Paharia pacification policy
Topic: Peasant and Tribal Resistance under Company Rule · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
The Paharia pacification policy was the British plan in the 1780s to control the Paharias of the Rajmahal hills without killing them. It was started by Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur. It came after the brutal policy of the 1770s, when the British hunted down and killed Paharias. The aim was to stop Paharia raids on the plains by paying their chiefs.
Example
Under the policy, Paharia chiefs got an annual allowance and had to keep order among their men. Many chiefs refused it. Those who took it lost authority, because their people now saw them as stipendiary chiefs paid by the government. The Paharias as a whole moved deeper into the mountains and stayed hostile to outsiders.
Don't confuse with
- Damin-i-Koh: the area of the Rajmahal foothills marked out as Santhal land by 1832. It was a settlement scheme for the Santhals, not an allowance paid to Paharia chiefs.
Related concepts
- Paharia
- Rajmahal hills
- Shifting cultivation
- Augustus Cleveland
- Stipendiary chief
- William Hodges
- Aquatint
- Picturesque