Shibu Soren: The great legacy of Jharkhand’s tribal icon

Shibu Soren, the veteran tribal leader who played a key role in Jharkhand’s creation, died on Monday (August 4), leaving behind a legacy of power, struggles and controversies.

Shibu Soren breathed his last at 8:56 am on Monday at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi.

He is survived by his wife Roopi Soren and children — Hemant Soren (who is Jharkhand’s chief minister), Basant Soren (MLA) and Anjali Soren (a social worker). His elder son Durga Soren died in May 2009.

Shibu Soren was central to Jharkhand politics and had an umatched legacy. He was the face of tribal politics in the state and had played key role in the formation of Jharkhand.

He also co-founded the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the political party now led by his son Hemant.

Shibu Soren’s early life

Shibu belonged to the Santal tribal community. He was born on January 11, 1944, in the Nemra village of Ramgarh district, then in Bihar

According to Soren’s family, his early life was marked by personal tragedy and deep socio-economic struggles.

Soren was 15 years old when his father, Shobaran Soren, who was allegedly killed by moneylenders in Lukaiyatand forest in 1957. This left a deep impact on him and became a catalyst for his future political activism.

He was 18 when he co-founded the Santhal Yuva Mukti Morcha. Later, he was revered as the co-founder of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in 1972.

The tribal icon

Shibu Soren was the face of tribal identity politics in Jharkhand. His political life was defined by continuous advocacy for tribal rights.

He founded the JMM formed to mobilise tribal communities for regional autonomy and reclaiming alienated lands.

Soren’s party soon became the primary political voice for the demand for a separate tribal state and got support across the Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana regions.

Soren’s grassroots mobilisation against feudal exploitation is said to have shaped him into a tribal icon.

The death of 81-year-old Soren marks the end of a political era that saw tribal movement rise to national prominence.

Shibu Soren’s Political Journey

With a career spanning over four decades, Shibu Soren served as Jharkhand’s chief minister, a union minister and a Member of Parliament.

He had been the CM of Jharkhand thrice — in March 2005 (for just 10 days from March 2 to March 11), August 27, 2008 to January 12, 2009, and from December 30, 2009 to May 31, 2010.

Each term was short-lived due to the fragile nature of coalition politics in the state.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha eight times and served as a Rajya Sabha MP for two terms.

As a key figure in the UPA government, he served as Union Coal Minister from May 23 to July 24, 2004; November 27, 2004 to March 2, 2005; and January 29 to November 2006.

Shibu was the patriarch of the JMM. His leadership is often credited with the creation of the Jharkhand state in 2000.

Soren served as the JMM’s chief for 38 years until April 2025, when he was made the party’s founding patron.

His son, Hemant Soren, succeeded him as the JMM president in April 2025 and continues to shape the party’s legacy.

The party is currently a member of the opposition INDIA bloc at the national level.

‘Dishom Guru’

Shibu Soren was popularly known as ‘Dishom Guru’ (leader of the land) or ‘Guruji’.

In a 2017 interview, Shibu Soren had said, “I am myself not sure why I am called Dishom Guru. I don’t know who gave this title to me. What I know is that the word ‘Dishom’ means ‘country’ or ‘the world’.”

Controversies

Shibu Soren’s life was also marked by a series of controversies and his ministerial stints at the Centre were overshadowed by serious legal challenges.

In 2006, he was convicted in the sensational 1994 kidnapping and murder case of his former personal secretary, Shashinath Jha — becoming the first Union minister in India to face conviction in such a case.

The CBI alleged that Jha was murdered in Ranchi because he possessed knowledge about a political payoff deal between the Congress and JMM during a no-confidence motion against the Narasimha Rao government in 1993.

Shubu Soren was then sentenced to life imprisonment only to be acquitted later in 2007 by the Delhi High Court, due to lapses in forensic and circumstantial evidence.

In July 2004, an arrest warrant was issued against him in connection with the 1975 Chirudih massacre case, in which he was named the main accused in the killing of 11 people.

He went underground briefly before being arrested.

After spending time in judicial custody, he was granted bail in September 2004 and re-inducted into the Union Cabinet in November.

Later, a court in March 2008 absolved him of all charges.

In June 2007, Soren survived an assassination attempt when bombs were hurled at his convoy near Demaria village in Deoghar district while he was being escorted to jail in Dumka, after appearing in a court in Giridih.

Despite these personal, political and legal struggles, Shibu Soren, for many in Jharkhand, remained a symbol of their long-fought struggle for identity and self-rule—a legacy that continues through the next generation.