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Unit 8: Peasant Movements

These demands were based on the existing consciousness of the peasantry of their just or legitimate Notes
rights, which was itself a product of tradition, custom, usage, and legal rights. When landlords or
the Government demanded what was seen by peasants as illegitimate — high taxes, exorbitant
rents, illegal cesses, forced labour or rights over land which the peasants felt was theirs — they
were willing to resist if they could muster the necessary organizational and other resources. But
they were also willing to continue to respect what they considered legitimate demands.
The struggles based on these demands were clearly not aimed at the overthrow of the existing
agrarian structure but towards alleviating its most oppressive aspects. Nevertheless, they corroded
the power of the landed classes in many ways and thus prepared the ground for the transformation
of the structure itself. The kisan movement was faced with the task of transforming the peasants’
consciousness and building movements based on a transformed consciousness.
It is also important to note that, by and large, the forms of struggle and mobilization adopted by
the peasant movements in diverse areas were similar in nature as were their demands. The main
focus was on mobilization through meetings, conferences, rallies, demonstrations, enrolment of
members, formation, of kisan sabhas or ryotu and karshaka sanghams. Direct action usually involved
Satyagraha or civil disobedience, and non-payment of rent and taxes. All these forms had become
the stock-in-trade of the national movement for the past several years. As in the national movement,
violent clashes were the exception and not the norm. They were rarely sanctioned by the leadership
and were usually popular responses to extreme repression.
The relationship of the peasant movement with the national movement continued to be one of a
vital and integral nature. For one, areas where the peasant movement was active were usually the
ones that had been drawn into the earlier national struggles. This was true at least of Punjab,
Kerala, Andhra, U.P. and Bihar. This was hardly surprising since it was the spread of the national
movement that had created the initial conditions required for the emergence of peasant struggles
— a politicized and conscious peasantry and a band of active political workers capable of and
willing to perform the task of organization and leadership.
In its ideology as well, the kisan movement accepted and based itself on the ideology of nationalism.
Its cadres and leaders carried the message not only of organization of the peasantry on class lines
but also of national freedom. As we have shown earlier, in most areas kisan activists simultaneously
enrolled kisan sabha and Congress members.
True, in some regions, like Bihar, serious differences emerged between sections of Congressmen
and the kisan sabha and at times the kisan movement seemed set on a path of confrontation with the
Congress, but this tended to happen only when both left-wing activists and right-wing or
conservative Congressmen took extreme positions and showed an unwillingness to accommodate
each other. Before 1942 these differences were usually contained and the kisan movement and the
national movement occupied largely common ground. With the experience of the split of 1942, the
kisan movement found that if it diverged too far and too clearly from the path of the national
movement, it tended to lose its mass base, as well as create a split within the ranks of its leadership.
The growth and development of the peasant movement was thus indissolubly linked with the
national struggle for freedom.
8.3 The Trade Union Movement

The Trade Union Movement: A trade union may be defined as “a continuous association of wage-
earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their working lives”. Political
motivations and ideologies influenced the Indian trade union movement and were in turn influenced
by its increased strength.
The twin aspects of the Indian Trade Union movement—labour organisation for industrial
bargaining and its ideological orientation—should be viewed in the larger background of the
naionalist struggle against imperialism and the emergence of politically-inspired opposing
International Labour organisations.

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