The process of social stratification in the lineage society of Kolhan in Singhbhum

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Notes

The Hos of Kolhan are among the four major tribes of Chotanagpur. They belong to the Munda main stock inhabiting the Chotanagpur plateau (now in Jharkhand). They left their original habitat and moved into Singhbhum sometime after the tenth century CE. They became a powerful people whose fighting ability, which they demonstrated against the chiefs of Porahat, Seraikela, Kharsawan and Mayurbhanj, earned for them the epithet of Larka (fighting) Kols (Hos). The British contact with the Hos began in 1820 when the chiefs of Porahat, Seraikela and Kharsawan sought British help to subdue them. In 1837 the East India Company finally subjugated the Hos and their territory and converted it into an administrative unit called the Kolhan Government Estate.

Edward Said, Orientalism (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1985), pp.4–5. For studying this link between knowledge and power in the Indian setting one may see B.S. Cohn, Colonialism and its Forms Of Knowledge (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp.ix, 4.

Lt. S.R. Tickell, ‘Memoir on the Ho Desum (Improperly Called Kolehan)’, in Journal Of the Asiatic Society Of Bengal, Vol.XI, pt.I (1840); E.T. Dalton, Tribal History Of Eastern India (Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1973); J.A. Craven, Final Report on the Settlement Of Kolhan Government Estate 1897 (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1898); L.S.S. O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers: Singhbhum, Seraikela and Kharsawan (Calcutta: The Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1910); and A.D. Tuckey, Final Report on the Resettlement Of the Kolhan Government Estate in the District Of Singhbhum 1913–1918 (Patna: Superintendent, Government Printing, Bihar and Orissa, 1920).

Although Tickell, for example, sometimes employs contradictory expressions such as ‘high’ and ‘low’, and ‘the better classes’. See Tickell, ‘Memoir’, pp.783–4.

S.C. Roy, The Mundas and Their Country (Calcutta: Asia Publishing House, 1970), pp.211–18; S.C. Roy, The Oraons Of Chotanagpur (Ranchi: Man in India, 1984), pp.59–60; and D.N. Majumdar, A Tribe in Transition: A Study in Culture Pattern (Calcutta: Longmans Green & Co. Ltd., 1937), pp.26–7.

B.B. Chaudhuri, ‘Tribal Society in Transition: Eastern India, 1757–1920’, in M. Hasan and N. Gupta (eds), India's Colonial Encounter: Essays in Honour Of Eric Stokes (Delhi: Manohar, 1993), pp.68–76.

F.B. Bradley‐Birt, Chota Nagpore a Little Known Province Of the Empire (London: 1903); Tickell, ‘Memoir’, pp.696–7; Dalton, Tribal History, pp.177, 185; and E. Roughsedge to C.T. Metcalfe, sec. to govt., 9 May 1820, Bihar State Archives [hereafter BSA], South West Frontier Political Despatch Register [hereafter SWFPDR], 20 Apr. 1820 to 7 June 1821, Vol.XXVIII.

K.S. Singh, Birsa Munda and His Movement 1874–1901 (Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp.9–17.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.804.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.805; and Tuckey, Final Report, p.118.

E. Roughsedge to George Swinton, 14 Apr. 1821, BSA, SWFPDR, 2 Apr. 1821 to 10 Dec. 1821, Vol.XXIX.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, pp.804–5.

Roughsedge to Metcalfe, 9 May 1820; Tickell, ‘Memoir’, pp.804–5; and Dalton, Tribal History, p.185.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.785; Craven, Final Report, pp.19–20; Majumdar, A Tribe in Transition, pp.55–9; and M. Sahu, The Kolhan under the British Rule (Calcutta: 1985), pp.170–2.

S.J. Manook to C.H. Bompas, dep. comm. Singhbhum, 3 Sept. 1895, appended to J.A. Craven to dep. comm. Singhbhum, 21 Aug. 1895; vide W.H. Grimley to sec. to Board of Revenue, Lower Provinces, District Record Room Chaibasa [hereafter DRRC], no.876LR, 14 Oct. 1895, 16‐S/2, nos.113–4.

S. Sinha, ‘State Formation and Rajput Myth in Tribal Central India’, in Man in India, Vol.42, no.1 (Mar. 1962), pp.41–71.

T.N.N. Singhdeo, Singhbhum, Seraikela and Kharsawan Through the Ages (Calcutta: n.d.), p.26.

Roughsedge to Metcalfe, 9 May 1820.

Sinha, ‘State Formation’, pp.36–71. Also see J.C. Jha, The Tribal Revolt Of Chotanagpur (1831–32) (Patna: K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1987), pp.130–1.

B.H. Baden‐Powell, The Indian Village Community (Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1972), p.153.

K.S. Singh, ‘The Munda Land System and Revenue Reforms in Chotanagpur During 1869–1908’, in R.S. Sharma (ed.), Land Revenue in India: Historical Studies (Patna: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971), pp.80–90.

Roughsedge to Metcalfe, 9 May 1820.

Said, Orientalism, p.8.

A.K. Sen, ‘Conceptualisation Of the Hos Of Singhbhum as a Tribe’, in P. Sen (ed.), Changing Tribal Life: A Socio‐Philosophical Perspective (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Co., 2003), pp.1–14.

Craven, Final Report, pp.124–5; Tuckey, Final Report, pp.2–3, 118–9; O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers, pp.117, 151–8; P.C. Roy Chaudhury, Bihar District Gazetteers Singhbhum, (Patna: Superintendent, Secretariat Press, 1958), pp.112–4, 193–6, 343–6; and Sahu, The Kolhan, pp.218–22, 230–5, 238–9, 244.

W.W. Hunter, A Statistical Account Of Bengal, Vol.XVII (Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1976), pp.74–6; and Craven, Final Report, p.54.

Craven, Final Report, p.54.

Tuckey, Final Report, p.1; and Sahu, The Kolhan, p.139.

Tuckey Settlement [hereafter TS], Records Of Cases u/s 346/85 (2) ii of 1917, Duarsai, Vasta No.(VN) 70, DRRC, pp.5–10; ibid., u/s 334/85 (2) ii of 1917, Rengarbera, VN 71, pp.5–9; ibid., u/s 333/85 (2) ii of 1917, Uisia, VN 71, pp.5–8; ibid., u/s 332/85 (2) ii of 1917, Kuchibera, VN 71, pp.5–7; and ibid., u/s 327/85 (2) ii of 1917, VN, Nawamundi, pp.5–7.

Ibid., Kuchibera and Nawamundi.

Tuckey, Final Report, pp.120–1.

TS, Village Notes, Khajuria and Khas Pukhuria, Vol.II, pp.316, 396. Many other villagers owning tanks could also be cited from the above source.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.804.

TS, Village Notes, Vols.I & II.

TS, Records Of Cases u/s 28/85 (2) ii of 1917, Barajaipur, VN 13, pp.5–12. See also ibid., Records of Cases u/s 368/85 (2) ii of 1917, Dumarjua, VN 68, pp.5–13; and Records Of Cases u/s 364/85 (2) ii of 1917, Kitaktorang, VN 68, pp.5–10.

The projections are, however, a tentative identification of socio‐economic layers as productivity and earning depended more on the quality of land as well as its geographical location. However, marginals and non‐marginals may be recognised clearly. Tickell observed a Ho ‘worth three or four ploughs, lives in a very comfortable manner’. Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.783.

TS, Records Of Cases u/s 685/85 (2) ii of 1917, Bara Chiru, VN 12, pp.5–21. Another instance is ibid., Records Of Cases u/s 515/85 (2) ii of 1917, Tantnagar, VN 15, pp. 5–21.

Ibid., Records Of Cases u/s 598/85 (2) ii of 1917, Tensera, VN 67, pp. 5–11. See also ibid., Records Of Cases u/s 604/85 (2) ii of 1917, Suiamba, VN 67, pp.5–14.

Kolhan had three classes of land—bera, bad and gora—76.2, 228.1 and 220.3 square miles in area respectively. Craven, Final Report, p.23.

Ibid., p.5; and Tuckey, Final Report, p.5.

Craven, Final Report, p.2.

Ibid., and Tuckey, Final Report, p.5.

Craven, Final Report, pp.24–5.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.783.

O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers, p.134.

Craven, Final Report, p.22.

These menials were paid poorly, and often in kind. Ibid., pp.181–2; and O'Malley, Bengal District Gazetteers, p.133.

Bradley‐Birt, Chota Nagpore a Little Known Province, p.87; Craven, Final Report, p.2; and Majumdar, A Tribe in Transition, pp.17–19.

Craven, Final Report, p.2.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.803; and Dalton, Tribal History, p.201.

Tickell, ‘Memoir’, p.784.

Dalton, Tribal History, p.192; and Sahu, The Kolhan, pp.197–8.

C.B. Prasad, Final Report on Survey and Settlement Operations in the District Of Singhbhum, 1958–1965 (Patna: Secretariat Press, 1970), pp.63–70.

Roy Chaudhury, Bihar District Gazetteers, pp.245–9.

A recent study has challenged the ‘romantic’ idea of a ‘Timeless Primitive’or changelessness in tribal society in anthropological studies. See Ronato Rosaldo, Ilongot Headhunting 1883–1974: A Study in Society and History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980), pp.24–5.

A. Beteille, Society and Politics in India—Essays in Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1992), pp.59–60.

S.C. Dube (ed.), Tribal Heritage Of India, Vol.I (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1977), p.2.

A recent exception is K.S. Singh, Tribal Society in India (Delhi: Manohar, 1985), p.14.