Ranchi, January 3 (IANS). Takara is a small village surrounded by forests in Khunti district, about 50 kilometers from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand. Here, a child born on January 3, 1903 to Amaru Pahan and Radhamuni, achieved fame and success over time due to his extraordinary intelligence, passion and charismatic personality.
The country and the world know him by the name of Jaipal Singh Munda, under whose captaincy India won the gold medal for the first time in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. His passion for hockey was such that he left the biggest job of ICS (Indian Civil Service) during the British rule.
The magic of Jaipal Singh Munda’s personality extended from the sports field to the politics of the country. Even though Jharkhand came into existence as a separate state on 15 November 2000, the political struggle for it had started even before the country’s independence in 1938-39 and its leader was none other than Jaipal Singh Munda. Today Jharkhand is fondly remembering this hero on his 123rd birth anniversary.
The one who flaunted his talent as a student of Oxford University, left the top job of ICS in the British Government, was the captain of the team which won the hockey gold for the country for the first time in the Olympics, a member of the Constituent Assembly, a strong orator and after independence, the country As an MP in the Parliament of India and a strong advocate of tribal rights, his personality has many dimensions. The whole of Jharkhand knows him as “Marang Gomke” (Great Leader).
Jaipal Singh Munda’s childhood name was Pramod Pahan. While studying at St. Paul’s School, Ranchi, the British Principal Canon Congress was so impressed by his talent that he took him with him to England in 1918. First at St. Augustine’s College, Canterbury and then at St. John’s College, Oxford University, after graduating in Economics in 1926, he was selected in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1928. When he went to England for ICS training for a year, in the same year he was made the captain of the Oxford hockey team. He was a good hockey player, so Oxford University gave him the title of ‘Oxford Blue’ in 1925. He was the only international hockey player to receive this title.
His name became famous all over the world when, under his captaincy, India created history by winning hockey gold in the 1928 Olympics. Jaipal Singh Munda later returned to India and worked in Burmah Shell Oil Company in Kolkata. He also worked for some time as a professor of economics in a college in Ghana (Africa). Then for a year he served as the Principal of Rajkumar College, Raipur. After this, he remained the Finance and Foreign Affairs Minister of Bikaner State for some years.
In 1938, the demand for separation of Jharkhand from Bihar started rising for the first time. This demand was put forth by the leaderless Adivasi Mahasabha. The real leadership of this Mahasabha got in the form of Jaipal Singh Munda in 1939. On January 20, 1939, the Adivasi Mahasabha organized a huge meeting in Ranchi and handed over its chairmanship to Jaipal Singh.
Since then the demand for a separate state of Jharkhand intensified. In 1940, at the Ramgarh session of Congress, he met Subhash Chandra Bose and raised the demand for a separate Jharkhand state. In 1946, Jaipal Singh was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Bihar. Here he raised his voice for the development of the tribal community.
When the country became independent, in 1949 the Adivasi Mahasabha was given the form of a political party ‘Jharkhand Party’. In the first Lok Sabha elections of 1952, Jharkhand Party emerged as the main opposition party. In the first assembly elections also this party got 32 seats.
In 1963, Jaipal Singh Munda merged the Jharkhand Party with the Congress on the condition that the Congress Party would create a separate Jharkhand state. However, after this there was a long movement for the creation of a separate state of Jharkhand and finally this demand was fulfilled in the year 2000.
–IANS
SNC/ABM
