Person · Santhal rebel leader · India
Kanhu Murmu
Also known as Kanhu, Kanhu Murmu, Kanoo Murmu
Sidhu's younger brother and the field commander of the Santhal Hul of 1855, who kept the rising going after the first defeats and was captured and hanged. Between them the brothers turned a set of grievances about debt bondage and land alienation into a declared war on the Company's authority.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 24.680, 87.250
Worth knowing
The Santhal fought largely with bows against infantry and artillery, and the official estimate of Santhal dead runs to several thousand. Their brothers Chand and Bhairav were killed in the fighting, and their sisters Phulo and Jhano are named in Santhal accounts of it.
About the place
Placed at Bhognadih in the Santhal Parganas, where the rising began and where he was hanged in 1855.
Connections (2)
- In the same set asSidhu Murmu
The Hul is remembered as Sidhu-Kanhu, one name for two brothers, and the repository keeps them as two entries because they were two people with different roles: Sidhu made the declaration and carried the religious authority, Kanhu commanded in the field and kept the rising alive after the first defeats. Both were hanged at Bhognadih, and two more brothers were killed in the fighting.
- CampaignRajmahal Hills
Kanhu Murmu, the younger of the two Murmu brothers who led the Santal Hul of 1855-56, commanded the eastern column of the rebellion from the Rajmahal Hills and the Damin-i-koh country, pushing from Sahibganj down the Ganga toward Berhampore before the Company brought in artillery and the 7th Native Infantry. Captured in February 1856 and hanged at Bhognadih, Kanhu's death ended the active phase of the Hul; the Santal Parganas Non-Regulation district and the Santal Parganas Tenancy Act of 1876 were the direct administrative legacy of the rising.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu”. Government of Bengal judicial proceedings on the Santhal insurrection, 1855–56; K.K. Datta, The Santal Insurrection of 1855–57 (1940).
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