The subjugation and colonization of Jharkhand region by the British East India Company resulted in spontaneous resistance from the local people. Almost one hundred years before India’s First War of Independence (1857), adivasis of Jharkhand were already begining what would become a series of repeated revolts against the British colonial rule:

1772-1780 Paharia revolt
1780-1785 Tilka Manjhi led the tribal revolt and managed to injure the British army Chief. In 1785, Tilka Manjhi was hanged to death in Bhagalpur
1795-1800 Tamar revolt
1795-1800 Munda revolt under the leadership of Vishnu Manaki
1800-1802 Munda revolt under the stewardship of Dukhan Manaki of Tamar
1819-1820 Munda revolt in Palamu under the leadership of Bhukan Singh
1832-1833 Khewar revolt under the leadership of Bhagirath, Dubai Gosai and Patel Singh
1833-1834 Bhumji revolt under the leadership of Ganga Narain of Birbhum
1855 Santhals waged war against the permanent settlement of Lord Cornwallis
1855-1860 During late 1850s Sidhu had accumulated about ten thousands Santhal to run parallel government against British rule. The basic purpose was to collect taxes by making his own laws. British Government had announced an award of Rs. ten thousand to arrest Sidhu and his brother Kanhu

1856-1857 Martyr Sahid Lal, Vishwanath Shahdeo, Sheikh Bhikhari, Ganpatrai and Budhu Veer led a movement against the British Government during India’s First War of Independence, 1857, also called Sepoy Mutiny

1874 Kherwar Movement shot into fame under the leadership of Bhagirathi Manjhi
1895-1900 Movement against the British raj led by Birsa Munda (born 15th November, 1875). Birsa Munda was captured by British forces and declared dead on 9th June, 1900 in Ranchi Jail, due to Cholera, according to records of the British colonial government.

All above cited uprisings againt the British Raj and resistance of 18th and 19th centuries in the Indian state Jharkhand were quelled by the British through massive deployment of troops across the region.

In 1914 the Tana Bhagat resistance movement started, which gained the participation of more than 26,000 adivasis, and eventually merged with satyagraha and Mahatma Gandhi’s [civil disobedience] movement.