Until June 1855, Santhals and the entire region of Damin-i-Koh were
unknown to the entire world. But something extraordinary happened this
year that gave birth to one of the most memorable struggles for freedom
in India- the Santhal Rebellion. And when that occurred, each event were
closely followed by Marx, and it found place in the writings of the
Britain’s most celebrated writer of that era-Charles Dickens.
It all began with the creation of Damin-i-Koh the area surrounding
the Rajmahal Hills. In 1832 an effort was made by the British
authorities to separate the territories of the local zamindars and that
of the hill men (paharias). Masonary pillars were constructed to mark
the areas of these two territories, that of the plain land, which
belonged to the zamindars, and the hills which belonged to the hillmen.
Sandwiched between these two, basically the skirt of the hills, a huge
portion of afforested land lay unoccupied. The East India Company with
the intention to earn revenue from this unused, unpopulated land invited
the Santhals to occupy it. The Santhals at that time were scattered
all-round Cuttack, Singhbhoom, Dhulbhoom, Midnapore, Bankura, Manbhoom,
Barabhoom, Panchete, Chota Nagpur, Palamow, Ramgarh, Birbhum, and parts
of Bhagalpore. The Santhals in these places were not happy with the new
tax laws brought by the local zamindars, the promise of a new land, a
new beginning motivated them to make this great exodus.
Although the migration had started from the 1790’s,
from 1830’s it gained a new momentum, year on year the Santhal
population in Damin-i-Koh multiplied in extraordinary pace. The
Damin-i-Koh was a massive extent of land measuring about 1366.01 square
miles, of which 500 sq miles were heavily afforested land; of this 254
sq miles were cleared by the Santhals for their own settlement. In 1838
there were 3000 Santhals in Damin-i-Koh, who lived in 40 villages; by
1851 they numbered about 82795 souls living in 1473 villages! The
Santhals were allowed a rent free usage for first three years,
thereafter an entire village had to pay about 3-10 Rs per year as
revenue, and subsequently another five year settlement plan was made,
which according to the British records quite nominal. Nominal, yet when
we compare the revenue generated from this we see a major profit. In
1837-38 the revenue collected was Rs. 6,682 and rose as high as 58,033
in the years before the rebellion!
Two Santhal Men from the book Tribes of India |
Their hard labor and toil converted this
impregnable forest to a thriving tribal metropolis. “This valley,” wrote
Captain Sherwill in 1851,”viewed from any of the surrounding hills
affords an admirable example of what can be done with natives, when
their natural industry and perseverance are guarded and encouraged by
kindness. When Mr. Pontent took charge of the hills in 1835, this valley
was a wilderness, inhabited here and there by hill men; the remainder
was overrun with heavy forest, in which wild elephants and tigers were
numerous, but now in 1851 several hundred substantial Santhal villagers,
with an abundance of cattle and surrounded by luxuriant crops, occupy
this hitherto neglected spot.”
The revenue collection of this province was placed
in the hands of Mr. Pontet. As far as the judicial and the criminal
matters were concerned, there was only one resident Magistrate at
Deoghor. For addressing the judicial matters one had to go as far as
Bhagalpore, Aurangabad or Birbhum to obtain justice. Sometimes though in
colder climate, Mr. Pontent took a stroll along these lands reviewing
the status of the inhabitants and often addressing their grievances. But
he was basically a revenue collector with little power over judicial
matters for which one had to travel Bhagalpore. This was a very tedious
and no-result process. Firstly the distance was great; secondly was the
inaccessibility of a Santhal to the court in case he had to solve any
issue. The great Indian judicial machinery restricted his entry in every
way possible and extorted heavy tips for the most minor favor. He would
be surround by an impregnable barrier of Munshis, Amlas, Mokhtars,
Munshis, Chowkidars, Burkandazees, and what not. And there
inaccessibility to the court was a major point of advantage for the
leeches called moneylenders and extortionists who crawled around for
prey in this part of the country.
The coming of the Santhals in Damin-i-Koh proved a
blessing in disguise. Considering the worst case scenario they perhaps
were much better under the local zamindars with all their new taxes and
extortion machinery. But, in Damin-i-Koh there lurked another blood
sucking entity called “mahajans” or the moneylenders who enticed the
Santhals with credit or loans and subsequently confiscated their lands.
They actually allured the Santhals to sell their surplus land, and using
short term credits as baits they virtually got hold of their best lands
and made the sellers utterly wanting for more and more credits, until
they were reduced to landless cultivators. When they were nothing but
cultivator and jungle clearers, they were again enticed by credits with
assurance of providing some sort of temporary relief, and compelled to
sign bonds through which they had to serve the creditor, at any time
called upon. The rate of interest was exorbitant, even forty to fifty
percent was very normal! This went on in a cyclic order, obviously the
burrower would default, since the whole bond was devised for default,
subsequently his son would become a bonded laborer who would work
tirelessly, without pay, to repay his father’s debt.
Sir William Le Fleming Robinson (later appointed as
a Deputy Commissioner of the Santhal Parganas) who actually stamped out
the bonded labour system doing a fair bit of justice with the Santhals
mentions, “…I have had a bond brought to me in which Rs. 25 was
originally burrowed by a man who worked in his lifetime, his son did
ditto, and I released his grandson from any further necessity; it had
been running on for over thirty years, if I remember rightly!” In this
all time of thirty years the burrower had only food from his debtor and
in some time, he would be provide with a piece of cloth to cover his
shame. Eventually this spread a great discontent among the Santhals, the
loss of land, which they had cleared, they had cultivated, by their
great toil aggravated the rousing sentiments of general public against
the extortionists. The ancient word of advice, “don’t trust the
outsiders,” filled their minds with hatred and all the more instigated
them for vengeance. It’s a basic tendency for any human being to find a
home, to look for a place to settle down. And after all this tiring
exodus, clearing massive forest, making cultivable land, when their
basic need for life was taken out, they were craving for independence
for freedom. They wanted a land of their own, where there would be no
influence of the outsiders, there were will be no compulsions, the land
will belong to the tillers. This was the singular cause of the
rebellion, as the journey to independence kicked off on 30th June 1855.
The capital of the entire Santhal villages was
Burhait, and half a mile south west of it is the village of Bhognadih,
where the celebrated leaders of the Santhal rebellion Seedo Kanho lived.
Seeing the repression of their fellow brothers and of their own, they
called a grand gathering at Bhognadih. About ten thousand Santhals from
all parts of Damin-i-Koh attended this meeting. I must relate an
extraordinary event which preceded this gathering. One night when Seedo
and Kanoo were discussing over the grievous state of the Santhals, a bit
of paper from above fell on Seedo’s head. What followed next was a
remarkable thing, the God (thakur) himself appeared before them, he was
of fair complexion but dressed in native fashion. He had ten fingers in
each hand, and held a white book in his hand, he then wrote something
in it, and presented twenty pages in five batches to the brothers.
Following this another set of paper fell on Seedo’s head and again to
their amazement two men appeared before them. They explained the
Thakur’s order to them and vanished soon after. This was not just once
but many revelations by the Thakur continued for many days. The brothers
erected a proper figure of the Thakur within the enclosures of the
house, and this was revered by all the villagers of this area. They
brought milk and other offerings for the Thakur daily, and respected it
with the utmost faith.
In the appointed day before ten thousand Santhal
men, the order of the Thakur was announced. On the basis of these
announcements, letters were drafted by Kirta, Bhadoo and Sunno Manjhee
by Seedo’s order to the Commissioner, Collector, and Magistrate of
Bhagalpore, The Collector and Magistrate of Birbhum, to several Darogahs
and zamindars from whom a reply was called within fifteen days. The
Declaration of Independence or the Order of Thakur, no matter what you
call it contained the following demands-
1. The Revenue collection would be done exclusively by the Santhals and remitted to the State.
2. The rate of the revenue would be- Rs 2 for every buffalo
plough, 1 Anna on each bullock plough, a half Anna for each cow-plough,
per annum.
3. The rate of interest upon money loaned will be 1 paise for each Rupee yearly.
4. The immediate banishment of the all the moneylenders and
zamindars from Damin-i-koh and severe all connections with them.
With the proclamation of Independence the Santhals now were on the
move. Seedo and Kanoo were obviously the commanders of this great
uprising. In 7th July a massive body of Santhals appeared at
Panchkhetia, a place little north of Burhait. Hearing the news of this
assembly the Darogah of Dighi or Buri Bazar set out to meet them along
with few armed police men. He may be called upon to do so by the already
fearing moneylenders who may have given some bribe to him for the
arrest of the Santhals. However this proved to be dangerous expedition,
when he met Seedo and his men in Panckehthia, the Santhals informed him
that they had come to levy a tax of Rs. 5 from every businessman around
the place. After some heated dialogues the Darogah angrily ordered the
guards to bind Seedo which was a fatal mistake, this act fueled the
anger of the Santals and he was cut down by Seedo himself. About nine
men were murdered that day, as the shops and property of the shop
keepers and businessmen were torched, any resistance was met with
extreme vengeance and this marked the beginning of the Santhal
Rebellion.
The Martello Tower in Pakur |
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