History of Santals

Book excerpt: The history of Santals has been preserved and passed on over the generations by the words of mouth until the Europeans took interest in them and started writing about them. Most of the initial writings were done by hearing from the elders of Santals and translating them. Some Indian writers had written about them as well but only by hearing from others. All of them had their own perspective as they felt appropriate. I have been looking for an authentic book about Santals written by Santals themselves who were born and brought up with them in their villages and hamlets for a long time but was unable to find one. So I decided to write myself after doing some reading of materials written by different people mainly Europeans and some Indian authors. My little book is no different except I am a Santal myself, born and brought up in a santal village and learnt about our belief of creation, customs, traditions, culture, and legends passed on orally by the elders of the villages to the younger generations during regular worship at the various festivals and other special occasions. They are basically a repetition of the same starting from the creation of the earth to the birth of human beings, growing up, marriage, procreation and death and migration. I have lived through them and have managed to come out of this darkness according to Dr W.G Archert I.C.S one of the last deputy Commissioners of Dumka towards the fag end of British Raj and author of many books on Santals including Tribal Law and Justice and managed to reach United Kingdom several years ago. So I have tried to put our history into perspective from my life long experience and readings of different books and hope you find this helpful to understand the real history of Santals.