The Kol people is a generic name for the Munda, Ho, and Oraon tribes (Adivasi) of eastern India who live in the states of Jharkhand, Orissa, and West Bengal, and spread over into parts of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

Munda

The Mundas are an aboriginal tribe of Austro-Asiatic physical type. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition noted that in 1901 they inhabited the Chota Nagpur Division (a former administrative division of British India), and numbered 438,000. The majority of the Kol people consider themselves to be Hindus with a syncretic admixture of original animistic beliefs. Christianity is also practiced by some. The village community in its ancient form still exists among the Mundas; the discontent due to the oppression of their landlords led to the Munda rising of 1899, and to the remedy of the alleged grievances by a new settlement of the district.

Ho

The Hos are closely akin to the Mundas. In 1901 they also inhabited the Chota Nagpur Division and numbered 386,000. Also known as the Laraka (or fighters) Kols, they successfully defended their territory against all comers until they were invaded by the British in the early part of the 19th century. Like the Mundas, they are animists. Both Mundas and Hos speak dialects of the linguistic family known as Munda, Mundari, Kol, or Kolarian. The Ho specifically speak the Ho language.

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