The Santhal Revolt

Jharkhand whose name literally means “Bush land” or “Forest land” had a long history of resistance to the British colonial rule.  Among the numerous tribes that make up the state, the Santhals are one of the dominant ones, primarily in the south eastern part of the Chotanagpur plateau and Midnapore in West Bengal.

Who were the Santhals?

The Santhals are so called, as they were believed to be inhabitants of Saont , meaning plain land in Bengal’s Midnapore region. There are various theories about their origin, as per folklore they came from Hihri, which is current day Ahuri in Hazaribagh district. From there they were moved out to the Chota Nagpur plateau, and later Jhalda, Paktum.

During the Great Bengal famine of 1770, the Junglemahal region located in the South West was one of the worst hit, and many perished. The massive loss of life resulted in a significant loss of revenue for the East India Company. So when the Permanent Settlement Act was enacted by Lord Cornwallis in 1790, the British looked for pastoral dwellers who could clear forests for the agricultural lands. The Company demarcated the Damini-i-Koh region in Jharkhand, basically the forested Rajmahal Hills area covering the districts of Godda, Sahebganj and Pakur.

They first encouraged the hill dwelling Mal Paharia tribes, to settle, who however refused to clear the forests and declined the offer. This led the Company to invite Santhals, then located primarily in Junglemahal region settled along the Subarnarekha river from Hazaribagh to Medinipur. Driven by promises of land and better economic opportunities, the Santhals came to settle in large numbers not just from Junglemahal region, but even from Odisha.

Between 1830-50, the Santhal population in the region substantially rose from 3,000 to 83,00, which in turn resulted in an increase in the Company revenue. However the Santhals did not benefit in any way from this, as the Mahajans and Zamindars, along with the tax collectors, collectively called as Diku, who were hand in glove with the Company, began to exploit them. Lending money at exorbitant rates of interest to the Santhals, grabbing their lands, forcing them into bonded labor, led to increasing resentment among them. The bonded labor was in two forms, kamioti  by which the borrower had to work for the mahajan till loan repayment, and harwahi where apart from working for the mahajan also had to plough the fields. The Zamindars on the other hand extracted huge rents from the Santhal peasants, while those who worked in the indigo plantations, had to slave for long hours, and extremely low wages.

The oppresion and indifference of the British administration to their woes, led a group of Santhals under  Bir Singh Manjhi,Domin Manjhi to attack the Zamindars in 1854, and distribute the loot among the poorer lot.

And in a way that would lead to the Santhal Revolt, that began on June 30, 1885 by the Murmu brothers Sidhu and Kahnu, who claimed to have received the word from their deity Thakur Bonga. And that very night some 10,000 Santhals gathered at Bhagnadihi, where the brothers announced as per their deity

“Slaughter all the mahajans and darogas, to banish the traders and zamindars and all rich Bengalis from their country, to sever their connection with the Damin-i-koh, and to fight all who resisted them, for the bullets of their enemies would be turned to water”.

The Santhals demanded the British and their stooges to leave Damin-i-koh, else face the consquences. They also established a parallel Government, declaring themselves as Governors of the region, and many were appointed as Darogas Naibs.

On July 7, 1885 when a police party went to arrest the Santhal leaders on complaint of the Mahajans, they were attacked and a daroga was killed. This began the “Hul” that would soon spread to other regions like wildfire, as Zamindars, money lenders, were attacked, their property looted, and some of them executed. The Santhals were supported by a large number of smaller peasants and artisans, impoverished by the British rule. While the Gowalas supplied them with milk and other provisions, the Lohars made their weapons. Also smaller tribes like Kamars, Bagdis, Bagals supported the revolt.

With the situation getting out of hand, the Company struck back, sending in a large number of troops to suppress the revolt. The Nawab of Murshidabad supplied war elephants to be used against the Santhals, while a bounty of Rs 10,000 was announced on Sidhu and Kanhu.

The primitive weapons of the Santhals were no match to the artillery, as major skirmishes occured from July 1885 to January 1886 in places like Kahalgaon, Suri, Raghunathpur, and Munkatora. Sidhu Murmu was arrested and hanged on August 19, 1885 while Kanhu was arrested in 1886. The movement received a setback with the two brothers killed, and after six months it finally ended. Many Santhal villages were burnt down as punishment, and elephants used to tear down their homes.

The Santhal revolt though would lead to many other such tribal revolts in Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha against the British. As a consequence the British passed the Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act ,1876 that offered the tribals protection from exploitation by the non-tribals. It also prohibited sale of tribal land, and was continued even after Independence.