2-969-872 - /Heritage Images

Seedhoo Manghee, Chief of the Santhal Rebels - sketched from life, 1856. 'The Portrait of Seedhoo Manghee, the chief and miserable origin of the insurrection, was taken whilst he was in prison at Bhangulpoor, immediately after his capture. He is a short, thin, active little fellow, very unlike a Santhal in appearance. He exulted over his performances, and spoke unreservedly about all he had done. He gloried in the orders he had given for numerous executions of Zemindars, police officials, and others; in the numerous villages he had plundered and then burnt, and in the general devastation and misery he had caused; he declared that he was now a great man...'. The Santhal rebellion took place in present-day Jharkhand and West Bengal, and was an uprising by the Santhal people against both the British East India Company and the zamindari system. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.