Jangal Mahals
Also called: Jungle Mahals · Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
The Jangal Mahals (also written Jungle Mahals) were the forested western districts of the Bengal Presidency. Today they fall in parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal. "Mahal" here means a revenue unit, so the name means "the forest revenue districts". In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British wanted this forest cleared for farming and land revenue. That is why it matters in the story of Paharia and Santhal history.
Example
From around the 1780s, British officials invited Santhals into the Jangal Mahals to clear forest and farm with the plough. In 1782 the artist William Hodges toured the area with Augustus Cleveland, the Collector of Bhagalpur.
Don't confuse with
- Damin-i-Koh: a smaller area in the Rajmahal foothills. By 1832 it had been surveyed and marked out with boundary pillars as Santhal land. It is a separate thing from the wider forest districts.