Shodh Prabha: A Multidisciplinary Journal

Peasant Movements in Modern India: Agrarian Resistance, Colonial Exploitation and Nationalist Politics

The rural resistance to the exploitation of villages by colonial powers, landlord oppression, forced commercial cultivation, burdensome and unfair land revenue systems were all expressions of peasant resistance. This paper explores the historical context, reasons, shape and effect of peasant movements under the British rule. It examines the way in which colonial agrarian policies such as the Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems, changed the land relations and raised the economic vulnerability of cultivators. Significant types of resistance, including rent refusal, failure to pay revenue, petitions, boycott, satyagraha and organised peasant mobilisation are also highlighted in the study. The growing transformation of local economic protest to the wider political mobilisation can be seen in such movements as the Indigo Revolt, Deccan Riots, Champaran, Bardoli, Tebhaga and Telangana. The paper suggests that peasant movements did not just question colonial and feudal institutions but also reinforced the social base of Indian nationalism and influenced the tenancy rights and land reforms and agrarian justice debates of the post-independence period.