list the new forest laws that the british introduced and explain their impact on the lives of the tribal people?
Answers
Answer:
Goto Course Page
1. Introduction
What will I learn in this lesson?
2. Comics
A story of Birsa Munda
3. Key Concepts
Introduction
How Did the Different Tribal Groups Live?
How Did British Colonial Rule Affect the Lives of Tribals?
A Closer Look
4. Quiz
Quiz
5. Did You Know?
Dateline
Some Facts
Classroom Activities
Finish Lesson Help
Logo inverted circle
Tribals, Dikus, and the Vision of a Golden Age
Our Pasts - III
How Did British Colonial Rule Affect the Lives of Tribals?
The lives of tribal groups changed during British rule in many strange and unexpected ways:
What Happened to the Tribal Chiefs?
The tribal groups were considered important people, because it is they who controlled their territories. Under the British rule they lose their administrative power and were forced to follow law made by British officials in India.
Before the British arrived, tribal chiefs were important people; they had some money and the right to manage their lands and people.
But under the British rule, they lost much of their powers and were asked to discipline their tribe on behalf of the British government.
This subjugation meant that the tribal chiefs lost the authority among their people, and gradually also the will to fulfil their traditional functions.
What Happened to the Shifting Cultivators?
The British wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators, because as settled peasants they were easier to control and administer.
The British also wanted a regular revenue source for the state. So they introduced land settlements, that is, they measured the land, defined the rights of each individual to that land, and fixed the revenue the farmer had to pay to the state.
But the British effort to settle jhum cultivators was not very successful, because when their fields did not produce good yields, shifting cultivators who took to plough cultivation often suffered a lot.
Facing widespread protests, the British had to ultimately allow the right to carry on shifting cultivation in some parts of the forest.
Forest Laws and Their Impact
The British brought about several changes in the forest laws which severely affected the lives of many tribes. The British, for example, extended their control over all forests and declared that forests were state (government) property.
The British wanted timber, so the forests that produced it were classified as reserved forests where people were not allowed to move freely and practise jhum cultivation. As a result, several jhum cultivators moved away to other areas and lifestyles.
Colonial officials decided to give jhum cultivators small patches of land in the forests to cultivate, on the condition that they would have to provide labour to the Forest Department.
Naturally, many tribal groups revolted against the alien and unfair colonial forest laws.
The Problem with Trade
During the 19th century, traders and moneylenders began to come into the forests. They offered cash loans to the tribal people and asked them to work for wages.
The Case of the Silk Growers
In the 18th century, Indian silk was in demand in European markets, and the East India Company officials tried to encourage silk production in India to meet their growing demands.
The Santhals of Hazaribagh reared silk cocoons, and silk traders sent in their agents who gave loans to them to collect the cocoons. The growers were paid 3 to 4 rupees for a thousand cocoons, which were then exported to Burdwar or Gaya and sold at five times the price. This made the British traders richer and the Indian tribes poorer.
The Search for Work
The plight of the tribals who had to go far away from their homes for work was even worse; they were often recruited in large numbers to work the tea plantations of Assam and the coal mines of Jharkhand. To the tribals, those new homes and jobs were not just unfamiliar but actually very unpleasant and dangerous, and they gradually lost their culture and tradition, their health, self-respect, and their familiar ways of life in the forest.