📖 PART 1: How Did Tribal Groups Live?

By the 19th century, tribal people in different parts of India were involved in a variety of activities to sustain themselves.

1. Some Were Jhum Cultivators

• They spread the ash (containing potash) to fertilise the soil.
• They broadcast (scattered) the seeds instead of ploughing the land.
• Once the crop was ready and harvested, they moved to another field, leaving the old field fallow for several years so soil could recover its fertility.
• Practiced mainly in the hilly and forested tracts of North-East and Central India.

2. Some Were Hunters and Gatherers

• Many regions saw tribal groups living by hunting animals and gathering forest produce. They saw forests as essential for survival.
• Example: The Khonds of Orissa lived in collective hunts and divided the meat. They ate fruits/roots and used oil from sal and mahua seeds to cook.
• They sold forest produce (shrubs/herbs, sal leaves, flowers) in local markets to weavers and leather workers who needed them to dye clothes and leather.
• When forest supplies shrank, they sometimes had to wander in search of work as labourers, leading to exploitation by moneylenders and traders.

3. Some Herded Animals

• Many tribal groups were pastoralists who moved with their herds of cattle or sheep according to the seasons.
• Examples: The Van Gujjars of Punjab hills and Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders. The Gaddis of Kullu were shepherds. The Bakarwals of Kashmir reared goats.

4. Some Took to Settled Cultivation

• Even before the 19th century, many from within the tribal groups had begun settling down, ploughing the same field year after year instead of constantly moving.
• Examples: The Mundas of Chota Nagpur considered the land belonged to the clan as a whole, tracing descent to original settlers. Sometimes strong members became chiefs (and rented out land), while others remained followers.
• British officials saw these settled groups (like the Santhals and Gonds) as more civilised than the wild hunter-gatherers or shifting cultivators.

⚔️ PART 2: How Did Colonial Rule Affect Tribal Lives?

1. What Happened to Tribal Chiefs?

• Before British arrival, tribal chiefs were important people enjoying economic power and the right to administer their territories.
• Under British rule: They lost much of their administrative power and were forced to follow laws made by British officials in India. They were allowed to keep their land titles but had to pay tribute to the British and "discipline" the tribe on their behalf. They lost the authority they earlier enjoyed among their people.

2. What Happened to the Shifting Cultivators?

• The British were uncomfortable with groups who moved about. They wanted them to settle down and become peasant cultivators because settled peasants were easier to control and measured as a regular revenue source.
• The British introduced land settlements, measuring land, defining rights, and fixing revenue demands.
• The effort to settle Jhum cultivators was largely unsuccessful because water was scarce and soil was dry in those regions. Ploughs wouldn't work easily. Facing widespread protests, the British eventually had to allow them the right to carry on shifting cultivation in some parts of the forest.

3. Forest Laws and Their Impact

• In Reserved Forests, people were not allowed to move freely, practise jhum cultivation, collect fruits, or hunt animals.
• Resulting Problem: How would shifting cultivators survive? Many were forced to move away in search of work. But this created a problem for the British—where would they get labour to cut trees for railway sleepers?
• The Solution (Forest Villages): The colonial officials decided they would give jhum cultivators small patches of land in the forests, on the condition that those who lived there would have to provide free labour to the Forest Department and look after the forests.
• Many tribal groups rebelled against these unjust laws leading to uprisings. Example: The revolt of Songram Sangma in 1906 in Assam.

4. The Problem with Trade

• During the 19th century, traders and moneylenders came into the forests more often, wanting to buy forest produce, offering cash loans, and asking them to work for wages.
• Tribals found this initially confusing but later realized they were caught in a debt trap. Example: Santhals reared cocoons (silk) and were paid Rs 3-4 for a thousand cocoons. These were exported to Burdwan or Gaya and sold at five times the price. The middlemen made huge profits, but the growers earned next to nothing, leading them to view traders ("dikus") as their enemies.

👑 PART 3: Birsa Munda and the Vision of a Golden Age

Birsa was born in the mid-1870s into a family of Mundas, a tribal group in Chotanagpur. He grew up hearing tales of a Golden Age (Satyug) when Mundas were free from the oppression of dikus.

• In 1895, Birsa started a movement, urging his followers to recover their glorious past by giving up liquor, cleaning their villages, stopping belief in witchcraft, and planting trees to restore their land.
• He turned against missionaries (who criticized Munda culture) and Hindu landlords/moneylenders who were taking over Munda lands and forcing them to work as bonded labourers.
• His vision was to drive out missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu landlords, and the government to set up a Munda Raj with Birsa at its head. The followers attacked police stations, churches, and raided the property of moneylenders, flying the white flag as a symbol of Birsa Raj.
• Result: In 1895, he was arrested for two years for rioting. Though released in 1897, he toured villages gathering support. In 1900, Birsa died of cholera and the movement faded out.

Why was the movement significant?

1. It forced the colonial government to introduce laws (Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908) so that land of the tribals could not be easily taken over by dikus.
2. It showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial rule.