Person · tribal rebel leader
Tilka Manjhi
Also known as Jabra Pahadia
Tilka Manjhi (11 February 1750 - 13 January 1785), the Pahadia Santhal tribal leader who led the 1783-1785 Pahadia uprising against the British East India Company's Jagirdari and famine administration in the Rajmahal Hills — the earliest documented tribal armed resistance against British rule in India, pre-dating the 1830s Kol and 1855 Santhal uprisings. Born at Tilakpur village (modern Bhagalpur district, Bihar), Tilka Manjhi organised the Pahadia and Santhal communities during the 1770 Bengal Famine. His 1784 killing of the British Collector of Rajmahal Augustus Cleveland with a poisoned arrow is the earliest documented assassination of a British official by an Indian. Captured and dragged by horse to Bhagalpur, he was publicly hanged on 13 January 1785.
- Date
- 1750–1785
- Function
- Social reform & movement
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (1)
- CampaignNavratangarh
Tilka Manjhi's 1783-1785 Pahadia uprising against the British East India Company operated in the Rajmahal Hills of modern Jharkhand and Bihar. The 1770 Bengal Famine's devastation of the Pahadia Santhal tribal communities drove the uprising, which was crushed by the EIC through the use of divide-and-rule between the Pahadia and Santhal tribes. His 1785 Bhagalpur execution preceded the 1830s Kol and 1855 Santhal uprisings in the Jharkhand-Chotanagpur tribal belt.
Sources
Standard biography; regional historiography.
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