Govind Guru and the Mangarh Massacre

In November 1913, a hill on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border filled with Bhil families. They had come to follow a teacher, not to fight a war.

Troops of the British and several princely states surrounded the hill. Oral tradition says over 1,500 people died there.

1Who was Govind Guru?

Picture a farm servant in a small village of Dungarpur State. His name at birth was Vinda, and he was born in 1858. His family were Banjaras.

He had little schooling. A village priest helped him learn to read. He worked as a hali, a servant tied to an estate.

Then came the famine of 1900. Reports say it took his wife and child. He moved to the neighbouring state of Sunth.

• Born in 1858 in Bansiya village, Dungarpur State.
• Birth name: Vinda.
• In Sunth he became a disciple of the monk Rajgiri.
• He took the name Govindgiri in his teacher’s honour.
• Around 1909 he returned to Dungarpur and settled at Vedsa village.

2What did he teach?

Back among his people, Govind Guru became a teacher. He met villagers whose lives were hard. He told them to change their daily habits.

He asked them to give up liquor. He asked them to leave crime behind and to farm. He also asked them to stop trusting superstition.

He gave them signs they could see. Each home kept a sacred fire and flew a flag. The group he built was called the Samp Sabha.

• The Samp Sabha taught monotheism, temperance and farming.
• Followers tended a dhuni and raised a nishan at home.
• The ritual style drew on the Dashanami Panth of the Shaivites.
• He is seen as a popular voice of the older Bhagat movement.
• He also criticised how upper castes treated women.
• Some accounts date the Sabha’s start earlier than 1909.

3Why did the rulers fear him?

A reform meeting can become something bigger. Govind Guru began to say why his people were poor. He pointed at princely rulers and jagirdars.

He taught that Bhils and Banjaras were the true owners of the land. He dreamed of a Bhil Raj in the hills of Sunth and Banswara.

Crowds grew in Sunth, Banswara, Dungarpur and the British Panch Mahals. The rulers grew uneasy. Liquor sales fell, and so did their income. Their authority felt shaken.

• He taught that hardship came from princes and jagirdars.
• He pictured a Bhil Raj, a revived Bhil kingdom.
• Rulers lost liquor revenue when followers gave up drink.
• Dungarpur arrested him in late 1912 or early 1913.
• The state held his wife and child, to force him to stop.
• He was freed in April 1913, untried, and told to leave Dungarpur.

4What happened on the hill?

Exiled and hunted, Govind Guru walked from village to village. Local rulers kept harassing him. The ruler of Idar tried to seize him.

His followers then took a defensive stand on Mangarh hill. It stands on the border of Banswara and Sunth.

Tension rose. On 31 October, followers raided a police outpost at Gadhran. One constable was killed, and another officer was taken captive. On 1 November they failed to take the Parbatgadh fort.

The rulers asked for British help. Troops closed in around the hill. On 12 November, the Bhils sent a list of grievances. No talks followed. They were told to disband by 15 November. They stayed.

On 17 November 1913 the troops attacked. Over 1,500 Bhils are said to have died. About 900 were taken prisoner.

• Location: Mangarh hill, on the Banswara-Sunth border.
• Forces: Imperial Service Troops, the British Indian Army and the Mewar Bhil Corps.
• Soldiers of Banswara, Dungarpur, Sunth and Baria also took part.
• Deaths: no exact count exists; oral tradition says 1,500.
• Captured: Govind Guru and his deputy Punja Dhirji.

5What came after Mangarh?

The prisoners faced a special tribunal on 2 February 1914. Govind Guru was sentenced to hang. On appeal, the sentence became life in prison.

His deputy got life as well, and was sent to the Andamans. The rest got short terms. Govind Guru did not serve his full term. He was freed from Hyderabad jail in 1919.

The release had strict conditions. He could not take part in politics. Several states closed their gates to him. He spent his last years at Kamboi, near Limbdi in Gujarat. He died on 30 October 1931.

• Tribunal date: 2 February 1914.
• First sentence: death. On appeal: life imprisonment.
• Released in 1919 on condition of staying out of politics.
• Memorials: the Govind Guru Samadhi Mandir at Kamboi.
• Two universities carry his name, at Godhra and Banswara.
• In November 2022, Mangarh Dham became a national monument.

6What are the exam traps?

Many students think Jallianwala Bagh was the only such killing of that age. Mangarh came six years earlier. Because it was so little noted at the time, people later called it the Adivasi Jallianwala Bagh.

• Mangarh was in 1913. Jallianwala Bagh was in 1919.
• The two events are six years apart, not two decades.
• It is also called the “Jallianwala Bagh of Vagad”.
• Govind Guru led the Samp Sabha. Motilal Tejawat led the later Eki Movement.
• Do not mix him up with Tantia Bhil, who fought as an outlaw.
• He was sentenced to hang, but he was never hanged.
• Read about Motilal Tejawat.
• Read about Tantia Bhil.
• Read about Tilka Manjhi.