Civil rebellions and tribal uprisings . What led to ruin of Indian Handicraft industries ?

The civil rebellions began as British rule was established in Bengal and Bihar, and they occurred in area after area as it was incorporated into the colonial rule. The major cause of civil rebellions taken as a whole was the rapid changes the British introduced in the economy, administration and land revenue system. These changes led to the disruption of the agrarian society, causing prolonged and widespread suffering among its constituents.

The ruin of Indian handicraft industries, as a result of the imposition of free trade in India and the levy of discriminatory tariffs against Indian goods in Britain, pauperized millions of artisans. The misery of the artisans was further compounded by the disappearance of their traditional patrons and buyers, the princes, chieftains, and zamindars. The scholarly and priestly classes were also active in inciting hatred and rebellion against foreign rule. Rebellions were massive in their totality, but were wholly local in their spread and isolated from each other. They often bore the same character not because they represented national or common efforts but because they represented common conditions though separated in time and space.

Socially, economically and politically, the semi-feudal leaders of these rebellions were backwards-looking and traditional in outlook. Such backwards-looking and scattered, sporadic and disunited uprisings were incapable of fending off or overthrowing foreign rule. The suppression of the civil rebellions was a major reason why the Revolt of 1857 did not spread to South India and most of Eastern and Western India. The historical significance of these civil uprisings lies in that they established strong and valuable local traditions of resistance to British rule.

Colonialism also transformed their relationship with the forest. It ended their relative isolation and freedom they enjoyed in forest life and brought them fully within the ambit of colonialism. It encouraged the influx of Christian missionaries into the tribal areas. Above all, it introduced a large number of moneylenders, traders and revenue farmers as middlemen who were the chief instruments of exploiting forest

Govt usurped the forest lands and placed restrictions on access to forest products, forest lands and village common lands and even curtailed tribals’ traditional jhumming [shifting] cultivation.

However, the complete disruption of the old agrarian order of the tribal communities provided the common factor for all the tribal uprisings. The rebellions began at the point where the tribals felt they had no alternative but to fight. This often took the form of spontaneous attacks on outsiders, looting their property and expelling them from their villages. Among the numerous tribal revolts, the Santhal hool or uprising was the most massive. The Santhals, who live in the area between Bhagalpur and Rajmahal, known as Daman-i-koh, rose in revolt; made a determined attempt to expel the outsiders — the dikus — and proclaimed the complete ‘annihilation’ of the alien regime.

The rebellion (ulgulan ) of the Munda tribesmen, led by Birsa Munda, occurred during 1899-1900.