Dharanidhar Naik (May 5, 1864 – 1914) was a tribal leader of
Keonjhar
Kendujhar, also known as Keonjhar, is a town with municipality in Kendujhar District in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kendujhar district, and it is one of the fifth scheduled areas of Odisha
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who fought battle against Dhanurjay Bhanja during
British rule
The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent,
*
* lasting from 1858 to 1947.
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* It is also called Crown rule in India,
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* or dire ...
in
Odisha
Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...
.
Early life
He was high school educated. He received surveyor's training at Cuttack Survey School. He worked for King of Keonjhar as a state surveyor.
Rebellion
Keonjhar princely state
Keonjhar was one of the Indian
princely states. It was inhabited mostly by tribal people. The main tribes were Kols, Bhuyan and the Juangs. The Bhuyans and Kols were scattered over a large area and were found in the tributary mahals of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Gangpur Bona, Bamra, Ranpur, Boudh, Kalahandi, Pallahara, Nilgiri and Dhenkanal.
The Juangs were the wildest and the most primitive tribe. As per the census of 1901, their population was about 11,159. They were mainly found in Keonjhar, Dhenkanal. In comparison with the Bhuyans, they were a small tribe, although they possessed similar social and religious habits and customs.
[INDIAN TRIBES THROUGH THE AGES – R C Verma]
Rebellion
The king of Keonjhar state Dhanurjaya Bhanja's policies were very oppressive for his subjects. Policies such as forced labour (''Bethi''),
Law on grain sales that forced farmers to sell grains to the state at low rates were particularly oppressive.
This led to an uprising in Keonjhar in 1891 in which the
Kol,
Bhuyan
The Bhuiyan or Bhuiya are an indigenous community found in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They are not only geographically disparate but also have many cultural variations an ...
and the
Juang the actively participated. Dharanidhar was leader of this uprising.
This rising continued for about three years from 1891 to 1893.
After some initial successes where the rebels looted grain store of the state, looted the armory
and captured the dewan of the state
Fakirmohan Senapati. The king fled to Cuttack. The British sent forces and ultimately crushed the rebellion. He was imprisoned in cuttack jail till 1897. After his release he built a hermitage at Ali, and spent rest of his life there.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naik, Dharanidhar
1864 births
1914 deaths
People from British India
Indian tax resisters
People from Odisha
People from Kendujhar district