Locally, in the present Khunti district, Birsa Munda was a fondly revered leader for his sacrifice to protect the Adivasis from British colonial injustice since his demise in 1900. He figured as a freedom fighter of India at the independence stage, pushed by the Adivasi awakening. In the context of Birsa Munda given special honour by the Indian nation in recent years, this chapter finds, by a survey of historical writings on him, that he was a freedom fighter of secondary importance in the beginning. In some later writings, he is even denied a freedom fighter’s status. Commentaries depict him as a tainted character. The chapter points out contemporary misunderstandings on his persona which mismatches the honour of a national icon. Taking Birsa’s case, the chapter suggests a scholarship beyond the paradigm of Adivasis as ‘primitive’ anti-colonial fighters, ‘emulative’ by nature. Adivasi initiatives were rather Adivasis’ own.