Ranchi
Sitting Rajya Sabha MP, former Union Minister, former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha patriarch who played a key role in the formation of Jharkhand passed away on Monday. He was under treatment at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital for over a month and his condition had turned critical over the past few days.
His son and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren shared the news of his father’s death on X: “Respected Dishom Guruji has left us all. Today, I feel completely hollow.”
Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 11 am on 5th August, following an obituary reference in the House on the demise of sitting MP Shibu Soren. The monsoon session of Jharkhand Assembly that began on August 1 was adjourned sine die.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “Shibu Soren Ji was a grassroots leader who rose through the ranks of public life with unwavering dedication to the people. He was particularly passionate about empowering tribal communities, the poor and downtrodden. Pained by his passing away. My thoughts are with his family and admirers. Spoke to Jharkhand CM Shri Hemant Soren Ji and expressed condolences. Om Shanti.”
While Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi postponed his “special press briefing’ in view of Shibu’s death, condolences poured in from across party lines.
The Jharkhand government announced a three-day State mourning till August 6 during which the national flag will fly half-mast on government buildings. State Government offices and institutions will remain closed for two days. His last rites will be performed at his native village on Tuesday (August 5).
EARLY ROOTS
Born to Shobaran Soren and Sonamuni Soren on 11 January 1944 in Nemra village, Ramgarh district (then in Bihar), Shibu Soren belonged to a modest Santhal Adivasi farming family.
His father Shobran was a vocal opponent of local zamindars (landlords), and his murder at their hands when Shibu was just a boy became the turning point of his life. The injustice instilled in him a burning resolve to fight for Adivasi rights, land, and dignity.
Despite only receiving formal education till matriculation, Shibu had sharp political acumen and a powerful grasp of tribal oral traditions and customary law.
WHY IS HE CALLED ‘DISHOM GURU’?
‘Dishom Guru’ literally means “leader of the land/nation” in Santhali.
- The title was bestowed by Adivasi elders and villagers during the 1970s when Shibu fearlessly led night raids to evict illegal settlers and reclaim land forcibly taken from tribal families.
- Locals saw him not just as a politician but as a protector, arbitrator and spiritual guide who revived tribal justice systems outside courts.
- His supporters remember him roaming deep into Santhal Parganas, often on foot, settling disputes, stopping displacement, and redistributing land among the dispossessed.
ROLE IN SEPARATE JHARKHAND MOVEMENT
Shibu Soren was one of the three tallest leaders of the Jharkhand statehood movement, alongside veteran Marxist trade union leader A.K. Roy and Binod Bihari Mahato. In 1972, Roy and Mahato formed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to fight out the money lenders operating in the coal belt. They spotted Shibu Soren to lead the campaigns.
His contributions included:
- Mobilising thousands of Adivasis through padyatras and village meetings in Santhal Parganas, Chotanagpur and Singhbhum.
- Leading mass protests in Delhi and Ranchi demanding constitutional recognition for Jharkhand.
- Fighting for inclusion of tribal languages and land laws under Fifth Schedule.
- In 1987, JMM under Shibu organized one of the largest Jharkhand solidarity marches to Delhi.
Though he had differences with intellectual leaders like Roy, he is credited with giving the movement a mass base and ensuring it remained rooted in tribal identity, not just regional politics.
ENTRY INTO ELECTORAL POLITICS AND THEREAFTER
Shibu Soren first entered Parliament in 1980 as a Lok Sabha MP from Dumka, a constituency he would go on to represent multiple times. He was also the Minister of Coal under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The 81-yr-old Shibu Soren was a 3-term Jharkhand Chief Minister (including one for just 10 days), 8-term Lok Sabha MP and 3-term Rajya Sabha MP besides being member of several Parliamentary committees.
In 2009, as Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren lost the by-election to Tamar Assembly seat to Jharkhand Party candidate Gopal Krishna Patar, aka Raja Peter by a margin of 9,062 votes. He was only the second politician in the country, who lost a by-election as chief minister.
Prior to him, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Tribhuwan Narain Singh had lost his seat as chief minister in a 1960 by-election.
He sought to tread the middle path with the Congress and the BJP but without success. “Nothing is permanent in the current power politics. Who didn’t I support (Congress and BJP, in particular)? Just wait and watch, where I go next moment,” Shibu had once quipped in the capacity of Jharkhand Chief Minister supported by the BJP. Incidentally, he was a Lok Sabha Member those days. He voted for the Congress in the House. And, the BJP pulled down his government in Jharkhand, even as Guruji kept arguing that we are with Congress at the centre and BJP in Jharkhand!
Shibu Soren had been the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s chief for the past 38 years, while his son Hemant served the party as its executive president since 2015.
In April this year, Hemant became JMM’s central president and Shibu Soren was made the ‘founding patron’ of the party.
MASS LEADER
A former veteran journalist, Ravi Ranjan Sinha, had way back in 1999 narrated his personal experience of Shibu Soren.
“I was the public relations officer of FCI Sindri those days. During 1960s and 1970s, this was perhaps the only fully functional fertilizer plant in the country. This too faced frequent prolonged closures following protests by families displaced by the project.
“Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was terribly upset. She was unable to find effective ways and means to improve production of food grains across the country and somehow prevent starvation deaths. At this juncture, someone advised her to talk to Shobaran Soren (Shibu Soren’s father), a school teacher, who had launched a crusade against money lenders and land brokers with the help of indigenous people.
“Indira Gandhi agreed to meet senior Soren in person at the earliest possible. The communication network was very poor those days and the transportation facilities, from a remote area in Bihar to the national capital too don’t need special mention. Hence, to prevent spread of rumours and also riots during senior Soren going to Delhi to meet the PM and finally coming back to his place in Bihar, it was decided to keep his firebrand son Shibu Soren under “house arrest” at the FCI Sindri guest house. I was ordered to take care of his comfortable stay there. That’s when I had the opportunity to see a real mass hero from close quarters, ” he recalled.
FAMILY AND POLITICAL DYNASTY
On January 1, 1962, Shibu Soren married Roopi Soren, who had since stood by him through all political upheavals and turmoil.
Sons & Daughter:
- Hemant Soren – Current Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
- Late Durga Soren – A firebrand JMM leader and former MLA from Jama, died prematurely in 2009.
- Basant Soren – MLA from Dumka.
- Anjani – Daughter is in charge of JMM’s Odisha unit
Daughters-in-law:
- Kalpana Soren (wife of Hemant Soren) – MLA from Gandey
- Sita Soren (widow of Durga Soren) – Estranged daughter-in-law and former MLA from Jama. Now with the BJP
CONTROVERSIES AND LEGAL TROUBLES
Shibu Soren’s political life has not been without controversies:
- Chirudih massacre (1975): He was accused in a case involving communal violence that left several dead. The case dragged on for decades, and he was acquitted in 2008.
- Murder of Shashinath Jha (1994): Shibu was convicted in 2006 for his alleged role in the abduction and murder of his secretary. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the conviction was later overturned by the Delhi High Court in 2007.
- JMM Bribery Scandal (1993): His name figured in the cash-for-votes scandal during the no-confidence motion against the Narasimha Rao government. However, the legal proceedings didn’t lead to a conviction.
ANECDOTES FROM HIS LIFE & CLOSE CIRCLES
- Sleeping in haystacks: In his youth, Shibu Soren reportedly travelled barefoot across villages and would sleep on haystacks in strangers’ homes—villagers say he would eat madua roti with chutney and discuss tribal customs late into the night.
- Land back with red flags: A famous image in 1974 showed Soren planting red flags on illegally occupied land, declaring, “Yeh zameen ab Dishom ke naam hai” (This land now belongs to the people of the nation).
- Ties with villagers: Locals in Dumka fondly recall him as ‘Guruji’ who would settle marriage disputes, solve land problems, and even treat sick children with traditional Santhali herbal remedies.
- A close aide once said: “Guruji doesn’t read manifestos; he reads people’s faces.”
- He discouraged the participation of tribals in “Ravan Dahan” celebrations at the end of Durga Puja, arguing that Ravana was a mighty forefather of Asuras. And, the Hindu right wing forces never dared locking horns with him on the particular issue.
- The first ever ‘full majority’ BJP government in Jharkhand led by Raghubar Das “allowed” Shibu Soren to stay in his Mohrabadi residence all through his life. Incidentally, this house was allotted to him as Jharkhand Hill Area Autonomous Council Chairman by the erstwhile Lalu Yadav government. The Congress never forgets to boast JAAC was formed at the “behest” of Rajiv Gandhi, and, hence, a separate Jharkhand state is its “baby”.
- Shibu Soren once confided that while leading the campaigns, the official machinery implicated him in several criminal cases. But a noted anthropologist and the then deputy commissioner of Dhanbad K. B. Saxena ‘understood’ the ground realities.
