Peasant movements in Awadh, 1918–22 and after

In 1920 a wandering preacher known as Baba Ramchandra, who had worked as an indentured labourer in Fiji, was moving through the villages of Pratapgarh reciting the Ramcharitmanas and talking about rents. He brought a crowd of tenants to Allahabad and persuaded Jawaharlal Nehru to come and see their villages. Nehru later wrote in his Autobiography that the visit showed him a rural India he had not known.

For UPPSC this chapter does double duty: it is national-movement history for Prelims and GS I, and squarely UP history for GS V. Questions usually turn on causes, leaders, methods and the Congress's uneasy relationship with peasant radicalism.

Why Awadh? The agrarian background

After 1857 the British rebuilt the taluqdars (तालुक़दार), the great landlords of Awadh, as loyal allies. Their tenants had little legal protection; most were tenants-at-will who could be turned out when a lease ran out.

That produced a familiar list of grievances:

• Rent enhancement at every renewal, far above what the land could bear.
• Nazrana (नज़राना): an unofficial payment demanded to renew a lease.
• Begar (बेगार): unpaid forced labour for the landlord.
• Bedakhli (बेदखली): eviction, which kept every tenant insecure.
• Assorted illegal cesses on weddings, festivals and produce.

Prices rose sharply during and after the First World War, and landlords pushed rents up further. Home Rule and then Non-Cooperation gave the grievances an organisation.

Timeline at a glance

The UP Kisan Sabha (1918)

Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narain Dwivedi set up the UP Kisan Sabha in 1918, with the support of Madan Mohan Malaviya. It spread branches across the province, but its approach was moderate and constitutional. When Non-Cooperation began in 1920, its leaders split over whether the peasant movement should join it.

The Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920)

The radicals formed a separate Awadh Kisan Sabha at Pratapgarh in October 1920, and it quickly absorbed village-level sabhas across the region. Its leaders included Baba Ramchandra, Gauri Shankar Mishra, Mata Badal Pande and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Its methods were disciplined and local:

• refuse begar;
• refuse to cultivate bedakhli land, the plots from which other tenants had been evicted;
• apply social boycott to landlords who would not yield, through naai-dhobi band: no barber and no washerman would serve them.

Baba Ramchandra framed resistance in the religious idiom of the Ramcharitmanas, and "Sita-Ram" became a rallying cry.

The turn to violence

In January 1921 the movement spread to Rae Bareli, Faizabad and Sultanpur. Bazaars and landlords' houses were looted, and police fired on peasants at Munshiganj in Rae Bareli district. The government answered with repression, and also passed the Oudh Rent (Amendment) Act, 1921, which gave tenants some security but fell far short of their demands.

The Congress, committed to non-violence and anxious not to split rural society along class lines, urged restraint. This tension is the heart of most Mains questions on the topic.

The Eka movement (1921–22)

A second wave came in the northern districts of Hardoi, Bahraich and Sitapur. Eka (एका, "unity") took its name from the oath peasants swore at religious gatherings. The grievances were:

• rents well above the recorded amount;
• oppressive thekedars (revenue farmers);
• share-rents paid in produce.

Under the oath, peasants promised to pay only the recorded rent, pay it on time, refuse begar and illegal cesses, and stay on their land even if evicted.

The Congress had a hand in its beginnings, but leadership soon passed to Madari Pasi, a leader from a marginalised community who was outside Congress control. Unusually, some small zamindars unhappy with heavy revenue joined it too. The movement became more militant, and the government had crushed it by around March 1922.

The 1930s and the road to zamindari abolition

During the Great Depression crop prices collapsed while rents stayed fixed. In 1931, the UP Congress backed a no-rent / no-revenue campaign in several districts, making UP's version of Civil Disobedience unusually agrarian. In 1936 the All India Kisan Sabha was founded at Lucknow, with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati as president.

The 1937 Congress ministry under G. B. Pant passed the UP Tenancy Act, 1939, which improved tenant security. The decisive step came after independence: the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, which came into force in 1952 and ended the intermediary system.

Mains answer framing

Question: "The peasant movements of Awadh (1918–22) both strengthened and strained the national movement." Examine. (about 200 words)

Outline:

1. Introduction: taluqdari distress; causes in one line.
2. Phases: UP Kisan Sabha (1918), Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920), Eka (1921–22).
3. Strengthened: mass base, new leaders, Nehru's radicalisation.
4. Strained: violence in 1921, Congress restraint, landlord support at stake.
5. Conclusion: tenancy reform and the 1950 Act.

Model answer (short version):

Awadh's tenants lived under taluqdars whom the British had restored after 1857. Rising rents, nazrana, begar and the constant threat of bedakhli made the countryside ready for revolt after the First World War.

The UP Kisan Sabha (1918) gave peasants a platform. The more radical Awadh Kisan Sabha (Pratapgarh, October 1920), led by Baba Ramchandra and supported by Jawaharlal Nehru, used social boycott and refusal of begar. The Eka movement under Madari Pasi carried the struggle to Hardoi, Bahraich and Sitapur.

These movements strengthened nationalism by linking Non-Cooperation to village grievances and producing leaders from below. They also strained it: the violence of January 1921 and Eka's militancy pushed the Congress to urge restraint, to protect both non-violence and landlord support.

The Oudh Rent (Amendment) Act, 1921 gave limited relief, and the demand for land to the tiller finally came to fruition in the UP Zamindari Abolition Act, 1950.

Prelims practice (answers below)

1. The Awadh Kisan Sabha was set up in 1920 at: (a) Allahabad (b) Hardoi (c) Lucknow (d) Pratapgarh
2. Who led the Eka movement? (a) Madari Pasi (b) Gauri Shankar Mishra (c) Baba Ramchandra (d) Mata Badal Pande
3. Bedakhli refers to: (a) forced labour (b) eviction of tenants (c) a lease-renewal fee (d) share-rent
4. Consider the statements: (1) The UP Kisan Sabha was founded in 1918 with the support of Madan Mohan Malaviya. (2) The All India Kisan Sabha was founded at Lucknow in 1936. Which is correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) both (d) neither
5. The Munshiganj firing of January 1921 took place in which district? (a) Sultanpur (b) Faizabad (c) Sitapur (d) Rae Bareli

Answers:

1. (d) Pratapgarh. Allahabad was where the UP Kisan Sabha began in 1918.
2. (a) Madari Pasi, in Hardoi, Bahraich and Sitapur.
3. (b) Eviction. Forced labour is begar; the renewal fee is nazrana.
4. (c) Both statements are correct.
5. (d) Rae Bareli.

What to do next

• Draw the 1918–1950 timeline from memory.
• Write the model answer above in your own words within the word limit.
• Read how these movements fit the wider story in UP in the national movement, then continue to Quit India in UP.
• Add Baba Ramchandra and Madari Pasi to your list of UP freedom fighters.