What was Damin-i-Koh?
Damin-i-Koh was the land of Santhals situated in the Rajmahal hills. The British persuaded the Santhals to live in the foothills of Rajmahal by giving land to them. By 1832, a large part of the land was demarcated as Damin-i-Koh and was declared as the land of Santhals. They had to live in this region, practise plough agriculture and had to become settled agriculturalists. There was a stipulation in the certificate of land grants that the minimum of 1/10 of the total area had to be cleared and had to be cultivated within the first 10 years. The whole of this region was surveyed and mapped. This region was enclosed by boundary pillars. In this way, this region was separated from the world of settled agriculturists of plains and Paharias of the hills.
