Ulgulan

Twenty years of Munda petitions failed in the courts before a twenty-five-year-old healer told his people the land was theirs. This chapter tells the Ulgulan of 1899 to 1900 and the Bastar Bhumkal of 1910: the forest, the dikus, the missions, the messengers carrying mango boughs and chillies, and the tenancy law that came after.

Lessons in this chapter

• The Courts Said No — Forty years of Munda petitions, the dikus, the forest laws, and why the next answer was a rising
• Dombari Hill — Birsa Munda, the healer his people called Bhagwan, the rising of Christmas 1899, and the hill above Etkedih on 9 January 1900
• Mango Boughs and Chillies — Gunda Dhur, Lal Kalendra Singh, and the rising that crossed Bastar by mango bough and chilli in February 1910

Back to Kranti Veer: The Rising and the Underground (1857-1911)