The history of Santals has been preserved and passed on over the generations by the words of mouth until the Europeans took interest in them and started writing about them. Most of the initial writings were done by hearing from the elders of Santals and translating them. Some Indian writers had written about them as well but only by hearing from others. All of them had their own perspective as they felt appropriate. I have been looking for an authentic book about Santals written by Santals themselves who were born and brought up with them in their villages and hamlets for a long time but was unable to find one. So I decided to write myself after doing some reading of materials written by different people mainly Europeans and some Indian authors. My little book is no different except I am a Santal myself, born and brought up in a santal village and learnt about our belief of creation, customs, traditions, culture, and legends passed on orally by the elders of the villages to the younger generations during regular worship at the various festivals and other special occasions. They are basically a repetition of the same starting from the creation of the earth to the birth of human beings, growing up, marriage, procreation and death and migration. I have lived through them and have managed to come out of this darkness according to Dr W.G Archert I.C.S one of the last deputy Commissioners of Dumka towards the fag end of British Raj and author of many books on Santals including Tribal Law and Justice and managed to reach United Kingdom several years ago. So I have tried to put our history into perspective from my life long experience and readings of different books and hope you find this helpful to understand the real history of Santals.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Santal Folk Tales" by A. of the Santal mission Campbell. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Book Affirms That The Creation Narratives Or Traditions Of All People In This Vast World Are An Attempt To Describe The Creator-Creation Relationship. To Ask Questions Like, Which Creation Narrative Gives Authentic Details In Order And Content Is Theologically An Irrelevant Question.

The essays in this volume bring together historians and anthropologists to reflect on the place of history within present-day conditions. The central focus here is on aspects of the popular, on the ways in which the popular relates to the scientific, the professional, the aesthetic, the religious, the legal and the political. These essays represent a critique of the disciplinary practices of history. They examine the historian's practices and assumptions, being mainly concerned with finding a set of practices of history-writing that are both truthful and ethical. They are united by the desire to find a way out of the self-constructed cage of scientific history that has made historians wary of the popular. In his introduction, Partha Chatterjee spells out some of the requirements for this new analysis of the popular. He stresses the fact that in contemporary industrializing societies the popular should not be taken to be a homogeneous mass. On the contrary, he states, an awareness of the variety and innovativeness of the contemporary popular could rejuvenate academic historiography.

The book presents a new interpretation of the Santal Rebellion, the Hul 1855–1856, drawing on the colonial sources as well as Santal memories. It offers a critique of postcolonial approaches that overlook specifically tribal perspectives and see the Hul as a class-based peasant rebellion. The author analyses the Hul and its participants—the Santals and their opponents, both the colonial administration and the Bengalis. He also looks at the attempts of the Hul’s leaders, Sido and Kạnhu to reform the Santal religion. Offering a new, respectful reading of the Hul’s religious legitimation, the book argues that changes in Santal religion and ethics were responses to the colonial regime’s new and aggressive economic order. The Hul’s leaders, Sido and Kạnhu, demanded the introduction of just laws based on the universal principle of equality. This historical approach leads to a call for the inclusion of the voice of tribal and Adivasi minorities when formulating politics for their development in the 21st century. The book is relevant for researchers and students of social history, social reform, tribal and indigenous studies, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.