Followers of Sangsarek, the original faith of the Garo, rarely get the opportunity to express their religious identity
Published : 17 Dec 2022, 12:26 AM
Sheetal Snal has a friend who is a devout follower of Sangsarek faith and whose fiancé is sympathetic towards the belief as well. Despite this, their marriage is being blessed by Christian rituals as the Sangsarek ways are not legally accepted.
The religious minority group commonly known as the Garo prefers to be called Mandi, which means humans in their native language. They follow an animist religion: Sangsarek.
Followers of the religion believe that only Mandi people are born into the Sangsarek faith. The number of followers has grown scant as most of them have converted to Christianity in the age of cultural mixing.
Like the Garo, people from other tribes -- the Santal from the north, the Khasi in Sylhet and the Mro from the Chattogram Hill Tracts -- are in danger of seeing their original religions die out.
The crisis stems from the state chiefly recognising five religions – Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism, with the rest collectively falling under “others”.
The census also categorises followers under those categories. As such, followers of less common religions rarely have the opportunity to note their faith despite having the same rights. In many cases, they primarily identify themselves to be from a more common religion to avoid complications.
Wari Nakrek from Tangail’s Madhupur said: “Many of us are unable to identify ourselves as Sangsarek though we wish to. We have to resort to another religion during marriage registration. The same problem occurs when we send our children to school. They have to study other religions. I also had to study Islam during my days at a government primary school.”
The Santal people want 38 ethnic tribes to follow the Sari and Sarna faiths in the north. They demand the government allow them to establish religious institutions and celebrate their festivals similar to the four major religions.
Sylhet’s Khasi people, who follow the Niam Chhonang faith, and Chattogram’s Mro, who worship nature through Shungnam Ri and Krama beliefs, also seek similar facilities and think the state should be held responsible in case these pantheist religions cease to exist.
DEATH OF A SANGSAREK
Sanjeeb Drang, general secretary of the Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, is from a converted Christian family. “The Garo people who follow the original faith of Sangsarek do face some passive pressure but the society accepts them at the end of the day,” he said.
The followers of Sangsarek dwindled to 2,000 people at the moment, according to Sanjeeb. But Pavel Partha, a researcher at Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge, thinks the figure is much smaller.
In 2002, Pavel took up an initiative to list Garo people who were yet to convert to other religions. He found only 400 individuals matching the bracket across Tangail, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Netrakona, Jamalpur and Moulvibazar, though he thinks the new generation growing into the faith can take the figure beyond 1,000.
Jewel Bin Zahir, one of the writers of Sangsarek Mandirangni Wanna, said the eldest follower of Sangsarek, Dinesh Nakrek, resides in Madhupur’s Dharati village. He is considered the leader of the Sangsarek since the death of Achchu Janik Nakrek of Chunia village.
Quite a few Sangsarek followers reside in Madhupur’s Sainamari, Jaynagachha, Beduria, Banderia, Kyajai, Hagurakuri and Sabkachana, while a handful of them live in Jamalpur’s Bhagra village, but most of the others are dead, barring those who converted to other faiths due to “pressure from family and society”.
The funerals for those who had not converted are being performed through Christian rituals, though Achchu Janik’s funeral was carried out following the Sangsarek ways as the pyres were lit for the first time in at least four decades.
Janik was the head of the Sangsarek people for many years after wandering far and wide in his youth. After he arrived at Chunia in Madhupur, which has one of the world’s oldest deciduous forests, Janik made it his home. He was revered as a philosopher in the village.
He died on Nov 12 last year at over 100 years of age. The families of those who died days before and after him laid their relatives to rest through Christian rituals and posthumous atonement.
But that was not the case with Janik, who inspired many from the new generation to follow their original faith. With their faith firmly in Sangsarek, these followers arranged for Janik’s funeral in the Sangsarek way.
REVIVAL OF SANGSAREK
When Janik was alive, he hosted the “Wanna” religious festival at his home in Chunia every year. Wari Naklek and Sheetal Snal, two Sangsarek from the new generation, organised Wanna, also called Wangala in their tongue, in two Madhupur villages - Beduria and Amlitala - this year.
Garo people who converted to other religions also observe the occasion, but Sangsarek followers believe they only celebrate a Christian version of it. The traditional followers claim it was imposed on the converted by the Christians.
Wari and Sheetal, who were both born into Christian families, say converted Mandi require no initiation to revert into Sangsarek, and that all that is required is simply establishing belief and a pledge to uphold the purity of the Sangsarek faith.
“Those of us who claim to be Sangsarek do not exist in the census or any other government records as such,” Sheetal said.
Asked how many new followers are likely to identify themselves as Sangsarek, Wari said: “At least a thousand young men and women identify themselves as new generation Sangsarek, while around a hundred of the older generation are still alive.”
Wari thinks the Sangsarek faith must be “institutionalised” to be preserved. The religion is dying out due to the Garo people being “unorganised”, he said.
Yet, Sheetal insists that giving religion an institutional form goes against the Sangsarek ideology. “Our faith involves humans’ connections with trees, forests, and insects. Everything from farming to harvesting is part of the religion and its family is a big one. How are you supposed to link humans and everything else in nature with an institution?”
Both Wari and Sheetal got married through Sangsarek rituals. They call it Dobuk Daka or Dosia marriage. The priest who officiates such marriages is called Kamal or Khamal in the Mandi tongue.
Wari said: “Marriage is an important point in life between birth and death and the entire process is tied to the faith. So Sangsarek religion also needs to be institutionalised. The practice of the revived faith can be sustained only if this generation of Garo can be educated as Kamal. The Kamal alive today are all over 70 years old. We’ll not be able to find practising ones after they die.”
Researcher Pavel, however, sees a “new awakening” of Sangsarek among the young generation of Garo.
“We’ve seen the number of Sansarek followers decline over the past two decades. At the same time, a new awakening is occurring among the young Mandi generation and many are identifying themselves as Sangsarek.”
“The Sangsarek philosophy is not just human-centric, it is animistic worship of all worldly life intertwined with each other. The same can be said about Sari, Sarna and Niam Chhonang. I simply want everybody to be able to identify themselves as they wish to be. I urge for the recognition of people’s right to self-identification.”
ACCEPTANCE OF RELIGION
Sari and Sarna followers outnumber Sangsarek practitioners by a huge margin and are generally known as Sanatan Santal people.
Manik Saren, secretary of information and research at Jatiya Adivasi Parishad, said: “We’ve been demanding that Sari and Sarna be recognised as a Sari-Sarna religion for a long time. The followers of the religion are forced to identify themselves as Sanatan or Hindu.”
The people from the Kheroyal, or Mundari language family are all parts of religious minorities, such as Santal, Munda, Kol, Mahali, Kurmi, Bheel, Hoand Bhumij. Of them, almost half of the Santal community converted to Christianity but the rate is lower among others.
Santal numbers are close to the Bengali population in the country’s north. They identify themselves as followers of Sari Dharam, while others say they are part of Sarna. The Santal people from West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand also identify themselves as Sarna. Both of these are ancient nature-worshipping faiths of the Indian subcontinent, said Manik, who was born in a Santal family.
Manik got married in the Sar Sagune Biha tradition of the Kheroyal people. But the religion has no documented recognition, and thus lacks ways for government registration.
“The marriage method will only be accepted if the religious identity is,” said Tarun Khokan Switen Murmu, who lives in Australia for higher studies.
“We’re unable to give our ethnic identity. We were forced to call Bangla our native language at the start of our education during our childhood. The census doesn’t mention the Santal religion. We have to call Bangla our language and the Constitution refers to us as minorities.”
He said the government census varies greatly from that of the Bangladesh Adivasi Forum and Jatiya Adivasi Parishad.
According to this year’s census, Bangladesh is home to 129,048 Santal people but in 1991, the figure was above 200,000.
“There can be no reason for the population to decline for over a decade. But our populace is never presented properly in the census. The Adivasi Parishad’s stats say more than 500,000 Santal live in the country and at least half of them follow Sari-Sarna, which the census fails to even mention.”
Khokan and Manik both think the total followers of Sari-Sarna followers from Santal and other groups are well over 300,000.
THE ENDANGERED RELIGION OF THE KHASIS
In Khasi traditional religion Niam Khasi, also known as Jaintia, the principal deity is U Blei Nongthaw, who they believe is formless and the Supreme creator of the whole universe.
There are 12,421 ‘Khasias’ or Khasis in Bangladesh as per the latest census. However, the actual number is more than double, according to Subimal Longdkiri, a leader of the ethnic group.
Subimal, a lawyer by profession, lives in Madhabkunda village of Moulvibazar’s Borolekha Upazila, where almost everyone aside from his family has converted to other religions.
Almost all of the Khasis hail from the greater Sylhet district. Subimal believes that thousands of Khasis still practise their traditional religion in the country.
"There are one or two families in every Khasi village who have not yet converted," he said. “However, Jaintiapur in Sylhet has the largest number of ‘Chhonang’ people.”
Sanchita Yangyung, a teacher at Vitri Khel Govt Primary School in Jaintiapur, said that everyone in their Khasi neighbourhood is ‘Niam Chhonang’ or Niam Khasi. They are about 300 in number.
‘Hakatai’ is the biggest religious festival of the Niam Khasi. The followers celebrate it on the seventh day of the fortnight in the Hindu lunar calendar in the month of Magh, the tenth month in the Bengali calendar, in memory of the forefathers, seeking peace for their souls and for their own well-being.
On that day, fruits, cakes and other foods are offered to God and the dead. Currently, the festival is not held anywhere else except Jaintiapur.
MROS RELIGION, BOTH OLD AND NEW, IS NOT IN CENSUS
Among the different ethnic minority communities of the Chattogram Hill Tracts, the Mros are the fourth most populous after the Chakma, Marma and Tripura tribes. Their number is about 52,455 according to the latest census report.
In 1984, a young man named Manlay Mro established the ‘Krama’ faith which is currently the most followed religion among the Mros. Converted Christians rank second, while the rest are Buddhists.
Changyung Murung, general secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Students’ Action Forum, said many of the followers of the old religion of the Mro identify themselves as Buddhists. However, it is not like traditional Buddhism.
The Mros call their old religion 'Shungnam Ri'. ‘Shungnam’ in the Mro language means God and ‘Ri’ means ritual. However, those who still practise their old religion "feel hesitant" to introduce themselves even among other Mros, said Changyung, a student of Dhaka University's Management Information Systems Department.
Shungnam Ri followers worship in canals, forests, and mountains to appease the deities of nature. Their religion can also be called a naturalistic religion.
However, the Changyung family follows the Krama religion.
The Mro people believe their alphabet was eaten by a cow. They celebrate a festival in which a cow is sacrificed in memory of the occasion.
“Manlay came and claimed that he had brought the alphabet from Kramadi. Not only that, but he also brought a scripture. So cow slaughter should be stopped,” Changyung said.
However, highlighting that followers of neither Shungnam Ri nor Krama are noted according to their religion in the census, Changyung said, "I studied Christianity. Many people also receive academic education about Buddhism. But the Kramas want to study their religion in school.”
WHAT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS
The followers of these religions that are outside the mainstream in Bangladesh want the right to adopt, practice, propagate and identify themselves according to their own religion. Everyone has the right to practise their religion in the constitution of the state.
Supreme Court lawyer Pervez Hashem referred to Article 41 of the Constitution that states “every citizen has the right to adopt, practise or propagate any religion”.
“Therefore, anyone from the Santals or Garos or any other ethnic group can convert. Even if someone wants to go back to the old religion after being converted, the Constitution does not prevent that,” he said.
“They certainly have the right to identify themselves as followers of their old religion. They have the right to establish religious institutions and celebrate festivals. The right of every religious community and sub-community to establish, maintain and manage its own religious institutions is also protected in the Constitution.”
“We have been talking about the restoration of Bangabandhu's 1972 Constitution by recognising the ethnic minorities. But so far, none of these minority peoples has asked us about seeking recognition of their religion,” said Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a non-profitable organisation to protect the human rights of the country’s religious and ethnic minorities.
Expressing his interest in personally talking to the followers of those religions, Rana said, "I will also take the initiative to ensure that they are mentioned separately in the census."
Asked why the government did not take any initiative to include these religions, Dildar Hossain, project director of the Population and Housing Census 2022, said that the criteria for collecting information related to religion in the previous censuses have been followed in this year's census as well. No one even demanded a separate survey of these religions before the census, he said.
“Had this claim been conveyed to us before the census, it could have been included this time,” said Dildar. “I will forward this proposal to the appropriate authorities so that the matter is taken into account even if I am not in charge at the time of the next census.”
THE STATE'S RESPONSIBILITY
Bangladesh is losing its diversity of ethnic and religious identity due to the "neglect by the state", according to Farha Tanzim Titil, an assistant professor at Islamic University Kushtia, and a rights activist.
“Bengali settlements are being built and extended in the forests of Madhupur, in the hills of Chattogram Hill Tracts, and even in the Khasi villages of Sylhet. Forests and hills are becoming the property of the state, the religious minorities are refugees there.”
Titil said these ethnic minorities had no better way to survive than to acclimatise to civic life, go to school and hold the hands of alternative organised groups.
Rabindranath Soren, president of Jatiya Adivasi Parishad, also demanded that the state, specifically the Ministry of Religious Affairs, should take responsibility for keeping these dying religions alive.
He said that Tk 50,000 was allocated in the 2016-2017 fiscal year for a ‘Manjhi Than’ (Santal shrine) in a village of Bhangachi union of Rajshahi’s Puthia Upazila.
“I know about that donation only. That too was obtained from the Prime Minister's office. The Ministry of Religious Affairs has practically become dedicated to a single religion. Apart from Muslims, however, the ministry has some activities for Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. The ministry does not know about us.”
State Minister for Religious Affairs Faridul Haque Khan, however, termed it a ‘misconception’. "Muslims think that the ministry is only for them, but it also looks after the interests of the minorities. Again, people of other religions think that the ministry does nothing for them,” he said.
“However, for the religions of the minority groups that you have told me about, various donations are given from the Prime Minister's Office itself. They [ethnic groups] never came to me. Their applications will also be considered if they come.”
[Writing in English by Syed Mahmud Onindo and Arshi Fatiha Quazi]