Bhumkal

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The Bhumkal was the seventh and last uprising against British colonial rule in the region of the princely state of Bastar in the " Central Provinces ", which was de facto under direct British rule since 1888 under the Court of Wards . The uprising from February to mid-May 1910 was mainly carried out by members of the indigenous tribals . It was the largest in a series of regional rebellions over the past 150 years, including the Halba Rebellion (1774–79), the Tarapur Rebellion (1842–54), the Meria Rebellion (1842–63), the Koi Revolt (1859) and the Muria uprising (1876) were significant.

causes

One of the reasons for the uprising was the degradation of the Raja by the British, which the common people disagreed with, since the Raja was viewed as a divine reincarnation. The weak Raja Rudra Pratap Deo was also the chief priest of the local Danteshwara -Kultes that its combined power at the annual Dussehra - was hard. In 1908 the corrupt panda Baijnat ( Rai Bahadur Panda Bajinath ) was appointed Dīwān . This went against the local tradition that the office was held by a member of the ruling family. Equally unpopular was the newly appointed "Rajaguru" Mitranath Thakur.

The livelihoods of the indigenous population had been restricted for decades. They lived semi-nomadically and mainly on the products of the forest, whose traditional use had been restricted by the designation of more and more reserved forests . Logging was only allowed there to licensed entrepreneurs. Then there was the forced relocation of entire communities. The ruthless collection of taxes by tax farmers was also not well-liked. Police asked villages to pay 1/20 of the harvest for investigations that were completed. Officials demanded unpaid labor z. B. for road construction. The final trigger was the introduction of a brandy monopoly . Alcohol was seen as a gift from God, and the prohibition of its own production as an interference with religious activities.

Fighting

Members of the repressed elites were active in the background as pulling the strings: the former Diwan Lal Kalindra Singh , who saw himself cheated out of power, acted as coordinators , but also Rani Subran Kaur, the late Raja's second wife (1853-November 1910) and Kunwar Bahadur Singh , a cousin “on the left hand” of the Raja, were involved. The uprising, however, was not planned systematically or strategically, which, like a lack of weapons, made the crackdown easier. The charismatic Gundadhur emerged as the leader. Most of the rebels in the south belonged to the warlike tribe of the Parja . Some of her family members were tortured and arbitrarily killed. In the northern area, most of the rebels were from the Muria people . The insurgents gathered in groups of a few thousands, whose only armament often consisted of bows and arrows. The political agent de Brett , who was passing through in late January, heard some vague rumors but saw no concrete signs of a planned uprising.

After secret preparations, in the evening of February 6, 1910, communications with the outside world were cut off. State schools, post offices, police stations and warehouses of forest products produced by entrepreneurs were destroyed, with a few deaths. It also called for the immigrants who controlled the trade to be driven out. The protest, which soon spread to about half of the country, remained peaceful, apart from the occasional looting. The rebels did not crave blood, as contemporary accounts describe.

The Rani declared on February 7, 1910 the restoration of the rule of the Muria and the British suzerainty abolished. By February 13, the rebels had practically the entire state in their hands, but the Diwan camped in Gidam had escaped to Bijapur on the night of the 6th . From there he requested help from Deputy Commissioner GA Khan in Chanda . On the 15th he set off with a troop in the direction of Bastar.

On the 7th, the Raja also managed to send a help telegram. On the same day there was a gathering of the rebel leaders of the south in Gidam, who soon gained control of the entire Dantewara region, but did not take the main town. The sparsely populated region remained one of the epicentres of the rebellion until March 29, when there was a final battle. The last troubled villages were brought under control in May.

At the same time, the uprising spread in the capital and the northern region, settlement area of ​​the Muria. They were particularly active (without restrictions until March 12) under the leadership of Aytu Mahra around Paralkote and Antagarh . A first attack under Captain BV Drury on March 9th was repulsed, although the British killed around 100 insurgents during their 20-minute attack. On the 12th, mounted reinforcements came in the form of the 22nd Punjabis , who burned four villages over the next few days.

On the northern border with the state of Kanker , two troops guarded the only access road through which the British had to come. On the 8th, 120 police troops armed with rifles arrived under JA Duke. They wanted to encircle the Keskal valley, but despite the use of machine guns, they did not succeed. Only after police superintendent GW Gayer, who was administrator for the minor Raja from 1899-1903 and arrived on the 13th de Brett, could they fight free the road to Kondagaon the following day . The rebels there had to capitulate on the 15th, 50 were imprisoned. Then the motorized troops advanced on the road to the capital.

When trying to cross the Indravati at a ford, the police were surrounded. The British shot their way free, the number of dead being unclear. Many of the leaders fell. Gundadhur was wounded in the head and fled. The rebel morale sank to a low point. On the 24th, more police and troops from the Madras presidency arrived. The siege ring around the palace was soon blown up.

On the 25th, the village of Ulnar, where Gundadhur was staying, was surrounded and stormed, with no resistance from the local population. About 500 of them were flogged and then released. Gundadhur and his deputy Dibri Dhur escaped. Despite a reward of 10,000 resp. 5000 Rs. Were both never caught. Her further fate is unknown.

Lal Kalindra Singh and 15 others were arrested on de Brett on the 26th. The Rani was placed under house arrest on March 5, and then transferred to Raipur Prison, where she died in November.

Victim

The insurgents looted bazaars and traders, especially those who were seen as immigrant outsiders. Only a few people died, but most of those attacked were beaten.

On March 6, the military campaigns against the "tribals" began. Four columns advanced. C. Middleton Stewart's troops killed everyone in the village of Kukanar. Drury had to unite with Gayer to break resistance in the northern region, which was concentrated in the Abudjmarh Hills , by March 29th. With the help of Sukma's divan , Dhuni Janakaiya, Duke's troops succeeded in pacifying the Dorla region. Dozens were gunned down while marching through Bastar . In the following months, thousands were flogged in the villages, a treatment from which several hundred tribals died. The last trouble spots were brought under control in May. Collective fines were imposed on 838 villages, totaling Rs 100,000, of which 63,179 were in Jagdalpur . As a result, many indigenous people found themselves in years of debt bondage to moneylenders, who had been one of the main targets of the rebellion. The carrying of swords and bows and arrows was forbidden.

Official British reports speak of only 37 Adivasi killed, 500 flogged and four villages burned as a direct result of the fighting. The actual numbers, based on eyewitness reports, are likely to be around 20 times higher.

From March 13 to April 28, court proceedings against 78 defendants took place in Jagdalpur. There were five life sentences, 19 convictions between 3 and 11 years of forced labor, 26 times 1 to 2 years. Twenty-seven of the convicts had died in Raipur prison by November 7, 1910 .

Kunwar Bahadur Singh, sentenced to life imprisonment, remained in Raipur prison until February 9, 1912. He then received a pension of Rs 50 in exile in Bhalagat . He died of cancer in Jagdalpur on May 19, 1943.

consequences

The divan, who spent the dangerous time in safe Sironcha , returned to office by the grace of Britain and held it for the next ten years. The Raja, who had been politically sidelined since the end of 1909, remained only a figurehead until his death, who was allowed to perform his religious functions every year.

Although the uprising was suppressed, the British colonial officials had realized that more consideration had to be given to traditional ways of life. The property tax and the restrictions on forest use were, especially in comparison to other regions in the Central Provinces, significantly lower in the period that followed. From 1932, however, a poll tax was levied again. From now on, the Tribals were essentially allowed to lead their traditional lives in peace. The anthropologist Verrier Elwin was therefore able to establish around 1940 that there was a comparatively satisfied and stable society in Bastar, which has been increasingly threatened by "civilization" since the introduction of bus connections.

In the famine year 1965-6 there was another uprising. This time the porters were mainly women who distrusted the central government to distribute the compulsory grain levy fairly. They glorified the "good old days" of the monarchy and demanded the restoration of the last Raja Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo , who was deposed in 1948 because of mental illness . He was shot dead in a gun battle with the police in 1966.

More riots

Literature and Sources

  • Clement E. Smith; The Bastar Rebellion, 1910; Man in India, Vol.XXV (1945)
  • Hira Lal Shukla; Bhumkāl: The Tribal Revolt in Bastar; Delhi 1991; ISBN 81-85320-07-X
  • Hira Lal Shukla; History of the People of Bastar: a Study in Tribal Insurgency; Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-85616-04-3
  • Nandini sundar; Debating Dussehra and Reinterpreting Rebellion in Bastar District, Central India; Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Mar., 2001), pp. 19-35.
  • Nandini sundar; Subaltern and Sovereigns: An Anthropological History of Bastar (1854-2006); New Delhi, Oxford ² 2007; ISBN 0-19-569704-9

Archives:

  • Jagdalpur Collectorate Records (Records Room, Jagdalpur): File no. XII: "Disturbances and Rebellion"

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ reg. 1891–1922, accession to the throne 1908 at the age of majority. Family tree in: Sundar (2006), p. 80.
  2. ↑ 1891–1910: about a third of the total area; Nandini sundar; Debating Dussehra and Reinterpreting Rebellion in Bastar District, Central India; Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 7 (2001), № 1, p. 24.
  3. ↑ List of leaders in Shukla (1991), p. 22f.
  4. ↑ Gunda Dhur from Netanar . On the person see: Sundar, Nandini; In Search of Gunda Dhur: Colonialism and Contestation in Bastar… 1995 (Diss. Columbia University)
  5. ↑ who now find this name discriminatory. They have been calling themselves Dhurwa since the 1940s . Sukhla (1991), p. 20.
  6. ↑ z. B. Standen, BP (Chief Secretary to the Chief Commissioner Central Provinces); Report of BP Standen on the Rebellion of Bastar 1910; multiple cit. in Shukla (1991)
  7. ↑ cf. Dantewara
  8. ↑ cf. Kanker (District)
  9. ↑ Gundadhur was heroized among the people. Shukla (1991, pp. 49-54) was still able to record folk songs about him 75 years after the suppression of the uprising.
  10. ↑ Exact statistics on devastated villages etc. in Shukla (1991), often citing government reports
  11. ↑ List in Shukla (1991), chap. IX
  12. ↑ detailed: Shukla (1991), p. 64f.
  13. ^ Lists of names: Shukla (1991), pp. 59-62; Cape. VII
  14. ↑ cf. Verrier Elwin; The Muria and their Ghotul; Bombay 1946