The Paharias and the Santhals: The Hoe and the Plough in the Rajmahal Hills (Class 12 History)
Updated 15 October 2026 · Fact-checked
The Paharias of the Rajmahal hills lived by shifting cultivation with the hoe, forest produce and raids on the plains. When British pacification failed, the Company settled Santhal plough cultivators in the Damin-i-Koh (1832), pushing the Paharias uphill. Heavy taxes, moneylenders and zamindars then drove the Santhals to revolt in 1855-56.
Understand The Paharias and the Santhals
Why this topic matters. This is section 2 of Theme 9, 'The Hoe and the Plough'. Boards ask why Paharias and Santhals came into conflict, how the British treated the Paharias, how the Santhals settled, why they rebelled, and source passages from Buchanan's journal. NCERT sections 2.1-2.3 with Sources 3-5 and Figs. 9.8-9.14.
1. The Paharias: life of the hoe.
- Hill folk living around the Rajmahal hills, known from late-eighteenth-century revenue records.
- Shifting cultivation: cleared forest patches by cutting bushes and burning undergrowth; the potash from the ash enriched the soil; grew pulses and millets for food; scratched the ground with hoes; cultivated for a few years, then left the land fallow and moved on.
- From the forest: mahua flowers for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale, wood for charcoal; undergrowth and fallow grass gave pasture.
- Roles: hunters, shifting cultivators, food gatherers, charcoal producers, silkworm rearers; huts in tamarind groves.
- They saw the entire region as their land, basis of identity and survival, and resisted outsiders. Chiefs kept the group united, settled disputes and led battles.
2. Raids and negotiated peace. From the hills, Paharias raided the plains: for survival in scarce years, to assert power over settled communities, and to negotiate political relations. Zamindars paid regular tribute to hill chiefs to buy peace; traders paid a small toll to use the passes, after which chiefs protected their goods.
3. Why the peace broke down (late eighteenth century).
- Settled agriculture was being aggressively extended in eastern India; the British encouraged forest clearance; zamindars and jotedars turned waste into rice fields.
- British reasons: enlarge land revenue, produce crops for export, establish a settled, ordered society; they saw forest people as savage, unruly, primitive and hard to govern.
- As forests and pastures shrank, Paharia raids increased, carrying off grain and cattle.
4. British policies towards the Paharias.
| Period | Policy |
|---|---|
| 1770s | Brutal policy of extermination: Paharias hunted down and killed |
| 1780s | Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur, proposed pacification: chiefs given an annual allowance and made responsible for their men's conduct |
| Result | Many chiefs refused; those who accepted lost authority, seen as stipendiary chiefs in the pay of the government |
The Paharias withdrew deep into the mountains and kept up a war with outsiders. When Buchanan passed through in the winter of 1810-11, they were hostile and suspicious: every white man represented a power destroying their way of life.
5. The Santhals: pioneer settlers of the plough.
- Began coming into Bengal around the 1780s; zamindars hired them to reclaim land; British officials invited them to settle in the Jangal Mahals.
- Having failed to make Paharias settled farmers (they refused to cut forests or touch the plough), the British turned to the Santhals, who seemed ideal settlers.
- Moved into the Rajmahal area around 1800, displacing hill folk on the lower slopes. In 1810 Buchanan found Gunjuriya transformed by their labour, with fine tobacco and mustard.
6. The Damin-i-Koh.
- By 1832 a large area was demarcated as Damin-i-Koh, declared the land of the Santhals, who were to live there, practise plough agriculture and become settled peasants.
- Condition: at least one-tenth of the area to be cleared and cultivated within ten years.
- Surveyed, mapped and enclosed with boundary pillars, separated from plains farmers and hill Paharias.
- Growth: 40 villages (1838) to 1,473 (1851); population 3,000 to over 82,000; revenue to the Company rose.
- Santhal myths and songs recalled a past of continuous travel; here the journey seemed to end.
7. Impact on the Paharias. Pushed from lower hills and valleys into the dry interior and barren, rocky upper hills; shifting cultivation needs fresh, fertile land, so when the best soils became part of the Damin they could not sustain it; hunters suffered as forests were cleared. Result: long-term impoverishment. The Santhals, by contrast, settled, grew commercial crops, and dealt with traders and moneylenders.
8. The Santhal revolt (1855-56).
- Land they had cleared was slipping away: the state levied heavy taxes; moneylenders (dikus) charged high interest and seized land for unpaid debts; zamindars asserted control over the Damin.
- By the 1850s they rebelled against zamindars, moneylenders and the colonial state, to create an ideal world where they would rule. Leader: Sidhu Manjhi.
- After the revolt the Santhal Pargana was created, carving 5,500 square miles from Bhagalpur and Birbhum, with special laws to conciliate the Santhals.
- Images in the Illustrated London News (1856): peaceful villages (Fig. 9.10) became scenes of savagery (Fig. 9.12); burning villages and prisoners in chains (Figs. 9.13-9.14) displayed British might to readers in England.
9. Reading the sources.
- Buchanan (Francis Buchanan-Hamilton): physician in the Bengal Medical Service (1794-1815), surveyor for the Company. His journal is a diary of a moment, not a long history. He travelled with draughtsmen, surveyors, palanquin bearers, coolies, at Company expense, with instructions on what to record; villagers saw him as an agent of the sarkar.
- He looked for commercially valuable minerals and stones (iron ore, mica, granite, saltpetre) and described how landscapes could be made more productive; his vision reflected the Company's commercial concerns and Western notions of progress, so he was critical of forest dwellers.
- William Hodges (1782) painted the hills in the picturesque tradition inspired by Romanticism: a landscape officials found dangerous appears exotic and idyllic.
Key quotations
Short lines worth knowing by heart: who says them, when, and why they matter.
The battle between the hoe and the plough was a long one
NCERT, section 2.1: The Paharias' shifting cultivation against the Santhal settlers' plough agriculture.
Sums up the conflict in one image.
proper application of human labour
Francis Buchanan (quoted in NCERT section 2.2): On the land around Gunjuriya, cleared by the Santhals.
Shows Buchanan's admiration for settled cultivation.
They are very clever in clearing new lands, but live meanly
Francis Buchanan on the Santhals (Source 3): Describing Santhal huts and way of life.
Mixes praise of their labour with prejudice about their living.
all that is wanted is some appearance of progress
Francis Buchanan (Source 5): Passing through a village in the lower Rajmahal hills.
Reveals his idea of development: clearance and extended cultivation.
The Paharias and the Santhals: key facts
- Paharia economy
Cultivation shifting, with the hoe; burnt patches enriched by potash; pulses and millets Forest mahua for food; silk cocoons and resin for sale; wood for charcoal Pasture undergrowth and fallow grass Plains raids, tribute from zamindars, tolls from traders - Life tied to the forest; huts in tamarind groves.
- British policy towards the Paharias
1770s brutal policy of extermination 1780s Augustus Cleveland (Bhagalpur) proposes pacification with allowances to chiefs Result many chiefs refuse; those who accept lose authority as stipendiary chiefs 1810-11 Buchanan meets suspicion and distrust - The Paharias withdrew deep into the hills.
- Santhal settlement
1780s: Santhals begin coming into Bengal c. 1800 move into the Rajmahal area 1832 Damin-i-Koh demarcated; one-tenth to be cultivated in ten years 1838 40 villages, about 3,000 people 1851 1,473 villages, over 82,000 people - Boundary pillars separated the Damin; revenue for the Company rose.
- Santhal revolt, 1855-56
Taxes heavy levies by the state Dikus moneylenders' high interest and land seizures Zamindars claims of control over the Damin Leader Sidhu Manjhi Outcome Santhal Pargana, 5,500 sq. miles from Bhagalpur and Birbhum - Special laws were meant to conciliate the Santhals.
- Hoe versus plough
Paharias hoe, shifting cultivation, forest livelihood Santhals plough, settled cultivation, rice and cotton Outcome for Paharias pushed into the dry, rocky upper hills; long-term impoverishment - NCERT's image for the conflict.
How to answer The Paharias and the Santhals questions
Expect 1-mark items on Cleveland, Damin-i-Koh, Sidhu Manjhi and Buchanan; 3-mark questions on British policies towards the Paharias, the Paharia-Santhal conflict, how Santhals settled or why they rebelled; 8-mark comparisons of the two livelihoods; and 4-mark sources from Buchanan's journal.
- 1Describe the Paharias' livelihood with the hoe and the forest, and their raids and negotiated peace.
- 2Explain why peace broke down: expansion of settled agriculture and British attitudes to forests.
- 3Give British policies: extermination, then Cleveland's pacification and its results.
- 4Trace Santhal settlement: hired by zamindars, invited by officials, Damin-i-Koh with conditions and growth figures.
- 5Show the impact on Paharias: pushed uphill, impoverished.
- 6Explain the Santhal revolt: taxes, dikus, zamindars; outcome, the Santhal Pargana.
- 7For sources, read Buchanan as a Company employee with commercial priorities.
The Paharias and the Santhals in real life
The idea, met in an everyday situation. Answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.
Development seen from outside
Suppose a company surveying a forested district for a mining project writes that the area is 'wasted' and would be 'glorious' if the trees were cleared for farms and quarries, while the villagers who gather produce there see it as their home.
How is this like Buchanan's view of the Rajmahal hills, and how would a Paharia have reacted?
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Buchanan worked for the Company and recorded minerals, soils and possible crops.
- He thought progress meant clearance and extended cultivation (Source 5).
- For Paharias, the forest was land, identity and livelihood: mahua, cocoons, resin, pasture, shifting plots.
Answer: Both outsiders judge land by its commercial use; a Paharia would see such 'progress' as the destruction of his way of life, which is why they met Buchanan with suspicion.
Memory hook: One person's wasteland is another's home.
Debt and loss of land
Imagine settlers who reclaim barren land with years of labour, then face rising taxes and borrow at high interest until lenders take their fields.
Which historical case does this match, and what was the result?
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Santhals cleared forests and settled the Damin-i-Koh.
- The state levied heavy taxes; dikus charged high interest and seized land; zamindars claimed control.
- In 1855-56 the Santhals rebelled; the Santhal Pargana was then created.
Answer: The Santhal experience: land won by their labour slipped away, leading to revolt and to special laws in a new territory.
Memory hook: Cleared by sweat, lost to debt.
Tricks to remember The Paharias and the Santhals
Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.
Hoe = Hills, Plough = Plains-style
Paharias kept the Hoe in the Hills; Santhals brought the Plough and Pillars (boundary pillars of the Damin).
Use it when: Telling the two livelihoods apart.
40 to 1,473; 3,000 to 82,000
'1838 to 1851: forty villages became fourteen hundred-plus; three thousand people became eighty-two thousand.'
Use it when: Growth of Santhal settlement.
T-D-Z revolt
Taxes, Dikus, Zamindars: 'Too Deep in debt, Zero land'.
Use it when: Causes of the Santhal revolt.
The Paharias and the Santhals: solved examples
Ordered from board level to HOTS. Try each one before you open the solution.
Example 1: The pacifier · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Who proposed a policy of giving annual allowances to Paharia chiefs in return for keeping their men in order?
(a) Francis Buchanan
(b) William Hodges
(c) Augustus Cleveland
(d) Charles Cornwallis
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur, proposed pacification in the 1780s (1 mark).
Answer: (c) Augustus Cleveland
Example 2: Santhals in the Damin-i-Koh · 3 marks · Short answerBoard level
Describe how the Santhals came to settle in the Damin-i-Koh and the conditions attached to their settlement. (3 marks)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Arrival: from the 1780s, hired by zamindars and invited by officials after the Paharias refused the plough (1 mark).
- Demarcation by 1832; land of the Santhals; plough agriculture; one-tenth cleared in ten years (1 mark).
- Survey, mapping, boundary pillars; rapid growth to 1,473 villages by 1851 (1 mark).
Answer: Santhals began coming into Bengal around the 1780s, when they were employed by zamindars to bring land under cultivation and asked by British officials to make homes in the Jangal Mahals; having failed to turn the Paharias into settled cultivators, the British saw the Santhals as ideal settlers. By 1832 a large area at the foothills of Rajmahal was demarcated as the Damin-i-Koh and declared the land of the Santhals, who were to live within it, practise plough agriculture and become settled peasants; at least one-tenth of the area had to be cleared and cultivated within the first ten years. The land was surveyed, mapped and enclosed with boundary pillars. Settlements grew from 40 villages in 1838 to 1,473 by 1851.
Example 3: Assertion and reason: stipendiary chiefs · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level
Assertion (A): Cleveland's pacification policy weakened the standing of many Paharia chiefs among their own people.
Reason (R): A chief receiving a yearly payment from the Company looked like its servant rather than the leader of his tribe.
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- NCERT explains the loss of authority by their image as stipendiary chiefs (1 mark).
Answer: (a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
Example 4: Why the Paharias grew poor · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
Explain how the settlement of the Santhals led to the long-term impoverishment of the Paharias. (3 marks)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Paharias resisted but were forced into the dry interior and rocky upper hills (1 mark).
- Shifting cultivation needs new fertile land; the best soils were now in the Damin (1 mark).
- Forest clearance hurt hunters; restricted movement undermined their whole economy (1 mark).
Answer: As Santhals settled the lower hills and valleys, the Paharias resisted but were forced to withdraw deep into the Rajmahal hills, restricted to the dry interior and the barren, rocky upper hills. Their shifting cultivation depended on moving to new land and using the natural fertility of the soil; once the most fertile soils became part of the Damin and were closed to them, they could not sustain it. The clearing of forests for cultivation also hurt the hunters among them. Cut off from their old resources, they became impoverished in the long term.
Example 5: Source-based: Buchanan's vision · 4 marks · Source-basedHarder board level
Read the source (summarised for this page from Buchanan's journal as given in NCERT) and answer.
Crossing a village in the lower Rajmahal hills, Buchanan admired the rice valleys and the cleared fields among the rocky hills, but felt that the area still lacked signs of progress. He suggested that forests be replaced, as far as the market allowed, by plantations of asan and palas to feed tassar silkworms and lac insects, and that the rest of the land be cleared and farmed, leaving only unsuitable patches for palmyra and mahua.
(i) Who employed Buchanan when he made these observations? (1)
(ii) What did 'progress' mean to Buchanan in this passage? (1)
(iii) Why would the Paharias have rejected this idea of development? (2)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- (i) The British East India Company (1 mark).
- (ii) Clearing forests and extending settled, commercial cultivation (1 mark).
- (iii) Their livelihood depended on forests: shifting plots, mahua, cocoons, resin, charcoal, pasture, hunting; clearance meant loss of land, identity and survival (2 marks).
Answer: (i) The British East India Company, which paid for his travels because it needed the information he collected. (ii) For Buchanan, progress meant turning woods into plantations and farms: clearing forests, extending and improving cultivation, and growing commercially useful plants, an idea shaped by the Company's commercial concerns and Western notions of progress. (iii) For the Paharias the forest was the basis of identity and survival. They practised shifting cultivation on forest patches, collected mahua for food and silk cocoons and resin for sale, produced charcoal, hunted, and used undergrowth and fallow grass for pasture. Clearing the forest would destroy all of this, so they saw such 'development' as a threat, which is why they treated outsiders with hostility.
Example 6: Long answer: two livelihoods, one hill · 8 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
"The coming of colonial rule turned two forest-edge peoples into rivals." Compare the livelihoods of the Paharias and the Santhals and explain how colonial policy shaped their fortunes up to 1856. (8 marks)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Paharia livelihood (1 mark).
- Paharia relations with plains: raids, tribute, tolls (1 mark).
- British attitudes and expansion of settled agriculture (1 mark).
- Extermination and pacification; results (1 mark).
- Santhal arrival and Damin-i-Koh (1 mark).
- Contrast: hoe and plough; displacement of Paharias (1 mark).
- Santhals' loss of land and revolt; Santhal Pargana (1 mark).
- Judgement on colonial role (1 mark).
Answer: The Paharias lived around the Rajmahal hills by shifting cultivation: they burnt forest patches, used the potash-rich soil to grow pulses and millets with hoes, and moved on after a few years. They gathered mahua, silk cocoons, resin and wood for charcoal, hunted and grazed cattle. Their chiefs led raids on the plains, and zamindars paid them tribute while traders paid tolls to use the passes.
In the late eighteenth century the British encouraged forest clearance to enlarge revenue, grow export crops and create an ordered society; they saw forest people as savage and unruly. As forests shrank, Paharia raids grew. In the 1770s the British tried extermination; in the 1780s Augustus Cleveland of Bhagalpur offered chiefs allowances, but many refused and those who accepted lost authority as stipendiary chiefs. The Paharias withdrew into the hills.
The British then turned to the Santhals, who had come into Bengal around the 1780s as land reclaimers for zamindars. They cleared forests and ploughed with vigour. By 1832 the Damin-i-Koh was demarcated as their land, with boundary pillars and a rule that one-tenth be cultivated within ten years. Villages rose from 40 in 1838 to 1,473 in 1851, and population from 3,000 to over 82,000. If the hoe symbolised the Paharias, the plough symbolised the settlers.
The two fortunes diverged. The Paharias were pushed into the dry, rocky upper hills, where shifting cultivation and hunting could not be sustained, and became impoverished. The Santhals settled and grew commercial crops, but soon the state levied heavy taxes, dikus charged high interest and seized land, and zamindars claimed the Damin. In 1855-56, under leaders like Sidhu Manjhi, they rebelled; afterwards the Santhal Pargana of 5,500 square miles was created with special laws.
The statement is valid: colonial policy, by favouring plough agriculture and revenue, set the two peoples against each other and in the end worked against both.
Where students lose marks in The Paharias and the Santhals
The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.
Mistake: Mixing up the two peoples' farming
Both lived around the Rajmahal hills.
Wrong working
The Paharias were plough cultivators who settled in the Damin-i-Koh.
Right working
Paharias: hoe and shifting cultivation; Santhals: plough agriculture in the Damin-i-Koh.
Do this: Hoe = Paharia; plough = Santhal.
Usually costs: 1-2 marks.
Mistake: Dating Cleveland's pacification to the 1770s
Confusing it with extermination.
Wrong working
In the 1770s Cleveland introduced pacification.
Right working
1770s: extermination; by the 1780s: Cleveland's pacification.
Do this: Kill first (1770s), pay later (1780s).
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Blaming only the British for the Santhal revolt
Ignoring the three targets.
Wrong working
The Santhals revolted only against British rule.
Right working
They rebelled against zamindars, moneylenders (dikus) and the colonial state.
Do this: Use T-D-Z.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Quoting Buchanan as neutral fact
Not evaluating the source.
Wrong working
Buchanan proves the Santhals lived meanly.
Right working
Buchanan's view was shaped by Company interests and Western ideas of progress.
Do this: Name his employer and priorities.
Usually costs: 1 mark in source answers.
Exam tips
- Asked in: 2024 board paper 61/1/1 Q27 (3 marks, causes of conflict between Paharias and Santhals); 2024 board paper 61/4/1 Q26 (3 marks, how Santhals settled on the periphery of the Rajmahal hills); 2026 board paper 61/4/1 Q26 and sample paper 2025-26 Q26 (3 marks, British policies towards the Paharias); 2025 board paper 61/1/1 Q33 and 2026 board paper 61/2/1 Q33 (4-mark source, 'On clearance and settled cultivation'); 1-mark items such as 2024 61/4/1 Q15 (Cleveland), 2025 61/1/1 Q15 (cause of the Santhal revolt), 2026 61/2/1 Q15 and Q21 (effect on Paharias; Buchanan), 2026 61/4/1 Q15 (Sidhu Manjhi) and sample paper 2026-27 Q15 (Damin-i-Koh). Answers here are our own.
- For conflict questions, set the hoe against the plough and explain the land squeeze.
- Learn the Damin figures: 1832; one-tenth in ten years; 40 to 1,473 villages; 3,000 to 82,000 people.
- For Buchanan sources, always mention that he was a Company employee with commercial priorities.
- Add the Santhal Pargana (5,500 sq. miles) as the outcome of the revolt.
Practice questions on The Paharias and the Santhals
Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.
Q1 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
In which year had a large area at the foothills of Rajmahal been demarcated as the Damin-i-Koh?
(a) 1793
(b) 1810
(c) 1832
(d) 1856Hint
Between Buchanan's visit and the revolt.
Answer
(c) 1832.
Q2 · 2 marks · Very short answerBoard level
Give two reasons why Paharias raided the plains. (2 marks)
Hint
Survival, power, politics.
Answer
Any two: for survival, especially in years of scarcity; to assert power over settled communities; as a way of negotiating political relations with outsiders.
Q3 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
Why did the British come to prefer the Santhals over the Paharias as settlers? (3 marks)
Hint
Revenue, plough, behaviour.
Answer
The British wanted settled agriculture to enlarge land revenue, produce export crops and create an ordered society. The Paharias refused to cut forests, resisted touching the plough and stayed turbulent despite extermination and pacification. The Santhals, by contrast, cleared forests and ploughed with vigour, and had already been hired by zamindars to reclaim land; so officials invited them to settle and gave them the Damin-i-Koh, where expanding cultivation brought more revenue into the Company's coffers.
Q4 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
How did the Illustrated London News images of 1856 change the way the Santhals were portrayed, and why? (3 marks)
Hint
Before and after the revolt.
Answer
Before the revolt, a Santhal village in the lower Rajmahal hills was shown as peaceful, calm and idyllic (Fig. 9.10). After the rebellion, images showed Santhals fighting sepoys, villages that seemed to have become places of violent and savage deeds, burning villages and Santhal prisoners led away in chains while officials rode triumphantly on an elephant. These pictures carried a political message to readers in England: they displayed British might and the ability to crush rebellion and impose colonial order.
Q5 · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level
Assertion (A): After the Santhal revolt, the colonial state created the Santhal Pargana.
Reason (R): The state hoped to conciliate the Santhals by giving them a new territory with special laws.
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.Hint
Purpose of the new district.
Answer
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A: 5,500 square miles were carved from Bhagalpur and Birbhum.
Q6 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Suppose you are a Paharia elder in 1811 and Buchanan's party of surveyors, draughtsmen and bearers arrives in your village. Explain why you would flee rather than talk to him. (3 marks)
Hint
Memories of repression; agent of the sarkar.
Answer
Within living memory the British had hunted and killed Paharias in the 1770s and then tried to buy our chiefs with allowances, turning those who accepted into stipendiary chiefs. Their policy favoured clearing forests and settling plough cultivators, and Santhals were already taking our lower slopes. Buchanan came with a large army of people at the Company's expense and recorded our land, rocks and crops, so he looked like an agent of the sarkar. Every white man seemed to represent the power destroying our forests and livelihood, so avoiding him was safer.
Q7 · 4 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Using Buchanan's journal and Hodges's paintings, explain why historians must read colonial sources about the Rajmahal hills critically. (4 marks)
Hint
Purpose, priorities, aesthetics.
Answer
Buchanan was an employee of the East India Company whose travels were paid for by it; he had instructions on what to record and searched for commercially valuable minerals and land that could be made productive. His judgements reflected the Company's commercial concerns and Western ideas of progress, so he was critical of forest dwellers' lifestyles. His journal also records a moment in time, not the longer history of the people. Hodges, by contrast, painted in the picturesque tradition of Romanticism, so a landscape officials found dangerous appears exotic and idyllic. Neither shows the Paharias' or Santhals' own view; historians must place such sources beside revenue records and other evidence, asking who wrote them and why.
Test your recall
Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.
1.What did the Paharias use to cultivate their plots?Show answer
Hoes; they scratched the ground lightly.
2.Who was Collector of Bhagalpur in the 1780s?Show answer
Augustus Cleveland.
3.When did Buchanan travel through the Rajmahal hills?Show answer
In the winter of 1810-11.
4.Who were the dikus?Show answer
Moneylenders who charged Santhals high interest and took their land.
5.When did the Santhal revolt take place?Show answer
1855-56.
6.From which districts was the Santhal Pargana carved?Show answer
Bhagalpur and Birbhum.
The Paharias and the Santhals: frequently asked questions
Who were the Paharias?
Hill people around the Rajmahal hills who lived by shifting cultivation with hoes, forest produce, hunting and raids on the plains.
What was the Damin-i-Koh?
A large area demarcated by 1832 as the land of the Santhals, where they were to practise plough agriculture as settled peasants, enclosed with boundary pillars.
Why did the Santhals rebel in 1855-56?
Heavy state taxes, high interest and land seizures by moneylenders (dikus), and zamindars' claims over the Damin made them lose the land they had cleared.
What does 'the hoe and the plough' mean?
NCERT's image for the conflict between the Paharias' shifting cultivation with the hoe and the Santhal settlers' plough agriculture.