How did colonial rule effect the tribal lives
Answers
Effect of Colonialism on Tribals
1) Tribals believed in joint ownership of land and resources by the community. They lived in isolation and as a closed-knit group. Though they interacted with the outside world, it was purely for trade. This peaceful equation was disrupted when the colonial government started interfering in their internal matters. The government realised the rich resources of the forests and thus had a vested interest. The British government banned the practice of shifting agriculture. Slash and burn and shifting agriculture meant that the tribals were always on the move. This made it difficult for the British to assess the revenue and collect taxes from the tribals. Very often the slash and burn method also led to violent forest fires.
2) To expand the cultivation and thereby, revenue, the British government introduced the growing of cash crops and new revenue collection pol- icies like the Permanent Settlement of 1793. The introduction of such a revenue system broke the self sufficiency of the tribals and brought them at the mercy of the moneylenders.
•3) The tribals had no understanding of ownership rights. The British manipulated the situation and took away their lands. The tribals either came under the debt of moneylenders or became landless labourers. When the loan to the moneylender could not be paid on time, the interest rate rose and this led to a debt which passed on from one generation to the other. The traders often charged very high prices for the goods that the tribals purchased from them. Together, the British, the moneylenders and the traders exploited the tribals. These group of people were referred to as dikus by the tribals, meaning outsiders, and resisted their presence in their territory.
4) The British introduced new laws in the forest whereby the tribals were put under a lot of restrictions and also lost their freedom to use the forest resources. This brought a major change in their lives as it shook the very basis of their sustenance. Now they were required to pay taxes for using the land, which from times immemorial had been theirs and on which they had been surviving.
5) The activities of the Christian missionaries and their interference in the social - religious life of the tribals also proved to be a great source of tension. The tribals felt that their way of life was being threatened by the new and modern ways of the Christian missionaries.