Introduction:-

The Santhal Hool, was a native rebellion in present-day Jharkhand, in eastern India against both the British colonial authority and zamindari system by the Santhal people.

It started on June 30, 1855 and on November 10, 1855 martial law was proclaimed which lasted until January 3, 1856 when martial law was suspended and the movement was brutally ended by troops loyal to the British. The rebellion was led by the four Murmu Brothers - Sidhu, Kanhu, Chand and Bhairav.

The uprising of the Santhals began as a tribal reaction to and despotic British revenue system, usury practices, and the zamindari system in India; in the tribal belt of what was then known as the Bengal Presidency.

It was a revolt against the oppression of the colonial rule propagated through a distorted revenue system, enforced by the local zamindars, the police and the courts of the legal system set up by the British.

Causes of Revolt :- 

• Social conditions :-  Zamindars, police, revenue & courts exercised a combined system of extortions, oppressive exactions, forcible dispossession of property, abuse & personal violence and a variety of petty tyrannies combined with Wilful and uncharitable trespass by the rich by means of their untethered cattle, tattoos, ponies and even elephants, on the growing crops of the poorer race.
• British Tactical approach to break Local Economy :-  Santhals resided in the hilly districts of Manbhum, Barabhum, Chhotanagpur, Palamau, and Birbhum. They lived an agrarian lifestyle, by clearing forest patches, cultivation and hunting for subsistence. But as the agents of the new colonial rule claimed their rights on the lands, the Santhals retreated to the hills of Rajmahal. After a brief period, the British operatives with their native underlings i.e. the local landlords lay claim on this new land as well. Zamindars and the money lenders allured them by goods lent to them on loans, through corrupt practices of the money lenders, the loan grew to prohibitive proportions, for repaying which entire family had to work as bonded labourers. This dispossession turned the Santhals into rebels and finally they took an oath to launch an attack on the ruling authority.
• Superstitions :-  They believed that their actions had the blessings of God. Sido and Kanhu, the principal rebel leaders, claimed that Thakur (God) had communicated with them and told them to take up arms and fight for independence.

Course of War :-

By 1854, the tribal heads, the majhis and parganites, had begun to meet and discuss the possibility of revolting. Stray cases of the robbing of zamindars and moneylenders began to occur. 30 June, 1855- tribal leaders called an assembly of 6000 Santhals, representing 400 villages, at Bhaganidihi. They decided to raise the banner of revolt, get rid of the dikus once and for all, to usher in Satyug- ‘The Reign of Truth,’ and ‘True Justice.’

Insurrection was helped by a large number of non-tribal and poor dikus. Gwalas (milkmen) and others helped the rebels with provisions and services; Lohars (blacksmiths) accompanied the rebel bands, keeping their weapons in good shape.

Supression of Rebellion:- 

The revolt was brutally crushed, the two celebrated leaders Sidhu and Kanhu were killed. Elephants supplied by the Nawab of Murshidabad were used to demolish Santhal huts and likewise atrocities were committed by the British army and it allies in suppressing the Rebellion. Of the 60,000-odd tribesmen who had been mobilised in the rebellion, over 15,000 were killed, and tens of villages were destroyed.

Kanhu was arrested by accident at the tail-end of the rebellion in February 1866 .‘The Rajmahal Hills were drenched with the blood of the fighting Santhal peasantry'.

Although its impact was largely shadowed by that of the other rebellion, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the legend of the Santhal Rebellion lives on as a turning point in Santhal pride and identity. This was reaffirmed, over a century and a half later with the creation of the first tribal province in independent India, Jharkhand.