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Question

The Tribal Movement-Santhal hool (Rebellion) took place in

This question was previously asked in
BPSC 70th 2024 Prelims General Studies Re-Exam Question Paper (04-Jan-2025)
The correct answer is

1855-56

 The Santhal hool broke out in 1855 and was suppressed in 1856 — option 3.

What happened. On 30 June 1855, at Bhognadih in the Rajmahal hills, some thirty thousand Santhals gathered and declared an end to Company rule in their country. The rising was led by the four Murmu brothers, Sidhu and Kanhu foremost among them, with their sisters Phulo and Jhano, and it spread rapidly across the region between Bhagalpur and Rajmahal. Martial law was proclaimed, and the movement was crushed by early 1856 with heavy loss of life.

PointDetail
Dates1855–56
RegionDamin-i-Koh, the Santhal country of the Rajmahal hills, then in Bengal Presidency
LeadersSidhu, Kanhu, Chand and Bhairav Murmu
Slogan“Karo ya maro, angrezon hamari mati chhoro” — a demand that the British quit their land
OutcomeSuppressed, but the Santhal Pargana was created in 1856 as a separate district with special rules

Why they rose. The Santhals had been settled in the Damin-i-Koh after the Permanent Settlement to clear and cultivate forest land. There they were ground between three pressures: the zamindars and their rent demands, the mahajans or moneylenders who charged ruinous interest and reduced defaulters to bonded labour through the kamiuti and harwahi systems, and the police and courts that always found for the outsider. The rising was directed at all three, and against the railway and road contractors who had come with them.

Its consequence. The government conceded a separate administrative regime for the region, and the principle that tribal land could not pass to outsiders later took statutory form in the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act. The hool is commemorated every year on 30 June as Hul Diwas.

Note on the distractors. 1857-58 is the year of the Great Revolt, and the Santhal rising is deliberately placed just before it — two years earlier — which is exactly what the question is testing.

Hence, the answer is 1855-56.

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