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Q.Explain the causes that led to the conflict between the Paharias of Rajmahal Hills and the Santhals.

CBSECBSE Class XII Board 2024Subjective· 3mImportance★★★★★
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The conflict between the Paharias and the Santhals was not a simple tribal rivalry — it was a direct consequence of British colonial policies that first displaced the Paharias from their lands and then settled the Santhals there, creating competition over resources and territory.

The Paharias were the original inhabitants of the Rajmahal Hills, living as hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators. They had a symbiotic but tense relationship with the plains people, often raiding villages during times of scarcity. The British, after taking control of Bengal, found the Paharias a nuisance because their raids disrupted revenue collection from the fertile plains at the foot of the hills.

The British tried to subdue the Paharias through military force, but the hills were difficult to penetrate. So they shifted strategy: instead of fighting the Paharias, they decided to bring in a more "settled" and "civilised" tribe — the Santhals — to clear the forests and cultivate the land. This was a classic colonial divide-and-rule tactic.

  1. Displacement of the Paharias: The British declared large parts of the Rajmahal Hills as reserved forests and restricted the Paharias' traditional practices of shifting cultivation and hunting. The Paharias were pushed into smaller, less fertile areas, losing their primary means of livelihood.

  2. Settlement of the Santhals: From the 1830s onward, the British actively encouraged Santhal families to migrate from the Birbhum and Manbhum regions into the Rajmahal Hills. The Santhals were given land grants, tax exemptions, and promises of protection. They were seen by the British as hardworking, peaceful agriculturists who would turn the "wild" hills into productive farmland.

  3. Competition over land and resources: The Santhals cleared forests and established permanent villages, which directly encroached upon the Paharias' hunting grounds and shifting cultivation plots. What was once open forest used by the Paharias for seasonal farming and gathering now became privately owned Santhal fields. The Paharias viewed this as theft of their ancestral land.

  4. Cultural and economic friction: The Paharias were largely non-agricultural and had no concept of private land ownership. The Santhals, by contrast, were settled farmers with a different social structure. The Paharias began raiding Santhal villages for food and cattle, just as they had earlier raided plains villages. The Santhals, in turn, complained to the British and formed their own defence groups. …

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