User:Subrat.K.Swain

Madri Kalo

Sundargarh, Odisha

Tribal leader Madri Kalo’s revolt in 1897 was the first tribal uprising in Gangpur state which set the tone for a larger tribal uprising in Gangpur in 1939 under the leadership of Nirmal Munda which has been scripted in history as very eventful for a police firing that resulted in 39 deaths instantly.. No detail is known about Madri Kalo in government records as they portray him as a leader who launched a ‘meli’ against the government for his own and a few other disgruntled tribal leaders' vested interests. He belonged to the Bhuiyan community who were otherwise peaceful in Gangpur, though in Keonjhar and Bonai they had already risen into rebellion before them. The unrest arose due to a sudden increase in land revenue by king Raghunath Sekhar Deo in 1897. Madri Kalo was a Gauntia or village headman whose tenure was renewed in every five years. In the administrative setup of the Gangpur State, the revenue village under the direct control of the ruling chief was known as Khalsa village and the headman of such village was designated as Gauntia. The rights and duties of a Gauntia as envisaged in the record were to collect Malguzari (rent) from the tenants and to maintain law and order in Gauntiari villages for which he enjoyed large chunks of Bhogra i.e. rent free service land and 25% of the revenue collected by him as commission. In the neighboring Sambalpur district, a Gaunthia could not hold more than 20% of his Gauntiari land whereas in Gangpur there was no such limit. In the 1890s the new ruling chief of Gangpur Raghunath Sekhar Deo wanted to build a new luxurious palace for himself for which he needed more revenue. He, therefore, wanted to award the Gauntiari to the highest bidder after the expiry of the tenure of existing Gauntias. As a result, after 1895 the Gauntiaries of existing tribal Gauntias were threatened as the non-tribal moneyed men of Sambalpur and other neighboring states became possible aspirants for the Gauntiaries. This resulted in resentment among the Bhuiyan Gaunthias who rose in rebellion under Madri Kalo. Madri was the Gaunita of six revenue villages namely Kureibaga, Gudhiali, Jampalli, Liploi, Sialjor, and Lamloi and for his Gaunitiari service, he enjoyed large chunks of Bhogra land in twenty villages. As the Bhuyans like gonds were the local militia in the state of Bonai and Gangpur, serving under the king's army, Madri Kalo had expertise in the traditional art of warfare. Therefore when he raised his arms it became difficult for the authorities to nab him, who hid in inhospitable and inaccessible hills and forests. Finding no other way to nab him the government used diplomacy to arrest him. With the help of Gauntia of Kuranga who was a friend of Madri the police arrested him in 1900 and he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment which he spent six years in Sundargarh and four years in Ranchi jail. The last part of his life was miserable. Being apprehensive of the renewal of the rebellion after his release from jail, the Gangpur state authority had virtually rendered him paralyzed by amputating the femoral artery of his leg. Four years after his release from jail, in this deplorable paralytic condition, he breathed his last in 1914 in the village Lamloi near Rajganpur. But, he left behind for the tribal tenants of Gangpur a rich tradition of popular resistance against the hegemonic oppression of the state's administration.