Question

what were the main clauses for Santhal rebellion

Answer 1

hey mate ..... here is your answer

Following were the main causes for the agitation:

(1) The jamindars, the police, the revenue and court exercised a com­bined action of extortions. The Santhals were obliged to pay all kinds of taxes and levies. They were dispossessed of their prop­erty. They were abused.

(2) Violence

The representatives of jamindars, that is, Karendais in­flicted personal violence on the Santhals. A variety of petty tyrannies were exercised on the timed and yielding Santhals.

(3) Trespass on Santhal Land:

The rich peasants trespassed on the land of the tenants. They took away their cattle.

(4) Exorbitant Rate of Interest:

The moneylenders charged interest which was incredibly high. These moneylenders came to be known as diku, that is, exploiters by the Santhal. For this matter all the Bengalis who ran their trade in the Santhal areas were known as dikus.

(5) Oppression by Europeans:

The Europeans were employed in Bihar for railroad construction. These Europeans more than often forced abduction of Santhal women and even murder and some unjust acts of oppression. For all this no payment was made by the Europeans employed on the line of the railway. The jamindars, moneylenders, traders and European employees thus oppressed the Santhal peasants to such an extent that there was no alternative left for them rather than to take to insurrection.

Enough is enough; the Santhals could not bear the operation any further. The leading Santhals began to rob the mahajans (moneylend­ers) and the jamindars of their ill-earned wealth. But the officials took the Santhals in a very non-serious way. This was far away from reality the Santhals assembled in early part of 1855 in thousands of number.

The assembly of Santhal complained that their comrades had been punished while nothing had been done to the mahajans whose exac­tions had compelled them to take the law into their own hands. In course of time the insurrection spread all over the Santhal areas.

The Santhals took to guerrilla fighting. This was a new experience for the whole of Bihar. It was surprising to see the Santhals making their own armies, composed of rebellious peasants marching against their op­pressors.

It was a supreme tribute to their organisation and voluntary discipline that without any pervious military training, such a large number of persons, exceeding 10,000 assembled and disassembled at a very short warning.

The Santhal army broke down the postal and rail­way communications. The government realised that the Santhal rebellion had all the characteristics of defying the government. Surely, the Santhal insurrection was very strong but it could not succeed against the power of the government. It was suppressed. However, despite failure, the insurrection was successful.