Tribal revolts in India before Indian independence

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Below is given a chronological record of tribal and peasant revolts in India before independence from British rule in the 1947. The list covers those tribal uprisings that occurred during the period of British rule in India. [1]

Contents

18th century

Memorial of Chuar rebellion at Midnapore Medinipur town, West Midnapore 03.jpg
Memorial of Chuar rebellion at Midnapore
Statue of Tilka Majhi Tilka Majhi.jpg
Statue of Tilka Majhi

19th century

Telanga Kharia Telanga Kharia.jpg
Telanga Kharia
An illustration of an engagement during the Santhal rebellion by The Illustrated London News Attack by 600 Santhals upon a party of 50 sepoys, 40th regiment native infantry.jpg
An illustration of an engagement during the Santhal rebellion by The Illustrated London News
Statue of Sidhu and Kanhu Statue of Sidhu and Kanhu in Dinajpur District 01.jpg
Statue of Sidhu and Kanhu
Anglo-Manipur War-1891 Anglo-manipur-war-1891.jpeg
Anglo-Manipur War-1891
Birsa Munda Birsa Munda, photograph in Roy (1912-72).JPG
Birsa Munda

20th century

Statue of Jatra Tana Bhagat, Tana Bhagat Movement Veer Jatra Tana Bhagat.jpg
Statue of Jatra Tana Bhagat, Tana Bhagat Movement
Statue of Alluri Sitarama Raju Alluri Sita Rama Raju statue.jpg
Statue of Alluri Sitarama Raju
Rani Gaidinliu Gaidinliu.jpg
Rani Gaidinliu

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jharkhand</span> State in eastern India

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adivasi</span> Varied tribal groups in the Indian subcontinent

The Adivasi are heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The Constitution of India does not use the word Adivasi, instead referring to Scheduled Tribes and Janjati. The government of India does not officially recognise tribes as indigenous people. The country ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the United Nations (1957) and refused to sign the ILO Convention 169. Most of these groups are included in the Scheduled Tribe category under constitutional provisions in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singhbhum district</span> District of British India of Bengal Presidency

Singhbhum was a district of India during the British Raj, part of the Chota Nagpur Division of the Bengal Presidency. It was located in the present-day Indian state of Jharkhand. Chaibasa was the district headquarters. Located in the southern limit of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, Singhbhum included the Kolhan estate located in its southeastern part. The district has been segmented into two smaller districts, East Singhbhum and West Singhbhum.

The Kol people referred to a group of tribal communities of Chotanagpur in eastern parts of India. Historically, the Mundas, Oraons, Ho and Bhumijs were called Kols by the British.

The Tea-garden community is a term for a multiethnic, multicultural group of tea garden workers and their descendants in Assam. They are officially referred to as Tea-tribes by the government of Assam and notified as Other Backward Classes (OBC). They are the descendants of peoples from multiple tribal and caste groups brought by the British colonial planters as indentured labourers from the regions of present-day Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh into colonial Assam during the 1860-90s in multiple phases to work in tea gardens. They are primarily found in districts with a large concentration of tea estates, such as Upper Assam districts of Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, and Golaghat, and Barrak Valley districts of Cachar and Karimganj. The total population is estimated to be around 7 million, of which an estimated 4.5 million reside in residential quarters built inside 799 tea estates spread across tea-growing regions of Assam. Another 2.5 million reside in the nearby villages spread across those tea-growing regions. They speak multiple languages, including Sora, Odia, Assam Sadri, Sambalpuri, Kurmali, Santali, Kurukh, Kharia, Kui, Chhattisgarhi, Gondi and Mundari. Assam Sadri, distinguished from the Sadri language, serves as lingua franca among the community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John-Baptist Hoffmann</span>

Johannes Baptist Hoffman, anglicized John-Baptist Hoffmann, was a German Jesuit linguist and missionary to the Mundas in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ho people</span> Ethnic group of India, Nepal and Bangladesh

The Ho people are an Austroasiatic Munda ethnic group of India. They are mostly concentrated in the Kolhan region of Jharkhand and northern Odisha where they constitute around 10.7% and 7.3% of the total Scheduled Tribe population respectively, as of 2011. With a population of approximately 700,000 in the state in 2001, the Ho are the fourth most numerous Scheduled tribe in Jharkhand after the Santals, Kurukhs, and Mundas. Ho also inhabit adjacent areas in the neighbouring states of Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar bringing the total to 806,921 as of 2001. They also live in Bangladesh and Nepal.

The region have been inhabited since the Stone Age. Copper tools from the Chalcolithic period have been discovered. This area entered the Iron Age during the mid-2nd millennium BCE.

Bhumij is a Munda ethnic group of India. They primarily live in the Indian states of West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Jharkhand, mostly in the old Singhbhum district and also in states like Bihar and Assam. There is also a sizeable population found in Bangladesh. Bhumijas speak the Bhumij language, an Austroasiatic language, and use Ol Onal script for writing.

Ranchi district is one among the twenty-four districts of the state of Jharkhand in Eastern India. This region was under the control of the Magadha Empire, then it was a part of the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka and later a part of the Gupta Empire. After the fall of the Gupta Empire a legendary king named Phanimukut established the Nagvanshi dynasty and controlled the Chota Nagpur plateau region for several centuries thereafter.

Chuar rebellion or Chuar revolt, also known as Jungle Mahal movement was a series of peasant movements between 1771 and 1809 by the tribal inhabitants of the countryside surrounding the Jungle Mahals settlements of Dhalbhum, Midnapore, Bankura and Manbhum against the rule of the East India Company (EIC).

The Kudmi Mahato are a tribal community in the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha of India. They are primarily agriculturalist.

The Nagvanshis of Chotanagpur, also known as the Khokhra chieftaincy, was an Indian dynasty which ruled the parts of Chota Nagpur plateau region during much of ancient, medieval and modern period. Phani Mukut Rai is considered the first king of dynasty claim to be son of Pundrika Naga, a mythical Naga. Lal Chintamani Sharan Nath Shahdeo (1931–2014) was last ruling king of the dynasty, until the estate was merged to the Republic of India.

The Nagpuria people, also Nagpuri or Sadan, are an Indo-Aryan speaking ethnolinguistic group who are the native speakers of the Nagpuri language and natives of the western Chota Nagpur Plateau region of Indian states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

The Kol uprising, Kol rebellion, also known in British records as the Kol mutiny was a revolt of the tribal Kol people of Chhota Nagpur that took place between 1831 and 1832. It was due to economic exploitation brought on by the systems of land tenure and administration that had been introduced by the East India Company. Tribal people of Chotanagpur including Mundas, Oraons, Hos and Bhumijs were called Kols. They initially plundered and killed Sikh and Muslims thikedars (contractors) who collected taxes by different means. Later they also started to plunder and kill Hindus of nearby villages and burn their houses. The insurgency was suppressed by killing of the leaders, their followers and arrest of many leaders by Thomas Wilkinson.

The Bhumij Rebellion or Bhumij Revolt, also known as Ganga Narain's Hungama was a revolt during 1832–1833 by Bhumij tribals based in the Dhalbhum and Jungle Mahal areas of the Midnapore district of the erstwhile Bengal state. It was led by Ganga Narayan Singh.

Ganga Narayan Singh was an Indian revolutionary from Jungle Mahals, known as the leader of Bhumij rebellion. He led a revolt against the East India Company in 1832-33. The British called it "Ganga Narain's Hungama", while some historians have called it the Chuar rebellion.

Edward Tuite Dalton CSI was a British soldier and anthropologist. He was posted in Assam, then became commissioner of Chota Nagpur Division. He was posted in Chotanagpur for two decades. Later he became major general of Bengal Lancer. He commanded both European and native people during the sepoy mutiny of 1857. Dalton, along with justice Campbell, Herbert Hope Risley, John-Baptist Hoffmann and P.O.Bidding initiated ethnographic studies in Chotanagpur. His work Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal formed a part of the Census in British India in 1872.

Buli Mahato was a revolutionary leader of the Bhumij Rebellion and Kol Rebellion. He was a zamindar of the Kudmi community of Karadih village in Sonahatu Thana, Jharkhand.

References

  1. Verma, R. C. INDIAN TRIBES THROUGH THE AGES. Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. ISBN   978-81-230-2198-0.
  2. Mishra, Asha; Paty, Chittaranjan Kumar (2010). Tribal Movements in Jharkhand, 1857-2007. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 978-81-8069-686-2.
  3. Grant, James (1880). Cassell's illustrated history of India. University of California Libraries. London ; New York : Cassell, Petter, Galpin.
  4. Williams, G. r c (1874). Historical And Statistical Memoir Of Dehra Doon.
  5. Jha, Jagdish Chandra (1958). "THE KOL RISING OF CHOTANAGPUR (1831-33)—ITS CAUSES". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 21: 440–446. ISSN   2249-1937. JSTOR   44145239.
  6. Jha, Jagdish Chandra (1967). The Bhumij Revolt, 1832-33: Ganga Narain's Hangama Or Turmoil. Munshiram Manoharlal.
  7. Santal Rebellion: Documents. Subarnarekha. 1983.
  8. Documents of Anglo-Manipur War, 1891. N. Debendra Singh. 1991.
  9. A.K.Dhan (2017-08-29). BIRSA MUNDA. Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. ISBN   978-81-230-2544-5.