Hari Prasad Koirala, Urlabari, Oct. 15: Santhal, a minority community, live mostly in Jhapa and Morang districts and have started preparing for the Dashain dance by playing their traditional musical instruments.
The Santhal community, which worships nature, perform the Dasai dance during the Dashain and Tihar festivals since ancient times.
The practice of Dashain dance begins during Navaratri and concludes on Ekadashi, along with the festival.
Bijay Dhimal, a resident of Urlabari-8, said that the sound of traditional musical instruments played by Santhal people while dancing brings the spirit of Dashain.
According to Hemram of Urlabari-8, the Dashain dance has helped preserve the community’s indigenous and cultural identity. He further added, “Now the government has started providing some support to help preserve our culture and traditions.”
The community, which has its own language, festivals, religion, culture and traditional dress, has been facing the risk of cultural erosion.
The traditional lifestyle of the Santhal community is also at risk. Once dependent on hunting wild animals, raising livestock and small-scale farming, the community is now forced to earn a living by working on other people’s farms and in their homes.
According to 70-year-old Baidyanath Soren of Urlabari-9, the Santhal community played an important role in making the Tarai land suitable for farming and establishing settlements. He said, “Santhals were landowners until the 2030s B.S. As we continued selling our land to Khas Arya and other indigenous communities who migrated from the hills, our community gradually became landless.”
He said that even former landowners had become landless due to a lack of education and awareness. Although the Santhal community has rich traditional knowledge, healing practices and cultural heritage, it is now struggling with economic and social problems.
Santhal dances are performed in their own language and traditional dress. Men dance in groups wearing colourful shirts, dhotis, headscarves decorated with peacock feathers, mirrors and earrings. Women encourage the dancers by dancing to the rhythm of traditional musical instruments.
During the dance, women throw puffed rice into the air, while men try to catch it with their mouths after it falls to the ground, in an attempt to prove their bravery.
The dancers also perform acts that symbolise the power of Goddess Kali entering their bodies. They endure whip lashes, bury their heads in the soil and form a three-tier human structure by climbing on one another while dancing.
Elderly people believe that the dancers, who endure hundreds of whip lashes to make the performance more exciting, do not suffer injuries. According to Soren, the dancers must practise for some time before performing.
Like the Dhimal, Rajbanshi and Tajpuriya indigenous communities living in the eastern Tarai, the Santhals also have their own unique culture. However, due to a lack of adequate attention to education and human development, their economic condition is worsening day by day.
Musui Hemram, chairperson of the Santhal Society in Urlabari, said, “Our children have already forgotten their language. They know little about our festivals. The government has banned us from going into the forest to hunt with bows and arrows.”
According to him, changes in the traditional lifestyle of the Santhal community have also affected its culture and identity. Traditions such as using bows and arrows are now mostly performed only as part of festival celebrations.
Recalling the experiences of his ancestors, Shivraj Kisku, the Majhi Hadam (traditional community leader) of Urlabari Rural Municipality, said, “We have lived here for 11 or 12 generations. Our ancestors cleared the dense forests of the Tarai and settled here.”
Of the 225 Santhal families in Urlabari who once struggled against malaria, 125 do not own any land. Due to a lack of education and awareness, many families sold their land to other communities migrating from the hills and eventually became landless. Some are forced to live along riverbanks, while others farm on a sharecropping or lease basis on land their own ancestors sold.
According to Narbahadur Moktan, ward chairperson of Urlabari-9, many families from the Rajghat area, now part of Urlabari-9, sold their land and moved to India during the independence movement in Jharkhand. However, even after Jharkhand became a separate state, they could not secure a better future there. They eventually returned to their villages.
Ward Chairperson Tamang said, “We have allocated a budget in the ward for all ethnic communities living here to help preserve their cultures and languages.”
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