Chaibasa

Chaibasa street scenes

Chaibasa is the local district capital and administrative headqarters of the Kolhan Tribal Estate. The town was greatly enlarged after the British Captain Wilkinson suppressed the Ho tribal uprising in 1837. A courthouse and a prison were built, and it was the residence of the Kolhan Superintendent, a British colonial officer, who became the governor of this tribal area. It was excluded from the regulations of what was then the Southern Frontier Agency, when the East India Company dominated India from its capital at Calcutta.

Ho tribals washing clothes in the Roro River, just north of Chaibasa town.

A derelict British Morris car outside the courthouse in Chaibasa.

A Ho tribal drinking tea outside the ‘katchari’ courthouse in Chaibasa.

Buffaloes wallowing in the Roro river, and sand being extracted west of Chaibasa for further building work in this expanding town.

Ho tribal labourers transporting earth to build a new dam for an irrigation project near Chaibasa town.

An amusing street sign for ‘Air O Voice Undertaking Radio Dacoration’ in Chaibasa.

Bamboo scaffolding at a construction site in Chaibasa. The nearby forests have extensive bamboo groves.

The large house of the wealthy Rungta family, the owners of many private mining companies near Chaibasa. They are also philanthropists supporting many tribal charities.

A Hindu shoe-shine man making money from his roadside repair and ‘boot polish’ stall in Chaibasa's main street.

Chaibasa's shop-lined main street in 1973, in the days when there were few cars and most people went on foot or bicycled.

A student march through the Tungri suburb of Chaibasa heading for the Deputy Commissioner’s office demanding better facilities in 1973.

Our favourite vegetable seller on the high street of Chaibasa in 1973.

A vegetable seller on Chaibasa high street shooing a cow away from eating his vegetables in 1973.

Our favourite tomato seller on Chaibasa high street.

The sleeping policeman guarding the Chaibasa courthouse.

Valerie Yorke, my partner, buying vegetables in Chaibasa high street.

A street scene on the dirt road out of Chaibasa town centre towards Tungri. Note the number of Ho tribal women selling various produce beside the road.

A freelance typist preparing petitions for the public to be submitted to the District Collector in the Chaibasa courthouse.

A flower seller hawking his wares in Chaibasa high street.

A boy washing tea cups outside a tea and sweetmeat shop in Chaibasa high street.

Lawyers outside the courthouse, 'kachari', in Tungri, Chaibasa, near the District Collector's bungalow.

Valerie Yorke, my partner, walking home down a side street in Chaibasa.

A tribal lady, who has just delivered a pile of brushwood for the kitchen of a Hindu household. Many tribals earn a few rupees by collecting firewood from the forests near their villages.

A street side tea stall in Chaibasa on the road to Tungri.

Michael Yorke walking into central Chaibasa on the road from Tungri.

The 'Variety Stores' shop sign in Chaibasa, advertising new year cards, sports goods, and mechanics.

A cotton fibre seller who can restuff your pillows or mattresses in Chaibasa.

An umbrella repair shop in Chaibasa. They are essential for monsoon rain and shade in the summer heat.

Ho tribals bring illegally cut timber from reserved forests to sell to dealers of cooking firewood in Chaibasa.

A recent Hindu temple in the northern outskirts of Chaibasa in 1973.

A seller of cooking firewood. He buys illegally harvested timber from Ho tribals and sells it to the Hindu residents of Chaibasa.

My partner Valerie sitting outside our favourite tea and sweetmeat ‘pera’ shop in Chaibasa.

Chaibasa high street in the centre of town in 1973.

A fruit seller with mangos, apples, oranges, bananas, tamarinds and garlic in Chaibasa high street.

Chaibasa high street in the centre of town. Note the multitude of bicycles in 1973.

Chaibasa high street scene in the centre of town in 1973.

Time Service, Watch Repair shopsign in Chaibasa high street.

Valerie, my partner, buying bananas from our favourite banana seller in Chaibasa high street in 1973. We discovered that he sold them to us for a reduced price, so he could advertise that he sold them to the only foreigners in town.

Tribal shoe shine boys outside the Chaibasa courthouse.

Chaibasa weekly market

Just opposite the well known Chaibasa Prison, and opposite the bus station, is the large weekly market place. Here the nearby Ho tribals come to buy and sell everything that they need. It is the hub of all the local news, gossip and politics.

Tungri, our house

When we first arrived in Chaibasa to do research on the Ho people, we lived in this house in Tungri, then a suburb of Chaibasa that led to the old British cantonment area of the District Collector’s bungalow and the ‘Katchari‘, the law courts. During this early period we were working hard to learn the Ho language and study the colonial records and gazetteers of the Kolhan Government Estate.

Taunk’s house in European Quarters

Later we rented a small house from Hirji Nanji Taunk, a local businessman, producer and purveyor of what he claimed was medicinal tribal hair oil. We used his house to retreat from the tribal village that had no electricity and running water. Also in Chaibasa we could consult the government records, meet the administrators and the Kolhan Superintendent, in charge of all tribal affairs under the colonial regulations of the Kolhan Tribal Estate, the nearby Jesuit missionaries, especially Father Deeney, whose deep knowledge of the Ho and their language, was essential to our research.

Chaibasa Missionaries

Since the British made the Kolhan a special tribal district, it attracted a wide range of European missionaries. They wanted to convert the tribal people to Christianity. Among them were the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), the Gossner Mission, The Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS), and most importantly the Jesuit Mission in Chaibasa and Lupungutu. The Jesuit’s form of Christianity was uniquely syncretic with God being translated as ‘Singbonga‘, the Ho deity of creation. Many Ho living near Chaibasa had become Roman Catholics. They benefitted from the Jesuit schools, training schemes, banks and associated medical facilities.