The history of eastern India in the 19th century is dotted with resistance movements led by Adivasi groups. Clear political articulation and goals drove the movements forwards. However, they do not necessarily emerge as ‘watersheds’ or ‘great history’ within either nationalist or colonialist writings. For instance, Anil Seal foregrounds his claims about the mass movements during independent struggles as a camouflage by noting: ‘Programmes proclaimed from above were at odds with the way politicians worked lower down.’ What held in one part of India was not true in another. It is no longer credible to write about a movement grounded in common aims. In this way, Seal suggests, the focus should move to imperialism as it regulates the administrative functions of the country. He dismisses the possibility of the movement led by the subalterns by laying emphasis on economic determinism. However, this claim failed to envision the role of subaltern subjects. In turn, the subaltern historiography reclaimed the protagonist of history not as a docile, passive aggressor but as an active political agent and, importantly, the writer of his or her own history.

This chapter emplaces the importance of subaltern history by focusing on Birsa Munda and his ulgulan: a rebellion that was a culmination of an agrarian conflict infamously called Sardari ladai. The Sardari ladai was a group led primarily by peasants whose land rights were diluted under the new legislative framework introduced at the end of the 18th century. There were land settlements that took place by the late 19th century, generating extreme anger among Adivasis in the region. So far a few works on Birsa and his rebellion provide a glimpse of a historical account of the movement. These works, using primarily archival materials, illustrate the trajectory of groups interlaced with the agrarian conflict and wider political temper in this region.

The purpose of this chapter is to show how key groups such as the missionaries and zamindars, the agrarian conflict (the Sardari ladai) and historical memory (Munda raj) contributed to the making of the Birsa movement. In exploring these variables, I make two specific inquiries.