Paper short abstract:

This paper traces the framing of tenancy legislations and their consequences among the adivasis in the two government estates of Kolhan and Santal Parganas in Chotanagpur under colonial rule.

Paper long abstract:

The chief determinants of agrarian policy in British India were the need for large revenues to support the colonial state apparatus and also the need to gain stability and acquire legitimacy. One of the main instruments of control that they employed over the adivasis of Chotanagpur was the systematic collection of rents through the agency of the village leadership. This paper traces different phases in this transition from 'tribes' to tenants in two government estates in Chotanagpur, Kolhan and the Santal Parganas. In the final phase, imperial ideology at the upper echelons of power reintroduced the category of 'tribe' as a distinct constituent of the empire, which the 'enlightened' colonizers had to protect and govern. Consequently, British agrarian policy came to contain an inner ambiguity where adivasis were referred to as a 'tribe' of the empire, and as 'tenants' of a government estate. The paper also explores the dichotomy between the official policy which identified Chotanagpur as a 'non regulation' area on the one hand, and the need to devise a broad and collective legislation that was not limited within a locality, on the other. Finally, it traces the process whereby tenancy legislation led to the freezing of specific zones as the exclusive domains of particular communities.