Published By: Sayan Paul

Before Gandhi, There Were Sidhu-Kanhu: How the Santhals Declared Their Own Parallel Government

Two years before the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Santhal Revolt broke out in the forests of present-day Jharkhand and West Bengal.

When we think of parallel governments in India’s freedom struggle, our minds often go to the Quit India Movement of 1942, when Gandhi's call for British withdrawal inspired people across the country to take charge of their own destinies. But rewind nearly a century earlier, and you’ll find a lesser-known story from the forests of present-day Jharkhand and West Bengal. This was the land of the Santhals, a self-reliant tribal community that had long endured exploitation at the hands of British rulers, moneylenders, and zamindars. And in 1855, two fearless brothers, Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, rose from among them to declare their own government, challenging the might of the British Empire.

So, it would not be even an iota of an exaggeration to say that before Gandhi’s non-violent resistance, before even the Revolt of 1857, these young tribal leaders lit the spark of self-rule. Their story is a reminder that India’s (although the concept of India as a nation didn't exist back then) fight for freedom began in many places, with many voices. Sidhu and Kanhu were among the first.

A Land Stolen and Exploited

The Santhals, one of India’s oldest and largest Adivasi communities, lived in tune with the forests of the Bengal Presidency, now Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal. For generations, they cultivated land communally, celebrated nature, and traded through barter. Their lives revolved around the Jaher Than (sacred groves), and their homes, called Olah, were adorned with symbolic art.

But the colonial juggernaut crushed their way of life. After the British victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company began tightening its grip. The Permanent Settlement Act of 1793, introduced by Lord Cornwallis, handed over vast tracts of land to zamindars, turning tribal land into private property. The Santhals, who had never known landlords, suddenly became tenants in their own land, or worse, bonded laborers.

By 1832, the British encouraged Santhals to settle in the forested region of Damin-i-Koh, promising autonomy and cultivable land. It was a calculated move to clear forests for agriculture and boost colonial revenue. Once settled, the Santhals were bled dry by taxes, moneylenders (mahajans) charging usurious interest rates (sometimes up to 500%), and corrupt officials who looked the other way. The arrival of railways in the 1850s made things worse. Santhal laborers faced unpaid wages, exploitative contractors, and reports of violence against their women.

A once self-reliant community was cornered, but they were not willing to stay silent.

The Brothers Who Dreamed of Freedom

From the village of Bhognadih in present-day Sahibganj emerged two brothers who would become legends. Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, born into a farming family, were shaped by both Santhal tradition and the wounds of colonial exploitation. Sidhu, calm and contemplative, was seen as a spiritual guide, while Kanhu, his younger brother, was passionate and fierce. They were joined in their fight by their brothers Chand and Bhairav, and their sisters Phulo and Jhano, each playing a vital role in what would become a grassroots revolution.

According to oral traditions, the Santhal deity Thakur Bonga appeared to Sidhu and Kanhu in a vision over seven nights, commanding them to rise against the Dikus, outsiders who had seized their land and dignity. This divine sanction lit a fire in their hearts, and in those of thousands of others.

(Credit: Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India)

With branches of the sacred sal tree in hand, the brothers walked from village to village, rallying support. On June 30, 1855, over 10,000 Santhals gathered in Bhognadih to declare their intent: they would end the tyranny of the British and their agents. Women, too, took up arms; Phulo and Jhano are remembered for sneaking into enemy camps and fighting until the end. This was a people’s movement in every sense, driven not by ideology but by lived experience and the simple desire to live with dignity.

A Vicious Cycle of Greed

The Santhal uprising wasn’t a sudden eruption; rather, it was the inevitable result of relentless exploitation.

The British introduced currency to a society built on barter, forcing Santhals to borrow at staggering interest rates. Debt piled up. Those unable to pay were evicted from their land, pushed into forced labor, or had their crops seized. Zamindars, mahajans, and colonial police formed a vicious nexus, squeezing every last drop of value from the Santhals’ land and bodies.

Even nature, once their sanctuary, was not spared. Railway construction tore through forests, rivers, and sacred spaces. For a community deeply tied to land and ecology, this was an existential blow. Worse was the Santhal women being harassed by railway contractors and guards. 

So rebellion became not just an option for them, but a moral duty.

The Fight to Reclaim Their Land: A Guerrilla Uprising

The first strike came on July 7, 1855. With war cries spreading through the forests, the Santhal Hul erupted into action.

Sidhu and Kanhu mobilized thousands in a guerrilla campaign. Armed with bows, arrows, axes, and spears made from sal wood and bamboo, they attacked British outposts, destroyed tax offices, and cut off telegraph lines. They torched the homes of zamindars and looted stores run by moneylenders.

At the peak of the rebellion, nearly 20,000 Santhals had joined the resistance. In places like Rajmahal, Bhagalpur, and Birbhum, the colonial machinery began to sputter. At Narayanpur, the rebels ambushed the Paharia Rangers, killing 25 sepoys, making it a rare and humiliating defeat for the British.

(Credit: CPIML Liberation)

The Parallel Government

What set the Santhal Hul apart from other uprisings was its ambition. The rebels envisioned not only freedom, but governance.

Sidhu and Kanhu declared the land between Bhagalpur and Rajmahal a Santhal Rajya, a self-governed territory. They called themselves Suba Thakurs (governors) and appointed officials to oversee order and collect taxes. Messages (parwanas) were sent to British officers and local landlords, demanding they either leave or accept the new order.

This was - and there's no other way to put it - an assertion of political will. In effect, the Santhals had created one of India’s earliest parallel governments, nearly a century before Gandhi’s Quit India movement would do the same.

(Credit: Lone Wolf Ratnakar)

For a brief period, they lived as if colonialism had been undone.

The British Crackdown: A Brutal End

The British were stunned not just by the scale of the revolt but by the Santhals’ tenacity. And what followed was a crackdown of staggering cruelty.

By November 1855, martial law was declared. Thousands of troops were deployed. British forces used deception, pretending to retreat, then ambushing rebels with guns and cannons. War elephants were brought in to crush resistance.

Villages were razed, crops were burned, and families were wiped out. It’s estimated that more than 15,000 Santhals were killed in a matter of months.

(Credit: Tribal Army)

Sidhu Murmu was captured and hanged in Bhagalpur on August 9, 1855. Kanhu was arrested months later and executed in Calcutta in early 1856. With their deaths, the organized resistance collapsed, but the spirit they ignited would live on.

Though brutally suppressed, the Santhal Hul left a lasting imprint. The British, alarmed by the rebellion’s roots, passed the Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act in 1876, which restricted land transfers to outsiders and recognized some tribal land rights. More importantly, the revolt inspired generations to come, from Birsa Munda’s Ulgulan (Great Tumult) in the 1890s to the demand for a separate Jharkhand state, finally realized in 2000. Even today, June 30 is observed as Hul Diwas to remember the courage of Sidhu, Kanhu, and the thousands who stood up to injustice.