Question

The Kols from Chotanagpur rebelled against______
A. Zamindars
B. Moneylenders
C. British raj
D. All of these

Answer 1

Hint: The Kols are a tribe from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. They migrated five centuries ago from central india. Under India’s system of positive discrimination, they have been put into the Sceduled caste catogy because of their poor economic condition. They are mostly landless and depend on forest products.

Complete answer: The Kol uprising or Kol rebellion took place from 1829-1839. This was a result of the exploitative practices and unfair land tenure undertaken by the British Raj. The Mundas, Oraons and Hos also joined the uprising. The appointment of a Political Agent to the Government started the problem. As a result many people lost their lands to people from outside and were being used for commercial activities.
They had no idea about the Kol language and culture of the people. The Kols also had to pay a huge amount of tax to the British. Many of the indigenous people thus became bonded labourers. During the upsings the Kols burnt the land of two contractors and they fought bravely against the british with their traditional weapons. They killed many and burnt houses. This armed rebellion continued for two years and it was a very fierce one. However the British managed to crush the rebellion using their modern machinery.

Hence, Option C is the right answer.

Note: The tribal societies are quite egalitarian societies compared to the modern mainstream societies. The British had disrupted this balance and exploited the tribals. The tribals had lost their livelihoods and became landless. They did not like this upheaval in their culture. British historiography describes the Kols as Bandits. They see them as backward and uncultured which is a very unfair and biased description of the indegenous people.