TEBHAGA MOVEMENT

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UPSC MAINS SOCIOLOGY  

Paper 2 – Chapter  5 -Social Movements in Modern India -Peasants and farmers movements.

 

  • The Tebhaga movement was a movement of the sharecroppers of Bengal demanding two-thirds instead of half as their produce. 
  • Gradually with the intensification of the movement the charter of demands even touched the revolutionary idea of ‘land to tiller’ concept.
  • The crop sharing system at that time was known as barga, adhi, bhagi, etc., and the sharecroppers were called as bargadars or adhiars.
  • Tebhaga movement was organised mainly by the communist cadres of the bengal provincial krishak sabha. Under their leadership the barga (sharecropping) peasants were mobilised against the landlord class. 
  • The resisting tenants rather added a new slogan to their agenda: the total abolition of zamindari system. The slogan for reduction of rent rate was also raised by the peasants supporting the tebhaga struggle.
  • The new mode of resistance and forms of participation of the peasant women of Muhammadpur and Nandigram spread like wildfire and was replicated in other areas. They helped establish communication surreptitiously, guarded secret meetings, protected crops in the fields, were appointed village guards and kept vigil on police action and alerted the peasant folk, barricaded police entry.
  • The movement reflected the development of the political consciousness of the poor peasants and tribal sharecroppers and it may safely be opined that it marked a turning point in the history of agrarian movements in India. 
  • In 1948-1950, there was another wave of Tebhaga movement in these districts. The government cred­ited this to be a handiwork of the Indian agents which the general public believed and abstained themselves from involving in the movement. However, the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 was passed due to the initiation of the movement.
  • The Tebhaga uprising in many ways was the culminating point, spreading over large areas of the countryside and expressing the urge of laboring men and women to be liberated from exploitation.
  • Sixty lakh people participated in the Tebhaga movement at its peak. The issue around which the campaign was launched was economic.Â