Jatra Oraon: He was a tribal freedom fighter from the Chootanagpur region, who criticised alchoholism and superstitious practices among Oraons. His religious movement gave way to a "no-rent payment" campaign. He also questioned the traditional leadership of the pahans and mahtos or the village headmen. The basic idea behind his movement was that land was a gift of god and no one could interfere with the tribal rights over land. Jatra was arrested in 1814. After his release, he abandoned his leadership of the movement and joined the Non-cooperation Movement of Gandhiji.
Rani Gaidinliu: She was born in Manipur and joined the Indian freedom struggle at an early, age of 13 with Hasipau Jodonang, who was the political and social leader of Naga. He fought to drive away the British from Manipur. He was captured and hanged ley the British. After his death, Gaidinliu assumed the leadership of the movement. She, too, was arrested in 1932 and sent to jail and released only after 1947. She was honoured with Tarnrapatra and Padma Bhushan awards. Nehruji called her "Rani of the Nagas". She died on February 17, 1933.

The Santhals traditionally undertook jhum cultivation and also hunting-gathering. Both these occupations were affected by the forest laws made by the British, as the Santhals were not allowed to enter the forests at will to carry out these activities. Thus, they had to seek alternative occupations, which made them unhappy.

The Mundas were a tribal group inhabiting in the Chottanagpur region. They had started working on settled agriculture, with the land belonging to the clan as a whole. As the poem says, the zamindars, who were basically dikus (outsiders), had taken over their land and they were forced to work as labourers for a small sum. They saw themselves as the descendants of the original settlers of the region, fighting for their land (mulk ki larai), reminding people of the need to win back their kingdom. This was the aim of their movement.

The Baigas were a tribal group inhabiting the forested areas of Central India. Their main occupation had been shifting agriculture, but they found it difficult to live under the British because of the taxes they had to pay for working on settled cultivation introduced by the British (land tax, forest tax, cattle tax etc as expressed in the poem). They had not been paying any such tax earlier.

There is a pattern in the tasks that Baiga men and women did. We notice that the men did the physically harder work and work which required them to go far from home, like working in the fields and going for hunting animals Meanwhile, the Baiga women did the physically less demanding work and which kept them near their homes probably to look after their children and the home, gathering fruits for consumption and unburnt woods for fuel etc.

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.

When the British enacted the forest laws, they faced these two problems:
(i) They faced a revolt from the jhum cultivators, as they had lost their livelihood. In addition, the tribals were not allowed to venture inside the forests to extract forest produce for sale.
(ii) The British Forest Department required labour to cut trees for making railway sleepers and labour to transport logs for use in shipbuilding and other needs.
The British overcame both problems together by establishing forest villages of tribals, where the jhum cultivators were allowed to cultivate small patches of land in forests on the condition that those who lived in the villages would have to provide labour to the Forest Department and look after the forests.

As the British could not get a regularly fixed revenue for the state from shifting cultivators, they introduced land settlement in the tribes, i.e. they measured the land,defined the rights of each individual to that land and fixed the revenue demand for the state.
It proved that the tribals could effectively protest against any repression or exploitation indulged In by anybody, particularly the Britishers. The methods adopted by the tribals were unique to them.
Tribal chiefs were declared landowners, to enable them to collect revenue for the state from the others, who were declared tenants. Such peasant cultivators were also easier to control and administer than people who were always on the move.
However, this was not successful because the soil in tribal areas was dry and water limited in its availability, resulting in their not giving adequate yields. Thus, the revenue to the state also suffered.

The tribals agitated under British rule because:
(i) The powers and functions of tribal chiefs were reduced to keeping their lane titles and renting out their lands only.
(ii) They lost much of their economic and administrative power over their tribes and had to pay tribute to the British.
(iii) Their method of shifting cultivation was stopped and they had to settle down at fixed places to become peasant cultivators. Besides, they had to give fixed revenue to the state.
(iv) Their gathering of forest products for use or sale was stopped, as the British declared forests as Reserved meaning that the tribals could not either live in the forests or enter them at will or take out forest produce.

The tribals traditionally practiced hum cultivation, i.e. shifting cultivation. This was done on small patches of land, mostly in forests. The cultivators cut the trees to allow sunlight to reach the ground and burnt the vegetation on the land to clear it for cultivation. Then they spread the ash of the vegetation to fertilize the soil, as it contained potash. Then they scratched the soil to prepare it for cultivation. They used the axe to cut trees and the hoe to scratch soil in order to prepare the land for cultivation.
Then the seeds were scattered on the field instead of ploughing the land and sowing the seeds. Once the crop was ready and harvested, they moved to another area. A field that had been cultivated once was left fallow for several years to recover its fertility.