The basis of the whole movement is a feeling on the part of the Mundas that they are the true owners of the soil; that they appointed the maharaja and that all non-aboriginals are interlopers and land-grabbers: to this must be added to the fact, on which I have more than once dwelt, that the Munda is altogether incapable of making a good case for himself in our law courts, while he is always beset by people of his race and outsiders, ready to swindle him out of his land, and all his other rights.

Their cry is the same as that of the old sardari malcontents’ viz., that the Raj is theirs and not ours, and that they intend to fight for it and get it.

At that moment [colonial India], when Birsa fought against the Empire, we, then, had one East India Company (EIC). The EIC against which Birsa rose to seek independence of his Jal, Jungle and Jameen. Today, we are in independent India, and now 18 years into new Jharkhand, there is an attack from all quarters. There was one East India Company and now we have many.