The Prime Minister released ‘Dictionary of Martyrs‘ of India’s Freedom Struggle, selecting 1857 as the watershed year, conveniently dismissing all struggles prior to 1857
With the British East India Company introducing its own complex revenue and judiciary systems in the old feudal system, the indigenous populations of these dense jungles were subjected to alienation, dispossession and humiliation. Photo: Mrinalini Paul. On March 5, 2023, hundreds of members from the Bhumij Adivasi community, under the Bharatiya Adivasi Bhumij Samaj, gathered at the national highway six in Paschim Midnapore, West Bengal, to rechristen Bhalukomacha village as Raghunath Singh Chowk. After that, they unveiled a statue of Raghunath Singh (1795-1833), leader of the Chuar rebellion.
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The Bhumij community is a nearly half-a-million-strong Scheduled Tribe (ST) from West Bengal. They are concentrated in the southwestern parts of the state, in the districts of Jhargram, Paschim Medinipur, Purulia and Bankura. They also live in the neighbouring states of Jharkhand, Odisha and, to some extent Assam.
“Raghunath Singh is just one of the many martyrs from our community who fought against the British for our jaljangalzameen (water, forest, land),” said 75-year-old Durgacharan Sardar, a retired school teacher and one of the earliest to mobilise Bhumij in this region.
The only Bhumij leader who has received some attention in anthropological works is Ganga Ram Narain, responsible for the Bhumij revolt, also known as Ganga Narain’s Hungama (1832-33).
Ganga Narain’s revolt was not sudden and came after a series of disturbances starting in the 1760s as soon as the British East India Company tried to establish control over densely forested mahals (private estates), which had kept the Marathas and Mughals also at bay.
These disturbances, in reaction to the newly imposed systems of governance, were referred by the British as the Chuar rebellions, reaching its climax in 1799 under Raghunath Singh.
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The term chuar, literally meaning bandit, was a derogatory word used by the British to describe primarily the Bhumij. It was later used to describe the zamindari militia and anyone committing acts of raid and plunder in the jungle mahals.
The Bhumij, who actually draw their nomenclature to ‘bhumi’ (earth), are considered the original inhabitants of the forests of southwest Bengal, according to the renowned anthropologist Surajit Sinha. Few of them were zamindars, many were Ghatwals and Paiks (village watchmen and the Zamindar’s private army) and many were tenant cultivators.
With the British East India Company introducing their own complex revenue and judiciary systems (which ultimately led to ecological changes as well) in the old feudal system, indigenous populations of these dense jungles were subjected to alienation, dispossession and humiliation.
Their most obvious reaction was to resist and rebel, as admitted often by the British themselves. The replacement of a complex and heterogenous governance system based on kinship and ethnicity by institutions pushed the ‘chuars’ to more violent acts of plunder and murder as they desperately tried to retain their old way of life, privileges and religion.
Some of the newly introduced institutions were permanent settlement, thana, kutcherry, non-Adivasi tehsildar, darogar and other petty officials, who were not only ‘outsiders’ but also corrupt and inefficient.
The older zamindars had their own tenurial systems, which they were forced to change under the pressure of increased revenue collection.
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Many estates passed into the hands of new zamindars (mostly non-adivasi hindu Bengalis) or the Company itself, thus leaving all those dependent on this system helpless.
An event commemorating the martyrs from the Bhumij community. Photo: Mrinalini Paul.
It is not just the chronology that makes these revolts interesting, but they were spaces where the Company was forced to reconsider their strategies due to the violent and sustained opposition it faced.
They made compromises; the older system of ghatwali was combined with the daroga systems and sales of many distressed estates were cancelled due to the estate’s militia and tenants/peasants rising in revolt. Hence, these revolts provided spaces where communities across caste, ethnicity and class came together.
Since the last few years, there have been rising tensions between the Bhumij community and the Kudmi-Mahatos (mostly a farming community having a population of approximately five million in the state) regarding the identity of the Chuar rebellion leader.
The former claims he is part of their ethnic identity and hence identifies him as Raghunath Singh, while the latter claims the leader to be a Raghunath Mahato.
As a result of this contestation, a number of statues of a muscular moustachioed man have been erected by both communities. The contestation takes on a more competitive flavour as the Mahatos have been raising demands for their inclusion in the ST list.
This process consists of asserting one’s distinct identity through their unique language, script, religion etc., wherein their different versions of histories and narratives might often conflict.
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The Kudmi-Mahatos had been part of the ST list since 1913, but in 1931 they were removed from it, categorising them then as Other Backward Classes(OBC).
The effort to be re-scheduled has been met with opposition from the Adivasi communities (existing STs and not limited to the Bhumij) as they fear a reduction in their share of provisions if this is to happen. Apart from that, many feel that the community has done comparatively well for itself and hence does not require support.
Apart from intra-communities socio-cultural politics and economic disparities, there is always the conflict between the state’s historiography and that of Adivasis and indigenous communities’ hence establishing the dichotomy of the mainstream-marginalised voices.
However, multi-layered dynamics beyond this dichotomy are expressed through cultural appropriation. While famous Adivasi leaders like Birsa Munda have received state recognition with his name being adopted for infrastructural projects and his birth anniversary being declared Janjati Gaurav Diwas; other leaders have not received such a status.
Another practice indulged in is furthering existing contestations. In 2017, a few leaders from the incumbent party made promises while touring the jungle mahals regarding the Kudmi/Mahatos’ inclusion in the list.
In January 2021, before the state’s assembly elections, the chief minister renamed Lalgarh Setu bridge Biplabi Raghunath Mahato Setu.
Tapan Kumar Sardar, all India Chairman of the Bharatiya Adivasi Bhumij Samaj, feels that the absence of Bhumij representation in the political institutions weakens their case every single time.
“There is no denying that the Mahatos and the Santhals were part of the Chuar bidroho too, but the leadership roles and maximum participation cannot be denied to our community,” he added.
The formation and manifestation of Adivasi narratives in the jungle mahals remain a continuous process of identity (re)formations and assertions.
The mainstream politics of the state has never made room for the Adivasi agency, but it is problematic to assume that these are playing out independently and parallel.
The prime minister released “Dictionary of Martyrs” of India’s Freedom Struggle(2019), selecting 1857 as the watershed year, conveniently dismissing all struggles prior to 1857.
The Congress party had commissioned a study (1985) of ‘associated movements’ where the Santal Hul (1855), the Rampa Rebellion (1922-24), the Chuar rebellion and a few other Adivasi revolts find a mention.
Ranajit Guha, in his insightful subaltern studies, argued strongly against what both works ultimately portray these movements as — either random sporadic acts of violence or simply precursors to the larger nationalist movements.
With the upcoming panchayat elections (2023), the dialectical relationship between state forces of recognition and promises with communities’ rights and identities gains renewed momentum. This momentum spurs the dialectics of solidarity and tension within and across communities.
Meanwhile, on April 9 2023, there is another piece of history that the Bhumij are set to reclaim as they establish a statue of Rani Shiromani, the rebel queen who led her army of ‘chuars’ against the East India Company before the birth of Jhansi’s Rani Lakshmibai.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth
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