Damin-i-koh (or sometimes referred to simply as Damin) was the name given to the forested hilly areas of
Rajmahal hills broadly in the area of present
Sahebganj,
Pakur and
Godda
Godda is a town with a municipal council in the Godda subdivision of the Godda district in Jharkhand, India. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Godda district.
Geography
Location
Godda is located at . It has an average elev ...
districts in the
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
n
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...
.
Etymology
Damin-i-koh is a
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
word meaning the skirts of the hills.
History
The Damin-i-koh was a densely forested and hilly area. Even in the valleys, there was hardly any human interference except for an occasional Paharia village. That was the situation for centuries. There were three groups of Paharia primitive tribes, namely the
Sauria Paharias, Kumarbhag Paharias, and the
Mal Paharias. They had been living in the
Rajmahal Hills, since when it is difficult to trace. They lived mostly in hill tracts. Prior to the arrival of the British, the Paharias led a life undisturbed by the mighty empires reigning in the region. That was mostly the result of their geographical isolation. The
Mughals
The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...
never seem to have conquered the area, possibly because they failed to penetrate into the deeply forested hilly tracts. They were hill-locked and completely isolated from the outside world. They were also never in any way subordinate to the
British Raj
The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent,
*
* lasting from 1858 to 1947.
*
* It is also called Crown rule ...
till around the end of eighteenth century.
[
The main problem that faced the British in the early years of their rule in the area was that the Paharias had become bandits and dacoits in the declining years of Muslim rule, and lawlessness prevailed in the region. The pacification of the Paharias and their conversion into a law-abiding people was a major achievement of the early British administration under people such as Captain Brooke, Captain Browne, and Augustus Cleveland. The ]Santals
The Santal (or Santhal) are an Austroasiatic-speaking Munda ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar, Assam ...
first began to move into the hills and forests of what was later called Santhal Parganas, towards the end of the 18th century.
The Santals are the most numerous tribe in eastern India. According to their traditions, they were a wandering tribe until they settled down in Chhotanagpur
The Chota Nagpur Plateau () is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and th ...
and the adjacent districts. That was around the middle of the 18th century. Towards the end of the century, as the pressure of population was keenly felt and the jungles were being cleared, they moved up towards the virgin forests in and around the Rajmahal Hills. The Permanent Settlement
The Permanent Settlement, also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, was an agreement between the East India Company and landlords of Bengal to fix revenues to be raised from land that had far-reaching consequences for both agricultural m ...
of 1793 forced the landlords to improve productivity of the land. The Santals were increasingly used for land reclamation and improvement. In 1832, the government set apart a large area in Damin-i-Koh for the settlement of the Santals. The population in this tract increased from 3,000 in 1838 to 82,795 in 1851. The intention of the British administration in permanently settling the Santals in Damin-i-koh was to reclaim the dense forested region. The industrious Santals were accorded a warm welcome to carry out this arduous task.
The Santhal rebellion
The Sonthal Rebellion, also known as the Santhal Rebellion, Santal Rebellion, or Santhal Hool, was a rebellion in present-day Jharkhand against the East India Company (EIC) and zamindari system by the Santals. It started on 30 June 1855, and on ...
of 1855 led to the formation of Santhal Parganas, which till then was administratively part of Birbhum district
Birbhum district () is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other impo ...
.[L.S.S. O'Malley, ''Bengal District Gazetteers - Birbhum'', 1996 reprint, pp. 10-31, Govt. of West Bengal]
See also
* Kajangala
References
{{coord missing, Jharkhand
Historical Indian regions
Geography of Jharkhand