05-12-2024
11:40 AM
GS I
Sub-Categories:
Modern History
Prelims: History of India
Mains: Indian Culture - Salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature, and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
The peasants were the worst sufferers in colonial India. Peasant movements were a result of the aggressive British economic policies based on mercantilism. This policy caused the commercialisation of agriculture, which altered the mode of production and disrupted traditional agrarian relationships in India. Various land revenue settlements that made the land a tradable entity, as well as deforestation for cash crops, were the causes of peasant movements that were both social unrest against landlords and money lenders and civil unrest against the British.
Farmers, tribal people, and even small landlords made up almost the entire population of British India who participated in this unrest. The peasant movements didn't have a strong organisation at first, but as they integrated into the freedom movement, many political parties took charge of them and helped them gain popularity.
The central factor of the peasant movements in India was the British economic policy and its consequences. These factors are described here:
On the basis of the period, the peasant movements in India can broadly be grouped into two distinct phases:
During this period, the main reason for a series of spontaneous peasant uprisings in different parts of the country was the high-handedness of zamindars or landlords, along with the excessive rates of land revenue.
Name of the Peasant Revolt | Description |
Sanyasi Revolt | -Year: 1763-1800 -Area: Bengal -Maznoom Shah was one of their prominent leaders. -Supported by: Bhawani Pathak and a woman, Devi Choudhurani. -Immediate cause: The British imposed restrictions on pilgrims visiting the holy places of both Hindus and Muslims. -The Bengal famine of 1770 sparked a rebellion among landless peasants, displaced zamindars, disbanded soldiers, and the poor. -The Sanyasis and Fakirs joined them. -The Faqirs were a group of wandering Muslim religious mendicants in Bengal. -Nature of the revolt: They attacked English factories and seized their goods, cash, arms, and ammunition. -Book: Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's semi-historical novel Anandmath is based on the Sanyasi revolt. -It was a united revolt of Hindu and Muslim monks against the British led by Warren Hastings. |
Narkelberia Uprising | -Year: 1782-1831 -Area: West Bengal -Leader: Mir Nithar Ali (Titu Mir) -Reason for the revolt: Muslim tenants fought back against landlords, who imposed a beard tax on Faraizis and British Indigo planters. -Nature of the revolt: Armed revolt |
Pagal Panthis | -Year:1825-1833 -It is a peasant movement guided by religious mendicants called Pagal Panthis. -Area: Bengal -Leader: Karam Shah and Tipu Shah -Reason for the revolt: The Pagals and their associates fought against the zamindars and the forces of the company to protect the peasants from the oppressions and undue claims of the zamindars. -British Reaction: Tipu Shah and some of his insurgent followers were captured in 1833 and tried.
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After 1857, there was increasing involvement of middle-class, modern educated persons in peasant resistance movements. As the idea of nationalism gripped the persons educated in the modern system, these ideas, in some form or the other, were carried to the peasantry also.
Name of the revolt | Description |
Indigo Revolt | -Year: 1859-60 -Area: Bengal -Leader: Biswas brothers (Bishnucaharan Biswas and Digambar Biswas) of Nadia, Rafique Mondal of Malda and Kader Molla of Pabna. -Reason for the revolt: The peasants in many parts of Bengal had refused to plant indigo for the European planters who had been forcing the peasants to cultivate it. The Bengali intellectuals brought this issue to the notice of the Indian public. -Nature of the revolt: The peasants attacked indigo factories with spears and swords.
-British Reaction: The Government appointed the Indigo Commission in 1869, which worked for the removal of some of the abuses of indigo cultivation. -The play Neel Darpan by Dinabandhu Mitra in 1860 depicted planters’ oppression and peasants’ protests. |
Deccan Riots | -Year: 1875 -Area: Poona, Satara and Ahmednagar -Reason for the revolt: The basis of the Deccan Riots lay in the evolution of the ryotwari system itself. By favouring the Vanis (village moneylenders) over the Kunbis (cultivator caste), the courts and new laws polarised caste differences.
-Nature of the revolt: The peasantry, which had gathered for the weekly bazaar, launched attacks on the moneylenders and destroyed the debt contracts and bonds. -British Response: After suppressing the revolt, the Government passed the Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act in 1879 to extend protection to them against the moneylenders. |
Pabna Movement | -Year: 1873-1885 -Area: Pabna, Bengal -Leader: Ishan Chandra Roy, Shambhu Nath Pal, Khodi Mulla. -Reason for the revolt: The peasants organised a no-rent union and launched armed attacks on the zamindars and their agents because of illegal seizure of property, arbitrary enhancement of rent and use of force, frequent recourses to ejection and harassment,
-Agrarian League (1873), organised by peasants of Yusufshahi Pargana of Pabna, which raised funds to mitigate litigation expenses, held mass meetings. -British Reaction: This peasant movement was suppressed only after armed intervention by the government. Later an enquiry committee was appointed to look into the complaints of the peasants, which led to the enactment of an act. |
Champaran Movement | -Year: 1917-1918 -Area: Champaran, Bihar -Leader: Mahatma Gandhi, assisted by J.B. Kripalani, Babu Brajkishore Prasad and Babu Rajendra Prasad. -Reason for the revolt: The tenant farmers were forced by the British planters to cultivate indigo in the three-twentieth part of a bigha of their holding; this was known as the 'Teen Kathia' system.
-Nature of the revolt: Gandhiji’s method of peaceful satyagraha and civil disobedience. -British Reaction: The government had to relent and called Gandhiji for talks and also made him a member of the committee to enquire into the plight of the indigo peasants.
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Kheda Satyagraha | -Year: 1918 -Area: Kheda, Gujarat -Leader: Mahatma Gandhi -Reason for the revolt: The immediate backdrop to the agitation was a poor harvest in 1917-18, which coincided with an increase in the price of essentials.
-Nature of the revolt: Reports of violence in some areas disobeying Gandhi’s appeal to passive resistance. -British Reaction: Mohanlal Kameshwar Pandya and other local leaders were arrested for defying the government.
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Eka Movement | -Year: 1921 -Area: Awadh, Uttar Pradesh -Leader: Madari Pasi
-Reason for the revolt: Spanish flu, six years of drought, price rise and a shortage of food, grains and fuel.
-Nature of the revolt: Because of the involvement of Congress and Khilafat campaigners, the movement was initially largely peaceful and worked within the framework of Gandhian ideology.
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Mappila Revolt | -Year: 1921 -Area: Malabar region, Kerala -Reason for the revolt:Nambudiri Brahmins landlords exploited the Mappila tenants. This rebellion had started as an anti-government, anti-landlord affair but acquired communal colours.
-In Manjeri in 1920, the Malabar District Congress Committee supported the tenants' cause and demanded legislation to regulate landlord-tenant relations. -Nature of the revolt: The uprising reportedly led to the death of around 10,000 people. Many Hindus were forced to convert to Islam.
-British Reaction: The uprising lasted several months, forcing British authorities to impose martial law to put an end to it. They also established a new police unit called Malabar Special Police to put down the rebellion. |
Bardoli Satyagraha | -Year: 1928 -Area: Gujarat -Leader: Vallabhbhai Patel -Reason for the revolt: Against the tax hike of 22% by the Bombay Presidency in the backdrop of famine and flood. -Demands of the Peasants: Either the government appoint an independent tribunal for a fresh assessment, or it must accept the previous amount as the full payment. -Methods used for mobilising the masses:Bardoli Satyagraha Patrika was a daily newspaper published during the satyagraha.
-British Reaction: Under the pressure of the Satyagrahis, the government had begun to run out of steam by June 1928. A settlement with the farmers was mediated by Chunnilal Mehta, a key member of the Governor's Council.
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All India Kisan Sabha | -Year:1936 -Formed at Indian National Congress (INC) Lucknow Session -Founder: Swami Sahajananda Saraswati -Formation of All India Kisan Sabha: In Bihar, Swami Sahajanand started a movement to protect the occupancy rights of the tenants, and formed Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha in 1929.
-Manifesto: It issued the Kisan manifesto, which called for the abolition of zamindari and occupancy rights for all tenants. -After the Elections of 1937: The Congress ministries undertook certain measures to:
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Tebhaga Movement | -Year: 1946–47 -Area: Bengal -Organised by: Communist cadres of the Bengal Provincial Krishak Sabha. -Demand: It was the sharecroppers' movement that demanded two-thirds of the land's produce for themselves and one-third for landlords.
-Outcomes: Approximately 40% of sharecropping peasants obtained tebhaga rights willingly granted by landholders, repeal or reduction of unjust and illegal exaction. However, the movement's success in East Bengal districts was limited. |
Telangana Movement | -Year: 1946-1952 -Area: Andhra Pradesh - Against Oppressive landlordism perpetrated by local landlords (jagirdars and Deshmukh, locally known as Dora), which Nizam patronised. - Reasons: Peasants were forced to pay high taxes due to unhealthy economic policies of Nizam rule, and in non-payments of the taxes, they were subjected to forced labour (Vetti) and even forced to be evicted from their land. - Nature of the Revolt:
- British Reaction: Vetti was abolished, lands were distributed, debts were settled, etc. |
Question 1: Many voices had strengthened and enriched the nationalist movement during the Gandhian phase. Elaborate. (UPSC Mains 2019)
Question 2: Economically, one of the results of the British rule in India in the 19th century was the (UPSC Prelims 2018)
Answer: (c)
Question 3: Indigo cultivation in India declined by the beginning of the 20th century because of (UPSC Prelims 2020)
Answer: (b)
Question 4: Consider the following pairs: (UPSC Prelims 2019)
Movement/Organisation Leader
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
Answer: (d)
Question 5: Which among the following events happened earliest? (UPSC Prelims 2018)
Answer: (b)
The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was Gandhi's first Satyagraha movement in India. It was a farmer's uprising that took place in the Champaran district of Bihar, India, during the British colonial period.
The imposition of a high land revenue demand by the state, corrupt practices, and the harsh attitude of the tax-collecting officials were some of the many reasons that provoked the peasants to rise in revolt.
The farmer uprising in the Phulaguri area of middle Assam in October 1861 AD was one of the early peasant movements of the Indian freedom movement. It was also the first marker of a significant non-cooperation style movement of the Indian freedom movement wherein the farmers of the Phulaguri region had stopped payment of taxes to the British administration in open defiance of foreign tyranny.
There was a category of peasant revolts that could be called “Restorative Rebellion”. These were revolts that were led by former zamindars, Mughal officers whose privileges were under attack by the company.
The ryotwari system, developed by Captain Alexander Read in South India, was introduced to British territories after wars with Tipu Sultan. It was initially tried in some areas and later expanded by Thomas Munro throughout South India.
In Telangana, the vetti system was an all-pervasive social phenomenon. Each Dalit family had to send one man from the family to do vetti. Their daily job consisted of household work in the landlord’s house and also acted as their messenger. Dalits, who stitched shoes or prepared leather accessories for agricultural operations, were forced to supply these to the landlords free of cost.
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