History .
Chapter -4 – Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden age
I Tribal and their ways of life.
1 Tribals are the communities ,Who used to live away from the civilization in
the forest valleys and mountains. They had customs and rituals that were very
different from those laid down by Brahmans.
2 They were belonged to the same tribe,related to blood relation, sharing
common ties of kinship. They have their own culture, language and don’t want
anyone’s interference.
Tribes as Jhum cultivators
Some tribes practiced Jhum cultivation. This cultivation was done on a small
piece of land .The cultivators cut trees and burnt vegetation so they could use the
land there. They spread the ash from the fire which contained potash, to make
the soil fertile. Trees were cut with axe and hoe to scratch soil, to make it for
cultivation. Seeds were scattered on field Once harvesting of crops was done,
farmers shifted to another field. This was called jhum cultivatioon
II Different activities of the tribes and their regions in India.
3 By the nineteenth century ,tribal people in different parts of India were
involved in a variety of activities , such as Jhum cultivation, hunting , gathering
forest produce , doing small time trading herding and rearing animals according to
the seasons.
4 Tribals often needed to buy and sell in order to be able to get the goods
that were not produced within the locality. This led to their dependence on
traders and moneylenders.
5 Traders came to the forests with things for sale at high prices, and money
lenders gave loans on high interest charged with which the tribals met their cash
needs.
III How did Colonial Rule Affect Tribal Lives?
6 The lives of tribal groups changed during British rule. The British extended
their control over all forests and declared that forests were state property.
7 Some forests were classified as Reserved forests for timber and in these
forest tribals were banned to move freely, practice jhum cultivation, collect fruits
or hunt animals.
8 Because of these, many tribal were forced to move to other areas in search
of work and livelihood such as in the tea plantation of Assam and the coal mines
of Jharkhand and Bihar.
IV What happened to tribal chiefs?
9 Before the arrival of the British, the tribal chief were important people.
They enjoyed economic power and had the right to administer and control their
territories.
10 under British rule, the functions and powers of the tribal chiefs changed.
They were allowed to keep their land titles over a cluster of villages and rent out
lands.
11 They lost their administration power and were forced to follow laws made
by British officials in India, had to pay tribute to the British and discipline the
tribals on behalf of the British. Also they were unable to fulfill their traditional
functions.
V Impact of the forest laws .
12 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
exploitation by dikus.
13 Dikus became the result of their misery and sufferings.
VI Birsa Munda – A leader of the Munda tribe. His vision of a Golden age.
14 Birsa’s movement was aimed at reforming tribal society. He urged his
community to give up drinking liquor, clean their village and stop believing in
witchcraft and sorcery.
15 He wanted people to once again work on their land , settle down and
cultivate their fields. He started the Birsa movement to drive out dikus from the
forests and set up a Munda Raj under his leadership.
16 His movement forced the colonial government to changed their forest
laws. It also showed that tribals had the capacity to protest against injustice and
express their anger against colonial rule.
