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    Bastar Rebellion

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    VARSHA VINOD
    The Bastar Rebellion occurred in 1910 in response to the British government imposing forest reservation laws in Bastar, located in southern Chhattisgarh, India. This prevented many local communities like the Gond people from practicing traditions like shifting cultivation and restricted their access to forests. A leader named Gunda Dhur emerged to plan rebellion against the colonial laws through village meetings. Villagers looted colonial outposts and redistributed goods. The British brutally suppressed the rebellion by surrounding and firing on villages. Though the rebellion was eventually put down, it led the British to reduce the area under forest reservation and halt further work on reservations for some time.

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    Bastar Rebellion

    Uploaded by

    VARSHA VINOD
    279 views2 pages
    The Bastar Rebellion occurred in 1910 in response to the British government imposing forest reservation laws in Bastar, located in southern Chhattisgarh, India. This prevented many local communities like the Gond people from practicing traditions like shifting cultivation and restricted their access to forests. A leader named Gunda Dhur emerged to plan rebellion against the colonial laws through village meetings. Villagers looted colonial outposts and redistributed goods. The British brutally suppressed the rebellion by surrounding and firing on villages. Though the rebellion was eventually put down, it led the British to reduce the area under forest reservation and halt further work on reservations for some time.

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    The Bastar Rebellion occurred in 1910 in response to the British government imposing forest reservation laws in Bastar, located in southern Chhattisgarh, India. This prevented many local communities like the Gond people from practicing traditions like shifting cultivation and restricted their access to forests. A leader named Gunda Dhur emerged to plan rebellion against the colonial laws through village meetings. Villagers looted colonial outposts and redistributed goods. The British brutally suppressed the rebellion by surrounding and firing on villages. Though the rebellion was eventually put down, it led the British to reduce the area under forest reservation and halt further work on reservations for some time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    279 views2 pages

    Bastar Rebellion

    Uploaded by

    VARSHA VINOD
    The Bastar Rebellion occurred in 1910 in response to the British government imposing forest reservation laws in Bastar, located in southern Chhattisgarh, India. This prevented many local communities like the Gond people from practicing traditions like shifting cultivation and restricted their access to forests. A leader named Gunda Dhur emerged to plan rebellion against the colonial laws through village meetings. Villagers looted colonial outposts and redistributed goods. The British brutally suppressed the rebellion by surrounding and firing on villages. Though the rebellion was eventually put down, it led the British to reduce the area under forest reservation and halt further work on reservations for some time.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Bastar Rebellion

     Forest communities across India and different parts of the world were rebelling against the forest
    laws imposed on them.
     A significant rebellion was the Bastar Rebellion in 1910 against the reservation of forests.

    Bastar: Location and People

     It is located in the southernmost part of Chhattisgarh and borders Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and
    Maharashtra.
     A number of different communities live in Bastar such as Maria and Muria Gonds, Dhurwas, Bhatras
    and Halbas.
     They speak different languages but share common customs and beliefs.
     Every year headmen of these communities and villages would gather at a Pargana. They organise a
    hunt and discuss issue of concern.

    Bastar: Traditional lifestyle of Villagers

     They believed that rivers, forest and mountains have spirits.


     Believed land was given by earth, therefore should be protected.
     Made offerings to the earth at each agricultural festival.
     Respected village boundaries and paid a small fee (Devsari, Dand or Man) in case they wanted any
    agricultural produce from another village.

    Changing Laws and Growing Fear

     British government implemented changes that banned forest use, shifting cultivation, hunting, and
    other activities.
     Some villagers were allowed to stay back in the reserved forest at the cost of providing free labour.
     They would be involved in cutting and transporting trees and protecting the forest from fires.
     These villages later became forest villages.
     Villages which were forest villages were later displaced without any notice.
     Villagers suffered due to increased land rents, and frequent demands for free labour and goods by
    the colonial officials.
     The situation finally reached its worst point with the famines of 1899-1900 and again from 1907 to
    1908.

    Response against the new colonial laws

     Festivals, and village council meetings were used as venues for the planning of rebellion.
     The first forest to be reserved was the Kanger Forest, and initial initiatives were taken by the Dhurwa
    community.
     Gunda Dhur from Nethanar village emerged as a leader of the rebellion. By 1910, the message was
    passed to different villages seeking support.
     All villages began contributing money and material for the rebellion. Houses of British officials, police
    stations, and markets were looted.
     Looted grains were redistributed amongst villagers.
     People who were associated with the colonial administration were attacked.
     To supress the rebellion, the British sent troops.

    British response to the Rebellion

     No negotiations with the Adivasi villagers.


     Villages were surrounded and firing opened on all suspects.
     They punished the villagers who took part in the rebellion.
     Villagers fled into jungles to hide.
     Took 3 months for British authorities to regain control over Bastar.

    Result of the Rebellion

     Work on the reservation was halted for some time.


     Area under reservation was reduced to half.
     Post 1947, the World Bank came up with a proposal of replacing 4600 hectares of Sal forests with
    tropical pine for paper production.
     After severe protests by environmentalists, the project was halted.

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