INDIAN PEASANTS PRIOR INDEPENDENCE

Describe the efforts and achievements of the Indian peasants prior to independence in 1947

The Indian peasants were the worst sufferers under the British rule. It has been rightly said that the worst result of the British rule in India was extreme poverty of the Indian people and among them, the worst sufferers were the Indian peasants. Indebtedness, fragmentation of holdings, increase in the number of agricultural labor, destruction of handicrafts, low production food grains, etc., were the problems which concerned the peasants directly. Besides, the government, the landlords, intermediaries, the local Bantas and Pakwaris exploited them to the maximum. The peasants were scattered over a vast area, were poor, lacked mobility and being culturally backward depended more on their fate than their self-efforts.

Their sufferings however forced them to rebel against the government, landlords or the Bantas many times. Mostlry, their uprisings were violent and as they were not organized, were suppressed by violence. In 1870, the Bengal tenants refused to pay the revenue, obstructed their eviction from their lands and fought against the government officers. They were suppressed. The only result of their uprising was the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885. In 1875, the peasants in Maharasthra attacked the houses of Sahukars (money lenders), burnt the documents of debts and killed many Sahukars at several places. These, the so-called Deccan riots were suppressed. However, the Deccan Agriculturalists Relief Act was passed in 1879. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the peasants revolted in Punjab at many places. The government passed the Punjab Alienation Act in 1902-02 to ease the situation. In 1917-18, the peasants at Champaran in Bihar sought the support of Gandhi against their masters, the indigo planters. They were provided some relief. Gandhi also organized the Satyagraha movement of peasants in Khaira against the collection of land revenue which they could not pay due to the failure of crops. It gained some success.

Thus, prior to 1918, the peasants fought at many places against the injustice done to them but as tehri efforts were not organized they could get only meagre concessions from their exploiters. The Indian National Congress also paid only scanty attention to the welfare of the peasants. N. G. Ranga, the leader of the peasants even criticized Gandhi’s agitation in Champaran, which according to him, failed to solve the main problems of the peasants, viz. the excessive rents and exorbitant debts.

It was only after 1918 that the Indian peasants developed political consciousness, participated int eh national movement and gradually formed their own organizations. When in 1919, the Indian National Congress launched the noncooperation movement it gave the slogan of nonpayment of land revenue. Many peasants, therefore, felt that the struggle for swaraj (independence) meant struggle against the heavy land revenue and they cooperated with the noncooperation movement. It was their first participation in an organized movement.

The struggle of the peasants, however, continued even outside the fold of the Congress during this period. The peasants struggled against their landlords in Guntur District and at many places in Karnataka and Dudh. The Moplah rebellion in 1922 was largely a revolt of Muslim peasants against their landlords, the Namboodni Brahmins of Malabar. But all these movements were suppressed.

The process of the formation of independent peasant’s organization started after the Non Cooperation Movement. Some peasants’ organizations were formed in Andhra in 1923. Kisan (Peasants) Sabhas (Organizations) were started in some parts of Punjab, Bengal, Bihar and UP in 1926-27. The Andhra Provincial Ryots’ Association was started in 1921. In 1928, the relatives of Bihar and UP Kisan Sabha also presented a memorandum consisting of their demands to the All-Parties Conference presided over by Motilal Nehru.

But these organizations were not very effective. Most of them accepted the leadership of the Nationalist leaders of the Indian national congress and put-up resistance to the government under them. Kisan movements of Bardoli district in Gujarat in 1928-29 and 1930-31 were led by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Mahatma Gandhi respectively. Other movements of the peasants in UP, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, etc., were also led and inspired by the Indian National Congress. The peasants also participated in large numbers in the Civil Disobedience Movement led by Gandhi though he had not included a single specific demand of the Kisans in his eleven-point demand put before the government.

However, after the Civil Disobedience Movement quiet a large section among the peasantry realized that the Congress would not fight for their specific grievances because capitalists and big landlords were more influential in it. It pointed out to them the necessity of having independent organizations of their own. The communists, the Congress Socialists and even the Left Nationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru emphasized the need of forming such associations. It gave momentum to independent Kisan movements in the thirties of the twentieth century. It resulted in the formation of Bihar Kisan Sabha in 1927, the Provincial Kisan Sabha in UP in 1935, the Madras Presidency Ryots Association in 1935, the Madras Presidency Agriculturalists Association in 1937 and a Kisan School at Nidubrole in 1938 to train the Kisans in organizational work. Some peasants organisations took their birth on communal basis also. Sir Abdul Rahim and Fazl-ul-Haq organized the Praja Party with a view to mustering the Muslim peasants in Bengal. Many Kisan Sabhas gradually sprang in all other parts of the country as well.

In some cases, the government yielded to their pressure resulting in the passing of a few laws like Debt Relief Act in UP in 1934, the Regulation of Accounts Act in 1934 in Punjab, the moneylenders Act in 1939 and the Relief of Indebtedness Act in 1935 in Bengal.

Yet, there was no All India Organisation of the peasants prior to 1935. The first All India Congress of peasants met at Lucknow in 1935 and it founded the first All India Organization of Peasants named the All-India Kisan Congress. The All-India Kisan Congress carried on wide educative propaganda work among the Indian peasants and attempted to harmonize their efforts. It also sought collective affiliation to the Indian National Congress but was refused. It, however, provided a united platform for the Indian peasants to express their grievances and put-up joint demands.

The peasants, in general, supported the Indian National Congress in its struggle for independence. Therefore, when in 1937 the Congress ministries were formed in most of the provinces, they expected that something would be done for their welfare. But they felt disappointed as was the case with the Indian labor class. The Congress governments did not do much except passing a few legislative measures which failed to touch the root causes of the troubles of the Indian peasants. The peasants protested against the indifference of the government to their interests. The government then banned their meetings, arrested their leaders and used police force against them.

Thus, the fate of the Indian peasants did not improve much by the time India was granted independence. But certainly, they were better organized by that time.