In Jharkhand, a dispute over royal ‘Ratu' land, at its root a contract from 1960s

Indian Express

17-06-2025

For the last 10 days, Jatru Munda in Ranchi's tribal village of Lapung has been nursing pellet wounds on his thighs, stomach, and back. The injuries, allegedly suffered in a confrontation with the police over a land dispute on June 3, are painful, and Munda has been getting treatment from a local quack after the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, sent him back home without removing the pellet.
'I was attending a gram sabha meeting organised to settle an old land dispute when the police firing began. I have no idea how the pellets entered my body,' Munda, 26, tells The Indian Express.
Jatra Munda is one of two people who were allegedly wounded when police fired at a gathering of Munda and Oraon tribes on June 3. The meeting was called to settle an old land dispute of 56 acres of agricultural land that locals claim has been handed over to them by the erstwhile Ratu dynasty of Jharkhand.
The land dispute, festering for years, came to a head on June 3, when an official and two village residents – including Jatru – were wounded in the alleged confrontation.
While the village residents claim that the police action was 'unprovoked', police claim they were forced to fire pellet guns after the mob gathered at the meeting turned violent and attacked the police using 'armed with bows, arrows, swords, and traditional weapons'.
An officer, Lapung's police station in-charge Santosh Kumar Yadav, was injured in the incident.
'There was no bullet fired. Only pellet guns were used and that too when one of our officers was about to be attacked with a sword. A mob had gathered, and the situation had spiralled. When the officer was retreating, some people hit him with sticks, and we had to act. Still, the message being spread is that the police opened fire on tribals — which is not true,' DSP Ashok Ram, who's in charge of the Beddo circle under which the village falls, says. An FIR in the case names 50 village residents.
There was yet another meeting in the village on June 15.
The dispute pertains to land that allegedly belongs to a branch of the Nagvanshi dynasty of the Chota Nagpur Zamindari estate. An ancient dynasty that traces its roots back to the 1st century AD, the dynasty has many branches, and although it primarily ruled the Chota Nagpur Plateau region in the present-day Jharkhand, its influence also extended into areas of present-day Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The zamindari system in Jharkhand was abolished under the Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950.
According to official documents accessed by The Indian Express, around 56 acres and 66 dismil of land had been gifted by the then king to his daughter-in-law Durgawati Devi.
After the abolition of the zamindari system, Durgawati decided to sell the land to the Adivasis. The papers further state that the land was being sold to a few Adivasi families because her children, and the proceeds from these sales were to be used for their education and other essential needs.
Vaibhav Shahdeo, Durgawati's grand nephew, is the current claimant of this land.
Locals said that when the land that was handed over to the Adivasis, it was on the condition that some part of the agricultural produce should continue to be given to the royal family, with a local 'Brahil' — or overseer — appointed to supervise the land and the transaction. But locals now claim that decades later, the practice continues.
'Even though land belongs to the Oraon and Mundas tribes, we continue producing rice for the Raja Babu and the Brahil (mediator) to date,' Anil Munda, the village pahan (tribal priest), claims, adding that while there is no dispute over the status of the land, it was being projected as disputed.
The FIR filed following the June 3 incident claims that the meeting was called.
Police said that those attending the meeting wanted Vaibhav Shahdeo, the current claimant of the land, to attend the meeting. 'Lapung's police station in-charge Santosh Kumar Yadav asked Sahdeo not to come. Instead, he decided to go to mediate the dispute without informing senior officials and went to the village.'
The FIR said the meeting turned violent when a group of village residents attacked Yadav and injured him on the head. 'The mob, armed with bows, arrows, swords, and traditional weapons, attempted to snatch police rifles, and one assailant fired a round from a desi katta (country-made gun). In response, a constable fired a shot from an SLR (Self-Loading Rifle) into the air in self-defence.'
When contacted, DSP Ashok Ram said that the village residents were provoked by a person known to be involved in Maoist activities.
On their part, the erstwhile royals claim that they were called to attend a meeting to discuss the land dispute, but the police in-charge advised them not to come 'due to potential law and order issues'.
Gopalnath Shahdeo, 31, the younger brother of Vaibhav Lal Shahdeo, said that his family had no idea where the document that the local residents were citing originated from, claiming according to family tradition, 'women were not even allowed to go to court, let alone execute a document like that'.
He also claimed the land became a subject of dispute 'only this year that they refused, allegedly under the influence of extremists, causing the losses worth several lakhs'.
Meanwhile, Jatru Munda, who was wounded in the skirmish, said that when he was first taken to a local hospital and eventually referred to RIMS. 'While I, accompanied by three, arrived at the hospital in the afternoon, Ranchi police arrested us, yelling: 'Naxalites are here'. They kept us for seven days with no treatment,' he said, adding that he was sent home on June 10.
RIMS spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan said, 'The patient had a mid-thigh injury and was advised that surgery wasn't immediately necessary. Once the wound… begins healing, surgery can be considered. Operating now could cause more muscle damage.' 'After the skin began healing and injectable antibiotics were stopped, he was discharged with advice to return later for surgery'.
Shubham Tigga hails from Chhattisgarh and studied journalism at the Asian College of Journalism. He previously reported in Chhattisgarh on Indigenous issues and is deeply interested in covering socio-political, human rights, and environmental issues in mainland and NE India.
Presently based in Pune, he reports on civil aviation, other transport sectors, urban mobility, the gig economy, commercial matters, and workers' unions.
You can reach out to him on LinkedIn ... Read More