Book Review | How Tribals’ Lives Got Changed
Umar Khalid tells the political story of the Hos from 1830 to 1950
Umar Khalid, in prison as an unchargesheeted under-trial for the last six years under the draconian UAPA, has written the most readable doctoral dissertation which can be enjoyed by the curious common reader. Khalid tells the political story of the Hos in the Singhbhum from the early decades of the 19th century when the East India Company was expanding its control in central India. It is the paradigm established by the Company, and later by British, officials that remains the framework for understanding the Hos. Khalid clears up the ground as it were when he says, “The reality of the complex world of the Adivasis, we need to realise, does not conform to the much-romanticised picture of idyllic communities unitedly resisting the encroachment of ‘outsiders’. As has been highlighted in recent scholarship… the internal worlds of Adivasis, who are differentiated within, are as much conflict-ridden, and therefore include different kinds of responses to the state.”
This makes way for Khalid to trace the changing status and fortunes of the Hos, also known as Kols courtesy British, in the Singhbhum region, which is now part of Jharkhand. There were the local rajas or chiefs spread across the forested track, who fought with each other, and the Hos were their fighting force. When the East India Company, and later the British government, took over direct control of the region, pensioning off the chiefs, it had to evolve a policy which meant engaging with the Hos. The basic remit of the Company officials was to increase the tax revenue. In their efforts to achieve this, they encouraged and roped in the Hos to turn to farming. This meant deforestation on a large scale of what was an intractable lot. While the revenue increased, the next generation of officials felt that the dwindling forests needed to be preserved, and therefore created protected forests under government control. It is the colonial government’s creation of protected forests that independent India inherited.
As the freedom movement gained ground in the 1920s, political awakening swept across the tribal region while they also retained their awareness of their separate identity. The entry of Hinduism in the form of the Haribaba movement, the Christian missionaries among the tribals, as well as passing influence of Muslim League, are noted. The Adivasi Mahasabha became the rallying point of the political leaders who had emerged among the tribals, especially Jaipal Singh Munda, who was a member of the Constituent Assembly. The new point of conflict was with the Congress, especially Bihar Congress, dominated as it was by upper caste Hindus leaders, eyeing the rich mineral resources of the tribal tracts, ignoring the demand for Jharkhand by the Mahasabha, during the 1940s. Khalid connects it with the BJP choosing Raghubir Das, a non-tribal, as chief minister of Jharkhand in 2014. Khalid constructs a masterly narrative of about 120 years, from 1830 to 1950, showing how tribals changed with the changes that were made by colonial and freedom movement worldviews.
Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power
By Umar Khalid
Juggernaut
pp. 348; Rs 499