With reference to the history of India, “Ulgulan” or the Great Tumult is the description of which of the following events?

Birsa Munda's movement is remembered as Ulgulan, the Great Tumult. Birsa, from the Munda community of Chotanagpur, led the rising of 1899-1900 against the British and against land encroachments by outsiders, moneylenders and landlords that eroded the khuntkatti rights of tribal families. His followers were called Birsaites, and the movement combined agrarian grievance with a social and religious reform call against witchcraft beliefs and liquor.

Why the others are wrong:

• A) Revolt of 1857 was the great uprising against the East India Company, centred on the Gangetic plain with sepoys and rulers such as the Rani of Jhansi. It is not known by this term.
• B) Mappila Rebellion of 1921 happened in Malabar among Mappila tenants against landlords and the colonial state. It is known by its own name, not Ulgulan.
• C) Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 in Bengal was a peasant refusal to grow indigo under the planter system. It is a peasant protest, not a tribal uprising led by Birsa.

Core concept: tribal resistance and land alienation under colonial rule. It links to the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908 and to Mains questions on tribal rights and the Fifth Schedule. Note that 15 November was declared Janjatiya Gaurav Divas in 2021, marking Birsa's birth anniversary, which is useful recent context.

Trap: aspirants who associate any big anti-British revolt with 1857, or who group the Indigo and Mappila movements with tribal uprisings because all were anti-colonial protests, end up picking A, B or C.