Mangadh, the Adivasi Jallianwala: Confined to footnotes of history

Mangadh Dham, a site of tremendous historical significance that witnessed one of the most horrendous massacres of innocent people in India's colonial history.

- SHRIDHAR NAIK

Forgotten and confined to oblivion, in a densely forested area of the Mangadh hills in the Banswara district of Rajasthan, bordering Gujarat lies the Mangadh Dham, a site of tremendous historical significance. It was this site that witnessed of one of the most horrendous massacres of innocent people in India’s colonial history. On 17th November 1913, around 1500 Bhil Tribals, almost four times the number of martyrs at Jallianwala Bagh, were felled by bullets fired from the guns of soldiers of the British Army and Mewar Bhil Corps, supported by the forces from the princely states of Banswara, Santrampur, Dungarpur and Kushalgarh. Even though it took place some six years prior to infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Mangadh Dham has come to be referred to as the Adivasi Jallianwala, a clear indication of the waves made by the Jallianwala Bagh episode, as compared to the low key repercussions of Mangadh. 

The Bhils are an ancient tribe whose abode has essentially been in Rajasthan, Gujarat, northern Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and parts of Sind. They eked out a living mainly as landless labourers, a great many forced into bonded labour under local zamindars. Exploited to the extreme, the tribe lived in abject poverty. Exacerbating matters further, the severe famine in 1899 – 1900, apart from claiming lakhs of lives, reduced the Bhils to the brink of starvation, compelling large sections of the tribe to resort to dacoity purely as a means of survival.