Rereading Ulgulan As A Moment in The Indian History of Capital - Abstract

REREADING ULGULAN AS A MOMENT IN THE INDIAN
HISTORY OF CAPITAL: REFLECTIONS ON RELIGION &

CONSCIOUSNESS
Abstract
The present research is an enquiry into the Birsaite Ulgulan, the Great Tumult, a rebellion of the
adivasis of Chotanagpur, 1895-1900, concentrated in its Ranchi, Southern Palamau and Northern
Singhbhum districts. Building on over a historiography spanning over the course of a century, the
need of the present research may be located in the distortions that the recent historians have done
as they have analyzed the Ulgulan which is but an accretion of the distortions that have always
existed in the historiography of Ulgulan – the erasure or a very reductionist understanding of a
dramatis personae in the history of Ulgulan – Capital or the Capitalist mode of production. This
resuscitation of Capitalist mode of production in its dynamicity in this work, however, comes from
studying the rebellion and its praxis “in its own right” and isn’t or rather, cannot, be a matter of
academic acumen or rigour, merely. The Ulgulan, then, reads as an integral moment in the Indian
history of Capital in this work – its crisis – which is, the revolution of the proletariat. The present
work, thus, revises and proposes newer answers to basic questions such as – who were the rebels?
Who were their enemies? What were the grievances and methods of organization? – and more
complex ones such as – what was the role of religion in the rebel-consciousness? Why and how
was the question of nature invoked within it? What was the relation of the rebellion to the processes
of identity formation of the adivasis? What mode of production characterizes the historical
dynamism of the period?

Since this work represents the beginning of my enquiry into the subject, rereading the particular,
i.e., the history of Chotanagpur until the end of the nineteenth century, has been supplemented by
rereading the general, i.e., how the historians have characterized the Indian mode of production
and a rereading of the Marxian theories in light our case-study, informed by the recent
developments that have occurred with respect to the general theme.
And as a result, three important questions that are raised, dealt with and marked to be taken up in
further researches are:
1. The relation of Identity & Capital: In its understanding of the Enemy, colloquially called
the diku, why did the Birsaite rebels articulated their struggle against the Diku Raj, literally,
the reign and rule of the Enemy, wherein a moment of self-estrangement or renunciation
of the self-identity was taken up as integral? Following the praxis of the rebels becomes an
occasion to revise the notion that Capital exists as an Identity and look it as a social relation
or rather, as a source of interpellation of identities. Following this and looking at the
process of adivasi identity formation in the nineteenth century is an interesting exercise
which has been attempted in this paper, summarily.
2. The Differentia-Specifica of the Capitalist mode of production: In this regard, two
important aspects of the answer are one, the conceptual categories that are important to
understand the capitalist subsumption of Chotanagpur with regard to the Marxian theory;
and relatedly, two, the historical evolution of the capitalist mode of production in
Chotanagpur and the identities of the capital relation as it was manifest in property/agrarian
relations, level of productivity, customs, traditions and religious complex of the adivasis
or in short, the manifold discursivities of the capitalist hierarchy in the region;

3. The Question of Periodization: As the rebel-consciousness emerged at the center-stage
during the Ulgulan, the idea of history that it eschewed and its relation of that history entails
a revision of the periodization of the historical unfolding of the capitalist mode of
production in Chotanagpur not merely since the beginning of the British Raj but much
before to the period of 16th-17th century when the region was integrated within the Mughal
Empire and a myriad of changes were apparent. The same conclusion is reached when we
historicize the differentia specifica of capitalist mode of production in Chotanagpur in
terms of the discursivities of the capital relation in the region.

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REREADING ULGULAN AS A MOMENT IN THE INDIAN

HISTORY OF CAPITAL: REFLECTIONS ON RELIGION &

existed in the historiography of Ulgulan – the erasure or a very reductionist understanding of a

dynamism of the period?

developments that have occurred with respect to the general theme.

further researches are:

or rather, as a source of interpellation of identities. Following this and looking at the

process of adivasi identity formation in the nineteenth century is an interesting exercise

which has been attempted in this paper, summarily.

2. The Differentia-Specifica of the Capitalist mode of production: In this regard, two

or in short, the manifold discursivities of the capitalist hierarchy in the region;

a revision of the periodization of the historical unfolding of the capitalist mode of

historicize the differentia specifica of capitalist mode of production in Chotanagpur in

terms of the discursivities of the capital relation in the region.

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