Paharia

Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"

Meaning

The Paharias were hill people of the Rajmahal hills, in today's Jharkhand. They lived by shifting cultivation (clearing a forest patch, farming it for a few seasons, then moving on), and by forest produce and hunting. They also raided the farming villages on the plains below.

They matter because they show how Company rule clashed with forest people. The British first tried to kill them (1770s), then to buy their chiefs (1780s). Later the Company gave the valleys to the Santals, and that set the stage for the Santhal hul.

Explanation

Background: land, forest and the hoe

• Where they lived. The Rajmahal hills are the home of the Sauria Paharia people. The valleys below were later farmed by Santals [2].
• How they farmed. They used shifting cultivation:
• They cut the bushes on a hill patch and burnt the undergrowth. The ash added potash (a plant food) and made the soil rich.
• They scratched the ground lightly with hoes. They used no plough and did no deep digging.
• They grew pulses and millets to eat.

• After a few harvests they moved on. The old patch was left fallow (resting, not farmed) so the forest could grow back.

• What the forest gave them.

• Mahua flowers were eaten as food.
• Silk cocoons and resin were sold for cash.
• Wood was burnt into charcoal.

• Fallow patches and undergrowth were grazing ground for their cattle.

• Land was identity. They saw the whole region as their land. It was the base of who they were and how they lived.

• Chiefs kept the group united. They settled quarrels and led the men in war against other tribes and outsiders.

Raids on the plains: more than robbery

• Survival. In bad years the hill people came down and raided plains villages for food.
• A show of power. A raid told settled farmers who was stronger.
• A political deal. Raids set the terms with outsiders:
• Plains zamindars (landlords who held the right to collect revenue) paid regular tribute to the hill chiefs to buy peace.
• Traders paid a toll to use the mountain passes.
• Once they were paid, the chiefs protected these traders.

The clash with the Company

• Why the British pushed into the forest. In the late 18th century the Company pushed the frontier of settled agriculture into forest land:
• Cleared land could be taxed for land revenue.
• It could grow export crops.

• To British eyes, a settled, ploughing, tax-paying village was an "ordered" society.

• How the British saw forest people. To them, forest people were savage, unruly and primitive. They had to be "tamed" into plough farming.

• What followed. Forests shrank and pasture vanished, so the Paharias lost their food base. Raids became more frequent and more violent.

How British policy changed, and the results

• Phase 1: extermination (1770s).
• The British hunted down the Paharias and killed them.
• The Paharias fought back from early in Company rule in Bengal. They backed two plains revolts: Jagannath Deo of Chandwa (1773–1776) and Rani Sarbeshwari of Sultanabad (1781–1782) [4].
• Warren Hastings raised a special Light Infantry force under Captains Brooke and Browne. It failed [4].

• The British then settled retired sepoys in the valleys of the Rajmahal hills as a buffer zone (a protective strip between the hills and the plains) [4].

• Phase 2: pacification (1780s).

• Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur, gave Paharia chiefs an annual allowance (a fixed yearly payment). In return, each chief had to keep his men in order.
• Many chiefs refused the money.

• Chiefs who took it lost authority. People saw them as stipendiary chiefs, meaning chiefs paid a stipend (a regular payment) by the Company. To their own people they now looked like Company employees, not leaders.

• Withdrawal into the hills.

• The Paharias moved deep into the mountains and stayed at war with outsiders.

• The valleys go to the Santals.

• In the 1830s the Company encouraged Santals to clear and farm the Damin-i-Koh ("Skirts of the Hills"). This was a government-owned estate in the valleys, and the aim was more land revenue [2].
• The Santal population there rose from about 3,000 in 1838 to about 83,000 by 1851 [2].
• This led directly to the Santhal rebellion (hul) [2].

Time, place and evidence

• Period. The story runs from the 1770s (extermination), through the 1780s (pacification), to Buchanan's tour in 1810–11. The Santal settlement of the valleys came in the 1830s–1851.
• Place. The Rajmahal hills lie on the eastern edge of the Chotanagpur plateau, in today's Jharkhand, and touch the Ganga in the north.
• They form a long arch running north-east to south-west for about 120 miles (190 km), from the Ganga almost to Dumka [2].
• The highest point is about 1,861 feet (567 m) [2].

• Bhagalpur was the Company's district headquarters for this area.

• Key people. Warren Hastings; Captains Brooke and Browne; Augustus Cleveland; Francis Buchanan; Jagannath Deo of Chandwa; Rani Sarbeshwari of Sultanabad.

• How we know.
• Francis Buchanan toured the region in the winter of 1810–11 for the Company. His account is a key source:
  • Villagers were hostile and would not talk to him.
  • Whole villages were deserted when he arrived.
  • People absconded (ran away and hid in the hills).
  • To a Paharia, every white man stood for the power that was destroying their forests and land.
• Today, official cultural records list the Paharias of Dumka as forest dwellers of Jharkhand [3].

Don't confuse with

• Santals (Santhals): the Paharias were hill people who farmed with the hoe (shifting cultivation). The Santals were plough farmers whom the Company settled in the valleys (Damin-i-Koh) from the 1830s.
• Augustus Cleveland vs Francis Buchanan: Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur, made the 1780s allowance policy. Buchanan was a traveller who toured the region in 1810–11 and wrote about what he saw.
• Rajmahal hills vs Damin-i-Koh: the hills were the Paharia homeland. Damin-i-Koh ("Skirts of the Hills") was the government estate in the valleys, given to Santal settlers.
• Extermination vs pacification: extermination (killing) was the 1770s policy. Pacification (paying chiefs an allowance) was the 1780s policy under Cleveland.

Prelims Hooks

• The tribal people of the Rajmahal hills are the Sauria Paharia; the valleys were farmed by Santals [2].
• Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur, gave Paharia chiefs an annual allowance in the 1780s. Chiefs who took it became stipendiary chiefs.
• Warren Hastings raised a Light Infantry force under Captains Brooke and Browne. It failed, and retired sepoys were then settled in the Rajmahal valleys as a buffer [4].
• The Paharias backed Jagannath Deo of Chandwa (1773–76) and Rani Sarbeshwari of Sultanabad (1781–82) [4].
• Correct order: extermination (1770s) → Cleveland's allowance (1780s) → Buchanan's tour (1810–11) → Santal settlement of Damin-i-Koh (1830s).
• Trap: the Paharias used hoes, not ploughs, and grew pulses and millets. Mahua flowers were eaten, while silk cocoons and resin were sold.

Mains Points

• Two ideas of land clashed.
• For the Paharias, the hills were one shared homeland, used lightly: hoe, ash, fallow and forest produce.
• For the Company, land was a unit of revenue to be cleared, ploughed and taxed.

• As settled farming spread, raids increased. The "law and order" problem was really the Paharias losing their land and food.

• Buying the chiefs did more damage than killing.

• The 1770s campaign, including the Light Infantry under Brooke and Browne, failed [4].
• Cleveland's allowance worked by splitting chiefs from their people.
• This is a good example of colonial rule working through co-opting local leaders (winning them over with money or favours), not only through force.

• The label "savage, unruly, primitive" was used to justify clearing forests and forcing plough farming. Link this to the colonial "civilising mission".

• One loss led to the next revolt.

• The Paharias were pushed up into the hills, and the valleys below became the Santal Damin-i-Koh.
• Santal numbers there rose from about 3,000 (1838) to about 83,000 (1851) [2].
• This is a strong continuity argument for tribal resistance, from the 1770s Paharia struggle to the Santhal hul.

Related concepts

• Rajmahal hills
• Shifting cultivation
• Augustus Cleveland
• Paharia pacification policy
• Stipendiary chief
• William Hodges
• Aquatint
• Picturesque

Read more

• The Paharias of the Rajmahal hills: the hoe against the Company