Birsa meant by the 'Golden Age', a satyug (the age of truth). In this age, Mundas lived a good life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and orchards, practised cultivation to earn their living. They did not kill their brothers and relatives. They lived honestly. Birsa also wanted people to once again work on their land, settle down and cultivate their fields.

The problems faced by shifting cultivators under British rule were:
(i) The life of shifting cultivators was directly connected to the forest. So, when the British brought changes in forest law, their life was badly affected.
(ii) The British extended their control over all forests and declared that forests were state property.
(iii) Some forests were classified as Reserved forests for their produced timber which the British wanted. In these forests, people were not allowed to move freely and the jhum cultivators. Many cultivators had to move to other areas in search of work. 

The conditions of work in the mines have changed now. But still there are accidents but less as in past.Many miners die in mines every year. The main reasons for this are:
(i) Flooding of the coal mines
(ii) Caving in the mine walls.
(iii) Breaking out of fire in the mines.

(i) Before British rule, tribal people had tribal chiefs who were important and had certain amount of economic power and had their own police as well as rules at some places, but they lost considerable powers when Britishers arrived.
(ii) Britishers wanted that moving tribal groups should settle down and become peasant cultivators as settled tribes were easier to control.
(iii)The Britishers tried to settle down Jhum cultivators but they were unsuccessful.
(iv) Some forest areas were declared as reserved forests which would provide timber to Britishers.
(v) The traders and money lenders started coming in forests. They wanted to buy forest products at very cheap prices which caused problem.
(vi) Britishers declared the forest as a state property.

The traders and moneylenders were the major cause of the tribals' misery as:
The tribals needed to buy some goods for their daily necessities which were not produced by them. The traders exploited them by selling them these goods at very high prices in exchange for forest produce or others goods produced by tribals. These goods were bought at very low prices by the traders for sale in other places at very high rates. In case the tribals did not have goods worth enough to exchange with traders, they borrowed cash from moneylenders at very high-interest rates, adding to the debt burden of the tribals.Both the traders and moneylenders exploited the tribal people. Thus, the tribal people believed the moneylenders and traders as evil outsiders and the cause of their misery.

(i) Many tribal groups reacted against the colonial forest laws.
(ii) They disobeyed the new rules, continued with the practices that were declared illegal, and at times, rose in an open rebellion such as the revolt of Songram Sangma in 1906 in Assam and the forest Satyagraha of the 1930sin the Central Provinces

(i) The primary occupation of the Santhals is agriculture, though food gathering and hunting are their important subsidiary occupations. They also engage in fishing and making musical instruments, mats, and baskets from plants.
(ii) The Santhals were unhappy due to the following reasons:
(a) Under the British rule, the familiar ways of life of the Santhals seemed to be disappearing. There was greater mobility of the non-tribals in the tribal community.
(b) Under British rule, a number of Anglican and Catholic missions appeared, which were considered as a threat to their religion.
(c) The moneylenders and the zamindars that first appeared to them as mere businessmen gave them loans, cheated them and turned them into slaves; thus, they threatened their livelihoods