Indigo Revolt and other Peasant Movements: Bipin Chandra has written that in the 19th and 20th century, there took place large scale revolts against the unjust British policies involving economic exploitation and physical brutality as well These revolts commenced with the . These movements reflected spontaneous response of exploited Indian cultivators against the source of immediate exploitative policies of moneylenders, contractors and government administrators. They were local in nature and never threatened the British Empire. Those revolts lacked the positive concept of life generated by the new economic factors led by the British imperialism in . Those movements were led by illiterate cultivators who had better understanding of exploitation followed by an exploitative government than more by the so called educated upper class elites in India. The popular peasant movements are as follows: 1. The Commencement of Indigo Revolt: Indigo plantation represented the worst slavery practiced in Bengal and Bihar. The poor cultivators in those states were forced to cultivate Indigo and higher returns were promised to them. But in reality, they were paid nothing. In the case of protest, their houses, cattle and crops were burned. Indigo Plantation Act of 1830: This act laid that any planter who would unilaterally violate lease agreement with cultivator, he shall be sued under IPC and it would be a penal offence. In April 1859, Indigo revolt started at Barasat in West Bengal. But the revolt was suppressed. In September 1860, the government appointed Indigo Riot Enquiry Committee led by James Simpson. It suggested: 1. The forced cultivation should be banned. 2. Din Bandhu Mitra in 1860 wrote Neel Darpan which highlighted the worst exploitation of the poor cultivator. From 1866 to 1868, Champaran Revolt in North West Bihar. In 1872, Pabna Revolt in Bangladesh. In 1917, by Gandhiji. TINKATHIYA SYSTEM As there existed notorious Tinkathiya system under which landlords used to provide thekedari lease to the Indigo planters. On the other hand, due to the frequent revolt along with invention of synthetic dye, the value of the indigo fell low. Thus, the indigo planters in order to make for their compensation devised two instruments: 1. Sharabashi: Land revenue enhancement to the poor cultivator. 2. Tawan: Lump sum amount to be paid by the poor cultivator. Champaran Satyagraha: In December 1916, the prominent land lord from Bihar Raj Kumar Shukla met Gandhiji in Lucknow in the first and last joint session of Congress and Muslim League and persuaded him to visit Champaran. In 1917, along with Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Raj Kumar Shukla led his first non-violent satyagraha in Champaran which proved to be a success. This resulted in the enactment of Champaran Agrarian Relief Act of 1918 under which forced cultivation of indigo was banned forever. KHAIRA SATYAGRAHA (1919) Gandhiji led this Satyagraha against arbitrary increase in land revenue to be paid by the cultivators, despite the failure of the cotton crop in the region. It was the first no tax campaign led by Gandhiji in which he asked the cultivator not to pay taxes and revenue arrears. The British government was forced to withdraw the land rent and this was another victory for Gandhian nationalism.

DECCAN PEASANT REVOLT IN 1875 The revolt started in 33 taluqas in Poona, Supa and Ahmednagar. It marked the worst peasant revolt in 19th century. The Bombay government was notorious for the enhancement of the land rent. The poor cultivators were forced to borrow from Marwari lenders who were exploitative and manipulated the accounts of the poor cultivators. In 1875, the anger of the poor cultivator found an outlet in worst peasant revolt. In 1877, the government enacted the Deccan Peasant Riots Enquiry Commission with the government support: 1. Poverty and frequent land indebtness were the main causes of revolt. The government enacted Deccan Agrarian Relief Act of 1879 to protect poor cultivators from moneylenders and landlords.

MOPHLA REVOLT (1921-1922) Mophlas are the Muslim tribes in Malabar Coast of Kerala. Sumit Sarkar has written that it represents a complexity of Indian situation where religious fundamentalism found manifestation in anti-landlordism and anti-British actions.

Since the advent of the Portuguese (arrival of Vasco Da Gama) landed at Calicut, Mophlas led revolt against foreigners, reflected in their local songs known as ‘Kothupali Mala’ (songs sung in honour of those who died in the glory of Islam in Jihad against foreigners.) Tipu Sultan abolished polygars (traditional Hindu landlords) and transferred lands to Muslim cultivators known as Verupatttamdars as well as Muslim lease holders known as Kanam Das. The British government abolished both of them and restored lands to the higher castes (Namboodri Brahmans and Nairs of Kerala). The popular revolts were led by Syed Alvi and Syed Fadl in the beginning of 19th century and both were deported to Burma. Between 1831 to 1851, there was a resurgence of religious fundamentalism as the fact was quite evident in the rise of the number of mosques from 637 in 1831 to 1058 in 1851. In those years, there took place 22 Islamic revolts all over India. On the other hand, upper caste Hindu landlords proved to be exploitative and increased land rent considerably. Between 1861 to 1880, there was 244% increase in litigation by landlords for recovery of land rent 441% increase in land eviction in Malabar region by courts. The immediate cause of the revolt in Mophla: In 1922, Gandhiji withdrew non-cooperation movement after Chauri Chaura incident without consulting the Ali Brothers. The Mophla revolts were agrarian which later took the shape of communal riots in India. AWADH PEASANT REVOLTS (1920-1921) In 1920-21, huge peasant revolts took place in Faizabad and Rae Bareilly. These revolts were directed against the taluqdars (middlemen) who collected revenue from the village as a whole and used to remit it to the state exchequer. It was always in their interest to extract as much revenue as possible from the poor cultivators. In 1921, the poor cultivators led by Babu Ram Chandra (the Hero of Awadh Revolt) revolted but the movement was suppressed by the government with an iron hand. The most important feature of the Awadh revolt was that it was the first radical revolt led by the cultivators in India because it was the first movement based on the secular considerations and was guided by the Marxist ideology and class struggle. BBARDOLI SATYAGRAHA According to the 1921 census, the region of Gujarat had around 87000 urban population. In 1927, the Bombay government enhanced land revenue by 22% which was opposed by Mehta Brothers led by Kalyanji Mehta who found Pattidhar Yuvak Mandal and launched no tax campaign. Assisted by Dubla tribe, popularly known as Kalaprani (the black thing) in Gujarat, the government in order to divide the movement offered land rights to Dubla tribe which they refused. Mahadev Desai, the personal assistant of Gandhiji and the editor of My Experiments with Truth praised Dubla tribe because of their high sense of nationalism. Mehta brothers persuaded Sardar Patel to lead Bardoli Satyagraha. They were influenced by Indigo revolts. Sardar Patel decided to organize Kirtan Mandali to popularize the movement. He told the local tribal people that the tribal gods Sylia and Simila had become very old and they had entrusted the movement to Gandhiji. In 1928, the British government appointed Maxwell Bloom Committee which recommended that the enhanced revenue collections in Gujarat should be cancelled. AGRARIAN REVOLTS IN EAST PUNJAB The agrarian revolts in East Punjab were led by: 1. Sewa Singh Thikriwala 2. Master Jagat Singh Joga 3. Master Hari Singh 4. Baba Khadak Singh Their movement was directed against Maharaja Bhupendra Singh of Patiala who increased the land revenue by 19% and extended his personal hunting land. They laid the foundation of ‘Punjab Praja Riyasati Mandal’ with headquarter in Mansa. In 1928, the Maharaja was forced to withdraw the increase. Thus, we can conclude that the peasant revolts had their origin in the Indigo revolt. There were many reasons of those revolts and the most important reason was the exploitative policies of the British.