Hyderabad, June 9 -- A recounting of Indian freedom fighters instantly strikes with prominent names such as Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhagat Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru among others. Though all of them played significant roles in Indian independence movement, we often fail to recognize those who led several successful movements at the grassroot level against the British. Their stories are not often talked about.

June 9 marks the death anniversary of one such tribal freedom fighter, who pioneered the "Hul" rebellion against the British Raj. Known as "Dharti Aba", Birsa Munda had led the movement that forced the colonial Raj to move out of the indigenous land of the tribals in what is now Jharkhand.

Birsa Munda was born on November...