Peasant Movements

Notes

Peasants revolted against high revenue, rack-renting, indebtedness, forced cultivation (indigo) and eviction. The movements moved from local, spontaneous uprisings to organised, Congress- and Kisan Sabha-led movements.

Before 1900

Faraizi Movement (1830s-40s, Bengal): Haji Shariatullah and Dudu Miyan; against zamindars' illegal cesses and indigo planters.
Titu Mir (Barasat revolt, 1831): Wahabi-inspired, against Hindu landlords and indigo planters; Titu Mir was killed.
Moplah (Mappila) Rebellions (1836-1921): Malabar, tenants against Hindu jenmis (landlords), with a religious tone; the 1921 revolt merged with the Khilafat agitation; the Wagon Tragedy (1921).
Indigo Revolt (1859-60): Bengal; Digambar Biswas and Bishnucharan Biswas; supported by the press (Harish Chandra Mukherjee's Hindoo Patriot) and Dinabandhu Mitra's play Neel Darpan (1860). The Indigo Commission (1860) was appointed.
Pabna Agrarian Leagues (1873-76): Bengal; Ishan Chandra Roy; a legal, non-violent resistance to rent increases; the Bengal Tenancy Act (1885) followed.
Deccan Riots (1875): Poona and Ahmednagar, against Marwari and Gujarati moneylenders; the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act (1879).
Kuka (Namdhari) Movement: Punjab, Baba Ram Singh.

1900-1947

Champaran Satyagraha (1917): Bihar; Gandhi's first in India, at the call of Rajkumar Shukla, against the Tinkathia system (three of every 20 kathas planted with indigo); Champaran Agrarian Act (1918).
Kheda Satyagraha (1918): Gujarat; Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel; non-payment of revenue after crop failure.
Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920) (Baba Ramchandra, with Nehru) and the Eka Movement (1921-22, Awadh) (Madari Pasi) against high rents.
Bardoli Satyagraha (1928): Gujarat; Vallabhbhai Patel (earned the title "Sardar"); against a revenue hike; the Broomfield-Maxwell inquiry.
Bihar Kisan Sabha (1929) and All India Kisan Sabha (April 1936, Lucknow); president Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, general secretary N.G. Ranga. The Faizpur session (1936) of the Congress adopted an agrarian programme.
Tebhaga Movement (1946-47, Bengal): sharecroppers demanded two-thirds of the crop; led by the Kisan Sabha (Ila Mitra).
Telangana Movement (1946-51): Hyderabad; against the Nizam's jagirdars and deshmukhs; led by Communists. Punnapra-Vayalar (1946, Travancore) and the Warli revolt (1945-47) also occurred.

Features: mainly economic demands, local leadership, repression by the State; later linked to the national movement.

Key Points

Indigo Revolt (1859-60); Neel Darpan by Dinabandhu Mitra.
Deccan Riots (1875) and the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act (1879).
Champaran (1917), Kheda (1918), Bardoli (1928).
All India Kisan Sabha (1936): Sahajanand Saraswati.
Tebhaga (1946) and Telangana (1946-51).

MCQs

Q1. The play Neel Darpan was written by: (a) Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (b) Dinabandhu Mitra (c) Harish Chandra Mukherjee (d) Rabindranath Tagore Ans: (b). 1860.

Q2. Gandhi's first satyagraha in India was at: (a) Kheda (b) Champaran (c) Bardoli (d) Ahmedabad Ans: (b). 1917.

Q3. The All India Kisan Sabha was formed in 1936 at Lucknow with president: (a) Swami Sahajanand Saraswati (b) N.G. Ranga (c) Baba Ramchandra (d) Vallabhbhai Patel Ans: (a).