International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR)

Santhal Lives Matter: Towards an Historical Anthropology of Adivasi Communities in Santhal Pargana Region of Eastern India

This article highlights some of the critical political and cultural issues in the lives of the Santhal Adivasis in eastern India. It points to customs, rituals and questions of livelihood to demonstrate that the story of the Adivasis in Santhal Pargana is an unfinished project of autonomy. The state of Jharkhand is a geographical and administrative reality, but the dream of a true self-governed space, where their customary practices, spiritual beliefs, and relationship with the land are sovereign—remains elusive. Indeed, the Santhal people are not expected to remain helpless victims of history. They are agents who have consistently fought for their honour and self-respect, from the epic rebellion of the Hul to the everyday forms of resistance documented by scholars like James Scott. Their history, once silenced and marginalized, is now being sung in their own language and written through their own scholarship, fulfilling the call for a “history from below” and challenging the dominant national narrative. Insights from history and anthropology are deployed here to show how Santhal lives matter and should be studied for its own sake and for larger concerns regarding the concerns of indigenous communities in what may be termed as tribal India.