Muria uprising
The Muria uprising was an uprising movement in India in 1876 against British colonial rule , in the region of the poorly administered princely state of Bastar , mainly by members of the Jar Muria and Maria tribes (parts of the Gond people ) from the surrounding area the capital Jagdalpur . From the perspective of the British, the uprising was threatening because tribes here were close to manifesting their independence from the colonial system. Furthermore, a significant number of modern weapons would have fallen into their hands in the palace.
course
When the Raja Bhairam Deo left his residence on February 29, 1876 to pay homage to the visiting Prince of Wales, later Edward VII , like all the other Indian princes, the following day his porters refused to take him out of the principality for fear the British would forbid his return. Eighteen porters were then flogged and were to be taken to the capital's prison.
On the way they were intercepted by a delegation from the peasantry who freed the prisoners. These, who describe themselves as "loyal subjects", then went to the Raja near Arapur and complained about the mismanagement of the senior officials, the divan Gopinath Kapardas and the Munshi. They asked for tax breaks and restrictions on forced labor. If this requirement is not met, they want to emigrate from the country. The Raja refused and was then pelted with earth, stones and cow bones (ritually polluting). The divan fired into the crowd, two dead and six seriously injured. In the village of Arapur, Jhara Siraha was elected leader.
The Raja returned to Jagdalpur on March 1st , where his barricaded palace was besieged for the next two months by insurgent peasants - some on hunger strikes - from the surrounding villages, under the command of their village elders. Roads were blocked, telegraph lines cut.
After a week, the Raja managed to call for help, on the one hand from the rival Raja of Jeypore and from the British, who were advancing with parts of the 22nd Punjabi Regiment as well as police forces from the Madras presidency . 300 policemen armed with muskets came from Jeypore, also under British command. From April 5, they were led by the responsible British colonial officer, Deputy Commissioner for Sironcha , MacGeorge. In the meantime, the insurgents had allowed themselves to be disarmed, but not given up on the siege. The protest was so peaceful at the time that the British police officers found the time to go big game hunting.
A decisive battle took place near Jagdalpur, in which 900 of the approximately 2,400 tribals, mostly armed only with bows and arrows, were taken prisoner by the British. Jhara Siraha probably fell there.
consequences
Following the battle, the colonial rulers tried to get hold of all the rebels. Several thousand were arrested and deported to Sironcha. The Diwan, the Munshi and Adyita Prasad Peshkar were also tried there, the latter two because they had supported the rebels, Gopinath for incompetence. The Raja only campaigned for the divan to be released, but this was not granted. Gopinath died in Sironcha in 1878.
The British calculated that by suppressing the uprising they had incurred 11,787 Rs. 3 A. 9 P. in costs. They were imposed on the state, which had to repay them in eleven annual installments of Rs. 1000. As a result, creative ways were found to re-impose punishments on the people that actually belonged to the past. These were e.g. B. "thora banat", a punishment for those who wore red clothes or an umbrella without first obtaining permission from the Raja against payment of a fee. "Urkha chut" was a collective punishment for castes for committing adultery with a woman of another caste.
The events, preserved in the collective memory, served as an important inspiration for the Bhumkal 1910. Jawaharlal Nehru later judged: "Although the revolt directly affected only a certain part of the country, it shook all of India, in particular the British administration".
See also
literature
- HL Shukla (* 1939): History of the People of Bastar: a Study in Tribal Insurgency . Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-85616-04-3
- Nandini Sundar: Subalterns ans Sovereigns . 2nd Edition. New Delhi, Oxford 2007, ISBN 0-19-569704-9 , chap. 3
Individual evidence
- ↑ * May 21, 1839 († 1891), reg. since: August 27, 1853. Golden Book of India . 1893, p. 63
- ^ Nandini Sundar: Debating Dussehra and Reinterpreting Rebellion in Bastar District, Central India . In: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , Vol. 7, 2001, No. 1, p. 29 f.
- ↑ Shukla (1992), p. 191, names a total of 5000 men who arrived in May (?)
- ↑ Sundar (2007), pp. 81-83
- ↑ Sundar (2007), p. 101, fn. 88
- ^ Discovery of India . P. 460
- ↑ a b The descriptions of the events differ greatly in both works, although both are based on the same archive material.