Chaibasa

Chaibasa, now the headquarters of West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, has a history deeply rooted in the tribal heartland of eastern India. The region has long been home to Ho, Munda and other Adivasi communities, who lived in forest villages, practicing shifting cultivation, hunting, gathering forest produce and later small-scale settled farming. Before the British arrived, the wider Singhbhum area was ruled by local rajas and manjhis (tribal chiefs), with power centred in forts like Porahat, while Chaibasa functioned mainly as a village-market zone in the forested plateau.

In the 19th century, during British expansion, Singhbhum came under colonial control after several local uprisings and resistance movements, including tribal participation in broader rebellions. Chaibasa gradually emerged as an administrative station because of its central location and road connections. The British set up offices, courts and basic infrastructure here, turning it into the main town of the Kolhan area while still surrounded by predominantly tribal countryside.

After Independence, Chaibasa remained district HQ (later of West Singhbhum after reorganisation). Mining of iron ore and other minerals grew in the wider district, while Chaibasa developed as a service, education and market town for tribal villages and mining settlements. Today, its identity combines government and commercial functions with a strong Adivasi cultural presence, weekly haats and nearby forested landscapes.