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Before the Congress held its first session in 1885, the British had already put down dozens of armed risings. They were fought by tribal communities and tenant farmers, in the forests of Chhotanagpur and the indigo districts of Bengal, and almost none of them appear in the story most students learn as 'the freedom struggle'.
Exams treat this as a separate chapter with its own logic, and that logic is worth understanding once. These risings were not about self-rule. They were about land, forest and debt — a tribal community losing its customary right over land to an outsider, or a tenant forced to grow a crop he could not eat.
And almost every large rising ended the same way: it was crushed, and then a law was passed. That pairing is the single most examined thing in the chapter. Learn each uprising with the Act it forced, never alone.
SSC CGL and CHSL, RRB NTPC, BPSC TRE-4 general studies and UPSC Prelims all draw from the same list of about a dozen.
1. The Santhal Hool of 1855-56 was led by which pair of brothers?
2. Which law was passed in the aftermath of the Munda Ulgulan led by Birsa Munda?
3. The play Nil Darpan, which carried the story of the Indigo Revolt to the cities, was written by whom?
4. The Deccan Riots of 1875 in Poona and Ahmednagar were directed mainly against whom?
5. The Kol uprising of 1831-32 in Chhotanagpur was led by whom?
6. The Pabna agrarian unrest of 1873 in East Bengal fed directly into which legislation?
7. Who was the first president of the All India Kisan Sabha, founded at Lucknow in 1936?
8. The Rampa rebellion of 1922-24 in the Andhra hill tracts was led by whom?