The essentials
In the late eighteenth century the Paharias lived in the hills around the Rajmahal region. They lived on forest produce and practised shifting cultivation: they cleared patches of forest by cutting and burning, sowed pulses and millets using the hoe, and moved on after the land lost fertility. They collected mahua flowers for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale, and wood for charcoal. They regularly raided the settled plains, partly to assert power and partly to obtain grain in lean years; zamindars sometimes paid them tolls to secure passage.
The British encouraged forest clearance and settled agriculture. In the 1770s they adopted a brutal policy against the Paharias; in the 1780s the collector of Bhagalpur, Augustus Cleveland, proposed a policy of pacification in which Paharia chiefs received allowances in return for keeping order.
Santhals began coming into the area around the 1780s. They were good settlers who cleared forests and ploughed land. The British settled them in the foothills of Rajmahal; by 1832 a large area was demarcated as Damin-i-Koh, the land of the Santhals. Their settlements spread, and Paharias were pushed deeper into the hills.
Key points
- Hoe versus plough symbolised the conflict between Paharias (shifting cultivation) and Santhals (settled agriculture).
- Francis Buchanan, a physician who surveyed the region for the Company, described both groups; his account reflects the Company's interest in revenue and "improvement".
- Santhals faced heavy revenue demands, moneylenders (dikus) charged high interest, and zamindars asserted control; this led to the Santhal rebellion of 1855–56.
- After the revolt, the Santhal Pargana was created, with special laws for the Santhals.
Common mistakes
- The Paharias were not plough cultivators; the Santhals were.