A people without the knowledge of their history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.
Marcus Garvey
India is the land of diversity; the land of multi-ethnicity, land of multi-culture, land of multilingualism, land of religion, land of Art, culture, philosophy and science. People of many races many ethnic groups live here together. Some races are living here from the very beginning of Indian civilization, and some arrived here afterwards.
Many Indigenous groups in India are living here from the very beginning of Indian civilization. In India, they are called tribal people. According to the 2011 census of India tribal population comprise 8.6% of the total population of India. Santal is one of the most prominent tribal group in India. They have their unique language, culture, traditions and social order.
Geographical area
Santal is one of the most prominent indigenous group living in India. There are around 7.5 million Santal population living around. They are spread across the state of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Assam of India. Apart from India Santal people are living in Bangladesh (Greater Sylhet, South West and North Bengal) and Nepal (Jhapa, Morang and Dhanusha district). Most of them live in rural areas, but nowadays many of them dwell in cities and megacities. Though the number is very less now Santal diaspora is living in various countries across the globe.
History
As they had no written documents, before the latter half of the 1700s no much-written history of The Santal population is available. Santal people have their mythology (Called BINTI), but it was not written at that time; it was verbal, the disciple would learn it from the master by listening. In the Binti, their origin and migration story is described. Later Britishers and Christian missionary started writing about Santal people.
Literature
Earlier Santal people had no written literature; their literature was verbal. Their literature comprises of songs for various occasions, tales, proverbs. Before the beginning of writing, they would learn the songs from numerous events, would listen to the stories from their grandparents. They conveyed their history, tradition, through this oral literature.
It was the Britishers and Christian missionaries who first started to write about them; from their writings, the written history of the Santal population is available. Influenced by these missionaries, some Santal people began to inscribe their own culture, songs, tales; and thus, the written Santali literature started its journey. Nowadays, Santali literature is well flourished. Along with other various award winners, the literature has prestigious Sahitya Academy awardees too.
Though Santals have their language, initially there was no script in which this language can be written accurately following phonetics. So in the early period, Christian missionaries would use Roman script with few modifications to write down the Santali songs, tales and other traditions. Besides the Roman script, other prominent local scripts are used too.
In 1925, Pandit Raghunath Murmu first invented proper Santali alphabets called Ol-Chiki in which Santali can be written in a phonetically precise manner. After that, the Ol-Chiki has gained wide acceptance among Santal people. Nowadays besides the Ol-Chiki Bengali and Hindi alphabets are also used for writing.
In the year 2003, by the 92nd amendment of Indian Constitution, the Santali language was included in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Rebellion against British
In 1757 CE when British East India Company defeated Siraj-Ud-Daulah, The Nawab of the then Bengal, people thought the freedom is gone, and no one can overcome the British, no one had shown their courage against the British. Most people were accepting British adherence.
But Tilka Majhi (Called Baba Tilka) challenged British colonialism. He started a revolution around 1780 in the Bhagalpur area, demanding their autonomy in that area. In 1784, he killed Augustus Clevland, the collector of the then Bhagalpur district. The revolution was suppressed with firearms and gun powder. Following, Baba Tilka was hanged in that year.
Perhaps he was the earliest leader who took armed rebellion against the British and gave his ultimate sacrifice. In the year 1855, another rebellion lead by two brothers Sidhu Murmu and Kanhu Murmu arose against the colonialism, fraud merchants and corrupt money lenders. Their other two brothers Chand Murmu and Viro Murmu played a pivotal role in this rebellion. Two brave women named Fulo and Jhano also played an essential role in this rebellion. Even the teenagers were also involved in this rebellion; Bazal Murmu is one such example.
Occupation
Most, Santal people are small scale farmers. They are dependant on forest products; some work in the colliery belt; some work as agriculture labour; nowadays a considerable number of the youth population is involved in construction work working across India.
Apart from all these, one can see them working in various Government sectors. They are working in the teaching, Indian Railways, police force, armed forces, in the banking sector; there are many Doctors, Engineers from this community. Nowadays some of them are also working in research fields, in various PSUs, and public administration. Political involvement among them is also accending. The Governor of Jharkhand Mrs. Draupadi Murmu, Chief Minister of Jharkhand Mr. Hemanta Soren, Lieutenant Governor of Union territory Jammu and Kashmir Mr. Girish Chandra Murmu are some prominent personalities from the Santal community.