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An Examination of Leadership Entry in Bengal Peasant Revolts, 1937–1947

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Jnanabrata Bhattacharyya
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Extract

Peasant movement studies based solely on economic and political data may miss important social and cultural elements in the constellation of forces that generate those movements. The process of leadership entry—that is, the legitimation of the outside organizers to the peasants—has seldom been a subject of systematic investigation. However, I suggest that examination of what makes peasants accept as leaders persons who are in many respects different from themselves may yield important insights into the nature of the problems of organizing peasants.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , August 1978 , pp. 611 - 635
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1978

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References

1 For description of earlier peasant movements, see Ray, Suprakash, Bharater Krishak Bidroha o Ganatantrik Sangram (2nd ed., Calcutta: DNBA Brothers, 1972)Google Scholar and Bharater Biaplabik Sangramer Itihas, I (Calcutta: DNBA Brothers, 1970)Google Scholar; Kaviraj, Nara-hari, APeasant Uprising in Bengal, 1783 (New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1972)Google Scholar; Gupta, Kalyan Kumar Sen, Pabna Disturbances and the Politics of Rent, 1873–1885 (New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1974)Google Scholar.

2 Krishak Sabhar Itihas (Calcutta: Majharul Islam, 1376 [1969])Google Scholar [hereafter KSI], p. 154.

3 Chaudhuri, Binay Bhusan, “The Process of Depeasantization in Bengal and Bihar, 1885–1947,” Indian Historical Review, II, 1 (1975) [hereafter “PDB”], pp. 105–65Google Scholar, esp. 146–52; Broomfield, John, Elite Conflict in a Plural Society: Twentieth Century Bengal (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1968) [hereafter EC], pp. 32–33Google Scholar.

4 “PDB,” pp. 146ff.

5 For an account of the annexation's impact on the revenue of the Susang Raj, see the memoir of the last Maharaja, Sinha, Bhupendra C., Changing Times (Calcutta: Anthropological Survey of India, 1965) [hereafter CT], pp. 149–50Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., pp. 144, 162; for an engaging description of the elephant-capturing operation, known as kheda, see Appendix II, pp. 157–74.

7 Ibid., pp. 112–13, 107.

8 Ibid., pp. 149–50.

9 Ibid., p. 150.

10 Some suggestive evidence may be had from the following: Pramatha Gupta, a leader of the tanka revolt, notes that in one mouza (revenue unit) the rent went from Rs.63 in the late 1880s to Rs. 5,000 in 1940; see his Mukti Juddhe Adibasi (Calcutta: National Book Agency, 1964)Google Scholar [hereafter MJA]. As a measure of general price trend, the average annual price of common rice per maund (82 pounds) in Bengal fluctuated between Rs. 2 As. 10 and Rs.7 As.8 from 1901 to 1937/38; Govt, of Bengal [hereafter GB], Dept. of Agriculture and Industries, Report of the Bengal Paddy and Rice Inquiry Committee, I (Alipore: Superintendent, Govt. Printing, Bengal Govt. Press [hereafter BGP], 1940), p. 24Google Scholar.

11 CT, p. 150.

12 GB, Home (Conf.), A Brief Summary of Political Events in the Province of Bengal during the Year 1938 (BGP, 1940), pp. 2–8.

13 Ibid., p. 8.

14 GB, Dept. of Land Records and Surveys, Annual Report on the Survey and Settlement Operations in Bengal, 1939–40, p. 21. The Report, it should be noted, does not specify the categories of these tenants, so it cannot be ascertained how many of them were tankadar.

15 Ibid., p. 21. And this maximum was calculated to be a third of the harvest, after allowing 6 maund of paddy per acre to the cultivator as the cost of cultivation.

16 MJA, pp. 52–53.

17 See below. Overstreet, Gene D. & Windmiller, Marshall, Communism in India (Bombay: Perennial Press, 1960) [hereafter CI], pp. 170–222Google Scholar, esp. 205–06.

18 Ibid., pp. 205–06.

19 Ibid., p. 207.

20 Hatgobindapur Report (Report of 8th Annual BPKS Conference, held at Hatgobindapur, Burdwan, 13–14 March 1945), p. 39.

21 MJA, p. 52; see also his Je Sangramer Shesh Nei (Calcutta: Kalantar Prakashani, 1378 [1971]), pp. 73–75Google Scholar. For corroboration, see Prime Minister Suhrawardy's speech in the Bengal Legislative Assembly Proceedings, LXXII (1947), 1 [hereafter BLAP]; The Statesman (Calcutta), 25 March 1947.

22 This was obvious even to informal observers. See CT, pp. 51, 80.

23 “PDB,” pp. 146ff.

24 GB, Report of the Land Revenue Commission, Bengal (BGP, 1940) [hereafter RLRC], I, p. 67.

25 Panjia Report (Report of 4th Annual BPKS Conference, held at Panjia, Jessore, 8–9 June 1940).

26 BLAP, LXIX (1945), 2, pp. 36ff; EC, pp. 291–98; and for an insider's view of the ministerial strain during this period, see Ahmad, Abul Mansur, Amar Dakha Rajnitir Panchash Bachar (Dacca: Naoroj Kitabistan, 1970) [hereafter ADR], pp. 154–93Google Scholar.

27 The most dramatic illustration comes from Thakurgaon subdivision in Dinajpur, where the 1946 revolt started. In the winter of 1939/40, following instances of bargadar removing the whole harvest to their homes, the subdivisional officer called an unprecedented reconciliation meeting; 500 jotedar (landlords with large holdings) and 8,000 bargardar attended. An eleven-point agreement was reached:

“(1) Threshing floor will be fixed by the adhiars and jotedars jointly. (2) Paddy will not be taken to the jotedar's house if the adhiar objects. (3) No abwab like preparing threshing floor or the like shall be realised. (4) No interest for seed advance. Seed will be supplied 50/50 by each party and, if need be, jotedar will be prepared to advance the whole amount of seed to be recovered from the paddy produced. (5) Jotedar will get interest on paddy loan at 3 kathas for every 20 kathas. [The usual rate was 10 kathas—50%.] (6) For outstanding paddy loans jotedars will not take more than 1/3rd of the share of adhiars' paddy without adhiars' consent and will fully repay future loans every year. Outstanding loan will be paid in the way stated above (by taking 1/3rd of the adhiars' share at.the maximum) till fully paid. (7) Of this year's paddy taken to adhiars' house, half shall be given to jotedar after taking them to an agreed place in the hamlet of the adhiar, and jotedar will give half share to adhiar of the paddy taken to his house. (8) Jotedar shall grant receipt for adhi [share] paddy and adhiars' unregistered kabuliyats [agreements] for adhi settlement. (9) There will be no victimization by any jotedar on any adhiar for joining this movement. (10) When jotedars and adhiars have acted upon the terms, the cases brought by both sides shall be withdrawn. (II) There will be established a board with three representatives of either side and the SDO [Sub-divisional Officer] to carry out the terms and settle any disputes between jotedars and adhiars as such.” GB, Home (Political) Confidential, Fortnightly Report [hereafter F] Rajshahi Division, 1st half Jan 1940.

The fortnightlies were prepared at each police jurisdiction and forwarded to the next higher level, making their way to the Secretary (Home Department), Govt, of India. At each intervening jurisdiction, the reports were summarized; most often, only the summary was sent up. At the level of the Chief Secretary, Govt, of Bengal, the summary (printed for the first time for submission to New Delhi) becomes necessarily general and seldom contains the rich details available in the reports of the Divisional Commissioners. The Commissioners' reports often reproduced verbatim parts of reports from the district officers and even from the subdivisional officers. References here are all to the Divisional Commissioners' reports.

28 Bengal Bargadars Temporary Regulation Bill, Calcutta Gazette, 22 Jan 1947.

29 KSI, p. 156; Sen, Sunil, Agrarian Struggle in Bengal, 1946–1947, (New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1972), [hereafter ASB], p. 61 ffGoogle Scholar; Sen, Bhowani, “The Tebhaga Movement in Bengal,” Communist, 1, 3 (1947) [hereafter “TMB”], p. 127Google Scholar. S. Sen was a peasant leader in Dinajpur. B. Sen, a distinguished leader of the CPI at the national level, was the chief theoretician of the movement at the provincial level.

30 ASB, p. 48; “TMB,” pp. 126–28.

31 “TMB,” p. 130. P. C. Joshi, CPI General Secretary during this period, told me in an interview (New Delhi, 2 Aug 1975) that Sen was always concerned about the impact of the movement on lower and middle classes, and that in Bengal “there was an infiltration of bhadralokism” in the BPKS (see n. 52 below).

32 ASB, p. 61; Bagchi, Mohi, “Agnigarbha,” Kalantar (weekly), XI, 20 (12 May 1973), pp. 5–9Google Scholar. Bagchi was a peasant leader in Rangpur.

33 Bhowani Sen, People's Age, VI, 30 Nov 1947, p. 10.

34 Interviews with Pramatha Gupta (Jalpaiguri, Sept 1974) and Sunirmal Sen (Namkhana, 24-Parganas, Nov 1974). Sen, esteemed as a theoretician, was a district-level leader of the Party in My-mensingh. See also CI, pp. 296–305.

35 ASBp. 73.

36 ASB, p. 73; “TMB,” pp. 128–30.

37 KSI; MJA; CI, pp. 79–80, 145–46. A notable example of Communist-led peasant movement in pre-1937 Bengal was the 1930 revolt against land-lord-moneylenders in Kishoreganj (Mymensingh), organized by the Young Comrade League and led by Dharani Kama Goswami. For an account of the movement, see Goswami's “Ekti Krishak Bidroher Kahini,” Parichay, Sharadiya Sankhya, 1376 [1969]. The revolt created a great furor; see Amrita Bazar Patrika, 18 July 1930 and Liberty, 28 July 1930.

38 P. C. Joshi interview; ASB, pp. 17–18; CI, pp. 155–59

39 Dimitroff, Georgi, The United Front: The Struggle Against Fascism and War (San Francisco: Proletarian Publishers, 1975), pp. 68–69Google Scholar.

40 P. C. Joshi interview; CI, pp. 1:58–62.

41 KSI, pp. 148–51.

42 Interview with Krishna Binode Roy (Calcutta, Dec 1974). Roy, a lawyer, was the President of the BPKS during the tebhaga revolt. According to him, the movement was conceived to remain within the bounds of law.

43 No systematic study exists on this point. But see ADRPB, passim; Ahmad, Muzaffar, Prabandha Sankalan (Calcutta: Saraswata Library, 1970), pp. 268–69Google Scholar; Umar, Badruddin, Chirasthayi Bandobaste Bangladesher Krishak (Dacca: Maola Brothers, 1379 [1972]), pp. 107–13Google Scholar and Sampradayikata (Calcutta: Nabapatra Prakashan, 1971), pp. 61ffGoogle Scholar.

44 KSI, p. 154

45 KSI, pp. 148–49; see also note 31 above.

46 P. C. Joshi and Sunirmal Sen interviews.

47 F, 1st half Dec 1945; P. C. Joshi and Sunirmal Sen interviews.

48 CI, p. 228.

49 By “outsider” I mean a person who does not share the characteristics of the peasants. Its connotation is thus wider than an outsider in a simple territorial sense.

50 For example, see Skinner, G. William, “Chinese Peasants and the Closed Community,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, XIII (1971), pp. 270–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wolf, Eric R., Peasants (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966), pp. 46–47Google Scholar; Migdal, Joel S., Peasants, Politics and Revolution (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1974), pp. 15ffGoogle Scholar.

51 See Dasgupta, Biplab, The Naxalite Movement, Monograph No. 1, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1974), pp. 1–4Google Scholar.

52 Bhadralok refers to an elite category defined by culture and refinement. For a fuller definition see EC, pp. 5ff. Babu is an honorific and polite form of address for bhadralok males.

53 Whether peasant revolts are spontaneous or instigated by apostates is at the center of the great Porchnev-Mousnier debate. Porchnev, Boris, Les Soulevements populaire en France de 1623 à 1648 (Paris: VIe Section, École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1963)Google Scholar and Mousnier, Roland, Fureurs Paysannes: Les Paysans dans les Révoltes du XVIIe Siècle (France, Russie, Chine) (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1967)Google Scholar.

54 However, such coercion was an important element in the peasant revolts after 1948, revolts aimed at seizure of state power (interviews with Hajang peasants, jotedars, and cadres in north-eastern Mymensingh, Garo Hills, and Darang districts).

55 For an analysis of caste mobility in Bengal from the 16th to the 18th centuries, see Sanyal, Hitesranjan, “Social Mobility in Bengal: Its Sources and Constraints,” Indian Historical Review, II, 1 (1975). pp. 68–96Google Scholar and “Continuities of Social Mobility in Traditional and Modern Society in India: Two Case Studies of Caste Mobility in Bengal,” JAS, XXX (1971), pp. 315–39Google Scholar.

56 Census 1951: West Bengal, Land and Land Revenue Department, The Tribes and Castes of Bengal (BGP, 1953), p. 2.

57 Ibid., p. 1.

58 Strong, F. W., Dinajpur, Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers, X (Allahabad: The Pioneer Press, 1912). p. 35Google Scholar.

59 Lahiri, Anil Chandra, Final Report on the Survey and Settlement Operations in the District of 24-Parganas for the Period 1924–1933 (BGP, 1936), p. 17Google Scholar.

60 Sachse, F. A., Mymensingh, Bengal District Gazetteers, XXXIV (Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1917), p. 41Google Scholar.

61 Bell, F. O., Final Report on the Survey and Settlement Operations in the District of Dinajpur, 1934–1940 (BGP, 1942) [hereafter FR], p. 14Google Scholar.

62 FR, pp. 12, 14.

63 Personal observations. MJA, pp. 5–11.

64 On the Communal Award and Bengal's reaction to it, see Gordon, Leonard A., Bengal: The Nationalist Movement, 1876–1940 (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1974), p. 249Google Scholar; Gilchrist, R. N., Report of the Reforms Office, Bengal, 1932–1937 (BGP, 1938), pp. 15–17Google Scholar.

65 Interviews with Hajang, Rajbangshi, Hadi, and Pod peasants in Mymensingh, Garo Hills, Goalpara, Darang, and 24-Parganas districts. FR, p. 13.

86 Writing in the late 1930s, Bell observed: “The reformist movement of Rai Sahib Panchanan Barman [a Rajbangshi] has made a great headway in the last 20 or 30 years, and many sacred threads now adorn Kshattriya necks” (FR, p. 13).

87 ASB, p. 24.

68 KSI, pp. 152–53; “the tradition of Hasnabad” was a prominent theme in the panel presentations' on peasant organization during the Jan 1976 week-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the CPI in Calcutta.

69 Interviews with local-level cadres of BPKS in 24-Parganas, Mymensingh, and Dinajpur. On the persistence of the political salience of jati, see Srinivas, M. N., Caste in Modern India and Other Essays (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 15–41Google Scholar; I., Lloyd and Rudolph, Susanne H., The Modernity of Tradition (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 64–87Google Scholar; Kothari, Rajni, Politics in India (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), pp. 224–49Google Scholar. On the danger of social scientists' excessive preoccupation with caste as the basis of solidarities and cleavages in south Asia, see Béteille, André, Studies in Agrarian Social Structure (Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1974), esp. pp. 15–55Google Scholar.

70 FR, pp. 9–17.

71 FR, p. 10.

72 Interviews with Rajbanshi and Hajang peasants in Mymensingh, Garo Hills, Goalpara, and Darang districts (1974/75, 1976).

73 Interview with Krishna Binode Roy (Calcutta, Dec 1974).

74 Interviews with Hajang, Rajbangshi, Pod, and Hadi peasants in Mymensingh, Goalpara, Garo Hills, Darang, and 24-Parganas districts; with Pramatha Gupta, Sunil Sen, Bibhuti Guha, Jiten Sen, and other local-level cadres.

75 At the 1945 Netrokona Conference of the AIKS, these inequalities had outraged P. Sundarayya, the peasant leader from Andhra; but they were defended on grounds of practicality by Bhowani Sen. Interview with a peasant leader from Mymensingh who requested anonymity.

76 RLRC, I, p. 67; “PDB,” p. 156.

77 As in “PDB” (n. 3 above).

78 RLRC, I, p. 67; “PDB,” p. 156; see also the West Bengal Settlement Officers' accounts in Bargadars and Their Problems (Calcutta: Govt, of West Bengal, Land and Land Revenue Department, 1958)Google Scholar.

79 “PDB,” pp. 146ff.

80 GB, Bengal Land Revenue Proceedings, Nov 1914, Nos. 18–19, Settlement Officer, Midnapore to the Director of Land Records, 30 Sept 1913. Cited in “PDB,” p. 151.

81 “PDB,” pp. 151–52.

82 See the Final Reports of Survey and Settlement Operations of the districts; Bargadars (n. 78 above). The movement for bringing forests and wasteland under cultivation was spurred on by the stringent sale laws of the Permanent Settlement Regulation and zamindar uncertainty, during the first half of the 19th century, about rent collection. The competition those days was not for land but for tenants. See RLRC, I, p. 21.

84 RLRC, I, P,84.

84 Idem.

85 For a detailed account of the types and forms of abwabs in several districts, see Huque, M. Azizul, The Man Behind the Plough (Calcutta: Book Company, 1939), pp. 320–39Google Scholar.

86 F, Rajshahi Division, 2nd Half Dec 1939.

87 Huque, pp. 320–39 and passim; Chaudhuri, Binay Bhushan, “Agrarian Movement in Bengal and Bihar, 1919–1939” in Nanda, B. R. (ed.), Socialism in India (Delhi: Vikas Publications, 1971)Google Scholar [hereafter “AMB”].

88 Huque, pp. 320–39 and passim.

89 “AMB.”

90 “AMB.”

91 See “PDB,” pp. 117ff.

92 “PDB,” pp. 117ff; see also the Final Reports of the Survey and Settlement Operations in various districts.

93 “PDB,” pp. 117ff.

94 “PDB,” pp. 136–39.

95 “PDB,” p. 138.

96 RLRC, IV, pp. 85–86; FR, pp. 24–28, esp. pp. 25–26.

97 FR, pp. 16–17.

98 Interviews with Abdullah Rasul, lower-level cadres of BPKS, and Hajang and Rajbangshi peasants in Mymensingh, Garo Hills, and Darang districts.

99 Bhatia, B. M., Famines in India, 2nd ed. (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1967), p. 323Google Scholar.

100 “peasants and Revolution” in Miliband, Ralph & Savile, John (eds.), The Socialist Register, 1965 (London: Merlin Press, 1965), p. 266Google Scholar.

101 F, 1st Half Jan 1945.

102 Compare the estimate (20%) of the Floud Commission Report (published in 1940) (RLRC, I, p. 67) with that of the Ishaque Report (25%) on the bases of surveys made in 1944 and 1945 (Ishaque, H. S. M., Agricultural Statistics by Plot to Plot Enumeration in Bengal, 1944–45 BGP, 1946), Part 1, p. 48Google Scholar.

103 “PDB,” p. 156.

104 Chattopadhyaya, K. P. & Mukherjea, Ramkrishna, A Plan for Rehabilitation (Calcutta: Statistical Publishing Society, 1946), pp. 9–14Google Scholar.

105 Mahalanobis, P. C. et al, Famine and Rehabilitation in Bengal (Calcutta: Statistical Publishing Society, 1946), p. 3Google Scholar and passim; see also Mukherji, Karunamoy, The Problem of Land Transfer (Calcutta, 1957). pp. 38, 43Google Scholar.

106 Mahalanobis, p. 1.

107 Ibid., pp. 1–5.

108 For example, see Ghatak, Souri, “Shaheed Tirtha Gobindarampur” in Tebhaga Sangram Rajat Jayanti Smarak Grantha (Calcutta: Kalantar Prakashani, 1973), pp. 114–16Google Scholar. Interviews with Abdullah Rasul and lower-level cadres and peasants in 24-Parganas, Mymensingh, Garo Hills, and Darang districts. On the point of erosion of legitimacy and rebellion, see Moore, Barrington Jr, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966), pp. 467–83Google Scholar; Scott, James, “The Erosion of Patron-Client Bonds and Social Change in Rural Southeast Asia,” JAS, XXXII (1972), pp. 5–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

109 Moore, passim; Brinton, Crane, The Anatomy of Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1965)Google Scholar, passim; Gurr, Ted R., Why Men Rebel (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1970)Google Scholar, Chaps. 8 and 9.

110 Elliott, Carolyn M., “Decline of a Patrimonial Regime: The Telengana Rebellion in India, 1946–51,” JAS, XXXIV, (1974), pp. 27–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

111 Moore, Chap. 9; Gurr, Chap. 9; Scott.

112 ADRPB, pp. 56–193; EC, pp. 291–93.

113 ADRPB, pp. 180–81; Sen, Shila, Muslim Politics in Bengal, 1937–1947 (New Delhi: Impex Press, 1976)Google Scholar, passim.

114 See the Fortnightlies (F) of this period.

115 Interviews with Mani Sinha, the enigmatic and brilliant founder of the tanka movement, currently the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, (Dacca, 17, 18, and 20 Jan 1975); and also with lower-level cadres of BPKS from Mymensingh and Dinajpur.

116 Interviews with P. C. Joshi (n. 31 above), and Pramatha Gupta (Jalpaiguri, Sept 1974); CI, p. 166.

117 CI, p. 172; KSI; see also Ranga, N. G., Revolutionary Peasants (New Delhi: Amrit Book Co., 1949)Google Scholar. Chap. 3.

118 See the Fortnightlies (F) of this period.

119 F, Chittagong Division, 1st Half Jan 1940.

120 For example, see F, Rajshahi Division, 2nd Half Jan 1940.

121 GB, Home (Political) Confidential, Press Branch, Press 135/136, Proceedings of the Conference of Commissioners held at Darjeeling in September, 1935 (Detailed Discussion). The conference was dominated by the concern over the burgeoning activities of the Kisan Samities.

122 F, 1st Half Mar 1940.

123 GB, Home (Political) Secret, File N0.3D 99/42. This document is a memorandum from 12 ranking members of the Bengal Provincial Secretariat of the CPI, together with a copy of the “Memorandum on Communist Policy and Plan of Work,” which was the basis of P. C. Joshi's negotiations with the Home Member of the Government of India for securing freedom for the Communists for cooperation in the War effort. The cover letter was signed by A. Halim, D. Goswami, Gopendra Chakravarty, Promode Dasgupta, Gopal Acharya, and 7 others. Also see Mansergh, Nicholas (ed.) The Transfer of Power, II (London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1970), pp. 21–22Google Scholar, 220–22, 349–50, 355–56, 439–41.

124 For an idea of the different ideological forces in the League Ministry and in the Party generally, see ADRPB, passim; Sen (n. 113 above), passim; Humaira Momen, Muslim Politics in Bengal (Dacca: S. Rahman, 1972); Kabir, Humayun, Muslim Politics (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1969), p. 46Google Scholar and passim.

125 Unlike many of his colleagues, Suhrawardy came from a bourgeois rather than a landed background, and had started his political career as a labor leader.

126 Interviews with lower level-cadres of BPKS from 24-Parganas, Mymensingh, and Dinajpur districts.

127 Interviews with Abdullah Rasul (Calcutta, 1975) and Pramatha Gupta (Jalpaiguri, 1974).