Bhagat Movement: Uraon’s Shift Towards Devotional Worship

When we think about how religions evolve, we often picture grand theological debates or formal church councils. But among the Uraons – a Dravidian tribal community primarily inhabiting the Chotanagpur Plateau of present-day Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh – a profound religious transformation unfolded quietly, village by village, in the forests and fields of central India. The Bhagat movement was not simply a change in ritual; it was a reimagining of what it meant to be spiritual, moral, and free. It challenged centuries-old customs, reshaped community authority, and introduced a new devotional vocabulary into tribal life – all from within.

Who are the Uraons? 🔗

The Uraons, also known as the Kurukh or Oraon, have inhabited the Chotanagpur Plateau region for centuries. Traditionally, they depended on the forest and farms for both their spiritual and economic livelihood, and their religious life was equally rooted in the natural world. Their indigenous faith, known as Sarnaism, centers on the worship of Dharmesh – described as the supreme almighty, the Creator who rules over the entire universe. Alongside Dharmesh, the Uraons venerated the sun as Biri, the moon as Chando, and called the earth Dharti Aayo (Earth as mother). Rituals were performed in sacred groves called Sarna Sthal, presided over by a village priest known as the Pahan.

The Pahan held considerable social authority. Each village had a Mukhiya (village head) and a Pahan as the religious officer, and together they managed both social and religious life. This structure was deeply communal – decisions on festivals, disputes, and ceremonies all flowed through these offices. Animal sacrifice was part of the ritual landscape, and belief in spirits, ghosts (bhuts), and exorcism was widespread. For generations, this was simply how the Uraons understood and maintained their relationship with the divine.

What was the Bhagat movement? 🔗

The Bhagat movement was a socio-religious reform current that emerged within the Uraon community, gaining momentum particularly through the 18th and 19th centuries and reaching a peak with the Tana Bhagat movement in the early 20th century. The word Bhagat itself comes from the Sanskrit bhakta, meaning a devotee – someone who has dedicated themselves to personal, sincere worship. The movement marked a decisive turn away from ritualistic, intermediary-dependent religion and toward something more inward and ethically grounded.

At its core, the Bhagat movement among the Uraons involved several interconnected shifts: the rejection of animal sacrifice, the abandonment of spirit worship and exorcism, a move toward monotheistic devotion, and an emphasis on moral purity. These were not abstract theological positions. They were lived commitments that altered everyday practice – what a family offered during worship, who could be trusted to mediate between the human and the divine, and what it meant to live a righteous life.

The Tana Bhagat movement: A defining moment 🔗

The most historically documented phase of this transformation came with the Tana Bhagat movement, which was initiated in April 1914 by a twenty-five-year-old youth, Jatra Oraon of Gumla, Ranchi, who proclaimed that he had received a divine message from Dharmesh. Jatra Oraon – later known as Jatra Bhagat – declared that Oraon religion must be freed from what he saw as corrupting practices: ghost-finding, exorcism, belief in spirits, animal sacrifice, and alcohol consumption. His message was urgent and prophetic, and it spread rapidly through the tribal communities of Chotanagpur.

The Tana Bhagat movement emphasized the worship of one God, opposition to animal sacrifice, and the rejection of social evils. Jatra Bhagat’s teachings directed followers toward a purified form of devotion – direct, personal, and unmediated by priests or ritual specialists. This was a radical reorientation for a community whose entire religious infrastructure had been built around communal ceremony and priestly authority.

The influence of Hinduism on the movement 🔗

The Bhagat movement did not develop in a vacuum. The Uraons had long lived in cultural proximity to Hindu communities, and by the colonial period, Hindu religious ideas were actively circulating across caste and tribal boundaries. The movement drew clear inspiration from the broader Bhakti tradition in Hinduism, which had for centuries emphasized personal devotion to a single deity and critiqued elaborate rituals and idol worship as substitutes for genuine spiritual commitment.

The parallels are striking. The Bhakti movement emphasized monotheism, heartfelt devotion, and a critique of complex rituals and idol worship – all values that found resonance in what the Bhagat leaders preached. Bhakti saints had argued that true worship required no intermediaries; the divine was accessible directly through sincere devotion. Jatra Bhagat’s message carried the same logic into tribal spiritual life.

At the same time, the adoption of Hindu-inflected devotional forms did not mean a wholesale conversion into Hinduism. Some Uraon groups started following Sarnaism in a Hindu style, creating distinctive sects such as the Bishnu Bhagats, Bacchinda Bhagats, Karmu Bhagats, and Tana Bhagats. These were syncretic formations – they incorporated devotional attitudes from Hindu traditions while retaining a Uraon identity and continuing to center Dharmesh as the supreme being. The movement was therefore neither a conversion nor a wholesale rejection of tradition, but a creative reinterpretation of existing beliefs under new spiritual and social pressures.

Rejection of traditional deities and animal sacrifice 🔗

One of the most visible and contentious aspects of the Bhagat movement was its rejection of animal sacrifice. For generations, sacrifice had been a central act of Uraon religious life – a way of maintaining relationships with deities, spirits, and ancestors. To abandon it was not just a ritual change; it was a statement about what kind of religion the community wanted.

The movement urged followers to stop practices like exorcism, ghost-hunting, and animal sacrifice that Jatra Bhagat identified as corruptions of genuine Uraon spirituality. This was framed not as borrowing from outside religions but as a purification – a return to a more honest and ethical relationship with Dharmesh. The argument was that the supreme deity did not require the blood of animals; what Dharmesh demanded was moral sincerity and personal devotion.

This also had social implications. Animal sacrifice was expensive. Poorer families were often under pressure to fund ritual offerings, and the entire system was managed by Pahans whose authority derived partly from their ritual role. By rejecting sacrifice, the Bhagat movement simultaneously challenged economic exploitation embedded in ritual practice and reduced the institutional power of the priestly class.

Moral integrity and the new devotional ethic 🔗

The Bhagat movement placed exceptional emphasis on personal moral conduct. Followers were expected to abstain from alcohol, avoid exorcism, renounce violence, and lead lives marked by simplicity and sincerity. This ethical dimension was inseparable from the spiritual one – devotion to a single God and moral integrity were understood as two aspects of the same commitment.

Jatra Bhagat’s followers adopted visible markers of their new identity. The Tana Bhagats believe in Ahimsa (non-violence) as a governing principle, and this extended into their relationship with the colonial state as well: when they staged civil disobedience against British taxes, they did so without violence, demonstrating the movement’s deeply ethical character. Their adoption of non-violence, khadi cloth, and Gandhian symbols was not incidental – it reflected how thoroughly the movement’s ethics overlapped with the broader currents of moral reform circulating in India during the colonial period.

Challenging priestly authority 🔗

Perhaps the most structurally significant internal change brought by the Bhagat movement was its challenge to the authority of the Pahan. The village-level Parha system consisted of posts including the Pahan (village priest), Panibharwa (water-bearer of Pahan), Pujar (assistant of Pahan), and others – each with a defined role in religious ceremonies and dispute resolution. This system placed considerable power in the hands of religious specialists.

By advocating direct access to Dharmesh through personal devotion, the Bhagat movement effectively bypassed the priest. Worshippers no longer needed a Pahan to mediate their relationship with the divine. This was a meaningful redistribution of religious authority – it democratized spiritual life in the community and made individual moral commitment, rather than access to a specialist, the measure of one’s relationship with God.

The broader context: colonialism, displacement, and spiritual searching 🔗

The Bhagat movement cannot be fully understood apart from the colonial context in which it intensified. Colonial land revenue regimes, missionary activism, and labour exploitation disturbed tribal independence, identity, and economic structures. The Uraons faced dispossession of land, forced labour under zamindars, and the encroachment of external religious institutions – both Christian missionaries and caste Hindu landlords – on their communities.

In this environment, the Bhagat movement offered something powerful: a way to reclaim dignity and assert a reformed, self-defined identity. It was simultaneously a religious movement and a form of cultural resistance. By purifying their own practices, the Uraons were also asserting that they did not need to become Hindu or Christian to achieve spiritual elevation. Their God, Dharmesh, was sufficient – and a direct, personal relationship with that God was available to every Uraon without mediation, without conversion, and without the validation of outside religious authorities.

Sarnaism, the indigenous faith of the Oraons, fosters environmental stewardship by venerating forests, rivers, and mountains as sacred entities – and even as the Bhagat movement reformed practice, this deep ecological sensibility remained intact. The movement’s reforms were internal; they reshaped devotional forms without severing the Uraons’ fundamental connection to the natural world that had always defined their spirituality.

Legacy of the Bhagat movement 🔗

The Bhagat movement left a lasting imprint on Uraon religious and social life. It produced distinct sects with their own devotional identities, altered the role of traditional priests, and opened the community to ongoing conversations about what authentic tribal spirituality looks like. The Tana Bhagats in particular became a recognized community – according to the 2011 census, the Uraon population numbers over 3.6 million across India, with religious identities now distributed across Sarnaism, Hinduism, Christianity, and the Bhagat sects, reflecting the layered outcomes of these historical transformations.

The movement also demonstrates something important about how religious change works among tribal communities. It was not imposed from outside, though outside influences certainly shaped it. It emerged from within the Uraon community as a response to internal contradictions – the perceived ethical problems of animal sacrifice and spirit worship – as well as external pressures from colonialism and neighboring religions. The result was not assimilation but adaptation: a distinctly Uraon form of devotional religion that engaged with wider traditions on its own terms.

What do you think? If a community reforms its religious practices from within – rejecting some traditions while retaining its core spiritual identity – does that represent cultural continuity or cultural loss? And to what extent do you think the socio-political pressures of colonialism shaped the Bhagat movement’s spiritual content, as opposed to purely internal religious motivations?

References

1. https://www.trijharkhand.in/en/oraon
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4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukh_people
5. https://agrarianstudies.macmillan.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/colloqpapers/12dasgupta.pdf
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7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti_movements
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