Singhbhum was a district of India during 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 ...

, part of the

Chota Nagpur Division The Chota Nagpur Division was one of the administrative divisions established under British rule. Under Act XX of 1854, the South West Frontier Agency was renamed a Commissionary, with the Political Agent becoming the Commissioner and the Assis ...

of the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

. It was located in the present-day Indian

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 ...

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 ...

. Chaibasa was the district headquarters. Located in the southern limit of the

Chota Nagpur Plateau 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 ...

, Singhbhum included the Kolhan estate located in its southeastern part. The district has been segmented into two smaller districts, East Singhbhum and West Singhbhum.

Etymology

Singhbhum is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of ''Singh'' and ''Bhum''. "Singh" refers to the Singh raja of the greater Porahat state, and "Bhum" signifies the land, thereby forming the land of Singh. Manbhum, Barabhum,

Dhalbhum Dhalbhum was an estate in early modern period and British India, spread across the East Singhbhum district in present-day Jharkhand,Ghosh, Binoy, ''Paschim Banger Sanskriti'', (in Bengali), part II, 1978 edition, p. 56, Prakash Bhaban western ...

, Bhanjbhum and other nearby areas follow similar nomenclature. However, its prominent inhabitants, the Ho tribe asserts that Singhbhum derives its name from "Singbonga", the supreme god of the Adivasis in the region, primarily venerated by the Kolarian ethnic tribes.

Geography

It is bounded by

Ranchi District Ranchi district is the most populous district of Jharkhand state in eastern India. Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, is the district headquarters. History Iron slag, potsherds and iron tools have been found in the Chota Nagpur plateau dated to ...

in the north, with the

Saraikela Saraikela (also spelled Seraikella) is the district headquarters and a nagar panchayat in the Seraikela Sadar subdivision of the Seraikela Kharsawan district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Jharkhand. It was formerly the c ...

and Kharsawan princely states in the east, with

Mayurbhanj Mayurbhanj district is one of the 30 districts of Odisha state in eastern India and the largest in the state by area, nearly equivalent to Tripura. The district's headquarters is located in Baripada, with other major towns including Rairangp ...

and

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 ...

in the south as well as with Bonai and Gangpur in the southwest. Singhbhum District had an area of and a population of 613,579 in 1901.Wilson Hunter, Sir William; Sutherland Cotton, James; Sir Richard Burn, Sir William Stevenson Meyer. Great Britain India Office. ''

The Imperial Gazetteer of India ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' was a gazetteer of the British Indian Empire, and is now a historical reference work. It was first published in 1881. Sir William Wilson Hunter made the original plans of the book, starting in 1869.< ...

''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908

History

The Singhbhum area was never invaded by either the

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

or 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 ...

. The first relationships between the Raja of Singhbhum and the British were established in 1767 when he approached the Resident at Midnapore requesting protection. In 1820 the Raja became a feudatory of the British. The state was under the political control of the Commissioner of the

until 1912, under the

Bihar and Orissa Province Bihar and Orissa was a province of British India, which included the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and parts of Odisha. The territories were conquered by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were governed by the then ...

until 1936 and then under Chhota Nagpur Division until the end of the

Following the

independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

Singhbhum district became part of the Indian Union as a district of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. In 1990, for administrative convenience, the district was divided into two districts:

East Singhbhum East Singhbhum is one of the 24 districts of Jharkhand, India. It was created on 16 January 1990. More than 50% of the district is covered by dense forests and mountains, where wild animals once roamed freely. It is known for being a centre of ind ...

and West Singhbhum. In 2000, South Bihar separated from North Bihar to form the state of

. Subsequently, in 2001, the princely state of

and Kharsawan was bifurcated from East Singhbhum district to form Saraikela Kharsawan district of Jharkhand.

Demographics

According to the 1931 census, the total population of Singhbhum (including

) was 929,802 in area. The predominant communities in the region were the Ho, comprising 32.39% of the population, followed by the

Santal The Santal (or Santhal) are an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic-speaking Munda peoples, 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 ...

at 11.71%, Bhumij at 5.71%, Munda at 5.48%,

Gaura ''Gaura'' was a genus of flowering plants in the family Onagraceae, native to North America. The name was derived from Greek Language, Greek ''(gaûros)'' meaning "superb" and named in reference to the stature and floral display of some specie ...

at 5.04%, Tanti at 4.09%, Goala at 3.79%, Hajjam at 2.68%, Kurmi at 2.42%,

Bhuiyan Bhuiyan (also Bhuiya, Bhuyan, Bhuya) was a title for landowners in medieval Bengal and Assam. It has been adopted as a surname by different communities in West Bengal, Assam, and Bangladesh . Etymology Bhuiyan was a title used to refer to a la ...

at 1.97%, Kamar at 1.87%,

Brahman In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' (; IAST: ''Brahman'') connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality of the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII In the ...

at 1.71%,

Kumhar Kumhar or Kumbhar is a Indian caste system, caste or community in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Kumhars have historically been associated with the art of pottery. Etymology The Kumhars derive their name from the Sanskrit word ''Kum ...

at 1.49%,

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

at 1.4%, Teli at 1.31%, Oraon at 1.09%,

Kayastha Kayastha (or Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Ka ...

at 1.04%, and others such as Karan, Bania, Khandayat,

Kewat The Kewat, also spelled Kevat, is a Hindu caste, found in the states of Assam, Bihar, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in India. They are the traditional boatmen of northern India, and also in neighbouring country Nepal. Origin The na ...

, Gadaba,

Dhobi Dhobi known in some places as Dhoba, Rajaka, a Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, scheduled caste in India and the greater Indian subcontinent whose traditional occupations are Clothes washing, washing, ironing, and Farmworker, agricultur ...

, Kharia, Dom,

Mahli Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is one of seventeen cameras on the Curiosity rover, ''Curiosity'' rover on the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Overview The instrument is mounted on the rover's robotic arm. It is primarily used to acquire micr ...

Chamar Chamar (or Jatav) is a community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's Reservation in India, system of affirmative action that originated from the group of trade persons who were involved in leather tanning and shoemaking. They a ...

, Hari, Kahar, Jolaha, Mallah, Karmali, Bathudi, Savar, Korwa,

Mochi A mochi ( ; Japanese ) is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain Japonica rice, japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The steamed rice is pounded into paste and molded into the ...

, and Birhor. In terms of language, the Ho language was the most prevalent at 32.83%, followed by Odia at 18.49%, Bengali at 15.87%, Santali at 11.15%, Hindi and Urdu at 8.72%, Mundari at 5.85%, Bhumij at 3.25%, and other notable spoken languages such as Telugu, Panjabi, Tamil, Mahli, Gujurati, Nepali, Gondi, Marwari,

Pashtu Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khybe ...

, and some

European languages There are over 250 languages indigenous to Europe, and most belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. The three larges ...

References

Bibliography

* * {{coord, 22, 30, N, 85, 30, E, display=title, region:IN_type:adm2nd_source:GNS-enwiki Former districts of Bihar Bengal Presidency