POLITICAL HISTORY OF BANGLADESH

COURSE CODE: BPH101

SECTION: 01

ASSIGNMENT NO: 01

ASSIGNMENT NAME: The Peasant Uprising in Bengal

NAME: Md. Solayman Sadi

ID: 1930338

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Case 1: The case of Titumir

Syed Mir Nisar Ali widely known as Titumir is the person who was at the center of the
revolution of Titumir. He was born on 1782 in Chandpur village of North 24 Parganas (present
day West Bengal, India). He had completed his study in local madrassa and became a hafiz in
Quran. He went to Mecca in 1822 for Hajj pilgrimage. There he met Syed Ahmed Bareli and
when he returned he became a Wahabi Islamic preacher.

After his return from Mecca in 1827, Titumir started preaching among the Muslims of 24
Parganas and Nadia. He preached against practicing shirk traditions (such as lighting candles or
visiting a dargah), and engaging in bidah (innovation). He also preached the wearing of beards
with trimmed moustaches for men, and burqas for women. At that time, he commenced
organizing the people of his native village against the landlords or zamindars.

At this point he had a confrontation with the zamindars. He opposed a number of discriminatory
measures in force at that time which included taxes on mosques and the wearing of beards.
Titumir filed a complaint to the East India Company against the oppression by the zamindars, but
to no result. This brought him into conflict with the zamindars Krishnadeva Rai of Purha,
Kaliprasanna Mukhopadhyay of Gobardanga, Rajnarayan of Taragonia, Gauri Prasad
Chowdhury of Nagpur and Devanath Rai of Gobra-Govindpur.

He trained his men in hand-to-hand combat and the use of the lathi. Titumir formed a "Mujahid"
consisting of lathials. The increasing strength of Titumir alarmed the zamindars who attempted
to involve the British in their fight against him. Being instigated by the Zamindar of Gobardanga,
Davis, the English kuthial (factor) of Mollahati, advanced with his force against Titumir, but
were routed.

He fought against the local zamindar, Krishna Dev Roy, who fearing his growing forces, took
help of the British to attack Titumir's followers.

After these the inevitable occurred. Titumir had to confront with the British. The followers of
Titumir, believed to have grown to 15,000 by that time, readied themselves for armed conflict,
and built a fort of bamboo at Narikelbaria, near the town of Barasat. This was surrounded by a
high double curtain wall of bamboo stakes filled in with mud cladding and sun-baked bricks.

He declared himself independent from the British. And present day 24 Pargana, Nadia and
Faridpur came under his domain. As a result of his strike-and-retreat guerrilla tactics he was able
to defeat the private army of zamindars and the forces of British.

At last on November 1831 the british force led by Lieutenant Colonel Setwart consisting of 100
cavalry, 300 native infantry and 2 canons mounted a concerted attack on Titumir and his
followers. Armed with nothing more than the bamboo quarterstaff, lathi, a few swords and
spears, Titumir and his forces could not withstand the might of modern weapons, and were
overwhelmed. The bamboo castle was destroyed, and Titumir was killed along with several of
his followers. The commanding officer of the British forces noted his opponent's bravery in

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dispatches, and also commented on the strength and resilience of bamboo as a material for
fortification, since he had had to pound it with artillery for a surprisingly long time before it gave
way. After a long-drawn trial, Golam Rasul, Titumir's nephew and second in command was
hanged and some 350 others were sentenced to transportation for life.

Thus the revolution of Titumir came to an end. Though it looks like it went in vein at all, but it
wasn’t. At that circumstance people needed some guidance and hope for liberty, which they get
from Titumir. Though many of the historians address this case as an extreme communal event
because of Titumir’s source of inspiration, yet they all agree that these was the first revolution
that took place in Bengal for independence from British. This very case was the beginning of a
long term conflict between the peasant and the British that resulted into the ultimate
independence. So, this revolution bear quite an impact in the history of peasant uprising in
Bengal.

Case 2: Faraize Movement

The Faraize movement was founded in 1819 by Haji Shariatullah to give up un-Islamic practices
and act upon their duties as Muslims (fard). The movement protected the rights of tenants to a
great extent.

Like Titumir, Haji Shariatullah also started his movement as a preacher of Islam. When he
returned from the Hajj pilgrimage he came back to Faridpur, his own place. At the first place he
tried to enlighten the native people, the farmers with the true knowledge of Islam. He told people
to follow the basics (Farad) of Islam from this, the movement was named as “Faraize
Movement”. But sooner he noticed the native people are facing a lot of problems already
including paying extra taxes to the Zaminders. The landlords even inflicted a ban on the
slaughter of cows, especially on the occasion of Eid. The Faraizes ordained their peasant
followers not to obey such a ban.

The Islamic-led Faraize movement could be witnessed in various parts of Bengal, with
overwhelming English-Bengali agreement for perhaps the very first time. The outraged landlords
built up a propaganda campaign with the British officials, incriminating the Faraizes with a
mutinous mood. In 1837, these Hindu landlords indicted Haji Shariatullah of attempting to build
up a kingdom of his own. They also brought several lawsuits against the Faraizes. Shariatullah
was placed under the detention of the police in more than one instance, for purportedly inciting
agrarian turbulence in Faridpur.

After his death, his son Dudu Miyan, led the movement to a more agrarian character. He
organized the oppressed peasantry against oppressive landlords. In retaliation, the landlords and
indigo planters tried to contain Dudu Miyan by instituting false cases against him. However, he

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became so popular with the peasantry that in the cases, courts seldom found a witness against
Dudu Miyan.

After Dudu Miyan’s death in 1862, his sons succeeded him successively. And gradually the
movement became dimmed. At this point, the movement was spread widely in the districts of
Dhaka, Faridpur, Barisal, Mymensingh and Comilla.

Though this movement also started with the view to preach religion, it became an uprising of
peasants against the British. It had a great impact on the further movements. From this
movement, people came to know about their rights and began to see some successes in their fight
for independence.

Case 3: The Indigo Movement

The indigo revolt arose in Bengal in 1859. It was a peasant movement and uprising of indigo
farmers against the indigo planters.

A Frenchman, Louis Bonnard brought indigo plants first in Bengal back in 1777. During that
time, the European countries had gone through an industrial revolutionary era. They suddenly
started manufacturing more and more clothes for which they needed more indigo. The British
East India Company took the contract of supplying the indigo. They forced the native farmers to
grow indigo in their cultivatable lands. Sooner the fields started losing fertility. Even the indigo
planters forced the farmers to plant indigo instead of food crops. As a result a famine broke out.

They provided loans, called dadon, at a very high interest. Once a farmer took such loans he
remained in debt for his whole life before passing it to his successors. The price paid by the
planters was meagre, only 2.5% of the market price. The farmers could make no profit growing
indigo. Government rules favored the planters too. By an act in 1833, the planters were granted a
free hand in oppression. Even the zamindars sided with the planters. Under this severe
oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt. The Bengali middle class people supported the
peasants wholeheartedly.

The revolt started from the villages of Gobindapur and Chaugacha in Krishnanagar, Nadia
district, where Bishnucharan Biswas and Digambar Biswas first led the rebellion against the
planters. It spread rapidly in Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, and Narail. Some
indigo planters were given a public trial and executed. The indigo depots were burned down.
Many planters fled to avoid being caught. The zamindars were also targets of the rebellious
peasants.

The British government and the zamindars suppressed the revolt ruthlessly. They mercilessly
slaughtered a number of peasants.

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According to many historians, this revolt was the first non-communal movement against British
government for independence. The Bishwash brothers of Nadia, Kader Molla of Pabna and
Rafique Mondal of Malda were popular leaders. Including Bishwanath Sardar a lot of indigo
revels was hung by British police.

The revolt was a non-violent one. As a result, it is considered as a success compared to the sepoy
mutiny, the revolution of Titumir, Faraize movement and Fakir Sannyasi revolution.

It has a great impact in the path or Bengal’s independence. It compelled the British government
to take power and responsibility in their hand from the British East India Company. This events
completely diverted the fate of Bengal as well as the natives at a great instinct.

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References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titumir
2. Bhattacharya, Subhas (July 1977). "The Indigo Revolt of Bengal"
3. "BNS TITUMIR". Bangladesh Navy. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012.
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakir-Sannyasi_rebellion