The great revolutionary 'Tantya Mama' belonged to which tribal community?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Bhil. Tantya Bhil, popularly called 'Tantya Mama,' was a Bhil tribal revolutionary from the Nimar region of (undivided) Madhya Pradesh who resisted British rule and exploitative moneylenders/landlords between 1878 and 1889 through guerrilla raids, redistributing seized wealth among the poor — earning him the epithet 'the Indian Robin Hood.' He was captured and hanged on 4 December 1889 at Jabalpur.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The Kol are a distinct Scheduled Tribe of the Baghelkhand/Vindhya region (Rewa, Satna, Sidhi, Shahdol) — not the community Tantya Mama belonged to.  (b) Madhya Pradesh's largest tribe, centred on Mandla-Dindori-Chhindwara — a different community from the Bhil of the Nimar-Khandwa belt where Tantya Mama was active.  (d) A small PVTG confined to the Patalkot valley of Chhindwara district — unconnected to Tantya Mama, who belonged to the numerically much larger Bhil community of western/southern MP.

Concept: The Bhil are India's largest tribal community by population and are concentrated in western Madhya Pradesh (Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Barwani, Khargone) as well as Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Tantya Bhil (1840-1889) is remembered as an anti-colonial resistance figure who targeted British-aligned landlords and moneylenders and redistributed the proceeds to poor tribals, in the tradition of a folk 'Robin Hood.'

State PCS 2024 Q23 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q23 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer