Context (Field collection)
Collected by Dr Mark Elliot, Senior Curator for Anthropology (Asia, Africa and Europe) at MAA, on 26 March 2016.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) political party (Jharkand Liberation Front in English) was founded in 1973.
Event Date 21/12/2016
Author: Remke Velden

Description (Physical description)
Election flag from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha political party. Green synthetic fibre with image of JMM figurehead.
Event Date 21/12/2016
Author: Remke Velden

Description (Display)
'Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia' 07/03/2017 - 22/04/2018 MAA exhibition label text reads:

The ‘Santhal Trophy’

In February 1856 the Illustrated London News carried an account of the suppression of the Santal rebellion in Chota Nagpur, which Santals today commemorate as the Hul. One of the illustrations provided by the author, Captain Walter Sherwill, was this extraordinary assemblage entitled simply Santhal Trophy.

The Trophy presented hunting tools such as bows, arrows and axes as well as drums as war loot - weapons that were evidence of Santal resistance and savagery. Most of these ‘weapons’ would have had peaceful use outside of the Hul, when sticks and hoes were also taken up in the struggle against landlords and the government.

This reconstruction of Sherwill’s Trophy from the collections at MAA questions the perception of these ‘weapons’, then and now. These objects have been transformed under different gazes at different times. They tell stories of historical struggle, and become symbols of Santal identity and Adivasi resistance today.

6. Election flag
The bow and arrow, so long a sign of primitivism and savagery with which indigenous peoples have been marked by outsiders, is now widely reappopriated as a symbol of power, resistance and distinctive cultural identity. The JMM, or Jharkhand Liberation Front, is a political party with strong
roots in the Santal and Munda communities, and in the coining of the term ‘Adivasi’. The bow and arrow is a symbol that calls on Adivasi support at the polls.

Dumka, Jharkhand
Collected by Mark Elliott, 2016 2016.211

Event Date 22/3/2017
Author: Remke Velden

Exhibition (Li Ka Shing Gallery)
EXH.2017.2 | Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia
Event Date 8/3/2017
Author: Remke Velden

Description (Physical description)
Election flag for the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha political party. Depicts the portrait of party leader and Santal politician Shibhu Soren, the bow and arrow symbol of the party and the initials J.M.M.
Event Date 30/11/2023
Author: Mark Elliott