Tribal Movements: Bhil Resistance and Reform

Structural Context: Tribal Dispossession

Rajasthan's tribal belt — running through Banswara, Dungarpur, Udaipur, and Sirohi districts — was home to the Bhil, Mina, and Garasia communities. The colonial-era Forest Settlement of the 1890s restricted tribal access to forests that had been integral to their livelihood for generations. Combined with jagirdari begar, forced labour for the state, and denial of land rights, the tribal communities faced layered dispossession.

Govind Guru and the Bhagat Movement

Govind Guru, born into a Banjara community in Dungarpur, became the transformative figure of tribal Rajasthan in the early 20th century. His movement combined religious-social reform with political assertion — making it distinctive from purely agrarian movements.

Samp Sabha, 1883

Govind Guru founded the Samp Sabha ("Brotherhood Assembly") to organise Bhil communities across Rajasthan and Gujarat. The Sabha promoted:

• Abolition of alcohol and meat consumption among Bhils (social reform)
• Rejection of idol worship — a monotheistic devotional practice based on fire worship
• Literacy and education for tribal children
• Unity across caste lines within the tribal belt

By the 1900s, the movement had grown into a mass organisation with tens of thousands of followers across Banswara, Dungarpur, and adjacent Gujarat areas.

The Mangarh Hill Gathering and Massacre (17 November 1913)

On 17 November 1913, approximately 1,500 Bhil followers of Govind Guru assembled on Mangarh Hill in Banswara district for a major religious gathering. British forces and Mewar state troops surrounded the hill and opened fire. Approximately 1,500 tribals were killed — the largest single killing of tribals in pre-independence Rajasthan. The event is termed the "Adivasi Jallianwala Bagh" of Rajasthan.

Govind Guru was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death; the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1923 and continued social work until his death in 1931.

Current Affairs Link: Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Mangarh Dham a site of national importance in November 2022, attending a programme with tribal communities from Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. This recognition came 109 years after the massacre.

Motilal Tejawat and the Eki Movement

Motilal Tejawat, a former records official of a Udaipur-area jagirdar, became the leader of the most organised tribal mass movement in 20th-century Rajasthan.

Eki Movement (1921–22)

Tejawat launched the Eki (Unity) movement among the Bhils of Udaipur, Dungarpur, and Banswara in 1921. His 21-point charter — Mataji ki Araj ("Petition to the Mother Goddess") — demanded:

1. Abolition of begar (unpaid forced labour)
2. Reduction of lagaan to pre-1905 levels
3. Rights over forests — collection of forest produce for sustenance
4. End to forced supply of fuel and fodder to jagirdars
5. Removal of arbitrary transit taxes on goods
6. End to the practice of feeding jagirdars' guests without payment
   (Plus 15 additional specific demands)

The movement spread with remarkable speed. By early 1922, Tejawat had gathered hundreds of thousands of Bhil followers across Mewar, Dungarpur, and Banswara. At the Neemat Kheda gathering, Mewar state forces opened fire on the assembled tribals. Official accounts reported 22 killed; Tejawat's accounts and independent estimates placed the figure above 1,000. Tejawat went underground; the state government declared him an outlaw. He surrendered in 1929 and was imprisoned. The movement was suppressed, but many of its demands were partially conceded in subsequent administrative orders.

Doongji and Jawaharji — Asked in RPSC 2018

RPSC Mains 2018 directly asked: "Who were Doongji and Jawaharji?" — a factual recall question from the early resistance tradition.

Doongji and Jawaharji were Shekhawati Jat chieftains who organised a form of guerrilla resistance against British and jagirdari authority in the 1830s–40s. They became folk heroes in the Shekhawati region, celebrated in local ballads for distributing wealth taken from nobles and British convoys among the poor — making them the Rajasthan equivalent of Robin Hood figures. They were eventually captured by British forces.

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