Born: 11 February 1750
Died: 1785
Shri Tilka Manjhi was born Jabra Pahadia, on 11 February 1750 in a village called Tilakpur in Sultanganj, (now Bihar) into a Santhal family to Sundara Murmu. He got the name Tilka Manjhi by the company, wherein the Pahadia language “Tilka” means a person with angry red eyes and “Manjhi” to address the village’s head. Even Europeans called him as gusail (angry) Manjhi and a dreaded dacoit. Tilka was the first Adivasi leader who mounted arms against the British during 1784, which was around 70 years prior to Mangal Pandey.
Since childhood, Tilka lived in the shadow of the forest and chased wild animals. Wildlife made him fearless and brave. At an early age, Tilka observed the devastation of the forests and his people going through severe torture at the hands of the zamindars. These experiences would notify his attitude to the European politicians, who would join in the pillage and the torment.
Slowly, Tilka began to oppose these domineering groups and raised his voice against them. Tilka Manjhi used to address local people in meetings at Bhagalpur to infuse national essence. He used to inspire people to unite and rise over and above caste and religion and thus, began his war against injustice and slavery.
Finally, the day came when Tilka launched an open rebellion against the British, in which he assembled the Adivasis to form an armed group to fight against the resource grabbing and exploitation of the Europeans. They would be at war with the European army for years. Tilka looted the treasury of the Company and distributed it among the poor and needy during 1770 when people in the Santhal region were dying of hunger due to a severe famine.

This noble act of Tilka inspired many other tribes and they joined the rebellion. With this, his “Santhal Hool ” or The Revolt of the Santhals begins. He carried on to attack the British and their cringing allies. During 1771-1784, Tilka did not let the outsiders sleep peacefully, and never surrendered. By the time, the Santhal opposition to the Company rule turned fiercer and attacked several times the Company forces chased many times, but could not catch him. Once a person from his own community betrayed Tilka to the Company forces and encountered a sudden attack. He somehow took shelter in the mountains and carried on his attacks on the Company army.
In 1784, he was finally caught, tied to the tail of a horse, and drawn to the collector’s apartment where his scratched body was hung from a Banyan tree. After independence, a statue of him was assembled at the spot where he was hanged. Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University was also renamed after him.
While history does not concede Tilka Manjhi’s role in repulsing the European Colonialists, a famous Bengali writer Mahashweta Devi wrote a novel on his biography (life and rebellion) and that’s how his name figures in literature. Similarly Rakesh Kumar Singh a Hindi novelist has narrated the struggle of Tilka Manjhi against Europeans in “Hool Pahadiya” (novel).
He was our Spartacus along with the Pahadia Adivasis in the battle of independence against European Colonialists.