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British Rule and Tribal Revolts in India: The curious case of Bastar*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2015

AJAY VERGHESE
AJAY VERGHESE*
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside, United States of America Email: ajayv@ucr.edu
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Abstract

British colonial rule in India precipitated a period of intense rebellion among the country's indigenous groups. Most tribal conflicts occurred in the British provinces, and many historians have documented how a host of colonial policies gave rise to widespread rural unrest and violence. In the post-independence period, many of the colonial-era policies that had caused revolt were not reformed, and tribal conflict continued in the form of the Naxalite insurgency. This article considers why the princely state of Bastar has continuously been a major centre of tribal conflict in India. Why has this small and remote kingdom, which never came under direct British rule, suffered so much bloodshed? Using extensive archival material, this article highlights two key findings: first, that Bastar experienced high levels of British intervention during the colonial period, which constituted the primary cause of tribal violence in the state; and second, that the post-independence Indian government has not reformed colonial policies in this region, ensuring a continuation and escalation of tribal conflict through the modern Naxalite movement.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 5 , September 2016 , pp. 1619 - 1644
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Henry Farrell, Henry Hale, Emmanuel Teitelbaum, the staffs of the National Archives of India, British Library, and Deshbandhu Press Library, and two anonymous reviewers from Modern Asian Studies. Funding for this research was generously provided by The Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Konosuke Matsushita Memorial Foundation.

References

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2 The term adivasi means ‘original inhabitant’; I use the terms tribal and adivasi interchangeably.

3 The Naxalites are Maoist revolutionaries who are attempting to overthrow the Indian state. They are mainly drawn from Scheduled Tribes and, to a lesser extent, Scheduled Castes. For good overviews of the Naxalite movement, see Dasgupta, B. (1974). The Naxalite Movement, Allied Publishers, New Delhi Google Scholar; Louis, P. (2002). People Power: The Naxalite Movement in Central Bihar, Wordsmiths, New Delhi Google Scholar; and Ray, R. (2002). The Naxalites and Their Ideology, Oxford University Press, Oxford Google Scholar.

4 For excellent overviews see Gough, K. (1974). Indian Peasant Uprisings, Economic and Political Weekly 9:32, pp. 1391–1412 Google Scholar; Stokes, E. (1978). The Peasant and the Raj, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Google Scholar; Guha, Ranajit (1999). Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India, Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina Google Scholar. Specifically on tribal revolts, see Simhadra, V. C. (1979). Ex-Criminal Tribes of India, National Publishing House, New Delhi Google Scholar; Mathur, L. P. (2004). Tribal Revolts in India Under British ‘Raj’, Aavishkar Publishers, New Delhi Google Scholar; and Hasnain, N. (2007). Tribal India, New Royal Book Co., Lucknow Google Scholar.

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26 For example, the Hindustan Times piece ‘Naxalites meet to analyse tribal revolt against them’ of 25 June 2005 noted that tribal groups are ‘considered the backbone of the ultra-left movement’—Deshbandhu Press Library [hereafter DPL], 24, IB, 210.

27 This is not the case everywhere; for instance, in Jharkhand, many Naxalites come from the rural elite. See Shah, A. (2010). Alcoholics Anonymous: The Maoist Movement in Jharkhand, India, Modern Asian Studies 45:5, pp. 1095–1117 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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33 Deputy Superintendent of Census, Central Provinces to Census Commissioner of India, 31 January 1881, NAI, Home Department, Census Part B, March 1881, #7.

34 Information available at: http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2011/195555.htm, [accessed 25 June 2015].

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42 Ibid., pp. 6–7.

43 Ibid., p. 16.

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