The Santal (or Santhal) are an Austroasiatic-speaking Munda ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. They constitute the largest tribal community in the Indian states of Jharkhand and West Bengal, and are also present in Odisha, Bihar, Assam, and Tripura. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal. The Santals speak Santali, the most widely spoken language of the Munda subfamily of Austroasiatic languages.
Etymology Santal is most likely derived from an exonym. The origin of the name Santal is thought to be the Sanskrit word 'Samanta Pal' (border protector) which became the word 'Samanta Al' in the Middle Ages. A part of ancient Midnapore was called Sawanta or Samantabhumi. Over time, the modern word Santal came into use from Samanta Pal > Sawanta Al > Sawantal. The term refers to inhabitants of in erstwhile Silda in Midnapore region in West Bengal. The Sanskrit word Samant or Bengali Saont means 'plain land'. Their ethnonym is ("child of human").
History Origins According to linguist Paul Sidwell, Austro-Asiatic language speakers probably arrived on the coast of Odisha from Indochina about 4,000–3,500 years ago ( BCE). The Austroasiatic speakers spread from Southeast Asia and mixed extensively with local Indian populations.
Due to the lack of significant archaeological records, the original homeland of the Santhals is not known with certainty. The folklore of the Santhals claims they came from , which scholars have identified as Ahuri in Hazaribagh district. From there, they claim, they were pushed onto Chhota Nagpur Plateau, then to Jhalda, Patkum and finally Saont, where they settled for good. According to Dalton, where they were renamed to Santal from cluster name Kharwar. This legend, which has been cited by several scholars, has been used as evidence that the Santals once had a significant presence in Hazaribagh. Colonial scholar Colonel Dalton claimed in Chai there was a fort formerly occupied by a Santal raja who was forced to flee when the Delhi Sultanate invaded the territory.
British Era
In the latter half of the 18th century, the Santals entered the historical record in 1795 when they are recorded as "Soontars". During the Bengal Famine of 1770, the drier western and southwestern parts of Bengal, especially the Jungle Mahals region, were some of the worst-hit areas and were significantly depopulated. This depopulation resulted in a significant loss of revenue for the East India Company. Therefore, when the Permanent Settlement was enacted in 1790, the Company looked for agriculturalists to clear the lands. British officials turned their attention to Santals, who were ready to clear the forest for the practice of settled agriculture. In 1832, a large number of area of the Raj Mahal hills demarcated as Damin-i-koh. Santal from Cuttack, Dhalbhum, Birbhum, Manbhum, Hazaribagh migrated and started cultivating these lands as peasants sponsored by landowners and the British who were desperate for labour. Under British direction, Santals took loans from non-Santal moneylenders to buy iron tools, seed grain and oxen as individuals and families, rather than groups as was their custom for working the land.
When they arrived in Damin-i-koh (present day Santal Pargana), the British provided no protection for the Santals against the preexisting Mal Paharias, who were against destruction of forest, were known raiders of the plains areas and had only recently been partially "pacified". Eventually, the Santals, with their better technology and ability to match the Paharia's guerrilla attacks, managed to drive them out. They clear the forest tracts and started cultivation in these areas. Their settlement took place between the 1830s and 1850s: in 1830, the area was home to only 3,000 Santals, but by the 1850s, 83,000 Santals had settled in the land and had turned it into paddy fields. This resulted in a 22 times increase in Company revenue from the area.
However, as they became more agricultural, the Santals were exploited by the zamindars. Unlike the Santals, the British valued individual competition instead of cooperation, and had a rigid system of laws very different from the relatively relaxed norms of the village council, the highest form of government most Santals knew. Mahajans from Bengal and Baniyas from Bihar began selling goods from elsewhere, and many Santals, seeing them as exotic, were tricked into debt to buy them, usually with a mortgage on their land. When the Santals were unable to pay the moneylenders back, they became owners of the land and the Santals became dispossessed landless peasants. The Baniya merchants and other outsiders also began to treat Santals as outcastes in a Brahminical system.
Eventually, these acts of exploitation, combined with British tax policies and corrupt tax collectors, deteriorated to the point where Santals grew discontented. In 1855, they revolted in the Santal rebellion, better known as the . 30,000 Santals, led by Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, attacked the zamindars and other outsiders () who had made their lives so miserable, as well as the British authorities. Eventually, around 10,000 British troops managed to suppress the rebellion. Although the rebellion's impact was largely overshadowed by that of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the impact of the Santhal Rebellion lives on as a turning point in Santhal pride and identity. This was reaffirmed, over a century and a half later with the creation of the tribal province in the Republic of India, Jharkhand. Following the rebellion, the British satisfied all Santhal demands, due to their importance as a tax-paying group. The British created a 5000 km2 area, called Santal Parganas, where the normal procedures of British India did not apply. Administration of the community was primarily made the responsibility of the village headman, or pradhan, who was also given the power to collect taxes. It was made illegal for Santals to transfer land to non-Santals, allowing them to have legal rights over their land.
After the British Crown formally took control over India in 1858, the Santals continued their system of government and traditions. Newly established Christian missions brought education, and many Santals moved to the tea plantations in Assam, North Bengal, where they still remain today. However, most continued with their old life, but were still not prosperous. In addition, secular education did not become widespread until after Indian independence.
In the late 19th century, many Santals migrated from the Santal Parganas to the districts of Bihar and North Bengal such as Purnia, Malda and Dinajpur. The Santals still faced retaliation after the Santal Hul and were invited by zamindars to cultivate many parts of north Bengal, which had become scrubland, land which the Santals specialised in farming. By the 1930s, their numbers in this region the Santals had become two lakh. Most were settled on wasteland where the rent was cheaper than the more fertile wet lands. However they faced heavy taxation from the zamindars, and were oppressed by moneylenders, upper castes, and the bureaucracy in general. In 1924, several Santal sardars, influenced by Gandhian ideology and led by Jitu Sardar, began to lead agitations against the oppressive double system of elite Bengalis and British government. Santals stopped paying rent to the zamindars, beat up revenue inspectors, and led agitations against the moneylenders. In 1928, the Santals stopped paying the chaukidari tax and led protests in Thakurgaon in 1929. In 1932, several Santals attempted to organise their own state with Jitu Sardar as head, initially based on Gandhi's Ram Rajya but quickly criticised Gandhi when he did not help them. In 1933, a British commissioner was appointed to look into the grievances of Santals of North Bengal.
Post-independence The Santal community, like the others of the region, was split between West Bengal in India and East Bengal in Pakistan during Partition. After independence, the Santals were made one of the Scheduled Tribes in India. In East Pakistan, there were some regions in the west where Santals were still in significant numbers. There and in neighbouring West Bengal, the Santals provided significant support to the Tebhaga movement. After the Pakistani military crushed the uprising and burned many Santal homes, many fled across the border to Malda in India.
In northern West Bengal, tribal peasants participated in Naxalbari uprising led by a Santal communist leader Jangal Santhal. The impoverishment has led to the Guevarist inspired Naxalite insurgency in what is often termed as the Red Corridor.
After Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, the Santal Parganas was made a separate division of the state. These Santals have also agitated for recognition of their traditions in the census as a separate religion, sarna dharam, for which Jharkhand assembly passed a resolution in 2020. Many still face poverty and exploitation, and in Bangladesh, theft of their lands is common. Although spread out over a large area, they now consider the Santal Parganas as their cultural heartland.
Society The base of Santal society is a division between "sibling" () and "guest" (), a divide found in many other tribal societies of central and eastern India. Children of the same father (sometimes grandfather), known as , often live next to each other and own adjacent pieces of land. Those in the closest form of brotherhood, called ("people of one house") in Singhbhum, cannot marry each other and propitiate the same deity, since the house refers to a common ancestor from which all the families are believed to descend. Only marriages are severely stigmatised. Another brotherhood is membership of a clan, which are exogamous. The last form of brotherhood is , a ritual friendship with members of other ethnic groups. Children of brothers consider themselves as brothers, and they attend each other's main lifecycle events, such as weddings or funerals, as . They also give help in times of hardship.
Those who do not have brotherhood are referred to as , or guests. Members of other communities, especially those not speaking Santali, are excluded from this grouping, except for communities such as the Karmakar, Mahali or Lohar of their locality, who are enmeshed in Santal society. Those with this relationship can marry, and attend major festivals as guests. People related by marriage, although , have special roles in life-cycle events. Women perform special welcome rituals for when they visit. Those related by marriage can have one of two relationships. They can be , a relationship exemplified by the couple's parents, or , between cross-siblings of a couple.
Santal society has much less stratification and is more egalitarian than adjacent Caste-defined Hindu society, but still has some status differences. The most important marker of a person when interacting with others in Santal society is their standing as ("senior") or ("junior"). This standing is evaluated by relation: for example, if someone is greeting their father's elder brother's son, they would be the junior irrespective of age. Similarly, when someone greets their elder brother's wife, the wife would be . However, for strangers or guests with no clear kin connections, the question of or is decided by age. The ritual greeting ( in Santali) of someone is given much importance and is done in the courtyard of a house when a visits. The greeting differs by gender, and whether the person is junior or senior to the one being greeted. The greeting rituals given by a involve an "offering" () of respect, while a "receives" this respect. This greeting should not be done hastily, and correct practice of it is encouraged in children from a young age. However the - distinction does not apply to or , who instead greet each other as if greeting a .