Adivasis and the Raj: Socio-economic Transition of the Hos, 1820-1932

Tracing the long term continuities and discontinuities with the pre-colonial past, this book covers the history of the Ho people of West Singhbhum in the Chota Nagpur Division of the Bengal Presidency from 1820, when the Hos first came in contact with the British, to 1932 when the Haribaba movement for self-purification and socio-religious reform spread among the Hos of northern Singhbhum. In their encounter with the British Hos were confronted with several new challenges related to issues such as, their role in the political system around them, their right of access to local territory and forest resources, the growing influx of strangers into their villages and the restructuring of indigenous institutions of authority. Although the Hos adjusted to the changing circumstances with varying degrees of success, in the ultimate analysis, colonialism was a force that imposed new rules upon them, and distinctly influenced the trajectory of their history.