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UPSC MAINS SOCIOLOGY
UPSC SOCIOLOGY SYLLABUS
PAPER 2 – PART B – CHAPTER 5 – Social Movements in Modern India: Peasants and farmers’ Movements
- Peasant movements are important variants of social movements.
- Peasant Movement in India arose during the British colonial period, when economic policies resulted in the ruin of traditional handicrafts and other small industries leading to change of ownership and overburdening of agrarian land, and massive debt and impoverishment of peasantry.
- Social isolation, cultural segregation and economic exploitation have accentuated the historical processes of marginalisation and political subordination of the peasants.
- The collective realizations and awareness of the peasants on these issues have resulted into the outbreak of various historical peasants’ movements in the world.
IMPORTANT PEASANT MOVEMENTS
- Indigo Revolt of 1859-1860
European planters persuaded the peasants to plant indigo instead of food crops. They provided loans at a very high interest. The price paid by the planters was meagre, only 2.5% of the market price. The farmers were totally unprotected from the indigo planters, who resorted to mortgages or destruction of their property if they were unwilling to obey them. Under this severe oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt.
- Pabna Movement
Some lords forcefully collected rents and land taxes, often enhanced for the poor peasants and also prevented the tenants from acquiring Occupancy Right under Act X of 1859. Due to the decline in the production of Jute in the 1870s, the peasants were struggling with famine. Some of the lords declared an enhancement of land taxes and that triggered the rebellion.
- Deccan Riots
In May and June 1875, Peasants of Maharashtra in some parts of Pune, Satara and Ahmednagar districts revolted against increasing agrarian distress. The rioters’ specific purpose was to obtain and destroy the bonds, decrees, and other documents in the possession of the moneylenders.
- Champaran Satyagraha
The peasant movement of Champaran was launched in 1917-1918. The main aim was to create awakening among the peasantry against the European planters. These planters exploited the peasants without providing them adequate remuneration for their labor. The European planters resorted to all sorts of illegal and inhuman methods of indigo cultivation. The peasants were not only exploited by the European planters but also by the local zamindars. It was in such a situation that Gandhiji took up their cause and launched the movement.
- Kheda Peasant Struggle
The peasantry of Kheda consisted mainly of Patidars who were known for their skills in agriculture. The Patidars were well-educated. Kheda is situated in the central part of Gujarat and was quite fertile for the cultivation of tobacco and cotton crops. There was a severe famine in Kheda, which resulted in the failure of crops. The government did not accept the failure of crops but was insistent on the collection of land tax, not taking the conditions of peasants into consideration. Thus, the Kheda Satyagraha was started in March 1919 under the leadership of Gandhiji, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, N.M. Joshi, and several others. The movement was terminated owing to the acceptance of some of the prime demands of the peasantry.
- Bardoli Movement
During the British Raj, in the state of Gujarat, Bardoli Satyagraha of 1925 was a major episode of civil disobedience in the Indian Independence movement. In the year 1925, the taluka of Bardoli suffered from heavy floods and severe famine which affected the crops very badly. This situation led the farmers to face great financial troubles. The activists of Gujarat such as Narahari Parikh, Ravi Shankar Vyas, and Mohanlal Pandya had a talk with the village leaders and sought the help of the prominent Gujarati freedom fighter Vallabhbhai Patel. The request made by Patel to reduce the taxes was ignored by the Governor of Bombay. He indeed reciprocated by announcing the dates of collection of the taxes. Patel then instructed the farmers of Bardoli to refuse to pay the taxes. The Government decided to crush the revolt. The people and the members of the legislative councils of Bombay were very angry at the terrible treatment of the farmers. The Indian members also resigned from their offices and extended support to the protest of the farmers. Finally, an agreement took place by the initiation of a Parsi member of the Bombay government. According to it, the government agreed to restore the confiscated property and also cancel the revenue payment for the year and also cancelled the raise of 30 per cent until next year.
- Moplah rebellion in Malabar
The Moplah Peasant Movement started in August 1921.The government officials in alliance with the Hindu landlords oppressed the Moplah peasants. The Moplah tenants agitated against the Hindu landlords and the British government. Most of their grievances were related to security of tenure, high rents, renewal fees, and other unfair exactions of the landlords. Another motivating factor, which caused the Moplah agitation, was the Khilafat movement.
- Telangana Peasant Revolt
The Telangana Movement (1946-52) of Andhra Pradesh was fought against the feudal oppression of the rulers and local landowners. The agrarian social structure of Hyderabad emerged to be very oppressive in 1920s and thereafter. The process of the sub-infeudation in the landholding accentuated the insecurity of the tenants and the poor peasants. In rural Telangana’s political economy, the jagirdars and deshmukhs, locally known as dora, played a dominant role. They were the intermediary landowners with higher titles cum moneylenders-cum-village officials and were mostly from the upper caste or influential Muslim community background. Because of their privileged economic and political status they could easily subject the poor peasantry to extra-economic coercion through the vetti (force labour) system.
The Communist Party of India initiated the Telangana Peasant struggle. The Communist Party started working in the Telangana region from 1936. Professor N.G. Ranga laid the regional level peasant organization that was affiliated to the All India Kisan Sabha, which was an organ of the CPI. Severe famine struck the Telangana region in the year 1946. All the crops failed and there was shortage of the availability of food and fodder. The prices of food and other commodities increased. The year 1946 proved to be a crisis time for both the tenants and the sharecroppers. This year provided all the opportunities for launching a peasant struggle.
- Tebhaga Peasant Struggle
The word Tebhaga literally means three shares of harvests. It was a sharecropper’s movement, which demanded two-thirds for themselves and one-third for the landlord. Earlier, the sharecroppers used to give fifty-fifty share of the produce on their tenancy In 1948-1950, there was another wave of Tebhaga movement in these districts. The Berigal Provincial Krishak Sabha organized the movement of Tebhaga. The sharecroppers under the leadership of the sabha mobilized themselves against the landlords. However, the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 was passed due to the initiation of the movement.
- New Farmers’ Movement
The 1980s saw the beginning of what is called New Farmers’ Movement in different parts of India. The reasons were: terms of trade going against the agriculture, declining purchasing power, un-remunerative prices, agriculture becoming losing proposition, increase in input prices, declining per capita income from agriculture etc. It all began in Maharashtra when Shetkari Sanghathana under Sharad Joshi, a former employee of UN turned farmer, began agitating in village called Chakan in Pune for remunerative prices for agricultural commodities, particularly for onion. Many a time the demands of the farmers’ movement would include such issues as remunerative prices, writing off loans, anti-government policy of procurement,
levy policy, liberalisation etc. articipated mostly by the middle and rich farmers of different Indian states, the farmers’ movement represents a distinct phase in the history and tradition of agrarian unrest in India.
- 2020-21 Peasant Movements
The 2020–2021 Indian farmers’ protest is an ongoing protest against three farm acts which were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The farmer unions believe that the laws will open the sale and marketing of agricultural products outside the notified Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis for farmers. Further, the laws will allow inter-state trade and encourage hike electronic trading of agricultural produce. The new laws prevent the state governments from collecting a market fee, cess, or levy for trade outside the APMC markets; this has led the farmers to believe the laws will “gradually lead to the deterioration and ultimately end the mandi system” thus “leaving farmers at the mercy of corporates”.
CONCLUSION
Though it is hard to say whether the peasant movements and revolts contributed substantially to the larger and more distant goals of complete restructuring of the social order, yet their significance lies in raising fundamental issues about land, lives and livelihood. The state responded to their agitations by initiating land reforms, imposing the land ceiling act, abolishing the zamindari system though these reforms remain unfinished as yet. A significant aspect that is being recognised today is the existence of a considerable overlap of concerns and interests of the peasant movement and the environmental movement as we can find in the Chipko movement or between the interests of the peasant-cultivators and landless labourers dependent on land or in the farmers and others protesting against displacement in anti SEZ movements in the context of globalisation in different parts of our country. Therefore the presence of intersectionality is a persistent, ubiquitous phenomenon in all peasant movements today.