Peasant Uprisings in India

• 12 Jul 2024

For Prelims: Land Revenue Settlements, Absentee Landlordism, Sanyasi Rebellion, Rangpur Peasant Uprising, Mysore Rebellion, Faraizi Movement, Wahabi Movement, Indigo Rebellion, Deccan Riots, Pabna Movement, Champaran Movement, Kheda Satyagraha, Eka Movement, Mopla Rebellion, Bardoli Satyagraha, All India Kisan Sabha, Tebhaga Movement, Telangana Movement, Bengal famine, East India Company, Communist Party of India, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Civil Disobedience Movement, satyagraha, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha

For Mains: Role of peasant community in struggle against colonial exploitation.

Who are the Peasants?

• It broadly represents a vast mass of landless agricultural laborers, sharecroppers, tenants, poor artisans and small and marginal farmers.
• They personally cultivated the land.
• They are socially and economically marginalized, culturally subjugated and politically dis-empowered social groups.

Why the Peasants Revolted?

• Reasons for tribal revolt included:
  • Destruction of Indian Handloom and Handicraft Industries: It led to migration of large scale workers from industry to agriculture.  
  • British Land Revenue Settlements: Heavy burden of new taxes made the peasants completely dependent on the mercy of the revenue intermediaries and officials.
  • Encroachment on Tribal Lands: Expansion of British revenue administration over tribal territories led to the loss of tribal people's hold over agricultural and forest land.
  • Intermediary Revenue Collectors: Rising tenants and moneylenders, corrupt practices and harsh attitude of the tax collecting officials further aggravated the problem.
  • Indebtedness: Peasants borrowed money from the moneylenders to pay land revenue. The impoverished peasants could never pay back this borrowed money.
  • Absentee Landlordism: The British auctioned confiscated land to the highest bidder, who often came from the urban areas. The new zamindars from the city had little or no interest in the land. They did not invest money in seeds or fertilizers to improve the fertility of the land but only cared to collect as much revenue as they could.
  • Institutional Exploitation: British law and judiciary did not aid the peasantry. It safeguarded the interest of the government and its collaborators i.e., landlords, merchants and money-lenders.
• The simmering discontent of the peasants broke out into popular uprisings in different parts of India at different points of time.

What are the Important Peasant Uprisings?

• Sanyasi Rebellion (1763-1800) 
  • The Sanyasis and Fakirs were religious mendicants. Originally they were peasants.
  • Growing hardship of the peasantry, increasing revenue demand and the Bengal famine of 1770 brought a large number of dispossessed small Zamindars, disbanded soldiers and rural poor into the bands of Sanyasis and Fakirs.
  • They moved around different parts of Bengal and Bihar in bands of 5 to 7 thousand and adopted the guerilla technique of attack.
    • Their target of attack was the grain stocks of the rich and at later stage, government officials.
  • They established an independent government in Bogra and Mymensingh.
  • One noticeable feature of these insurrections was the equal participation of Hindus and Muslims in it.
  •  Some of the important leaders of these movements were Manju Shah, Musa Shah, Bhawani Pathak and Debi Chaudhurani. 
  • In 1872, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay published Anandamath, a historical novel set in the background of the Sanyasi Rebellion.
• Rangpur Peasant Uprising (1783):
  • Rangpur and Dinajpur were two of the districts of Bengal which faced all kinds of illegal demands by the East India Company and its revenue contractors. 
  • Debi Singh (revenue contractor) and his men used to beat and flog the peasants, burn their houses and destroy their crops and not even women were spared. 
  • The rebel peasants gathered a large number of peasants, armed with swords, shields, bows and arrows.
    • They elected Dirjinarain as their leader and attacked the local cutcheries and store houses of crops of contractors and government officials.
  • The rebels stopped payments of revenue and levied “insurrection charges” to meet the expenses of the rebellion. 
  • Both Hindus and Muslims fought side by side in the insurrection.
• Mysore Rebellion (1830-31): 
  • The financial pressure from the company on the Mysore ruler compelled him to increase revenue demands from the Zamindars. 
  • The growing discontent of the peasants broke out into an open revolt in the province of Nagar.
    • The rebel peasants found their leader in Sardar Malla, the son of a common ryot of Kremsi.
• Faraizi Movement (1838-1848):
  • The Faraizi sect was founded by Haji Shariatullah of Faridpur. 
  • The Faraizis under Dudu Miyan, the son of the founder of the sect, became united as a religious sect with an egalitarian ideology.
    • He preached that all men are equal and land belongs to god and no one has the right to levy tax on it.
  • They raided the Zamindars' houses and cutcheries and burnt the indigo factory at Panchchar.
• Wahabi Movement (1830’s-1860’s): 
  • The leader of the movement was Syed Ahmed Barelvi of Rae Bareilly who was greatly influenced by the teachings of Abdul Wahab of Arabia and Shah Waliullah, a Delhi saint.
  • The movement was primarily religious in its origin but it soon assumed the character of a class struggle in some places, especially in Bengal.
    • It united peasants against their landlords.
• Indigo Rebellion (1859-1862):
  • Heavy pressure was put on the zamindars and peasants to pay high taxes and grow commercial crops.
    • One such commercial crop was Indigo.
    • The cultivation of indigo was determined by the needs of the English cloth markets.
  • The peasants launched a movement for non cultivation of indigo in Bengal. 
  • They were supported by the press and the missionaries.
    • Harish Chandra Mukherjee described the plight of peasants of Bengal in his newspaper “The Hindu Patriot”.
    • Dinabandhu Mitra, in his play “Nil Darpan” depicted the treatment of the Indian peasantry by the indigo planters. 
  • The government passed orders in November 1860, notifying that it was illegal to force the raiyats to cultivate indigo. This marked the victory for the rebels. 
• Deccan Riots (1875):
  • The British administration had systematically ruined agriculture coupled with exaggerated revenue demands and maladministration.
  • Causes:
    
    • During the American Civil War (1861-1865), most peasants had switched to cotton farming, attracted by the high prices, but the prices crashed dramatically when the war concluded, and supply of Cotton resumed from America.
    • The situation was made worse by a series of bad harvests over the next several years. 
      • It was during this period of crisis that the British administration suddenly raised land revenue by over 50%.
  • It began spontaneously on 12th May 1875, in Supa, located in Pune. 
    • Peasants launched attacks on the moneylenders and destroyed the debt contracts and bonds.
  • Organizations such as the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha supported the peasantry and campaigned actively for relief to the struggling agriculturalists.
  • The Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act, 1879 was passed to extend protection to peasants against the moneylenders.  
• Pabna Movement (1873-1885):
  • It was a resistance movement against the oppression of the zamindars in the Yusufshahi pargana of Bengal.
  • Bengal Rent Act, 1859 allowed the zamindars to enhance rent only on three specific grounds but zamindars routinely collected money from the peasants by the illegal means of forced levy, abwabs (cesses) and so on.
  • The peasants organized a no-rent union and launched armed attacks on the zamindars and their agents.
  • The Pabna Raiyats' League came into existence in May 1873. 
    • It raised funds to mitigate litigation expenses, held mass meetings. 
    • One of the leaders of the League was Ishan Chandra Roy (Ishan Raja).
      • Koodi Molla and Shambhu Nath Pal were prominent among his followers. 
      • They even set up a 'rebel army' to fight the zamindari lathials (clubmen). 
• Champaran Movement (1917):
  • Farmers in the Champaran region of Bihar were forced to produce indigo on 3/20 part of the entire land area (Tinkathia system) leaving them in great distress.
    • They were unable to grow the food they needed, nor were they paid enough for indigo, further adding to their misery.
    • Also, they were forced to give up the best part of their land to plant specific crops according to the wishes of the landlord.
  • Mahatma Gandhi had arrived at Champaran on the request of Raj Kumar Shukla.
  • Champaran Satyagraha was the first civil disobedience movement which was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1917. 
    • It is widely regarded as the place where Gandhi made his first experiments in satyagraha and then replicated them elsewhere .
  • Mahatma Gandhi involved many eminent personalities such as Brajkishore Prasad, Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Ramnavmi Prasad and others including J. B. Kripalani for the cause.
  • Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918 was passed which led to the abolition of the tinkathia system of plantation.
• Kheda Satyagraha (1918):
  • A bad harvest in 1917-18, coinciding with the price surge of essentials, was the immediate backdrop to the agitation. 
  • The peasants had demanded remission of revenue for the year to reduce their sufferings, but the colonial government paid no heed to their concerns.
  • In response, local leaders like Mohanlal Pandya took the initiative for the no-revenue movement in November 1917.
  • Through the Gujarat Sabha, a political body at the front line of this movement, the satyagrahis reached out to Gandhiji to take up their leadership. 
    • Gandhiji was accompanied by Sardar Patel, Ansuyaben Sarabhai, Miraben, Anandibai, Maniben Patel (Sardar Patel's daughter), and Kasturba Gandhi. 
  • The satyagraha was concluded on a quid-pro-quo agreement that if the well-to-do peasants paid up, the poor would be permitted not to pay, and all the confiscated properties would be returned. 
• Eka Movement (1921-1922):
  • Peasants were forced to give more rent than the stipulated rent. They were oppressed by revenue collectors. 
  • Under this movement, peasants refused to pay more than the recorded rent and renewal fees called Nazrana. They also decided to not do any forced labor.
  • It was led by Madari Pasi.
• Moplah Rebellion (1836-1921):
  • Moplah Rebellion was a series of riots by the Moplah muslims of Malabar, Kerala in the 19th century and the early 20th century (1836-1921) against mainly Hindus landlords and the state. 
    • The Moplah Rebellion of 1921 is often considered its culmination point.
  • Moplahs are the descendants of the Arab settlers and converted Hindus.
    • Majority of them were cultivating tenants, landless laborers, petty traders and fishermen.
  • The British occupation of Malabar led to the transfer of “Janmi” from that of traditional partnership with the Moplah to that of an independent owner of land.
    • Janmis were owners of land that was passed from one generation to the other.
  • The Moplahs revolted against the British and landlords due to over-assessment, illegal taxes, eviction from their land, and the hostile attitude of government officials. 
• Bardoli Satyagraha (1928):
  • It demanded a tax hike of 22% by the Bombay Presidency in the backdrop of famine and flood be repealed.
  • Spearheaded by Sardar Vallabhai Patel, it became a strong foundation for the larger Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. 
    • He earned the title "Sardar" from the women who participated in the movement and emerged as a national leader.
  • The Bardoli Satyagraha Patrika was used as a means of mobilizing the peasants during the Satyagraha. 
    • It was edited by Jugatram Dave from Surat. 
  • The other methods used for mobilizing the masses were bhajan mandali, holy imagery and ‘bhuvas’ (used to communicate with adivasis).
  • Some of the prominent women leaders were Bhaktiba, Shardaben Mehta and Mithuben Petit.
• All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) (1936):
  • Swami Sahajananda Saraswati spearheaded the formation of AIKS at the Indian National Congress’ (INC) Lucknow Session in 1936.
  • It was graced by leaders like N. G. Ranga, R. M. Lohia, Indulal Yagnik, Acharya Narendra Dev, E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Jayaprakash Narayan and others. 
  • Jawaharlal Nehru too lent his support to the AIKS. 
  • The 1936 AIKS Manifesto propounded 4 fundamental goals:
    • Abolition of the zamindari
    • Cancellation of rural debt
    • Land revenue reduction
    • Shift of land ownership to tillers.
• Tebhaga Movement (1946-47):
  • It was a peasant resistance that erupted in Bengal in 1946-47 under the leadership of Bangiya Pradeshik Kisan Sabha (BPKS). 
  • It demanded a reduction in the jotedars’ (landlords) share in the crop harvest from half to one-third. 
  • In the South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, Kakdwip emerged as one of the centers of the movement.
  • Approximately 40% of sharecropping peasants obtained tebhaga rights (two-third shares) willingly granted by landholders, repeal or reduction of unjust and illegal exaction. 
• Telangana Movement (1948-51):
  • It was an armed revolt of peasants under the leadership of the Communist Party of India against oppressive landlordism patronized by the Nizam of Hyderabad.
  • Peasants were subjected to increasing numbers of exploitative taxes and levies and forced to perform ‘vetty’ (forced labor).
  • Peasants were organized by the Communists into armed guerilla squads to fight armed battalions of the Nizam called “razakars”, who were increasingly deployed to crush the movement. 

Conclusion:

During British colonial rule, Indian peasants experienced significant upheaval due to changes in agricultural production and land relationships. Traditional agrarian bonds were disrupted as land became a commodity and commercial agriculture grew in the late 19th century. This shift led to unrest among peasants, who faced changes like landlords collecting rent in high-priced grain instead of cash. These movements laid the groundwork for post-independence agrarian reforms, such as the abolition of the Zamindari system, which reduced the influence of the landed elite and transformed India's agrarian landscape.