Repression Of Peasant Movement In India

Major clashes erupted in a number of locations, the most notable of which was at Khanpur, where twenty peasants were killed. Repression continued, and the movement was effectively dead by the end of February. In March, there were a few incidents as well, but they were merely the last gasps of a dying struggle. 

 

•    The Muslim League Ministry failed to get the bill passed in the Assembly, and it wasn't until 1950 that the Congress Ministry passed the Bargadars Bill, which incorporated the movement's demands in substance.

 

•    Dinajpur, Rangpur, Jalpaiguri, Mymensingh, Midnapore, and to a lesser extent 24-Parganas and Khulna were the main centres of the movement. 

 

•    The Rajbansi Kshatriya peasants were the initial target, but it quickly spread to Muslims, Hajongs, Santhals, and Oraons. Krishnobinode Ray, Abani Lahiri, Sunil Sen, Bhowani Sen, Moni Singh, Ananta Singh, Bhibuti Guha, Ajit Ray, Sushil Sen, Samar Ganguli, and Gurudas Talukdar were among the movement's key figures.

 

•    It is difficult to assess the impact of such a diverse and varied struggle, but it can be asserted that the peasant movements that swept large swaths of the subcontinent in the 1930s and 1940s created the climate that necessitated post-independence agrarian reforms, even if they did not achieve immediate success. 

 

•    Zamindari abolition, for example, did not occur as a direct result of any particular struggle, but the kisan sabha's popularisation of the demand certainly aided in its realisation.

 

•    The reduction of taxes, the abolition of illegal cesses or feudal levies, and begar or vethi, the end of oppression by landlords and their agents, the reduction of debts, the restoration of illegally or illegitimately seized lands, and security of tenure for tenants were the immediate demands on which struggles were fought in the pre-Independence days. 

 

•    Agricultural labourers' demands, with the exception of a few pockets in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, did not really become part of the movement. These demands were based on the peasantry's existing awareness of their just or legitimate rights, which was a product of tradition, custom, usage, and legal rights in and of it.

 

•    Peasants were willing to resist when landlords or the government demanded what they saw as illegitimate — high taxes, exorbitant rents, illegal cesses, forced labour, or rights over land they believed was theirs — if they could muster the necessary organisational and other resources. 

 

•    They were, however, willing to continue to honour what they saw as legitimate demands. The struggles based on these demands were clearly aimed at alleviating the most oppressive aspects of the existing agrarian structure rather than overthrowing it. 

 

•    Nonetheless, they weakened the landed classes' power in a variety of ways, laying the groundwork for the structure's transformation. The kisan movement was tasked with transforming peasant consciousness and establishing movements based on that consciousness.

 

•    It is also worth noting that, for the most part, the peasant movements' forms of struggle and mobilisation, as well as their demands, were similar in nature. 

 

•    Meetings, conferences, rallies, demonstrations, enlistment of members, and the formation of kisan sabhas or ryotu and karshaka sanghams were all major focal points. Non-payment of rent and taxes, as well as Satyagraha or civil disobedience, was common forms of direct action. For several years, all of these forms had become the national movement's stock-in-trade. 

 

•    Violent clashes were the exception, not the rule, in the national movement. They were usually popular responses to extreme repression and were rarely sanctioned by the leadership. 

 

•    The outbreak of World War II halted the rising tide of peasant awakening, resulting in the resignation of Congress ministers and the launch of harsh repression against left-wing and kisan Sabha leaders and workers for their strong anti-war stance. 

 

•    Following Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union in December 1941, the CM adopted the Peoples' War line, causing schisms among the kisan Sabha's Communist and non-Communist members. 

 

•    The Quit India Movement, in which Congress Socialist members played a key role, brought these divisions to a head. The CPI asked its cadres to stay away because of its pro-war People's War line, and while many local level workers joined the Quit India Movement, the party line sealed the rift in the kisan sabha ranks, resulting in a split in 1943. 

 

•    Despite this, during the war years, the Kisan Sabha continued to play an important role in various types of relief work, such as during the Bengal Famine of 1943, where it helped to alleviate the severity of shortages of essential goods, rationing, and other measures. 

 

•    Despite being severely hampered by its unpopular pro-War stance, which alienated it from various sections of the peasantry, it continued its organisational work.

 

•    The end of the war, followed by power transfer negotiations and the prospect of freedom, marked a qualitatively new stage in the peasant movement's development. The certainty of approaching freedom with the promise of a new social order encouraged peasants, among other social groups, to assert their rights and claims with renewed vigour.

 

•    The peasant movement's relationship with the national movement remained vital and integral throughout. For one thing, the peasant movement was usually active in areas that had been drawn into previous national struggles. 

 

•    At the very least, this was true in Punjab, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. This was not surprising, given that it was the spread of the national movement that had created the initial conditions for peasant struggles to emerge — a politicised and aware peasantry, as well as a group of active political workers capable of and willing to perform the task of organisation and leadership. 

 

•    The kisan movement accepted and based itself on the ideology of nationalism in its ideology as well. Its cadres and leaders spread the message of national freedom as well as peasantry organisation along class lines. As previously stated, kisan activists enrolled both kisan sabha and Congress members in most areas.

 

•    True, serious differences emerged between sections of Congressmen and the kisan sabha in some regions, such as Bihar, and the kisan movement appeared to be on a collision course with the Congress at times, but this tended to happen only when both left-wing activists and right-wing or conservative Congressmen took extreme positions and showed an unwillingness to accommodate each other. 

 

•    Before 1942, these divisions were usually kept to a minimum, and the kisan and national movements shared a lot of common ground. 

 

•    The kisan movement learned from the split of 1942 that deviating too far and too clearly from the path of the national movement resulted in the loss of mass support as well as a split within the ranks of its leadership. As a result, the peasant movement's growth and development were inextricably linked to the national struggle for independence.