Although Santals rank among the most studied peoples of India, as a historical subject they remain inadequately explored. The existing historical works on Santals remain obsessed with the 1855 anti-colonial rebellion, popularly called Hul. Consequently, Santals have hitherto been understood largely through the lens of Hul and thus their popular image is one of ‘rebel’, of a ‘community of protest’. This paper argues for adding more ways to understand Santals as a historical subject and hence it chooses to explore the pre-Hul decades, a span that remains almost completely neglected in existing historiography on Santals. This period that narrates the story of the making of Santals into colonial subjects unravels to us a people who were creators of a habitat, a community that laboured unconditionally for five decades to build a region. The new lens not only provides a profounder context to understand Hul and the present-day marginalization of Santals, but it also helps us better appreciate the fact that these people, before choosing to be a rebel, were made into colonial subjects and in that role they remarkably contributed to the making of the region of Santhal Parganas.