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Unit 8: Peasant Movements

Meanwhile, the Congress at Calcutta had chosen the path of non-cooperation and many nationalists Notes
of U.P. had committed themselves to the new political path. But there were others, including
Madan Mohan Malaviya, who preferred to stick to constitutional agitation. These differences were
reflected in the U.P. Kisan Sabha as well, and soon the Non-cooperators set up an alternative Oudh
Kisan Sabha at Pratapgarh on 17 October 1920. This new body succeeded in integrating under its
banner all the grassroots kisan sabhas that had emerged in the districts of Avadh in the past few
months; through the efforts of Misra, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mata Badal Pande, Baba Ramchandra,
Deo Narayan Pande and Kedar Nath, the new organization-brought under its wing, by the end of
October, over 330 kisan sabhas. The Oudh Kisan Sabha asked the kisans to refuse to till bedakhli land,
not to offer hari and begar (forms of unpaid labour), to boycott those who did not accept these
conditions and to solve their disputes through panchayats. The first big show of strength of the
Sabha was the rally held at Ayodhya, near Fyzabad town, on 20 and 21 December which was
attended by roughly 100,000 peasants. At this rally, Baba Ramchandra turned up bound in ropes
to symbolize the oppression of the kisans. A marked feature of the Kisan Sabha movement was that
kisans belonging to the high as well as the low castes were to be found in its ranks.
In January 1921, however, the nature of the peasant activity underwent a marked change. The
centres of activity were primarily the districts of Rae Bareli, Fyzabad and, to a lesser extent,
Sultanpur. The pattern of activity was the looting of bazaars, houses, granaries, and clashes with
the police. A series of incidents, small and big, but similar in character, occurred. Some, such as
the ones at Munshiganj and Karhaiya Bazaar in Rae Bareli, were sparked off by the arrests or
rumours of arrest of leaders. The lead was often taken not by recognized Kisan Sabha activists, but
by local figures—sadhus, holy men, and disinherited ex-proprietors.
The Government, however, had little difficulty in suppressing these outbreaks of violence. Crowds
were fired upon and dispersed, leaders and activists arrested, cases launched and, except for a
couple of incidents in February and March, the movement was over by the end of January itself.
In March, the Seditious Meetings Act was brought in to cover the affected districts and all political
activity came to a standstill. Nationalists continued to defend the cases of the tenants in the courts,
but could do little else. The Government, meanwhile, pushed through the Oudh Rent (Amendment)
Act, and though it brought little relief to the tenants, it helped to rouse hopes and in its own way
assisted in the decline of the movement.
Towards the end of the year, peasant discontent surfaced again in Avadh, but this time the centres
were the districts of Hardoi, Bahraich, and Sitapur in the northern part of the province.
The main grievances here related to the extraction of a rent that was generally fifty per cent higher
than the recorded rent, the oppression of thekedars to whom the work of rent-collection was farmed
out and the practice of share-rents.
The Eka meetings were marked by a religious ritual in which a hole that represented the river
Ganges was dug in the ground and filled with water, a priest was brought in to preside and the
assembled peasants vowed that they would pay only the recorded rent but pay it on time, would
not leave when ejected, would refuse to do forced labour, would give no help to criminals and
abide by the panchayat decisions.
The Eka Movement, however, soon developed its own grass-roots leadership in the form of Madari
Pasi and other low-caste leaders who were not particularly inclined to accept the discipline of
non-violence that the Congress and Khilafat leaders urged. As a result, the movement’s contact
with the nationalists diminished and it went its own way. However, unlike the earlier Kisan Sabha
movement that was based almost solely on tenants, the Eka Movement included in its ranks many
small zamindars who found themselves disenchanted with the Government because of its heavy
land revenue demand. By March 1922, however, severe repression on the part of the authorities
succeeded in bringing the Eka Movement to its end.

The initial thrust here was provided by Congress and Khilafat leaders and the
movement grew under the name of the Eka or unity movement.

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