Peasant Movements in India (Modern India)

Peasant movements in India 

The Santhal Rebellion of 1855-56 

• Santhal people, Singhbhum. Big land, Hazari Bagh, Midnapore, Bankura and Virbhoomi used to live in the state.
• According to the permanent land tax system of 1793, their ancestral land became the landlord. In Bengal and North India, moneylenders started usury here. 
• They revolted under the leadership of Sidhu and Kanhu, against the atrocities of police and government employees, and announced to establish their government. 
• The army took action and in February 1856, the rebellion was suppressed by capturing Na Ja.

 Indigo farmers strike in Bengal 

•  This movement, which ran from 1858 to 1860, was carried out against the British landowners. 
• Some retired officers of the company used to get land from the landlords of Bengal and Bihar to get indigo cultivated. 
• They used to persecute the farmers and on arbitrary terms Used to do farming. 
• In April 1860, all the peasants of Pabna and Nadia districts organized the first peasant strike in Indian history. 
• This strike spread to Jessore, Khulna, Rajshahi, Dhaka, Malda, Dinajpur, etc. 
• In 1860, the British appointed a Neel Commission. 
• In 1859 AD, Neel Revolt was described by Deenbandhu Mitra in his play 'Neel Darpan'. 
• In 1875, Marathi peasants in the Deccan revolted against the Marwari Katha Gujarati moneylenders. 
• These moneylenders exploited the farmers by manipulating loans. The Farmers Relief Act was enacted in 1879. 

Champaran Satyagraha: 

• The European indigo growers of the Champaran district of North India exploited Bihari indigo farmers. 
• Gandhiji, with the help of Babu Rajendra Prasad in 1917, inspired farmers to do non-violent non-cooperation and Satyagraha was done. 
• Due to which the Bihar government got angry and arrested Gandhiji. 
• Champaran Farmers Act was passed after the inquiry committee report.

Kheda (Kheda) movement 

• This movement was mainly against the Government of Bombay in 1918 due to drought, crops were destroyed, due to which the farmers Were unable to deliver tax. 
• The government wanted to fully recover the land tax without any exemption. As a result, farmers led a satyagraha under Gandhiji, which continued till June 1918. In the end, the government had to accept the demands. 

Formation of Kisan Sabhas

• Andhra Prantiya Sabha in 1928 and All India Kisan Sabha were formed in Lucknow in 1936 The first president was Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. 

Other agrarian movements. :

• Tebhaga movement of Bengal, Hyderabad, Telangana movement of Deccan, Worli rebellion etc. in western India. 

Highlights 

• First, the capitalists of the Lancashire textile industry demanded forming trade unions in India. 
• The first factory act was passed in 1881 and the second in 1891 so that some statutes were passed to women and child labor. 
• In 1908, when Lokmanya Tilak was sentenced to Mandalay prison in Burma, the workers of Bombay went on strike for six days, which has been praised by Lenin.
• M.N. Roy formed the Communist Party of India in 1921.
•  C.R. Das, VV Giri, Sarojini Naidu, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose were the presidents of AITUC. 
• In 1918 Gandhiji formed the Ahmedabad Textile Labor Association (TLA).
•  From the 1920s onwards, the influence of the Left parties had an impact on the entire freedom struggle. 
• In 1927 S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, PC Joshi, Sohan Singh Josh together formed the Workers and Peasants Party WPP. He used to work within Congress.