Land and Liberty: Stories of Land, Rights, and Freedom Fighters of Mal Pahadiya in Jangaltari Province.

Abstract (English)

The Pahadiya people are a Dravidian ethnic group in India, mainly living in Jharkhand and West Bengal. They are the original inhabitants of the Rajmahal Hills, known today as the Santal Parganas division of Jharkhand. The government of Jharkhand lists them as a PVTGs. They speak the Maudo/Maudi language, a Dravidian language, and a poorly documented Indo-Aryan Mal Paharia language.
In 302 BC, Megasthenes addressed them by the term "Mali". Again in 645 (AD) other Chinese travelers Fa Hien and Hensang also found these hill populations in this area. During the 15th and 16th centuries, they were landlords in areas like Rajmahal, Manihari, Lakdagarh, Barkop, Gando, Sankara, Gidhor etc. Before the British, there were always attempts to grab and snatch this landlord ship by the Mughals and the Marathas, but the Pahadiya never gave up nor did they accept slavery, they always kept fighting against the invaders in their area.
According to popular legend, in the fifteenth century, King Maharaj Dubaai Singh used to rule the kingdom with his family in “Bhagwan Bandh” (present village Bhagabandh, Block Gopikandar, District Dumka, Jharkhand). King Dubaai Singh was sad that his people did not have enough clothes to cover their bodies. Women used to wear “Siyar leaves” while men used to keep the bark of “Naatni tree” immersed in water for a month, and then after taking it out of water and washing it thoroughly, they used to wrap this bark on their body. King Dubaai Singh used to visit nearby areas and small kingdoms like Maheshpur, Devipur, etc., in search of cloth for their people, but due to scarcity of cloth, it was available only in inadequate quantity. During this period, the British infiltrated the Gopikandar area in the form of traders. The British demanded land from King Dubaai Singh for their residence. He thought that since they were businessman, they would do business and it would be convenient for their people to buy salt, oil, cloth, etc. Therefore, he gave them permission to stay and open a shop in his kingdom. The British also sold cloth and at that time twelve hands of cloth were available for one “Chavanni”. But this was the time when the deceitfulness of the British started and gradually it resulted in the downfall of the Pahdiya community. Today, the Pahadiya have become an insignificant minority in their lands. Their literacy rate is an abysmal 1%, despite the many government schemes that have tried to uplift them. Most villages of the tribe lack basic facilities. With this study, I will try to document the stories of Mal Pahadiya resilience against the invaders in Jangaltari provice of Jharkhand.