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Vulnerability of Autochthon Paharias of Santal Parganas: Revealing Continuity of Colonial Legacy

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Tribal Studies in India

Abstract

This chapter traces the present situation of vulnerability of the Paharias, a PVTG in Jharkhand to the colonial policy. It discusses how Paharias were deprived of their resources and thus marginalized consequent upon colonial policy of expansion of settled agriculture. The colonial administration facilitated settlement of the Santals as agriculturists on the lands and forest of the Paharias as a part of their project of expanding settled agriculture. They receded to the hills and confined to traditional mode of livelihood. Their exclusion continued even in the process of national development. The chapter also highlights Paharias’ increasing awareness of their rights over land and other resources in the process of the present state-sponsored development; and identity assertion through their demands for these rights.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Chota Nagpur Plateau is a plateau in Eastern India; which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. The Indo-Gangetic Plain lies to the north and east while the Basin of Mahanadi River lies to the south of the plateau. The total area of the plateau is approximately 65,000 square kilometres (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chota_Nagpur_Plateau)

  2. 2.

    A district constituted after Santal Insurrection in December 1855 by the East India Company Government. Before its constitution the area of the district was under Birbhum district of Bhagalpur division of undivided Bengal (Roy Choudhury 1965).

  3. 3.

    Augustus Cleveland was collector of Bhagalpur (1779–1784) who tried to pacify militant Paharias by his policy of conciliation and consolidation after early British officials’ Captain Robert Brooke (1772–1774) and James Browne (1774–1778) who could not check stiff resistance of the Paharias to the East India Company’s rule in the region. His policy is better known as Cleveland system wherein pensions to the Paharia Sardars, Naibs and Manjhis, formation of Paharia Archers’ Army (Bhagalpur Hill Rangers) and constitution of Hill Assembly, etc. were included. The policy did not meet with success and recently criticized by Valentine Ball (1980:339) as the policy of ‘Black Mail’.

  4. 4.

    The Act 37 of 1855 formed the Santali areas into a separate non-regulation district, to be known by general designation of the Santal Parganas.

  5. 5.

    As far as Kumarbhag Paharias are concerned, they are Hinduized section of Mal Paharias as observed by Verma during a field study (2005b). It is to be noted that Damin-in-koh, a Persian word meaning the skirts of the hills, was the name given to a densely forested and hilly area of Rajmahal Hills (now in the area of Sahibganj, Pakur and Godda districts of Jharkhand).

  6. 6.

    During ancient and medieval times, the Paharias not only resisted foreign onslaughts on their estates and its adjoining regions but also seriously took care for maintenance and preservation of their indigenous knowledge in the field of arms, ammunition, medical treatment and health as well as in cattle breeding and farming. For centuries they followed, maintained and pursued the pristine system of farming better known as Kurwa, Kurao, Kuro or Jhuming method of cultivation (shifting cultivation). This primitive practice of farming proved to be very harmful to Paharias’ socio-economic life, regional environment and water resources and caused soil erosion. It was also responsible for apparent ecological imbalance, scarcity of drinking water and depletion of wild life resources of the region. So the colonial officials tried to stop it and confined it to certain hills. After independence, the government of India banned it and declared it illegal.

  7. 7.

    ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Indian Nation, Patna, 8 November 1995 and 19 November 1995.

  8. 8.

    Prabhat Khabar, Deoghar, 29 September, 2015, p.15.

  9. 9.

    For broad study of socio-economic development, demographical ups and downs and official measures for welfare of the Paharias and amount of money sanctioned and its expenditure for the purpose, see Tiwari (2002) and Kumar (2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, B.S.K. College, Barharwa (Sahibganj), Jharkhand, India

    Dinesh Narayan Verma

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  1. Dinesh Narayan Verma
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  1. Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India

    Maguni Charan Behera

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Verma, D.N. (2020). Vulnerability of Autochthon Paharias of Santal Parganas: Revealing Continuity of Colonial Legacy. In: Behera, M. (eds) Tribal Studies in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9026-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9026-6_6

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