Context: Matua Community, who have migrated from Bangladesh to India over the years, possess Aadhaar cards and voter identity cards and believe that the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules are necessary.
Matua Mahasangha:
- A religious reform movement that originated, around 1860 AD, in modern-day Bangladesh.
- A sect of depressed class ‘AVARNA; Hindus who are Namasudras, a Scheduled Caste group.
- Launched as a reformation by the followers of Harichand Thakur.
Harichand Thakur (1812-1878):
- Worked among the untouchable people of Bengal Presidency.
- Formed the Matua sect of Hindus along with his son Guruchand Thakur and organized downtrodden peoples of his own community under the banner of ‘Matua religion’.
- They considered him as God (Param Brahma) Harichand.
- Based on only three basic principles: Truth, Love, and Sanity.
- After experiencing Atma darshan or self-revelation, he began to preach his own religious realization which is only based on Bhakti philosophy.
- This sect opposed caste oppression and later drew members from other communities, including Malis and Telis, that was ostracised by the upper castes.
- Doctrine:
- All traditional rituals, except devotion to God, faith in mankind, and love for living beings, are meaningless.
- It also emphasised on reforming Vaishnava devotionalism.
- Matua-Namasudras in 1915, built the 'Sri Sri Harichand Mission', Orakandi in Faridpur, Bengal Presidency (now in Bangladesh).
- In the early 1930s, Pramatha Ranjan Thakur, great-grandson of Harichand Thakur, rejuvenated the organization. He founded the town of Thakurnagar, which became the new headquarters of the Matua Mahasangha in 1947.