Chuar rebellion or Chuar revolt, also known as Jungle Mahal movement was a series of peasant movements between 1771 and 1809 by the tribal inhabitants of the countryside surrounding the Jungle Mahals settlements of Dhalbhum, Midnapore, Bankura and Manbhum against the rule of the East India Company (EIC).

The literal meaning of Chuar or Chuad or Chuhad is a barbaric, an uncultured or a robber. During the British rule, Bhumijas of the Jungle Mahal area were called chuars (low caste people), their main occupation was hunting of animals and birds and farming in the forests, but later some Bhumij became zamindars and some started working as Ghatwals (feudal lords) and Paiks (soldiers). When the East India Company started collecting revenue for the first time in 1765 AD in the Jangal Mahal district of Bengal, then in this conspiratorial way of the British, the water, forest, land grab activities were first opposed by the people of Bhumij tribe and the revolution was blown against the British rulers in 1769 AD. When the British asked who these people were, their stoic landlords addressed them as Chuar (meaning rude or wicked in Bengali) out of hatred and contempt, after which the name of that rebellion was 'Chuar Rebellion'.

Before the end of 1770, it was officially recorded that one-third of the population had vanished. Depopulation became the greatest concern for the British East India Company. Despite the ongoing famine, the Company continued to pressure local rulers, including the weakened Rajas of Bishnupur and Birbhum, as well as the old zamindars (who had been responsible for tax collection during the Mughal era), to increase revenue.

In Birbhum alone, by 1771, only 4,500 out of 6,000 rural villages remained. Depopulation continued until 1785, and the lands of around 1,600 abandoned villages reverted to jungle. In Bishnupur, hundreds of villages were entirely deserted, and even in the larger towns, fewer than one-fourth of the houses remained occupied. Among the worst affected areas in Bengal were Purnia and Bishnupur, both of which suffered immensely from the famine.

The Company’s revenue demand for 1768-69 was set at £1,524,567, and the actual receipts exceeded that amount. However, by 1770, the receipts had drastically dropped to just £65,355, even though the demand remained at £1,380,269. Despite a good harvest in 1771, vast areas of cultivable land were left unused. By 1772, Warren Hastings estimated that one-third of the population had perished by that time.

In 1767, the tribal revolt started in Dhalbhum and Barabhum and later spread to Manbhum, Midnapore and Bankura districts of Jungle Mahal. Jagannath Singh Patar at Dhalbhum, Subal Singh at Kuilapal and Shyam Gunjam Singh at Dhadka led this rebellion in 1767-71. The Chuar people intensified this rebellion in the surrounding areas of Manbhum, Raipur and Panchet. In 1782-85, Mangal Singh along with his allies also led this rebellion. The Chuar Rebellion was at its peak in 1798–99 under the leadership of Durjan Singh, Lal Singh and Mohan Singh, but was crushed by the British Company's forces.

In early 1799, the Chuars were organized at three places around Midnapore: Bahadurpur, Salboni and Karnagarh. From here they launched guerrilla attacks. Among these was the residence of Rani Shiromani in Karnagarh, who actively led them. According to the letter written by the then collector, the Chuar rebellion continued to grow and by February 1799, they had occupied a continuous wide area of many villages around Midnapore. In March, Rani attacked with about 300 rebels and looted all the weapons of the Company's soldiers in the garh (local fort) of Karangarh. This sequence of attacks and plunder continued till December 1799. It was later led by Jagannath Patar's son Baidyanath Singh and grandson Raghunath Singh. Later, other zamindars, along with the Ghatwals and Paiks, spread this revolt to the entire Jungle Mahal and the surrounding areas, which lasted till 1809. Even after this, the rebellion continued in some areas of Bengal in a sporadic form.

In 1832–33, again the Chuars of Barabhum, Manbhum, Dhalbhum, Raipur and Midnapore parganas started revolting against the East India Company, under the leadership of Ganga Narayan Singh.

By Regulation XIII of 1833, the district of Jungle Mahals was broken up. The estates of Senpahari, Shergarh and Bishnupur were transferred to Burdwan District and the remainder constituted the Manbhum District.

Sr.	Leaders	zamindars	Years	Outcome	Ref.
1	Jagannath Singh Patar	Dhalbhum	1767-1771
2	Subal Singh	Kuilapal	1767-1771
3	Shyam Ganjam Singh	Dhadka	1767-1771
4	Mangal Singh	Panchet	1782-1785
5	Durjan Singh	Raipur	1798-1799
6	Lal Singh		1798–1799
7	Mohan Singh	Juriah	1798–1799
8	Rani Shiromani (lady)	Karnagarh	1799-1812	Died in jail
9	Madhav Singha Dev	Bishnupur	1801–1809	Died in jail
10	Ganga Narayan Singh	Barabhum	1832–1833	Died in jail
11	Lakshman Singh	Barabhum
12	Baidyanath Singh	Dhalbhum
13	Raghunath Singh	Dhalbhum
14	Madhu Singh	Manbhum
15	Sunder Narayan Singh
16	Fateh Singh

Above list of rebellion at different times.

• Bhumij rebellion
• History of Bengal
• History of Jharkhand

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• Sengupta, Amrita (January 2020). "Adivasi resistance in the Jungle Mahals 1767–1799" (PDF). NSOU-Open Journal. 3 (1). ISSN 2581-5415.
• Bhattacharya, Supta; Bhattacharya, Ananda (1–19 August 2021). "The Adivasi Resistance in Jungle Mahal: A Case Study of Chuar Rebellion" (PDF). Journal of Adivasi and Indigenous Studies. XI (2). ISSN 2394-5524. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2022.