In 1895, a man named Birsa was seen roaming the forests and villages of Chottanagpur in

Bihar. People said he had miraculous powers – he could cure all diseases and multiply grain.
Birsa himself declared that God had appointed him to save his people from trouble, free them
from the slavery of dikus (outsiders). Soon thousands began following Birsa, believing that he
was bhagwan (God) and had come to solve all their problems.

Birsa was born in a family of Mundas – a tribal group that lived in Chottanagpur. But his
followers included other tribals of the region – Santhals and Oraons. All of them in different
ways were unhappy with the changes they were experiencing and the problems they were
facing under British rule. Their familiar ways of life

seemed to be disappearing, their livelihoods were under threat, and their religion appeared to
be in danger.
How Did Tribal Groups Live?
Jhum or shifting cultivators:-
 This was done on small patches of land, mostly in forests.
 The cultivators cut the treetops to allow sunlight to reach the ground, and burnt the
vegetation on the land to clear it for cultivation.
 They spread the ash from the firing, which contained potash, to fertilise the soil.
 They used the axe to cut trees and the hoe to scratch the soil in order to prepare it for
cultivation.
 They broadcast the seeds, that is, scattered the seeds on the field instead of ploughing
the land and sowing the seeds.
 Once the crop was ready and harvested, they moved to another field. A field that had
been cultivated once was left fallow for several years.
Regions of shifting cultivation :-
 Shifting cultivators were found in the hilly and forested tracts of north-east and central
India.
 The lives of these tribal people depended on free movement within forests and on being
able to use the land and forests for growing their crops. That is the only way they could
practise shifting cultivation.
Some were hunters and gatherers:-
Khonds community:-
 The Khonds were such a community living in the forests of Orissa.
 They regularly went out on collective hunts and then divided the meat amongst
themselves. They ate fruits and roots collected from the forest and cooked food with the
oil they extracted from the seeds of the sal and mahua.
 They used many forest shrubs and herbs for medicinal purposes, and sold forest
produce in the local markets.
 The local weavers and leather workers turned to the Khonds when they needed supplies
of kusum and palash flowers to colour their clothes and leather.
How forest people get their supplies of rice and other grains?
 At times they exchanged goods – getting what they needed in return for their valuable
forest produce.
 At other times they bought goods with the small amount of earnings they had.
  Some of them did odd jobs in the villages, carrying loads or building roads, while others
laboured in the fields of peasants and farmers.
 When supplies of forest produce shrank, tribal people had to increasingly wander around
in search of work as labourers.
Why were some people reluctant to work for other?
 But many of them – like the Baigas of central India – were reluctant to do work for others.
 The Baigas saw themselves as people of the forest, who could only live on the produce
of the forest.
 It was below the dignity of a Baiga to become a labourer.
How was dependence on othe product affect tribal people?
Or
How were the moneylender and trader came to see as evil outsiders and the cause of their
misery?
 Tribal groups often needed to buy and sell in order to be able to get the goods that were
not produced within the locality. This led to their dependence on traders and
moneylenders. Traders came around with things for sale, and sold the goods at high
prices.
 Moneylenders gave loans with which the tribals met their cash needs, adding to what
they earned.
 But the interest charged on the loans was usually very high. So for the tribals, market
and commerce often meant debt and poverty. They therefore came to see the
moneylender and trader as evil outsiders and the cause of their misery.
Some herded animals
They were pastoralists who moved with their herds of cattle or sheep according to the seasons.
When the grass in one place was exhausted, they moved to another area.
Different types of Pastrolist:-
 The Van Gujjars of the Punjab hills and the Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle
herders.
 The Gaddis of Kulu were shepherds.
 The Bakarwals of Kashmir reared goats.
Some took to settled cultivation:-
 Even before the nineteenth century, many from within the tribal groups had begun
settling down, and cultivating their fields in one place year after year, instead of moving
from place to place.
 They began to use the plough, and gradually got rights over the land they lived on.
 In many cases, like the Mundas of Chottanagpur, the land belonged to the clan as a
whole. All members of the clan were regarded as descendants of the original settlers,
who had first cleared the land. Therefore, all of them had rights on the land.
 Very often some people within the clan acquired more power than others, some became
chiefs and others followers.
 Powerful men often rented out their land instead of cultivating it themselves.
 British officials saw settled tribal groups like the Gonds and Santhals as more civilised
than hunter-gatherers or shifting cultivators.
How Did Colonial Rule Affect Tribal Lives?
What happened to tribal chiefs?
Before arrival of British
  Before the arrival of the British, in many areas the tribal chiefs were important people.
 They enjoyed a certain amount of economic power and had the right to administer and
control their territories.
 In some places they had their own police and decided on the local rules of land and
forest management.
After arrival of British
 Under British rule, the functions and powers of the tribal chiefs changed considerably.
 They were allowed to keep their land titles over a cluster of villages and rent out lands,
but they lost much of their administrative power and were forced to follow laws made by
British officials in India.
 They also had to pay tribute to the British, and discipline the tribal groups on behalf of the
British.
 They lost the authority they had earlier enjoyed amongst their people, and were unable
to fulfil their traditional functions.
What happened to the shifting cultivators?
 The British were uncomfortable with groups who moved about and did not have a fixed
home. They wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators.
 Settled peasants were easier to control and administer than people who were always on
the move.
 The British also wanted a regular revenue source for the state. So they introduced land
settlements.
Land settlement:-
 According to this they measured the land, defined the rights of each individual to that
land, and fixed the revenue demand for the state.
 Some peasants were declared landowners, others tenants.The tenants were to pay rent
to the landowner who in turn paid revenue to the state.
Why were British not success to settle jhum cultivator?
Or
Why was the jhum cultivating is still practicing in north India?
 The British effort to settle jhum cultivators was not very successful.
 Settled plough cultivation is not easy in areas where water is scarce and the soil is dry.
 In fact, jhum cultivators who took to plough cultivation often suffered, since their fields did
not produce good yields.
 So the jhum cultivators in north-east India insisted on continuing with their traditional
practice. Facing widespread protests, the British had to ultimately allow them the right to
carry on shifting cultivation in some parts of the forest.
Forest laws and their impact:-
Reserved forest:-
 The British extended their control over all forests and declared that forests were state
property.
 Some forests were classified as Reserved Forests for they produced timber which the
British wanted.
 In these forests people were not allowed to move freely, practise jhum cultivation, collect
fruits, or hunt animals.
  But once the British stopped the tribal people from living inside forests, they faced a
problem. From where would the Forest Department get its labour to cut trees for railway
sleepers and to transport logs.
How did colonial official solve the problem of forest labour:-
 They decided that they would give jhum cultivators small patches of land in the forests
and allow them to cultivate these on the condition that those who lived in the villages
would have to provide labour to the Forest Department and look after the forests.
 So in many regions the Forest Department established forest villages to ensure a regular
supply of cheap labour.
How was forest labour react against colonial law:-
 They disobeyed the new rules, continued with practices that were declared illegal, and at
times rose in open rebellion.
 Such was the revolt of Songram Sangma in 1906 in Assam, and the forest satyagraha of
the 1930s in the Central Provinces.
The problem with trade
During the nineteenth century, tribal groups found that traders and money-lenders were coming
into the forests more often, wanting to buy forest produce, offering cash loans, and asking them
to work for wages.
Silk trade:-
 In the eighteenth century, Indian silk was in demand in European markets.
 The fine quality of Indian silk was highly valued and exports from India increased rapidly.
As the market expanded, East India Company officials tried to encourage silk production
to meet the growing demand.
 Hazaribagh, in present-day Jharkhand, was an area where the Santhals reared cocoons.
 The traders dealing in silk sent in their agents who gave loans to the tribal people
and collected the cocoons.
 The growers were paid Rs 3 to Rs 4 for a thousand cocoons.
 These were then exported to Burdwan or Gaya where they were sold at five times
the price.
 The middlemen – so called because they arranged deals between the exporters
and silk growers – made huge profits.
 The silk growers earned very little. Understandably, many tribal groups saw the
market and the traders as their main enemies.
The search for work
 From the late nineteenth century, tea plantations started coming up and mining became
an important industry.
 Tribals were recruited in large numbers to work the tea plantations of Assam and the
coal mines of Jharkhand.
 They were recruited through contractors who paid them miserably low wages, and
prevented them from returning home.
Different rebels that occur against colonial official:-
 The Kols rebelled in 1831-32,
 Santhals rose in revolt in 1855,
 The Bastar Rebellion in central India broke out in 1910,
 The Warli Revolt in Maharashtra in 1940.
A Closer Look – BIRSA MUNDA:-
 Birsa was born in the mid-1870s.
 The son of a poor father, he grew up around the forests of Bohonda, grazing sheep,
playing the flute, and dancing in the local akhara.
How did Birsa encouraged people to rebel?
 As an adolescent, Birsa heard tales of the Munda uprisings of the past and saw the
sirdars (leaders) of the community urging the people to revolt.
 They talked of a golden age when the Mundas had been free of the oppression of dikus,
and said there would be a time when the ancestral right of the community would be
restored.
 They saw themselves as the descendants of the original settlers of the region, fighting for
their land (mulk ki larai), reminding people of the need to win back their kingdom.
Education:-
 Birsa went to the local missionary school, and listened to the sermons of missionaries.
 There too he heard it said that it was possible for the Mundas to attain the Kingdom of
Heaven, and regain their lost rights. This would be possible if they became good
Christians and gave up their “bad practices”.
 Later Birsa also spent some time in the company of a prominent Vaishnav preacher.
 He wore the sacred thread, and began to value the importance of purity and piety.
 He urged the Mundas to give up drinking liquor, clean their village, and stop believing in
witchcraft and sorcery.
 Birsa also turned against missionaries and Hindu landlords. He saw them as outside
forces that were ruining the Munda way of life.
Teaching:-
 In 1895 Birsa urged his followers to recover their glorious past.
 He talked of a golden age in the past – a satyug (the age of truth) – when Mundas lived a
good life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and orchards,
practised cultivation to earn their living.
 They did not kill their brethren and relatives. They lived honestly.
 Birsa also wanted people to once again work on their land, settle down and cultivate their
fields.
What was the political aim Birsa Movement?
 It wanted to drive out missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu landlords, and the government
and set up a Munda Raj with Birsa at its head.
 The movement identified all these forces as the cause of the misery the Mundas were
suffering.
 The land policies of the British were destroying their traditional land system, Hindu
landlords and moneylenders were taking over their land, and missionaries were
criticising their traditional culture.
They arrested Birsa in 1895, convicted him on charges of rioting and jailed him for two years.
After released from Jail:-
 When Birsa was released in 1897 he began touring the villages to gather support.
 He used traditional symbols and language to rouse people, urging them to destroy
“Ravana” (dikus and the Europeans) and establish a kingdom under his leadership.
 Birsa’s followers began targeting the symbols of diku and European power.
  They attacked police stations and churches, and raided the property of moneylenders
and zamindars.
 They raised the white flag as a symbol of Birsa Raj.
Death of Birsa:-
 In 1900 Birsa died of cholera and the movement faded out.
The movement was significant in at least two ways:-
First – it forced the colonial government to introduce laws so that the land of the tribals could
not be easily taken over by dikus.
Second – it showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to protest against
injustice and express their anger against colonial rule.