UPSC Mains 2023 GS1 Q13: model answer

Before British rule most tribes lived with considerable autonomy over forests and land. Colonial rule changed this sharply.

How colonial rule affected tribals

• Forest laws: the Indian Forest Acts of 1865 and 1878 made forests State property and restricted grazing, collection and hunting.
• Ban on shifting cultivation (jhum, podu) as unscientific.
• Land revenue: the Permanent Settlement and cash taxes brought zamindars and moneylenders, the 'dikus', who seized land.
• Forced labour (begar) for roads and railways; recruitment for tea plantations in Assam.
• Missionaries and new courts disturbed customs and community authority.
• Mining and timber trade stripped resources.

Tribal responses

• Kol uprising (1831–32) in Chotanagpur against outsiders.
• Santhal Hul (1855–56) under Sidhu and Kanhu, leading to the Santhal Parganas district.
• Munda Ulgulan (1899–1900) led by Birsa Munda against dikus and for tribal raj; it produced the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908.
• Rampa rebellion (1922–24) under Alluri Sitarama Raju in the Godavari hills.
• Bhil, Khond and Naga resistance, including Rani Gaidinliu.
• Reform movements: Tana Bhagat and Devi movements drew on religion and later Gandhian ideas.

The revolts were suppressed but forced the British to create special tenancy laws and 'excluded areas'. Their legacy lives in the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, PESA (1996) and the Forest Rights Act (2006).