When the elites of the Indian society were busy initiating religious and social reforms to change their society from within in order to answer the moralistic critiques of the West, the rural society was responding to the imposition of Colonial rule in an entirely different way, with resistance and defiance throughout India albeit localized in nature, resulting in a series of unsuccessful attempts at restoring the old order.
PEASANT REBELLIONS AND MOVEMENTS
The peasants suffered from high rents, illegal levies, arbitrary evictions, and unpaid labor in the zamindari areas. In Ryotwari areas, the government itself levied heavy land revenue. The overburdened farmer, fearing the loss of their only source of livelihood, often approached the local moneylender who made full use of the farmer’s difficulties by extracting high rates of interest on the money given to farmers. The social, political, economic, and cultural life of Indians with the help of the enactment of law and introduction of new legal systems, etc led to discontentment amongst the Indians in general and peasants in particular. Accumulation of grievances and absence of redressal of the same precipitated into rebellion/ uprising and movements.
PEASANT UPRISINGS
The impoverishment of the Indian peasantry was a direct result of the transformation of the agrarian structure due to
- colonial economic policies.
- ruin of the handicrafts leading to overcrowding of farming.
- the new land revenue system.
- colonial administration and judicial system. Some of the important peasant uprisings are given below
PEASANTS UPRISING OF RANGPUR (1783)
Rangpur and Dinajpur were two of the districts of Bengal, which faced all kinds of illegal demands by the East India Company and its revenue contractors. One such revenue contractor was Debi Singh of Rangpur and Dinajpur. He and his agents created a reign of terror in the two districts of Northern Bengal. Peasants appealed to the company officials to redress their grievances. Their appeal, however, remained unnoticed. Being deprived of justice, the peasants took the law into their own hands. They elected Dirhjinarayana as their leader and attacked the local Kutcheries (courts) and storehouses of crops of local agents of the contractors and government officials. Both Hindus and Muslims fought side by side in the insurrection. Ultimately, the government’s armed forces took control of the situation and suppressed the revolt.
REBELLION AT MYSORE (1830-31)
The financial pressure from the company on the ruler of Mysore (Wodeyar) ultimately fell on the cultivators. The corruption and extortion of local officials further added to the existing miseries of the peasants. A revolt broke out in the province of Nagar and peasants from adjoining areas joined the rebellion. Sardar Malla was a prominent leader of the rebels, who defied the authority of Mysore ruler.
MOPLAH UPRISING (1835-1921)
Moplah were poor peasants and agricultural laborers, cultivating tenants, petty traders, and fishermen of South Malabar. They were mostly descendants of Arab settlers/traders and converts from lower castes (like Tiyya Hindu) and were followers of orthodox Islam. They represented lower socio-economic strata of the society.
British occupation of Malabar and the introduction of new changes in land revenue administration aggravated the hardship of Moplahs.
The Zamindars (Jenmis) from the traditional partnership with the Moplahs were transferred to an independent owner of the land. Overassessment, imposition of illegal taxes, eviction, and overall hostile attitude of British landlords, etc forced Moplahs to opt for rebellion.
The role of religious leaders in this movement was significant and in fact, they strengthened the movement.
This uprising also caught the attention of Harish Chandra Mukherjee (editor of Hindu Patriot), Ram Gopal Ghose (Amrita Bazaar Patrika), and many other intellectuals, who supported the cause of cultivators through their writings.
The 2nd half of the 19th century witnessed a new phase of the Moplah uprising that was essentially targeted against the Jenmi Landlords. This involved looting of the property and burning of houses and even defiling Hindu temples. An inquiry was initiated on the basis of a petition submitted by Moplah peasants in 1875, and it was branded a communal rebellion.
The hostilities were renewed between 1882-85 and the conflict changed its color from class conflict to assume communal orientation by 1896, with the help of British interpretation of uprising. Malabar rebellion of 1921, was an important political event of that period.
British authorities became restless due to the strengthening and spreading of the Khilafat Movement in Malabar after the Ottappalam Conference. The government resorted to brutal repression to destroy the movement. This resulted in the bursting out of Muslim peasants, who were already angry.
When police attempted to arrest Mohammed Kalathingal, Secretary of the Khilafat Committee of Ernad Taluk, his followers tried to prevent it. Provoked by this act, the authorities sent a police force and rumor of an attack on the mosque led to the outbreak of rebellion that went out of control.
In Ernad and Valluvanad, Taluks rebels seized government offices and plundered treasuries. Both railway and road transport were disrupted. The rebel leaders declared self-rule in Malabar. But within a few days, the government declared martial law and through brutal repressive measures suppressed the rebellion. Later, rebel leaders like Variyan Kunnathu Kunjahammed Haji, Ali Musliyar, and Chembakassery Tangal were put to trial and shot dead.
PAGAL PANTHI REVOLT (1825-50)
The peasant movement developed in the Sherpur Pargana of Mymen district in East Bengal, where Karam Shah and later his successor, Tipu Shah, started a new religious movement.
The peasants of the area resisted the collection of illegal abwabs by the zamindars and opposed the new revenue settlement i.e. Permanent Settlement. In such circumstances, around 1824 Tipu’s Pagal Panthi section held out a promise of a new regime and just rents. The new spirit gradually spread over the whole region and took the shape of an armed insurrection. It was crushed with the help of the army in 1833.
INDIGO RIOTS BENGAL (1859-60)
The largely European planters used totally arbitrary and ruthless methods to force peasants to grow the unremunerative indigo crop on a part of their land in Eastern India. Peasants were kidnapped, and illegally confined, women and children were attacked, cattle were lifted, and crops were looted, burnt, and destroyed if the peasants were defiant. The British planters enjoyed the privileges and immunities and placed them above the law and beyond all Judicial Court.
Finally, in 1860, the terribly oppressed indigo peasants launched the non-cultivation of indigo movements. In April 1860, all the cultivators of the Barasat sub-division and in the districts of Pabna and Nadia resorted to strike to articulate their demands. Factories were attacked as were policemen and police posts. Household servants of the planters were pressurized to leave the service of their employers through social boycotts and caste pressures used by indigo agitators.
Nil Darpan, a Bengali play written by Dinabandhu Mitra highlighted the plight of peasants. The government ordered a notification to be issued enjoining the police to profess the right in the possession of their lands on which they had the liberty to sow any crop they like. This was the first strike of the Indian peasants and succeeded. The same story was repeated in 1867-68 in Champaran (Bihar).