Manki-Munda system of West Singhbhum

Abstract

This chapter unravels the purposes and ideologies behind the formation and function of the indigenous Manki-Munda system in Kolhan-Porahat region of West Singhbhum in pre-colonial and colonial times. Fructifying during pre-colonial times as an autonomous system of social governance to bond the Ho community and promote their material interests, after Kolhan-Porahat came under British rule in 1837, the system was co-opted as a lower unit of Raj bureaucracy and invested with new rights and jurisdictions. The ideology at work was to consolidate colonial rule by creating the façade of ruling through the tribal social agencies. The British rulers inaugurated a paternalistic regime, in which the traditional Manki-Munda system functioned as a political tool to promote their ‘civilising mission.’ The first section traces the genesis and development of the indigenous institution and its function as an agency of development and change. The second critically examines the process of the incorporation of the institution as a political tool to consolidate British colonialism and promote change and development. This dialogue with the past is necessary to comprehend contemporary Ho sensitivity to Manki-Munda system as the most effective system of indigenous governance and the uncertainty that prevails as the state and Union governments introduce the Panchayati Raj system as an alternate mode of Adivasi governance.