Santal people


The Santal or Santhal, are an ethnic group native to India and Bangladesh in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Assam,Tripura, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal and Bhutan. The Santals mostly speak Santali, the most widely spoken of the Munda languages.

History

According to linguist Paul Sidwell, Austro-Asiatic language speakers probably arrived on coast of Odisha from Indochina about 4000–3500 years ago. The Austroasiatic speaker spread from Southeast Asia and mixed extensively with local Indian populations.
British officials intended to enhance the revenue by expansion of agriculture. They encouraged the Paharia people of Rajmahal hills to practice settled agriculture but they refused to cut the trees. Then British officials turned their attention to Santals, who were ready to clear the forest for the practice of settled agriculture. In 1832, a large number of areas were demarcated as Damin-i-koh or Santal Pargana. Santals from Cuttack, Dhalbhum, Birbhum, Manbhum and Hazaribagh migrated and started cultivating these lands as peasants. British collected taxes from these Santals as revenue. The imposition of taxes, exploitation by Zamindars and money lenders sparked the Santal rebellion. Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, two brothers led the Santals against the British but were defeated.

Religion

In the Santal religion, the majority of reverence falls on a court of spirits, who handle different aspects of the world and who are placated with prayers and offerings in order to ward off evil influences. These spirits operate at the village, household, ancestor, and sub-clan level, along with evil spirits that cause disease and can inhabit village boundaries, mountains, water, tigers, and the forest. The bonga are intermediaries between noa puri and hana puri, the abode of a Creator. This creator is variously called Marang Buru or Thakur Jiu, and is the "cause of all causes," making the Santal religion, in a deep sense, monotheistic as well as pantheistic.
The Santal creation story holds that originally the world was water, and Marang Buru and some lesser deities were the only inhabitants. When some spirits requested permission to make humans, Marang Buru asked Malan Budhi to create the human bodies. When she had finally succeeded, she was told by Marang Buru to use the human spirits that were high on the rafters of his hut. She could not reach the human spirit, and took the bird spirit instead. When Marang Buru integrated the spirits with the bodies, they flew away and asked for a place to build a nest. Marang Buru could not get anyone else to bring land to the surface, and so the tortoise volunteered and pushed the Earth onto his back. The birds then gave birth to a boy and a girl called Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi. These two had seven sons and seven daughters, but the couple soon had a quarrel and separated. Pilchu Haram and his sons became great hunters, and on a time came upon the daughters, who had become maidens and were unrecognizable. They became introduced and made love. Looking for his sons, Pilchu Haram discovered an old woman and asked for fire, and upon talking to her more, he discovered his wife and reconciled with her. Another version tells how Pilchu Budhi was in fact in tears at her daughters' disappearance, but Marang Buru reassured her that they were all safe and brought her to reconcile with her husband. When their sons found out they had married their sisters, they were very angry and would have killed their parents if Marang Buru had not hidden them in a cave, where they stayed for the rest of their days. The children of these seven couples became the progenitors of the various Santal clans.
A characteristic feature of a Santal village is a sacred grove on the edge of the village where many spirits live and where a series of annual festivals take place. The Manjhi Than, a raised mound of earth covered with a thatched roof outside the headman's house, is where the Manjhi's ancestors' spirits live. During the summer, a jug of water is placed there so the spirits can drink. Here the most important decisions of the village are made, including judgements.
A yearly round of rituals connected with the agricultural cycle, along with life-cycle rituals for birth, marriage and burial at death, involve petitions to the spirits and offerings that include the sacrifice of animals, usually birds. Religious leaders are male specialists in medical cures who practice divination and witchcraft. Similar beliefs are common among other tribes on the Chota Nagpur Plateau like the Kharia, Munda, and Oraon.
Smaller and more isolated tribes often demonstrate articulated classification systems of the spiritual hierarchy less well documented, described as animism or a generalised worship of spiritual energies connected with locations, activities, and social groups. Religious concepts are intricately entwined with ideas about nature and interaction with local ecological systems. As in Santal religion, religious specialists are drawn from the village or family and serve a wide range of spiritual functions that focus on placating potentially dangerous spirits and co-ordinating rituals.
According to the 2011 Indian Census, majority of the Santal's from Jharkhand follow Sarna at 70%, with 30% following "other religions and persuasions", mostly their own religion or Sarna Dhorom. Christianity is practised by 8.3% present of the population. Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism are followed by less than 1% of the population.

Culture

is the principal festival of Santal community. Besides that Baha, Karam, Dansai, Sakrat, Mahmore, Rundo and Magsim are important festivals. The Santal traditionally accompany many of their dances during these festivals with two drums: the Tamak‘ and the Tumdak’.
Chadar Badar, a form of puppetry known also as Santal puppetry, is a folk show involving wooden puppets placed in a small cage which acts as the stage.
Originally hunter-gatherers, Santals made a transition to agrarian lifestyle. Decision-making matters is done through a village council which is headed by a person titled manjhi. The manjhi is aided by other council members to carry out and deal with local affairs.
Santal art is noticeable for its intricate carving style. The walls of traditional Santal homes are ornamented with carved designs of animals, hunting scenes, dancing scenes, geometric patterns, and more. Santal styled Palanquins were also finely carved and designed.

Notable people