THE FIRST CITIZEN
Droupadi Murmu, 65 President of India
OUT THERE, INDIA'S TRIBALS LIVE ON the furthermost orbits of the State's social planetary system-the circles of power, patronage and paternalistic welfare that radiate outward from New Delhi and structure the country's economic pyramid. But since last year, she has been a resident of the absolute centre: a First Citizen from among the First Peoples. As the 15th occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Droupadi Murmu manifests in her person a grand gesture of inclusivity. Also, a radiant picture of what's possible, what can come from the vast human potential that stays untapped, from a social grouping where enforced privation gives us the country's grimmest statistics.
Murmu is neither a stranger nor a silver-spooned exception to the harsh realities that define life for the Adivasis, having risen up from the parched earth herself. She was born to a Santhali farmer in Mayurbhanj, Odisha-a district with a nearly 60 per cent tribal population, and a state with a mosaic of 63 Adivasi communities, the most in India. Now she stands like a beacon for the entire 100 million-plus tribals of India.
She managed to follow a resolute path to self-actualisation because she could: her family were traditional village heads and the homestead was in the vicinity of Rairangpur, a liaison town between Asia's oldest modern iron mines and steel cities like Jamshedpur and Durgapur. So, over half a century of modernity had flowed down roads just a handful of miles away. That momentum is what took her as a child out of Uparbeda village, to schooling and graduation in Bhubaneswar, and after brief stints as a clerk and teacher, to nagar panchayat councillorship, membership of the BJP, the first of her two stints as state legislator (winning a 'Best MLA' award in 2007), then governorship and finally Raisina Hill.
Esta historia es de la edición January 01, 2024 de India Today.
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Esta historia es de la edición January 01, 2024 de India Today.
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