Sarna Religious Code

Context: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced that the bring out a separate Sarna religious code for tribals if the INDIA bloc is voted to power.

About Sarna Code:

• It is the indigenous religious faith of tribal communities, and are nature worshippers. The holy grail of the Sarna faith is “Jal (water), Jungle (forest), Zameen (land)” and its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
• Believers of Sarna faith do not practice idol worship, nor do they adhere to the concept of the Varna system, heaven-hell, etc.
• The followers are largely concentrated in the Chota Nagpur Plateau region across states like Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh.
• This belief focuses on the reverence of Sarna, the sacred groves of village communities where the village deity, known as Gram deoti resides.
• The tribals, who refused to follow any other religious faith such as Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. They stick to their own customs and traditions, despite the insurgence of Christian missionaries and proponents of different other faiths.
• It is also referred to as "Sarna Dharma" or the "Religion of the Holy Woods" and it holds the distinction of being India's largest tribal religion.
• Tribals have been demanding recognition of it as a distinct religion for decades. At present, under the census, there are codes for only six religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism.
• Recognition as a separate religious community will enable better protection of their language and history. To this end, tribal organizations are lobbying for a separate code “to save religious identity” of Sarnaism.
• In the absence of such a safeguard, many in the community have in recent times converted to Christianity to seek the benefits of reservation as a minority.