HIMACHAL PRADESH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, SHIMLA

SUBJECT: SOCIOLOGY

TOPIC: ROLES OF VARIOUS PEASANT MOVEMENTS IN

DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL INDIA

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. Honey Malik Vihaan Acharya

1st Semester, B.A. LLB. (Hons.)

No. – 1020212269
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Content Page No.

1. Cover page 1
2. Table of Contents 2
3. Acknowledgement 3
4. Declaration 4
5. Sociology 5
6. Peasant Movement 6-11
7. Prominent Peasant Movements of India 12-13
8. Peasant Movements and Rural Development 14
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project has been successful with great efforts and dedication and immense help from
numerous people. Every work and every worker needs assistance and help in completing a
task. I sincerely express my gratitude and appreciation towards everyone who helped me in
this assignment.

I, Vihaan Acharya, a student of Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla would
like to express my special note of thanks to my assignment guide and mentor, Dr. Honey
Malik for his guidance and mentorship during the project.
 DECLARATION

I, Vihaan Acharya, hereby declare that this assignment on Sociology has been completed by
me with the help and guidance of my teachers and friends. I declare that I have taken utmost
care and precaution while completing this assignment and has refrained from any plagiarism
or copying.

I also declare that this assignment has not been submitted to any other university.
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SOCIOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sociology is a subject of Social Science which studies about human society, its interaction,
connection and processes by examining different parts and types of societies, people,
religion, gender, age, etc.

It is a social science that focuses on human society, its behavior, social relationship and its
pattern. There is a divide in the opinion of Sociologists on whether it can be applied as
practical research or the focus should be on theoretical aspect.

Traditional focus of Sociology has been on categorization of social class, religion, sexuality,
gender, etc. As all aspects of human activity are affected by reciprocation between an
individual and the social structure around him

The range of social scientific methods has also expanded, as social researchers draw
upon a spread of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The linguistic and cultural turns
of the mid-20th century, especially, have led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic,
and philosophical approaches towards the analysis of society. Conversely, the turn of the
21st century has seen the increase of latest analytically, mathematically, and
computationally rigorous techniques, like agent-based modelling and social network
analysis.

Social research has influence throughout various industries and sectors of

life, like among politicians, policy makers, and legislators; educators; planners;
administrators; developers; business magnates and managers; social workers; non-
governmental organizations; and non-profit organizations, also as individuals curious
about resolving social issues generally . As such, there's often an excellent deal of
crossover between social research, marketing research and other statistical fields.

This is an on-going debate that whether Sociology can be considered as a science or not?

Different arguments are presented both in favour and against. Those in favour like
Auguste Comte and Durkheim said that Sociology can be considered as a science
because it applies Scientific methods in the research and study of its subject matter, it
makes accurate observations, managements and measurements most of the time and not
some predictable plethora.

On the other hand, those against the concept of Sociology as a science like Max-Weber
said that Sociology can‟t be considered a science as it lacks Experimentation,
Objectivity, Generalization, Terminology efficiency and Prediction.

So, different experts and authors have different opinions about Sociology, its nature and
application and the methods used for its research and study.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PEASANT MOVEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists on a small part of land. India was a
prosperous agrarian country until the rule of Britishers who imposed taxes, Zamindari
system and other discriminatory policies which made surviving and earning very
difficult for the Indian farmers. The continuous oppression by the English people was
increasing day by day and the farmers were now frustrated so they decided to revolt
against the satanic policies of the British Empire. Peasants‟ movement holds a great
significance in the history of India and the perfect example of excellent teamwork and
the power of „not so privileged‟ people in the social and political scenario.

Small and marginal have always been prone to persecution and the best way to fight
against injustice is a movement, a revolution, because it not only solves the problems
and difficulties face by the protestors, but also helps in overall development of the region
and community by bringing in light the other issue and the overall condition of the
centre of movement.

The peasant movements are the movements in which the small and marginal farmers or
peasants are at the forefront, fighting for their demands against the odds that they were
facing. There were many reasons for their movement like the atrocities levied on them in
form of high rent, illegal levies, arbitrary evictions, etc. in the Zamindari system (started
by the Britishers). Another reason was the systematic dismantling of the traditional
Indian industry (handicraft especially), their discriminatory economic policies forced the
peasants to supply raw material to the British industries and increased taxes on
handicrafts, which eventually led to the disengagement of the widely flourished industry.
The British policies were intended to exploit the farmers and benefit the landlords. This
sparked a fire of protest among the peasants.
. . . . . . . . PROMINENT PEASANT MOVEMENTS OF INDIA . . . . . . .

Peasant movements in the British India can be divided in two phases- the Gandhian
phase and the Pre Gandhian phase.

 19th Century Movements (Pre-Gandhian phase)- The movements of this period

(1858-1914) were essentially localised, separate and limited to specific demands
and problems related to the peasants of that particular area. The first movement
in this phase was the;

Indigo movement (1859-62)- In order to extend their profits, the British planters
forced the peasants and other marginal farmers to plant Indigo instead of planting
essential and necessary food crops. The farmers were discontent growing indigo
because :-
 Low prices were offered for growing indigo.
 Indigo was not at all profitable for the farmers.
 Indigo planting decreased the fertility of the soil.

The peasants suffered at the hands of the traders and therefore the middleman.
Consequently, they launched a movement for non-cultivation of indigo in Bengal. They
were supported by the press and therefore the missionaries like :-

 Harish Chandra Mukherjee, a Bengali Journalist, described the plight of

peasants of Bengal in his newspaper „The Hindu Patriot‟.
 Dinabandhu Mitra, Bengali writer and dramatist, in his play „Nil Darpan‟
which was published in 1860, depicted the treatment of the Indian peasantry
by the indigo planters. His play created an enormous controversy which was
later banned by the East India Company to manage the agitation among the
Indians.

Because of the growing agitation, the government appointed an Indigo Commission

and issued an order in November 1860, notifying that it absolutely was illegal to
force the ryots to cultivate indigo.

This marked the victory for the peasants.

The second significant movement was the Pabna Movement (1870s-80s)- In larger
parts of Eastern Bengal (today's Bangladesh), landlords strenuously collected heavy
rents and unnecessary land taxes, often enhanced for the poor peasants. The peasants
were also not provided Occupancy Right under Act X of 1859.

In May 1873, an Agrarian League was formed, with the objective of demanding
justice, in the Yusufshahi Pargana of Pabna district, Patna (East Bengal).

Gradually, the movement began taking pace, several strikes for rent removal were
organized and funds too were raised for the movement and therefore the struggle
spread throughout Patna and to other districts of East Bengal. The struggle was
mainly legal resistance and very little violence.

The tussle between the peasants and the British authority continued till 1885 when
the govt. by the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 enhanced the occupancy rights of the
peasants.

The struggle was supported by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and also by the
Indian Association under Surendranath Banerjea.

Another important peasant uprising of this phase is the Deccan Riots (1875) - The
Deccan peasants movement was directed mainly against the over taxation and
exploitation by the Marwari and Gujarati money lenders. The peasants suffered heavy
taxation under the Ryotwari system. Even when land revenue was also raised by 50%
in 1867. Frustrated by this, peasants launched a Social Boycott.

 Social Boycott: In 1874, the peasants organised a social boycott movement

against the rich Marwari and Gujarati moneylenders. They refused to buy
items from the moneylenders‟ shops and also refused to cultivate their fields.
The barbers, washermen, shoemakers and other small and marginal work
groups refused to serve them. This social boycott spread rapidly to the
villages of Poona, Ahmednagar, Solapur and Satara and was transformed into
agrarian and violent riots with systematically planned attacks on the
moneylenders‟ houses and shops.

The Government succeeded in submissing and eventually dismantling the movement.

As a compensatory measure, the Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act was passed by the
British government in 1879.

A big breakthrough came in the latter phase of the peasant movements, i.e. the
Gandhian phase (20 th century). The movements began to spread more widely
covering a wide range of issues and public. At this time, Between 1920 and 1940
peasant organisations arose. The first organisation to be founded was the Bihar Provincial
Kisan Sabha (1929) and in 1936 the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS). In 1936, at the
Lucknow session of the Congress, All India Kisan Sabha was formed with Sahajanand as
its first president. It later issued a Kisan manifesto which demanded abolition of
zamindari and occupancy rights for all tenants. Several movements were organized in this
period of time, they are:-

 Champaran Satyagraha (1917)- The peasantry on the indigo plantations

within the Champaran district of Bihar was heavily oppressed by the British
planters and compelled to grow indigo on a minimum of 3/20 of their land and
sell it at prices fixed by the British planters only.
In 1917, Gandhi reached Champaran and commenced to conduct an in depth
inquiry into the condition of the peasantry. He disobeyed the orders of district
officials for leaving Champaran. In June 1917, the govt. appointed a probe
committee with Mahatma Gandhi as one of the members.
The enactment of the Champaran Agrarian Act, 1918 prevented the tenants
from the special imposts levied by the indigo planters.

 Kheda Satyagraha (1918)-

It was chiefly directed against the govt.

In 1918, the crops failed within the Kheda dist rict of Gujarat but the British
govt.
refused to revocation of land revenue and insisted on its full collection.
Gandhiji alongside Sardar Vallabhai Patel supported the peasants and advised
them to withhold payment of revenues till their demand for its remission was
met.
The satyagraha lasted till June 1918. the govt accepted the demands of
the peasants.

 Moplah Rebellion (1921):

The Moplahs were the Muslim tenants inhabiting the Malabar region where
most of the landlords were Hindus. Their grievances of peasants were lack of
security of tenure, high rents, renewal fees and other oppressive exactions.
The Moplah movement merged with the continuing Khilafat agitation.
Mahatma Gandhi, Shaukat Ali and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad addressed
Moplah meetings.
Many Hindus were seen by the Moplahs as helpers of British authorities. The
anti-government and anti-landlord movement acquired communal overtones.
Communalisation isolated the Moplah from the Khilafat & Non-Cooperation
Movement.
The movement was called off by December 1921.
  Bardoli Satyagraha (1928):
Enhancement of land revenue by 30% within the Bardoli district of Gujarat by
the British government led to the organisation of a „No-Revenue Campaign‟
by the Bardoli peasants under the leadership of Vallabhai Patel. A woman of
the Bardoli agitation gave Vallabhai Patel the title of „Sardar‟.
Unsuccessful attempts of British to suppress the movement by large scale
attachment of cattle and land resulted within the appointment of a search
committee. The enquiry committee came to the conclusion that the rise was
unjustified and reduced the enhancement to 6.03%.

Sometimes, it comes to one‟s mind that what is the use of these movements and do they
do any good to the society. Many have a very negative perception towards the peasants‟
protests and other protests too stating that they are community and discrimination
specific and don‟t do any public good. The society as a whole doesn‟t get any benefit
from these protests but the specific group of peasants who were agitating, but the whole
public have to bear the consequences of the disruption, shutdowns and boycotts
organized by the peasantry. This is a wrong opinion as the peasant movement actually
did a lot of great work in the society like:-

 Awareness among the Indians: Though these revolts weren't aimed toward
uprooting the British rule from India, they created awareness among the
Indians. The peasants developed a robust awareness of their legal rights and
asserted them in and outdoors of the courts.

 Inspired other Revolts: They felt a necessity to organise and fight against
exploitation and oppression. These rebellions prepared the base for various
other uprisings like Sikh Wars in Punjab and eventually the Revolt of 1857.

 Unity Among the Peasantry: due to the non-differentiation within the

peasantry, and the all-embracing nature of the anti-imperialist struggle, the
Peasant Movement was able to unite all sections of the peasantry including
the landless labourers and its anti-feudal and anti-imperialist crusade.

 Peasants’ Voices were Heard: because of the peasants fighting directly for
his or her own demands, their voices were heard. In the Indigo rebellion,
Bardoli Satyagraha, Pabna movement and Deccan riots, the demands of
peasants were passed through. Formation of different Kisan Sabhas to listen to
the peasants' demands during the Non Cooperation Movement.
  Growth of Nationalism: The ideology of non-violence had given much
strength to the peasants who participated within the movement. The
movement also contributed to the expansion of nationalism. Encouraged Post-
Independence Reforms: These movements created an atmosphere for post-
independence agrarian reforms, as an example, ‟abolition of Zamindari. They
eroded the ability of the landed class, thus adding to the transformation of the
agrarian structure.

Above listed were actually the secondary benefits of Peasant movement, the primary
advantage or benefirt of the peasant movement was Rural Development.
 . RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND PEASANT MOVEMENTS .

Rural development is the process of improving the standard of life and economic well-
being of individuals living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated
areas.

Rural Development has traditionally centred on the exploitation of land-intensive natural

resources like agriculture and forestry. However, changes in global production networks
and increased urbanization have changed the character of rural areas. Increasingly
tourism, niche manufacturers, and recreation have replaced resource extraction and
agriculture as dominant economic drivers. The necessity for rural communities to
approach development from a wider perspective has created more specialise in a broad
range of development goals instead of merely creating incentive for agricultural or
resource based businesses. Education, entrepreneurship, physical infrastructure, and
social infrastructure all play a crucial role in developing rural regions. Rural
development is additionally characterized by its emphasis on locally produced economic
development strategies. In contrast to urban regions, which have many similarities, rural
areas are highly distinctive from each other. For this reason there are an outsized sort of
rural development approaches used globally.

Rural development may be a comprehensive term. It essentially focuses on action for the
event of areas outside the mainstream urban financial system.

Independent India inherited a particularly stratified agrarian society from British ,

characterised by an exploitative intermediary system of tenure in many parts of the country,
subinfeudation in landholding, tenurial insecurity, rack renting, extra economic coercion of
poor peasants, tenants and therefore the sharecroppers, lack of mobility, unemployment and
poverty among millions. On the eve of the independence systematic and organised peasant
movements had widely surfaced in many parts of the country. Immediately after
independence several progressive reform legislation was introduced by the provincial
governments to abolish the intermediary landlord ship, provide tenurial security to the
tenants, and distributes the excess vested lands among the poor and to consolidate
landholdings. However thanks to the unquestioned domination of the landed class, lack of
political will of the state, lack of awareness and organisation of the agricultural poor apart
from the abolition of the zamindari, etc., system, land reforms weren't sincerely implemented.
the novel peasant movements again surfaced in late 1960s in many parts of the country. The
govt. of India again formulated a national guideline for reform in 1971 to radicalise the
reform programme. However the method of implementation of land reforms has not been an
equivalent so far everywhere India. for instance Andhra Pradesh has achieved a really low
rate of success in implementing lands reforms than has West Bengal . Land reforms however
have furthered the method of emergence of peasant cultivators both in West Bengal and
Andhra Pradesh. It shows that there has been a faster rate of increase within the number of
marginal cultivators and decline of medium and enormous cultivators in West Bengal than in
Andhra Pradesh. As the peasantry represents a particular quite economy and a state of
survival, their emerging position within the agrarian society has to be examined within the
context of rural poverty, agricultural growth, rural employment and unemployment scenario
of these states. Over the years there has been reduction of population living below the poverty
level in West Bengal from over 73 per cent in 1973-74 to less the 32 per cent in 1999-2000
[according to Planning Commission 2002] and also an improvement in food grain production
from 1,086 to 2,178 kg per hectare within the same period [CMIE 2002]. In Andhra Pradesh
also there has been a decline in households below poverty level from 48.41 per cent in 1973-
74 to 11.05 per cent in 1999-2000; and a growth in foodgrain production from 922 kg to
1,919 kg per hectare within the same period. Does the decline of the proportion of rural
households living below the poverty level in economic terms and therefore the increase in the
agricultural output necessarily ensure livelihood security, scope of employment, opportunities
for upward mobility, greater participation in decision-making process by the peasantry?

In West Bengal the marginal cultivators especially the semi landless households possessing
land of below 0.20 hectare constitute 42.44 per cent of the agricultural households. The
landless constitute another 11 per cent of the agricultural households. The landless, semi
landless and therefore the semi marginal cultivators owning but 0.50 hectare altogether form
quite 76 per cent of the agricultural households of West Bengal . These households are highly
economically insecure thus far as their minimum food requirements and employment are
concerned. The very fact that even with higher agricultural yield of around 22 quintals per
hectare, 42.44 per cent rural households (with but 0.20 hectare) gets in an average 4.4
quintals of crops while households with but 0.50 hectare get 11.0 quintals of crops once a
year , in a mean size of 5.6 persons per rural household. This production is indeed very
insufficient even to satisfy the essential food requirements of the household albeit of these
households have gotten the very best average yield.

Besides, there remain problems of unemployment and seasonal employment within the period
between 1987-88 and 1999-2000 West Bengal has witnessed a decrease within the growth of
employment in agriculture by 9.48 per cent in spite of growth of income in agriculture
[Planning Commission 2004:39]. West Bengal has the second highest rate of rural
unemployment within the entire country with 17 per cent unemployed of total as against the
national average of 7 .20 per cent. The present status of unemployment among the
agricultural youth (15-29 years) is as high as 26.60 per cent [Planning Commission 2004]. K
Sundaram after analyzing the NSS 55th round data points out that there has been a rise within
the rural poverty in West Bengal from 54.15 per cent in 1993-94 to 56.16 per cent in 1999-
2000 while there was decline in urban poverty from 20.97 per cent to 16.74 per cent within
the same period [Sundaram 2000:3039-49].
WORKS CITED
 Drishti IAS Compendium- https://www.drishtiias.com/pdf/1626086352-peasant-
movements-in-india.pdf
 Sucha Singh Gill. “Peasant Movements and Rural Transformation.” Economic and
Political Weekly, vol. 40, no. 1, Economic and Political Weekly, 2005, pp. 41–43,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4416009.
 Wikipedia contributors. (2021, November 29). Sociology. In Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:20, November 30, 2021,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sociology&oldid=1057724839