PEASANT MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

MOVEMENT - REGION - YEAR -  LEADER - OBJECTIVE

★  Titu Mir’s Movement

☆  West Bengal

☆  1782-1831

☆  Mir Nathar Ali or Titu Mir

☆  Against Hindu landlords who imposed beared tax on the Farazis

★  Pagal Panthis Movement

☆  Hajong & Garo Tribes Mymensingh district, Bengal

☆  1825-1835

☆  Karam Shah and Tipu Shah

☆  Against hike in rents;the movement was violently suppressed

★  Moplah Uprising 

☆  Malabar 

☆  1836-1854

☆  Against rise in revenue demand and reduction of field size

★  Indigo Revolt

☆  Nadia District

☆  1859-1869

☆  Dagambar and Bishnu Biswas

☆  Against terms imposed by European indigo planters; Indigo commission(1860) set up to view the situation

★  Deccan Peasants Uprising

☆  Kardeh Village and Poona in Maharashtra 

☆  1875

☆  Against corrupt monylenders (Gujarati and Marwari); Agriculturist Relief Act (1879) passed.

★  Phadke’s Ramosi Uprising

☆  Ramosi, Maharashtra

☆  1877-1887

☆  Wesudeo Balwant Phadke

☆  Against the British failure to take up anti-famine measures.

★  Pabna Agrarian Uprising

☆  Pabna District,east Bengal (Now in Bangladesh)

☆  1873

☆  Shah Chandra Roy, Shambhu Pal Khoodi Mollah and supported by B.C Chatterjee and R.C Dutt

☆  Against POLICIES OF Zamindars to prevent occupants from acquiring occupancy rights, Bengal tenancy Act (1885) passed

★  Punjab’s Peasant’s Revolt

☆  Punjab

☆  Last decade of 19th  century

☆  Against prospect of losing their land ; the Punjab Land Alienation Act (1900 passed,imposed regulations on sale and mortage of land and revenue demands)

★  Poona Sarvajanik Sabha

☆  District of Thana, Colaba and Ratnagiri

☆  1870

☆  M.G Ranade

☆  To popularize the peasants legal rights 

★  Champaran Satyagraha 

☆  Champaran, Bihar

☆  1917

☆  Peasants

☆  Against the tinkathia system imposed by the European INDIGO Planters; the Champaran Agrarian Act abolished the tinkathaia system

★  Kheda Satyagraha

☆  Kheda ,Gujarat

☆  1918

☆  Peasants led by Gandhi

☆  Against ignored appeals for remission of land revenue in case of crop failures; the demands were finally fulfilled.

★  U.P kisan Sabha  

☆  United Province

☆  1918

☆  Indra Narain Dwivedi and Madan Mohan Malviya

★  Awadh Peasant Movement 

☆  Barielly-Pratapgarh region

☆  1918

★  Oudh Kisan Sabha

☆  Oudh 

☆  1920

☆  Nehru and Baba Ram Chandra

★  Andhra Ryots Association 

☆  Andhra 

☆  1928

☆  N.G Ranga

☆  Accepted Abolition of Zamindari

★  All India Kissan Sabha

☆  Apex Organization of Peasants

☆  1936

☆  Swami Sahajananda

☆  Protection of peasants from Economic Exploitation

★  Bardoli Satyagraha

☆  Surat,Gujarat

☆  1928

☆  Kunbi-Patidar Peasants and untouchables supported by Mehta brothers, Vallabhabhai Patel

☆  Against oppression by upper caste and hike in revenue by 22 percent by the Bombay government; the revenue was brought down to 6.03 %

★  Eka Movement

☆  Hardoi, Barabanki and Sitapur Districts

☆  1921-1922

☆  Members of Pasi and Ahir castes

☆  Against hike in rents

★  Tebhaga Movement

☆  Bengal

☆  1946

☆  By poor peasants and tenants and Bargardars or share-croppers

☆  Against Zamindars  and monylenders ; Bargardari Bill was passed

★  Telangana insurrection

☆  Hyderabad

☆  1946-1951

☆  Against Practices of monylenders and officials of the Nizam of Hyderabad

Ghadar Movement

The Ghadar Movement was a movement of patriotic, progressive, democratic, and enlightened Indians living abroad, working for the emancipation of India from the yoke of British colonialism and the birth of a new India based on national and social emancipation. They organized themselves in 1913 among communities throughout the world, adopting the following goals and means:

1-To liberate India with the force of arms from British servitude and to establish a free and independent India with equal rights for all.
2-To establish their headquarters in San Francisco, that would serve as a base to coordinate all the activities for achieving these aims and objectives.
3-To publish a weekly paper, Ghadar, in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and in other languages of India.
4-To hold organisational elections every year to elect a coordination committee from the different committees to carry out all the work.
5-To organize cells amongst Indian railway, industrial, and farm workers, as well as students who would be directly linked to the centre.
6-The coordination committee would elect a three-member commission to supervise the political and underground work.
7-Revenue would be drawn from each member through a monthly contribution of one dollar.
8-No discussion or debate was to take place on religion within the organization. Religion was considered a personal matter and that it had no place in the organization.
9-Every member was duty bound to participate in the liberation struggle of that country in which they were resident.


Members of the Ghadar Party

Baba Bhagwan Singh Dhosanjh
Maulavi Barkatullah
Kartar Singh Sarabha
Baba Visakha Singh
Harnam Singh Tundilat
Harnam Singh Kahira Sahira'
Harnam Singh Saini
Sohan Singh Bhakna
Lala Har Dayal
Tarak Nath Das
Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje
Ganda Singh (Phangureh)
V. G. Pingle
Bhai Randhir Singh
Munsha Singh Dukhi
Karim Bux
Harikrishan Talwar

The Gandhi Salt March:1930

In 1930 in order to help free India from British control, Mahatma Gandhi proposed a non-violent march protesting the British Salt Tax, continuing Gandhi's pleas for civil disobedience. The Salt Tax essentially made it illegal to sell or produce salt, allowing a complete British monopoly. Since salt is necessary in everyone's daily diet, everyone in India was affected. The Salt Tax made it illegal for workers to freely collect their own salt from the coasts of India, making them buy salt they couldn't really afford.
Return to "India under British Rule" Chronology

Before embarking on the 240-mile journey from Sabarmati to Dandi, Gandhi sent a letter to the Viceroy himself, forewarning their plans of civil disobedience

If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil.

To deliver this letter, Gandhi chose an Englishman who believed in the Indian movement in efforts to promote non-violence. The Viceroy wrote back, explaining that the British would not change their policy: "[Gandhi was] contemplating a course of action which is clearly bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace."

As promised, on March 12, 1930, Gandhi and 78 male satyagrahis (activists of truth and resolution) started their 23-day-long journey. Women weren't allowed to march because Gandhi felt women wouldn't provoke law enforcers like their male counterparts, making the officers react violently to non-violence. Along the march, the satyagrahis listened to Gandhi's favorite bhajan sung by Pandit Paluskar, a Hindustani vocalist; the roads were watered and softened, and fresh vegetation was thrown along the path. Gandhi spoke to each village they passed, and more and more men joined the march.

On April 5, 1930 Gandhi and his satyagrahis reached the coast. After prayers were offered, Gandhi spoke to the large crowd. He picked up a tiny lump of salt, breaking the law. Within moments, the satyagrahis followed Gandhi's passive defiance, picking up salt everywhere along the coast. A month later, Gandhi was arrested and thrown into prison, already full with fellow protestors.

The Salt March started a series of protests, closing many British shops and British mills. A march to Dharshana resulted in horrible violence. The non-violent satyagrahis did not defend themselves against the clubs of policemen, and many were killed instantly. The world embraced the satyagrahis and their non-violence, and eventually enabled India to gain their freedom from Britain.

THE FORMATION OF THE FORWARD BLOC

****The Forward Bloc of the Indian National Congress was formed on 3 May 1939 by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who had resigned from the presidency of the Indian National Congress on April 29 after being outmaneuvered by Mohandas K. Gandhi.
**** The formation of the Forward Bloc was announced to the public at a rally in Calcutta.
**** Bose said that who all were joining, they had to never turn their back to the British and must fill the pledge form by cutting their finger and signing it with their blood.
****First of all, seventeen young girls came up and signed the pledge form.
****Initially the aim of the Forward Bloc was to rally all the leftwing sections within the Congress and develop an alternative leadership inside the Congress.
****Bose became the president of the Forward Bloc and S.S. Cavesheer its vice-president.
****A Forward Bloc Conference was held in Bombay in the end of June.
****At that conference the constitution and programme of the Forward Bloc were approved.
****In July 1939 Subhas Chandra Bose announced the Committee of the Forward Bloc.
**** It had Subhas Chandra Bose as president, S.S. Cavesheer from Punjab as its vice-president, Lal Shankarlal from Delhi, as its general secretary and Pandit B Tripathi and Khurshed Nariman from Bombay as secretaries.
**** Other prominent members were Annapurniah from Andhra Pradesh, Senapati Bapat, Hari Vishnu Kamnath from Bombay, Pasumpon U. Muthuramalingam Thevar from Tamil Nadu and Sheel Bhadra Yajee from Bihar. Satya Ranjan Bakshi, was appointed as the secretary of the Bengal Provincial Forward Bloc.

****In August the same year Bose began publishing a newspaper titled Forward Bloc. He travelled around the country, rallying support for his new political project