Kol people

The Kol people referred to a group of tribal communities of Chotanagpur in eastern parts of India. Historically, the Mundas, Oraons, Ho and Bhumijs were called Kols by the British.[1]

It also refers to some tribes and castes of south-east Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.[2][3] They are mostly Indigenous people and dependent on forest produce to make a living, and they have their own land. The caste has several exogamous clans, including the Bhil, Chero, Monasi, Rautia, Raut, Gauthiya Rojaboria‚ Rautel and Thakuria. They speak the Baghelkhandi dialect.[4] Around 1 million lives in Madhya Pradesh while another 5 lakh lives in Uttar Pradesh.

Once spelled "Kole", the swaths of land they inhabited in the 19th-century were called "Kolean".[3]

  1. ^ Shri Jagdish Chandra Jha (1958). "The KOL RISINGS OF CHOTANAGPUR (1831-1833)-ITS CAUSES". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 21. JSTOR: 440–446. JSTOR 44145239. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Kols in UP: A life without rights". thehindu. 4 December 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  3. ^ a b Edward Balfour, ed. (1862). The Second Supplement, with Index, to the Cyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia. p. 537.
  4. ^ Pullaiah, T.; Krishnamurthy, K. V.; Bahadur, Bir (8 September 2017). Ethnobotany of India, Volume 5: The Indo-Gangetic Region and Central India. ISBN 9781351741316.