B. Answer the following questions.
1. What problems did shifting cultivators face under British rule?
2. What accounts for the anger of the tribals against the 'dikus'?
3. What was Birsa's vision of a golden age? Why do you think such a vision appealed to the people of the region?
4. How did the powers of tribal chiefs change under colonial rule?
5. Why did the British want tribals to become peasant cultivators? Why did they allow tribals later
to carry on shifting cultivation?
6. What were the reserved forests'? What was the problem faced by the Britishers? How did they resolve it?
Answers
1.British always had problems with shifting cultivators, as they were always moving for pasture lands. The British wanted the shifting cultivators to become peasant cultivators. The British thought it was easier to control and administer peasant cultivators than shifting cultivators. Hence, shifting cultivators faced problems when the company planned the land revenue system.
2.The forest law, introduced by the Britishers was the main reason of the anger of the tribals. The tribals wanted to drive out the dikus – missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu landlords and the government because they saw them as the cause of their misery. So, they disobeyed these new forest laws/rules, and continued with the practices that were declared illegal and at time rose in open rebellion.
3.Birsa’s vision of golden age was to have their land free of dikus. He considered that age to be the ‘age of truth’. According to Birsa, in the golden age, the tribal sirdars will be able to rule among themselves and no one will be there to dictate terms to them. His golden age vision was to have an age with no vices like liquor, witchcraft, sorcery and uncleanliness. He did not want any role of outsider participants like missionaries, Hindu landlords, moneylenders, traders and Europeans.
4.Under British rule, the functions and powers of the tribal chiefs changed considerably. They were allowed to keep their land titles over a cluster of villages and rent outlands, but they lost much of their administrative power and were forced to follow laws made by the British officials in India. They also had to pay tribute to the British, and discipline the tribal groups on behalf of the British. They lost the authority that they had earlier enjoyed among their people and were unable to fulfil their traditional functions.
5.The British wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators, because as settled peasants they were easier to control and administer. So, the British compelled the tribal people to carry on shifting cultivators in some forests. The British also wanted a regular revenue source for the state.