History of the People of Bastar

The first six volumes on the ethnic history of Bastar, which were subtitled Social History of Chhattisgarh (1985), Lanka ki Khoj (1977), Prachina Bastar (1978), Adivasi Samantavad (1987), Tribal History (1988), and Bhumial (1991) give a comprehensive survey of the life journey of the primitive people in the Chakrakota Mandala which is now called Bastar in Middle India. These volumes probe into the social, economic and political life of the people who are now called Adivasis, right from the Middle Stone Age (25000 B.C.) to the 1777 A.D. The present volume is an extension of the previous volume. It describes the further changes which took place within the womb of the tribal communities of Bastar. It covers a period ranging from 1777 to 1947 of about two centuries. The present volume is a major break through on the people’s history of Bastar, being the first attempt to survey and assess the phases of rebellion which earned a distinctive character of its own, by virtue of militant outlook and methods. The twelve rebellions dealt with in this volume tell the story of suffering of the tribal people and their connected revolts against the oppressor. Here in Bastar it was a people’s determination to challenge the alien rule since the time of its inception until and unless it was uprooted from the soil – a long war rarely seen in any other region of the country.