Dhalbhum Uprising: Granting Peasant Participants Subalternity in the Historiography of Early Colonial Resistance

Abstract

In Eighteenth century, aristocrats responding negatively to the juridical-political change that stripped them of their erstwhile authority and privileges were joined by peasantry and aboriginal people of the periphery. Around the same time, Dhalbhum region became a hotbed of resistance when a local grandee Jagannath Dhal led the Chuars, Bhumij and aboriginal peasantry in a tumultuous resistance against the Company rule of law. The purpose of this paper is to bring to light the historical significance of the uprising as an integral part of the narrative trajectory of eighteenth-century Indian history. Alongside, the paper also proposes to intervene and interrogate the subalternity of the participative masses in the historiography of the western parts of Eastern part of the subcontinent using the resistance movement of the Raja of Dhalbhum to understand the cognitive trajectory of these uprisings in the early colonial period.