Tribal Movement

Tribals in India are known as “Adivasi,” which means the people who originally belong to the particular land or the area. Tribals are the native inhabitants of the soil. The tribes are the simplest kind of a social group in which the members belonging to the group speak the same dialect and act together for a common purpose of their welfare of the community. The tribes who belong to one habitat are generally united because they either speak the same dialect, belong to the same social organization based on direct blood relations, common ancestors, cultural homogeneity, or folklore. 

The tribals have always seen their habitat as their freedom that provide them respect and identity, and therefore, there has been a long history of many tribal movements that took place as they stood united and revolt against oppressions and harassment caused by the outsiders like in Zamindari rule, British Raj or government policies.

In the pre-independence era, there has been a long history of the uprising of the tribals against foreign rules. Among all the tribal revolts that took place, most of them have been a cause of religious disruption. A few of such significant rebellions that holds importance in historical studies are religious movements carried out by tribal groups like Meithei of Manipur, Nokte Naga of Assam, Bhumij of West Bengal, Bathudi in Orissa, and the post-independence era the uprising of Jharkhand tribes of Bihar along with certain tribal groups of South India and Orissa. During the time of colonization by the Britishers in India, no other community, dynasties, or rulers have come forward to portray the heroic resistance even after facing the fatal consequences by the British army other than the tribals groups that are now the part of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal. Other than religious disturbances, there have been two other major reasons for tribal revolts, namely, land and forests. Most of the revolts started against the oppression from landlords, moneylenders, forest officials, and police in Bihar, Bengal, Chattisgarh, and Jharkhand.   

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Cause of Tribal Movements in India 

The major causes that led to the tribal movements in India are:

1. The extension of the agriculture settlements led to the inflow of many non-tribal communities in the tribal lands. They eventually exploited the tribals, and the extension of settled agriculture led to the loss of the lands of the tribes. They were then put as agricultural laborers in their land. 

2. The increasing demand for the railways and the raw material and lands for industrialization led to the extension of governmental control over the forest lands, and finally, the tribals were forced to evacuate from their habitats where they originally belonged.

3. Over the years with the evaluation of the forest law and the policies by the several governments in power have led to the inclusion of forest law, such establishment of the forest department in the year 1864 followed by the Government Forest Act that was imposed in the year 1865 and finally in the year 1878 with the implementation of Indian Forest Act, the forest lands were shifted entirely into the hands of the government. They established their monopoly over all forest areas that include most of the native habitations of many tribal communities. 

4. The intervention of the Cristian missionaries in the name of social work was also perceived as a threat of extension of the foreign colonization and was often resisted by the rebels.

5. Under the land revenue settlements, the extension of the settled agriculture by the non-tribal groups in the tribal lands and forests resulting in affecting the tribal tradition of joint ownership of the land. This has led to the increase in the socio-economic gap in the impartial social scenario that the tribals wanted to establish with the non-tribal groups. 

6. Shifting agriculture that has been a major practice that is followed by many tribal groups from ancient times were banned by the government from the year 1864 for the preservation of forest areas. The restricted imposition was done previously on the sanctioned timber and grazing lands.

7. Many of the tribal movements in India took place against the landlords on imposing unnecessary taxation on the timber and gazing facilities, followed by many restrictions and new regulations exercised by the government on the forest lands, which was followed by usual police extraction and exploitation of the small traders and moneylenders.

8. The aggressive reputation by the tribals was mostly against the intervention of the non-tribals on their agricultural fields, local landlords and rulers imposing land taxation that was later supported by the British administration and intervention of them into the life of tribals in the interest of extending their colonization structure. 

9. The introduction of the notion of private property that has given the right and the power to buy, sell, mortgage, or rent the lands has eventually led to the loss of lands, agriculture farms, and the habitats of tribals.  

Timeline of Each Tribal Movement

Description of Tribal Movements in India

A few of the other significant tribal movements of India are described below:

1. Peasants Uprising in 1783 in Rangpur, West Bengal:  In the year 1783, after the Britishers took the entire control and governance of West Bengal, they started exerting pressure on the peasants for the land revenue through the local contractors. But later when the grievances of the peasants were not addressed by the British officials, the peasants decided to revolt under the leadership of Dirjinarain. They attacked the local police stations and the crop stores that were controlled by the local agents appointed by the contractors working under the British officials. But later, the Britishers, with their armed forces have taken control over the situation. But it was for the first time that Bengal, Bengalded both Hindu and Muslims. 

2. The Ramosi Uprising: the Ramosi revolt took place during the period of 1822 to 1829. The Ramosi revolt took place in two parts, namely, one in the year 1822 under the leadership of Chittu Singh revolting against the new administrative reforms of the Britishers, and the second phase of revolt again surfaced during the time period of 1825-26 to 1829.

3. The Mappila Revolt: among all the uprising that was witnessed in pre-independent India, this has the most important significance in the history of peasants’ uprising that took place between the year 1836 to 1854.  Mappila were the Arab settlers in the Indian land which later got converted to Hindus and were a tribal group of Peasants who mainly functioned as cultivating tenants, landless labours, fishermen, and small traders. Later, when the East India Company took over the Malabar coast and induced hardship in the functioning of the Mapillas because of the imposition of the land revenue system, they revolted against the officials and the landlords.