The Story of Tribal and Peasant Resistance in British India

When we look at the history of British rule in India, it is often narrated as the story of battles between armies, treaties between rulers, and later, the growth of Indian nationalism through political organisations. But if we shift our gaze away from capitals and courts, and instead listen to the voices of ordinary people — peasants tilling the soil and tribal communities living in forests and hills — we uncover another, equally powerful story: the story of everyday resistance.

The expansion of colonial rule was not just a political event. It was an upheaval that penetrated deep into the economic, social, and cultural fabric of Indian life. Every new land settlement, every forest law, and every shift in taxation disrupted older ways of survival. For peasants, it meant unbearable land revenue demands, loss of traditional rights, and an endless debt-trap created by moneylenders and zamindars. For tribals, it meant dispossession from forests, intrusion of outsiders (whom they called dikus), and the collapse of their age-old systems of authority and community.

It is important to note that resistance did not emerge from nowhere. It was born out of lived suffering. The colonial economy destroyed self-sufficiency and replaced it with exploitation. The artisan lost his craft to machine-made imports, the peasant lost his land to revenue auctions, the tribal lost his forest to new laws, and the soldier lost his employment to the Company’s armies. When life itself was squeezed, resistance became the natural response.

This resistance took many forms. In the plains, peasants refused to cultivate indigo, attacked moneylenders, or organised “no-revenue” campaigns. In the forests and hills, tribal communities rose in fierce uprisings — from the Santhal Hool to the Ulgulan of Birsa Munda — defending not only land but also their cultural identity. These struggles often drew strength from religious faith, messianic leaders, and deep community bonds.

Yet, these movements were not isolated from the broader stream of Indian nationalism. Gradually, from the late 19th century onwards, middle-class leaders, journalists, and reformers began to take up peasant issues. Newspapers reported their plight, plays and novels dramatized their suffering, and political associations raised their demands. By the early 20th century, under Gandhi’s leadership, the grievances of peasants and tribals were directly linked with the national struggle for independence.

Therefore, when we study tribal and peasant movements, we are not just studying scattered uprisings or local revolts. We are looking at the roots of mass resistance in India. These were the struggles that taught ordinary people how to organise, how to fight oppression, and how to imagine justice. They were not always successful in immediate terms — most were brutally suppressed — but they left behind legacies: protective tenancy laws, special provisions for tribal areas, and, above all, a tradition of courage and defiance.

In short, the story of tribal and peasant movements is the story of India’s “silent majority” — millions who may not have written petitions to the Viceroy or sat in councils, but who resisted in their own ways, with bows and arrows, with ploughs and sickles, with petitions and boycotts. Their sacrifices, too, must be remembered as an integral part of India’s long march to freedom.