WBBSE Solutions For Class 10 History And Environment Chapter 6 Peasant, Working Class And Left Movements In 20th-Century India Answer Questions

Chapter 6 Peasant, Working Class And Left Movements In 20th-Century India Very Short Answer

Question 1. What was the Moplah Revolt?
Answer: The Moplah Revolt of Malabar was a militant farmers’ rebellion in which thousands of Muslim farmers died.

Question 2. What was the name of the party established by the leftist leader Singaravellu?
Answer: Hindustan Workers’ and Farmers’ Party.

Question 3. Which organisation was formed by Aswini Kumar Dutta to solve problems in the villages and to safeguard the interests of the peasants?
Answer: Swadesh Bandhab Samity.

Question 4. What was the most important aspect of the farmers’ rebellion during the non-cooperation movement?
Answer: The fight against feudalism was the most important aspect of the farmers’ rebellion during the non-cooperation movement.

Question 5. Who was the founder of ‘Ayodhya Kisan Sabha’?
Answer: Jawaharlal Nehru.

Question 6. What was the outcome of the Bardauli Movement?
Answer: The government was forced to reduce the taxes of the farmers by 6.03%.

Question 7. Who was the leader of the farmers’ movement in Bengal?
Answer: Deshapran Birendranath Sasmal.

Question 8. Where did the worker’s strike work for the first time as a part of the labour movement?
Answer: The workers of Calcutta Tram Company stopped work and called a strike as a part of the labour movement in Bengal.

Question 9. Name the two bills that were passed by the Government in order to oust foreign Communists and ban workers’ strikes respectively.
Answer: Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill.

Question 10. Who was the Viceroy of India when the Civil Disobedience Movement began?
Answer: Lord Irwin.

Question 11. Who and when founded the Home Rule League?
Answer: Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Beasant in 1916.

Question 12. Who started the Civil Disobedience Movement?
Answer: Mahatma Gandhi.

Question 13. What was the date of Dandi March?
Answer: 12th March 1930.

Question 14. Where is Dandi?
Answer: In Gujarat.

Question 15. In which year did the Civil Disobedience Movement start?
Answer: In 1930.

Question 16. In which year was the Civil Disobedience Movement withdrawn?
Answer: In 1934.

Question 17. In India where was the first triumph of the technique of Satyagraha achieved?
Answer: Champaran.

Question 18. When did Gandhiji start the Champaran Satyagraha?
Answer: In 1917.

Question 19. When did Gandhiji organise a workers’ strike at Ahmedabad?
Answer: In 1918.

Question 20. Who founded the All India Home Rule League (1916)?
Answer: Annie Besant.

Question 21. When was the Non-Co-operation Movement started?
Answer: In 1920.

Question 22. Who was the first Vice President of AITUC?
Answer: Joseph Baptista.

Question 23. What was the main aim of the Bakasto movement?
Answer: The main aim of the Bakasto movement was to get back the lands from the landlords which were taken away due to non-payment of taxes during Great Depression.

Question 24. What are Bakasto lands?
Answer: The lands which were taken away from the farmers by the landlords due to nonpayment of taxes during the Great Depression, are called ‘Bakasto Land’.

Question 25. When was the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party formed?
Answer: In 1925.

Question 26. Who founded the Indian Federation of labour?
Answer: Manabendranath Roy.

Question 27. Who was the leader of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party in Bengal?
Answer: Naresh Sen Gupta.

Question 28. Who formed Indian Trade Union Federation?
Answer: Dewan Chamanlal under the leadership of V.V. Giri.

Question 29. Who called World War II an imperialist war?
Answer: Leftists.

Question 30. The hen was Rashid Ali Day observed?
Answer: 1st February 1946.

Question 31. What was the real name of M.N. Roy?
Answer: Narendra Nath Bhattacharya.

Question 32. Who was the leader of the Riang Rebellion?
Answer: Ratan Mani.

Question 33. Who formed Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar in Medinipur?
Answer: Ajoy Mukherjee.

Question 34. Who formed the Bengal Relief Committee?
Answer: Shyama Prasad Mukhopadhyay.

Question 35. Who was given the title of ‘Deshapran’?
Answer: Birendranath Sashmal.

Question 36. Who was the leader of the peasant movement in Faizabad?
Answer: Baba Ramachandra.

Question 37. Who formed Swadesh Bandhab Samity (1906)?
Answer: Ashwini Kumar Dutta.

Question 38. Who formed the ‘Young Comrades League’?
Answer: Oharani Goswami.

Question 39. When was All India Kisan Sabha formed?
Answer: April 1936.

Question 40. In which year was the Communist Party of India formed?
Answer: 1925.

Question 41. Who formed Hindustan Labourer Peasant Party (1923)?
Answer: Singaravellu.

Question 42. Name one journal published by Birendranath Chattopadhyay.
Answer: Atmoshakti.

Question 43. Name one journal of Abani Mukherjee.
Answer: Dhumketu.

Question 44. Who started Champaran and Kheda Satyagrahas?
Answer: Mahatma Gandhi.

Question 45. Who organised Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS)?
Answer: Sahajanand Saraswati.

Question 46. When was Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) organised?
Answer: In 1929.

Question 47. Who started the ‘no-revenue and no rent campaign?
Answer: The peasants of U.P.

Question 48. Name the first peasant organisation on an all-India basis.
Answer: All India Kisan Sabha.

Question 49. Name the first proper trade union set up in India.
Answer: Madras Labour Union.

Question 50. Who formed Madras Labour Union?
Answer: B.P. Wadia.

Question 51. When was AITUC formed?
Answer: 1920.

Question 52. Who wrote Indian Struggle?
Answer: Subash Chandra Bose.

Question 53. Who was the chairman of the All India Congress Socialist Party?
Answer: Sampurnanand.

Question 54. Where was the Communist Party of India formed?
Answer: Tashkent (in the erstwhile Soviet Union).

Question 55. Who was the leader of the communist groups in Bombay?
Answer: S. A. Dange.

Question 56. Who was the leader of the communist groups in Bengal?
Answer: Muzaffar Ahmed.

Question 57. Who was the founder of the Madras Labour Union?
Answer: B.P. Wadia founded the Madras Labour Union in 1919 A.D.

Question 58. Who first observed “May Day” in India?
Answer: The union leader Singaravellu Chettiar first observed May Day in India in 1923 A.D.

Question 59. What are the names of the two foreigners accused of the Meerut Conspiracy Case?
Answer: The names of the two foreigners are Benjamin Bradley and Phillip Spratt.

Question 60. Who first formed the communist party in a foreign country?
Answer: Manabendra Nath Roy first formed the communist party in Tashkent in 1920 A.D.

Question 61. Who was the founder of the Communist Party of India?
Answer: The communist leader Muzaffar Ahmed of Kanpur founded the Communist Party of India in 1925 A.D.

Question 62. Who was the editor of ‘Langal’ Patrika?
Answer: Poet Nazrul Islam was the editor of Langal Patrika.

Question 63. Who formed Congress Socialist Party and when?
Answer: Jayprakash Narayan formed Congress Socialist Party in 1934 A.D.

Question 64. Who was the founder of the Unionist Party of Punjab?
Answer: Fazli Hossein is the founder of the Unionist Party of Punjab.

Question 65. In which year was the ‘All India Kisan Sabha’ founded?
Answer: All India Kishan Sabha was founded in 1936 A.D.

Question 66. Who is the founder of ‘Ayodhya Kisan Sabha’?
Answer: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the founder of Ayodhya Kishan Sabha’.

Question 67. Who was the leader of the Bardouli Kishan movement?
Answer: Vallabh Bhai Patel was the leader of the Bardouli Kisan movement.

Question 68. Name two famous peasant leaders of Andhra.
Answer: Prof. N. G. Ranga and T. Prakasham were the leaders of Andhra.

Question 69. Who organized the Moplah revolt and where?
Answer: Moplah revolt was organized by the poor Muslim peasants of Malabar, Kerala.

Question 70. Where and under whose presidentship was the Ail India Kishan Sabha’s first session held?
Answer: Under the presidency of Sahajananda Saraswati, the first session of All India Kisan Sabha was held at Lucknow.

Question 71. Who is the founder of ‘The Kisan Praja Party’?
Answer: Fazlul Haque and Akram Khan were the founders of the Kisan Praja Party.

Question 72. What is the full name of E.M.S. Namboodripad?
Answer: Full name of E.M.S. Namboodripad is Ellikulla Manakkel Sankaran Namboodripad.

Question 73. Why did the farmers’ rebellion during Anti-Partition Movement take a communal character?
Answer: Whenever farmers demanded justice and protested against the landlords, the Government labelled it as communal unrest. It was easy for the Government to instigate the poor farmers, who were mostly Muslims, against the landlords and money-lenders, who were mostly Hindus.

Question 74. How was the Communist Party of India formed?
Answer: Leftist politics were greatly influenced by the Russian Revolution and the Communist Party of India was formed by Manabendranath Roy, Abani Mukherjee and others in Tashkent in 1920. Communist Party was set up in India in the year 1925.

Question 75. What was the ‘Meerut Conspiracy Case’?
Answer: Around the third decade of the twentieth century, in order to weaken the communist movement, 33 leftist trade union leaders were convicted under a false lawsuit in the ‘Meerut Conspiracy Case’ (1929-33) and jailed. Because of this verdict, the Communist Party of India, the Young Workers’ League and 12 other trade unions were banned in India in 1934.

Question 76. When was the partition of Bengal announced and given effect to?
Answer: The movement started in the wake of the decision to partition of Bengal announced on 20 July 1905. The partition was to be effective on and from 16 October 1905.

Question 77. What do you know about Eka movement?
Answer: Eka Movement or Unity Movement is a peasant movement which surfaced in Hardoi, Bahraich and Sitapur during the 1920s by the leaders of Congress and Khilafat leaders. The main reason of this movement was higher rent, which was generally higher than 50% in some areas. Soon leadership of the movement changed from Congress to Madari Pasi, a low-caste leader who was not inclined to accept non-violence.

Question 78. State the objectives of AITUC.
Answer: The objectives the AITUC were: To coordinate the activities of all the labour organizations in all trades and all provinces of India, and generally to further the interest of Indian labour in economic, social and political matters.

Question 79. State the objectives of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party.
Answer: The objectives of the WPP was to strive for a broad anti-imperialist front for the achievement of complete independence with the ultimate aim of establishing of socialism in the independent country.

Question 80. Where and by whom was the Communist Party of India formed?
Answer: Communist Party of India was formed by Manbendranath Roy, Abani Mukherjee and others in Tashkent in 1920.

Question 81. Name the people convicted in Meerut Conspiracy Case.
Answer: The people who were convicted in the Meerut Conspiracy Case were M. A. Dange, M. S. Mirajkar, Nimbakar, Ghate, Gangadhar Adhikari, Dharani Goswami, Gopen Chakraborty, Shibnath Banerjee, Muzaffar Ahmed, Kazi Nazrul Islam, P. C. Joshi, Maqbul Fida among others and British communist leaders like Benjamin Bradley and Phillip Sprat.

Question 82. Name some of the disguised names of M. N. Roy.
Answer: Some of his disguise names were ‘M. N. Roy’, ‘Hari Singh’, ‘Dr. Mahmud’, ‘D. Garsia’, ‘Mr. Banerjee, etc.

Question 83. Where were the labour movements observed during the Quit India movement?
Answer: The vibes of that labour movement could be felt at Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bombay, Nagpur, Jamshedpur, Madras, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

Question 84. Who formed Red Trade Union Congress and when?
Answer: Somnath Lahiri and Ranadive left the association with Congress and formed the ‘Red Trade Union Congress’ (RTUC) in 1931.

Question 85. Who formed AITUF?
Answer: V. V. Giri and N. M. Joshi left AITUC and formed ‘All India Trade Union Federation'(AITUF).

Question 86. Who and where formed Indian Mill Workers’ Union?
Answer: On August 1906, Aswini Kumar Bandopadhyay formed the Indian Mill Workers’ Union in Budge Budge.

Question 87. Name four prominent people who started organising labour movements.
Answer: Four important people who came forward to organise the labour movements were Prabhat Kumar Roychowdhury, Premtosh Basu, Aswini Kumar Bandopadhyay and Apurbo Kumar Ghosh.

Question 88. What were the main reasons of the labour movement during the anti-partition movement?
Answer: The main reasons were:
1. Escalation of price
2. National deprivation and insult
3. Active support of the nationalist leaders and
4. The campaign and development of public opinion by the nationalist journals in the interests of the labourers.

Question 89. Who and when founded Mazdoor Mahajan Sabha?
Answer: Gandhiji started the first labour movement by forming ‘Mazdoor Mahajan Sabha’ in 1917.

Question 90. Who was known as Ujaliparaj?
Answer: The higher caste people of Bardauli were known as ‘Ujaliparaj’ or ‘the fair-skinned folks’.

Question 91. What was the main characteristic feature of the peasant movement during Quit India Movement?
Answer: During the Quit India Movement the main characteristic feature of the peasant movement was to mobilise mass movement against the repressive policies of the Government.

Question 92. Discuss the objectives of the All India Kisan Sabha.
Answer: The objectives of the All India Kisan Sabha were :
1. The protection of peasants from economic exploitation.
2. The abolition of landlordism, such as the zamindari and the taluqdari systems.
3. Reduction of revenue and rent.
4. Moratorium on debts.
5. Licensing of money lenders.
6. Minimum wages for agricultural labourers.
7. Fair price for commercial crops.

Question 93. What was the Hat Tola Movement?
Answer: In north Bengal districts the Hat Tola Movement was launched. The landlords collected a levy from the peasants who sold rice, paddy, vegetables, cattle in fairs, and hats (weekly markets). The peasants refused to pay this levy. Sometimes the landlords came to a compromise with the peasants and exempted poor peasants from paying the levy.

Question 94. Name some prominent leaders of All India Kisan Sabha.
Answer: N.G. Ranga, Swami Sahajanand, Narendra Dev, Indulal Yagnik and Bankim Mukherjee were some of the prominent leaders of the All India Kisan Sabha.

Question 95. Discuss the drawbacks of the communist movement of India.
Answer: The Communist Movement of India had some drawbacks:
1. It suffered from a paucity of funds.
2. The British Government was very hostile towards the Communist Party of India because of its revolutionary character and affiliation with the Communist International.
3. There was a paucity of cadres.
4. The privileged upper strata of Indian society opposed Communism.

Question 96. What were the issues involved in the Eka movement?
Answer: The issues involved were:
1. High rents—50 per cent higher than the recorded rates;
2. Oppression by thikadars (in—charge of revenue collection);
3. Practice of share-rents.

Question 97. What were the measures adopted by the government to suppress the labour movements?
Answer: The Government resorted to two kinds of approaches to control the labourers’ movement destroy the movement through oppression on one hand, and sympathise with the workers by forming various enquiry commissions on the other.

Question 98. When was AITUC formed? Who was the first President of AITUC?
Answer: The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed in 1920, in which Bal Gangadhar Tilak had an important role to play. The first President of AITUC was Lala Lajpat Raj.

Question 99. Name some important contributaries of AITUC.
Answer: Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Motilal Nehru, and Mohammad Ali Jinnah were the major contributors to AITUC.

Question 100. Name the leaders of the Eka Movement.
Answer: The two most famous leaders of the Ekta movement were Passi Madari and Saheb.

Question 101. Why was Bardoli Satyagraha important?
Answer: The satyagraha constituted an important chapter in the history of the freedom movement of India. Bardoli Satyagraha became the symbol of peasants’ protests in the country. The movement united a variety of Indian people irrespective of their class, creed, caste and religion. As pointed out by Prof. Mridula Mukherjee, “Bardoli confirmed the Indian people were indeed on the way to becoming a nation.”

Question 102. What was the purpose of the leftists to form a political party other than Congress?
Answer: The purpose was:
1. To keep Congress on its toes and
2. To keep the reactionary forces in Congress at bay so that in future the Communist Party can assume leadership at the national level.

Question 103. Who formed the Congress Socialist Party?
Answer: In 1934Jayprakash Narayan and Acharya Narendra Deb formed the Congress Socialist Party with leaders of both the Congress and the Left parties.

Question 104. What was the reason behind the formation of Ayodhya Kisan Sabha?
Answer: Jawaharlal Nehru formed the ‘Ayodhya Kisan Sabha’ in 1920 to control the militant behaviour of the farmers.

Question 105. When and by whom was the Labour Swaraj Party founded?
Answer: In 1925 ‘The Labour Swaraj Party was formed under the leadership of Muzaffar Ahmed and Hemanta Kumar Sarkar in Kanpur.

Question 106. When and where did the Tebhaga Movement start?
Answer: The Tebhaga Movement was started in different parts of Bengal like Dinajpur, Rangpur, Jalpaiguri, Mymensingh, Medinipur, Khulna and 24 Paraganas in 1924.

Question 107. Name two leaders of Congress who joined the peasant movement in Punjab.
Answer: Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh were the two Congress leaders who joined the peasant movement in Punjab.

Question 108. When and where was the Telangana movement started?
Answer: Telangana movement was started in Travancore in 1946.

Question 109. When and under whose leadership was the peasant movement in Darbhanga started?
Answer: In 1919-20 under the leadership of Swami Vidyananda the peasant movement in Darbhanga was started.

Question 110. Who and when founded the Bombay Mill Owners’ Association?
Answer: N. M. Lokhande in 1830 founded the Bombay Mill Owners’ Association.

Question 111. Who and when founded the Indian National Congress?
Answer: A. O. Hume in 1885 founded Indian National Congress.

Question 112. When and under whose presidency was the first session of Congress held?
Answer: In 1885 under the presidentship of Umesh Chandra Banerjee the first session of Congress was held.

Question 113. Who was the main leader of the Tebhaga movement?
Answer: Kamparam Singh and Bavan Singh.

Question 114. When and under whose leadership was the peasant movement in Mewar started?
Answer: In 1920 under the leadership of Vijay Singh Pathik, Maniklal Verma, Ramanarayan and Baba Sitaram Das the peasant revolt in Mewar was started.

Question 115. When and by whose initiative was Uttar Pradesh Kisan Sabha was organised?
Answer: Uttar Pradesh Kisan Sabha was organised in 1918 by Gauri Shankar Mishra, Indra Narayan Dwivedi and Madan Mohan Maulvi.

Question 116. When and where was Awadh Kisan Sabha organised?
Answer: Awadh Kisan Sabha was organised in October 1920 in Pratapgarh.

Question 117. When and under whose leadership was peasant movement started in United Province?
Answer: Peasant movement in United Province was started in 1919 byJhinguri Singh, Durgapal Singh and Baba Ramchandra.

Question 118. When and under whose leadership was the Bardoli Peasant Satyagraha started?
Answer: Bardoli Satyagraha was started in 1928 under the leadership of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.

Question 119. Name the women who participated in the Bardoli Peasant Satyagraha.
Answer: Kasturba Gandhi, Mani Ben Patel, Sharda Ben Shah, Sharda Mehta, etc. were the women participants of the Bardoli Satyagraha.

Question 120. When and under whose leadership was the Civil Disobedience movement started?
Answer: Civil Disobedience movement was started in 1930 by Mahatma Gandhi.

Question 121. Where were the main centres of the peasants’ movement in Punjab?
Answer: Amritsar, Hoshiyaarpur, Jalandhar, Layalpur and Sekhpura were the main centres of peasants’ movements’ in Punjab.

Question 122. When and under whose leadership peasants’ movement started in Orissa?
Answer: Peasant movement was started in Orissa in 1935 under the leadership of Malti Chaudhury.

Question 123. Who and when started Quit India Movement?
Answer: Quit India Movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi on 9th August 1942.

Question 124. Who and when founded Indian National Trade Union Congress?
Answer: Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel in 1947 founded Indian National Trade Union Congress.

Question 125. Who were the main leaders of the Indian Independence Committee?
Answer: B. Chattopadhyay and Dr Bhupendranath Dutta were the main leaders of Indian Independence Committee.

Question 126. What was the early name of Indian Independence Committee? When was it founded?
Answer: The former name of the Indian Independence Committee was Berlin Committee. It was founded in 1914.

Question 127. Who and when founded Forward Bloc?
Answer: Subhash Chandra Bose in 1939 founded the Forward Bloc.

Question 128. What was the ‘no-revenue & no rent campaign?
Answer: According to Bipan Chandra, the no-revenue was a call to the zamindars not to pay revenue to the British Government, and the no-rent was a call to the tenants not to pay rent to the zamindars.

Question 129. Name some of the labourer leaders of the Swadeshi Movement.
Answer: Aswini Kumar Banerjee, Premtosh Bose, Apurba Kumar Ghosh, etc. were some of the labourer leaders of the Swadeshi movement who were active in a large number of strikes.

Question 130. What were the main features of the working class movement during the Noncooperation Movement?
Answer: The significant features in this phase of the working class movement were:
1. The working class set up its own organization on an all-India basis to defend its class rights, and
2. The working class in this period got involved in the mainstream of national politics in a significant way.

Question 131. Who were the leaders of the peasant movement at the time of the Non-cooperation movement?
Answer: Under the guidance of Congress leaders like Madan Mohan Malviya, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabh Bhai Patel and others, the movement of the peasantry became a part of the national struggle for independence.

Question 132. What was the main aim of the labour movement?
Answer: The main purpose of the labour movement was to protest against the oppression and deprivation of the workers in the hands of the factory owners.

Question 133. Compare labour movements and peasant movements.
Answer: While the target of the farmers was the landlords, money-lenders and government, the target of the workers was the entrepreneurs.

Question 134. When and by whom was Raiyat Sabha formed?
Answer: In 1933-34, N. G. Ranga, B. M. Naidu and T. Prakasham formed the ‘Raiyat Sabha’ for the protection of the farmers.

Question 135. Name some centres of the Quit India Movement.
Answer: Delhi, Lucknow, Jamshedpur, Madras, Bangalore, etc. were some of the main centres of the strikes.

Question 136. Cite two examples of the workers’ movement during the Quit India movement.
Answer: In some places, the strikes continued for longer periods. The Tata Steel Plant was shut down for thirteen days. In Ahmedabad, the textile workers continued the strike for three and a half months.

Question 137. What were the contributions of Indian Independence League?
Answer: In 1928 the Indian Independence League was formed jointly by Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose. The organization pressurized Congress and Gandhiji to start a movement for the attainment of Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence). It is worthy of mention here that the League contributed an iot to the launching of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Question 138. What were the objectives of All India Congress Socialist Party?
Answer:

The objectives as adopted in the meeting were:

1. All powers to the people who are associated with the production
2. Socialization of industries and all other productive organizations
3. State control over foreign trade
4. Abrogation of the zamindary and the raja-maharaja system
5. Distribution of land to the peasants
6. State to recognize the right to work
7. Wages to be paid according to one’s needs.

Question 139. What were the works of Communist Party of India?
Answer: From the very beginning the Communist Party’s main was to organize peasants and workers and to work through them.

Question 140. What were the problems of the Indian working class?
Answer: The Indian working class suffered from all forms of exploitation- low wages, long working hours, unhygienic conditions in factories, employment of child labour and absence of all amenities- from which the British labour force suffered in the early stages of industrialisation and capitalism in England and the West plus the evils of a rapacious colonial rule.

Question 141. What measures were taken by the Government to curb the activities of the Trade Unions?
Answer: Alarmed at the increasing strength of the Trade Union movement and its control under extremist hands, the Government of India sought to contain its activities by legislative restrictions. A Public Safety Bill was introduced in the Legislative Assembly in 1928 but could not get majority support and had to be issued in the form of an ordinance in 1929. The Trade Disputes Act (1929) provided, among other provisions, for compulsory appointment of Courts of Enquiry and Conciliation Boards for settling industrial disputes, made strikes illegal in public utility services (like Postal Service, Railways, Water and Electricity Departments) unless each individual worker planning to go on strike gave advance notice of one month to the Administration and, above all, forbade trade union activities of coercive or purely political nature and even sympathetic strikes.

Question 142. Discuss the role of the working class in the non-cooperation movement.
Answer: The working class population spontaneously participated in the movement. In 1921, the workers organised about 321 strikes in which 6 lakh workers participated. As the jute mill owners of Bengal due to the slump in demand of jute in the international market after the war retrenched workers and gave 4 days of work per week to existing workers at a low rate, workers’ strikes in Bengal jute mills were widespread. Swami Vishya Nanda and Swami Darshana Nanda organised strikes among coal mine workers of Raniganj and Jharia.

Question 143. Who was adversely affected as a result of the creation of private property on land?
Answer: As a result of their land becoming private property, the peasants were the worst sufferers. The peasants could be evicted from land at any time by the zamindars who were the owners of the land. Fragmentation of land as a result of the creation of private property in the land also led to the misery of the peasants.

Question 144. What are the two causes of the ruination of the peasantry?
Answer: Under the new land settlements introduced by the British, it was the peasants who were the worst sufferers. One important cause of the peasants’ suffering was that they came under the grip of the Mahajan, money-lenders, etc. who were oppressors. The second important cause of the peasants’ suffering was due to the fact that under the new land settlement their rights on land were not recognized.

Question 145. What was the Partition of Bengal?
Answer: Partition of Bengal was the division of the Presidency of Bengal by Viceroy Lord Curzon into two divisions—Bengal and Eastern Bengal and Assam.

Question 146. In which year was the Partition of Bengal revoked?
Answer: The Partition of Bengal was revoked in 1911.

Question 147. Which areas did the East Bengal province comprise?
Answer: Eastern Bengal and Assam are comprised of the eastern districts of Bengal proper. Assam with a population of 31 million. Dacca was the capital of the new province.

Question 148. Which areas did the Western Bengal province comprise?
Answer: Bengal comprised of the western districts of Bengal proper, Bihar and Orissa with a population of 54 million. Calcutta was made its capital.

Question 149. How did the idea of the Swadeshi Movement help Indians to be united against the British?
Answer: The Swadeshi Movement drew a large section of society into active participation in the freedom movement. The zamindars who had previously remained loyal to the British took part in the movement. Women and students actively participated and Muslims joined in despite British measures to prevent them from participating.

Question 150. Name some of the leaders of the Anti-Partition agitation.
Answer: Moderates-Surendranath Banerjee, B.C. Pal, Ananda Mohan Bose; Assertives-Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Ajit Singh, Syed Hyder Raza, Chidambaram Pillai.

Chapter 6 Peasant, Working Class And Left Movements In 20th-Century India Short Answer Questions

Question 1. What were the main objectives of the formation of Kisan Sabha? Or, Write an essay on Kisan Sabha.
Answer:

Establishment and Founding Members:

For the sake of rising peasant movements an all-India organisation, namely the ‘All India Kisan Sabha’ was founded on 15th January 1936 A.D at Meerut. Under the leadership of (Ulladulla Monakkel Sankaran) E. M. S Namboodripad, the cause was felt.

Accordingly, ‘All India Kisan Congress’ was founded on 16th April 1936 A.D. Jawaharlal Nehru of Congress, Jayprakash Narayan and Acharya Narendradeb from the Socialist Congress, Namboodripad from the Communist Party and many notable figures joined the Kisan Sabha.

Swami Sahajananda Saraswati and N. G. Ranga were its first General Secretary and President respectively. The notable figures present in its first session at Lucknow were K. M. Asharaf, Indulal Yagnik, Sohan Singh Yash, Mohanlal Goutam, Ram Manohar Lohia, Sudhin Sarkar, Kamal Pramanik and others.

Demands of Kisan Sabha: In a manifesto, the demands of the Kisan Sabha in August, 1936A.D. were:
(1) Freeing the Indian peasants from all sorts of exploitations and establishing their economic and political rights.
(2) Abolition of the zamindari system.
(3) Fifty per cent decrease in land rent and revenue.
(4) Right to collect timber and cattle fodder from the woods.
(5) Distribution of land among the landless peasants.

Nationalistic Activities: In the Faizapur session of the Congress the manifesto was accepted. On 14th July 1937 A.D. in Niyamatpur, Gaya Kishan Congress founded ‘All India Kisan Sabha’. In 1939 A.D. its number of members increased to 8,00,000. On 27-28th March, 1937A.D. at Patrasayer, Bankura, the provincial session of the Kisan Sabha was organized. After this the ‘Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha’ was founded, and it started a movement against the abolition of the peasants. Another similar movement in Bihar was known as the ‘Bakashat Movement’. According to Russian Historian Gregori Katovosky, the All India Kisan Sabha strengthened the National Movement.

Question 2. Write a short note on AITUC
Answer:

AITUC:

All India Trade Union Congress: AITUC is the first largest labour organisation in India. It was formed in 1920 A.D. The full form of AITUC is “All India Trade Union Congress”. The main role was played by persons like B. P. Wadia of Madras, N. M. Joshi of Maharastra, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Joseph Baptista, Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, etc. for the formation of this organisation. Lala Lajpat Rai, in his presidential speech at the first AITUC conference, invited everybody to come forward and become politically conscious and powerful against the British. In the second conference of AITUC, President Dewan Chamanlal demanded ‘Swaraj’. AITUC played a great role in strengthening the labour movement in India.

 

Question 3. Write a short note on Meerut Conspiracy Case.
Answer:

Meerut Conspiracy Case:

1. Spread of Working Class Movements: The working class movement was widely spread by the formation of the Communist Party of India (1925 A.D). The communist leaders formed the workers’ party at this time to encourage the movement of the workers. This movement became much more militant during the anti- Simon Commission movement in 1928-29 A.D. The workers of the cotton mills of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and particularly of Bombay organised a long-term movement. Among the striking workers of the ‘Girni Kamgarh Union’ of Bombay, 25,000 workers tolerated the torture of the police and continued their movement

2. Militant Activities: Many communist and working-class leaders helped this militant movement of the working class when anti-labour acts like ‘Trade Dispute Bill’ and ‘Public Safety Act’ (1929 A.D) were passed. At this time, the Government brought a false complaint against the working class leaders and the Communist Party of India

3. Starting of the Case: On 20th March 1929 A.D, the Government started the Meerut Conspiracy Case against 33 working-class leaders. The leaders who had accepted long imprisonment by this trial were Muzaffar Ahmed, Sripad Amrit Dange, Gangadhar Adhikari, Sivnath Shastri, Dharani Goswami, P. C. Joshi, Mirajkar, Makbul Huda and two foreign leaders like Benjamin Bradley and Philip Spratt, etc.

4. Reaction and Results: Pandit Jawaharial Nehru called the Meerut Case as “offensive and attacking the policy of the Government towards the labour movement.” The British labourers also called it as ‘Judicial Scandal’. Meerut Conspiracy Case was one of the most long-lasting cases in Indian history. Persons like Prof. Harold John Laski, Scientist Sir Einstein, H. G. Wales, Remain Rolland, etc. protested against the Conspiracy Case. Due to Meerut Conspiracy Case, the political scenario in India was changed so also the labour movement in India became slow to some extent.

Question 4. Give an account of the Kisan Movement with special reference to the Tebhaga Movement.
Answer:

Kisan Movement with special reference to Tebhaga Movement:

1. Militant Activities of Kisan Sabha: The new development in 1946-1947 was an upsurge in the countryside in several regions, most notably Bengal, parts of Kerala, and Telangana in Hyderabad state. Everywhere the Communist-led Kisan Sabha was moving towards more militant forms of action, and reaching out below the level of the revenue or rent repaying, land holding peasantry towards share-croppers, landless labourers and tribals.
2. Demand for Tebhaga: In September 1946, the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha gave a call to implement through mass struggle the Floud Commission recommendation of Tebhaga – two-thirds of the crop, instead of half or even less, for the sha-ecopper (Baradar, bhagchashi or Madhya) working on land rented from tears. Communist cadres, including many urban student militants, went out into the countryside to organise the bargadars, who had become a major and growing section of the rural population as poor peasants lost land through depression and famine and were pushed down to the level of sharecroppers—they numbered 60 of villagers in some pockets which became tebhaga strongholds
3. Spread of Tebhaga Movement: The movement caught on suddenly from harvest time in November, with the central slogan of ‘nij khamare Dhan talo’—sharecroppers taking paddy to their own threshing floor and not to the Jotedar’s house as before, so as to enforce tebhaga. North Bengal became the storm centre, particularly the Thakurgaon sub-division of Dinajpur and adjoining areas of Jalpaiguri, Rangpur and Malda. Tebhaga pockets also developed in Mymensingh (Kishorganj), Midnapur (Mahishadal, Sutahata and Nandigram and 24 Parganas, (Kakdwip), while the Hajongs in north Mymensingh who had won a reduction in their tanka (produce rent) in 1937-1938 now demanded its conversion into cash so as to gain from higher prices.
4. Limitations of the Movement: The North Bengal base was principally among Rajbansis, mostly Madhya and poor peasants, but also included some big tears. Muslims did not participate in considerable numbers in the tebhaga bases, despite Kolkata and Noakhali producing leaders like Muhammad Dasesh, Niamat Ali, and even some maulvis who quoted the Koran to condemn jotedar oppression. But the whole of South-East Bengal remained untouched, including the old Kisan Sabha stronghold of Tipperary. Jordans and police violence were sought to be countered by volunteers with lathis. But lathis are not and when the League Ministry balanced its sop of a bargadar bill with intensified repression from February 1947, the movement faced a crisis which proved fatal.

Twenty Santals were killed near Balurghat (Dinajpur) in a clash with the police and Sunil Sen lists 49 peasant martyrs in all. Some peasant militants wanted arms, but the Communists did not have them and in any case, had not really envisaged an all-out armed struggle. Socially, too, limitations were emerging; tribal elements pressed for greater militancy but middle and poor peasant support declined, while in the North Bengal towns the professional groups which were the mainstay of the National Movement were extremely hostile. The Communists planned a general strike on 28 March 1937, but meanwhile, the Hindu Mahasabha campaign for Bengal Partition was gaining strength, and renewed riots in Kolkata from 27 March ended all prospects of sympathetic actions in urban areas.

Question 5. What do you know of the peasant movement in Telangana?
Answer:

Peasant movement in Teiengana: Where Tebhaga and Punnapra-Vayalar had gone to the brink of armed struggle but failed to cross it, Telengana between July 1946 and October 1951 saw the biggest peasant guerrilla war so far of modern Indian history, affecting at its height about 3000 villages spread over 16,000 square miles and with a population of three million. Hyderabad under the Asafjahi Nizams was marked by a combination of religious-linguistic domination by a small Urdu-speaking Muslim elite over a predominantly Hindu Telegu, Marathi and Kannada language group, the total absence of political and civil liberties, and the grossest forms of feudal exploitation, particularly in the Telengana region where Muslims and high-caste Hindu desks and Jagirdars extorted Vetti jail or forced labour and payments in kind from lower caste and tribal peasants and debt-slaves.

Land grabbing by the doras (landlords) had worsened peasant conditions from the Depression days. Unlike tebhaga, and to a much greater extent than in Travancore, the Communist-led agrarian revolt thus retained, till the entry of the Indian army in September 1948, the broader dimensions of a national-liberation struggle against the Nizam and his Razakar hands, though a limiting factor was the aloofness or hostility of the urban Muslim population, including even a substantial section of the working class. Another decisive advantage was the slack manner in which the Arms Act had been enforced in the state, in every contrast to British India. Till September 1948, funds for buying arms could be collected more or less openly in the neighbouring Andhra districts of Madras, since everyone — including the Congress—wanted to resist the Razakars and block the Nizam’s bid to set up an independent Muslim-dominated state.

Police Repression: The situation changed quickly after September 1948, and indeed the police action was probably undertaken in large part as a move to halt the Communist advance. The rout of the Razakars gave a lot of arms to the guerrillas, but now they have to face the much better equipped and disciplined regular Indian army, while the slogan of overthrowing the Government of newly-independent India naturally had very much less appeal than the earlier anti-Nizam struggle. The Communists now quickly lost the active support of better-off peasants, and energetic and often very ruthless military action drove them out of the settled plains of Nalgonda, Warrangal and Khammam into the deep forests of the Nallamallai hills across the Krishna to the south and to the Godavari region to the north-east. Here they established some new bases among Chenchu and Koya tribals, whom they rescued from the oppression of forest officials and trader money-lenders.

Achievements: The positive achievements, direct or indirect, of the Telangana struggle, were not inconsiderable. Peasant guerrillas, more than any other factor, brought down the autocratic feudal regime of India’s biggest princely state, frustrating the compromise bid of the November 1947 stand-still agreement made by Patel and V. P. Menon. The destruction of Hyderabad state also cleared the way for the formation of Andhra Pradesh on linguistic lines a few years later, thus realising another old aim of the national movement in this region. The peasants also did win some enduring gains, Vetti could not be restored, not all the redistributed land was lost, the Congress regime had to abolish jagirdari system in 1949 and impose at least a theoretical ceiling, and it is significant that Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement began precisely in Nalgonda.

Question 6. Write what you know about Manabendranath Roy and the leftist movement of India.
Answer:

Manabendranath Roy and the leftist movement of India

M. N. Roy and the Leftist Movement in India: Manabendranath Roy (1887-1958), a Bengali by birth, delivered a speech at the May Day celebrations at Moscow in 1920. His real name was Narendranath Bhattacharya. The Communist Party of India (1920) was established by him in Tashkent. He was a pioneer of the communist or leftist movement in India. He returned to India in 1930 and got directly involved with the leftist movement in India.

Radical Democratic Party and Indian Federation of Labour: The famous Indian communist leader Manabendranath Roy (M.N.Roy), after coming back from the ‘Third International’ organised in Russia, was bent on starting a new party in India, in order to bring together all the leftist powers, he even invited Congressmen, who believed in leftist ideals, to various conferences. Then, in 1939, he set up ‘The League of Radical Congressmen’ by joining both the left-wing and right winged people. However, it did not last long because of the hostility of Gandhian leaders in Congress. Finally, he resigned his membership from Congress and with like-minded people, he formed the ‘Radical Democratic Party’ in 1940. This party supported the British in World War II and tried to win the confidence of the working class in India. His labour organisation ‘The Indian federation of Labour’ tried to mobilise public opinion in favour of the World War. But this party did not have an important role to play in the National Movement or national politics of India. He went to Bavaria of Germany with the disguise name “C. Martin”. Some of his other disguise names were ‘M. N. Roy’, ‘Hari Singh’, Dr. Mahmud’, ‘Dr. Mahmud’, ‘D. Garsia’, ‘Mr. X’, ‘Mr. Banerjee, etc.

Question 7. How was the Communist Party of India formed?
Answer:

Communist Party of India:

1. Establishment: It may certainly be taken for granted that the Communist Party of India (CPI) was first set up at Tashkent (in the erstwhile Soviet Union) in October (or November), 1920 [The Communist Party of India and Its Formation Abroad: p65: Muzaffar Ahmed). From there M.N. Roy (Manabendranath Roy), one of those who founded the Party, used to send various literature, pamphlets and books to India, to inspire and develop Marxian ideology amongst the Indians.
2. Emergency of Communist Groups: Meanwhile various communist groups emerged in different parts of the country such as in Bengal under the leadership of Muzaffar Ahmed; in Bombay under S.A. Dange and others. Similar groups also came into existence in Lahore (Punjab), Madras and many other places. Attempts to coordinate the activities of the different groups under a central organization, however, were not very successful before 1925.

3. Kanpur Conspiracy Case: In 1924 efforts to organize a Communist Party received a setback when all the leading communist leaders were apprehended by the British police and brought to trial under the ‘Kanpur Conspiracy Case’. Those who were charged by the British police included M.N. Roy, Nalini Gupta, Muzaffar Ahmed, Dange, Shaukat Usmani and many others.

4. Formation of the Party: However, the very next year (1925) a conference was held at Kanpur in which different communist groups participated. The consequence of this conference was the birth of the Communist Party of India (CPI). M.G. Ghate was later appointed its General Secretary.

Question 8. Discuss the outcome of the Bardoli agitation.
Answer:

The outcome of the Bardoli Agitation:

1. Terms of Settlement: On 18 July 1928 Wilson offered terms to Patel whereby the peasants of Bardoli paid the full assessment of the differences between the old and new revenue demands and abandoned the satyagraha first so that a special inquiry into only the disputed facts regarding revenue settlement in Bardoli taluka could be conducted.
2. Demands of Patel: Patel once again rejected them and insisted on the release of all prisoner satyagrahis, restoration of forfeited lands (whether sold or not) to original landowners and appointment of an impartial committee as his pre-conditions for withdrawing the agitation.
3. Withdrawal of the Movement: The withdrawal of the movement was not a happy affair. Verbally the government agreed that its pre-conditions of Patel would be fulfilled but informally it was decided that the full enhancement of rent would not be paid. Nobody took the Governor’s declaration seriously when he declared that he had secured an unconditional surrender. In fact, it was the peasants who laughed at the last.
4. Importance: The Bardoli satyagraha influenced not only other peasant movements in the country, but it also provided a new strength to the national freedom movement.
Gandhiji very rightly observed on the success of the Bardoli agitation: “Whatever the Bardoli struggle may be, it clearly is not a struggle for the direct attainment of swaraj. That every such awakening, every such effort, as that of Bardoli will bring swaraj nearer and may bring it nearer even then any direct effort is undoubtedly true”.
5. Criticisms: The Bardoli movement has been criticised from varying perspectives. D.N. Dhanagare has raised the issue as to what extent the satyagraha was a reality or a myth created by the GandhiAnswer: On a broader plane, it could be safely said that the Bardoli agitation was more a national issue for experimenting with satyagraha as a method for freedom struggle. Definitely, not much attention was paid to the basic problems of the peasants.

Question 9. Write a note on Eka movement.
Answer:

Eka Movement: Towards the end of 1921, peasant discontent surfaced again in the districts of Hardoi, Bahraich and Sitapur, with grievances relating to the extraction of a rent that was generally 50 per cent higher than the recorded rent. Congress and Khilafat leaders provided the initial thrust to the peasant grievances and the movement grew under the name Eka or unity movement. With grass-root leadership not in favour of non-violence taking over the movement, the authorities succeeded in bringing it to an end. The Kisan movements were also overshadowed by the Non-Cooperation Movement in UP. In 1918, the UP Kisan Sabha was set up by Gouri Shankar Misra and Indra Narain Dwivedi whose effort was blessed by Madan Mohan Malaviya. The Kisan Sabha played very active role in championing the cause of nationalism in 1919, 1920 and 1921 and we notice a change in the nature of the peasant activity towards violence and looting. In the region of Avadh, peasant discontentment surfaced again under the leadership of the Eka or unity movement but the relation between the Eka movement and the nationalist movement minimized due to the refusal of Eka leaders to follow the discipline of the nationalist movement.

Question 10. Write a note on Bardauli Satyagraha.
Answer:

Bardauli Satyagratha:

1. Introduction: The movement by the Gandhian protesters, which was started in Bardauli Taluk of Surat District in Gujarat, is known as the ‘Bardauli Movement7
2. Higher Caste People of Bardauli: The wealthy Patidars of Bardauli came from the Sunabi-Patidar community of farmers. They got their land cultivated by the Ramdas who came from ‘durable clan7 or weaker clan. They were also known by the name ‘Kaliparaj7 or the dark-skinned folks and made up only 50% of the total population. The higher caste people of Bardauli were known as ‘Ujaliparaj7 or ‘the fair-skinned folks7
3. Oppression: The people of higher castes indulged in oppression, exploitation, forced labour and raping the women of the dark skinned people. Oppression by the money-lenders was a matter of regular occurrence. Moreover, the rate of taxes was increased to 22 %(1927) although the price of cotton had gone down considerably
4. Movement: Under these circumstances, the Gandhian idealists Mehta Brothers (Kunwarji Mehta and Kayanji Mehta) requested Vallav Bhai Patel to organise a tax boycott movement. Slowly Bardauli came to the forefront of national politics. Gandhiji called the lower caste people of this area as ‘Raniparaj7 or ‘forest dewellers7. These people participated in this movement
5. Support of the Movement: The workers of the cotton mills of Ahmedabad handed over a subscription of Rs. 1300/- to the participants of the movement. The leaders of the Girni Kamgar Union of Bombay also extended their help. Even the communists gave mental support to the movement
6. Result: The consequence was that instead of adopting a policy of suppression, the Government set up an enquiry committee to investigate the matter and subsequently reduced the rate of taxes from 22% to 6.25%.

Conclusion: In spite of the success of the non-violent Satyagraha Movement of Bardauli, R. S. Nimbakar, leader of the ‘Worker and Peasant Party7 of Bombay, felt that the Congress had led the movement with narrow and limited views. Historian D. N. Dhanagare said that this movement was directed in the interests of the higher caste Patidars instead of being a fight against the oppression by the landlords.

Question 11. Give an account of the labour movements during the anti-partition movement.
Answer:

Labour Movement During the Anti-Partition Movement:

Introduction: Swadeshi and Boycott, the two weapons of the anti-partition movement, were together a landmark in the history of the labour movement. Contemporary official survey has addressed the ‘industrial unrest7 during the period as a remarkable characteristic. A number of strikes broke out sharply. Many of the leaders of the Swadeshi inspired the labourers to unite and organize themselves into unions. With the growth of the labour force, a section of the nationalist leaders felt the need to talk with the British authorities and urge upon them to take measures to protect the labourers7 interest against the exploitation by the capitalists. Support of the Congress: The Benaras Congress made an emphatic protest against the partition of Bengal as also the repressive measures adopted by the British government. Though Congress as an organization did not openly assist the workers’ movement, many of the Congress leaders enthusiastically supported labour strikes and the formation of trade unions.

Leaders of the Movement: Aswini Kumar Banerjee, Premtosh Bose, Apurba Kumar Ghosh, etc. were some of the labour leaders of the Swadeshi movement who actively participated in a large number of strikes.
Strikes: A wave of strikes broke out in engulfing East Indian Railway, the Clive Jute Mills and other establishments. Tilak made Bombay workers to go for a strike and Chidambaram Pillai organized a strike of the Tuticorin Coral Mill.
Workers’ Union: Immediately after the formation of the Printers’ Union the first real Labour Union came into being. In July 1906, a strike of clerks of the East Indian Railway was followed by the formation of the Railwaymen’s Union.

Socialistic Tendency: The anti-partition movement also witnessed the faint beginnings of a socialist leaning among some of the nationalist leaders. In fact, they were imbued with the Marxist ideas that had been developing in Europe. Some extremist leaders openly urged for following the ‘Russian method’ of political general strike in India.

Question 12. Give an account of the Civil Disobedience Movement and the role of working class in that movement.
Answer:

Role of Working Class in Civil Disobedience Movement:

Introduction: During the Civil Disobedience Movement the labour movement gained a foothold in the political thinking of the country. This is shown by the fact that workers all over the country participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Contribution of the Congress: During the Civil Disobedience under the leadership of Gandhiji a Communist Party document (1930) openly stated that virtually Congress was the only organization which was carrying on the fight against British imperialism and, therefore, the workers began to follow the lead of the Congress. Indeed, during the Civil Disobedience, the Congress (in Bombay) raised the slogan that “workers and peasants are the hands and feet of the Congress” The GIP Railwaymen’s Union undertook satyagraha in support of Gandhiji’s breach of the salt law.

Communist Influence: Communist influence in the trade union movement became strong in 1928 after a period of a slump. In Bombay, the communist-led Girni Kamgar Union (GKU) organized a massive six-month-long strike of the textile workers. The Communist influence spread rapidly in Bombay and Bengal to the workers in the railways, paper mills, jute mills, etc. In Madras, the workers of the Burma Oil Company were strongly influenced by communism.

Govt. Repression: The British Government in India became alarmed at the growing unrest among the workers. It also became thoroughly convinced that the intensive labour movement was a result of the socialist and communist ideas propagated to the workers by the Communist Party of India (CPI). In their efforts to hold back the growth of communist influence, the British Government put under arrest all the leading communist and trade union leaders. The leaders imprisoned included Mirajkar, Joshi, Muzaffar Ahmed, S.A. Dange, etc. They were brought to trial under the ill-famed Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929).

Consequence: Subsequently, the labour movement in India lost its strength considerably due to the split in the AITUC as also due to other factors. Nevertheless, workers participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement all over the country. The textile workers in Sholapur in Maharashtra went on rampage after the British police resorted to firing in order to stop an anti-British procession. During the movement, the mill workers of Calcutta, the dock workers of Karachi and the mill workers of Madras heroically clashed with the police. The British Government ruthlessly suppressed the insurgents. Many of the workers were sentenced to long-term imprisonment and several others were sentenced to death.

Question 13. Describe labour movements during Quit India movement.
Answer:

Labour Movements During Quit India Movement:

Introduction: In 1942, during Quit India Movement, a pan India mass movement started against nationwide British imperialism. The Communist Party of India stood aloof from it. The communist leaders instructed the working class not to participate in Quit India Movement. But, they neglected that instruction and joined the movement.

At the Onset: On 9th August 1942, at the onset of Quit India Movement, when Gandhiji and other prominent leaders were arrested, the workers observed general shutdown and strikes for one whole week without being instructed by anybody. The vibes of that labour movement could be felt at Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bombay, Nagpur, Jamshedpur, Madras, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. In Jamshedpur, the labourers of Tata Iron and Steel Company kept the factory closed for 13 consecutive days.

During the Movement: During Quit India Movement, the workers iterated that until and unless a national government was formed, they would not rejoin their duties. Just like the workers of TISCO, thousands of workers in the garment factories of Ahmedabad continued their strike for 90 days in support of the Quit India Movement.

Less Communist Influence: It is noted that, during Quit India Movement, the labourers invariably avoided the communists or were scared of them. Consequently, lesser number of labourers were found joining the movement where there was greater communist influence. However, in some places, ordinary communist leaders moved out of their party lines and joined with the labourers in Quit India Movement. From May to July of 1942, the leaders of Tram Workers’ Union in communist-dominated Calcutta, ignored party dictates and many times joined the strikes.

Question 14. Discuss the anti-partition movement and the peasantry.
Answer:

Anti-partition movement and the peasantry: A novel genre of farmers’ rebellion developed during the Anti-Partition Movement. Rabindranath Tagore, in his lecture named ‘Swadeshi Samaj’, said, people would become more powerful and independent if ‘cooperative farming and jointly owned farms develop in all the villages’. Swadesh Bandhab Samity: Aswini Kumar Dutta formed the ‘Swadesh Bandhab Samity’ (1906) to solve problems in the villages and to safeguard the interests of the peasants, which solved 523 local issues. Till 1907, this organisation had established at least a thousand branches. Farmers’ Rebellion: During the AntiPartition Movement, the farmers’ rebellion was communal in nature, because whenever the farmers demanded justice and protested against the landlords, the Government labelled the farmers’ rebellion as a communal unrest. It was easy for the Government to instigate the rebelling farmers, who were mostly Muslims, against the landlords and moneylenders who were mostly Hindus. During 1906-07, farmers’ unresttookthe form of communal riots in Komilla and Mymensingh.

Muslim Agitation: The Muslim farmers tore off the loan agreement papers of the Hindu moneylenders. At that time the Muslims published and distributed a booklet called ‘Nabab Saheber Subichar’ and wanted help from Nawab Salimullah. Rabindranath Tagore, in his novel ‘Ghare Baire’, described how the British took advantage of the helplessness of the poor Muslim peasants.

Inter-Caste Struggle: During Anti-partition Movement, the scheduled caste Hindus, like the Namashudra, had not given much importance to the Nationalist Movement like the poor Muslim farmers. The Hindu farmers were oppressed by the higher caste people to such an extent that the Nationalist Movement led by people of higher caste did not have much appeal to them. Dr Sumit Sarkar in his book ‘The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal’ opines that since there was no agriculture-based program during the Anti-partition Movement, the peasants did not participate in a movement led by the middle class.

Question 15. Write a note on Workers’ and Peasants’ Party.
Answer:

Workers’ and Peasants’ Party: In 1925, ‘The Labour Swaraj Party’ was formed under the leadership of Muzaffar Ahmed and Hemanta Kumar Sarkar in Kanpur. It was later renamed as ‘Peasants and Workers Party’. In 1928, a group of politicians with communist leanings formed the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party. The party was active in Bengal, Bombay, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Naresh Sen Gupta was the leader of this party in Bengal. He demanded the abolition of zamindari system. The Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (1928) was constituted by unifying local organisations like Singaravellu Chettiyar’s ‘Labour Swaraj Party’ (1925) formed by Muzaffar Ahmed and Hemanta Kumar Sarkar in Bengal and ‘Congress Labour Party’ (1926) of Bombay. Two British communists, Philip Sprat and Benjamin Bradley took a lot of initiative in the formation of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party. This party led a huge increase of the influence of communism within Indian National Congress. But the members did not associate themselves with the ‘Communist League’. However, they were extremely successful in mobilising the trade union movement. Two famous mouthpieces were the ‘Langal’ edited by Kazi Nazura! Islam and ‘Ganabani’ of Muzaffar Ahmed.

Question 16. Discuss the role of peasants in the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Answer:

Role of Peasants in the Non-Cooperation Movement: Peasants were drawn to the Non-Cooperation Movement in vast numbers. The Congress volunteers organised the peasants from their village bases
1. Organisation of Courts: They organised about 866 private mediation courts in rural Bengal as an alternative to British courts of law. In these courts, suits were quickly disposed of.

2. Contribution of Gandhiji: Gandhiji made a deep appeal in the hearts of the peasants due to his saintly life and his sincere concern for the KisAnswer: They responded to his call and joined the movement shouting ‘Gandhiji Ki Jai’. There is a view advocated by Mazid Siddiqi that the peasant movement had already started in U. P. Jhimguri Singh had already started the Kisan movement in U. P. which the Congress leaders utilised for the NonCooperation Movement. Baba Ramchandra had already started the Kurmi Kisan Sabha which was merged with the U.P. Kisan Sabha, the latter was dominated by Congressmen. The no-rent movement of the U.P. Kisans was disliked by Gandhiji and middle-class Congressmen.
3. Marxist View: According to Gyanendra Pande, when Gandhiji recalled the satyagraha movement, it acted as a stabbing at the back of the U.P. peasants, whose interest was sacrificed for the sake of political advantage of the Congressmen who received patronage from landlords. Opinions vary on this Marxist interpretation. However, Pratapgarh, Faizabad and Raibarelli districts of U.P. were hot-beds of the Kisan movement
4. Movement in Bengal and Other Places: In Bengal Biren Sasmal of Midnapore organised the middle-class and lower-middle-class peasants to boycott the union board and Chowkidari tax. In Pabna land settlement work of the Government was boycotted. In Andhra, Gujrat, and Bardouli the peasants joined the satyagraha and boycott in a big way. Except for the Chauri Chaura incident, the peasants who formed the core of the NonCooperation Movement remained non-violent and wonderfully disciplined.

Question 17. What were the circumstances favouring the growth of Left ideologies in India?
Answer:

Circumstances favouring the growth of Left ideologies in India: Leftism in India grew out of the special politico-economic circumstances prevailing in India towards the end of the First World War and was inextricably intertwined with the mainstream of the nationalist movement.

These circumstances were :
1. The First World War brought in crippling financial burdens, rising prices of necessities of life, famine conditions and manipulative profiteering—all exposing the evils of imperialist-capitalist domination.
2. The romantic appeal of the revolutionary ideas of Marx coupled with the reflected glory of the new regime in the U.S.S.R. fired the imagination of the Indian intellectuals, political leaders, terrorists and even workers and made them conscious of a new ideology loaded with socio-economic content.
3. Gandhiji’s slogans of Swaraj and Swadeshi and his attempt to carry the message to every nook and corner of India gave a new orientation to the political movement. Even the workers and peasants were drawn into the mainstream of national life. The new development provided a fertile ground for the inauguration of an organised and ideologically inspired socialist movement.
4. A volatile section of the new generation of the educated middle class with the spectre of unemployment staring them in the face had lost faith in the 19th-century liberalism and all that it stood for and was attracted towards was individualistic terrorism or the new revolutionary socialist ideology.

Question 18. Write a note on the formation and growth of Kisan Sabha.
Answer:

Formation of Kisan Sabha:

Background: A section of the farmer leadership saw the inner contradictions in Congress’s agrarian policy. The peasant movements lanuched by the Congress were primarily aimed at seeking relief against excessive government land revenue demand and were thus solicitous for the interests of the zamindars and landed magnates. The Congress was virtually indifferent to inter-agrarian relations, i.e., relations between landlords on the one hand and tenants, cultivators and agricultural labourers on the other hand, under Permanent Settlement and in ryotwari areas the relations between the rich farmer and sharecroppers or landless labour. The propaganda of the Communists and other left parties created class consciousness among the peasants and provided the nucleus for the formation of Kisan Sabhas.

Organisation: In the 1920s Kisan Sabhas were organised in Bengal, Punjab and U.P. In 1928 the Andhra Provincial Ryots Association was formed. However, the first All India Kisan Sabha was formed at Lucknow on 11 April 1936.

Objectives and Demands: The Kisan Sabha explained its objective of “securing complete freedom from economic exploitation and achievement of full economic and political power for peasants and workers and all other exploited classes.” It also demanded a moratorium on debts, abolition of land revenue and rent from uneconomic holdings, reduction of land revenue and rent, licensing of money-lenders, minimum wages for agricultural workers, fair prices for sugarcane and commercial crops and irrigation facilities. It also envisaged abolition of zamindari and vesting of the ownership land in the tiller of the soil. All these objectives were to be achieved by proper organisation and active participation in the national struggle for independence.

Kisan Sabha Agitation: The Kisan Sabha launched anti-settlement agitation against zamindari ‘zulunV in Andhra Pradesh. In U.P. and Bihar heroic struggles were launched against zamindars’ exploitation. In 1936 agitation started against Bakasht (self-cultivated land) movement in Bihar. Bakasht was zamindar’s special land which was cultivated by tenants on condition that they would pay a certain portion of the produce as rent to the land owner. The zamindars sought to bring more and more land under this category in a bid to prevent tenants from claiming occupancy rights. There was large-scale eviction of tenants on one or the other plea in 1937. The Kisan Sabha organised the evicted tenants and they offered satyagraha, thereby preventing others from cultivating land. Violent clashes occurred resulting in many casualties. The All India Kisan Sabha organised a Bihar Kisan Day on 18 October 1937 against police repression on satyagrahis.

Growth of Kisan Sabha: The growth of Kisan Sabhas also worked as pressure on the Indian National Congress. The Congress struck a radical posture in the agrarian programme at its Karachi and Faizpur sessions. The Faizpur Congress adopted resolutions on the need for reduction of rent and revenue abolition of feudal dues and levies, fixity of tenure, moratorium on debts and need for statutory provisions for ensuring living wage and suitable working conditions for the agricultural labourers.

Chapter 6 Peasant, Working Class And Left Movements In 20th-Century India 8 Marks Questions And Answers:

Question 1. Write an essay on the Labour Movement in India from 1918 to 1934 A.D. Or, Describe the Labour Movement in India between the two World Wars. Or, Give a brief account of the Labour Movement in India from 1918 to 1934 A.D.
Answer:

Introduction: The Industrial revolution occurred in England in the eighteenth century. With its impact of it, industrial development in India started in the nineteenth century. During this time, various industries started coming up and side by side the labour and the owner class also came up. As a result of two “Factory Acts” passed in 1881 A.D. and 1891 A.D., the exploitation of the labourers by the owners started increasing day by day. As a consequence, the disturbed labour class called the first strike in a tea garden in Assam under the inspiration of Dwarakanath Ganguly in 1860 A.D. A vivid description of the exploitation by the owners is clearly mentioned in the book ‘Slave Trade in Assam’ written by Dwarakanath. In 1903 A.D. the press labourers in Madras went to strike for six months. With the demands for extra wages for an extra jobs in 1908 A.D. as a protest against Tilak’s arrest, thousands and thousands of labourers went on to strike. But, no all-India labour organisation was formed till then. Industrialisation and civilisation started growing in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta due to huge foreign investments made in India.

Traditional Leaders of Labour Strikes: In the majority of the cases, the exploitation done by the owner class was boundless due to Government support. During the days of the partition movement in 1905 A.D., some labour strikes were organised with the support of Chittaranjan Das, Bipin Chandra Pal, Prabhat Kusim Raychowdhury Apurba Kumar Ghosh, Liyakat Hossain, Aswini Kumar Banerjee etc. Gandhiji probably understood the situation and hence formed ‘Mazdoor Mahajan’ (1917 A.D.) with 18,000 labourers. Gandhiji fought against the mill owners of Ahmedabad and solved the problem to a great extent in respect of the fixation of duty hours to eight, reasonable wages, health problems of the labourers, etc. Like the mill labourers of Ahmedabad, nearly 5,000 labourers of the ‘Great Indian Peninsular Railway’ workshop and ‘Parole’ workshop went on to strike. Before coming to Indian politics, Gandhiji’s influence as a union leader was undoubtedly a significant event.

During the War Period: Due to First World War (1914-18 A.D.), the situation of the labourers became intolerable and worse due to extensive lay-off, unemployment, price hike and industrial depression during the post-war period. The most dangerous phenomenon was that Government imposed a 50 per cent tax on the workers to meet up the war expenditure. As a result, the overall situation of the workers became unbearable. So famous labour leader B. P. Wadia formed the ‘Madras Labour Union’ in 1909 A.D. to make the labour movement on an all-India basis. The labourers of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, Bihar, Assam, etc. started more intensified strikes. So, historian Rajni Palme Dutt thinks that “Due to the influences of the Russian revolution, the first World War, and other international revolutions, the Labour Movement in India was sufficiently matured and efficient also. The economic condition and the international events played equally”. The labour movement reached its peak during the non-cooperation movement of Gandhiji in 1920 A.D.-1922 A.D. Initially with the endeavour of AITUC nearly 200 labour strikes occurred in 1920 A.D.

Western Influence: The influence of the Western socialist ideology was there behind the democratic concentration of this labour movement, over and above many important leaders also helped to make this movement a success. Many of these leaders were members of AITUC. Joseph Baptista, N. M. Joshi, B. P. Wadia, Nariman, Dmabandhu Andrews, Motilal Nehru, Syed Abdullah Brelvi, Ballavbhai Patel, Bomkesh Chakravarty, J. N. Baneqee, Hemanta Sarkar, etc. were of those eminent leaders. Singaravellu Chettiar, the famous labour leader first observed ‘May Day’ in India on 1st May 1923 A.D. Prior to that, May Day was observed in Chicago of America for fixing the working time of the workers to eight hours. But in India, it was found that torture by the police increased and laying off of the striking workers even after the observation of May Day. It may be assumed easily that the practical and real picture was always absolutely different. After a long time, in 1956 A.D. the “Trade Union Act” was passed and the various activities of the AITUC were recognised and the common interest of the labour class was preserved.

Communism in Labour Movement: In December 1925 A.D. the “Communist Party of India” was formed by Muzaffar Ahmed and a new dimension was noticed in the history of the labour movement. On the basis of the socialist ideologies of Karl Marx, the communist leaders provocative the helpless workers to go for a strike against the exploiting owner class. There were some publicity media organised by C.P.I. for the welfare of the workers. Besides this, there were also other communist leaders like Hemanta Sarkar, P C. Joshi, Mirajkar, etc. whose contributions made the labour movement successful.

During the Civil Disobedience Movement: In 1930-31 A.D., during the time of civil disobedience, the workers of the cotton mills of Sholapur, being very much tortured by the owners and the Government, started militant movements. Some labour leaders like Srikrishna Sarada, Qurban Hossain, Malappa Dhane Shesthy and Jagannath Sindhre were sentenced to death because some people were killed by the agitating workers. On the other hand, Fazlut Haque of Bengal formed ‘Bengal Praja Party’ in 1926-28 A.D. and communist organisations like ‘The workers and Peasants Party’ started travelling in Bengal, Bombay, Punjab, Central provinces, Madras, etc. against the extreme exploitation of the zamindar class. The Government brought false charges against many communist leaders as the labour movement turned into an armed and militant movement.

Congress Socialist Party: In the context of the Meerut Conspiracy Case, when the trend of the labour movement was decaying, Jayprakash Narayan and Acharya Narendra Dev united the ideas of communist and Congress parties and formed the ‘Congress Socialist Party’. Jayprakash Narayan played a unique role in uniting the labour movement with the movement for independence. A new phase was initiated when Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose of Congress joined the leftist labour movement. ‘The National Trade Union federation’ set up by Jamunadas Mehta and V. V. Giri had jointly started the labour movement with the Congress Socialist Party.

Conclusion: Historian Sumit Sarkar says that the movement which was started by Congress, received its militancy by the working class struggle. In that way, the working class movement was a progressive trend in the history of the freedom movement. Subhas Chandra Bose was eager to fulfil the economic freedom and other demands of the working class and to form a Government with the workers, as parallel to the British Government. The working class movement was non-violent, as it was guided by the ideal of communism. Sumit Sarkar had acknowledged, “As for labour, its concrete achievements in the building up of a fairly strong, countrywide trade union movement should not be underestimated’- -Modern India.

Question 2. Write a note on the Trade Union Movement.
Answer:

Trade Union Movement: Many workers were employed in the industries and the tea gardens which were established under native and foreign entrepreneurs in India. According to the statistics given by R. P. Dutt, there were 3,49,810 industrial workers in India in 1894. The workers in every sector were mercilessly exploited. The workers started to agitate against this exploitation. We can divide the workers’ movement into three phases.
(1) The First Phase: The years 1850-1900 were the early phase of the working-class movement. During these years a number of humanitarian and socially minded persons tried to organise the workers.
(2)The Second Phase: The second phase of the working class movement may be traced between 1901-1914. The workers showed their political consciousness as well as awareness of their wretched condition in the Swadeshi movement of 1905. They organised strikes in different factories owned by English mill owners. Strikes were held at Asansol and Jamalpore railway workshops. The workers of the Indian Government Press at Calcutta held strikes in 1905. The workers of East India Railway struck work in 1906 for higher wages and better housing. In 1907 began the all-India railway strike which paralysed most railway workshops. The Government used the army to break the strike by creating terror. Bal Gangadhar Tilak created a deep impression on the Bombay labour movement. The workers held strikes in 1908 as a protest against his arrest and common people organised hartals. Tilak was imprisoned for 6 years. The Second Factory Act was passed in 1911 by which working hours for 12 hours were fixed. But the mill owners tried to defy the Act.
(3)The Third Phase: The third phase spread over the year 1915-1917. It was a period of full-fledged trade union movement and awakening of class consciousness among the workers. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 created a deep impression on the Indian working class. The workers realised that there was no hope of liberation of the workers till India became free of colonial rule. The workers became vocal against the Rowlatt Act. During the Non-Cooperation Movement, the workers responded in different parts of the country by organising strikes.

Madras Labour Union: B. P. Wadia founded the Madras Labour Union in 1918 which, according to many, was the first real trade union of India. In that sense, B. P. Wadia may be truly called the founder of trade unions in India. Calcutta Tram Workers Union was founded in 1919. Gradually a good number of trade unions were founded in different industries. The foundation of All India Trade Union Congress in 1920 was a landmark. Lala Lajpat Rai presided over the A.I.T.U.C. at Bombay in 1920

Influence of Communism: During these years the trade union movement was generally conducted by national bourgeois leaders. They failed to work as a whole-time worker for the trade union movement and to devote themselves constantly to labour welfare and raising the wage of the labourers. The Indian Communists belonging to the C.P.I. were influenced by the philosophy of Marxism and the Russian Revolution. They devoted themselves to guiding the trade union movement in a militant fashion and as a weapon of class struggle. The working class movement largely passed under the control of the Communists. Gopen Chakravarty, Dharani Goswami, and Bankim Mookherjee were famous Communist labour leaders.

They formed 1918 the All India Workers and Peasants Party. Amrita Sri Pada Dange made a name by labour organisations and trade union activities among Bombay workers. Muzaffar Ahmed too made a name in the Bengal trade union movement. Dance and other Communist leaders pointed out that unless the workers could get political rights, they cannot win real economic rights. They, therefore, preached the doctrine of a Government to be formed by peasants and workers. Rightist labour leaders viewed the workers’ movement as a purely economic movement. Dance and other Communist leaders formed the G.K.U. or Girni Kamgarh Union at Bombay, which was the largest among the textile workers.

Question 3. Trace the growth of socialist ideas in Indian national politics in the 1920s and 1930s.
Answer:

Left-wing and Socialist Trends in Indian Politics: There were many circumstances which formed the growth of the left and socialist movements in India.
(1) The First World War brought in crippling financial burdens, rising prices of necessities of life, famine conditions and manipulative profiteering—all exposing the evils of imperialist-capitalist domination.
(2) The success of the Russian Revolution in 1917 fired the imagination of Indian intellectuals, political leaders, terrorists and even workers and made men aware of a new ideology.
(3) Gandhiji’s slogans of Swaraj and Swadeshi and his efforts to carry the message to the people gave a new orientation to the nationalist movement in the country. Even the workers and peasants were drawn into the mainstream of national life. Those developments helped the growth of the socialist movement.

Divisions of the Left Movements: Left movements in India developed into two main streams
1. Communism which functioned as a branch of the International Communist Movement and was by and large controlled by the Comintern.
2. The Congress Socialist Party functioned as the left wing of the Indian National Congress and drew inspiration from the philosophy of Democratic Socialism. Both these movements drew support from the anti-imperialist sentiments prevalent in India.

The Communist Party of India: The revolutionaries played a glorious role in the struggle for India’s freedom. Later on many of the revolutionaries embraced Marxism. Mr Manabendra Nath Roy or Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya went to Mexico in 1919 where he came in contact with a Bolshevik revolutionary Michael Borodin and embraced Marxism. He participated in the Second International in Russia in 1920 as an Indian delegate.

Role of M.N.Roy: A few former revolutionaries from India like Abani Mookherjee, Muhammad Ali, etc. led by M. N. Roy founded the C.P.I. at Tashkent in 1920. This party got recognition from the Comintern in 1921. Mr M. N. Roy sent a long memorandum from Tashkent to the Ahmedabad Congress session proposing the conversion of the Congress to an organ of class struggle for the liberation of the workers and the peasants. M.N. Roy found that organising a proletarian movement in India from Tashkent was difficult. He transferred the headquarters of his party to Berlin and started to publish two journals “The Vanguard” and “India in Transition”. Other revolutionaries abroad who went to Berlin from India, men like Birendra Nath Chatterjee, Bhupendra Nath Datta and Barkatullah were drawn to Marxism in Berlin. Some of the leaders of the Gadar Party, men like Ratan Singh were also indoctrinated to Marxism.

Urge for Communist Revolution: Mr M. N. Roy commissioned Nalini Gupta to inspire Dange and other Marxists in India to form an open organisation with peasants and workers and under its cover to start a secret communist organisation in order to bring a need of forming a socialist organisation of workers and peasants. Even though most of the Marxists and Communists had no faith in the compromise policy of the old guards of the Congress, still they were one with the main current of national movement till 1928.

Kanpur Conspiracy Case: However, the British Government turned hostile to the Indian Communists for their contact with the Soviet Union and for preaching communism in India. Leading communist leaders like Muzaffar Ahmed, S. A. Dange, Shaukat Osmani and Nalini Gupta were imprisoned under the Kanpur Conspiracy Case, of 1924. In 1925 an open conference at Kanpurthe ruly Indian Communist Party was formed under the leadership of Satya Bhakta. Sringara Vellu was the chairman of the conference and Hazrat Mohani was the chairman of the reception committee. The Kanpur conference led to the birth of a communist organisation under dedicated leaders who made the life-long struggle for preaching communist ideas in this country.

Peasants’ and Workers’ Party: From 1925-27 the Indian Communists functioned under the banner of an organisation named the ‘Peasants’ and Workers’ Party’. From that time the Indian communist workers identified themselves with the labour movement. When Shapurji Shaokatwalah returned to India from England in 1927, the communist movement in India became stronger than before. In 1937 the Bengalee students became involved in the communist movement and they launched violent demonstrations for the release of political prisoners. The Students Federation of India (S.F.I.) was founded at this time. The communist ideas were strong among the urban workers and students.

Left-wing in Congress: From the third decade of the 20th century there was clearly a left-wing swing in Congress politics. Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, two young Congress leaders were deeply influenced by socialist ideas. These two leaders forced Congress to adopt the demand of complete independence and they linked the peasants’ and workers’ movement with the Congress-led nationalist movement. The election of Jawaharlal Nehru as the President of the Congress in 1929,1936 and 1937 and of Subhas Chandra Bose in 1938 and 1939 clearly showed the left-wing tendency within the Congress fold. Subhas Chandra Bose’s attempt to seek re-election for the Congress Presidentship in 1939, sharply divided the Congress into the ‘leftist’ and ‘rightist’ camps. He also laid emphasis on the industrialisation of India and planned economic growth on the Soviet pattern.

The Congress Socialist Forum formed by the youth wing of the Congress was a faction of the Congress. The members of this Forum did not believe in Gandhiji’s principle of peaceful compromise between the employer and the workers and between the landlord and the peasant. The leaders of the Socialist Forum formed their organisation when they were imprisoned in the Nasik prison in 1933. The Congress Socialists took a middle course between Congress conservatives or Rightists and the extreme Leftists or Marxists. They gave freedom struggle a priority as their goal. But while carrying the struggle they advocated socialist reforms as another goal. Pandit J. Nehra supported this group without identifying himself with it. In U.P. the Congress Socialist Forum made a great impact in the election of the Provincial Congress Committee.

The local Congress was burdened with the programmes of land reform, and industrial dispute problems of the subjects of native states. The Congress Socialist Party condemned the Government of India Act, of 1935. It was because of the Socialist pressure that the Congress Election Manifesto of 1936 contained a programme for the removal of socioeconomic grievances of the people. The CSP supported the Quit India Movement and took a leading part in organising the Revolt of 1942. Apart from the Socialists, the left-wing followers of Subhas Chandra Bose founded the ‘Forward Block’ in 1939. When Subhas had to resign from the Presidentship of the Congress in 1939, M. N. Ray, the pioneer of the Communist movement in India, organised the Radical Democratic Party in 1940 after his complete disillusionment with Marxism.

Question 4. Write a note on ‘Gandhiji and the peasant movements’.
Answer:

Gandhiji and Peasant Movements: Gandhiji’s entry into Indian politics marked a change in the politico-economic life of India. In his anxiety to broaden the social base of the Congress, he carried his message to the villages and sought to involve the peasants in the nationalist struggle.

Champaran and Kheda Satyagrahas: The European indigo planters of Champaran, a district in the north-western part of Bihar, practised all types of oppression on the local Bihari peasants not very dissimilar from the earlier malpractices of planters in Bengal. Gandhiji assisted by Rajendra Prasad and others started an open enquiry into the real condition of the peasants. He taught the peasants of Champaran the virtues of Satyagraha which consisted of open, disciplined, nonviolent non-cooperation with injustice against the indigo planters. The British Government of Bihar took offence at Gandhian moves and prohibited them from pursuing their enquiry and arrested Gandhiji. Later on, the Government developed cold feet and appointed an Enquiry Committee (June 1917) with Gandhi as one of its members. The ameliorative enactment, the Champaran Agrarian Act freed the tenants from the special imposts levied by the indigo planters. Unfortunately, however, the Congress leaders did not follow up the matter to its logical conclusion by freeing the Champaran peasants from the excessive rents charged by the zamindars and exorbitant interest rates charged by the money-lenders.

The Kheda campaign was chiefly directed against the Government. In the spring of 1918 crop failures and drought brought misery to the peasants of Kheda in Gujarat. The Bombay Government, however, insisted on its pound of flesh in the form of land revenue. The land revenue rules provided for the remission of land revenue if the crop yield was less than 25 per cent of the normal, the cultivators claimed that to be the case which the Government officials denied. Gandhiji organised the peasants and enlisted the support of all classes. Peasants in large numbers offered Satyagraha and suffered imprisonment for defying unjust laws. The Satyagraha lasted till June 1918. The government had to concede to the just demands of the peasants. Judith Brown has estimated that the government did collect nearly 93 per cent of the assessment.

Impact: The Champaran and Kheda struggle established Gandhiji as the leader of the masses and opened the eyes of the educated kisans to the political possibilities of peasants’ mass action.

The Mappila (Moplah) Uprising, 1921: The Muslim leaseholders (kanamdars) and cultivators (verumpattamdars) of South Malabar (Kerala state) were popularly known as Moplahs. They were mainly converted t< from lower caste Hindus like Tia. S< they were descendants of the Arabian IV who had settled during the 8th and 9th CE on the Malabar Coast. The Moplahs most to agriculture and worked as tenants or r (bonded labour) of Hindu landlords. In the century the Moplah agrarian grievances centred around excessive land re-demand, insecurity of land tenure, renewal and extra landlord exactions) resulted in 22 outbreaks between 1836 and II talukas or south Malabar) in which the rebels killed numerous police and government officials and some Hindu landlords. In the 19th century, the British rulers always branded Moplah peasants’ strikes as communal outbursts and suppressed the rebels. The Moplah rebellion of 1921 stemmed from twin grievances of the Moplah Muslim peasantry (continued landlord oppression) and the British government’s anti-khilafat policies. In April 1920 Malabar District Congress held at Manjeri struck a pro-peasant stance and passed resolutions demanding tenancy reforms.

Merged with Khilafat Movement: In 1921 the Moplah peasants’ movement and the Khilafat movement got inextricably merged into one. The Khilafat movement became a worldwide protest movement of the Muslims against the harsh treatment meted out by the victorious Allied Powers to the Sultan of Turkey (the Khalifa of the Muslim community) and the dismemberment of the Turkish empire. The Indian Muslims under the leadership of the Ali Brothers whipped up anti-British hysteria and created a rebellious mood against the Government. The volatile Moplahs declared Ali Musaliar, a highly respected priest and a local Khilafat leader, as the Raja and Khilafat flags were unfurled over government buildings in the Ernad taluka of south Malahar.

In October 1921 the Government authorities sent a strong contingent to deal with the rebellion. Surrounded, the desperate Moplahs misled by rumours and suspecting Hindu complicity with the government, resorted to the inhuman killing of innocent Hindu men, women and children. By the end of the year 1921, the government crushed the rebellion resulting in the killing of 2,337 Moplahs and the wounding of another 1652, though the unofficial figure put the number of casualties at 10,000. In addition, about 3000 Moplahs were sentenced to transportation for life to the Andaman jails. The Moplah rebellion was ruthlessly crushed, which so greatly demoralised the community that thereafter they dared not take part in any peasant revolt or national political activity till the British rule lasted in India.

Question 5. Discuss the relationship between leftists and Congress in 20th-century India.
Answer:

Relationship between Leftists and Congress During the 2.0th Century:

Introduction: In the history of the farmers’ rebellion, Champaran in Bihar and Kheda in Gujarat are of great importance. During this time, because of the Congress’ connection with the farmers, many Gandhian leaders like Rajkumar Shukla, Rajendra Prasad and Jamunalal Bajaj joined the farmers’ movement. As a result, the Government was forced to withdraw the Teen Kathiya system and promulgated the Champaran Cultivation Law in 1918. The 1920s decade was of great historical importance as far as the farmers’ movement is concerned because it was known as the golden era of leftist organisation. A greater connection of Congress and Leftist politics with the farmers can be noted during this time. Gandhiji considered it to be a reasonable idea to connect with the farmers’ movement in the larger interests of a national movement. During the non-cooperation movement, a certain spice trader from Udaipur called himself a representative of Mahatma Gandhi and joined the farmers’ movement. The Moplah Revolt (1873-1921) of Malabar was a militant farmers’ rebellion. Gandhiji was shell-shocked at the death of 10,000 Muslim farmers in this rebellion in 1921.

The disagreement of Views: In the 1920s the leftist powers played an important role in strengthening the organisation of the farmers’ movement. In 1922, the leftist leader Manabendranath Roy, in his books India in Transition and What Do We Want, called the Gandhian Philosophy as ‘a pathetic and frustrating expression of reactionary forces.

Leftist Support to Farmers’ Movement: The leftist parties covertly supported the farmers’ movement while maintaining contact with the Indian National Congress, thereby strengthening the left organisations in the country. Dance had mentioned it in his journal Socialist.

Difference between the Leftists and the Congress: The leftist leader Singaravellu strongly criticised the Gaya Congress Session (December 1927) and the decision to withdraw from the Non-Cooperation Movement. Under these circumstances, the leftists took up a new political strategy and initiated the formation of a political party with people from both inside and outside the Congress. The purpose was:
1. To keep Congress on its toes and
2. To keep the reactionary forces in Congress at bay so that in future the Communist Party can assume leadership at the national level.

Relation with the Peasants’ Movement: Hence, the leftists tried to strengthen the peasant movement while maintaining a cordial relationship with Congress. In 1923, Singaravellu formed the ‘Hindustan Labourer—Peasant Party’ and having accepted the leadership of the Congress, expressed his willingness to work as a workers’-farmers’ wing of the National Congress. Muzaffar Ahmed established the Labour Swaraj Party in 1925 and the Congress Labour Party was established in 1926 for the same purpose. Later these local organisations were united together and the Workers and Peasants Party was formed in the interests of the farmers’ movement at the national level.

Question 6. Give an account of the correlation between Congress and Leftists during Labour Movement in India.
Answer:

Congress and Leftists During Labour Movement:

Introduction: If we analyse the development of the farmers’ movement in twentieth-century India, it can be observed that it had a close link with the National Congress and leftist politics. Since the NonCooperation Movement, the leftists worked with Congress through legal methods on one hand, while silently giving strength to their organisation with support from the labourers. But it was Gandhiji who started the first labour movement by forming ‘Mazdoor Mahajan Sabha’ in 1917.

Connection Through Labour Movement: The Congress had a strong organisational base for quite some time, but the leftist political organisation started after World War I, with the influence of the Russian Revolution (1917). During 1928-29 the labourers’ organisations, at the initiative of the leftists, called several strikes of immense political significance. Gandhiji, in the interest of mass movement, had extended his support to these strikes. In this way, a connection developed between Congress and the leftists through the labour movement. Communistic ideals developed among the workers because of their connection with the leftists.

Influence of Leftists on Congress: The ‘Workers and Peasants Party7 had an important role to play in bringing together Congress and the leftists during the labour movement. Because of the establishment of this party, leftist influence on Congress increased by a great amount. So, ‘Barn Sanghati’ or solidarity with the left was declared within the Congress. ‘Girni Kamgarh Union’ of Bombay led a successful labour movement with the influence of this party. In December 1929, a contingent of thousands of workers, led by leftists, went to the Calcutta conference of Congress with a demand for ‘Puma Swaraj’ or complete independence. Jawaharlal Nehru and Motilal Nehru formed the ‘Meerut Defence Committee to support the leftists in the Meerut Conspiracy Case. But during the Non-Cooperation Movement, the leftists kept aloof from Congress despite workers’ strikes. The leftists formed the ‘Anti-Gandhi League’ in 1934 and strengthened the labour movement. But, in the 1937 elections as per the law for the governance of India, 1935, the leftists supported the Congress. As a result, Congress formed a council of ministers in some provinces and thwarted the rights of the workers. However, later, Congress and the leftists were found jointly supporting the labour movement. Yet, on 22nd February 1946, when there was a mutiny on the ship called ‘Talwar’ in Bombay, Congress took action against the striking workers.

Question 7. Discuss the character and characteristics of the participation of leftist politics during the Anti-Colonial Movement in 20th century India.
Answer:

Introduction: People from all sections of society developed apathy against the oppression and deprivation policies of the British. Subsequently, leftist politics grew in power using this favourable condition in their favour.

Character: Leftist politics got a well-defined character with the influence of the Russian Revolution (1917) and with the formation of the Communist Party of India by Manbendranath Roy, Abani Mukherjee and others in Tashkent in 1920. However, after the Communist Party was set up in India in 1925, the character of anti-colonial leftist politics changed.
Connection with Movements: Whenever anti-colonial national freedom movements led by the bourgeois class assumed revolutionary character, it received the full support of leftist politics. Hence, we can say that leftist politics had a direct connection with the NonCooperation movement, Anti-Simon Commission Movement (1928) or Civil Disobedience Movement. But the leftists could never accept the reformatory bourgeois in the Congress party.

Militant Tendency: Many politicians joined the left politics having lost their faith in Gandhian principles. It was not just independence, but economic and social equality that gained importance in leftist politics. The leftists wanted to reform and control the Congress and make it a member of’Anti-Colonial League’, thereby strengthening the anti-British movement even further. Hence, during the Anti-Simon Commission Movement, the left and the Congress, along with other political parties, fought together. This made the movement more militant and progressive at the same time.

Government Suppression: It must be noted that, in the beginning, the communist organisation was not very strong in the rural areas. So, the rural farmers often became prey to the State’s terrorism. The British colonists were somewhat weary of the leftist politics and its organisation, despite the shortcomings of communism. For that reason, the Government introduced two suppressive bills, namely the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill, to oust foreign communists from India and ban workers’ strikes respectively.

Vacuum in Leadership: During the Civil Disobedience Movement, there was a vacuum in the leadership of leftist politics. J. P. Hythcox and J. S. Mathur said that between 1930 and 1931, 70 strikes had failed. The reasons for this failure were
1. Extreme leftist ideals
2. All strikes were not conducted by the left
3. Many trade union leaders were behind bars and
4. Presence of reformatory leaders.

Anti-imperialist Front: In March 1925, the Communist Party of India prepared to adopt a united front to start an anti-imperialist movement. Leftist politics aimed to form a united front from top to bottom and to strengthen the united nationalist revolutionary movement. The leftists felt that an anti-imperialist front could make the anti-colonial movement a success. When World War II started in 1939, the leftists called it an Imperialist War. So, taking advantage of the war, the leftists intensified their anti-colonial movement. The leftists initiated mass movements in Kanpur, Patna, the Punjab, Andhra and Malabar regions in 1940.

Characteristics:
1. During the first decade of the twentieth century leftist politics had hardly any organised existence. There was some organised form after World War I.
2. The birth of leftist politics was from the Russian Revolution. So, an armed revolutionary movement started against the British imperialist power which speeded up the nationalist movements of the Congress.,
3. The leftists converted the anti-colonial movement into a mass movement. The main feature of their movement was to raise an uncompromising war against the British
4. Mass awakening started through participation in the anti-colonial movement of leftist politics. They had helped in bringing success to India’s freedom struggle, sometimes by giving a lot of importance to Congress and sometimes by joining it.
5. The leftists supported various labour organisations and used the strikes as tools of the anti-imperialist movement
6. The leftists kept their protests alive sometimes by supporting Congress and sometimes criticizing it.

Question 8. Give an account of the role of the working class in the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Answer:

Role of the Working Class in the Non-Cooperation Movement:

Introduction: The nationalist interest in organizing the labourers slumped towards the end of 1908 and remained so till the inauguration of the Non-Co-operation Movement, 1919-1920. However, there was a resurgence of working-class activities between 1919 and 1922.

Features: The significant features in this phase of the working class movement were:
1. The working class set up its organization on an email-India basis to defend its class rights, and
2. The working class in this period got involved in the mainstream of national politics in a significant way.

During the War Period: The working class movement in India entered into a new phase at the close of the First World War (1919).
The industrial labourers by that time had become conscious about the effective weapon of the strike in fulfilling their various demands. The working class could not stay away from the mass awakening created by Gandhiji’s participation in the national freedom struggle. The price hike following the World War worsened the living conditions of the working class. All this brought the working class into full activity and opened a new era of the labour movement.

Formation of AITUC: The most important development of the period was the formation of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in 1920. Lala Lajpat Rai was the first elected President and Diwan Chaman Lai, its General Secretary. The objectives of the AITUC were: to coordinate the activities of all the labour organizations in all trades and all provinces of India, and generally to further the interest of Indian labour in economic, social and political matters.

Relation with Congress: The formation of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was welcomed by Congress. Not only that but to assist the AITUC the Congress formed a committee consisting of some prominent Congress leaders at the Gaya session of the Indian National Congress held in 1922. C.R. Das was the President of the Gaya Congress. Towards the closing days of Non-Cooperation, the two Congress leaders led a powerful strike on the East Indian Railway. The strike lasted for a few months (February to April). After 1922 there was again a slump in the working class movement under the leadership of the nationalist leaders and the Congress.

The next wave of the working-class movement was spurred by the Leftists. Socialist influences in Indian politics between 1921 and 1924 gave an impetus to the working class movement. Various socialist and communist groups that had emerged in different places were also engaged in organizing labour movements. Despite the British Government’s action restraining the activities of the communists, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (WPP) was formed in 1927. The WPP devoted itself, among other things, to the growth of class consciousness amongst the working class. The objective of the WPP was to strive for a broad anti-imperialist form for the achievement of complete independence with the ultimate aim of establishing socialism in the independent country. Though the WPP was short-lived, its units in some of the provinces emerged as the political party of the working class.

Question 9. Write about the attitude of the Congress towards the peasantry during the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Answer:

The attitude of the Congress towards the Peasantry During the Civil Disobedience Movement:

Introduction: Indication for a new mass movement was clear from the demand for ‘Complete Independence’ raised in the Lahore Session of Congress. The revival was inevitable as the governmental repression of the freedom fighters had mounted contrary to the assurance given to Gandhiji by Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India. With the violation of the Salt Law on 6 April 1930 at Dandi (in Gujarat) began the Civil Disobedience Movement under the leadership of Gandhiji. People irrespective of their class, creed, sex and religion joined the movement. Peasants were also not lagging.

Economic Ruination of Peasants: The Great Depression of 1929 adversely affected the Indian peasantry. An increase in the revenue demand also pressed them very hard. Bardoli Satyagraha created a new enthusiasm amongst the peasantry. All this gave a new impetus to the Indian peasants.

Kisan Sabha: Economically ruined peasants of Bihar were organized into Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) under the initiative of Sahajanand Saraswati in 1919. In the course of time, Kisan Sabhas were established in other parts of the country as well.
Encouragement to Peasants’ Movement: The Civil Disobedience Movement by Congress, under the leadership of Gandhiji, served as an encouragement to the peasants’ movement. During the Civil Disobedience years, the peasants of U.P. (United Province at that time, later on Uttar Pradesh) began a new type of movement. It was a ‘no-revenue and no rent campaign. It was a double-edged weapon against the British.

No Revenue and No-ent Campaign: According to Bipan Chandra, the no-revenue was a call to the zamindars not to pay revenue to the British Government, and the no-rent was a call to the tenants not to pay rent to the zamindars. Under the initiative of Jawaharlal Nehru, the U.P. Congress Committee lent its full support to the no-rent campaign of the peasants.

Demand for Reduction of Land Tax: The U.P. Congress also passed a resolution to the effect that the national programme should include a reduction of land tax. In such a situation the All India Congress Working Committee accepted most of the resolutions passed by the U.P. Congress Committee, which satisfied both the peasants and the zamindars.

Workers’ and Peasants’ Party: The first Left-wing peasant organization in India was not conceived as an exclusive peasant body, it was bracketed with ‘workers’. Thus the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (WPP) came into existence in early 1927, under the leadership of people like S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, P.C. Joshi and others. Initially, it functioned as a left-wing within Congress. It rapidly gained strength within Congress at the provincial and national levels. It was, however, not before 1929 that the WPP emerged as a genuine peasant organization.

Congress Socialist Party: In 1934 the Congress left-wingers established the Congress Socialist Party. The Congress Socialists had considerable influence amongst the peasants of north India, especially in Bihar and the United Province, UP (present-day Uttar Pradesh).

Conclusion: In short, it may be said that the agrarian policy adopted by the Congress Socialists was more radical than that of the Congress. This will be evident from the resolutions they adopted in the meetings and the demands made by them. The demands included the abolition of the zamindari system, recognition of occupancy rights of the tenants, to freeze of the debts of the peasants and to formulation of ‘agrarian wages’.

Question 10. Describe the peasant movement during the Quit India Movement.
Answer:

Peasants Movement During Quit India Movement:

Introduction: During the Quit India Movement, the main characteristic feature of the peasant movement was to mobilise mass movement against the repressive policies of the Government. When the Quit India Movement spread throughout the length and breadth of the country, the peasant class could come in contact with this movement. The Quit India Movement turned into a people’s war because of the participation of the peasant class.

Matangini Hazra: The farmers set fires to many police stations while laying siege on others. On 29th September, a group of 20,000 people tried to occupy the police station and court in the town of Tamluk. The people of Medinipur would never forget the bravery of Matangini Hazra, the 73-year-old woman from a peasant family in the village of Alina. In six police station areas, in the Tamluk sub-division of Medinipur District, Peasant Movement turned into a mass movement because of the participation of the peasant class. Bidyut Bahini: A large number of armed farmers of ‘Bidyut Bahini’ founded by Ajoy Mukherjee, Satish Samanta and Sushil Dhara, ignored police firing and occupied Sutahata and Nandigram police stations. Other Leaders: Birendranath Sashmal gave his leadership to the farmers and also their saviour. So he was named ‘Deshapran’ (patriot). On 20th November 1942, Shyama Prasad Mukhopadhyay, the then Finance Minister of Bengal, resigned from the council of ministers protesting against Government oppression and police atrocities in Contai and Tamluk sub-divisions, demanding an independent enquiry. He formed ‘The Bengal Relief Committee and saved people during the famine of 1943.

Spread of Movement: The Peasant Movement of Tamluk and Contai urged the farmers and lower-class people of Birbhum, Bardhamaan, Howrah, Hooghly, and Dinajpurto to take action. Dhaka, Faridpur and Barishal gave a mass appeal to the Quit India Movement, in the revolts of Dhaka, students, youth, the middle class and the working class joined the farmers.

Economic Aspect: In states such as the Punjab, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where the progress of agriculture was comparatively higher, the rich and influential farmers, in the interests of their own class, remained aloof from the Quit India Movement. The excitement at the national level and the deplorable financial crisis were the primary features of this time. Small farmers and agricultural workers were badly affected by the famine of 1943, post-war inflation, price escalation of basic goods, etc. For these reasons, it was quite justified tor the farmers of this class to join the movement. The quit India Movement was withdrawn after Gandhiji was released from prison on 8th August 1944. But the farmers’ movement had not lost its steam.

Analyses: Active participation of the farmers at various places transformed Quit India Movement into a mass uprising. The heat of the movement could be felt in every state, district, sub-division and village. In Orissa, a new independent government called ‘Chashi- Muliya Raj’ was formed under the leadership of Pabitra Mohan. In Medinipur ‘Tamraiipti Jatiya Sarkar’ was formed by Ajoy Mukherjee and in Madhya Pradesh ‘Swadhin Jatiya Sarkar’ (independent national government) was formed. The ‘Patri Sarkar’ formed in Maharashtra also looked after the interests of the farmers.

Question 11. Discuss the formens’ rebellion during the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Answer:

Farmers” Rebellion During Non-cooperation Movement:

Introduction: During the Non-Cooperation Movement of Gandhiji, farmers’ movements from different corners of India added a new force to the Nationalist Movement. Fight against feudalism was an important aspect of farmers’ rebellion at that time. This particular movement by the farmers was stronger and more organised. The farmers of Bijolia managed to wrestle out some benefits even from big landlords. When the Bhil Tribes joined forces with the farmers and started a joint movement, the Maha Rana repressed them in a violent way.

Influence of Congress: During Non-Cooperation Movement, the farmers’ rebellion was indeed a mass movement. Jawahar Lai Nehru’s autobiography, The Discovery of India, tells us that the political ideals of Congress had influenced the farmers’ movement in India. So, the Congress endeavoured to establish a cordial relationship between the landlords and the farmers, request the Government to formulate laws in the interests of the farmers, to form village Panchayats (local self-government) and to promote cooperation between the rulers and the ruled. In Sultanpur, Faizabad, Pratapgarh and Raiberailley of Uttar Pradesh, the peasants burned down the houses of the landlords and courted arrests in the hands of the police. Jawaharlal Nehru formed the ‘Ayodhya Kisan Sabha’ in 1920 in order to control the militant behaviour of the farmers.

Farmers’ Movement in Bardauli: The farmers’ movement of Bardauli in Gujarat was known for other characteristic features. There, at the request of the head- men of 60 villages, Vallav Bhai Patel started the ‘Boycott paying taxes’ movement as a protest against the atrocities of the landlords. Both common and higher classes of farmers as well as many women like Patel’s daughter Maniben Patel Bhaktiba, Mithuben Petit, Sardaben Shah and Sarda Mehta joined in a united movement against the oppression of the landlords. As a result, the Government reduced the rate of taxes there to 6.03%. The Bardauli Farmers’ Movement was comparatively stronger and better organised.

Farmers’ Movement in Bengal: The Farmers’ Movement in Bengal was in the hands of the worthy leader ‘Deshapran’ Birendranath Sashmal. In 1920 he started revolts in Medinipur to stop ‘Chowkidar Taxes and to boycott ‘Union Board’. In 1921, the leaders of the Non-Cooperation Movement gave a call to the jute farmers to stop the cultivation of jute in the bordering areas of Rajshahi, Nadia and Pabna-Rashidabad in Bengal. Some swear Prasad Chowdhury, a devoted follower of Deshbandhu, led this militant farmers’ movement. Flere it may be mentioned that sharecroppers and sub-lease holders of Dhaka, Pabna, Khulna, and Nadia fought in order to gain rights over the land they tilled.

Analyses: The leftists strengthened the peasant movement during Non-Cooperation Movement. The Peasant Movement had its own agenda and characteristics, but it added a new perspective to the anti-British national movement. The most important was the role of the farmers in the mass movement in India. During this time of the twentieth century, some peasants’ associations and local organisations inspired the peasant movement. Peasant Movement was a grand success against feudal oppression at the time of the NonCooperation Movement. However, the farmers could not adhere to the non-violent policy of Gandhiji at all times. So, he never supported the farmers who adopted the method of violent protests. He just recognised the participation of the farmers in the interests of the mass movement.

Question 12. Discuss the Kisan Sabha agitations of the twentieth century.
Answer:

Kisan Sabha Agitations: In different regions, provincial Kisan Sabhas were already formed by the 1920s. But the need for a central organization of the peasants was felt by the socialists and the communists. Their efforts led to the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in 1936. By 1937 branches of the All India Kisan Sabha were formed in different provinces. N.G. Ranga, Swami Sahajanad, Narendra Dev, Indulal Yagnik and Bankim Mukherjee were some of the prominent leaders of the All India Kisan Sabha.

Objectives: The objectives of the Kisan Sabha were:
1. The protection of the peasants from economic exploitation.
2. The abolition of landlordism, such as the zamindari and the taluqdari systems.
3. Reduction of revenue and rent.
4. Moratorium on debts.
5. Licensing of money lenders.
6. Minimum wages for agricultural labourers.
7. Fair price for commercial crops.
8. Irrigation facilities, etc.

Protests and Demands: In their meetings and demonstrations the Kisan Sabha popularised these demands and put pressure on the government to concede to these demands. In its second annual meeting at Faizpur, the AIKS urged all anti-imperialist forces in the country and especially the kisans and workers to develop their day-to-day struggle against the exploiters, as represented by the British Government in India, the zamindars and landlords and industrialists and money-lenders.

Bakasht Movement: The Kisan Sabha launched a new type of movement which was directed mainly against the landlords. In Bihar, there was a popular movement in 1937-38, which was known as the Bakasht Movement. Bakasht means self-cultivated. The landlords often evicted the tenants from Bakasht land. With the formation of the Congress ministry in 1937, the Kisan Sabha thought that the time had come to force the issue of Bakash; it launched the Bakasht Movement during which the peasants fought against eviction. There were clashes between the landlords and the peasants.

Agitation in Bengal: In Bengal also the Kisan Sabha was active. In the Burdwan district the Canal Tax was imposed on the peasants after the construction of the Damodar Canal. The Kisan Sabha organized a satyagraha movement for the reduction of Canal Tax. The government partly accepted the demand of the Kisan Sabha and the movement was withdrawn. In north Bengal districts, the Hat Tola Movement was launched. The landlords collected a levy from the peasants who sold rice, paddy, vegetables, cattle in fairs and hats (weekly markets). The peasants refused to pay this levy. Sometimes the landlords came to a compromise with the peasants and exempted poor peasants from paying the levy.

Share Croppers’ Movement: In 1939, there was a movement of the sharecroppers. They were poor peasants who tilled the land of the landlord and gave a portion of the produce to the landlord. But they had no security of tenure and could be evicted by the landlord. In 1939, the tenants took the crop from the field to their threshing floor. Previously, they had to carry the crop to the landlord’s granary, where the crop was threshed and then divided between the sharecropper and the landlords. The movement became strong in the Dinajpur district in north Bengal. The government came to a compromise with the peasants. It was decided that in the future paddy would be stored in a place to be decided by the landlord and the sharecropper. Thus, the movement was successful and the peasants learnt the power of organization. Similarly, there were peasant struggles in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh during this period. N. G. Ranga played a vital role in organizing the peasants in Andhra Pradesh.

WBBSE Solutions for Class 10 History and Environment