Tribal Migrant Labourers in the Sundarbans: Effects of Migration on prevalent Social, Cultural and Political Life.

A closed reading of the mobility of tribal life in West Bengal can take us to the Sundarbans in the southern fringes of Bengal; where the Santhals can be traced, who migrated from their homelands in the Chota Nagpur, to the tide country (Sundarbans) only a few centuries ago, to clear forested lands and to start cultivating the virgin land. Colonization here plays a very important role, since this migration was a direct result of the colonial barbarity on the tribal populations in the Chota Nagpur Plateau during the 18th century. Migrant labour, though is mostly understood in terms of seasonal migration, in this case, the opposite is noticed. Here, whole tribes migrated, who can also be credited as one of the first settlers in a land which was otherwise the realm of the deadly Royal Bengal Tigers (where no humans lived). In this context, the paper will seek to outline the tribal roots of the Santhals, Mundas and Oraons, who migrated from other parts of the country to the Sundarbans. The similarities in their folk traditions and religion though can be a mere coincidence, believing in which can restrict one from engaging in the fantastic possibility of rich research in the field. This paper will also address the functioning of the tribal labour at that point of time, and how it changed the whole paradigm of migration, especially the notion of mobility. The paper will employ information from several government accounts and journals, which recorded data about the migration of the Santhals to the Sundarbans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]