By Jungle Katai movement is meant in this paper, cutting/felling of trees from the forest by the tribal communities in the Kolhan and the Porahat areas of Jharkhand, for reclaiming land for cultivation; because Forest Acts and development programmes have not only expelled them from their villages, situated inside the deep forests, but also restricted their entry into the forest, which was their ‘oikos’, their house, which provided them livelihood, food and medicines in the form of forest products, and it also included spiritual belief in the sacred grove Jahara, and eternal relation with their ancestors in sasandiri. The genesis of the present forest struggle goes back to the colonial period, when forest Acts and rules were made on colonial considerations. They have continued into the post independent period also. The conflict for forest in Kolhan began to restore their old rights in the forest by indulging in intensive tree-felling activities, and when the government adopted repressive methods, they ventilated their grievance by a passive resistance, as several groups of tribal men and women set fire to substantial piles of Sal (shorea robusta) wood. They behaved in this manner to stop the government from getting any benefit from the timber, which belonged to them. In fact the tribal people felt alienated from the forest and forest resources, on which they depended for their physical and spiritual sustenance. They felt the forest as alien territories and therefore responded accordingly.
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References
1.
CarvenJ.A., The Settlement Officer to the Deputy Commissioner, Singhbhum, dt. 15-6-1879, para 2–3, Rev. Deptt., Nov. 1898, File No. 16-2/6 1 progs. No. 10–11. (W.B.S.A).
2.
According to his report, the Kolhan Government Estate was established in 1937. It is situated between the parallels of 21°–58’ and 22°–43’ North Latitude and between the Meridians 85°–2’ and 86°– 5’ East Longitude. It was bounded on the North by Seraikella and Kharsawan Political Estate, on the South by the Keonjhar and May urbhanj Tributary Estate, by the Kharkai river and May urbhanj in the East and by Gangpur Political Estate and the zamindaries of Anandpur and Porahat in the West. The Kolhan area was 12,52,139 acres or 1954.91 square miles.
3.
Wilkinson's Rule (1837) is named after Thomas Wilkinson, the first Agent to the Governor General of South Western Frontier Agency. It recognized the indigenous village organization of the tribal communities in the Estate. He gave the Mankis, the head of Pir, (group of villages) a legal position as Headmen. Initially there were 26 Pirs in Kolhan. Mankis (heads of group of villages) and Mundas (village headman) were empowered to perform the police duties in general and collection of land revenue. They also enjoyed judicial power.
4.
Pir means a cluster of villages in Kolhan, number varies from five to thirty or above.It was a large political unit, headed by Manki.
5.
MurliSahu, The Kolhan Under the British Rule, Calcutta, 1985, p. 77. Letter from J. Reid to the Commissioner of Chotanagpur Division, Ranchi, No. 5333 of 2 September, 1914. Vide Record of Rights of Mankis and Mundas for use in the Kolhan Government Estate, Fly Leaf of Deputy Commissioner, Singhbhum Revenue Department, Collection No. III Settlement, File No. 20-7-6 of 1914, District Record Room, Chaibasa..
6.
RoychoudharyP.C., Bihar District Gazetteers, Singhbhum, Patna, 1958, p.109.
7.
The termKhuntkatti means khud and Kheti i.e. own cultivation. But the term first referred to Mankipatti country where there are no zamindar, i.e. no individual owners of a village, and all the land legally owned by the village community, only a small quit-rent being paid to the rajah. (Encyclopaedia Mundarica Vol. VIII, p. 2382).
8.
SenA. K.. ‘Protected Forest Rules and Ho Social Protest’ in ChittaranjanKumar Paty (Ed), Forest, Government and Tribe, New Delhi, 2006, pp 80–81; O.P. Kishore and Anubhav Malhotra, Jharkhand: Environment, Development, Ethnicity. (Ed.) Forest Manual (Bihar and Jharkhand), 2006.
9.
Khuntikattidars are male descendants of the founder of the village, whose ancestor slashed the virgin forest to established villages some centuries ago. He is a member in a village community which legally owns its lands by the virtue of his membership in the village community.
10.
Jahara among the Ho tribes and Sarna among the Mundas, is sacred grove, carved out of virgin forest, to give abode to the spirits and supernatural powers, living in the forest before the establishment of village after slashing the forest. They were worshiped and invoked by the tribal priest on behalf of the village communities.
11.
Burial stone raised in the memory of deceased member of the village community (khuntkattidars) which the Ho and Munda tribe shows as a proof of their continued possession of the village. They invoke their ancestors time to time.
12.
Under the notification No. 3375 of 5 September 1892, all unreserved forest were made protected forests by the Government. During Craven Settlement of 1895–97, 58 forest blocks were demarcated and in 1903 the remaining areas were declared to be the village forest. During Tusky settlement of 1913–18 there were 331 villages with protected forests. These new rules converted people's existing rights of collecting timber, forest product and grazing cattle subject only to the control of their Munda-Manki. This step deprived tribesmen their age old rights to jungle. On the other hand, private companies were allowed to exploit forest produce and minerals. Grazing taxes were imposed in 1922. Similarly Indian Forest Act, 1927 curtailed Manki-Mundas traditional power and jurisdiction and encroached upon the customary forest rights of the tribal communities.
13.
SarhaJewitt, Europe's ‘Others'? Forest Policy and Practices in Colonial and Post-Colonial India, in StuartCorbridge, SarahJewitt and SanjayKumar (ed.) Jharkhand: Environment, Development, Ethnicity. (Ed.) Oxford University Press, Mew Delhi, 2004.p 72.
14.
Ibid, p58.
15.
IrfanHabib, Man and Environment: The Ecological History of India, Tulika Books, New Delhi, 2010,p. 20. The term Ecology derives from Greek word ‘oikos’, meaning ‘house’. Since humankind consists of the natural environment, Ecology is concerned with ‘all relations of animals and plants to one another and to outer world’.
16.
AshaMishra, Indigenous Movements for a Separate State- Jharkhand during the Twentieth Century, in Tribal Movements in Jharkhand 1857–2007, (ed.) AshaMishra and ChittaranjanKumar Paty. 2010. Pp.178–179; Mathew Aree Parampill, S.J. Struggle for Jharkhand, pp. 257–259.
17.
StuartCorbridge and SarahJewitt. From Forest Struggles to Forest Citizens?Joint Forest Management in the Unquiet Woods of India's Jharkhand in Stuart Corbridge, Sarah Jewitt and Sanjay Kumar. Jharkhand: Environment, Development, Ethnicity. (Ed.)Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2004. p. 91.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Kili means clan or gotra among Munda and Ho tribal communities. They are divided in several kilis names.
20.
Akhra also Akra is the dancing ground of the village, always in the village or on its outskirt. It is leveled and always kept clean for dances of the unmarried youth of the village. No sacrifices are offered in the akhra, and with the exceptions of very few, no panchyats are held there.
21.
Asis Kumar Das, Tribal Unrest and Forest Movement in Jharkhand.In The Unrest Axle: Ethno-Social Movements in Eastern India, (ed.) Gautam Kumar Bera.Mittal Publications, New Delhi2008, p89.
22.
Ibid, P90.
23.
AndersonR. S. and HuberW., The Hour of the Fox Tropical Forests, the World Bank and Indigenous People of Central India, Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1988,p.68. Also see Sarah Jewitt and Sanjay Kumar op.cit. p.75.
24.
LalitaSundi, ‘Assertion of Identity over Jal, Jungle and Jameen in Singbhum 1947–2007’, in (ed.) in Tribal Movements in Jharkhand 1857–2007, AshaMishra and Chittaranjan Kumar Paty, New Delhi, 2010,p.191; also see Hashiye ki Awaz, Social Action Trust, New Delhi, June 2007, p. 4.
25.
RoyA.K., What Happened in Gua-6th September 1980, Chaibasa: Tribal Documentation Centre; Stuart Corbridge and Sarah Jewitt, op.cit. p. 92.
