Gunda Dhur and the 1910 Bastar Rebellion

Gunda Dhur, also spelled Gundadhur, led the 1910 Bastar Rebellion against British colonial rule, in present-day Chhattisgarh. Also called the Bhumkal (“earthquake”) Rebellion, it remains one of the largest tribal uprisings in Indian history. Gunda Dhur himself was never captured.

The Bhumkal Rebellion Need to Know

• Gunda Dhur was a tribal leader of the Dhurwa community, from Nethanar village in the Bastar region.
• He led the 1910 Bastar Rebellion, also called the Bhumkal Rebellion, against British colonial policies.
• British forest-reservation policy, begun in 1871, had barred tribal communities from their traditional forest livelihoods, and displaced many villages.
• Tribals also faced an exploitative land-tenancy system called thekadari, forced unpaid labour called begar, and exploitative outside moneylenders.
• In January 1910, organisers secretly circulated red chillies, mango branches, and clay bows and arrows, from village to village, to signal the coming uprising.
• The rebellion broke out on 6 February 1910. Tribals took control of most of Bastar within days.
• British troops entered Jagdalpur, the state capital, on 13 February 1910, and began suppressing the revolt.
• Gunda Dhur was never captured. British soldiers once surrounded him, but he escaped, and disappeared into the forests.

Organisers and Outside Help Good to Know

• Lal Karendra Singh, a former diwan and cousin of the Bastar king, secretly helped organise the revolt alongside Gunda Dhur.
• The rebellion also opposed British suppression of the tribal ghotul, a traditional community institution.
• The colonial government brought in extra troops, from neighbouring Jeypore and Bengal, to help suppress the uprising.
• Folk songs about Gunda Dhur’s bravery are still sung in the Kanker forest area of Chhattisgarh today.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Gunda Dhur led which 1910 tribal uprising against British rule, in present-day Chhattisgarh?

The Santhal Rebellion (Hul)

The Bastar Rebellion (Bhumkal)

The Kol Rebellion

The Munda Rebellion (Ulgulan)

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A Leader Never Found Great to Know

• On 10 February 2020, a statue of Gunda Dhur was unveiled at Kanker, Chhattisgarh, by then Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
• Exact details of Gunda Dhur’s later life, including the year of his death, are not clearly documented — a common gap for regional tribal leaders of his era.
• A security-camp-turned-community-centre at Netanar, his home village, is now named the Shaheed Veer Gundadhur Seva Dera Kendra.