The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) - Jharkhand - Reunion bells ring for Jharkhand Party factions. www.telegraphindia.com.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Small States Syndrome in India{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Concept Publishing Company(1998). ISBN 9788170226918
  15. ↑ Sensex Of Regional Parties{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Prabhat Prakashan(2022). ISBN 978-9355212368
  16. ↑ CADIndia. cadindia.clpr.org.in. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  17. ↑ CADIndia. cadindia.clpr.org.in. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  18. ↑ Trouble Brewing in Naga Hills: Tribesmen seek Independence. The Times of India(22 July 1947). Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  19. ↑ Legislative Powers Between Federation And Units: Assembly Postponed Debate on Question of Distribution. The Times of India(31 July 1947). Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 आज भी जयपाल सिंह मुंडा की प्रासंगिकता बरकरार है(11 March 2021). Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  21. ↑ जयपाल सिंह मुंडा और तारा मजुमदार की लव स्टोरी(1 January 2021). Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  22. ↑ Oxford blue who shaped tribal destiny. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  23. ↑ THE LEADER ARTICLE: Paternity Test: SCLEADER ARTICLE: Paternity Test: SC Fails to Question Father as "Natural Guardian"(17 March 2005). Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  24. ↑ The return of the adibasi: the multiple worlds of Jaipal Singh Munda. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  25. ↑ Jaipal Singh Dead. The Indian Express(21 March 1970). Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  26. ↑ Welcome hug from Hotwar sports hub. The Telegraph(5 February 2013). Retrieved 10 February 2018.

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