PEASANTS MOVEMENT Flashcards
1
Q
What is social banditry?
A
Sometimes, the desperate peasants took to crime to come out of intolerable conditions. These crimes included robbery, dacoity and what has been called social banditry.
2
Q
Indigo Revolt (1859-60)?
A
- In Bengal, the indigo planters, nearly all Europeans, exploited the local peasants by forcing them to grow indigo on their lands instead of the more paying crops like rice.
- The anger of the peasants exploded in 1859 when, led by Digambar Biswas and Bishnu Biswas of Nadia district, they decided not to grow indigo under duress and resisted the physical pressure of the planters and their lathiyals (retainers) backed by police and the other courts. They also organised a counter force against the planters’ attacks.
- The ryots replied by going on a rent strike by refusing to pay the enhanced rents.
- The Bengali intelligentsia played a significant role by supporting the peasants.
- The Goverment appointed an indigo commission to inquire into the problem of indigo cultivation.
- Indigo cultivation was virtually wiped out from Bengal by the end of 1860.
3
Q
Pabna Agrarian Leagues?
A
- During 1870s and 1880s, large parts of the Eastern Bengal witnessed agrarian unrest caused by oppressive practices of the zamindars. The zamidars resorted to enhanced rents beyond legal limits and prevented the tenants from acquiring occupancy rights under Act X of 1859.
- Zamidars resorted to forcible evictions, seizure of cattle and crops and prolonged, costly litigation in courts where the poor peasant found himself at a disadvantage.
- Peasants of Yusufshahi Pargana in Patna district formed an agrarian league or combination to resist the demands of the zamidars.
- The league organised a rent strike— the ryots refused to pay the enchanted rents, challenging the zamidars in the courts.
- Main form of struggle was that of legal resistance; there was very little of violence.
- The government also promised to undertake legislation to protect the tenants from the worst aspects of zamidari oppression. In 1885, the Bengal Tenancy Act was passed.
4
Q
Young Indian intellectuals that supported the peasants’ cause in Pabna Agrarian League?
A
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and the Indian Association under Surendranath Banerjea.
5
Q
Deccan Riots?
A
- The ryots of Deccan region of western India suffered heavy taxation under the Ryotwari system.
- Moneylenders were mostly outsiders– Marwaris or Gujaratis.
- The conditions had worsened due to a crash in cotton prices after the end of the American Civil War in 1864, the Government’s decision to raise the land revenue by 50% in 1867 and a succession of bad harvests.
- In 1874, the growing tension between the moneylenders and the peasants resulted in a social boycott movement organized by the ryots against the “outsider” moneylenders.
- The ryots refused to buy from their shops. No peasants would cultivate their fields. The barbers, washerman, shoemakers would not serve them.
- The social boycott was transformed into agrarian riots with systematic attacks on the moneylenders.
- Deccan Agriculturalists Relief Act was passed in 1879.
6
Q
Change in Nature of Peasant Movements after 1857?
A
- Peasants emerged as the main force in agrarian movements, fighting directly for their own demands.
- The demands were centred almost wholly on economic issues.
- The movements were directed against the immediate enemies of the peasant-foreign planters and indigenous zamindars and moneylenders.
- The struggles were directed towards specific and limited objectives and redressal of particular grievances.
- Colonialism was not the target of these movements.
- It was not the objective of these movements to end the system of subordination or exploitation of the peasants.
- Territorial reach was limited.
- There was no continuity of struggle or long-term organisation.
- The peasants developed a strong awareness of their legal rights and asserted them in and outside the courts.
7
Q
The Kisan Sabha Movement?
A
- After the 1857 revolt, the Awadh taluqdars had got back their lands. This strengthened the hold of the taluqdars.
- Majority of the cultivators were subjected to high rents, summary evictions (bedakhli), illegal levies, renewal fees or nazrana.
- The First World War had hiked the conditions of the UP peasants.
- Mainly due to the efforts of the Home Rule activists, kisan sabhas were organised in UP.
- The United Provinces Kisan Sabha was set up in February 1918 by Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narayan Dwidedi. Madan Mohan Malaviya supported their efforts.
- Other prominent leaders were included Jhinguri Singh, Durgapal Singh and Baba Ramachandra.
- In June 1920, Baba Ramachandra urged Nehru to visit these villages.
- In October 1920, the Awadh Kisan Sabha came into existence because of differences in nationalist ranks. The Awadh Kisan Sabha asked the kisans to refuse to till bedakhli land, not to offer hari and begar (forms of unpaid labour), to boycott those who did not accept these conditions and to solve their disputes through panchayats.
- The movement declined soon, partly due to government repression and partly because of the passing of the Awadh Rent (Amendment) Act.
8
Q
The United Provinces Kisan Sabha was set up by?
A
The United Provinces Kisan Sabha was set up in February 1918 by Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narayan Dwidedi. Madan Mohan Malaviya supported their efforts.
- Other prominent leaders were included Jhinguri Singh, Durgapal Singh and Baba Ramachandra.
- In June 1920, Baba Ramachandra urged Nehru to visit these villages.
9
Q
Eka Movement?
A
- Towards the end of 1921, peasant discontent resurfaced in some northern districts of the United Provinces– Hardoi, Bharaich, Sitapur. The issues involved were:
(i) high rents— 50% higher than the recorded rates.
(ii) oppression of thikadars in charge of revenue collection.
(iii) practice of share rents. - The meetings of the Eka or the Unity Movement involved a symbolic religious ritual in which the assembled peasants vowed that they would
(i) pay only the recorded rent but would pay it on time
(ii) not leave when evicted
(iii) refused to do forced labour
(iv) give no help to criminals
(v) abide by panchayat decisions. - The grassroot leadership of the Eka Movement came from Madari Pasi and other low caste leaders, and many small zamidars.
- By March 1922, severe repression by authorities brought the movement to an end.
10
Q
Mappila revolt?
A
- The Mappilas were the Muslim tenants inhabiting the Malabar region where most of the landlords were Hindus.
- Their grievances centred around lack of security of tenure, high rents, renewal fees and other oppressive exactions.
- Mappila movement merged with the ongoing Khilafat agitation.
- The leaders of the Khilafat Non Cooperation Movement like Gandhi, Shaukat Ali and Maulana Azad addressed Mappila meetings. After the arrest of national leaders, the leadership passed into the hands of local Mappila leaders.
- Things took a turn for the worse in August 1921 when the arrest of a respected priest leader, Ali Musaliar, sparked off large scale riots.
- Initially, the symbols of British authority— courts, police stations, treasuries and offices— and unpopular landlords (jenmies who were mostly Hindus) were the targets.
- But once the British declared martial law and repression began in earnest, the character of the rebellion underwent a definite change.
- It later acquired communal overtones. The communalism of the rebellion completed the isolation of the Mappilas from the Khilafat Non Cooperation Movement. By December 1921, all resistance had come to a stop.
11
Q
Who were jenmies?
A
Jenmies— unpopular landlords (who were mostly Hindus) in Mappila revolt were the targets of the Mappilas.
12
Q
Bardoli Satyagraha?
A
- In Surat the movement sparked off in January 1926 when the authorities decided to increase the land revenue by 30 percent.
- A Bardoli Inquiry Committee was set up to go into the issue.
- February 1926, Vallabhbhai Patel was called to lead the movement.
- The women of Bardoli gave him the title of “Sardar”.
- Under Patel, the Bardoli peasants resolved to refuse payments of the revised assessment until the Government appointed an independent tribunal or accepted the current amount as full payment.
- To organize the movement, Patel set up 13 chhavanis or workers camps in the taluqa.
- Bardoli Satyagraha Patrika was brought out to mobilise public opinion.
- Lalji Naranji and K.M. Munshi resigned from the Bombay Legislative Council in support of the movement.
- By August 1928, massive tension had built up in the area. Then, a committee went into the whole affair and found the revenue hike to be unjustified and recommended a rise of 6.03 per cent only.
13
Q
What were chhavanis?
A
Chhavanis or workers camps. About 13 chavvanis were set up by Patel in the taluqas during the Bardoli Satyagraha.
14
Q
The All India Kisan Congress/Sabha?
A
- This Sabha was founded in Lucknow in April 1936 with Swami Sahjanand Saraswati as the president and N.G. Ranga as the general secretary.
- A Kisan manifesto was issued and a periodical under Indulal Yagnik started.
- The AIKS and the Congress held their sessions in Faizpur in 1936.
- The Congress manifesto (especially the agrarian policy) for the 1937 provincial elections was strongly influenced by the AIKS agenda.
15
Q
Karshak Sanghams (peasants organisations) were set up in?
A
- In the Malabar region (Kerela) many Karshak Sanghams (peasants organisations) came into existence.
- The most popular method was the marching of jaths or peasants groups to the landlords to get their demands accepted.
- One significant campaign by the peasants was in 1938 for the amendment of the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929.
