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BPSC Mains GS-1 Masterclass · Modern Indian History

Tenancy, Bakasht & AfterPeasant Movements in Bihar II

Once the Congress took office in 1937, the Kisan Sabha found itself fighting its old ally over a diluted tenancy law and over Bakasht lands that zamindars had taken in the Depression. The struggle at Barahiya Tal and Reora, the war years and the post-war fight carried the movement to zamindari abolition.

Rally19 Nov 1937Kisan Demands Day

lakhs rallied peacefully.

Protest25–31 Jul 1938Anti-agreement week

against the tenancy deal.

Barahiya~1000 bighasSettled at Monghyr

in the tenants' favour.

GayaFour-fifthsAwarded at Deora

of the disputed land.

Law< 6 acresHoldings restored

if sold during 1928-35.

Zamindari11 Sep 1950Land Reforms assent

President's assent.

Part 1 · The movement against the Tenancy Amendment Bill

A Diluted Tenancy Law and a Broken Alliance

The Congress ministry promised relief, then bowed to the landlords; the Kisan Sabha called it ‘worthless’ and took to the streets.

Illustration of a vast peaceful peasant rally on a large open maidan in Patna in 1937, lathis raised, seen from behind the crowd

From promise to diluted law

Demand
Debt committee
After the formation of the Congress ministry, the Kisan Sabha urged the government to appoint a committee to examine the appalling burden of debts of peasants thoroughly to ‘devise ways and means of liquidating agricultural indebtedness’.
Passes on: Congress promises
Congress promises
Promise
Two bills
Indeed, Congress promised the waiving of debts, rent reduction, and the abolition of rents and arrears of all kinds. It introduced two bills in the Legislative Assembly, i.e. Tenancy Reforms (Amendment) Act and Agricultural Income Tax Bill.
Passes on: landlords oppose
landlords oppose
Opposition
Select Committee
However, the Tenancy Reforms (Amendment) Act was sent to the Select Committee for reconsideration due to strong opposition by prominent landlords. The Bihar Landholders' Association even blamed the Kisan Sabha and socialist leaders for pressurising the Congress to bring radical changes in the tenancy bill.
Passes on: Congress gives way
Congress gives way
Result
Diluted bill
In the view of the threat of financial support from landlords, the Congress modified its amendment in the Tenancy Act. Only the diluted version of the bill was passed. As per the amendment, if peasants failed in paying rent continuously for four years, landlords got the right to file a suit for such arrears.

Rajendra Prasad: pro-peasant

Rajendra Prasad described this amendment as pro-peasant and said that peasants ‘were able to reap the advantages of a new law almost immediately’.

Kisan Sabha: ‘worthless’

However, the Kisan Sabha, while describing it as ‘worthless’ and as an ‘example of an exhibition of Congress autocracy’, completely opposed the amendment.

The Kisan Sabha's protest

The Kisan Sabha celebrated an ‘anti-agreement week’ (July 25 to July 31, 1938). Sahajanand accused the Congress of entering into ‘an unholy alliance’ with landlords. It was the Kisan Sabha's attack on the zamindari system, which ‘started the process of alienation between the Sabha and the Congress’.
- The Kisan Sabha warned the Congress leaders ‘against such nefarious provisions being included in the Tenancy Bill’.
The amendment was also criticised in the fifth and sixth Kisan Sabha conferences held at Bachwara of Monghyr district and Waini of Darbhanga district in 1937 and 1939 respectively.
Between 1937-1938, there broke out a wide range of peasant unrest led by the Kisan Sabha and CSP which challenged the orthodox leadership of the Congress.
A Kisan Demands Day was held on November 19, 1937, where lakhs of peasants participated in the rally without a single violent incident.
- In 1938, another rally was organised in Bankipur Maidan (now Gandhi Maidan) in Patna. However, it was not successful as the government enforced IPC Section 144 to prevent the rally.

The Congress hits back

The Congress ministry blamed the Kisan Sabha for anti-Congress activities and attempted to break their movements by employing state machinery. Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Patel also criticised Sahajanand's stand against the Congress.

In 1937, the District Congress Committee (DCC) of Champaran and Saran districts issued resolutions not to let Kisan Sabha hold meetings and interrupted peasants who came to participate in the rallies.
To weaken the Kisan Sabha, the All India Khet-Mazdoor Sammelan was also to be organised under the leadership of Sardar Patel during the Haripura session of the AICC; however it could not be held.
The Congress leaders also criticised Sahajanand's danda which had become the symbol of resistance for peasants with the slogan lath hamara zindabad.

The Kisan Sabha explains itself

For clarifying the Kisan Sabha's stand vis-a-vis the Congress, Sahajanand, Jai Prakash Narayan, Gangasaran Singh, Rambriksha Benipuri, Ramnandan Mishra and Dhanraj Sharma signed a petition for informing the Congress that it did not intend to harm the Congress, but it only meant to ‘enable ministers to enforce the demands in the election manifesto’.

Part 2 · The Bakasht satyagraha: land, grievances and law

What Bakasht Was and Why Tenants Fought for It

Zamindars turned tenants' land into Bakasht in the Depression; the Congress's restoration formula did not satisfy the Kisan Sabha.

A challenge to landlord autocracy

Bakasht satyagraha was one of the critical movements led by the Kisan Sabha in 1936-38 that challenged the autocratic nature of landlords.

Bakasht lands consisted of lands in which zamindars exercised direct control over cultivation but under certain circumstances, tenants could claim occupancy rights on it. However, the exact nature of these land-rights remained obscure and in practice the Bakasht lands were treated as belonging to the zamindar.

How ryoti land became Bakasht

Due to the growing kisan agitation and certain legislative measures of the government, intended to bestow some rights on the tenantry, there had developed a tendency among the zamindars by 1920s to convert the ryoti lands into Bakasht lands.
Taking advantage of the current crisis of the ‘depression’ and the consequent rent-arrears of the tenants, the zamindars got the latter's holdings converted into Bakasht land. Evictions and conversion of tenant land had become a universal problem in the province.
The tenants, especially those who were evicted from their land, were very badly affected. The high land taxes and the demand for occupancy right were the main reasons behind bakasht satyagraha.

Grievances of the tenants of the Amawan Raj (Gaya district)

The tenants enumerated their grievances before the Kisan Enquiry Committee. The tenants of the Amawan Raj reported that:

they were charged with very high rents;
they were forced to render begari or forced labour and supply vegetables and ghee free of cost;
they were rarely granted rent-receipts, and, in the case of smaller landlords, it was noted that rent receipts were never given at all;
original tenants were being dispossessed and in their place other tenants were settled.

Ground prepared

The situation of tenants in other localities was also similar. The ground for an agrarian agitation had been prepared due to these developments.

The restoration formula

The Congress Ministry had initiated legislation for the restoration of Bakasht lands. But the formula that was finally incorporated in the legislation on the basis of an agreement with the zamindars did not satisfy the radical leaders of the Kisan Sabha.

The legislation gave a certain proportion of the lands back to the tenants on condition that they pay half the auction price of the land.
Besides, certain categories of land had been exempted from the operation of the law.

Leadership and methods

The Provincial Kisan Sabha was leading the movement against the conversion of lands at many places. The most legendary among the Bakasht struggles were launched in Monghyr (at Barahiya Tal) and Gaya (at Deora) districts under the leaderships of Karyanand Sharma and Jadunandan Sharma respectively.
The usual methods adopted in the struggle consisted of petitions, meetings, demonstrations and speeches at the beginning of the struggle. Later the tenants increasingly resorted to Satyagraha and also to crop-looting and violence in some cases. It was observed that tenants had become aggressive.
However, there was no well chalked out programme for the entire province or even a particular region and even the leaders were inconsistent in their speeches regarding the forms or the programme of struggle.

Part 3 · The struggle on the ground

Barahiya Tal, Tikari and Reora

Satyagraha on the threshing floor, trains stopped on the line, volunteer camps, and the landlords' lathials and police in reply.

Illustration of peasant satyagrahis lying across a railway line in Monghyr in 1939, a stopped steam train in the distance

At Monghyr, Karyanand Sharma led a demonstration of one thousand raiyats in 1936 to the District Collector and presented a charter of their demands to him. But before it could crystallise into a full-grown movement it was ruthlessly suppressed.
Karyanand Sharma who advocated the method of ‘peaceful Satyagraha’ at the Provincial Kisan Congress in December 1938, was reported to have led a ‘mob’ of 500 Kisans armed with ‘lathis’ who surrounded a Government Khalihan to oppose threshing operations, in the month of April 1939.
Having failed to reach any positive result Karyanand Sharma finally decided to launch a Satyagraha at the court of Monghyr. Many jathas of kisans reached there. In May 1939, the Satyagrahis at Monghyr held up the trains by lying on the railway line to press for their demands.
After the arrest of Karyanand and other leaders, the court of Monghyr, however, settled about 1000 bighas of land in favour of the tenants.
The only other achievements of the agitation could be seen at Kusumbha Tal, where the zamindar agreed to accept the tenant's rights in about 1800 bighas of land.

Elsewhere in Bihar

The Bakasht struggle was strong in some other regions too such as Patna, Shahabad, Saran, Champaran and Darbhanga.

How the landlords stifled the agitation

In Darbhanga, many peasants were injured in firing by landlords.
In Monghyr, landlords Nawab Ibrahim and Zulum Singh deployed their goons.
Hundreds of peasants, including women and children, were brutally assaulted and were jailed with hefty fines in Gaya, Saran, Patna, Monghyr, Darbhanga, Shahabad, Bhagalpur, and other districts.
Karyanand Sharma and many other peasant leaders including the elected AIKS President Rahul Sankrityayan were arrested in connection with bakasht satyagraha. They were released only after the Haripura session of the AICC.

Part 4 · The Congress, the Restoration Act and the fading of the movement

Siding with the Landlords, Then a Restoration Act

The ministry saw the satyagraha as a challenge to its class interest; a Restoration Act and good harvests finally quietened the countryside.

The Congress and the satyagraha

Congress ministry mostly considered this satyagraha as a challenge to its class interest because the satyagraha questioned the landlord's domination in Bihar. Hence, the Congress largely sided with the landlords.
Nevertheless, bakasht satyagraha continued in various districts of Bihar even after the Congress attempted to stop it. Furthermore, Gaya DCC also supported this satyagraha while neglecting the BPCC's resolution to oppose it.

“This session gave a clear-cut direction to the political thinking of the Sabha and its leadership and indicated a leftist line with an unmistakable slant towards socialist ideas.”

On the Gaya session of the AIKS, which criticised the government for not taking any action to solve the bakasht issue

The Bakasht Restoration Act and after

Later, the Congress formed a committee with Rajendra Prasad to inquire about this development, but no solution was seen. Following this, the Bakasht Restoration Act was passed by the Congress ministry. It helped in improving the conditions of the tenants to some extent.
- The Act had stipulated that rights of the tenants whose holdings were less than 6 acres and whose lands had been sold during 1928-35 would be totally restored.
Further, the phase of ‘depression’ was also coming to an end with the onset of the Second World War.
The rise in food prices and two successive good harvests in the years 1938 and 1939 also diluted the movement.
By the end of 1939, the movement had begun to fade. The situation in the countryside was described as ‘usually quiet’ by January 1940.

Critical view

However, neither land was restored, nor were peasants' condition improved noticeably. And by the time the Second World War broke out, peasant movements steadily declined due to the changing priorities of the peasant leaders.

Part 5 · The Kisan Sabha during World War II: internal conflicts

From ‘Imperialist War’ to ‘People's War’

The war pulled the Kisan Sabha into politics and split its loyalties between the Congress, the CSP, the Forward Bloc and the CPI.

Changed priorities

The concerns and priorities of the Kisan Sabha got altered during the Second World War because primarily it was the ‘agrarian and economic questions’ for which the Kisan Sabha was formed, not politics which later it got involved with.

The Kisan Sabha's changing position on the war

1939
Neither for nor against
Initially, the Kisan Sabha leaders considered the Second World War as a war of imperialism, and neither spoke against it nor supported it. In an Anti-Compromise Conference at Ramgarh, Sahajanand spoke against the war while sharing a stage with the Forward Bloc leader Subhas Chandra Bose.
Passes on: Palasa, 1940
Palasa, 1940
1940
Oppose the war
The AIKS, in its fifth session at Palasa in 1940, adopted a resolution to oppose the British government on war policy and asked peasants not to pay rent and taxes to the British government. The BPKS, the CPI and the Forward Bloc adopted the same resolution. They criticised the Congress's resolutions on the war as it had only resigned from the Interim government because the British government took India into war without her consent.
Passes on: Germany attacks Russia
Germany attacks Russia
1941-42
Support the Allies
However, in June 1941, when Germany attacked Russia, the Kisan Sabha leaders changed their positions and decided to support the Allied powers against the Axis powers in the Nagpur meeting held in February, 1942. The change in their position was the result of the re-grouping of forces. The leaders even advised peasants to collect and arrange funds for helping Russia and China in the war.

Many organisations, shifting loyalties

The Kisan Sabha leaders and activists were also associated with other political organisations like the Congress, Congress Socialist Party (CSP), Forward Bloc, and Communist Party of India (CPI).

Due to the diverse aims and ideologies, their relationship with these organizations also was changing over a while.
By 1936 differences broke out between the Congress and Kisan Sabha, and it further worsened by 1939. During this time, the Kisan Sabha leaders were very much influenced by the CSP.

Part 6 · Kisan Sabha activity after World War II: abolition of zamindari

The Last Fight: Zamindari Abolition

The Kisan Sabha backed the Congress again in 1946; zamindari abolition passed after a long legal battle, but peasants gained little.

Illustration of Bihar peasants harvesting a ripe paddy field in the late 1940s under a wide sky, a few people watching from a raised field bund

Three issues after the war

After the Second World War, the Kisan Sabha concentrated on three issues, namely:

the cultivation of bakasht land,
transforming bhaoli land into cash rents from produce, and
the abolition of zamindari.

Fronts and clashes

The left-wing forces also organised ‘Kisan Front’ supported by CPI, CSP, and Forward Bloc to air the grievances of peasants.
In Monghyr, peasant movement was led by the CSP while in Champaran all parties joined hands to fight for bakasht land.
In contrast, landlords reorganised themselves and rioted wherever there were clashes over bakasht and bhaoli land. They also tried to take over bhaoli land in Gaya district and even employed lathials for cutting the peasants' crops by force.

The road to zamindari abolition

1946
Election support
Like the election of 1937, the Kisan Sabha again supported the Congress in the 1946 election when the Congress's manifesto promised for the abolition of zamindari.
Passes on: Congress wins
Congress wins
First bill
Challenged
The Congress secured a majority in the election and put forth the proposal on zamindari abolition, as per its earlier promise. The Congress introduced The Bihar State Management of Estate and Tenures Bill in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, but landlords vigorously challenged the bill.
Passes on: repealed and reintroduced
repealed and reintroduced
1949-50
Bihar Land Reforms Bill
Thus, the bill was repealed and reintroduced as Bihar Land Reforms Bill in 1949 which got the President's assent on September 11, 1950.
Passes on: ceiling
ceiling
Till 1961
No ceiling law
Although the Congress government was able to pass the land reforms bill in the Assembly because it had a majority, it failed to pass the land ceiling bill till 1961.

Resistance and results

The government faced violent agitations and demonstrations by landlords in various parts of the state. Landlords even committed a series of violent acts against peasants to oppose zamindari abolition.

However, the amendment or the enactment did not help the peasants. Moreover, their legislation prompted landlords to evict peasants from their land.

Sahajanand's break with the Congress, and after

The Congress made promises to hand over power to the peasants and labourers once the British left India. However, on the face of the failure of the Congress to resolve the agrarian crisis after independence Sahajanand ‘coordinated 18 leftist organisations’, in April 1948, to form an All India United Kisan Sabha. Subsequently, he resigned from all committees of the Congress on December 6, 1948.
After Sahajanand's death on June 26, 1950, Pandit Yadunandan Sharma and Karyanand Sharma led this peasant organisation and continued to raise peasants' issues.

“It was the Kisan Sabha's attack on the zamindari system which ‘started the process of alienation between the Sabha and the Congress’.”

— BPSC Mains answer · Peasant movements in Bihar

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