We have seen how the conditions of the adivasi farmers who lived in the jungle worsened in British times.

Question

Read the para under the title ‘Adivasi Revolts’ and comment on it.

We have seen how the conditions of the adivasi farmers who lived in the jungle worsened in British times. The Baiga, Muria, Gond and Bhil tribes of Madhya Pradeshand Chattisgarh, the Koya, Reddy, and Kolam tribes of Andhra Pradesh and the Saora adivasis of Orissa, were all no longer able to practice their old form of cultivation. They were having to become labourers for either the Forest Department or for contractors. Or they were becoming bonded labourers for moneylenders or farmers who had come from outside.

Answer 1

1. As soon as the British took over Eastern India, tribal revolts broke out to challenge the alien rule.

2. In the early years of colonization, no other community in India offered such heroic resistance to British rule or faced such tragic consequences as did the numerous Adivasi communities. 

3. As punishment for Adivasi resistance to British rule, ‘The Criminal Tribes Act’ was passed by the British Government in 1871. 

4. As the freedom movement widened, it drew adivasis into all aspects of the struggle.