Consider the following : 1. Deccan Revolt 2. Santhal Rebellion 3. Kherwar Movement 4. Rampa Rebellion Which of the following is the correct chronological order of the above (starting with the earliest) ?

Correct — C, (c) 2-3-1-4, that is Santhal Rebellion, Kherwar Movement, Deccan Revolt, Rampa Rebellion.

The four dates:

Santhal Rebellion, 1855-56. The Santhals of the Damin-i-Koh, in what is now the Santhal Parganas of Jharkhand, rose under Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu against moneylenders, landlords and Company officials. The declaration of revolt is conventionally dated to 30 June 1855, and the rising was suppressed in 1856. It is the earliest of the four by nearly twenty years.

Kherwar Movement, 1874. Also called the Sapha Har movement, this was a socio-religious reform movement among the Santhals of the Santhal Parganas led by Bhagirath Manjhi, which turned into resistance to the revenue settlement and attempted a parallel Santhal authority. The Government of India's Indian Culture portal records it as the Bhagirath Manjhi movement of 1874.

Deccan Revolt, 1875. Better known as the Deccan Riots, this broke out in May and June 1875 in the Poona and Ahmadnagar districts of the Bombay Deccan, where cultivators attacked the houses and shops of moneylenders to seize and destroy the bonds and decrees held against them. It led to the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act of 1879.

Rampa Rebellion, 1879-80. The hill tribes of the Rampa tract of the Vizagapatam Agency rose in March 1879 against the exactions of the mansabdar and against restrictions on toddy-tapping, and the disturbance spread to the neighbouring Golconda hills and to the Bhadrachalam taluk before being suppressed in 1880. Whichever Rampa rising is intended - a second and more famous one took place in 1922-24 under Alluri Sitarama Raju - it is the latest of the four.

So the sequence runs 1855, 1874, 1875, 1879, which is 2-3-1-4.

One feature of the option list makes the item quicker than it looks. The Santhal Rebellion is by a long way the earliest event of the four, and only one option begins with entry 2. Establishing that single date settles the question without ordering the remaining three.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)1-2-3-4 — This is simply the entries in the order the paper printed them, and it puts the Deccan Revolt of 1875 twenty years before the Santhal Rebellion of 1855. A chronology item's first option is very often the printed order, and it is worth treating that as a shape to check rather than as a candidate: the entries in these lists are seldom printed in sequence, because an item whose answer is the printed order would test nothing at all.
• (b)4-3-2-1 — This is the printed order exactly reversed, and it fails at once because it places the Rampa Rebellion of 1879-80 first and the Deccan Revolt of 1875 last. It is also internally wrong in the middle: it puts the Kherwar Movement of 1874 before the Santhal Rebellion of 1855, when the Kherwar movement arose among the same community two decades after that rebellion had been put down, and partly in reaction to the settlement that followed it.
• (d)1-3-2-4 — This option opens on the Deccan Revolt of 1875 and so makes the same mistake as the first, and it compounds it by placing the Kherwar Movement before the Santhal Rebellion. The ordering of its last two entries, Santhal then Rampa, happens to be right, which is what makes it look more considered than it is - a sequence can be correct in part and still be the wrong answer, and there is no partial credit in a chronology item.

Nineteenth-century agrarian and tribal risings are examined mainly through their sequence, and the sequence is easier to hold when the risings are grouped by what they were against.

Risings against moneylenders and the transfer of land: the Santhal Rebellion of 1855-56, in which the sahukars and the mahajans were the immediate targets, and the Deccan Riots of 1875, in which cultivators seized and burned the bonds and decrees held by Gujarati and Marwari moneylenders. Both produced legislation - the Santhal Parganas were made a non-regulation tract, and the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act followed in 1879.

Risings that began as religious or reform movements: the Kherwar or Sapha Har movement of 1874 among the Santhals, and later the Birsa Munda movement of the 1890s, both of which combined purification and reform with resistance to revenue demands and to outsiders.

Risings in the hill and forest tracts against intermediaries and forest law: the Rampa rebellion of 1879-80 in the Vizagapatam Agency, and the risings in the neighbouring Golconda hills, where the grievances were the exactions of a mansabdar, the practices of plains traders and the criminalising of toddy-tapping for domestic use.

Two of the four in this item come from the Santhal country and are separated by nineteen years, which is the pair a candidate must be able to date. Fixing 1855 for the great rebellion and 1874 for the Kherwar movement decides most questions in this area, because the other landmarks - Indigo 1859-60, Pabna 1873, Deccan 1875, Rampa 1879 - are usually asked against them.

Key facts

• The Santhal Rebellion, or Hul, broke out in the Damin-i-Koh under Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, its declaration conventionally dated 30 June 1855, and was suppressed in 1856.
• The Kherwar Movement, also called the Sapha Har movement, arose among the Santhals of the Santhal Parganas in 1874 under Bhagirath Manjhi, combining social and religious reform with resistance to the revenue settlement.
• The Deccan Revolt of May-June 1875 took place in the Poona and Ahmadnagar districts, where cultivators seized and destroyed the bonds and decrees held by moneylenders, and led to the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act, 1879.
• The Rampa Rebellion began in March 1879 in the Rampa tract of the Vizagapatam Agency and spread to the Golconda hills and Bhadrachalam before being suppressed in 1880; a second Rampa rising took place in 1922-24 under Alluri Sitarama Raju.
• Only one of the four printed orderings begins with the Santhal Rebellion, so dating that single event to 1855 settles the item without sequencing the remaining three.

Common traps

• Choosing the option that reproduces the printed order of the entries, which is almost never the chronological order.
• Confusing the Santhal Rebellion of 1855-56 with the Kherwar Movement of 1874, which arose among the same community in the same region two decades later.
• Dating the Rampa Rebellion to 1922-24 and concluding that some other event must come last; either Rampa rising is the latest of these four.
• Reading the Deccan Revolt as an eighteenth-century or early nineteenth-century event because of its association with earlier Maratha history; the riots belong to 1875.
• Accepting an ordering because its last two entries are right; a chronology item is decided by the whole sequence.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Consider the following : 1. Indigo Revolt 2. Kol Uprising 3. Deccan Riots 4. Munda Ulgulan Which one of the following is the correct chronological order of the above (starting with the earliest) ?

  • (a)2-1-3-4
  • (b)1-2-3-4
  • (c)2-3-1-4
  • (d)1-3-2-4

  Answer(a) 2-1-3-4 - the Kol uprising of 1831-32, the Indigo revolt of 1859-60, the Deccan riots of 1875 and the Munda ulgulan of 1899-1900.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Kherwar Movement of 1874 is associated with which one of the following ?

  • (a)Bhagirath Manjhi among the Santhals of the Santhal Parganas
  • (b)Birsa Munda among the Mundas of Chotanagpur
  • (c)Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu in the Damin-i-Koh
  • (d)Alluri Sitarama Raju in the Vizagapatam Agency

  Answer(a) Bhagirath Manjhi among the Santhals of the Santhal Parganas - the Kherwar or Sapha Har movement of 1874. Sidhu and Kanhu led the Santhal rebellion of 1855-56, Birsa Munda the ulgulan of 1899-1900, and Alluri Sitarama Raju the Rampa rebellion of 1922-24.