The origin of injustice
The Ho tribe of Kolhan in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand were part of the Kol revolt in 1831. Six years later, the British bought peace with the Hos through granting them autonomy under the Wilkinson rules. These rules recognised the self-rule system of the Ho, the Munda-Manki system. (Munda is a village chief while Manki is the chief of a pargana, a larger administrative unit comprising several villages.) The traditional chiefs were made responsible for administrative functions like preventing crimes and regular payment of revenue. This prevented non-tribals from taking away tribal ancestral land (called khuntkatti land).
In 1878 large tracts of forests began to be reserved under the Indian Forest Act (IFA). Several reservations in Kolhan violated the IFA as the tribal khuntkatti land was not government property. Notifications of forest did not enquire into the rights of the indigenous people. This is a fact which was acknowleged T S Macpherson, settlement officer of the British government in 1905: a 1983 report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes noted that "35 khuntkatti villages in the Seraikela sub-division of Singhbhum didtrict were acquired by the British Government in 1899 and declared as reserved forest, without the payment of any compensation to them by the then government'.