Vijoo Krishnan
The saga of plunder and primitive accumulation of capital by the British East India Company is also accompanied by inspiring resistance by the original inhabitants whom the colonial historians pejoratively called as ‘savages’. One of the most heroic chapters of such resistance is the Santhal Rebellion led by Sidhu, Kanhu and others. The 30th of June was the 156th anniversary of the historic Santhal rebellion (Santhal Hul) celebrated as Hul Diwas. The Rebellion instilled fear in the minds of the British as well as their collaborators and inspired struggles that followed including the struggles led by Birsa Munda. The British were forced to bring about laws to pacify the Adivasis of the region and buy truce. What was the reason for the Santhals to rise in rebellion against a more advanced, mighty adversary with an organised army having enormous disparity in fire power?
The British East India Company had won the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the Battle of Buxar in 1764. The Mughal emperor Shah Alam II conferred Diwani rights on the Company in 1765 giving it the right to collect revenue, taxes and decide civil cases in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. This was a legal acknowledgement of the British East India Company and set the foundation for expansion of colonial rule as well as political and financial control over India. The Company could use the vast revenue resources to consolidate business and for strengthening armed forces as well as fortifications. Zamindars the parasitic feudal landlords and Mahajans the oppressive moneylenders got a new lease of life under the Company Raj. The Zamindars emerged as the agents and collaborators of the British becoming loyal retainers of the Company Raj. The British objective of maximising revenue was sought to be achieved through the Zamindars. The usurious moneylenders, the Mahajans also played the role of intermediaries. The traditional forest rights of the Adivasis and community rights were denied by new forest rules and restrictions imposed. The mineral rich regions of present day Jharkhand were very important for the expansion of British Empire and for fuelling the industrial revolution in England. Between 1831 and 1846 there was a six-fold increase in output of coal from 15,000 tonnes to 91,000 tonnes and an exponential increase in the number of coal mines. This also meant bringing a large forest area under its control for mining purposes.
The high land taxes arbitrarily fixed under the Permanent Settlement and indebtedness due to the usurious interest rates made the Santhals lose their land. They were dispossessed of their means of livelihood and converted to bonded labourers. There was an appropriation of land or the means of production belonging to Santhals and colonisation by non-tribal peasantry in Chhotanagpur. The settlers were invited to settle and cultivate land as the Santhals were seen as petty producers who subsisted on agriculture having no capacity to generate surplus as the technology used was primitive. Traditional forest rights were also undermined. Accumulation of capital by the Company by sheer expropriation of their means of production, especially land, or forcible taxation led to a miserable situation for Santhals. Some of them had to abandon agriculture altogether and seek work under the railways projects undertaken by the Company.
In 1832, the British demarcated a large area called Damin I Koh in Rajmahal hills in present day Jharkhand inviting Santhals to settle in the region in order to reclaim the land and forest. The promise of land and economic benefits saw a great exodus of Santhals from different parts of the Bengal Presidency. The Santhals were permitted to live on the land and plough it for settled agricultural activity. The British East India Company was keen to derive profits from the land. The high rate of taxation levied was sought to be collected by the Zamindars and the usurious interest rates collected by the Mahajans forced the indebted Santhals to lose their land and become bonded labourers. The Damin I Koh set aside for the settlement of Santhals saw an increase in population from merely 3000 in 1832 to over 82,000 in 1851. However, the policies of the trinity of the East India Company, the Zamindars and Mahajans led to a realisation amidst the Santhals that they were losing control of the Damin.
This loot and exploitation along with the demolition of traditional political and economic structures and environment in the region of today’s Santhal Pargana, areas falling within Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal today, was not acceptable to the people. To fight against this systemic exploitation and loot and the indignity unleashed by the parasitic classes, the Santhals decided to organise themselves under the leadership of Murmu brothers and sisters.
On 30th of June, 1855, two years before the 1857 rebellion, thousands of Adivasis started a war for liberation against the oppressive rule of the East India Company and also the Zamindars and Mahajans. It was a rebellion against the oppressive new land revenue system (permanent settlement) introduced by the Company rule in 1793 which replaced the egalitarian economic and political systems followed by the Adivasis in the region with an exploitative system of Zamindari and Mahajani. Zamindars, promoted by the Company rule, acting as parasites appropriated lands, destroyed forests which were the basis of livelihoods of Santhals. The new system gradually forced Santhals to borrow money from Mahajans who charged usurious rates of interest pushing them into a debt trap and making them perpetually indebted to their oppressors. The transformation of the Tribal agrarian system into a feudal system also was accompanied by land alienation wherein they lost their land as well as forest rights and were reduced to being farm labourers or forced to do menial jobs. The Santhal rebellion was a revolt against the oppression of the colonial rule propagated through a distorted revenue system, enforced by the local Zamindars and Mahajans, the police and the courts of the legal system set up by the East India Company.
The Santhal rebellion of 1855-56 is reported to have involved an Adivasi peasant army of over 60,000 people. Hul in Santhali means “movement for liberation” and it was led by Murmu brothers Sidhu, Kanhu, Chand, Bhairav and their two sisters Phulo and Jhano. They were leaders of thousands of Santhal Adivasis who sacrificed their lives to liberate themselves from the oppressive system. Sidhu Murmu mobilised over ten thousand Santhals to run a parallel Government during the rebellion for collection of taxes and enforcement of their own set of laws. The British and Zamindars reacted to the popular assertion by unleashing brutal force with modern weaponry against the Adivasis fighting to save their land and dignity with bows and arrows. Undeterred, the Adivasis refused to give up, fought fearlessly for almost a year shaking the imperialist and feudal rulers like never before.
At least 15,000 Santhals were reported killed with hundreds of their villages destroyed during the brutal oppression unleashed by the Company and the landlords. This oppression and systemic destruction of region’s economy and political system had a massive impact pushing the region into chronic poverty and backwardness which lasts even now. The Hul was an attempt to create an alternative system in which all the land will belong to the tillers and in which parasite classes such as landlords and money lenders will have no space. The Santhals tried to establish a self-rule system based on the taxes collected from the local people and which was opposed to exploitation of any kind. The collusion of the feudal landlords and the moneylenders with the British combined with the use of brute force by an organised army equipped with fire-arms against the bows and arrows of the Santhals led to an eventual defeat of the rebellion and collapse of the parallel self-rule attempted. Yet the spark ignited by the rebellion lit up the idea of resistance far and wide.
The zeal and spirit of the Santhal rebellion has inspired following rebellions in 1857 and beyond forcing the British Empire to abolish the system of bonded labour, at least on paper. It is the impact of these struggles and the struggles led by Birsa Munda later on that forced the British to pass the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act in 1876 that prohibits the sale of Adivasi land to non-Adivasis in Santhal Pargana region and the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act in 1906 with same objectives. These Acts protected the rights of the Adivasis over the forests. In later years Adivasi struggles were also inspired by it and it continues to inspire popular struggles against exploitation of toiling masses even today.
The Hul’s anniversary this year also falls at a time when crores of farmers from all across the country are agitating against the anti-farmer, anti-worker laws enacted by the present BJP government. Farmers sitting at Delhi’s borders for more seven months facing relentless repression unleashed know that these laws will facilitate corporate loot of agriculture and force millions to lose their land and livelihoods. They will not fall for false promises made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government of “doubling their income” and development. Learning from the resolve shown by Sidhu, Kanhu and thousands of Adivasis in their historic fight against the Company rule the farmers today have committed themselves to fight till the end and force the government to repeal the three black, pro-corporate and anti-farmer laws. Let us rededicate ourselves to carry forward the struggles and pay true tribute to the martyrs of the Santhal Rebellion.
Vijoo Krishnan is an Indian peasant leader, writer on agrarian issues and the Joint Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).
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