See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/304579241

Peasant and Tribal Movements in Colonial Bengal: A Historiographical

Overview

Chapter · January 2001

CITATIONS READS

3 1,243

1 author:

Sanjukta Das Gupta

Sapienza University of Rome
41 PUBLICATIONS   27 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Sanjukta Das Gupta on 29 June 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

ICBS PUBLICATION N O . 29 Bengal: Rethinking Histoiy
Essays in Historiography

Edited by
SEKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY

MANOHAR

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR BENGAL STUDIES

2001
 Peasant and Tribal Movements
in Colonial Bengal:
A Historiographic Overview
Sanjukta D a s G u p t a

Colonial policies brought i n momentous changes i n Bengal's

agrarian economy and rural society reeled under their destabilising
impact. To maximise land revenue, experiments i n land tenure
systems were undertaken w h i c h ultimately culminated i n the
introduction of the Permanent Settlement i n 1793. Deteriorating
land relations and recurrent famines throughout the period reveal
the maladies i n the agrarian economy, despite apparent signs of
prosperity such as increase i n cultivation, expansion of the market
for agricultural produce, and rising agricultural prices. Rural
Bengal, moreover, became subject to the fluctuations of a w i d e r
capitalist economy. The colonial state initiated economie changes
in the countryside both directly through redefining property rights
and also indirectly through its effects o n the pace of monetisation
of the indigenous economy and o n population growth. The settled
raiyat, paying his rent i n cash, constituted the backbone of the
agricultural p o p u l a t i o n , the peasant smallholding being the
predominant f o r m of social organisation of production. Changes
in the structure of traditional Industries increased the dependence
of the rural population o n agriculture. Inheritance laws split u p
zamindari property, w h i l e rack-renting and usury became the
principal means of accumulation o f wealth. Increasing com-
mercialisation of agriculture led to an increased dependence o n
moneylenders and a consequent impoverishment of the small
peasantry. These changes had an even greater impact o n the

* I am grateful to Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Himadri Banerjee for their

commenta on an earlier draft of this paper,
 66 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
tribal areas. British intervention brought these relatively secluded
communities into contact w i t h the w i d e r polity and economy,
and exposed them to n e w stresses and strains, w h i c h caused the
disintegration of traditional social organisations and the demise
of the o l d agrarian order. Against such a backdrop, rebellions o f
the tribal and non-tribal peasantry occurred w i t h great frequency
throughout the colonial period. This essay provides an overview
of h o w these movements bave figured i n historical narratives.
A n y discussion of peasant movements i n the colonial history
of Bengal should start w i t h the important methodological debate
regarding the distinction between tribal and non-tribal movements.
Kathleen Gough and Ranajit Guha bave treated tribal movements
as peasant movements, while K.S. Singh argues that such an
approach tends to gloss over the 'diversities o f tribal social
formations of w h i c h tribal movements are a part, b o t h being
structurally related'.^ I n recent years the validity o f thè concept
of 'tribe' itself has been questioned. Susana Devalle^ for instance,
alleges that the tribe i n India is a colonial category constructed
as a consequence of the European perception of the Indian reality
and given administrative sanction by the colonial state i n order
l o enirench itself i n India. It has also been demonstrated* that
'tribe' and 'peasantry' were hardly distinct structural types and
that characteristics usually attributed t o 'peasantry' are also
noticeable i n certain tribes: for instance, predominance o f settled
agriculture, its subsistence orientation, 'household economy' i n
the sense that the tribal family provides the required labour supply
for agriculture, and the subordinate or 'underdog' position o f the
peasantry and its domination by outsiders.
However, w h i l e tribe and peasantry are not distinct structural
types, they are historically determined social formations w i t h
specificities and attributes that appeared over a l o n g historical
lime. There seem to be less socio-economie differentiations w i t h i n
' K.S. Singh, Tribal Society in India: An Anthropo-historical Perspective
(New Delhi, 1985), p. 119;
^ Susana B.C. Devalle, Discourses of Ethnicity: Culture and Protest in
Jharkhand (New Delhi, 1992); also see Jagannath Pathy, Tribal Peasantry.
Dynamics of Development (New Delhi, 1984).
'Andre Beteille, Six Essays in Comparative Sociology (Delhi, 1974).
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 67
a tribe than are seen among caste H i n d u peasants. Unlike tribal
societies, the highly stratified peasant society, composed of layers
o f competing interests, could better absorb some of the pressures
brought o n by economie changes. I n faci many o f the later n o n -
tribal movements arose not because o f the disruption of an existing
order, but out o f perceptions o f a threat to o l d and n e w interests.
Because o f the concentration of tribal people i n certain areas,
their distinctive social and politicai organisation and their relative
isolation from the mainstream imparted to their rebellions their
particular flavour. Singh argues that 'while the peasant movements
tend to remain purely agrarian as peasants lived off land, tribal
movements were both agrarian and forest based because the
tribals' dependence o n forests was as cruciai as their dependence
o n land.'^ Exposure to British rule resulted i n different lines of
development for tribes, i n contrast to those for the peasantry. I n
this essay I shall, therefore, treat these t w o categories separately
as the uprisings of these groups, despite similarities, occurred i n
vastly differing contexts, each w i t h distinct characteristics. Further,
I bave included w i t h i n the scope of this essay tribal rebellions
o f the Chotanagpur region w h i c h , till the second decade o f the
twentieth century, formed a part o f Bengal Presidency. As the
term 'peasant' itself is ambiguous, it has been used to indicate
b o t h l a n d - o w n i n g agriculturists as w e l l as those w h o depend o n
land, such as landless labourers. I shall use the term non-tribal
peasantry i n a broad sense to indicate different subordinate groups
dependent o n land.
PEASANT MOVEMENTS
Serious studies o n peasant and tribal uprisings i n India are
comparatively recent i n origin, mostly dating to the 1960s, although
research i n these fields had begun m u c h earlier. Barrington
Moore's provocative contention' that peasant rebellions i n pre-
British India were rare and that Indian peasantry i n general lacked
" K.S. Singh, 'Agrarian Dimension of Tribal Movements', in A.R. Desai
(.ed.), Agrarian Struggles in India AfterInd^endence (.Delhi, 1986), p. lóó.
' Barrington Moore Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
(Boston, 1966).
 68 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 69
revolutionary potential triggered off a spate of writings o n peasant
p r i m a r i l y i n terms o f the class struggle o f peasants against
uprisings, as scholars challenged his conclusion that Indian society
zamindari oppression and imperialism. Roy considered these
being 'highly fragmented', depended o n 'diffuse sanctions' for its
revolts to be relentless struggles for politicai freedom and believed
coherence and for extracting surplus f r o m the peasantry and
that m o d e m politics i n India imbibed lessons i n freedom f r o m
therefore, was almost i m m u n e to peasant r e b e l l i o n . M o o r e
these expressions of peasant anger. According to Roy, British
concluded that because of the docility of the Indian peasantry,
rule broke d o w n the traditional village communities and subjected
peasant rebellions never assumed the significance i n India that
the peasantry to an unprecedented degree o f exploitation, against
they d i d i n China. However, as later researches bave shown,
w h i c h rebellions occurred. Nevertheless, Roy adheres to the classic
the existing social organisation, whatever its form, seldom put
Marxist position that peasant movements were limited by their
any decisive constraint o n collective peasant action. Refuting
very nature and could not transcend into a wider struggle involving
Barrington Moore's contention, Kathleen Gough^ e v o l v e d a
ali oppressed classes. Peasant rebellions, he believed, w e r e
t y p o l o g y o f peasant rebellion i n India under colonial rule,
spontaneous and unplanned and broke out without the assistance
classifying such movements o n the basis of their goals, ideology
of any external elements or the leadership of a conscious politicai
and methods o f organisation. She identified five types of peasant
party. Thus Roy viewed peasant and tribal revolts i n Bengal as a
revolt: restorative rebellions to drive out the British and restore
phase i n the growing democratic movement i n India and the
earlier rulers and social relations, religious movements for the
peasant rebel as a unique phenomenon was thus missing i n his
liberation of a region or an ethnic group under a n e w f o r m of
narrative. Moreover he tended to ignore the elements o f religiosity
government, social banditry, terrorist vengeance w i t h ideas of
in peasant movements and failed to comprehend the religious
meting out collective justice, and mass insurrections for the redress
element i n rebel consciousness—a failure that has been criticised
o f particular grievances. Certain areas had a strong tradition of
recently as a deliberate attempt to secularise the study o f peasant
peasant movements and Gough observed, 'Bengal has been the
rebellions.
hotbed of revolt, b o t h rural and urban, from the earliest days of
Other Marxist scholars like Narahari Kabiraj^ also emphasised
British rule. Some districts i n particular, such as Mymensingh,
economie factors, denying the legitimacy of the cultural context.
Dinajpur, Rangpur and Pabna i n Bangladesh, and the Santhal
Kabiraj refuted M u i n u d d i n A h m e d Khan's^° conclusion that the
regions o f Bihar and West Bengal, figure repeatedly i n peasant
Faraidi uprisings [of the Faraidi sect of Fast Bengal, founded
struggles and continue to do so.'^
around 1820 by Haji Shariatullah, w h o sought to Islamise the
However, even prior to Barrington Moore's study, some Marxist customs and practices of the Muslim peasantry] were i n essence
scholars i n Bengal, l i k e Suprakash Roy^—who was n o t a nationalist Muslim peasant outbursts against a non-Muslim gentry.
professional historian and had acquired his scholarly insight H e noted that neither the Barasat rising of Titu Mir of 1831-3 nor
through his association w i t h the leftist movements—^had started die Faraidi agitation was a communal outburst or cases o f Muslim
l o o k i n g at the peasant revolts of this region, interpreting them fanaticism pitted against H i n d u orthodoxy. The targets were the
zamindars, most of w h o m were H i n d u . Neither were the Muslim
^ Kathleen Gough, 'Indian Peasant Uprising', Economie and Politicai zamindars, w h o were f e w i n number, spared; the European
Weekly, Voi. 9; 32-4, Special Number, August 1974. planters, the w o r s t oppressors of the peasants, w e r e also
^Ibid., p. 1406.
* Suprakash Roy, Bharater Krishak Bidroha O Ganatantrik Sangram
' Narahari Kabiraj, A Peasant Iprising in Bengal (New Delhi, 1972);
(Calcutta, 1966); this book is now available in English translation as Peasant
Wahabi and Farazi Rebels of Bengal (Calcutta, 1982).
Revolts and Democratic Struggles in India, translated by Rita Banerjee
(Calcutta, 1999). ^"Muinuddin Ahmed Khan, History of the Faraidi Movement in Bengal,
1818-1906 (Kitachi, 19Ó5).
 70 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
indiscriminately attacked. Kabiraj therefore c o n c l u d e d that
throughout the course o f the movement, 'its agrarian aspect t o o k
precedence over the communal o n e ' . "
The year i n w h i c h Suprakash Roy's book was published also
saw the publication of another valuable study, from a very different
standpoint, o f the indigo rebellion (the clash between the peasants
and the indigo planters w h i c h took place i n Bengal between
1859 and 1862) by Kling.^^ I n his opinion, the indigo movement
was a spontaneous national opposition of ali sections o f society—
raiyats, village headmen, grain-dealing, money-lending landlords
and the urban middle classes—^united by c o m m o n sufferings and
sympathies against a common enemy; like the Marxist historians,
K l i n g too asserted that the i n d i g o r e b e l l i o n was a secular
movement. It had no politicai aims as it was directed not against
the government, but against European planters. While studying
the reaction of the Calcutta-based middle classes to this dispute,
Kling asserted that b o t h the peasantry and their middle-class
patrons had a supreme faith i n the righteousness of British rule
and its justice system. This interpretation was to be challenged
subsequently by scholars like Chittabrata Palit w h o argue that
the landlords had engineered the indigo uprising against their
bitterest enemies, the p l a n t e r s . M o r e o v e r , i n his account Kling
tended to concentrate too m u c h o n the leading officials o f the
Bengal government and not o n the peasantry and their resistance.
The same indigo rebellion, however, appears i n a different
bue i n the writings of Ranajit Guha, w h o i n his famous article o n
Neel Darpav}^ severely castigated the middle-class intervention
f r o m a Marxist standpoint. While Kling saw the indigo rebellion
as a united movement o f the peasantry and the urban middle
classes, G u h a emphasised the contradictory ambitions and
interests w i t h i n the rebellion. While he celebrated 'the increasing
"Narahari Kabiraj, A Peasant Uprising, pp. 110-11.
Blair B. Kling, The Blue Mutiny. The Indigo Disturbances in Bengal
1859-1862 (Philadelphia, 1966).
" Chittabrata Palit, Tensions in Bengal Rural Society (Calcutta, 1975),
p. 141.
"Ranajit Guha, 'Neel Darpan: The Image of a Peasant Revolt in a Liberal
Mirror', Journal of Peasant Studies, 2: 1,1974, reprinted in David Hardiman
(ed.), Peasant Resistance in India, 1885-1914 (Delhi, 1992).
PEASANT A N D TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 71
solidarity of the poorer section of the villagers', he described the
participation o f the zamindars as 'opportunist' and that o f the
richer peasants as 'defeatist'. Guha showed that the grievances
o f the peasants were used by the various superordinate classes
to press their o w n demands—^the richer peasants wanted to free
themselves f r o m the oppression o f the planters so that they could
operate their o w n mahajani (money lending and usury) freely.
The zamindars were pleased t o see the power of the planters
undermined. The intelligentsia sought to establish themselves as
the true friends of the peasants and thus their legitimate politicai
representatives. I n ali of this the peasant's o w n voice was largely
ignored, and i n the end they gained very little from the struggle.
To Guha, middle-class attitudes towards peasants were 'a curious
concoction of an inherited, Indian-style paternalism and an
acquired western-style humanism'.^'
B.B. Chaudhuri's interpretation of the causation of peasant
movements i n colonial Bengal as primarily rent disturbances^^ is
another example of analytical emphasis o n the economie faeton
Peasant unrest, he argued, was caused by a large and sudden
increase i n rent and ics enforcement by various coercive methods.
O f these movements, the Pabna uprising o f 1873 was the most
significant because o f its spread, impact and intensity. Chaudhuri
believed that the 'decisive particular moment' i n the Pabna uprising
carne w h e n zamindars had abruptly increased rents and sought
t o enforce them by dubious means. As this coincided w i t h an
agricultural depression—a sharp fall i n the prices of jute and also
a c o n s i d e r a l e fall i n the price of rice—the sudden and large
increase i n the rent demand affected most of the peasants. Yet
Chaudhuri was of the o p i n i o n that the question of status, i.e. the
question whether a raiyat was an occupancy raiyat or not, was
"Ibid., pp. 64, 92.
'^B.B. Chaudhuri, 'Agrarian Economy and Agrarian Relations in Bengal,
1859-1885', in N.K. Sinha (ed.). The History of Bengal, 1757-1905 iCdXcxMa,
1967); 'The story of a Peasant Revolt in a Bengal district', Bengal Past and
Present, Voi. 92, July-December 1973; 'Peasant Movements in Bengal 1850-
1900', Nineteenth Century Studies, Voi. 3, July 1973; 'Agrarian Movements
in Bengal and Bihar 1919-1939', in A.R. Desai (ed.), Peasant Struggles in
India (Delhi, 1979).
72 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
only marginally relevant; while the increased rental demands o f
the zamindars and the occasionai fluctuations i n the economy
d i d adversely affect the peasants, it seldom resulted i n the
disintegration of the peasantry. Agricultural resources h a d
increased during the past t w o decades, and the peasants as a
group o f small property holders had also a share i n this and by
the time of the revolt they seemed to bave acquired a certain
status i n the existing landed society. This was partly the reason
w h y rebel peasants did not think i n terms of a radicai redistribution
o f property, but were primarily concerned t o stem any en-
croachment o n their small properties and they l o o k e d for certain
guarantees i n this.
I n Kalyan Kumar Sengupta's analysis," however, the Pabna
movement appeared as an uprising of the substantial peasantry
eager to preserve the occupancy status they had acquired through
the Bengal Rent Act X of 1859. Indeed, the Pabna uprising thus
became a contested issue i n an interesting historiographic debate
between Sengupta and Chaudhuri. Sengupta argued that the
movement was not concerned merely w i t h high rents, but attacked
ali forms o f zamindari oppression. The Pabna m o v e m e n t ,
according to h i m , was linked to the struggles o f tenants against
h i g h landlordism, i n the p e r i o d immediately preceding the
enactment of the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885. Conducted under
the leadership of a powerful and effìcient agrarian league, the
movement created the conditions for similar uprisings i n other
parts of eastern and centrai Bengal w h i c h gradually developed
into a widespread and popular protest against late nineteenth
century forms of landlordism i n the cash crop producing areas of
East Bengal. Other sections of the tenantry, non-occupancy raiyats,
sharecroppers and agricultural labourers, participated i n the
movement fairly willingly as the zamindar was the common enemy
of ali, but their problems and grievances never came i n for serious
consideration. A unique feature of the agrarian struggle i n Pabna
"Kalyan Kumar Sengupta, 'Agrarian League of Pabna, 1873', The Indiati
Economie and Social History Review, Voi. 7: 2, June 1970; Pabna
Disturbances and the Politics o/Rent 1873-1885 (.New Deìhi, 1974); 'Peasant
Struggles in Pabna, 1873', in A.R. Desai (ed.), Peasant Struggles in India
(Delhi, 1979).
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 73
was its legalistic approach. Sengupta accepted many facets o f
the Marxist interpretation of peasant movements and believed
that a link was established between urban and rural Bengal
through a section of the Bengali salaried and professional middle
classes of Calcutta w h o took u p the cause of the occupancy
raiyats. However, they failed to establish any real and enduring
links between rural and urban Bengal. He argued that it was
essentially non-communal: the peasants were mostly converts
from lower Hindu castes, 'most of w h o m were completely ignorant
of even the elementary doctrines of the Koran'.^^
The importance of the middle-class intervention emphasised
by Sengupta was reiterated i n yet another Marxist analysis b y
Sunil Sen.^^ His account is unique i n the sense that as one o f the
partcipants of the Tebhaga movement, he discussed its history i n
the light of his o w n personal experiences as w e l l as available
documentation and newspaper reports. Breaking out i n 1946,
the Tebhaga struggle was the movement of the sharecroppers o f
Bengal, particulariy north Bengal, where they demanded t w o -
thirds rather than half as their share of the produce. According to
Sen, the educated class had a major role i n the mobilisation of
the peasants through the Kisan Sabba. Sen discussed the growth
of the Kisan Sabba and the changing attitude of the Comintern,
w h i c h shaped the strategy of the Communists i n India w i t h regard
to linking the peasant struggles w i t h larger national struggles. He
presented an intimate picture of the background, the objective
matrix, and the unfolding of the Tebhaga movement i n its t w o
phases. The agitation, he pointed out, involved the lower stratum
of tenants, such as bargadars, adhiars and others and was a struggle
not merely against zamindars but also against a section of rich
peasants, the jotedars (both n e w owners and permanent rich
tenants) w h o benefited from legislation foUowing the Pabna revolt.
Essentially an economie struggle, the movement, i n Sen's view,
took a politicai form w h e n it had to confront the jotedars and the
politicai apparatus of the state.
Most studies o n peasant history that w e bave reviewed thus
far argued that peasants were motivated to rebel because of
Kalyan Kumar Sengupta, Pabna Disturbances, p. 52.
" Sunil Sen, Agrarian Struggle in Bengal, 1946-47 (New Delhi, 1972).
74 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
economie conditions. Rebellions were either a protest against
rent or high landlordism or arose out of a concern for occupancy
status or the share of the produce. Such studies also assumed
that peasants had no politicai consciousness of their o w n ; it was
developed by politicai parties and non-peasant leaders. Such
interpretations, ironically, had points of commonality w i t h the
colonial discourse, w h i c h viewed the peasantry as simple, poor
and ignorant, unaware of the cause of their poverty, and always
instigated by others. With the launch of the Subaltern Studies
collective i n the early 1980s, significant advances bave, however,
been made i n restoring the history of subaltern groups, disrupting
both the nationalist narrative that considered ali colonial revolts
as events i n the becoming o f the Indian nation, and contesting
the older Marxist accounts of rebellions as preludes to the
emergence of fuU-fledged class consciousness.
Ranajit Guha's Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in
Colonial India^° w a r n e d us against the tendency of treating
peasant movements as only the prehistory of Indian nationalism.
He rejected that point of v i e w w h i c h interpreted peasant move-
ments as spontaneous uprisings and characterised them as pre-
politicai; he asserted that peasant n o t i o n of domination was
primarily of a politicai nature, economie exploitation being an
issue among others. FoUowing Antonio Gramsci's ideas as set
out i n his famous 'Notes o n Italian H i s t o r y ' G u h a and others of
the Subalternist historians bave suggested that colonial and post-
colonial South Asian society can be studied i n a framework of
power relationships i n w h i c h the elite and subaltern classes inhabit
t w o distinct and relatively autonomous domains of existence and
consciousness. Peasants are thus seen i n these narratives as makers
of their o w n rebellion, having their o w n politicai consciousness
d e r i v e d f r o m their o w n traditions, independent of outside
leadership. Resistance was that aspect of power relations through
w h i c h the peasantry expressed its distinct and autonomous
identity.
2» (Delhi, 1983).
^'Antonio Gramsci, SelecUons from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio
Gramsci, edited and translated by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith
(London, 1971), pp. 52-120.
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 75
Guha delineated structural similarities between disparate
movements and identified six different strands or 'elementary
aspects' of rebel peasant consciousness: negation, m o d a l i t y
ambiguity, solidarity, transmission, and territoriality. The insurgent
consciousness was, i n the first place, a negative consciousness,
as the rebel peasant learnt to recognise himself not through his
o w n attributes, but through attributes of the dominant group that
he lacked. During rebellion, this negative consciousness f o u n d
expression through the peasants' attempt to appropriate for
themselves the signs of authority of those w h o dominate them.
Secondly, peasant rebellions i n their initial stage involved a degree
of ambiguity; signs of rebellion were at first misinterpreted by
the colonial authority as increases i n crime (rebellions differed
from crime i n that they were invariably communal and public
events), Guha identified certain modalities of insurgency, w h i c h
once distinguished f r o m common crime exhibited its identity as
violence that is public, collective, destructive and total. He further
delineated four forms of struggle, wrecking, burning, eating and
looting, as the most conspicuous and destructive. Fourth, the
self-definition of the insurgent peasants lay i n their solidarity,
usually expressed i n terms of ethnicity, kinship, religion and class
awareness. The message of rebellion was disseminated for the
dual purpose of informing and raobilising, through a variety o f
verbal and non-verbal means, a process Guha termed trans-
mission. Finally Guha showed that peasant rebellions were
characterised by their inability t o spread b e y o n d a certain
geographical space and remaining localised affairs. This was
determined both negatively, by the rebel's perception of the
geographical spread of the authority of the dominant group, and
positively by the notion of ethnic space occupied by the insurgent
community. Guha's approach undoubtedly a l l o w e d a richer
understanding of peasant resistance. However, he d i d not attempt
to trace the evolution of such resistance over time. The structure
of domination and subordination is only marginally analysed,
leaving unintelligible i n many cases the beginning of the i n -
surgence. Such an analysis moreover tends to reify the insurgent
consciousness and ignore the elements o f temporality i n peasant
consciousness and the emergence of new attributes i n it.
Partha Chatterjee, another scholar of the Subaltern collective.

76 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
similarly refutes that politicai actions o f the peasantry w e r e
'primordial', 'pre-politicai', irrational or spontaneous. He believes
it is necessary to look o n peasant rebellion as '. . . informed by
its o w n consciousness, shaped by centuries o f its o w n politicai
historyj structured by distinct conceptions of power and morality,
and attempting to come to terms w i t h and act w i t h i n whoUy n e w
contexts of class struggle.'^^ While Guha asserted that the strucmre
o f peasant consciousness was b o u n d together b y the sense o f
community, he d i d not provide, as Chatterjee points out, a
theoretical conceptualisation o f the c o m m u n i t y as a f o r m a i
construct." Challenging earlier attempts to explain ali peasant
resistance i n terms of 'essential class interest', Chatterjee asserts
that the Indian peasantry generally conceptualised relationships
o f p o w e r i n terms of the idea o f community. There was a
consciousness o f communal rights and communal solidarity
among the members. I n such a community, 'each individuai
conducts himself only as a link, as a member o f the community
proprietor or possessor'.^'' Politicai power is organised as the
authority o f the entire coUectivity. Chatterjee uses the concept
'communal mode of power' to explain communal solidarity and
the politically autonomous character of the agricultural community
where differentiations were not sharp. The tension between the
peasant community o f East Bengal, predominantly comprising
Muslims, and the state, dominated by landlords, moneylenders
and urban traders led to riots between 1926 and 1935. I n such
riots
the ideology which shaped and gave meaning to the various collective
acts of the peasantry was fundamentally religious. The very nature of
peasant consciousness, the apparently consistent unification of an entire
set of beliefs about nature and about men in the collective and active
mind of the peasantry, is religious. Religion to such a community provides
"Partha Chatterjee, 'The Colonial State and Peasant Resistance in Bengal
1920-1947', Past and Present, Voi. 110, February 1986, p. 202.
" Partha Chatterjee, 'For an Indian History of Peasant Struggles', Social
Sdentisi, Voi. 16: 11, November 1988, p. 12.
" Partha Chatterjee, 'Agrarian Relations and Communalism in Bengal,
1926-1935', in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies L Writings on South
Asian History and Society (Delhi, 1982), p. 12.
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 77
an ontology, an epistemology as well as practical code of ethics, including
politicai ethics. When this community acts politically, the symbolic
meaning of particular acts—their significance—^must be found in rleigious
terms.
T h i s emphasis o n the r e b e l peasant's o w n c o n s c i o u s n e s s is
reiterated b y Gautam Bhadra^^ w h o focuses o n different facets
of the subaltern mentality, that is, the balance of defiance and
submissiveness to authority, e n c o d e d i n a long p o e m written by
a peasant headman of the Dinajpur district i n colonial Bengal i n
the mid-nineteenth cenmry, the Kantanama or Rajdharma. H i s
essay locates the text w i t h i n orai and literary traditions, and more
generally w i t h i n its cultural context. Through an analysis of this
text h e highlights the fact that the i d i o m s o f d o m i n a t i o n ,
subordination and revolt are often inextricably l i n k e d together
and that subordination or domination is seldom, if ever, complete.
Subordination, moreover, was n o t a static p r o p e r t y o f any
particular class, but a relationship 'which people could enter
into or r e p r o d u c e i n different contexts o f h i e r a r c h y ' a n d
'collaboration and resistance, the t w o elements i n the mentality
of subalternity, merge and coalesce to make u p a complex and
contradictory consciousness'." Rejecting attempts by Marxists to
secularise peasant uprisings, i n essays dealing w i t h the movement
of the Paglapanthis of Mymensingh and Titu Mir's Jung, Bhadra
too lays stress o n religiosity and its influence i n determining the
rebel peasant consciousness. H e is criticai of Schendel's attempt^^
to e x p l a i n the Mymensingh uprising i n terms o f economie
exploitation. Bhadra feels that to categorise Titu's rebellion as
" I b i d . , p. 31, italics originai; also see his Bengal 1920-1947: The Land
Question (Calcutta, 1984).
Gautam Bhadra, 'Paglai Dhum: Mymensigher Krishak Bidroha' (Paglai
Dhum: A Peasant Revolt in Mymensingh), Anustup Saradiya, 198Ó-7; 'The
Mentality of Subalternity: Kantanama or Rajdharma', in Ranajit Guha (ed.),
Subaltern Studies VI: Writings on South Asian History and Society (Delhi,
1989); Iman O Nishan (Calcutta, 1994).
Gautam Bhadra, 'The Mentality of Subalternity', p. 91.
^* William Van Schendel, 'Madmen of Mymensingh: Peasant Resistance
and the Colonial Process in Eastern India, 1824-1833', The Indian Economie
and Social History Review, Voi. 22: 2, April-June 1985.
78 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
either a Hindu-Muslim riot or as a class struggle is to deny the
complexities relating to identity and power structure. Religiosity
has to be judged o n the basis of everyday usage i n folk culture
and the language of protest may be understood through the
medium of religion.
Outside the orthodox Marxist and Subaltern Studies models,
another significant attempt to analyse and understand peasant
movements comes through the writings of Sugata Bose. I n his
earlier attempt^^ to understand the rural social structure and the
dynamics of peasant politics i n the early twentieth century, he
had emphasised economie factors and argued that conflict became
inevitable i n Bengal agrarian society through a rupture i n the
credit nexus, particulariy the non-availability of credit after 1930.
The conflicts, however, took different forms i n different regions.
Although he conceded that religion played a large part i n the
consciousness of the Muslim peasantry, he stressed mainly the
class factor. I n his second book, Bose recognises the importance
of what he calls 'communitarian resistance . . . inspired by a
religious ideology'. But this was, i n his o p i n i o n , mainly a phe-
nomenon o f the early nineteenth century; i n the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries class identities were being formed
and what w e come across i n this period is 'combination of class
and community concerns'. However, from 1930 onwards, Bose
finds 'primarily economie' factors and class concerns about
individuai rights under colonial law.providing the main motivation
for peasant resistance.^°
Since the Subalternist intervention, it is n o longer possible to
analyse peasant movements w i t h i n a simplistic structuralist
framework; the present discursive turn i n history has shifted the
focus decisively o n to the peasant mentalities, peasant religious
discourse, and the politicai consciousness of peasants—in short,
their perceptions of the relations of power. But this consciousness,
as Bose warns us, should not be 'misconstrued as static collective
^ Sugata Bose, Agrarian Bengal; Economy, Social Structure and Politics
1919-1947 (Cambridge, 1986).
^Sugata Bose, TheNewCambridgeHistoryofIndia, III 2, Peasant Labour
and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770 (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 151,
164.and passim.
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 79
mentalities from the distant past'. It was 'not solely determined
by the pre-existing bonds of community, but was constantly
reformulated i n response to changing historical contexts . . .'.^^
TRIBAL MOVEMENTS
The earliest writings o n tribes i n India were those of nineteenth-
century British administrators whose attention was drawn to tribal
societies by the recurring tribal revolts. W h i l e these d i d not
threaten the politicai stability of the Raj, such disturbances were
interpreted as improper defiance of the state's legitimate authority.
The tribal w o r l d , therefore, figured i n officiai perceptions mainly
as an adjunct to the counter-insurgency measures of the state.
Over the years, the state's perception of the tribal w o r l d changed
due to an iraproved understanding of tribal society. Tribes were
then recognised as a worthwhile subject of study. Inquiries into
the origins of the tribal rebellions convinced the government of
the distinctiveness o f the tribal regions, w h i c h made t h e m
vulnerable to the activities of powerful adversaries, particulariy
o f alien outsiders and necessitated protection by government.'^
Several studies o n t r i b a l societies w e r e u n d e r t a k e n b y
anthropologically inclined administrators; the influence of the
discipline o n their general design and methods o f investigation
is clearly discernible.'^ The administrative relevance of such an-
thropological enterprises was that they sought the roots of endemie
unrest i n tribal regions, w h i c h the government had failed to fully
comprehend. Rebellion among Santais, for instance, was traced
to primarily four causes—^rapacious moneylenders, the increasing
misery caused by the system of personal and hereditary bondage
for debt, c o r r u p t i o n and extortions o f the police, and the
impossibility of the Santais obtaining redress i n the courts, A n
endogenous factor that c o n t r i b u t e d to distress was Santal
^'Ibid., pp. 161-2.
32 W.W. Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal (London, 1868).
3*E.T. Dalton, DescriptiveEtbnologyof Bengal (Calcutta, 1872); H.H. Risley,
Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Vols. 1 & 2 (Calcutta, 1891); G. Archer, 'The
Santhal Rebellion', Man in India, Voi. 25: 4, December 1945.
 80 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
improvidence.^'' Liberal critics of the British government also laid
emphasis o n other destabilising changes introduced by British
rule, such as forest regulations w h i c h curtailed the customary
rights of tribals in forests.
A significant trend i n the recent historiography of agrarian
change i n British India is the increasing interest i n tribal societies
that had for long been primarily the anthropologist's domain.
Most of these studies deal w i t h tribal revolts. The disintegration
of relatively isolated traditional tribal structures as a result o f the
colonial encounter is a common theme. Tribal conflicts, resulting
from the infiltration of non-tribals into tribal territory, bave been
interpreted as the resistance of tribals against exploitative alien
outsiders, the dikus, whose influx into the tribal region increased
w i t h the new economie opportunities ushered i n by British rule,
These studies, further, perceive tribal communities as h o m o -
geneous units and therefore, united i n their opposition to the
alien and unacceptable intruders into their realms.
Kali Kinkar Datta's Santal Insurrection^ was one of the eariiest
discussions o n tribal uprisings. Datta considered the chief reason
behind the rebellion to be the economie grievances o f the people
against their oppression and exploitation by the Bengali and
upcountry merchants and moneylenders w h o had flocked to
Damin-i-Koh, attracted by the facilities available there for business.
I n a later volume dealing w i t h the nationalist reconstruction o f
the freedom struggle, Datta included tribal rebellions such as the
Kol (that is the Munda and Larka H o ) uprising of 1831, the Santal
bui o f 1855 and Birsa Munda's ulgulan (1898-9) i n a medley o f
discrete rebellions,^^ Dhirendranath Baske'» likewise perceived
the Santal rebellion as primarily a conscious politicai movement
against colonial rule, challenging the point of view that considered
^ E . G . Man, Sonthalia and the Sonthals (Calcutta, 1867); W.J. Culshaw
and W G . Archer, 'The Santhal Rebellion', Man in India, Voi. 25: 4, December
1945.
"Verrier Elwin, 'Saora ?ìiuns\ in India, Voi. 25: 4, December 1945.
^ K a l i Kinkar Datta, Santal Insurrection (Calcutta, 1940).
" Kali Kinkar Datta, 'The Birsa Movement in Chota Nagpur', in K.K.
Datta (ed.), History of the Freedom Movement in Bihar (Patna, 1957).
"Dhirendranath Baske, Saontal GanasangramerItihas (Calcutta, 1976).
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 81
the Santal rebellion to be anti-mahajan and trader rather than
anti-British. To Baske, the K o l and Santal rebellions were i n a
sense politicai movements, as their objective was to establish
their o w n raj, expelling outsiders, Indians as w e l l as British.
FoUowing i n Datta's footsteps, three of his students, J.C. Jha,^^
S.P. Sinha''^ and K,S. Singh"* published monographs o n similar
movements i n Chotanagpur, I n his pioneering study of the K o l
rebeUion, Jha reiterated the argument that tribal people, already
feeling the unhappy effects of Hinduisation and alienation of
tribal rajas a n d zamindars, faced economie r u i n w i t h the
i n t r o d u c t i o n o f f o r e i g n n o t i o n s a n d f o r e i g n p e o p l e as a
consequence of British rule. I n his o p i n i o n the tribal unrest of
1831-2 was 'a crude form of protest against these changes and
these outside influences—a gesture of despair."'^ To Jha, however,
diese movements of 'peasant protestants' were 'blind and groping'
as the rebels, being extremely inarticulate, d i d not k n o w h o w
to express their legitimate grievances. Jha also believed, some
what erroneously, that the consequence of the revolt was the
introduction of relief measures through Regulation X I I I of 1833
whereby special rules were framed for the area w h i c h eased
conflicts w i t h i n tribal society. Similarly, the Bhumij revolt was 'a
miUenary or populist movement aimed at creating an ideal w o r i d '
in w h i c h men w o u l d receive justice."*'
S.P. Sinha'" considered the Birsaite movement to be b o t h a
religious and politicai movement. To h i m , alien culture played
the cruciai role i n the disintegration of tribal society. Sinha argued
that the tribal w o r l d , economically subordinate, was culturally
inferior to that of the Hindus and Christians. Birsa Munda therefore
had to b o r r o w elements of the dominant culture to raise the
^'J.e. Jha, The Kol Insurrectton in Chotanagpur (Calcutta, 1964); The
Bhumij Revolt 1832-33 (New Delhi, 1967); 'The Nature of the Tribal Unrest
on the Chotanagpur Plateau, 1831-1833', Revolt Studies, Voi. 1; 1, June 1985.
^"S.P. Sinha, Life and Times of Birsa Bhagwan (Ranchi, 1964).
K.S. Singh, The Dust Storm and the Hanging Misi: A Study of Birsa
Munda and his movement in Chota Nagpur, 1874-1901 (Calcutta, 1966).
«J.C. Jha, The Kol Insurrection, p. 1.
^'J.C. Jha, The Bhumij Revolt, p. 187.
S.P. Sinha, Life and Times of Birsa Bhagwan.
 82 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
Status o f the subordinate group. K.S. Singh, o n the other band,
laid emphasis o n economie issues, w h i c h u n d e r m i n e d tribal
agrarian structure. He observed, 'the transformation of the Mundari
agrarian system i n t o n o n - c o m m u n a l , feudal, z a m i n d a r i or
individuai tenures was the key to agrarian disorders that climaxed
into religious-political movements of Birsa'.''^ I n many tribal villages
of Bengal Presidency, tribals slowly lost their lands to non-tribal
moneylenders and landlords, reducing their status to that o f tenants
or labourers. I n regions where the tribal chieftains had become
Hinduised, they themselves invited non-tribal peasants to settle
i n tribal areas. The latter being experienced farmers c o u l d easily
seize the land o f the tribals. Government officials, particulariy
revenue and police officials, moreover, used their authority to
enslave the tribals. Furthermore the courts were indifferent to
the plight o f the tribals as they were ignorant of tribal agrarian
systems and customs.
Another common theme that figures i n most studies o n tribal
revolts is the role o f the 'rebellions prophets' w h o launched
'messianic movements', promising their followers fo drive out
the outsiders and bring back a golden age.''^ Once the 'lost
kingdom' was recovered, 'there w i l l be enough to eat, n o famine,
the people w i l l live together i n love'.^"^
B.B. Chaudhuri, however, has put forward a n e w explanation
of millenarianism among tribals. While economie grievances
u n d o u b t e d l y underlay m a n y o f the rebellions o f the tribal
peasantry, the rise o f such movements, he believes, cannot be
related solely to economie factors, i.e. to the immiserisation o f
the tribals or to the increasing domination o f aliens or dikus over
K.S. Singh, The Dust Storm and the Hanging Misi, p. 1.
Martin Orans, The Santal, A Tribe in Search of Great Tradition (Detroit,
1965); S.P. Sinha, Life and Times of Birsa Bhagwan- K.S. Singh, The Dust
Storm and the Hanging Mist; Stephen Fuchs, 'Messianic Movements in Tribal
lndia',foumal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, Voi. 20:1, 2, \%l;Rebellious
prophets (Delhi, 1980); J. Troisi, 'Social Movements among the Santais', Social
Action, Voi. 26; 3, July-September 1976; Surajit Sinha, 'Tribal Solidarity and
Messianic Movement: Review Artide', Contributions to Indian Sociology (New
Series), Voi. 2, 1968; 'Tribal Solidarity Movements in India: A Review', in
K.S. Singh (ed.), Tribal Situation In India (Shimla, 1972).
K.S. Singh, The Dust Storm and the Hanging Mist, p. 193.
83
PEASANT A N D TRIBAL MOVEMENTS
them. 'The cruciai factor i n the emergence o f a movement, often
after a prolonged period o f stresses o n tribal societies, was an
altogether n e w perception, i n the context of a sharp aggravation
of the stresses, that the existing politicai authority, i.e., the colonial
state, had utterly failed to protect them, and indeed had sided
w i t h their mighty adversaries. '^* The collapse o f their faith i n this
authority and i n its legitimacy was deeply unsettling for the rebels
who, lacking any other reliable authority structure, had accepted
it for so long. Hence came their search for an independent politicai
power of their o w n , w h i c h was a millenarian goal. The alternative
politicai authority, w h i c h the millenarian rebels had i n m i n d
was therefore as comprehensive as the one it w o u l d supplant.
Chaudhuri also shows h o w the occurrence o f a millenarian type
movement i n one part of the tribal w o r l d greatly facilitated its
emergence i n others. Thus the Tana Bhagat movement among
the Oraons, originating and developing i n the first three decades
of the twentieth century, heavily drew o n earlier models, that of
the Santal and the JVlunda uprisings. It could therefore be inferred
that the different ethnic groups at that time had nearly ceased to
be culturally segregated entities. Ali such millenarian movements
called for a complete replacement o f the existing structure o f
politicai authority w i t h an independent tribal polity. This emphasis
o n the supra village cultural identity distinguished millenarian
movements from other types of tribal protests, according to
Chaudhuri.
The leadership o f the Santal, Kol, and Munda rebellions came
from religious leaders like Birsa Munda w h o claimed to be the
incarnations of God, or from Sidhu and Kanu, the leaders o f the
Santal b u i , w h o asserted that they received messages f r o m
••^B.B. Chaudhuri, 'The Story of a Tribal Revolt in the Bengal Presidency:
the Religion and Politics of the Oraons, 1900-1926', in Adhir Chakraborty
(ed), Aspects of Socio Economie Changes and Politicai Awakening inBengal
(Calcutta, 1989), p. I6O; also see his 'Tribal Society in Transition: Eastern
India, 1757-1920', in Mushirul Hasan and Narayani Gupta (eds.), India's
Colonial Encounter (New Delhi, 1993); 'Ideology and Organisation of
Millenarian Protest Movements in the Tribal World of Colonial Eastern India',
in J.T. O'Connell (ed.), Religious Movements and Institutions in Modem
India (New Delhi, 1999).
 84 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
supernatural powers. T h e leader generally claimed that the
message he proclaimed was n o t a p r o d u c i o f his individuai
reasoning, but was divinely ordained, and therefore, infallible.
Yet, Chaudhuri argues, a leader's faith i n supernatural intervention
d i d n o t preclude human agency. He d i d k n o w o f the might o f
his enemies, a n d utmost stress was laid o n the adequate
preparation for armed offensive against them. Thus Chaudhuri
distinguishes these nineteenth century movements i n the tribal
regions o f Bengal Presidency f r o m t h e t y p i c a l m i l l e n a r i a n
movement called 'pure' b y Hobsbawm''' a n d characterised b y
the fact that its followers were not the makers o f r e v o l u t i o n —
revolts were expeeted to occur by divine revelation or by a miracle.
Economie change and its impact continued to dominate further
studies o n tribal movements. Increasingly, however, attempts were
made to analyse differences i n the forms of rebellion o f different
tribal groups over time. I n an interesting comparative analysis o f
the Sardar and Kherwar movements o f the Santais between 1858
and 1898, John MacDougall'° showed that the nature o f the
m o v e m e n t s v a r i e d as a consequence o f variations i n t h e
'peasantisation o f adivasi society'. The Sardar movement was an
attempt to mobilise organisational resources provided b y the
missionaries and by Mundas and Oraons i n order to induce state
authorities t o carry o u t agrarian reforms, as peasantisation h a d
led t o arbitrary treatment o f adivasis b y diku landowners a n d
moneylenders. The difference between the Sardar and Kherwar
movements, according to MacDougall, was primarily differences
in processes o f resource mobilisation and peasantisation. The
Kherwar movement had been organised less around agrarian
issues as the state had been more successful there i n protecting
^«EJ. Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels (New York, 1965).
'"John MacDougall, landorReligionF The Sardar and Kherwar Movements
in Bihar 1858-95 (New Delhi, 1985); also see his 'Religious Revitalization
vs. Agrarian Reform: Collective Resistance to Peasantisation among the
Mundas, Oraons and Santais, 1858-95', Contributions to Indian Sociology
(New Series), Voi, 11: 2, 1977; 'Participation in late 19th centun' Adivasi
Movements: Variations within Two Districts of Bihar', in Rupert R. Moser
et al. (eds.), Aspects of Tribal Life in South Asia: Strategy and Suruival
(Berne, 1978).
PEASANT A N D TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 85
adivasi lands. I n the Sardar movement, there were cleavages
between the Christian and non-Christian tribals, causing a break
in tribal solidarity. I n the Kherwar movement, however, the H i n d u
influence was stronger.
While B.B. Chaudhuri only identitifies the economie basis o f
the 'rebel tribal consciousness', Prabhu Prasad Mohapatra sees
i n the 'agrarian regimes i n Chotanagpur . . . a continuous conflict
between landlords and tenants', a 'class s t r u g g l e ' . M o h a p a t r a
studies a series o f rent disturbances i n tribal Chotanagpur and
explores the interrelationship between class structure, class con-
flict and surplus extraction. H e adheres t o a binary division o f
Chotanagpur rural society into peasants and landlords, B y the
time o f colonial rule, most landlords had n o historical or kinship
ties w i t h the locai population and were mostly outsiders f r o m
the plains o f Bihar, They were less subject to customary checks
and social pressures i n their relationship w i t h the tenant class
and more prone to transgress limits o f exploitation and destroy
customary barriers t o surplus e x t r a c t i o n p o s e d b y v i l l a g e
communities. Mohapatra ascribes the muted levels o f resistance
to the demands o f the landlords to the weakening o f the village
c o m m u n i t y organisation. Pockets o f resistance i n south-east
Hazaribagh, Mahuadanr i n Palamau and also M a n b h u m district
were mostly populated by tribals w h o had retained their customary
village organisation and ethnic homogeneity, facilitating resistance
t o landlords. Mohapatra explains the strong peasant resistance
there i n terms o f ethnic homogeneity through survival o f various
forms o f village community. Moreover, the process o f expansion
of arable land tended to weaken the power o f the landlords and
strengthen the class o f reclaiming headmen a n d substantial
peasants.
Mohapatra also lays stress o n the differential impact of differing
revenue practices o n the life o f the tribals. I n Ranchi, the survival
of village communities like the bhuinhari system (whereby land
was held rent free b y descendants o f village founders) created
different problems. To increase control, landlords attempted t o
" Prabhu Prasad Mohapatra, 'Class Conflict and Agrarian Regimes in
Chota Nagpur, 1860-1950', The Indian Economie and Social History Review,
Voi. 28: 1, 1991, p. 2.
 86 BENGAL; RETHINKING HISTORY
restrict bhuinhari tenure and increase the area o f ordinary rent
paying land. Already i n 1822 the introduction o f thikadari or
rent farming had seen the entry of a new set o f m i d d l e m e n like
Muslims, Sikhs and others, leading to the dispossession o f K o l
headmen. The Sardari lavai (a petition movement among Oraons
against landlord exactions i n the second half of the nineteenth
century), therefore, started as a p e t i t i o n movement against
landlords' bethbegari (labour demands) and encroachments o n
bhuinhari lands; tìie sardars demanded diat they pay rent directly
to Government. Mohapatra argues that the Sardari lavai was the
first serious challenge to the concept of landlord property, w h i c h
was at the basis o f the Permanent Settlement. There were t w o
levels at w h i c h the struggle took place. At the locai agrarian and
economie level w i t h i n the village the revolt was led by either
bhuinhars or Christian converts. At an overtly politicai level, it
amounted to a struggle for the 'establishment o f an alternative
n o t i o n o f p o w e r ' , 'the restoration o f collective c o m m u n i t y
property' and the 'negation of the landlord's claims of absolute
property right'.'^ Thus there was no strict distinction between
agrarian and economie level of conflict and politicai struggle,
rather a complementarity.
The underlying assumption of most studies o n tribal revolts
that w e bave surveyed so far is that despite occasionai cultural
interactions and b o r r o w i n g o f non-tribal religious and cultural
symbols by tribals, the economie interests of these t w o groups
bave been inherently antagonistic, and herein lay the roots o f
c o n f l i c t . I n a recent essay, Sangeeta Dasgupta presents a
refreshingly different v i e w of tribal rebellions.'' I n ber study o f
the Tana Bhagat movement among the Oraons ( w h i c h started
around 1914), while recognising the importance o f the Oraon
and Tana opposition to the zamindars, banias and the British
state, she suggests that conflict must also be located w i t h i n the
internai hierarchy of the community. She believes that the Tana
Bhagat movement, w h i c h challenged the entire order o f settled
agriculture, denoted the efforts of a less-privileged section of
«Ibid., p. 36.
Sangeeta Dasgupta, 'Reordering a World: The Tanabhagat Movement,
1914-1919', Studies in History (New Series), Voi. 15: 1, 1999.
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 87
Oraons to redefìne their identity. I n the Oraon social structure
the originai reclaimers or bhuinhars enjoyed b o t h privileged
tenures and could dominate traditional village offìces o f the pahan
(priest) and mahto (headman). The bhuinhar stranglehold was
strengthened through British intervention i n Chotanagpur. The
n e w administrative arrangements and agrarian legislations proved
beneficiai for the bhuinhars w h o , at one level, appropriated land
for themselves, and o n the other practised baniagiri. It was the
special position of these bhuinhars that the Tanas also challenged
through their movement. Dasgupta writes: 'The t w o seemingly
disparate realms of Tana protest—an opposition to the pahan,
mahto and to the w o r l d o f spirits and ritual celebrations, and a
resistance to the landlords, banias and the Raj—were thus
interlinked.'^'' The Tanas, therefore, articulated the ideology of a
marginai g r o u p w i t h i n O r a o n society and challenged those
elements, t r i b a l a n d n o n - t r i b a l , that h a d forced t h e m i n t o
dependence and subordination.
Another theme i n the analysis of tribal rebellions relates to
their links w i t h the wider national movement against colonial
rule. K.S. Singh,'' attempting a characterisation of the changing
nature of tribal revolts i n the Bengal Presidency over a l o n g
period of time, identifies three major phases of the revolts. The
first phase, f r o m 1795 to 1860, he calls primary resistance, a
concept he does not precisely define. He notes some important
features of the revolts of this phase: participation of groups other
than tribes; leadership o f the traditional chiefs and their sub-
ordinates w h o had been dispossessed of their property, a n d
spontaneity o f the revolts against the 'new system', and the 'new
classes o f people' w h o were inducted by it. The second phase of
the revolts occurring i n the context of the worsening material
condition o f the tribes was more complex i n nature. We come
across bere a curious mix of agrarian, religious and politicai issues.
The leadership was mosdy non-traditional. I t came from the ranks
o f the peasants or educated tribals or was offered b y those
outsiders w h o had gained a footing among the tribes. The third
phase, 1920-47, according to Singh, saw the rise of the movement
5^lbid., p. 2.
K.S. Singh, Tribal Society in India: An Anthropo-historical Perspective.
 88 BENGAL- RETHINKING HISTORY
of a secular or politicai nature. Its distinctive features were the
involvement of the tribals i n the nationalist movement, their
enthusiastic response t o Gandhi's message, and the emergence
later o f a regionally oriented separatisi agitation, the Jharkhand
movement. Singh therefore takes 1920 or the Non-cooperation
movement as the great divide between the t w o phases of tribal
revolts. This distinction between the pre and post 1920 revolts i n
terms of organisation does not always h o l d good; not ali pre-
1920 revolts were 'sporadic, isolated and spontaneous.' Equally
questionable is the view that the post-1920 phase of tribal politics
'was marked by movements w h i c h could be sustained only by
organisation and through external stimuli','^ that is through the
message and personality of Mahatma Gandhi.
I n reality, contaets w i t h the nationalist movement could not
p r o v i d e any n e w organisation for rebel tribals. Some locai
Congressmen only occasionally came i n contact w i t h tribes, but
they had their o w n agenda; and the provincial Congress was
normally very lukewarm i n its support for any agrarian movement,
tribal or peasant. This point has been discussed by Subalternist
scholars w h o argue that the subaltern classes, i n this case the
tribal peasants, had a substantial degree o f cultural and politicai
autonomy vis-a-vis the statisi politics and project of the nationalist
elites.
Emphasis o n the rebel's o w n consciousness is certainly a n e w
trend i n the study of tribal movements i n colonial Bengal. Swapan
Dasgupta" and Tanika Sarkar'^ bave discussed the initiative of
the tribal people i n their social actions. Dasgupta discusses the
turmoil between 1921 and 1923 i n the Jungle Mahals w h e n adivasi
peasants rose against landlordism of the Midnapur Zamindari
Company. This movement h a d t w o b r o a d phases, the first
coinciding w i t h the p e r i o d o f the Non-cooperation movement
^^bid., p. 158.
"Swapan Dasgupta, 'Adivasi Politics in Midnapur, c. 1760-1921, in Ranajit
Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV: Writings on South Asian History and Society
(Delhi, 1985).
^Tanika Sarkar, Jitu Santal's Movement in Malda, 1924-1932: A Study in
Tribal Protest', in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern StudiesIV: Writings on South
Asian History and Society (Delhi, 1985).
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 89
and marked by Congress participation. The second phase, an
exiension and logicai culmination of the struggle initiated i n 1921,
was conducted i n the period foUowing Gandhi's arresi and saw
n o organised Congress participation. Dasgupta thus unravels the
complexities of the adivasi encounter and their alliance w i t h the
nationalist organisations and the autonomy of subaltern politics.
While the Congress took the initiative i n extending the scope
of the movement, o n occasions its role suggests a conscious
subversion of autonomous adivasi initiative. However, once the
initial spark had been l i l , the Congress became progressively
redundant. The movement acquired its o w n dynamism and its
a u t o n o m y became explicit by January 1922. Dasgupta thus
concludes: 'Elite politics i n Midnapur had thus only a very tenuous
connection w i t h the autonomous mobilisation o f this particular
section of the subaltern. Adivasi insurgency belonged o n the
w h o l e to another domain of politics.''^
Tanika Sarkar discusses Jitu Santal's widespread movement i n
Malda that aimed at raising the status of the Santais o f the region
to that of jal chat Hindus, from w h o m higher castes could accept
water w i t h o u t fear of poUution. Jitu's group prided themselves
as Hindus and held l o w caste H i n d u groups and Muslims i n
aversion, However, as Tanika Sarkar shows, there were some
ambiguities i n their actions w h i c h indicate the persistence of
their Santal mentality. For instance they d i d not discontinue the
worship o f Santal spirits and gods or the celebration o f Santal
soil festivals; their perception of the n e w society and their concept
of 'desh', w h i c h referred to a deeply rooted idea of a lost golden
age, were also expressive of that autonomous mentality. The
actual confrontation, however, took the f o r m of an attack o n the
Adina Mosque—^an act that showed the h o l d of the H i n d u Sabba
o n the tribal movement.
Most discussions o n tribal rebellions deal w i t h tribal groups as
isolates whose traditional social organisation collapsed under the
pressure o f n e w economie and politicai forces unleashed under
colonial rule. Nationalist and Marxist interpretations i n fact bear
a d o s e similarity to the colonial stereotype w h i c h perpetuated
Swapan Dasgupta, 'Adivasi Politics in Midnapur', p. 135.
 90 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
the myth of an undifferentiated tribal mass needing protection
against exploitative outsiders. While it is true that tribal society,
largely unused to the market forces operating i n the w i d e r polity,
f o u n d it difficult to adjust to the n e w circumstances and thereby
took recourse to rebellion i n an attempt to preserve their traditional
way of life, there is also a tendency to romanticise tribal people
as noble savages living i n a state of Arcadian simplicity. Fractures
and cleavages w i t h i n any tribal community bave not received
m u c h attention other than being treated as the effects of the
penetration of H i n d u cultural influence or Sanskritisation move-
ments of semi-tribal chiefs.^ I n recent years, research focusing
attention o n the tribal peasantry has introduced a n e w theme,
uncovering complex facets of rebellious consciousness and the
differences that undoubtedly existed w i t h i n the non-hierarchical
and relatively egalitarian tribal social structures.
CONCLUSION
Recent research i n colonial Bengal dispels the notion that peasant
and tribal revolts i n India were insignificant or localised and
brief, i n comparison w i t h the experience of medieval Europe
and China. These studies, using b o t h conventional archival
documents and non-traditional source materials like literature,
orai testimonies and folklore, bave highlighted various facets o f
peasant insurgency such as the changing nature of the issues
involved, participation, leadership, and organisation. W h i l e
nationalist and Marxist interpretations tend to place peasant
movements w i t h i n the context o f the anti-colonial f r e e d o m
struggle, the Subalternist historians bave given these studies a
n e w direction through their attempts to understand the rebel
peasant consciousness.
D a v i d H a r d i m a n has e x p l a i n e d the academic interest i n
nineteenth-century Indian peasantry that developed since the
I96OS onwards i n terms of the rise of a class of rich peasants i n
independent India and the green revolution, w h i c h focused
*"P.O. Bodding, "The Kharwar Movement among the Santhals', Man in
India, Voi. 3: 1, September 1921; Martin Orans, We Santal, A Tribe in Search
of Great Tradition; Stephen Fuchs, 'Messianic Movements in Tribal India'.
PEASANT AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS 91
attention o n the historical roots of this class.^* Such generalisations,
however, w o u l d not h o l d true i n the case of Bengal. Although
through a struggle for occupancy rights i n the 1860s and 1870s,
a section of the substantial peasantry had succeeded i n gaining
an effective right of ownership, the rural scenario i n Bengal had
remained bleak i n the 1960s. Rather, the interest i n the past
struggles of the peasantry was kindled by an articulate movement
o f the left i n this period. A m o n g the early writers o n peasant
movements i n India there was a preponderance of the veterans
of left w i n g politics whose personal experience largely influenced
their views. Another development that refocused the attention of
leftist historians o n peasant movements was the Vietnam war
and its fallout w h i c h gripped the imagination of the Calcutta
middle classes. Not only d i d these intellectuals attempt to l o o k
for historical antecedents of peasant struggles i n their o w n past,
but m u c h of the contemporary cultural discourse of the left was
itself informed by such research. Partha Chatterjee observes i n
his 'Forward' to the English translation of Suprakash Roy's book:
'It w o u l d be a study i n itself to determine h o w many w o r k s of
poetry, fiction, drama and cinema were directly influenced by
a reading of this book.'^^ The Naxalite upsurge l e d to a re-
examination of this history of peasant resistance i n nineteenth-
c e n t u r y I n d i a . T h e personal i n v o l v e m e n t o f some o f the
Subalternist scholars i n radicai left politics of the late 1960s and
early 1970s and the frustration generated by the ultimate failure
of the Naxalite movement may explain to a large extent their
eagerness to restore the agency of the peasantry as conscious
subjects of their history.
I n more recent volumes of Subaltern Studies, however, peasant
movements bave been put i n the backburner. This has prompted
Sumit Sarkar, a one-time stalwart of this school, to raise the
complaint about the retreat of subalterns from Subaltern Stud-
ies. H e also does not l i k e its overemphasis o n c o m m u n i t y -
consciousness and the neglect of class factors i n the history of
David Hardiman (ed.), Peasant Resistance in India (Delhi, 1992), p. 2.
*2 Partha Chatterjee, 'Forward', in Suprakash Roy, Peasant Revolts and
Democratic Struggles in India, p. 8.
 92 BENGAL: RETHINKING HISTORY
peasant resistance/' But s u d i criticism notwithstanding, tlie
historiographical significance o f the Subalternist intervention is
that it has brought focus o n peasant consciousness and has
established the peasantry as politically aware makers o f their
o w n destiny. Nevertheless, the complexities of the peasant w o r l d
h o l d scope for further research w h i c h is necessary f o r an
understanding o f the social relations w i t h i n the peasantry, their
interconnections, the ideological forms of identity and difference,
and their historical evolution. Historians also bave, till recently,
neglected the tribal peasantry as a subject o f study. Further, tribal
studies so far bave tended to lay emphasis o n the actual event o f
the revolt and studies o n changing social formations bave been
comparatively few i n number. Tribal societies and uprisings i n
Bengal, therefore, h o l d out real possibilities o f interesting future
research.
Sumit Sarkar, Writing Social History (Delhi, 1997), pp. 82-108.
View publication stats
Bengal Fishers and Fisheries:
A Historiographic Essay
Bob Pokrant, Peter Reeves and John McGuire
Despite the centrai importance o f fish and fishing i n the lives of
Bengali people, there is no long-established tradition of historical
and historical anthropological research i n either wings of Bengal
o n the history and historical ethnography* of fishing and fishing
peoples. This paper is an attempt to sketch what is k n o w n o f the
patterns of change i n the fisheries of the Bengal region i n colonial
and post-colonial times; the nature and position of the fishing
people of the region over that period; and the materials for further
study w h i c h w e bave identified. It is important to make the point
at the outset that w o r k i n this area is very much i n an initial stage
because that w i l l explain w h y it is not possible bere to discuss
'on-going debates' or to critique the secondary literature as is
possible i n other, more established areas o f research.^ Our o w n
' By historical ethnography we mean '. . . a description and analysis of a
past era of the people of some particular, identifiable locality, using archival
sources and, if relevant, locai orai historical sources', M. Silverman and P.H.
GuUiver (eds.), Approaching the Past: Historical Anthropology through Irish
Case Studies (New York, 1992), p. ló.
^The most important exception is Nariaki Nakazato, Agrarian System in
Eastern Bengal, c. 1870-1910 (Calcutta, 1994) who deals with fisheries.
There is also a recognition of the historical background in Mahbub UUah,
'Fishing rights, production relations, and profitability: a case study of Jamuna
fishermen in Bangladesh', in T. Panayotou (ed.), Small-Scale Fisheries in
Asia: Socioeconomic Analysis and Policy (Ottawa, 1985). K.T. Achaya, The
Food Industries of British India (Delhi, 1994), pp. 91-108 provides a brief
overview of fisheries and fìsh production for British India as a whole. In the
Cambridge Economie History of India, Voi. II, ed. D. Kumar (Cambridge,
1982), fishing is mentioned on 5 occasions, with the longest entry taking a
mere two lines; even the classic three volume study of the Economie History