Peasant Movement & Political consciousness

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PEASANT MOVEMENT...........................................................................................................................4
WHO ARE PEASANTS?........................................................................................................................4
THE CONCEPT OF PEASANT MOVEMENT...........................................................................................5
THE NATURE OF EXPLOITATION OF PEASANTS IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD........................................5
PEASANT MOVEMENT IN INDIA (1920-1938)........................................................................................7
SOME IMPORTANT PEASANT MOVEMENT IN INDIA.............................................................................9
1. EKA MOVEMENT........................................................................................................................9
2. MOPLAH REBELLION................................................................................................................10
3. BARDOIL SATYAGRAHA............................................................................................................11
BACKGROUND.................................................................................................................................11
THE MOVEMENT..............................................................................................................................12
EFFECT.............................................................................................................................................13
CRITICISM........................................................................................................................................13
MISCELLANEOUS PEASANT MOVEMENTS IN THE 1920s and 30s....................................................13
SOME IMPORTANT LEADERS OF PEASANT MOVEMENTS IN INDIA.....................................................15
1. SAHAJANAND SARASWATI (22 FEB 1889- 26 JUNE 1950)........................................................15
2. DAMODAR DHARMANANDA KOSAMBI (31 JULY 1907- 29 JUNE 1966)...................................15
3. RAM SHARAN SHARMA (26 NOV 1919- 20 AUG 2011)............................................................16
ALL INDIA KISAN SABHA......................................................................................................................17
HISTORY...........................................................................................................................................17
PEASANT MOVEMENT IN OTHER COUNTRIES.....................................................................................19
KOREA..............................................................................................................................................19
AMERICA..........................................................................................................................................20
ZIMBABWE......................................................................................................................................22
BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................................................................................................................23
WEBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................................23

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 Peasant Movement & Political consciousness

PEASANT MOVEMENT

Peasant movement is a social movement involved with the agricultural policy. Peasant
movements have a long history that can be traced to the numerous peasant uprisings that
occurred in various regions of the world throughout human history. Early peasant movements
were usually the result of stresses in the feudal and semi feudal societies, and resulted in
violent uprisings. More recent movements, fitting the definitions of social movements, are
usually much less violent, and their demands are centered on better prices for agricultural
produce, better wages and working conditions for the agricultural labourers, and increasing
the agricultural production. 1

The economic policies of British adversely affected the Indian peasants the British Govt. used
to protect the landlords and money lenders. They exploited the peasants. The peasants rose in
revolt against this injustice on many occasions .The peasants in Bengal formed their union
and revolted against the compulsion of cultivating indigo.

Anthony Pereira, a political scientist, has defined a peasant movement as a "social movement
made up of peasants (small landholders or farm workers on large farms), usually inspired by
the goal of improving the situation of peasants in a nation or territory".

WHO ARE PEASANTS?

A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural labourer or farmer with limited land ownership,
especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or
services to a landlord. In Europe, peasants were divided into three classes according to their
personal status: slave, serf, and free tenant. Peasants hold title to land either in fee simple or
by any of several forms of land tenure, among them so cage, quit-rent, leasehold, and
copyhold. 2

In a colloquial sense, "peasant" often has a pejorative meaning that is therefore seen as
insulting and controversial in some circles, even when referring to farm labourers in the
developing world.

1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant_movement.
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant.
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The word peasantry is commonly used in a non-pejorative sense as a collective noun for the
rural population in the poor and developing countries of the world.

THE CONCEPT OF PEASANT MOVEMENT

Like the urban labour movement, the peasant movement is also a generally inclusive concept
formulated by the social scientists to bring within its scope a variety of organised actions of
the peasant. These actions are primarily of socio-economic nature but often include political
activities. In a wider sense, thus, the term peasant movement is defined as any collective
reaction of the peasants to their low status. The ostensible purpose of such reactions is to
bring about a change in the existing institutions to mitigate or minimise the problems
associated with low economic and political statuses which are commonly found to be present
simultaneously. Historically speaking, the agitations aimed at changing the land tenure
system have constituted the core of peasant movements in india, particularly in the early
stage of development. 3

There are, however, some important deviations from the “core” of the phenomenon of the
peasant movement. One set of such deviations is the peasant-based nationalist movements
directed against foreign rulers such as those witnessed in india and many other countries in
asia, Africa, and latin america. The second set of deviation may be caused due to the
differences in the concept of “peasants”. Generally, a peasant is defined as one who is a
“owner cultivator”, i.e., who owns the land, shares in the actual work on his hand, and is,
therefore, close to it.

THE NATURE OF EXPLOITATION OF PEASANTS IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD

The British introduced two major land revenue and tenure systems - the zamindari system
and the ryotwari system. There were two major reasons to introduce these systems. The
British found the existing land revenue system very complicated and difficult to comprehend
with its different systems and sub systems. The zamindari system delegated the responsibility
of calculating land revenue and its collection to the zamindars and theirs agents, sub tenants
and other middlemen. The British government had only to obtain the revenue from the
zamindars, which greatly simplified the process of land revenue. Another important reason
was the need for the British to create a powerful class of people who would be their loyal

3
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27760993?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
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supporters and serve as a link between them and the general population. The zamindari
system did create such a class as the zamindars owed their existence to the British and
therefore acted as collaborators. The zamindari system did help the British attain their aims of
subjugation of the vast population and continue their exploitation. However, for the peasants
the result was the opposite, as they had to suffer greater hardships.

Peasants as a social category were an important component in any agrarian society. They had
survived through a number of political, social and economic changes in the society. However,
the imposition of the tenure system by the colonial rulers brought a different degree of
hardship to the peasants. The pre-colonial system was also exploitative and oppressive
towards the peasants. But there existed a few safeguards in form of customary rights and
practices, which imposed some rules and obligations on the landowners' conduct towards the
peasants. The British superimposed on the existing system their own tenure system leading to
greater exploitation without the safeguards which had protected the peasants. The result was
greater misery for the peasants in. form of increased rack-renting, sub infeudation and
insecure tenures. While for most of the time the peasant tolerated and adjusted to these
unfavourable conditions, there were times when fellow peasants got mobilized and organized
movements to revolt against the worsening situation. The British government's reaction to the
peasant movements differs from case to case mainly on the basis of the methods used by the
peasants, the seriousness of the situation, response of the zamindars and the administrative
contingencies. The ultimate objective of the British, of course, was the self-preservation and
continuance of their rule in India, and all other considerations were secondary.4

Kathleen Gough (Desai (ed) 1979) summarizes succinctly the condition of Indian peasants
and the nature of agrarian movements during the 200-odd years between the beginnings of
British rule and the Indian Independence. She denies that the Indian peasant was passive or
fatalistic in nature and hence did not participate in movements. She also contradicts the
opinion of many scholars, both Indian and foreign, that the caste system and different
religious background of the Indian.

Land Tenure Systems and   peasants prevented them from uniting into common movements
and challenging the colonial state. There were at least 77 revolts during the period many of

4
http://socioguide.blogspot.com/2015/11/peasant-movement.html.
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which had thousands of participants. Caste system and religious affiliations often helped the
peasants organize and rally against their oppressors. It was the colonial government which
labelled some of these legitimate peasant movements as religious or caste based to deny the
just demands of the peasants.

PEASANT MOVEMENT IN INDIA (1920-1938)

Peasant movement in India was arose during the British colonial period, when economic
policies characterized in the ruin of traditional handicrafts leading, change of ownership and
overcrowding of land, and massive debt and impoverishment of peasantry. This led to
peasant uprisings during the colonial period, and development of peasant movements in the
post-colonial period. The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha
(BPKS) to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy
rights. In 1938, the crops in Eastern Khandesh were destroyed due to heavy rains. The
peasants were ruined. In order to get the land revenue waived, Sane Guruji organized
meetings and processions in many places and took out marches to the Collector's office.

Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these
radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan
Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936 with
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first President. In the subsequent years, the
movement was increasingly dominated by Socialists and Communists as it moved away from
the Congress, by 1938 Haripura session of the Congress, under the presidency of Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose, the rift became evident.5

D. D. Kosambi and R.S. Sharma, together with Daniel Thorner, brought peasants into the
study of Indian history for the first time.

Under colonialism, Indian peasantry was impoverished and suffered from variety of problems
like high rents, arbitrary evictions, illegal tax levies and unpaid labour in zamindari regions.
Eventually, the peasants started to resist this exploitation and took desperate measures at

5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant_movement.
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several places. These activities came to be known as peasant uprisings or peasant movements
in India during the freedom struggle from 1920-1938.6

6
https://exampariksha.com/peasant-movements-india-history-study-material-notes/.
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SOME IMPORTANT PEASANT MOVEMENT IN INDIA

1. EKA MOVEMENT

Eka Movement or Unity Movement is a peasant movement which surfaced in Hardoi,

Bahraich and Sitapur during the end of 1921 by Madari Pasi, an offshoot of Non
Cooperation Movement. The initial thrust was given by the leaders of Congress and
Khilafat movement, but, later madari pasi and other low caste leaders.

The main reason for the movement was high rent, which was generally higher than
50% of recorded rent in some areas. Oppression by thikadhars who were entrusted to
collect rent and practice of share rent also contributed to this movement.7

The Eka meetings were marked by a religious ritual in which a hole that represented
River Ganga was dug in the ground and filled with water, a priest was brought in to
preside and assembled peasants vowed that they would pay only 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, they would not pay
the revenue without receipt and would remain united under any circumstance. Small
zamindars who were disenchanted with British Government due to heavy land
revenue demand were also a part of this movement.8

Soon the leadership of Movement changed from Congress to Madari Pasi, a low caste
leader who was not inclined to accept non-violence. This led the movement losing
contact with nationalist class. Because in this the national leader was Mahatma
Gandhi and his ideology was based on no violence.

By March 1922, due to severe repression of British the Eka Movement came to an
end.9

7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eka_Movement.
8
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Eka-Movement.
9
https://brainly.in/question/2586330.
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2. MOPLAH REBELLION

Muslims had arrived in Kerala in the 9th century AD as traders via the Arabian Sea
even before north India was invaded by Muslim armies from the west.They were
given permission to carry on trade and settle by the native rulers. Many of them
married local women and their descendants came to be called Moplahs (which means
son-in-law in Malayalam).Most Moplahs were, however, not descended from the
Arabs and were predominantly converted Hindus during Tipu Sultan’s capture of
Malabar. Before Tipu Sultan’s attack on Malabar, in the traditional land system in
Malabar, the Jenmi or the landlord held the land which was let out to others for
farming. There were mainly three hierarchical levels of ownership including the
cultivator, and each of them took a share of the produce. The Moplahs were mostly
cultivators of the land under this system and the Jenmis were upper caste Hindus.
During Hyder Ali’s invasion of Malabar in 1765, the Moplahs supported him. Many
Hindu landlords fled Malabar to neighbouring areas to avoid persecution and forced
conversions. During this time, the Moplah tenants were accorded ownership rights to
the lands. After the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799 in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War,
Malabar came under British authority as part of the Madras Presidency. The British
set out to restore ownership rights to the Jenmis who had earlier fled the region.
Jenmis were now given absolute ownership rights of the land which was not the case
previously. The peasants were now facing high rents and a lack of security of tenure.
This caused a series of riots by the Moplahs starting from 1836. Between 1836 and
1896, they killed many government officers and Hindu landlords. Many of the riots
also took a communal hue with Hindus being targeted and killed for not converting to
Islam.

The moplah rebellion or the Malabar rebellion was an extended version of the
khilafat movement in kerala in 1921. The government had declared the congress and
khilafat meetings illegal. So, a reaction in kerala began against the crackdown of the
british in eranad and valluvanad taluks of Malabar.

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But the khilafat meeting incited so much communal feelings among the muslim
peasants, known as molphas, that it turned out to become an antihindu movement
from 1921 onwards. The violence began and the moplahs attacked the police stations
and took control of them. They also sized the courts, and the government treasuries. It
became a communal riot when the kudiyaan or tenant moplahs attacked their hindu
jenmis or landlords and killed many of them. Thus the hindu landlords became the
victims of the atrocities of the moplahs. 10

The leaders of this rebellion were:

1. Variyankunnath kunjahammed haji,

2. Seethi koya thangal of kumaranpathor,

3. Ali musliyar.

For some two months the administration remained in the hands of the rebels. The
military as well as police needed to withdraw from the burning areas. Finally the
british forces suppressed the movement with great difficulty. The situation was under
control by the end of the 1921. This rebellion was so fearful that the government
raised a special battalion, the Malabar special police (MSP).

3. BARDOIL SATYAGRAHA

BACKGROUND

The Bardoli Taluk in modern-day Gujarat was hit by floods and famines in 1925,
which adversely affected crop yield. This affected the farmers financially. Ignoring
the plight of the farmers, the Bombay Presidency increased the tax rates by
22%.Despite petitions and appeals from civic groups and farmers to review this unjust
hike in tax rates in lieu of the grave situation, the government decided to go ahead
with tax collection. In 1927, the local Congress Party published a report to show that
the farmers could not carry the burden of the enhanced assessment. But the authorities
did not budge. In January 1928, farmers in Bardoli invited Vallabhai Patel to launch

10
https://www.gktoday.in/gk/moplah-rebellion-1921/.
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the protest movement wherein all of them resolved not to pay taxes. They also assured
Gandhiji of their commitment to non-violence. Patel agreed to take on the leadership
role only after getting assurances from the farmers of their resolve to the movement.
He informed them of the possible consequences of their move such as confiscation of
land and property and imprisonment. Patel got in touch with the government and
apprised it of the situation. He got the reply that the government was unwilling to
make any concessions. Gandhiji also lend support to the movement through his
writings in ‘Young India’ magazine.

THE MOVEMENT

Patel was an exemplary commander of his non-violent ‘army’ in Bardoli. He divided

the taluk into camps and organised hundreds of men and women under the camps.
The volunteers came from Hindu, Muslim and Parsi communities also. From the
camps, volunteers issued news bulletins, campaigns and also made speeches
educating the masses about the need to be disciplined and prepared for austerity.
Door-to-door campaigning was also done. A large number of women took active part
in the movement. It was these women who gave Patel the moniker ‘Sardar’. Peasants
were asked to take oaths in the name of god that they would not pay the taxes. Those
who paid taxes or were supportive of the British were socially boycotted. They also
worked for the betterment of the Kaliparaj caste (farmers who worked as landless
labourers).They refused non-essential goods to government offices in the area. They
resisted eviction and confiscation (jabti) in unique ways. They had informers in the
government offices who would give prior information as to if and when a jabti notice
was going to be carried out. The whole village would then move to another place and
the officers would be faced with an empty village when they arrived to confiscate the
property. K M Munshi and Lalji Naranji resigned from the Bombay Legislative
Council. Although the movement was local, it received nation-wide attention and
support.11

11
https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/bardoli-satyagraha/.
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EFFECT

Fearing things could go out of hand, the government set up the Maxwell-Broomfield
commission to look into the matter. The revenue was reduced to 6.03%.The peasants
were returned their confiscated land. Patel emerged as a national leader after the
success of the Bardoli Satyagraha. He showed his remarkable organising skills.

CRITICISM

The movement was focused on the conditions of the rich and middle-class farmers
and largely neglected the poor farmers. It did not raise the problem of Hali Pratha (a
kind of bonded labour system). It is said that the movement was an experiment on
Satyagraha as a method of freedom struggle. The basic problems of the peasants were
not addressed.12

MISCELLANEOUS PEASANT MOVEMENTS IN THE 1920s and 30s

 Great Depression started in USA, spread in Europe=> agricultural prices crashed.

 But Revenue, rents and taxes remained high, impoverishing the peasants.
 farmers emboldened by Success of Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928
 Many Zamindar leaders stood up in 1937’s provincial elections on Congress tickets
but they were defeated =farmers even more emboldened.13

Bakasht Movement Bihar

Barhaiya Tal Bihar. To restore Bakasht land. Leader: Karyananda Sharma

Bengal, Bihar Refused to pay Chaukidari tax

Kisan ran campaign to abolish Zamindari, restore Bakshat

lands. Matter Solved when provincial congress government
Bihar
passed act.

Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha, 1929

12
https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/bardoli-satyagraha/.
13
https://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-peasant-struggles-for-land-reforms-during-british-raj.html#600.
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Bombay, Central
Against forest grazing regulations
Provinces

in Garo hills. to reduce rent from 50% to 25%. Leader Moni

Hajong Tribals
Singh.

Maharashtra,
Karnataka, No-Revenue movement
Bundelkhand

against feudal levies, advance rents and eviction. Result:

Malabar, Kerala
Malabar Tenancy act was amended.

 Punjab Riyasati Praja Mandal (1928)

 Against Maharaj of Patiala – he had increased land
Revenue by 19%
Punjab  farmers wanted him to abolish his land reserved for
shikar (hunting)
 for reduction of canal taxes.

Surat, Kheda Farmers refused to pay Revenue. Migrated to Baroda State.

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SOME IMPORTANT LEADERS OF PEASANT MOVEMENTS IN

INDIA

1. SAHAJANAND SARASWATI (22 FEB 1889- 26 JUNE 1950)

He was an ascetic, a nationalist and a peasant leader of India. Although born in

North-Western Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh), his social and political
activities focussed mostly on Bihar in the initial days, and gradually spread to the rest
of India with the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha. He had set up an ashram at
Bihta, near Patna and carried out most of his work in the later part of his life from
there. He was an intellectual, prolific writer, social reformer and revolutionary.
Saraswati organised the Bakasht Movement in Bihar in 1937–1938. "Bakasht" means
self-cultivated. The movement was against the eviction of tenants from Bakasht lands
by zamindars and led to the passing of the Bihar Tenancy Act and the Bakasht Land
Tax. He also led the successful struggle in the Dalmia Sugar Mill at Bihta, where
peasant-worker unity was the most important characteristic.14

2. DAMODAR DHARMANANDA KOSAMBI (31 JULY 1907- 29 JUNE 1966)

He was an Indian mathematician, statistician, philologist, historian and polymath who

contributed to genetics by introducing Kosambi map function. He is well known for
his work in numismatics and for compiling critical editions of ancient Sanskrit texts.
His father, Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi, had studied ancient Indian texts with a
particular emphasis on Buddhism and its literature in the Pali language. Damodar
Kosambi emulated him by developing a keen interest in his country's ancient history.
Kosambi was also a Marxist historian specialising in ancient India who employed the
historical materialist approach in his work. He is particularly known for his classic
work An Introduction to the Study of Indian History. He with R.S. Sharma brought
peasants into the study of indian history for the first time.15

14
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahajanand_Saraswati.
15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damodar_Dharmananda_Kosambi.
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3. RAM SHARAN SHARMA (26 NOV 1919- 20 AUG 2011)

Commonly referred to as R. S. Sharma, was a historian and academic of Ancient and

early Medieval India, who advocated the Marxist method. He taught at Patna
University and Delhi University (1973–85) and was visiting faculty at University of
Toronto (1965–1966). He also was a senior fellow at the School of Oriental and
African Studies, University of London. He was a University Grants Commission
National Fellow (1958–81) and the president of Indian History Congress in 1975. It
was during his tenure as the dean of Delhi University's History Department that major
expansion of the department took place in the 1970s. The creation of most of the
positions in the Department were the results of his efforts. He was the founding
Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and a historian of
international repute. He contributed in peasants into the study of indian history for the
first time.16

16
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Sharan_Sharma.
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ALL INDIA KISAN SABHA

All India Kisan Sabha (All India Peasants Union, also known as the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan
Sabha), was the name of the peasants front of the undivided Communist Party of India, an
important peasant movement formed by Sahajanand Saraswati in 1936. It later split into two
organisations known by the same name: AIKS (Ajoy Bhavan) and AIKS (Ashoka Road).17

HISTORY
The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Sahajanand Saraswati
who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilise
peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights, and thus sparking
the farmers' movements in India.

Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. The
formation of Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934 helped the Communists to work together
with the Indian National Congress, however temporarily, then in April 1935, noted peasant
leaders N. G. Ranga and E. M. S. Namboodiripad, then secretary and joint secretary
respectively of South Indian Federation of Peasants and Agricultural Labour, suggested the
formation of an all-India farmers body, and soon all these radical developments culminated in
the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian
National Congress on 11 April 1936 with Saraswati elected as its first President, and it
involved people such as Ranga, Namboodiripad, Karyanand Sharma, Yamuna Karjee,
Yadunandan (Jadunandan) Sharma, Rahul Sankrityayan, P. Sundarayya, Ram Manohar
Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Bankim Mukherjee. The Kisan
Manifesto released in August 1936, demanded abolition of the zamindari system and
cancellation of rural debts, and in October 1937, it adopted red flag as its banner. Soon, its
leaders became increasingly distant with Congress, and repeatedly came in confrontation with
Congress governments, in Bihar and United Province.18

In the subsequent years, the movement was increasingly dominated by Socialists and
Communists as it moved away from the Congress, by 1938 Haripura session of the Congress,
under the presidency of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the rift became evident, and by May
17
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Kisan_Sabha.
18
http://kisansabha.org/.
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1942, the Communist Party of India, which was finally legalised by then government in July
1942, had taken over AIKS, all across India including Bengal where its membership grew
considerably. It took on the Communist party's line of People's War, and stayed away from
the Quit India Movement, which started in August 1942, though this also meant its losing its
popular base. Many of its members defied party orders and joined the movement, and
prominent members like Ranga, Indulal Yagnik and Saraswati soon left the organisation,
which increasing found it difficult to approach the peasants without the watered-down
approach of pro-British and pro-war, and increasing its pro-nationalist agenda, much to the
dismay of the British Raj which always thought the Communists would help them in
countering the nationalist movement.19

The Communist Party of India split into two in 1964. Following this, so too did the All India
Kisan Sabha, with each faction affiliated to the splinters.

19
https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/post-independent-india-zamindari-system-and-kisan-sabha/.
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PEASANT MOVEMENT IN OTHER COUNTRIES

KOREA
Donghak Rebellion, Peasant Revolt of 1894, Gabo Peasant Revolution, and a variety of other
names, was an armed rebellion in Korea led by aggravated peasants and followers of the
Donghak religion, a panentheistic religion viewed by many rebels as a political ideology.20

In 1894, the magistrate of Gobu, Jo Byeonggap, had created various bogus laws and forced
the peasants to build reservoirs and settle in unowned lands in order to get rich from taxes
and fines. In March, angered peasants allied under Jeon Bongjun and Kim Gaenam,
beginning the Gobu Revolt. However, the Gobu revolt was suppressed by Yi Yongtae, and
Jeon Bongjun fled to Taein. In April, Jeon gathered an army in Mount Baek and recaptured
Gobu. The rebels then proceeded to defeat governmental forces in Hwangto Pass and the
Hwangryong River. Jeon then captured Jeonju Fortress and fought in a siege with Hong
Gyehun's Joseon forces. In May, however, the rebels had signed a truce with the
governmental forces, and built agencies called Jibgangso that handled affairs in rebel-
controlled areas. This somewhat unsteady peace continued throughout the summer.21

The frightened government asked the Qing dynasty for help, and it sent 2,700 soldiers to
Korea. Japan, angered that the Qing government, had not informed Japan (as promised in the
Convention of Tientsin), started the First Sino-Japanese War.[1] The war resulted in an
expulsion of Chinese influence in Korea and also signaled an end for the Self-Strengthening
Movement in China itself.

Growing Japanese dominance in the Korean peninsula had caused anxiety amongst the
rebels. From September to October, the Southern and Northern leaders negotiated the plans
for the future in Samrye. On October 12, a coalition army of Northern and Southern Jeobs
were formed, and the army, numbering 25,000~200,000 (records differ), went on to attack
Gongju. After a number of battles, the rebel army was decisively defeated in the Battle of
Ugeumchi, and the rebels were again defeated in the Battle of Taein. Hostility continued deep
into the spring of 1895. The rebel leaders were captured in various locations in the Honam
Region, and most were executed by a mass hanging in March.22

20
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donghak_Peasant_Revolution.
21
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Donghak_Peasant_Revolution.
22
https://www.britannica.com/event/Tonghak-Uprising.
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AMERICA
The farmers' movement was, in American political history, the general name for a movement
between 1867 and 1896. In this movement, there were three periods, popularly known as the
Grange, Alliance and Populist movements.23

The grange, or Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (the latter official name of the national
organization, while the former was the name of local chapters, including a supervisory
National Grange at Washington), was a secret order founded in 1867 to advance the social
needs and combat the economic backwardness of farm life. It was founded by Oliver H.
Kelley, at that time an official working in Washington DC for the Dept. of Agriculture. He
had been sent to Virginia to assess Southern agricultural resources and practices. He found
them to be generally poor, and became determined to found an organization of farmers for the
dissemination of information. As a Government official from the North, he must have
received a generally hostile reception, but he was a Mason, and ended by founding his
organization on the structure of that order.24 In addition to farming practices, it was to provide
insurance and benevolent aid to members. He was in correspondence with his niece during
the early period and both promoted the equal status of women and the principle of equal pay
for equal work. The Grange grew remarkably during the early years: at its peak, its
membership rose to approximately 1.5 million. The causes of its growth were much broader
than just the financial crisis of 1873; a high tariff, railway freight rates and other grievances
were mingled with agricultural troubles like the fall of wheat prices and the increase of
mortgages.

The condition of the farmer seemed desperate. The original objects of the Grange were
primarily educational, but these were soon overborne by an anti-middleman, co-operative
movement. Grange agents bought everything from farm machinery to women's dresses;
hundreds of grain elevators and cotton and tobacco warehouses were bought, and even
steamboat lines; mutual insurance companies were formed and joint-stock stores. Nor was
co-operation limited to distributive processes; crop reports were circulated, co-operative
dairies multiplied, flour mills were operated, and patents were purchased, that the Grange
might manufacture farm machinery.

The outcome in some states was ruin, and the name, Grange, became a reproach.
Nevertheless, these efforts in co-operation were exceedingly important both for the results
23
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_movement.
24
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1008702?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
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 Peasant Movement & Political consciousness

obtained and for their wider significance. Nor could politics be excluded, though officially
taboo, for economics must be considered by social idealists, and economics everywhere ran
into politics. Thus it was with the railway question.

Railways had been extended into frontier states; there were heavy crops in sparsely settled
regions where freight-rates were high, so that given the existing distributive system there
were over production and waste; there was notorious stock manipulation and discrimination
in rates; and the farmers regarded absentee ownership of railways by New York capitalists
much as absentee ownership of land has been regarded in Ireland. The Grange officially
disclaimed enmity to railways: Though the organization did not attack them, the Grangers,
through political farmers clubs and the like, did. In 1867, the Grange began efforts to
establish regulation of the railways as common-carriers, by the states. Such laws were known
as Granger Laws, and their general principles, endorsed in 1876 by the Supreme Court of the
United States, have become an important chapter in the laws of the land.25

In a declaration of principles in 1874 Grangers were declared not to be enemies of railroads,

and their cause to stand for no communism nor agrarianism. To conservatives, however,
cooperation seemed communism, and Grange laws agrarianism; thus, in 1873-1874, the
growth of the movement aroused extraordinary interest and much uneasiness. In 1874, the
order was reorganized, membership being limited to persons directly interested in the
farmers' cause (there had been a millionaire manufacturers Grange on Broadway), and after
this there were constant quarrels in the order; moreover, in 1875, the National Grange largely
lost control of the state Granges, which discredited the organization by their disastrous co-
operation ventures. Thus, by 1876, it had already ceased to be of national political
importance.

About 1880, a renaissance began, particularly in the Middle States and New England; this
revival was marked by a recurrence to the original social and educational objects. The
national Grange and state Granges (in all, or nearly all, of the states) were still active in 1909,
especially in the old cultural movement and in such economic movements, notably the
improvement of highways as most directly concern the farmers. The initiative and
referendum, and other proposals of reform politics in the direction of a democratic advance,
also enter in a measure into their propaganda.

25
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-agrarian-and-populist-movements/.
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 Peasant Movement & Political consciousness

ZIMBABWE

The struggle for the Liberation of Zimbabwe is a theme that has been accorded fair
autobiographical attention in Zimbabwe. Scholarly attention on the war was predicted on the
need to understand how the "under dogs" freedom fighters managed to paralyses the state
funded Rhodesian armed forces? In this light, the widely accepted view came to be that the
"guerrillas" / freedom fighters established rapport with the peasants during the course of the
way. Nevertheless, there is anti-thesis between nationalist and revisionist scholarly
interpretation on the matter. The nationalist historians advance a glorious interpretation of the
role of peasants by arguing that there was a correlation between the guerrillas’ Maoist
ideology of relying on mass support to win a war and the peasants’ grievances in the white
colonial state.  They justify this claim by rationalizing that the peasants had long developed a
spirit of resentment prior to guerrilla infiltration in their areas, thus, when the guerrillas came,
their ideas fell on fertile ground. Contrary to the glorious interpretation, revisionist historians
have reasoned that, it is misleading to suggest that the peasants always supported the
guerrillas out of will since such a position ignores other critical issues such as guerrilla
indiscipline, local struggles in the communities and guerrilla coercion as a means for
mobilizing the masses. It is a fact to argue that the guerrilla war thrived on the masses’ co-
operation.26

26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant_movement.
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 Peasant Movement & Political consciousness

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PEASANT AND WORKERS MOVEMENT IN INDIA 1905-1929 – written by SUKHBIR

CHOUDARY

PEASANT AND INDIA’S FREEDOM MOVEMENT – written by ABANI LAHIRI

SOCIAL MOVEMENT IN INDIA: PEASANT AND BACKWARD CLASSES

MOVEMENT -- written by M. S.A. RAO

PEASANT MOVEMENT IN INDIA 1920-1950 – written by D. N. DHANAGARE

WEBLIOGRAPHY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant_movement.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27760993?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.

http://socioguide.blogspot.com/2015/11/peasant-movement.html.

https://exampariksha.com/peasant-movements-india-history-study-material-notes/.

https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/bardoli-satyagraha/.

https://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-peasant-struggles-for-land-reforms-during-british-
raj.html#600.

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Donghak_Peasant_Revolution.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Tonghak-Uprising.

http://kisansabha.org/.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-agrarian-and-populist-
movements/.

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 Peasant Movement & Political consciousness

History
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