Rebellion The rebellion (ulgulan) of the Munda tribesmen led by Birsa Munda, occurred during - . Mundas were a prominent tribe in the Bihar region. During the British rule their system of common land holdings was destroyed. Santhal rebellion Munda Rebellion XI History - Lesson - - Early Resistance to British Rule and expensive jewellery lost their livelihood.
Thus Dalhousie through his expansionist policy created hardship to a number of people. Oppressive Land Revenue System The rate of land revenue was heavy when compared with former settlements. Prior to the British, Indian rulers collected revenue only when land was cultivated. The British treated land revenue as a rent and not a tax.
This meant that revenue was extracted whether the land was cultivated or not, and at the same rate. The prices of agricultural commodities continued to crash throughout the first half of nineteenth century and in the absence of any remission or relief from the colonial state, small and marginal farmers as well as cultivating tenants were subject to untold misery. Alienation of Muslim Aristocracy and Intelligentsia Muslims depended largely on public service. Before the Company’s rule, they had filled the most honourable posts in former governments.
As commandants of cavalry some of them received high incomes. But under the Company’s administration, they suffered. English language and western education pushed the Muslim intelligentsia into insignificance. The abolition of Persian language in the law courts and admission into public service by examination decreased the Muslim’s chances of official employment.
Religious Sentiments The Act of providing for enrolment of high caste men as sepoys in the Bengal army stipulated that future recruits give up martial careers or their caste scruples. This apart, acts such as the abolition of sati, legalization of remarriage of Hindu widows, prohibition of infanticide were viewed as interference in religious beliefs. In , to the repugnance of orthodox Hindus, the Lex Loci Act was passed permitting converts to Christianity to retain their patrimony (right to inherit property from parents or ancestors). The historian Keene attributed the outbreak due to operation of variety of factors: