FLAME OF THE FOREST
Vasudha Dhagamvar
Birsa Munda and His Movement 1874-1901: A Study of a Millenarian Movement in Chotanagpur by K.S. Singh Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1984, 289 pp., 125
May-June 1984, volume 8, No 6

Dr. Suresh Singh is one of the very few IAS officers with a scholastic bent of mind. In Bihar he also enjoys the reputation of being an able officer. As early as 1967 he had acquitted himself with dis¬tinction during the famine which hit all of Bihar, when he had held charge of Palamau, a particularly neglected and abused tribal district. Dr Singh is regarded as a serious writer on tribal matters, especially the Mundas. So it was with con¬siderable enthusiasm that I agreed to review his latest book, Birsa Munda and his Movement. And it is with con¬siderable regret and disappoint¬ment that I write the review.

Continue reading this review