By Sanjay Kerketta

Ranchi, March 12, 2026: When Belgian Jesuit missionaries arrived in Chotanagpur in 1869, they stepped into a landscape of systematic oppression.

The Adivasi tribes – Munda, Oraon, Ho, Santhal, Kharia – lived on land rich with minerals yet were themselves stripped of dignity, resources, and hope. The Zamindari system had crushed them for generations. Bonded labor (beth begari) was routine. Social evils like witchcraft accusations, child marriage, and occult practices terrorized communities.

The Jesuits could have simply built churches and saved souls. Instead, they made a radical choice: to walk alongside the tribal people as companions, not saviors. They recognized something crucial – without addressing the structures of injustice that marginalize entire peoples, faith would remain hollow. And they saw where the real battle would be won or lost: with the youth.

By 1885, the Jesuit commitment had crystallized. These missionaries weren’t leaving. They confronted the Zamindari landlords in courts, challenged exploitative practices publicly, and initiated a movement against land alienation that eventually sparked mass evangelization. But even as thousands embraced Christianity, the Jesuits kept their eyes on a longer horizon.

The future belonged to the young people. If tribal communities were to experience genuine transformation, then youth needed more than sacraments. They needed education, skills, confidence, and a vision of their own dignity. From that conviction, a province-wide strategy emerged: invest everything in the formation of young people.

The strategy was audacious in its scope. The Jesuits didn’t just open a few elite institutions in urban centers. They planted schools everywhere – in remote villages where children had never seen a classroom, in mining towns where childhood meant labor, in areas so marginalized that other missionaries had deemed them unreachable.

St. John’s School in Ranchi. St. Ignatius School in Gumla. St. Paul’s School in Rengarih. St. Peter’s School in Tongo. Janta High School in Noadih. Each became an anchor. Almost every parish established a school, making education inseparable from community life. The message was unmistakable: your children matter, their minds matter, their futures matter.

But the Jesuits anticipated another trap. What happens when bright tribal students complete matriculation and hit a wall? Where do they go? What do they become? Without pathways to higher education, all that primary schooling would create frustrated ambition rather than empowered leadership.

So, in 1944, they established St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi – a bridge to advanced learning. In 1955, the Xavier Institute of Social Service opened, training students not just in academics but in social analysis and leadership. Polytechnic institutes taught technical skills. Agricultural training centres prepared rural youth for modern farming. The ecosystem was holistic: every young person, at every stage, had somewhere to grow.

The Jesuits understood that education without character produces clever opportunists, not change-makers. So they built a parallel universe of formation programs that shaped hearts and values alongside minds.

The Christian Living Community (CLC), launched by Father Joseph Müllender at Sarwada, became a space where students practiced reflection, discernment, and social commitment. The All-India Catholic University Federation (AICUF) challenged them intellectually and culturally, nurturing critical thinking about justice, society, and their role as emerging leaders.

At every parish, Yuva Sanghs (youth organizations) pulsed with energy. These weren’t perfunctory church groups – they were incubators of leadership where young people discovered they could shape their communities. Programs like Jeevan Pravesh (Life Orientation) caught students at critical moments – right before matriculation – and helped them understand their emotional, mental, and psychological well-being.

More recently, Magis programs have created “shelters of hope,” inviting youth to embrace discernment, service, and excellence as life principles. The approach was clear: form the whole person, not just the intellect.

Something remarkable happened as this formation deepened. Young tribal people – whose ancestors had been considered backward and uncivilized – began feeling called to priestly and religious life in extraordinary numbers.

Through sustained pastoral accompaniment and collaboration with other congregations and dioceses, Jharkhand became a cradle of vocations for the entire Church in India. Four apostolic schools now function as “nurseries of vocation,” forming not only Jesuits but priests and religious for congregations and dioceses nationwide.

This wasn’t about recruiting. It was about young people experiencing such profound dignity and purpose that they wanted to spend their lives creating the same experience for others. The spiritual and moral leadership emerging from these communities represents one of the Ranchi Province’s most enduring legacies.

Jesuit Father Marianus Kujur captured the transformation perfectly. In his address on “Indigenous Youth as Agents of Change for Self-Determination,” he noted that today’s tribal youth are fundamentally different from their grandparents’ generation. They’re awake. They’re aware. They’re conscious of their responsibilities to society and the environment.

The simple, hardworking tribal youth who once accepted oppression as fate have experienced “a new lease of life”. Through education and conscientisation, they’ve developed critical awareness and moral courage. They’re learning to safeguard their identity and roots while engaging constructively with modernity. Most importantly, they’re becoming agents of change within their own communities – not waiting for outsiders to “develop” them, but taking ownership of their collective future.

Tribal youth still face marginalization, exploitation, and displacement, particularly through mining projects that seize their resource-rich land in the name of “development”. Poverty, malnutrition, cultural loss, and forced migration continue plaguing communities. Systemic discrimination and economic exploitation persist even in Jharkhand, a state sitting atop vast natural wealth.

Cultural erosion accelerates as mainstream society pressures assimilation, leaving youth vulnerable to identity crises, manipulation, and conflict. Financial hardship still blocks many village-based youth from quality education, trapping them in poverty cycles that lead to menial labour, migration, substance abuse, and disorientation.

New threats have emerged too. Digital addiction and “FOMO” (fear of missing out) distort aspirations through social media. Psychological stress from navigating multiple worlds – tribal and modern, rural and urban – destabilizes emotional well-being at precisely the age when young people need stability most.

The Ranchi Jesuit province has achieved something extraordinary. Through education, formation, vocational training, cultural preservation, and tireless advocacy for justice, they’ve formed generations of Adivasi leaders now serving in churches, government offices, schools, and civil society throughout India.

But the conclusion is inescapable: the challenges confronting today’s tribal youth are the challenges confronting today’s Jesuits.

The displacement, the identity crisis, the economic exploitation, the cultural erosion – these aren’t problems the Jesuits solved decades ago. They’re live, evolving threats requiring the same radical accompaniment that characterized the Belgian missionaries’ approach in 1885.

The task ahead is to continue walking alongside youth in a rapidly changing world. To galvanize their immense energy and channel it toward justice, integrity, and hope. To help them shape a future rooted in dignity, faith, and self-determination – where they don’t have to choose between cultural identity and economic opportunity, where their land is protected, where their education liberates rather than alienates.

The transformation that began in 1869 isn’t finished. The youth who were once objects of mission are now subjects of their own history.

Source: Jesuits Global