Popular Resistance to Zamindari Oppression in Eastern U.P., Northern India, 1920-60' A Thesis submitted to the University of London completion of the requirements for the degree of PhD Kusum Gopal School of Oriental and African Studies 1995 ProQuest Number: 10673081 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673081 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract This study examines popular politics in Uttar Pradesh with specific reference to Gorakhpur, Basti and Azamgarh bewtween 1920-60. The focus is on the politicisation of the kisans , ordinary men and women who were numerically the largest section of rural society. It is argued that their world views and political aspirations were informed by clearly defined notions of social justice and power relations, themselves based on particular problems stemming from the nature of julum , one of its meanings being the tyranny of the zamindars. This thesis makes extensive use of oral sources, utilising social anthropological tools and places greater weight on folk wisdom, local customs and cosmological beliefs. The social construction of gender is important to this study. It is argued that kisans’ politics made no fundamental change to the pre-existing system of gender relations, because gender was not the object of protest. It is also argued that their political aspirations remained largely independent of official Congress politics: the kisans were not passive victims, but actively resisted and manipulated elements of elite domination by pronouncing their own goals. Although all kinds of popular associations with the environment, myths, leg­ ends and customs were used to mobilise the kisans , they realised their political identities not within the framework of the nationalist discourse, but against it. The Congress was forced to espouse the kisans’ demand for outright land own­ ership and promise the abolition of zamindari in its bid to take over office. This study concludes by stating that the historical weight and energy of these popu­ lar movements decisively influenced the government and compelled it to adopt a socialist agenda. Acknowledgements There are a number of people and institutions who provided invaluable help with this thesis whom I should like to thank. First of all I must thank my supervisor David Arnold for his many insightful remarks, his expert guidance and his immense patience during the writing of this thesis. Without him, this thesis would not have been possible. The staffs of several libraries and archives, in particular the Haddon and the University Library in Cambridge, the British Museum Library and the India Office Library in London, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and the National Archives of India in Delhi, the Uttar Pradesh State Archives in Lucknow and the Aaj newspaper in Banaras, have been efficient and co-operative, and thus greatly facilitated this research. I would like to express my gratitude to the district administration, especially the clerical staff (some of whom had long since retired) in the Collectorates and District Courts in Azamgarh, Basti, Gorakhpur and Deoria for helping me by making available land maps, revenue records, court cases of the 1930s and the 1940s and sharing their knowledge with me. I am also extremely grateful to my very dear father, mother and Christopher for their constant support, and for encouraging me to persevere. I dedicate this thesis to them. Arvind and Kalyani have always supplied good cheer during difficult periods with affection and understanding. Many friends gave me comfort, among whom I wish to thank Sarah Green for the intellectual stimulus, David Castillejo for his optimism, Tom Cadbury, Robert Neather, Felix Padel and Jean Simpson for their good humour, and a very special thank you to Graham White and Giuliano Procida for their ready assistance with RTj^X. I shall remain always deeply indebted to the generosity, kindness and wisdom of the women and men in the villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The solution of the riddle of life in space and time lies outside space and time, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Abbreviations AICC All India Congress Committee CPC Criminal Proceednre Code DCC District Congress Committee MCC Mandal Congress Committee NAI National Archives of India NMML Nehru Memorial Museum and Library PAI Police Abstracts of Intelligence TCC Tahsil Congress Committee UPBECR United Provinces Banking Enquiry Commission Report UPPCC United Provinces Provincial Congress Committee UPRAR United Provinces Revenue Administration Report UPSA Uttar Pradesh State Archives G lossary aandhi storm bacchiya child abadi a human settlement bad aegle marmegos or wood-apple abwab fees badiya good achari pandit badmaash hooligan adh pau half a pound weight ballams lances adh batai half of a share bargad banyan tree, ficus indica adhikari authority batai division of crop akhara gymnasium badzat person of ill repute amin a revenue clerk begar forced, unpaid labour angethi stove bhaita sit aroii calotropis gigantea bhang opium arthi invoking the divine bhusa fodder arhat a credit agency bhut ghost asami a tenant bigha unit of measurement boli dialect hag right bedakhli eviction harwaha ploughman camina a contemptible person himsa violence chabutra raised platform near a hukumat administration dwelling huqqa tobacco pipe chak plot of land huzur master chhatak sixteenth part of a seer, two ilaqa locality ounces ishtafas notices of resignation chittia letter jalim cruel choti a pigtail jamun eugenia jambolona daroga policeman darshan blessing jatha a large gathering dehelia mud cakes jaukerai a field of millet dub cynodon dactylon jotedar a cultivator farzi not real, false entry jhil a lake fasli calendar year karinda bailiff ghair kabiz not in possession kusa poa c.ynosuroides ghosana patra a written resolution kutia hut hari free provisions khajdi string instrument iii khapdias mud pots lathi wooden stick mahua bassia latifolia maurausi hereditary occupancy rights milkiyat inalienable proprietar}' rights nakhat lunar asterism neem azadrica indica panch five or a group of elders in a village patta deed or lease of landownership peepal ficus religiosa sal shorea robusta sarkar government sattu parched grain sipahi mercenary or regular soldier thana a police station tulsi ocymum sanctum C onten ts Abbreviations i Glossary ii Introduction 1 1 Two Kinds of Knowledge 43 2 Gender and Oppression 120 3 “Taking the field”: The emergence of popular politics, 1920— 1937 151 4 Holding out: The resistance to julum 1937—1947 226 5 The Movements of the Disinherited, 1947—1960 284 Conclusion 327 Appendices 342 Bibliography 354 v List of Tables 1.1 Distribution of Proprietorship, Basti District, 1919 50 1.2 Number of zamindars: Gorakhpur division 1881-1945 ..................... 57 1.3 Distribution of land ownership by Caste ............................................ 59 1.4 Sample of a cultivator’s budget, Sripalpur village, Basti District, 1 9 3 1 ............................................................................................................ 91 vi List of Figures 0.1 Gorakhpur division ................................................................................. 3 0.2 Eastern U ttar P r a d e s h ........................................................................... 26 1.1 The village m ap ........................................................................................ 64 1.2 The patwari’s m a p ................................................................................. 75 1.3 A kisan’s m a p ........................................................................................... 99 vii Introduction The broad purpose of this thesis is to examine the subject of popular politics in the United Provinces of Agra and Awadh1 between 1920 and 1960, with specific reference to Gorakhpur division, that is, the districts of Gorakhpur, Basti and Azamgarh.2 Essential to my understanding of the “politics of the people”3 is the notion of julum , which the kisans (peasants without land ownership rights) described as the tyranny of the zamindari system. In order to encompass the wider understanding of julum it is necessary to examine the polarisation of so­ ciety between the kisans and the zamindars; to enter into the cosmology which influenced the collective experiences of the kisans; to study their interaction with their environment, their local agricultural customs and traditional practices. The social construction of gender is also important to this study: what did it mean to be female or male, and how were social relations constituted in this region with respect to caste, class and religion? Finally, I hope to illustrate how the philosophical underpinnings of popular politics drew as much from the underlying spiritual tradition as from the turmoils arising from the land problem and the struggle for survival. 1 Later known as Uttar Pradesh and henceforth abbreviated to U.P. 2Deoria was carved out of Gorakhpur and