Life of Tribals in Colonial India | Social Studies (SST) Class 8 PDF Download

Jhum Cultivators

• The practice of shifting cultivation is called Jhum cultivation. The cultivators cut the treetops to allow sunlight to reach the ground, and burnt the vegetation on the land to clear it for cultivation. 
• They spread the ash from the firing, which contained potash, to fertilise the soil. They used the axe to cut trees and the hoe to scratch the soil in order to prepare it for cultivation. They scattered the seeds on the field instead of ploughing the land and sowing the seeds. 
• Once the crop was ready and harvested, they moved to another field. A field that had been cultivated once was left fallow for several years.
• Shifting cultivators were found in the hilly and forested tracts of north-east and central India. The lives of these tribal people depended on free movement within forests and on being able to use the land and forests for growing their crops.
  Jhum Cultivation 

Hunters and Gatherers

• In many regions tribal groups lived by hunting animals and gathering forest produce. The Khonds were such a community living in the forests of Orissa. They regularly went out on collective hunts and then divided the meat amongst themselves. They ate fruits and roots collected from the forest and cooked food with the oil they extracted from the seeds of the sal and mahua. They used many forest shrubs and herbs for medicinal purposes, and sold forest produce in the local markets.
• At times they exchanged goods – getting what they needed in return for their valuable forest produce. At other times they bought goods with the small amount of earnings they had. Some of them did odd jobs in the villages, carrying loads or building roads, while others laboured in the fields of peasants and farmers.
• When supplies of forest produce shrank, tribal people had to increasingly wander around in search of work as labourers. But many of them – like the Baigas of central India – were reluctant to do work for others. The Baigas saw themselves as people of the forest, who could only live on the produce of the forest. It was below the dignity of a Baiga to become a labourer.
• Tribal groups often needed to buy and sell in order to be able to get the goods that were not produced within the locality. This led to their dependence on traders and moneylenders. Traders came around with things for sale, and sold the goods at high prices. Moneylenders gave loans with which the tribals met their cash needs, adding to what they earned. But the interest charged on the loans was usually very high. So for the tribals, market and commerce often meant debt and poverty. They therefore came to see the moneylender and trader as evil outsiders and the cause of their misery.

Animal Herders

• Many tribal groups lived by herding and rearing animals. They were pastoralists who moved with their herds of cattle or sheep according to the seasons. 
• When the grass in one place was exhausted, they moved to another area. The Van Gujjars of the Punjab hills and the Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders, the Gaddis of Kulu were shepherds, and the Bakarwals of Kashmir reared goats.

Switch Over to Settled Cultivation

• Before the 19th century, many tribal people began settling down and farming the same land.
• They started using the plough and gained rights over the land they worked.
• For example, the Mundas of Chottanagpur saw land as belonging to the entire clan.
• All clan members were considered descendants of the initial settlers who cleared the land.
• Some individuals within the clan gained more power, becoming chiefs.
• Powerful members often rented out their land rather than farming it themselves.
• Before British rule, tribal chiefs had economic power over shifting cultivation in certain forest areas.
• British officials viewed settled tribes like the Gonds and Santhals as more civilised.
• Those living in forests were deemed wild and needed to be civilised.
• The introduction of forest laws by the British took control of forests and classified them as state property, disrupting traditional tribal practices.