Sonthalia and The Sonthals

Here is a neat little book, Written in impeccable English, not by a professional writer but by a civil servant, an adjunct of the old steel frame, responsible for the administration of so vast and varied a country as India. Written more than a century ago, it gives a glimpse of the white man’s frantic efforts to expand and consolidate his Indian empire in its early formative stage. The book deals with what he has termed as Sonthalia or the ‘land of Sonthals’, differing entirely from their immediate neighbours in their physique, habits and superstitions. The land stretched along the foot of the Rajmahal hills and ‘on the South-Eastern ridge of the Vindhyas lying in the districts of Birbhoom, Burdwan, Midnapore and Cuttack’, which were then known as Sonthal Pergannahs and which now comprise the tribal belts of modern Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa. The author served as the Assistant Commissioner of this region which he named as ‘Sonthallia’. During his tenure in office, the author ca