Santhal Pargana division


Santhal Pargana division constitutes one of the five district administration units known as the divisions of Jharkhand state in eastern India.

Origin of name

Santhal Pargana derives its name from two words: "Santhal", a major tribe of India and Pargana, a unit of administration used mostly by Medieval rulers.

Location

Santhal Pargana is one of the divisions of Jharkhand. Its headquarters is at Dumka. Presently, this administrative division comprises six districts: Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Pakur.

History

This region is mentioned as Kajangala in different ancient literatures specially in Buddhist literatures.
It is mentioned that the Chinese monk-traveller Xuanzang travelled from Champa to Kajangala and then proceeded to Pundravardhana in the 7th century AD. He says that the northern limit of its territory was not very far from the Ganges. The forests to the south had plenty of elephants. The people were straight forward, talented and devoted to education.
In the system of Permanent Settlement, British encourage paharia of Rajmahal hills to practice settle agriculture but they refused to cut the tree. Then British officials attracted attention to Santals, they were ready to clear the forest for practice of settle agriculture. In 1932, a large number of area demarcated as Damin-i-koh or Santal Pargana. The land was declared as the land of Santal. Santal from Cuttack, Dhalbhum, Birbhum, Manbhum, Hazaribagh migrated and started cultivating these lands as peasants. British collected tax from Santals as revenue. The imposition of taxs, exploitation by Zamindar and money lenders sparked Santal rebellion. The Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, two brothers led the Santals against the Britishers but were defeated.
Formerly, Santhal Parganas comprised a district of the same name, in undivided Bihar state, India. Earlier to that, in 1855, during British India, Santhal Parganas was created as a district, and was a part of the Bengal Presidency.

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