INTRODUCTION
India displays a very high degree of social and ethnic diversity. The population of India subsumes within it a multitude of caste and tribal groups representing different stages in the social evolution of the human kind. According to the census of 2001, 84.3 million population 18.2% of the total population of the country) was registered as Scheduled Tribe. It is to be noted that nearly one-third of the tribal population of the country is concentrated in 15 districts of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan states. The largest tribal group belongs to the Gonds (7.4million), followed by Bhils (7.3 million) Santhals (4.2 million), Mizos (2.0 million) Oraons, etc.
TRIBAL SOCIETY AND ECONOMY
Tribals, also known as adivasis, were least affected in the initial years of British advent. Many European and Indian authorities tried hard to bring them to the modern lifestyle. With the expansion of the East India Company's empire, the natural home of the tribal people was encroached upon by the intruders, shattering the tribal society, economy and resulting in widespread revolt.
When British East India Company came to India, their prime concern was villages and towns. However, adivasis formed the poorest of the poor part of the society, but with the expansion, the landless tribals were forced to become labourers at very low wages. British grew cash crops on the land earlier cultivated by the tribals. Many of them became labourers on their own land. They were further exploited by by crafty and dishonest moneylenders. But the British were not at all concerned with the problems of tribals.
Moneylenders, who were mostly Indians, were the chief agents through which the indigenous groups and tribals were brought within the influence and control of the colonial economy.
Actually nothing was done to improve the conditions of the tribal people. Even the introduction of some modern techniques into the lives of the tribals proved to be disastrous. The laying of roads and rail tracks, mining and construction further intervened in their life.
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Cultivation and Farming
Some tribals followed jhuming cultivation, or shifting cultivation. This was done on small plots of land. First the plots of land were prepared for cultivation. The treetops were cut to allow the sunshine to reach the ground. The vegetation on land was burnt to clear the land for cultivation.
A field that was cultivated once, was left fallow for many years. Tribals used axe to cut trees and hoe to scratch the soil in order to prepare the field for cultivation.
Hunting and Gathering
In several regions, tribals got their livelihood through hunting and gathering forest produce. The Khonds of Orissa (now Odisha) belonged to this community. They went for regular hunting and then divided the whole meat amidst themselves. They even ate fruits and roots collected from the forest. They used to cook their food with oil, which they extracted from the seeds of trees and malwa flower. Shrubs and herbs from the forests were used for medicinal purposes. Local weavers and leather workers depended on Khonds for supply of 'kusum' and 'palash' flowers for dyeing leather and clothes.
People of forests got rice and grain in exchange for their valuable forest products. Some of them even worked in fields, carried loads or did some other odd jobs to earn their livelihood. If the supplies of forest produce shrank, tribals had to face a lot of difficulties. However, Baiga tribes of central India lived only on the produce of the forest. They thought it as undignified to work as labourers.
Tribal groups often bought products which were not produced in their locality. For this, they had to depend on traders and moneylenders who gave them loans at high interest rates. This reduced tribals into a state of debt and poverty. Moneylenders and traders were thus, the cause of misery.
Herding
Many tribal people were pastoralists, who moved with their animals according to season, in search of pastures and water. When the pastures were exhausted they moved to a new place. The Van Gujjars of the Punjab hills and the Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders, The Gaddis of Kulu were shepherds, and Bakarwals of Jammu and Kashmir reared goats.
Before the coming of the British, the tribal chief enjoyed both administrative and economic powers. In some places, they had their own army. But under the British, they were deprived of their administrative and judicial powers.
Settled Cultivation
Many tribal Igroups, since the beginning of the 19th century, began settling down and cultivating their fields. They started ploughing the land which was and earlier not used by the tribals. Gradually, they even got rights over the land they lived on. It was the Mundas of Chhotanagpur who belonged to this class. Members of this class were considered as descendants of the original settlers.
COLONIAL RULE AFFECTED TRIBAL LIVES
The lives of tribal groups changed during British rule. Let us see what these changes were.
Status of Tribal Chiefs
Before the arrival of the British, in many areas the tribal chiefs were important people. They enjoyed a certain amount of economic power and had the right to administer and control their territories. In some places they had their own police and decided on the local rules of land and forest management. Under British rule, the functions and powers of the tribal chiefs changed considerably. They were allowed to keep their land titles over a cluster of villages and rent out lands, but they lost much of their administrative power and were forced to follow laws made by British officials in India. They also had to pay tribute to the British, and discipline the tribal groups on behalf of the British. They lost the authority they had earlier enjoyed amongst their people, and were unable to fulfil their traditional functions.
Status of Shifting Cultivators
The British did not like tribals wandering from one place to another. They wanted to see them as settled cultivators. Settled peasants could be controlled easily. It even gave a regular source of revenue to the state/ The British therefore, introduce land settlement. It was to be done by measuring land and fixing demand for the state. Some peasants were declared owners of the land while the others were tenants. Tenants had to pay rent to the owners, who in turn paid revenue to the state. The British effort to settle jhum cultivation paid dividends. Scarcity of water, however, did give them some problems.
FOREST LAWS AND THEIR IMPACT
The forest laws divided the forests into three categories reserved, protected and village forests The best forests were reserved forests, Villagers could not take anything from these forests, they could not move freely or practise jhum cultivation and collect fruit or hunt animals/The forest department wanted trees which were suitable for buildings ships and railways. As a result, many communities were forcibly displaced from their homes.
Now, the forest department had a problem. From where would it get labour to cut trees for railway sleepers and to transport logs. Colonal officials found a solution. Sometimes, they gave small patches of land to jhum cultivators in the forests. They allowed them to cultivate these lands on the condition that those who lived in the forest villages would have to provide labour to the forest department and look after the forests. It ensured a regular supply of timber to the British government. Many tribals revolted against the forest laws. Once, such revolt was led by Songram Sangma in 1906 in Assam.
EFFECTS OF THE BRITISH RULE
1 The British rule changed the lives of tribals. Th British were suspicious of the people who changed their fields and did not lead a settled life. They wanted the tribals to lead a settled life with fixed rights on the land, Tribal population was easy to identify and control. British wanted regular income from them.
2 The tribals depended on the forests for their livelihood. British changed forest laws and some forests were declared as 'reserved forests'. Once the British stopped the tribals from entering the reserved forest, they started facing problems. Who would provide labour to fell trees and make sleepers? So, they gave small patches of land to the jhum cultivators in the forest and in return got free labour.
3. During the 19th century, the traders and moneylenders started coming into the forests, to buy forest produce. They offered to give cash wages and loans to the tribals and asked them to work for them (traders). This had adverse effect on the tribals/e.g., in Hazaribagh (present day Jharkhand) there was an area where Santhals reared cocoons. The traders sent their agents, who gave loans to the tribal people and collected the cocoons. The growers were given 3/or4/ for a thousand cocoons. These were then exported to Burdwan, where they were sold at five times the price.
4 In the late 19th century, tea plantations started coming up and mining was an important industry. Tribals were recruited in large numbers to work on the tea plantations in Assam and coal mines of Jharkhand In the 1920s, about 50 per cent of the miners in the Tharia and Raniganj coal mines of Bihar were tribal.
TRIBAL MOVEMENTS AGAINST BRITISH RULE
Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tribal groups in different parts of the country rebelled against the changes in laws, the restrictions on their practices, the new taxes they had to pay, and the exploitation by traders and moneylenders. The Kols rebelled in 1831-32, Santhals rose in revolt in 1855, the Bastar Rebellion in central India broke out in 1910 and the Warli Revolt in Maharashtra in 1940. The movement that Birsa led was one such movement.
Birsa Munda - Case Study
Birsa was born in the mid-1870s. The son of a poor father, he grew up around the forests of Bohonda, grazing sheep, playing the flute, and dancing in the local akhara. Forced by poverty, his father had to move from place to place looking for work. As an adolescent, Birsa heard tales of the Munda uprisings of the past and saw the sirdars (leaders) of the community urging the people to revolt. They talked of a golden age when the Mundas had been free of the oppression of dikus, and said there would be a time when the ancestral right of the community would be restored. They saw themselves as the descendants of the original settlers of the region, fighting for their land (mulk ki larai), reminding people of the need to win back their kingdom.
Birsa Munda
Birsa went to the local missionary school, and listened to the sermons of missionaries. There too he heard it said that it was possible for the Mundas to attain the Kingdom of Heaven, and regain their lost rights. This would be possible if they became good Christians and gave up their "bad practices". Later Birsa also spent some time in the company of a prominent Vaishnav preacher. He wore the sacred thread, and began to value the importance of purity and piety.
Birsa was deeply influenced by many of the ideas he came in touch with in his growing-up years. His movement was aimed at reforming tribal society. He urged the Mundas to give up drinking liquor, clean their village, and stop believing in witchcraft and sorcery. But we must remember that Birsa also turned against missionaries and Hindu landlords. He saw them as outside forces that were ruining the Munda way of life.
In 1895 Birsa urged his followers to recover their glorious past. He talked of a golden age in the past- a satyug (the age of truth) when Mundas lived a good life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and orchards, practised cultivation to earn their living. They did not kill their brethren and relatives. They lived honestly. Birsa also wanted people to once again work on their land, settle down and cultivate their fields.
What worried British officials most was the political aim of the Birsa movement, for it wanted to drive out missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu landlords, and the government and set up a Munda Raj with Birsa at its head. The movement identified all these forces as the cause of the misery the Mundas were suffering.
The land policies of the British were destroying their traditional land system, Hindu landlords and moneylenders were taking over their land, and missionaries were criticising their traditional culture.
As the movement spread the British officials decided to act. They arrested Birsa in 1895, convicted him on charges of rioting and jailed him for two years.
When Birsa was released in 1897 he began touring the villages to gather support. He used traditional symbols and language to rouse people, urging them to destroy "Ravana" (dikus and the Europeans) and establish a kingdom under his leadership. Birsa's followers began targeting the symbols of diku and European power. They attacked police stations and churches, and raided the property of moneylenders and zamindars. They raised the white flag as a symbol of Birsa Raj.
In 1900 Birsa died of cholera and the movement faded out. However, the movement was significant in at least two ways. First - it forced the colonial government to introduce laws so that the land of the tribals could not be easily taken over by dikus. Second it showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial rule. They did this in their own specific way, inventing their own rituals and symbols of struggle.