Explanation:

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 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 of 1793 forced the landlords to improve productivity of the land. The Santals were increasingly used for land reclamation and improvement.

The Permanent Settlement, also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, was an agreement between the East India Company and Bengali landlords to fix revenues to be raised from land that had far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the entire British Empire and the political realities of the Indian countryside. It was concluded in 1793 by the Company administration headed by Charles, Earl Cornwallis. It formed one part of a larger body of legislation, known as the Cornwallis Code. The Cornwallis Code of 1793 divided the East India Company's service personnel into three branches: revenue, judicial, and commercial. Revenues were collected by zamindars, native Indians who were treated as landowners. This division created an Indian landed class that supported British authority.