Tribal Migrant Labourers in the Sundarbans: Effects of Migration on prevalent Social,Cultural and Political Life

Abstract

A closed reading of the mobility of tribal life in West Bengal can take us to the Sundarbans in the southern fringes of Bengal; where the Santhals can be traced, who migrated from their homelands in the Chota Nagpur, to the tide country (Sundarbans) only a few centuries ago, to clear forested lands and to start cultivating the virgin land. Colonization here plays a very important role, since this migration was a direct result of the colonial barbarity on the tribal populations in the Chota Nagpur Plateau during the 18th century. Migrant labour, though is mostly understood in terms of seasonal migration, in this case, the opposite is noticed. Here, whole tribes migrated, who can also be credited as one of the first settlers in a land which was otherwise the realm of the deadly Royal Bengal Tigers (where no humans lived). In this context, the paper will seek to outline the tribal roots of the Santhals, Mundas and Oraons, who migrated from other parts of the country to the Sundarbans. The similarities in their folk traditions and religion though can be a mere coincidence, believing in which can restrict one from engaging in the fantastic possibility of rich research in the field. This paper will also address the functioning of the tribal labour at that point of time, and how it changed the whole paradigm of migration, especially the notion of mobility. The paper will employ information from several government accounts and journals, which recorded data about the migration of the Santhals to the Sundarbans.

Introduction

The first peoples or the natives of any given place, who belong to certain ethnic group, are called Indigenous or tribal people. They can be said to share the same language, culture and ethnic roots. These people, as the definition goes, can be said to have a distinct belief system and traditions, along with certain practices, which otherwise differ from that of the city dwellers or modern men. In present day, Indigenous people of India live scattered throughout the country in specific regions, known otherwise as the tribal belts – for example, the Ladakhi, the Kinnaurs, Lepcha, Bhutia, Naga, Munda, Santhal, Mizo, Kodawa, Toda, Kurumba and so on.

Eastern India, which comprises the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal houses mainly the tribal entities of the Santhal, Oraon, Munda and also others, who have been living in perfect harmony with nature for centuries, in ways unimaginable to modern man. Although the tribal people often migrated to other regions, they were usually found to migrate to other forest or hilly regions which bear close semblance to their erstwhile homelands, but it is only in the mid-19th century that we find huge migration of tribal people to cities and other foreign places. To cite reasons for such anomaly in their migration patterns, it can be asserted that colonization is one major factor. In the mid-19th century, the British had set up huge tea plantations in areas of Assam and Bengal, which required manpower in the form of cheap unskilled labourers. Owing to the growing alienation of these tribals in their homelands – unaccustomed to the establishment of money lenders and increase in population, they were in dire need for cash income. Also, since these people were accustomed to hard labour and were acclimated to forested areas, they themselves volunteered to travel to other regions for work. The Santhal from the Santhal Parganas in Manbhum, the Oraons and Munda from Ranchi and Hazaribagh, as recorded in Wolf Mersch’s manuscript, thus emigrated from the Chota Nagpur Plateau to regions of Bengal and Assam in large numbers.

Tribal migration from the Chota Nagpur Plateau

Every year, tribals migrate to other regions for work. This phenomenon is not a recent one, as it has been happening in a pattern since more than 100 years. Thousands of people who belong to certain tribes in their homelands are being represented here, more specifically the Santhal, Oraon and the Munda tribes, when they migrate from Bihar or Jharkhand to other states. They stay out of their homelands for 6 months or more but generally return to their homes in the spring time, which also coincides with the season for most tribal festivals like Sarhul, Karam, Tusu or more. But the situation slightly differs, when one focuses on this pattern in migration in the Bengal region, especially the Sundarbans.

In terms of demography, in the year 1981, Bengal itself witnessed the arrival of 70,000 tribal migrant workers, whereas in Assam, the numbers go as high as 190,000. If the employment market at Assam and Bengal can be read as a portal, once it opened, it kept rising steeply till the early decades of the 20th century (Welner, 1978: 160). The tea industry being affected by a depression in and after 1920 showed a significant slowing in this migration and nearing 1930, it rapidly declined. Records show that in 1921 only, 947,000 people migrated to Bengal and Assam, while there are no significant records after the year 1931. A very striking feature in this is that there was a fair and even sex ratio of this migration which indicates that whole families migrated. And this increases the chances of settling down in the new lands permanently, which is also supported by the lack of evidence or recorded data of any return of this population to their native lands either by the original migrant or by their second or succeeding generations.

In this respect, the tea plantations were not the only source of employment, but some also found jobs as unskilled labourers in the emerging industries of Bengal. A detailed reading of this mobility of tribes from the Chota Nagpur also takes us to the Sundarbans in the southern fringes of Bengal, where a number of tribal identities can be traced. The virgin mangrove forests of the Sundarban also came under commercial purposes, and here also, huge numbers of labourers were required to cut down trees to make way for development.

The English got Zamindari Rights over the 24 Parganas, somewhere around 1765 when they had acquired full proprietary rights over the region. Henckell was the Judge and Magistrate of Jessore at that time, who initiated reclamation work in the Sundarban. And it is also when the portal to tribal migration started. Tribes like the Oraons, Mundas and Santhals from the Chota Nagpur were brought in to reclaim the forested land and convert them into fertile rice fields. Henckell worked towards the betterment of these peasants, and the people remain still indebted to Henckell, after whom they named the area – Henckellganj, which later came to be colloquially known as Hingalganj.

The mangrove forests of the Sundarban came under commercial purposes for the first time at the peak of colonial exploitation, and here also, huge numbers of labourers were required to cut down trees to make way for development. In H.H. Risley’s book, The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, it is mentioned that the Oraons and the Santhals, from the Chota Nagpur Plateau were ‘forcefully’ uprooted from their homeland and were brought to the forest region of Sundarban in South Bengal to clear the forests and build up embankments. Anuradha Bannerjee (1961) in her book Environment, Population and Human Settlements of Sundarban Delta reflects on the Scheduled Tribe population of Sundarban, which mainly comprised the Santhals, Oraon, the Munda, Bhumij and others, who lived along with different caste groups like the Brahmin, Kayastha and Baidya. In the South 24 Parganas, the Oraon population itself forms the second largest tribe of the State, who constitute about 11.5% of the total tribal population. They also had played very active role in the agriculture of the region. In the book, The Oraons of Sundarban, the writers believe that a considerable population of the Mundas and Oraon were brought by local Zamindars from their homelands during the British period who had employed them in agricultural and other similar works (Das and Raha, 1965). Since agriculture was the primary occupation of these tribes even in their native lands, they did not find it very difficult to acclimatize in the new environment. Thus, it was an added benefit for them to acclimatize with the new lands they ended up in. Added to this, these people were given land for settlement and cultivation by the Zamindars of the areas. But the contracts with which they were brought in still remains a mystery, since nothing of that sort was available in government records or is archived anywhere, which can elaborate on the nature of contract that the tribals might have agreed upon. Whether it was by force, as mentioned earlier or compulsion or whether they themselves willed to migrate is something we need to trace. Many academics have wrote about ‘colonial agents’ being at work here, who were responsible for bringing labourers from tribal belts to plantation areas.

In the past, efforts have also been taken to investigate whether the changes in culture and tradition that took place were healthy and whether they keep pace with the general upliftment of the area and it has been found that the Scheduled Tribes population of the region lags behind in terms of literacy, economic and other factors. Inter cultural interaction is bound to affect both communities involved in subtle ways, and in the case of these tribes from Chota Nagpur, they embraced the dominant folk traditions of Sundarban, at the same time, influenced it in many ways – which will be discussed accordingly in this paper.

Folk traditions and religion of the Sundarban

The Sundarbans, as we know is a land which is formed by the confluence of three rivers, namely the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna. It has a total number of 102 islands, out of which 54 are inhabited by humans. The main source of income for the people of the Sundarban lies in the exploitation of forest resources such as honey and timber, along with agriculture and animal rearing. Recently, tourism has also become a major source of livelihood for many people, where people engage in acting as tourist guides, boatmen and hoteliers. Often we tend to believe that the Sundarban is an area where tigers and humans live in perfect harmony, which according to me is nothing but a simplified romantic idea. Any study of the people of Sundarban will show how humans struggle every day to keep themselves alive in the midst of tigers, crocodiles, snakes on one hand and frequent natural disasters on the other hand. As we know, the Sundarban has its own folk and cultural traditions – there is Bonbibi and Shah Jongoli who protect humans of the land from the wrath of Dakshin Ray, the demon tiger; and there is also Manasa and her pet snakes. The religion of the place cannot be simplified into one either, as there are people belonging to the Hindu and Muslim, along with Christian religion identities in the area, all of whom accept Bonbibi as the mother Goddess of the forest. The cult of Bonbibi is celebrated though a number of Bengali and Urdu folk songs and dances, which often alludes to Dakshin Ray, Manasa and Sitala.

The Banbibir Johuranama, which is a poetical account of Bonbibi, was composed by Banayuddin in the year 1877. Many scholars believe that another version of the text also exists, composed by Marhum Munshi Muhammad Khater, which was written in 1880 (Chatterjee, 2013: 5). Whereas, the story of Dakshin Ray dates further back, when in 1688, Krishna Ram Das wrote Raimangal, which eulogizes the tiger by the same name (Chatterjee, 2013: 6). These texts, as Sutapa Chatterjee (2013: 21) would point out, were not meant to depict the reality of the time, but was to be read as ‘mantras’ which would aid in the worshipping of the cult Goddess.

The Santhals and Oraons, as we know, have their own unique belief systems, which are also not very different from that of Bonbibi’s traditions. The tribes and their religions and customs were discussed in the latter part of the paper. These tribes, when they came to the Sundarban to settle in the area and to reclaim the forest, depended entirely on the forest for their livelihood and had to struggle against the hazards of nature in numerous ways. The weapons they used in their native lands proved to be inadequate, and also their knowledge of the dry and otherwise arid forests they knew of provided them with little help to deal with the problems they faced at hand (Chatterjee, 2013: 4). In this situation, they sought ‘divine intervention’, just like the other inhabitants of the Sundarban did, from Bonbibi.

Cultural and social life of tribes in Sundarban

The Santhals are one of the largest homologous tribes of India, who resided in the divisions of Santhal Parganas in Jharkhand. Santhali folklore also tells stories of their migration in search of new settlements, owing to the oppressive colonial forces which resulted in their disposition of and displacement from their homeland (Khan, 2017: 4). Many scholars believe that the Santhals in huge numbers ended up in the Sundarban because they sought to settle in forested tracts and did not prefer the industrial towns of Manbhum and so on (Khan, 2017: 4). At present, the Santhals at Sundarban reside in the islands of Sagar, Patharpratima and Namkhana (Basu, 1981: 64). Specifically, there also exists a village called the Bonbibi’r Ghola near the Kultali Police Station at South Durgapur, which belongs to the Santhal community.

Similar to the Santhals, the Oraon, who are a tribal group inhabiting various states across central and eastern India, also had their original homeland in the Chota Nagpur Plateau. Out migration of this tribe had started in the 19th century, under the colonial rule, the situation was very similar to that of the Santhals (Sen and Ghosal, 2012: 1). They were taken to the Sundarban by the British for clearing jungles. Since their arrival, they have undergone severe changes in their language, religion, customs, kinship and marriage, through years of acculturation. At present, the tribe is found in large numbers in and around Sandeshkhali and Gosaba (Basu, 1981: 60). At the Sundarban, the Oraons embraced the prevalent Hindu customs of the worshipping of Manasa and Sitala along with the cult gods like those of Bonbibi and Dakshin Ray. As is known, Manasa and Sitala are both folk deities of snakes and diseases, respectively. Being the sister of Vasuki the King of Nagas, Manasa is worshipped mainly for the prevention and cue of snakebite. Some myth also relate Manasa as a sister to Ganesha, which reminds that the Bara head, or Dakshin Ray are often linked with the severed head of Ganesha, which according to the Shiva Purana had fell in southern India, and many scholars believe that it is this head, which was worshipped as the Bara Head. Sitala, however, works very similar to Manasha; she cures diseases like poxes and sores. The fact that the Oraons did not resist to embrace the prevalent Hindu customs of worshipping these gods was because it integrated with their original belief system of Sarnaism or nature worship. Once a year, the Goddess is worshipped as a village deity. This is evident from the Sitala temple near Uttar Gargacha Adivasi Para, where a huge population of Oraons reside (Sen and Ghosal, 2012: 2). There are several clans among the Oraons tribe, like the Tuti clan, who believes that they originated from the Sundari tree. There is also the Baghor clan, or descendants of tigers.

Since the major tribes, namely the Santhals and Oraons are being elaborated; the Munda tribe also has history of cultural assimilation due to migration. Similar to the Oraons and Santhals, the Mundas too came to settle down in the Sundarbans in search of livelihood. But unlike the Oraons, their migration was not directly from Chota Nagpur. Sankarananda Mukherjee writes in his book, A Focus on Sundarban, that ‘after their ancestors came from their original home in Bihar, they lived in one or more villages in the direct before settling down in their present habitat. Their first generation, settled mostly in the northern part of Sundarban’. They fitted in the stereotypes of the ‘hard working tribal’, which many scholars believe were the alleged traits employers would look for in the colonial labour market, as was espoused by Annu Jalais (2010) in her book Forest of Tigers: People, Politics and Environment in the Sundarbans. She writes that it was one of the primary traits that had launched their entry into the exploitative labour market of those times. She also adds that this stereotype has been so well ingrained in the minds of the people, that even today, the government only bestows on the tribals, those jobs, what are related to heavy physical work, and are tiring. Their closeness to nature has been interpreted in terms of using them according to their own convenience but terming it as ‘upliftment’ of backward communities. Among the main reasons behind the Munda migration was the abject poverty of the people, which forced them to seek livelihood elsewhere. At present, there resides the Munda population at Sardarpara, Annpur, Satjelia and other villages. The first migrants here engaged in building ‘bandhs’ along the rivers, cutting up of canals and also clearing the forest tracts for development. Many also became agriculturalists and forest gatherers. In the Bangladesh side of the Sundarbans, Mundas are found in Khulna, Jessore and Shyamnagar upazilas and are also dependent on the ecology for their subsistence. Their ethnic roots distinguish them from other groups, which can be marked by their dark skin colour and other such features.

As for Santhali folklore, they are in abundance. These folklores systematically analyses the prevailing human situations and reveal profound insights into the characteristics of such myths. Although it can be asserted that the Santhal folklore or religious practices do not quite represent ideas of polytheism or animism; they mainly believe in totemism and believes in formless Bongas, who could be either good or evil, and on whom the fate of the Santhals depended upon. The focus of the paper in Santhali folk resides on the imagery of the tiger God, or Baghut Bonga, who perform very similar to that of Dakshin Ray, the tiger God from the Sundarbans (Kanti, 1981: 80). The myth of Bonbibi and Dakshin Ray rests on the divinity of Bonbibi, who along with her brother Shah Jongoli saves humans from the wrath of tigers, aka Dakshin Ray. In Santhal Patachitra, most of the patas contain a tiger god called Baghut Bonga (Saha, 2001: 106). In this imagery, we find him riding a monstrous leopard and he holds a whip in one hand. While on the other hand, the Jadupatua represents Baghut Bonga in quite a different manner, which can be said to be ‘a violent distortion and grotesque manner which invokes only fear’ (Saha, 2001: 106). The author writes that

The form (of the tiger) resembles the Ghazi of a Ghazir pata of the Sundarban area. Through the concept is the same, there are some prominent distinctions between the two. The Ghazi appears as a Muslim man with a beard and cap, holding a scripture in one hand and a rosary in the other, the tiger is a Royal Bengal Tiger whereas Baghut Bonga is featured rather like a Santhal man with a turban on the head and without beard. (Saha, 2001: 106)

Similarly, the Oraons back in their homelands had the deity known as Dogrib (Chatterjee, 2013: 17). Daogri was the spirit responsible for watching over the threshing ground, and was also associated with the Karam tree. They also engage in other religious celebrations, for example, they observe the festivals of Nawakhani, Sohrai and Sahure (Chatterjee, 2013: 17). Sohrai, also called Goreya Puja is the celebration of Goreya or the spirit who reside in the cattle shed. The concept of the Goreya Puja is very similar to that of Manik Pir of the Sundarban, who is the God of cows (see Note 7). The Oraons also worship the tiger in the form of Waghdev. There is also believed to be an altar to Waghdev, also known as Waghai Devi, the tiger goddess. William Crooke (1994) writes, that this tiger goddess is

founded on a spot where a Gond woman was once seized by a tiger. She is said to have vanished, as if rescued by some supernatural agency and the Gonds who desire protection from wild beasts, present to her altar gifts of every kind . . . . (p. 322)

The folk songs of Oraons in the Sundarban also bear many differences in the words and apparent meanings, compared to those of the Ranchi area, though many writers believe that ‘The folk songs of the Oraons of Sundarban receive the mixed expression of their tradition and the regional influence, though the later dominates over the former’ (Das and Raha, 1965: 371). Hindu mythological inferences, especially from the Ramayana have also been often incorporated into Jhumur songs (Das and Raha, 1965: 363). Das also writes that the people of the Sundarban ‘cannot take the mango and jackfruits until the Sarhul is finished’ (p. 368). According to him, the folk songs of the Oraons of Sundarban have a ‘mixed expression of their traditional and regional influence, though the later dominates over the former’.

The Karam is also celebrated in full glory in the Sundarban, owing to the availability of the Karam plants in there. Among many of the rituals of Karam, a fowl is being killed and its blood is offered to the branch of the Karam tree, while the priest recites the legend of the Karam festival (which varies from tribe to tribe). It is interesting here to note is that the fowl is also considered as the sacrificial bird for Bonbibi’s traditions (Burman, 2005: 120). The Oraons along with the Munda and Santhals in the Sundarban are now among its dominant tribes. Many tourism agencies operating in the Sundarban also keeps in their tour package, a sight of the Oraon people. Especially during the month of Bhado, the Karam festival attracts more tourists to the Bangladeshi side of the Sundarban who consider Karam to be ingrained in the cultural history of Sundarban.

There are several clans among the Oraons tribe, like the Tuti clan, who believe that they originated from the Sundari tree. There is also the Baghor clan, or descendants of tigers. (see Note 9). As is known, Mundari was the traditional dialect of the Mundas but due to cultural assimilation, they gave up their original dialect and adopted Sadri as their day-to-day conversation. Now they can be found conversing in Bengali just like their Bengali neighbours.

As already discussed, there were no records of tribal groups returning to their homelands at any point of time, it can be concluded that there took place a heavy integration with the surrounding communities in such a way that they have lost almost all thread of their own heritage and are also feared to be on the verge of becoming forgotten people.

Cultural changes in the folklore and other religious practices

Whether these tribes when they came to the Sundarban influenced the prevalent folk culture can be a valid question, but since we know that the Raimangal or the Mangal Kavya was written much before the trend in migration, we can outdo with that possibility. But in present day, the folk traditions of Sundarban are very much of a heterogeneous character. Every tribe celebrates their traditions in ways which can be called as an amalgamation of the existing folk practices with that of their original. For example, Karam has become a part of the people of Sundarban’s folk practice. Along with karam, the people of the Sundarban also take part in celebrating Tusu festival, which is often imbibed with the folk stories of Dukhey’s journey in the Sundarbans (Bera and Sahay, 2010: 206).

There are some similarities in the myths of the tribals of Chota Nagpur with that of the cult Goddess, Bonbibi. Bonbibi who is known as the saviour of the humans from the wrath of tigers in the forests is very similar to the Santhal tiger spirit, Baghut Bonga. Amitabh SenGupta (2012: 100) in his book Scroll Paintings of Bengal: Art in the Village talks about the prominent social changes that the Santhals had been experiencing through the past 50 years or so, which he notices in the Santhal Patachitra. He writes that in the Sundarban,

Many of the local stories of Bangla pats have merged into Santhal stories and images. One such story is on Sanarai (or Bare Khan Gazi as was popular in East Bengal, now Bangladesh). The myth of the tiger god has almost vanished now. The Hindu Muslim theme of Satya Pir, which was once popular in the lower 24 Parganas, now re-emerged in Midnapur. It was also a popular theme in Santhal pat. Satya Pir was shown riding on a mighty tiger . . . . (SenGupta, 2012: 107)

This is evident of the cultural assimilation between the Santhals with those folklores of the Sundarban. The imagery of Baghut Bonga as it seems, overlapped with those of Dakshin Ray, or that of the Satya Pir in a way, which represents similar telling of the respective folklores. SenGupta (2012) also writes that ‘when Santhal boys are trained to become witch doctors, Baghut Bonga is the presiding deity’ (p. 107). These changes reflect upon the migration and change in environment. In the Sundarban though, witch doctors, also known as Gunins, consider Bonbibi as their supreme Goddess, and most of the mantras are directed against tigers. The tiger imagery though is found to be celebrated in many villages across the Sundarban; it is always the protector from tigers, Bonbibi that the people worship before they set out to work in the dense forests.

The fact that unlike the Mundas or Oraons, the Santhals have incorporated so much of the culture of Sundarban in their folk can be because the ‘Santhals are orthodox people with a tendency to cling to the past’, as was observed by Nita Nair who studied both the origin of the Santhals and also the present scenario.

Some blame on environmental changes for the loss of traditional festivals of the tribes, though the fact that it happened gradually as the tribes came into contact with other cultures and started borrowing it, weighs more than the former reason. In their new environments, they had to forego their hunting skills which required them knowledge of hills and similar topography. Once in the Sundarban, which is totally different, with its many creeks and rivers and alluvial soil, the tribes settled down as agriculturalists, seldom visiting the forest for its produce. Researchers also comment on the ‘hunting festivals of Phagu Sendra, Bisu Sendra, Jeth Sentra, etc. which are almost absent here in Sundarban’ (Basu, 1981: 67). An example of the loss of culture among the tribes can also be found in the absence of hunting festivals like those of Phagu Sendra, Jeth Sendra, and so on, as espoused by Basu.

Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to draw attention to the fact that it is very important to understand the process of cultural change before we proceed to point out its differences. Marginalization, separation and integration, as proposed by many scholars, can be read as models of adapting to a new culture in the migration of the tribals from the Chota Nagpur to the Sundarban.

These people accepted the new culture, while maintaining their original cultural traditions, in some way or the other. Thus, they are both acculturated and encultured. Assimilation, as we know involves immigrants, who totally accept the new culture and reject the original. People become assimilated when they erased their cultural identities and unlearn their ethnic cultural practices and beliefs. In the case of migration to the Sundarban, different tribes from different places poured in and moulded their own cultural traditions according to the prevalent cult of Bonbibi, Sitala, Manasha or even Dakshin Ray. The language of the tribes also suffered due to their migration, which can be subject of a separate detailed study, but to say the least, bilingualism is noticed among those, who have migrated than those who never left their homelands. Language can be termed as the strongest factor of cultural identity, and migration in one way and more, encouraged a change in the stagnant linguistic behaviour of many tribes of Eastern India. To sum up, it can be said that the Sundarban provided the tribal population with a firm ground to base their livelihoods on, which can also be interpreted as a super culture (Bagby, 1959: 105).