By:Deirdre Gould
Inhabiting the northeastern region of India, in an area covering six states, the Santhali people are descendants of the oldest humans in India; indeed, linguistic evidence shows this tribe's ancestors as part of the original human migration out of Africa. While written script for the Santhali is a fairly recent invention, the Santhali language is a form of the Austro-Asiatic linguistic family rather than the Aryan family of dialect common to much of India. The uniqueness of the Santhali language and script has become a political tool in Jharkand, where heavy pressure for Santhali as a secondary official language has recently surged.
The villages of the Santhali tribe are located mostly in forested areas, where members hunt, fish or clear the land for rice agriculture. While many people choose to remain in their traditional villages in present day, another significant population has joined the industrial workforce in coal mines, steel factories or large scale agriculture.
The Santhali have 12 clans with a caste system based on descent. Marriage is strictly into different clans. Those that marry within their own clan are seen as incestuous and driven out of the tribe. Each village has its own judicial system, priest and hereditary leader. While the Santhali have their own cosmogony (or creation myth) and practice animism to some degree (as a Christian would pray to saints, the Santhali animism prays for favors from intermediaries including ancestor ghosts and gods of natural features,) they are mostly followers of the Sarna religion, a belief system following Singbonga, or the Sun God.
The Santhali Tribe was the first to rebel against British colonial presence in the late 1700s, protesting their enslavement by a fellow tribe that received the direct sanction and assistance of the British military. Though the rebellion was unsuccessful, it remains a point of pride with the Santhali people and was a source of inspiration for later revolutionaries in India from the 1850s on.
Art, music and dance are highly prized in Santhali culture. Physical mediums of art such as painting or sculpture use mythological figures or ancestors as their subjects. What truly sets the Santhali apart, however, is their music and dance.
Beginning with the instruments themselves, Santhali music is predominantly flute and drum. These instruments are typically elaborately decorated and are believed to have the power to communicate with the dead. Instruments can be passed down through generations or occasionally are cremated with the body of the owner.
Songs are communal in nature. Though new songs are frequently created, the author gives his or her song to the community as soon as it is composed, there is no private ownership of music.
Dances are held at all major life occasions: Birth, marriage, and death along with all periods of the agricultural calendar. In addition the Santali also hold courting dances on full moon nights and welcoming dances when people from other clans visit, but these are more informal social gatherings. The purpose of these dances are as varied as their occasion, but the overall emphasis of every dance is to reinforce community identity and solidarity.
Because of highly ritualised dance ceremonies and festivals, strong, seperate language, and tribal sovereignty within the Indian State, the Santhali have maintained their identity and cohesiveness over centuries when bombarded with invasion, new government, and technologies even into the modern era.
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Source:http://www.helium.com/items/1558948-history-of-the-santhali-people
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