History Of Santhal Rebellion
30 June 1855. On this day, a battle was being fought, the outcome of which had been positive, perhaps India would have escaped from the clutches of the British 100 years ago. Yes, you heard it right. Independence might have been achieved 90 years ago. But you might be thinking that such a battle was fought in 1857, so why did we say 1855? Have we made a mistake? Yes, a mistake has been made but not by us. From those historians who did not give this battle so much importance that it could be given more space in the books.
But whoever saw this fight happening or heard about it would say that I wish we had won that day. On one side there were 60,000 Santhals and on the other side there was the entire British army which was being supported by the Nawab of Murshidabad himself and the Santhal rebellion was going on. A rebellion that convinced the British of the strength of the Indian people. But in this battle, the British also understood that there is only one way to rule India and that is divide and rule. But how? Who were those people who supported the British to know the answer to every question? Stay tuned till the end of the Blog.
First let us understand who is Santhal? The Santhals are a tribe of people that lived in five districts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa until 1790. If this is understood with the help of the map, then these people lived in Cuttack, Dhalbhum, Veerbhum, Manbhum and Hazaribagh districts south of Patna. But why only till 1790? Why not after that? Because after that they had to relocate from there to help the British. Yes, you heard it right, to help the British. Now you might be wondering if Santhal. If they were helping the British then why did there go war between them? 1790.
This help being in. To understand how the rebellion took shape by 1855, we have to go back 20 years to 1770. This was the time when the Battle of Plassey had taken place. The Nawab of Bengal had lost this war and Bengal had got a new Nawab whose name was Mir Jafar. Mir Jafar had made an agreement with the British that he was giving all the land between Calcutta and the sea to the British and every revenue coming from there would be completely theirs. This land includes many districts of Bengal and Odisha.
The British used these lands extensively for many years. These lands had become a major source of their revenue. But then comes the year 1770. This year there is such a huge drought in Bengal that there is chaos all around. The number of deaths reaches lakhs and it is not only the Indians who are affected by this but its impact is also seen on the British. He was getting huge profits from this Diwani but the year 1770 also reduces his profits. Although they feel that perhaps its effect will end in the coming time, but this drought keeps increasing day by day.
Initially this drought was affecting three out of every eight humans. After that it affects every third human being and ultimately more than 1 crore people either die of hunger or migrate. For the people who live there, the monsoon season that comes after the drought becomes a rainy season as it brings with it many deadly diseases like malaria and cholera. Overall, the British were broke and now they needed a new revenue model, to create which they turned to Damin Eco.
This is a forested area around the Rajmahal Hills and at that time this area used to be under the control of the British. The British wanted to clear the forests in this area for farming and for this they also contacted the Paharia tribe living there. But the problem was that the people of those tribes did not want to help the British under any circumstances, rather they did not want the forests to be removed. Seeing their rebellion, the British turned to the Santhals who lived a life based mainly on agriculture and the drought of 1770 had greatly affected them.
If seen from these shorts, the conditions of migration and establishing agricultural land were accepted by the Santhal tribe. However, it was not going to be so easy for the Santhals because removing the forest there meant a direct war with the people of the Mal Paharia tribe. When the Santhals shifted there, there were many battles between Mal Pahadia and them and due to their better technology, the Santhals won those battles. However, Santhals did not know that this difference in technology was going to create huge problems for them in the future.
The migration of Santhal continued till 1855 and their population which was only three thousand in 1830, increased to 83 thousand i.e. 13 thousand by 1850. This increased population ensured two things. Firstly, the Mal Paharias were not able to revolt against the Santhals. And secondly, agriculture started flourishing in the Rajmahal hills. According to statistics, Santhals earned 22 times more revenue than the British.
On one hand, the Santhals felt that this revenue would ensure peace in the hills, but on the other hand, there was also the greed of the British, who saw that the Santhals could prove useful to them. But he also knew that if the Santhals go to Sagar, they would prove to be a threat to them in the future. And that is why the company started appointing its own moneylenders and zamindars for its land who used to work on posts like money land and tax calculator. These lands were owned by the British and the Company, hence even though the Santhals had worked on them, they could not claim any rights on them.
But the problem was also that the Santhals had left behind a lot of their belongings, hence they had no other options for livelihood. The British officers and the company knew this, hence the people of 83 thousand gradually got trapped in an artificial death trap. Earlier he used to be a partner in the produce of the land, but gradually his debt burden increased and when he could not repay the loan, he became a bonded laborer in the farm he had built.
This continued for some time but at one point the Santhals had understood that the work of the British had been completed and now even if they died in these fields, it would not make any difference to them. This thinking of his gave birth to a revolution. A revolution whose objective was to establish one’s own government. Sidhu and Kanha Murmu were to lead this movement from the Santhal side. 60 thousand Santhals were with him in this battle. The first part of the rebellion was started on 30 June 1755. In the first part, the landlords and moneylenders of the company were executed.
When the company came to know about this, they were quite surprised because they had never expected a rebellion from the Santhal side. Gradually this revolution grew and this rebellion for the company. It had become absolutely necessary to end it. On his part he sent forty native infantry. Regiment and troops of the Seventh Native Infantry Regiment. Let us tell you that Pathans were included in the Native Infantry and Rajputs were included in the Seventh Infantry. There was a division.
That is, if seen overall, these were our own people who were sent to fight against their own people. However, the soldiers sent by the British had high quality guns as per the times. With the help of Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan of Murshidabad, any battle is won through strength and tactics. The company had got strength from weapons but to cover the tactics part, the company played such a gamble due to which its own people also started informing against the Santhal troops. The company placed a reward of ₹10,000 on both Kanhu and Sidhu.
If it is said that this amount would have been a reward equivalent to ₹ 1 crore in today’s time, then it would not be wrong. This much reward helped a lot in uncovering the mystery of this rebellion and this rebellion was ended in January 1856. But before the protest ended, the company had understood the strength of the rebellion. Many of his loyal landlords and moneylenders had to lose their lives. However, the loss from the Santhal side was also not less. More than 15 thousand Santhals had to lose their lives.
Many Santhal villages were burnt and many Santhals were rendered homeless forever. The biggest loss in this was to the Santhal blacksmiths and cowherds, who had secretly helped the Santhals. When he was later exposed, he was put to death. All this happened in 1856. But at the same time the fire of revolution started burning in Meerut and after that the British had to fight a long battle. Two years later, he had won this battle. But since then he was taking each step carefully.
That is why after taking over India, he first gathered the Santhals and their demands were accepted. These two consecutive revolutions had brought the British to their knees. Although he was not defeated, he had learned a lot. On their part, the demand of the Santhals was accepted and a five thousand kilometer square area was given to the Santhals, in which only their rules were to be followed. Although the Santhals had suffered a lot in the rebellion and their losses were not going to be recovered by this move, but they accepted this proposal of the British.
Although he was quite surprised to see this proposal, there was only one reason for it and that was the bravery of the Santhals which had forced the British to establish natural relations with them. This move gave a lot of progress to Santhal. Later, Santhals were also sent to increase the productivity of the tea gardens of Assam and in 1930, they were also sent to North Bengal where their work was to make the barren land productive, which they did very well. By this time their population had reached 2 lakhs.
Today, more than 20 lakh Santhals are present in six different states of India. And if we talk about other countries, the population of Santhal in Nepal and Bangladesh together is 2 lakhs. His Excellency hails from Santhal, one of the most educated tribes of the country. Draupadi Murmu also comes from the Santhal tribe. So friends, this was the story of Santhal. After bringing the British to their knees in the rebellion, the Santhals never looked back.
However, very few people know about his fight and rebellion. Such bravery which has surprised even the enemies, then everyone should know about it. What do you think, do tell by commenting and also share this Blog as much as possible so that everyone can know about the bravery of Santhal.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the History.
