Chapter – 4 – Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden age
1. Fill in the blanks:
1. The British described the tribal people as savage.
2. The method of sowing seeds in jhum cultivation is known as broadcast.
3. The tribal chiefs got land titles in central India under the British land settlements.
4. Tribals went to work in tea plantations, coal mines of Assam and Bihar.
2. State whether true or false:
1. Jhum cultivators plough the land and sow seeds. → False
2. Cocoons were bought from the Santhals and sold by the traders at five times the purchase price. →
True
3. Birsa urged his followers to purify themselves, give up drinking liquor, and stop believing in
witchcraft and sorcery. → True
4. The British wanted to preserve the tribal way of life. → False
3. What problems did shifting cultivators face under British rule?
➡️
Answer The life of shifting cultivators was directly connected to the forest. So, when the British
brought changes in forest laws, their life was badly affected.
➡️ The British extended their control over all forests and declared that forests were state property.
Some forests were classified as Reserved Forests for they produced timber which the British wanted.
➡️ In these forests, people were not allowed to move freely and practice jhum cultivation. As a result,
many jhum cultivators had to move to other areas in search of work.
Q.4. How did the powers of tribal chiefs change under colonial rule?
Answer -
Before the arrival of the British in India, tribal chiefs were important people.
1. They had economic power.
[Link] had the right to administer and control their territories.
[Link] some areas, they had their own policy.
[Link] decided on the local rules of land and forest management.
The powers of Chiefs changed under colonial rule
[Link] were allowed to keep their land titles over a cluster of villages and rent outlands.
[Link] were divested of their administrative power.
[Link] were forced to follow laws made by the British in India.
[Link] also had to pay tribute to the British, and discipline the tribal groups on behalf of the British.
[Link] lost the their authority.
[Link] were unable to fulfill their traditional functions.
5. What accounts for the anger of the tribals against the dikus?
Answer - 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.
Following reasons for anger -
1. The land policies of the British were destroying their traditional land system.
2. Hindu landlords and moneylenders were taking over their land.
3. Missionaries were criticising their traditional culture.
Q.6What was Birsa’s vision of a golden age? Why do you think such a vision appealed to the
people of the region?
➡️Birsa was deeply influenced by many of the ideas he came in touch with in his growing-up years.
He urged the Munda community to give up drinking liquor, clean their village, and stop believing in
witchcraft and sorcery.
➡️ He often remembered the golden past of the Mundas, when they lived a good life, constructed
embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and orchards, practiced cultivation to earn their
living. They did not kill their brethren and relatives. They lived honestly.
➡️ Birsa wanted to restore this glorious past. Such a vision appealed to the people of the region
because they were very much eager to lead a free life. They had got fed up with the colonial forest
laws and the restrictions that were imposed on them.