Author:

Sutapa Bhattacharya
Research Scholar
Department of History
Bankura University
Bankura,West Bengal,India

Email: bhattacharyasutapa190695@gmail.com

Abstract:: The initial decades of the 19th century was an era of contentious pacification, where the
British East India Company had been playing a battle between ‘the dog and the fly’ with various
aboriginal communities, resisting colonial intrusion. Most of these eruptive occurrences seemed to
be different from their outer grabs but there was deep seated synchrony of discontent. In 1831-32,
vast tracts of Chottonagpur region was plunged into the fire of tribal revolt, Bhumij Kols of
Manbhum area also rose up into a short lived but equally troublesome uprising known as Ganga
Naraian Hangama or Ganga Naraian’s commotion. The titular cause of the uprising was an
ancestral feud between two parties of the Barabhum estate which had started in the previous
century. But the fascinating thing is that the common tribal mass zealously joined the disturbances,
whose causal and leading aspects were totally non-tribal. To find out the profound causes a
recapitulation of the prior historical profile of this terrain as well as the Bhumijs, the chief
insurgent tribe is necessary.

Key Words:Bhumiz,British Rule,Diwani,GangaNarain,Chuars, Hos,Kols, Manbhum etc.