Major Peasant Movements (19th-20th Century)

1. Evolution & Character of Peasant Movements

Peasant movements in colonial India can be broadly divided into two phases:

Phase 1: 19th Century (Localized & Spontaneous):

• Primarily directed against immediate oppressors: Zamindars, Moneylenders, and European planters.
• They were localized, lacked a Pan-India leadership or ideology, and usually had specific, immediate economic grievances (e.g., evictions, high rents).
• They rarely questioned the legitimacy of British rule itself; often they appealed to British courts or the Queen for justice.

Phase 2: 20th Century (Nationalist & Organized):

• Emerged alongside the National Movement and Gandhi's mass mobilization.
• Formation of organized Kisan Sabhas (Peasant Councils).
• Directed against both Zamindars and the Colonial State.
• Heavily influenced by Leftist ideologies (Communism/Socialism) in the 1930s-40s.
• Sought fundamental restructuring of agrarian relations (e.g., land to the tiller, abolition of Zamindari).

2. Major Movements of the 19th Century

A. Indigo Revolt / Nil Bidroha (1859–1860, Bengal):

• Cause: European planters forced peasants (ryots) to grow indigo on their most fertile lands instead of food crops (rice), using fraudulent contracts and miserable prices. If peasants refused, planters used physical violence, kidnapping, and destruction of property.
• Events: Led by Digambar Biswas and Bishnu Biswas in Nadia district. Peasants refused to sow indigo, organized rent strikes, and physically resisted planters' lathiyals (armed retainers).
• Intelligentsia Support: Uniquely, the Bengali educated middle class actively supported the peasants. Harish Chandra Mukherjee wrote fiery articles in The Hindu Patriot. Dinabandhu Mitra wrote the highly influential play "Neel Darpan" (1860) depicting the planters' atrocities.
• Result: The government appointed an Indigo Commission (1860) which ruled that peasants could not be forced to grow indigo. By the end of 1860, indigo planters completely evacuated Bengal.

B. Pabna Agrarian Leagues (1873-1876, Eastern Bengal):

• Cause: Zamindars in the Yusufshahi Pargana illegally enhanced rents and engaged in large-scale evictions of tenants who had acquired occupancy rights under the Act of 1859.
• Events: Peasants formed an agrarian league to resist rent hikes. Resistance was mostly legal (fighting cases in courts) and non-violent, though some minor isolated violence occurred.
• Result: The movement succeeded in forcing the government to pass the Bengal Tenancy Act (1885), which protected tenants from arbitrary evictions.

C. Deccan Riots (1875, Maharashtra):

• Cause: The Ryotwari system demanded extremely high revenue. In the 1860s, a boom in Indian cotton (due to the US Civil War) evaporated, leaving peasants in acute debt to Marwari and Gujarati moneylenders. Moneylenders manipulated accounts and seized lands.
• Events: In Poona and Ahmednagar, peasants organized a social boycott of the moneylenders. They attacked moneylenders' houses, but uniquely, the violence was targeted ONLY at destroying the debt bonds and accounting books, not killing the moneylenders.
• Result: The British passed the Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act (1879), which provided some protection to peasants against complete ruin by moneylenders.

3. Major Movements of the 20th Century

A. Kisan Sabha Movement (1920s-1930s):

• UP Kisan Sabha (1918): Formed by Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narayan Dwivedi, supported by Madan Mohan Malaviya.
• Eka Movement (1921, Awadh): Led by Madari Pasi (a low-caste leader). It protested against high rent extraction (usually 50% higher than the recorded rent) and the practice of sharecropping. The movement involved taking a religious oath to pay only recorded rent.
• All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS, 1936): Founded at the Lucknow session of INC. Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was its first President, and N.G. Ranga the General Secretary. It published the Kisan Manifesto demanding abolition of Zamindari, reduction of land revenue, and institutional credit.

B. Mappila / Moplah Rebellion (1921, Malabar, Kerala):

• Cause: Mappilas were Muslim tenants working under upper-caste Hindu landlords (Jenmis) who were protected by the British. Tenants faced extreme insecurity of tenure and extortionate rents.
• Events: The movement merged with the ongoing Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements. Initially led by Khilafat leaders (Ali Musaliyar). However, when prominent leaders were arrested by the British, leadership fell to local radical elements, and the movement turned violently communal.
• Result: Hindu landlords were killed or forcibly converted. The British suppressed the rebellion with immense brutality (over 2000 Mappilas killed). The communalization permanently damaged the Hindu-Muslim unity of the Non-Cooperation Movement.

C. Bardoli Satyagraha (1928, Gujarat):

• Cause: The Bombay government arbitrarily increased the land revenue of Bardoli taluka by a massive 22% despite a poor harvest and falling cotton prices.
• Events: The peasants invited Vallabhbhai Patel to lead them. He organized the taluka meticulously with Chhavanis (camps), published the Bardoli Satyagraha Patrika, and mobilized women.
• Under Patel's leadership, peasants refused to pay taxes. The government confiscated land and cattle, but social boycott completely isolated government officials.
• Result: The government yielded, appointed the Maxwell-Broomfield commission, and the revenue hike was reduced to a mere 6.03%. Following this massive success, the women of Bardoli bestowed the title "Sardar" upon Vallabhbhai Patel.

4. Radical Peasant Movements on the Eve of Independence (1940s)

As Independence approached, peasant movements heavily influenced by the Communist Party of India became highly radical, demanding systemic structural change.

A. Tebhaga Movement (1946–1947, Bengal):

• Cause: Sharecroppers (Bargadars) traditionally gave half (1/2) of their produce to the landlords (Jotedars). However, the Floud Commission (1940) had recommended that sharecroppers should retain two-thirds and give only one-third (1/3) to the landlord.
• Meaning: "Tebhaga" literally means "three shares".
• Events: Led by the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha (Communists), sharecroppers refused to give 50% of the crop, and insisted on taking the harvested crop to their own threshing floors rather than the Jotedars'. The movement saw massive participation from Rajbanshi tribals, Namasudras, and Muslim peasants.
• Result: Brutally suppressed by the police, but the political impact eventually forced the post-independence government to pass laws protecting sharecroppers.

B. Telangana Armed Struggle (1946–1951, Hyderabad State):

• Cause: The princely state of Hyderabad under the Nizam was extremely oppressive. A feudal hierarchy of Deshmukhs and Jagirdars extracted forced labor (Vethi), demanded exorbitant rents, and illegally seized peasant lands.
• Events: Led by the Communist Party. It was an armed guerrilla struggle. Peasants organized village defense squads (Dalams), drove out landlords, cancelled debts, and redistributed over 1 million acres of land to the landless.
• The movement also fought the Nizam's private militia, the Razakars, and demanded the linguistic integration of Telugu-speaking areas.
• Result: When the Indian Army integrated Hyderabad through "Operation Polo" in 1948, the Communists continued the struggle against the Indian state for a while. The movement was a major catalyst for the abolition of the Jagirdari system in India and paved the way for the Bhoodan movement led by Vinoba Bhave.