New Delhi/Jhargram
Durga Puja is widely celebrated across eastern India, but its place in the religious lives of tribal communities is neither uniform nor straightforward. Among the Santhals studied in parts of West Bengal, the festival has found a place in the wider seasonal calendar alongside indigenous observances associated with nature, sacred groves, agricultural life and community beliefs.
The relationship offers an important insight into cultural change: participation in a widely celebrated religious festival does not necessarily erase older traditions or make the religious practices of all tribal communities identical.
An ethnographic study published in the International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology in 2021 examined the cultural and environmental knowledge of Santhal communities in three villages—Nakuijhuri, Gutbani and Rangamatiya—in West Bengal’s Jhargram district. The research, conducted by Koustab Majumdar and Dipankar Chatterjee, explored the community’s understanding of its environment, customary practices and religious and cultural observances.
The researchers documented festivals including Durga Puja, Sorhae or Sohrai, Sharul or Sarhul, Sarna, Mokor or Makar, and Bahaparab or Baha Parab. Their findings provide a useful starting point for understanding how a festival associated with the wider Hindu religious calendar can coexist with indigenous traditions.
The study’s scope, however, is important. It examined three villages and drew on interviews with 53 participants aged between 15 and 85. Its findings illuminate the experiences of the communities studied, but cannot establish how widely particular practices are followed among Santhals across West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and other states.
The researchers describe Durga Puja as a festival adopted through interaction with non-tribal populations. Celebrated during September–October, it is described as a five-day festival. The study records the belief among the Santhals examined that Goddess Durga represents a source of energy and that worshipping her can bring social progress and help overcome evil.
This finding suggests that the festival can acquire significance within communities that participate in it, rather than remaining merely an outside cultural influence. At the same time, the study does not suggest that Durga Puja has replaced indigenous religious practices.
Instead, it documents a wider religious and cultural calendar in which different festivals have distinct meanings, rituals and associations.
Sacred Groves and the Relationship With Nature
The study describes the Santhals in the villages examined as followers of Sarna traditions, in which nature-based deities and sacred places have an important role. The Jaherthan, a sacred grove or place of worship, is associated with community religious practices. The researchers identify Marang Buru as a supreme deity in the traditions they describe, with worship associated with the Jaherthan and the sal tree.
This relationship between culture and the natural environment is central to the study. Majumdar and Chatterjee conclude that Santhal environmental knowledge is deeply connected with cultural and religious practices. They describe the community’s worldview as one in which “the environment as a cultural entity” links the natural world with traditions, beliefs and collective identity.
The observation provides a broader context for understanding the Santhal festive calendar. Trees, flowering seasons, crops, animals and sacred places are not merely elements of the physical environment; they can also carry religious and cultural significance.
Sarhul, celebrated around March–April when new flowers appear, is associated in the study with the worship of the sal tree and Mother Earth. Baha Parab, observed around February–March, marks the arrival of spring and is described as a flower festival.
Makar, celebrated in January, is associated with the first paddy harvest. The researchers record that households offer newly harvested paddy to Orabonga, the household deity.
These observances reflect a calendar in which seasonal changes, agricultural cycles, sacred places and community well-being are closely connected.
Sohrai And Thanksgiving For Cattle
Sohrai, also spelt Sorhae in the study, is described as a thanksgiving festival associated with cattle. Observed during the Hindu month of Kartik, broadly corresponding to October–November, it honours livestock, including cows, goats and buffaloes.
Its agricultural associations illustrate how indigenous traditions retain a distinctive place in the seasonal calendar. Although its timing falls within the wider autumn festive period, Sohrai is not another name for Durga Puja or Dussehra. The festivals have different cultural and ritual meanings.
The study also documents customary practices relating to sacred places, household deities and the protection of totemic beings. It notes that the Santhals examined refrain from killing animals or birds regarded as their respective totems, reflecting beliefs about the relationship between these beings and the community.
Such findings underline the importance of understanding festivals through the beliefs and practices of the communities observing them, rather than imposing a single framework on different celebrations.
Cultural Exchange Without Uniformity
The Santhal example complicates a simple division between tribal and non-tribal religious life. Cultural interaction can lead communities to adopt festivals from neighbouring populations while older religious practices continue to hold significance.
The researchers’ wider conclusion is that traditional knowledge and environmental perceptions are embedded in Santhal social and religious systems. They write that such knowledge is “deeply rooted in various socio-cultural and religious systems of practice among Santhals.”
The observation is particularly relevant to discussions about cultural continuity. It suggests that understanding a community’s religious life requires examining more than its participation in a prominent public festival. Its customary practices, sacred spaces, relationship with nature and transmission of knowledge across generations are also important.
However, the study does not establish how many Santhals celebrate Durga Puja, whether participation differs between villages or generations, or how widespread the practices documented are across the larger Santhal population. Nor does it establish that all Santhals who participate in Durga Puja interpret the festival in the same way.
The findings should not be generalised to other tribal communities such as the Munda, Oraon, Ho, Gond or Kondh. Each community has its own history, customs and religious diversity.
For Jharkhand, where Santhals form an important part of the state’s tribal population, these distinctions are particularly relevant. Some Adivasi families participate in Durga Puja, while others maintain different religious observances or belong to other faiths. Practices and interpretations can also vary within the same community.
A fuller understanding would require additional fieldwork across different districts of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha, including interviews with Santhal elders, traditional priests, researchers and families. Such research could establish how people describe their own religious identities and how their festival practices have evolved over time.
Understanding The Santhal Festive Calendar On Its Own Terms
The central lesson of the research is not that Durga Puja has become a universal Santhal festival, but that it can coexist with indigenous traditions in the communities studied.
Durga Puja, Sohrai, Baha Parab, Sarhul and Makar do not have identical origins or meanings. Each belongs to a particular ritual and seasonal context, and their coexistence illustrates a more complex relationship between cultural exchange and continuity.
For journalists and researchers, the distinction matters. Tribal communities should not be portrayed as a single religious bloc, nor should participation in one festival automatically be interpreted as evidence that indigenous identity has disappeared.
The Santhal experience documented in Jhargram shows why India’s cultural diversity is best understood through the specific histories, practices and voices of its communities. It is a story not simply of one tradition replacing another, but of different practices occupying places in the lives of the people who observe them.
