Tribal groups in India lived in various ways, including through shifting cultivation, hunting and gathering, herding animals, and some settled cultivation. Under British colonial rule, tribal lives and powers changed dramatically. Tribal chiefs lost administrative powers and had to pay tribute. Efforts were made to settle shifting cultivators but weren't fully successful. New forest laws reserved many forests for timber and displaced some tribes. Many tribes faced poor treatment working on plantations or in mines. Birsa Munda led a movement aiming to improve tribal society and regain rights, but he died in 1900 with his dream fading.

1. Tribals, Dikus and the
Vision of Golden Age.
Made by Hussain Mahdi
Class-8

2. How Did Tribal Groups Live?
 Jhum Cultivators
 Many of them practices jhum cultivation(i.e shifting cultivation). They would
practice shifting cultivation on small patches of land. Firstly they would cut
all the trees and burn them. The ashes would give the soil it’s fertility back
and then they would scatter the seeds. Once the crop was harvested then
they wouldmove on a different field and do the same process.
 This type of cultivation was usually done on hilly and forested areas(north-
east and central India). The lives on these people depended on shifting
cultivation.

3. Some were hunters and gatherers
 In many regions tribal groups made a living by hunting animals and gathering forest
produce. For example Khonds who lived in the forest of Orissa. They would often go for
collective hunts and they would divide the meat among themselves. Their eating habits
included fruits and roots with the oil from seeds of sal and mahua. They also used many
plants for medicinal purposes.
 At time what they got from forest wasn’t enough for them to survive so they also used
barter systems within their tribes. Many of them used to do odd jobs such as building
roads, while others labored in the field of peasants and farmers.
 But many of them like the Baigas of central india didn’t like the idea of working with
others. They saw themselves as the people of forest and they should only be depended on
what the forest has produced.
 Tribal groups frequently needed to buy and sell in order to be able to get the goods that
were not produced in their area. This as a result led tot their dependence on traders and
moneylenders. But the interest charged was very high.

4. Herding and rearing animals
 Many of these tribal group made a living by herding and rearing animals. They
used to move with their herds of cattle or sheep according to the season.
When the grass of one place got finished, then they use to go elsewhere.
 For example The Van Gujjars of the Punjab hills
 The labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders
 The gaddis of Kashmir reared goats.

5. Settled Cultivation
 Before the nineteenth century a number of tribes had begun to settle down
and started to cultivate in a place year after year rather than moving from
place to place. In many circumstances The Mundas of Chottanagpur had land
that belonged to them as a whole. All the member of the clan were regarded
as the successors of the original settlers.
 The British officials thought that tribal groups like Gonds and Santhals were
more civilized than hunter gatherers or shifting cultivators. Unfortunately
British looked down on people who lived in forest

6. Affect Of Colonial Rule On Tribals
 What happened to tribal chiefs?
 Even Before the arrival of British the tribal chiefs played an important
role. They enjoyed a certain amount of economic power and had the
right to administer and control their territories. They at time even
had their own police.
 Under the British rule their powers were dramatically limited. They
had to pay tribute, lost their administration power.
 They also had to discipline their tribe on behalf of British.

7. What happened to the shifting
cultivators?
 The British were not comfortable with groups who were always on the move
and didn’t have a fixed settlement. They wanted these groups to settle donw
and become a peasant cultivators because they found settled peasants were
easier to control rather than the one who were always on the move. They also
wanted regular revenue from these groups.
 But their efforts to settle jhum cultivators wasn’t successful. So the jhum
cultivators in north east India insisted on continuing with their cultural long
practice.
 There were many protest and at the end British had to allow them to carry on
shifting cultivation.

8. Forest laws and their impact
 The life of tribal groups was directly connected to forest. So any change in forest laws would effect
the tribal lives. The British extended their control over all forest and declared forest as a state
property.
 Many forest were reserved as they would produce timber. This meant that no one could roam or live
in that forest freely. Therefore many jhum cultivators had to move to other areas and search for
work.
 But once the jhum cultivators left the British they had to face a problem. From where would the
Forest Department get its labor to do various stuff like cutting trees and transporting logs.
 For that officials say that they would give jhum cultivators a small of land and allow them to
cultivate on one condition that they would provide the labor for Forest Department.
 Many tribal groups didn’t agree with the colonial forest laws and they disobeyed them, continued
their practices and were henceforth declared illegal.

9. The search of work
 The tribals who had gone far from their home in search of
work suffered dramatically. From the ending of nineteenth
century, tea plantations rose up and mining became an
important industry. Tribals were employed in large
numbers to work for the tea plantations in Assam and the
coal mines of Jharkhand.
 They were employed through contractors who paid them
wretchedly low wages and even prevented them from
returning to their home.

10. Birsa Munda
 Birsa was born in somewhat mid-1870s. He was a son of a poor farmer. As a teenager he heard tales of people
saying of “golden age”. Birsa went to the local missionary school and listened to the sermons of missionaries.
There too he heard that Mundas can attain the Kingdom of Heaven regain their long lost rights.
 Birsa was deeply influenced by many of these ideas. He aimed his movement at improving tribal society. He
advised Mundas to give up drinking liquor, become hygiene and stop believing in witchcraft and sorcery. He
even turned against missionaries and Hindu landlords. Birsa also wanted people to once again work on their
land, settle down and cultivate.
 Now British officals were worried as his movement was directed to drive out missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu
landlords. As this movement was quickly spreading, The British arrested Birsa in 1895 and convicted him for 2
years.
 After 2 years(1897) he was released and he again continued his movement. They would attack police stations
and churches and would raid the property of moneylenders and zamindars.
 In 1900 Birsa unfortunately died of cholera and his dream faded out. Anyways his movement was siginificant.
 1-It forced the colonial government to introduce laws of laws for Dikus so that it can’t be taken away easily.
 2-It showed that tribal people had the capacity to fight against injustice.

11. The end
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