A recent groundswell of protests to demand the Sarna code, a separate religious classification in the census for Adivasis, has the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates in a fix. In a special session held in November 2020, the Jharkhand Assembly passed a resolution asking the union government to introduce Sarna—a nature-centric form of worship shared across many tribes in Jharkhand and its neighbouring states—as an enumerated religion in the national census, due in 2021. The resolution marked a flashpoint in the long struggle by the region’s Adivasis for the recognition of their distinctive belief systems and culture.
In late 2020, Adivasi groups across Jharkhand launched protests, urging the union government to respond to the resolution immediately. Speaking at a conference organised at Harvard University, in February 2021, Jharkhand’s chief minister Hemant
