Theme 19Part C · The Gandhian era
Peasant, worker, tribal and princely state movements
1859 to 1951 · the movements of the countryside, the forests, the mills and the states
This theme gathers the movements that ran beside the main Congress campaigns and often ahead of them. Put together on three maps, they show how deep and wide resistance to colonial rule and its allies went.
Event 11859 to 1951
Peasant movements
Peasants fought landlords, planters, moneylenders and the revenue state long before, and long after, the Congress came to the villages. Learn them in four waves.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
The Indigo revolt in Bengal (1859 to 1860), around Nadia, against planters who forced ryots to grow indigo; Dinabandhu Mitra's play Nil Darpan. The Pabna agrarian leagues (1873 to 1876) against zamindars. The Deccan riots (1875) against moneylenders in Poona and Ahmednagar. Vasudev Balwant Phadke's armed band (1879).
Champaran and Kheda; the Kisan Sabhas of Awadh (Baba Ramchandra, 1918 to 1920) and the Eka movement of Madari Pasi (1921 to 1922) in Hardoi and Bahraich; the Moplah rising in Malabar (1921).
Bardoli (1928): under Vallabhbhai Patel, who earns the title Sardar, peasants refuse a revenue increase of 22 to 30 per cent (sources differ); an inquiry cuts it to about 6 per cent. Kisan sabhas in Bihar (Swami Sahajanand, 1929) and Andhra (N. G. Ranga), and the All India Kisan Sabha (1936).
Tebhaga in Bengal (1946 to 1947): sharecroppers demand two thirds of the crop instead of half. Telangana (1946 to 1951): an armed communist led rising against the Nizam's landlords. The Warli revolt in Thane (Godavari Parulekar, 1945) and Punnapra Vayalar in Travancore (1946).
Event 21899 to 1932
Tribal movements of the twentieth century
Forest laws, outsiders and missionaries kept tribal India in ferment. The best known leaders became national heroes after independence.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
Birsa Munda preached a new faith and led the Ulgulan (great tumult) of the Mundas around Ranchi and Khunti against dikus, landlords and missionaries who had broken the khuntkatti (communal) land system. He died in Ranchi jail in 1900, aged about 25. The Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (1908) followed.
Govind Guru's Bhagat movement among the Bhils; at Mangarh hill in Banswara (17 November 1913) troops kill hundreds of Bhils. The Tana Bhagat movement of the Oraons under Jatra Bhagat (1914), which later joined the Congress.
Alluri Sitarama Raju leads the Rampa rebellion (1922 to 1924) in the Godavari hills, attacking police stations; he is killed in 1924. In the Naga hills, Jadonang's Heraka movement and Rani Gaidinliu's resistance (1931 to 1932).
Event 31927 to 1947
Movements in the princely states
About two fifths of India was ruled by princes, where there were no elections, little free press and often heavy taxes. People organised in praja mandals, and the Congress slowly took up their cause.
Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.
The All India States People's Conference (1927) coordinates the movements. Praja mandals form in state after state: Mysore (Shivapura flag satyagraha, 1938), Travancore State Congress, Hyderabad State Congress (1938), Rajkot, Jaipur (Jamnalal Bajaj), the Odisha states (Dhenkanal, where 12 year old Baji Rout is shot in 1938; Talcher).
At Haripura (1938) the Congress declares independence for the states too. Gandhi fasts at Rajkot (1939). Nehru becomes president of the AISPC at Ludhiana (1939). In Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference (1939) launches the Quit Kashmir movement against the Maharaja (1946).
Event 41877 to 1946
Workers
Industrial workers were few but concentrated in a handful of cities, which gave them weight beyond their numbers.
- 1877 Strike at the Empress Mills, Nagpur, over wages.
- 1890 N. M. Lokhande's Bombay Mill Hands Association, India's first labour organisation; Sunday holiday won.
- 1908 Bombay mill workers strike for six days against Tilak's sentence, the first political strike.
- 1918 Ahmedabad mill strike with Gandhi; Madras Labour Union (B. P. Wadia).
- 1920 AITUC founded (Theme 17).
- 1926 and 1929 Trade Union Act and Trade Disputes Act.
- 1928 Girni Kamgar strike in Bombay; railway workshop strikes.
- Feb 1946 Workers strike in Bombay in support of the RIN mutiny.
Who's who13 people
People
Dinabandhu Mitra
Nil Darpan
Play on the indigo planters (1860).
Vasudev Balwant Phadke
Maharashtra
Armed peasant band, 1879.
Madari Pasi
Eka
Awadh, 1921 to 1922.
Vallabhbhai Patel
Bardoli
Sardar from 1928.
N. G. Ranga
Andhra
Peasant leader.
Godavari Parulekar
Warli revolt
Thane, 1945.
Birsa Munda
Ulgulan
Died in Ranchi jail, 1900.
Govind Guru
Bhils
Mangarh, 1913.
Jatra Bhagat
Tana Bhagat
Oraon leader.
Alluri Sitarama Raju
Rampa
Killed 1924.
Sheikh Abdullah
Kashmir
National Conference; Quit Kashmir.
Baji Rout
Dhenkanal
Boatman boy shot in 1938.
N. M. Lokhande
Bombay
First labour association (1890).
Key terms7
Terms
- Tebhaga
- Two thirds: the sharecroppers' demand in Bengal.
- Eka
- Unity: the Awadh peasant movement of 1921 to 1922.
- Ulgulan
- Great tumult: Birsa Munda's rising.
- Khuntkatti
- Munda system of common ownership of land by the founding clan.
- Praja mandal
- People's association in a princely state.
- AISPC
- All India States People's Conference (1927).
- Nil Darpan
- Mirror of Indigo, 1860 play.