HISTORY OF SANTAL

History of Santhals
Histories of Santhals are
only persisting in songs and
folklore of Santhal tribe
itself. Historians from
different region have come
and wrote different things
regarding them and large
populations believe that is
only the truth about
Santhals. Pandit
Raghunath Murmu, who
develops Santhali
manuscript, written Santhals
are from Pre Aryan period.
And they were the real great
fighters during British
regime. Santhals were the
first who fought against
Permanent Settlement Act of
Lord Cornwallis during 1855.
It was during late 1850, when
Sidhu Murmu, Kanhu
Murmu, Chand Murmu
and Bhairo Murmu
hoarded around 85,000
Santhals to wage a war
against British to object all
the law which were
objectionable to them at that
point of time..
So, Santhals with their entire
musical instrument (like
Tumdak, Tamak,
Banam, and Trio) and
weapons (Aag-Saar, Kapi,
Tarwade) start moving
towards Calcutta. But they
had to face British army on
the way and could not able to
reach Calcutta.
It is also recorded that
“Baba Tilka Majhi” was
the first Santhal’s leather
who raise weapons against
the British in 1789. It was
due to great famine in 1770
and the consequences of
“Court of Directors” orders
influenced by British Prime
Minister Pitt the Younger.
Court of Director issued ten
year of the settlement of
Zamindari and later in 1800,
it was permanent. This
resulted in minimal chance to
negotiate between local
Zamindars and Santhal
villagers. Baba Tilka
Majhi made bold step to kill
one of the British lieutenant
with arrow from the top of
banyan tree. Later Baba
Tilka majhi was hanged till
death from the same tree to
show example for such
deeds.