Need to Remember Jaipal Singh

COMMUNICATION

A.K. Biswas, in his article, “Jaipal Singh Munda”, had provided many unknown facets of Jaipal Singh (Mainstream, Vol 50, No. 9, February 10-14, 2012), whom I consider the real successor to Birsa Munda, a freedom fighter. The grateful people of Bihar had established an agricultural university in his name in Ranchi, the heartland of the Adivasis. My generation knows Jaipal Singh not only as the captain of the Indian Olympic Hockey team, but also as one of the tallest leaders of the Adivasi community of the backward Chhotanagpur region of Bihar. He founded the Jharkhand Party which demanded a separate Jharkhand State that ultimately came into existence on November 15, 2000. What the Adivasis got is a moth-eaten State, much smaller in size than what was envisaged by Jaipal Singh.

Unfortunately, the State is now run by a bunch of crafty and corrupt politicians.
Jaipal Singh successfully contested the first general elections (1952) to the Lok Sabha as a candidate of the Jharkhand Party from the Ranchi constituency defeating the Congress candidate by a large margin. In the 1962 elections, he offered the seat to Minoo R. Masani, one of the founder members of the Congress Socialist Party, who later founded the Swatantra Party along with C. Raja-gopalachari. Masani also defeated the Congress. While Major Dhyan Chand, the legendary hockey player who scored 29 goals in the 1928 Olympics, deservedly got recognition due to him, we forgot Jaipal Singh, the architect of the Olympic victory.

A.K. Dasgupta

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