1.  Fill in the blanks:

1)  The British described the tribal people as  wild nomads or shifting cultivators.

2)  The method of sowing seeds in Jhum cultivation is known as shifting cultivation.

3)  The tribal chiefs got sirdars (leaders) titles in central India under the British land settlements.

4)  Tribal’s went to work in the tea gardens of Assam and the indigo plantations in Bihar.

2.  State whether true or false:

a.  Jhum cultivators plough the land and sow seeds.
Ans:
False

b.  Cocoons were bought from the Santhals and sold by the traders at five times the purchase price.
Ans:
True

c.  Birsa urged his followers to purify themselves ,give up drinking liquor and stop believing in witchcraft and sorcery.
Ans: True

d.  The British wanted to preserve the tribal way of life.
Ans:
False.

3.  What problems did shifting cultivators face under British rule?
Ans: 
The problems faced by shifting cultivators under British rule are as follows:
i) They had to give up their traditional way of life.
ii) They started to lead life of settled peasants .
iii) They had to pay regular land revenue to the British government or to its agents.
iv) Their land was measured and their rights were defined.
v) Some of them were declared landlords and others became only tenants.
vi) The tenants were to pay the rent to the landlords who in turn had to pay revenue to the state.
vii) Since the land of the Jhum cultivators did not produce good yields, in north- east India ,some tribal people continued with their traditional practice.

4.  How did the powers of tribal chiefs change under colonial rule?
Ans:
The powers of tribal chiefs changed under the colonial rule as under:
i) The British extended their control over all forests and declared that forests were state property.
ii) Some forests were classified as reserved forests for producing timber.
iii) In reserved forests tribal people were not allowed to move freely, not allowed to practice jhum cultivation, or collect fruits or hunt animals. In such circumstances, to earn a livelihood became very difficult for the tribal’s.
iv) Many tribal’s people were forced  to move to other areas in search of work and livelihood.
v) The Britisher’s decided that they would give Jhum cultivators small patches of land in the forest.The British allowed the tribal people to cultivate their new patches of land on the condition that they would live in the villages and would provide labour to the forest department of the government.

5.  What accounts for the anger of the tribal’s against the dikus?
Ans:
Many factors,policies and treatments of the British officials , silk-merchant ,traders and dishonest money lenders accounted for the anger of the tribal’s:
i) As the Britishers captured large tracts of the land cultivated by the tribal’s in order to grow cash crops the landless laborer’s were forced to work at low wages.
ii) They were badly exploited by crafty and dishonest money lenders .
iii) Moneylenders and other landlord acted as an agent of the Britishers and tribals were brought within the influence of colonial economy.

6.  What was Birsa’s vision of a golden age?Why do you think such a vision appealed to the people of the region?
Ans:
Birsa’s vision of golden age was the period when the mundas would be free of the oppression of the dikus, and he said there would be a time when the ancestral right of the community will be restored.They saw themselves as the descendants of the original settlers of the region and fighting or their land. With the arrival of the dikus (outsiders), forcing agents of the British , the traders , the money lenders,etc the tribal people lost their traditional rights on Jungal.
In 1895, Birsa talked of a golden age in the past a satyug when mundas lived a good life,constructed embankments ,tapped natural springs,planted trees, and practiced cultivation to earn their living. Birsa wanted people to once again work on their land, cultivate their fields.

7.  Find out from your parents,friends or teachers, the names of some heroes of other tribal revolts in the twentieth century .Write their story in your own words.
Ans:
Kumar Roopchand, their Raja called upon the different hill tribes to rise against British rule. They attacked the British troops stationed in Assam. Alluri sitaram Raju led the revolt at Rampa with the help of Koya community in Andhra Pradesh Lakshmana Naik led the revolt against British in Koraput, Orissa.

8.  Choose any tribal group living in India today.Find out about their customs and way of life, and how their lives have changed in the last 50 years.
Ans:
The Baiga tribe is found extensively in Baiga-chuk in the Mandla District in Madhya Pradesh and in remote areas of Uttar Pradesh ,chattisgarh and Jharkhand .
-The tribe is also divided into several sub-castes and is considered as the schedule tribe in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
-They speak in a language “Baigani” which is said to be much like Gondi though they do know how to communicate with others in Hindi.
-Tattoo is an integral part of the women in the tribe and men earn their livelihood by shifting cultivation.

9.  Imagine you are a jhum cultivator living in a forest village in the nineteenth century.You have just been told that the land you were born on no longer belongs to you.In a meeting with British officials you try to explain the kinds of problems you face.What would you say?
Ans:
We will try to explain to the British officials the following kinds of problems:
i) We subsist on forest and on the local resources.If you take away all our natural rights on the forest, water and land we will be unable to procure our basic needs. Our economic activities like hunting, food gathering,fishing , cattle breeding , axe cultivation and plough cultivation will be disturbed.