Peasant Uprising in Bengal (BPH101)

Peasant Uprising in Bengal: The Case of Titumir,

Faraizi & Indigo Movement

Sonali Siddika Oishi

ID: 1810115

Department name: BBA (Bachelors of Business Administration)

Course title: Bangladesh Political History (101)
Section: 02

Instructor’s name: Sayed Abu Touab Shakir

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Acknowledgement

To complete the assignment based on Peasant Uprising, I have taken help and guideline from my
course’s respected faculty Sayed Abu Touab Shakir who deserves the greatest gratitude. I would
like to expand my deepest gratitude for who have directly and indirectly guided me writing this
assignment.

Many people especially my course mates and fellow members have made valuable comments and
suggestions on this report which gave me inspiration to improve and refine my assignment. I would
like to thank all these people for their incomparable help –directly and –indirectly to complete the
assignment.

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Table of Contents Page No.

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 04
The Peasant Uprising................................................................................................ 05
Titumir Movement.................................................................................................... 05-06
Faraizi Movement...................................................................................................... 07
Indigo Movement....................................................................................................... 08
Reference.................................................................................................................... 09

List of Figure
Figure 1: How the peasants used to be treated............................................................ 05
Figure 2: Titumir, the voice of Peasants...................................................................... 06
Figure 3: Haji Shariatullah who launched the Faraizi Movement............................... 07
Figure 4: Indigo Cultivation......................................................................................... 08

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Abstract

There is little extension for composing the historical backdrop of the area in the exciting terms of
progressive peasant wars. In spite of the fact that countless peasants depended on outfitted battle
against their exploiters, more often than not these battles were fleeting, sporadic and under the
control of non-peasant outcasts. Peasants and Village Communities in East Bengal have various
definitions of the term 'peasant'. Eric Wolf's definition is that peasants are cultivators, 'existentially
involved' in farming, taking 'autonomous decisions with respect to the process of development'
appears insufficient since it excludes landless laborers from the class of peasants. In Bengal
landless laborers always distinguish themselves as peasant’s vis-E0-vis landlords and different
agents of misuse. Above all, if a gathering or groups from the developing classes view themselves
as 'peasants' and have a certifiable sense of having a place with or distinguishing proof with the
classification (peasants) for political purposes they should be viewed as peasants. They might be
classified as 'rich', 'middle' and 'poor' peasants. Comprehensively, the jotedars/taluqdars, raiyats
and under-raiyats respectively represent these three general categories in Bengal.

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The Peasant Uprising

Peasant a poor smallholder or agricultural laborer of low social status who was always
neglected and poorly treated at that colonial era of Bengal. The uprising caused for various
reasons and the main reason was they were always neglected, tortured by the Zamindars,
Landlords and many other powerful or rich person. There was a limit of tolerance of those
tortures they faced and they needed to fight back to get back their respect, daily life. They were
motivated to gain their respect, their rights back. So, they declared movements like Faraizi
movement, Indigo movement and these movements helped them a lot to get rid of unbearable
mentally, physical tortures. The British people and the jamindars tortured on them in various
ways such as a lot taxation, forcefully cultivate more and more crops, they didn’t give the
farmers proper amount of payment but they had to work a lot otherwise they could be
punished, tortured. There were those time when the British people made the peasant their
own servants and they were the most precious way of income more and more. So, the
movements were mandatory for the peasants and for getting back what they really deserved.
They wanted to be freed from the British, Jamindars and it caused uprising, movements.

Figure 1: the picture shows how the peasant used to be treated at that time.

Titumir Movement
Titumir started to organize the people of his native village for raising their voice against the
Zamindars or Landlords and he motivated the peasants to take their rights back.

• Titumir's confrontations with Zamindars:

Titumir contradicted various biased measures in power around then which included assessments
on mosques and the wearing of beards. Titumir recorded a grievance toward the East India
Company against the abuse by the zamindars, yet to no result.[2] This carried him into struggle
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.Titumir had himself had a place with a "peyada" or military family and himself had

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served under a zamindar as a 'lathial or 'lethel', a warrior with a quarterstaff or lathi, (which in
Bengal is made of bamboo, not wood) and he prepared his men close by to-hand battle and the
utilization of the lathi. Titumir shaped a "Mujahid" comprising of lathials. The expanding quality
of Titumir frightened the zamindars who endeavored to include the British in their battle against
him. Being impelled by the Zamindar of Gobardanga, Davis, the English kuthial (factor) of
Mollahati, progressed with his power against Titumir, yet were directed.

• Titumir’s confrontations with British:

The devotees of Titumir, accepted to have developed to 15,000 at that point, prepared themselves
for equipped clash, and manufactured a fortress of bamboo at Narikelbaria, close to the town of
Barasat. This was encompassed by a high twofold shade mass of bamboo stakes filled in with mud
cladding and sun-prepared blocks. Titumir proclaimed autonomy from the British, and areas
involving the present locale of 24 Parganas, Nadia and Faridpur went under his control. The private
multitudes of the zamindars and the powers of the British met with a progression of thrashings on
account of his men because of his strike-and-retreat guerrilla strategies. At last, the British powers,
driven by Lieutenant Colonel Stewart comprising of 100 rangers, 300 local infantry and gunnery
with two guns, mounted a coordinated the assaults on 19 November 1831, on Titumir and his
supporters. Equipped with just the bamboo quarterstaff and lathi and a couple of swords and lances,
Titumir and his powers couldn't withstand the might of present-day weapons, and were
overpowered. The leader of the British powers noticed his rival's courage in dispatches, and
furthermore remarked on the quality and strength of bamboo as a material for stronghold, since he
had needed to pound it with gunnery for a shockingly lengthy time-frame before it gave way.

Figure 2: Titumir, the voice of Peasants

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Faraizi Movement

The Faraizi movement was widely received in the districts of Dhaka, Faridpur, Barisal,
Mymensingh and Comilla. A few Muslims, then again, especially the landlords of Dhaka, thus,
responded forcefully against him, which caused an uproar in Nayabari, Dhaka District. Because
of the response of these landlords and Hindu landlords and European indigo grower, this
development swelled into a financial issue.
The landlords imposed various abwabs (plural type of the Arabic expression bab, meaning an
entryway, an area, a part, a title). During Mughal India, all transitory and contingent expenses and
burdens exacted by the legislature well beyond ordinary duties were alluded to as abwabs. All the
more unequivocally, abwab represented every unpredictable burden on Raiyats over the built- up
evaluation of land in the Pargana. Such abwabs were appallingly deceptive in the eye of law. A
few abwabs were of a religious sort. Haji Shariatullah then mediated to article to such a training
and directed his pupils not to pay these exploitative cesses to the landlords. The landlords even
incurred a restriction on the butcher of cows, particularly on the event of Eid. The Faraizis
appointed their laborer supporters not to comply with such a boycott. All these warmed
occurrences signified strained and focused on connections among the Faraizis and the landlords,
who were all Hindus. The Islamic-drove Faraizi development could be seen in different pieces of
Bengal, with overpowering English-Bengali understanding for maybe the absolute first time. The
shocked landlords developed a purposeful publicity battle with the British authorities, implicating
the Faraizis with a mutinous mind-set. In 1837, these Hindu landlords prosecuted Haji Shariatullah
of endeavoring to develop his very own kingdom. They likewise brought a few claims against the
Faraizis, in which they profited dynamic co-task of the European indigo grower. Shariatullah was
put under the confinement of the police in more than one occasion, purportedly prompting agrarian
disturbance in Faridpur.

Figure 3: Haji Shariatullah who launched the Faraizi movement

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Indigo Movement

Indigo Resistance Movement (1859-62) peasant agitation against indigo grower who constrained
raiyats (cultivators) to deliver indigo for the world market. In any case, it discouraged during the
1840s and '50s and therefore the benefit from indigo creation wound up uneconomic at raiyat or
peasant level. Henceforth the peasants wouldn't develop indigo, yet the grower, who had officially
sunk gigantic capital in its generation forms and were not ready to pull back their capital so rapidly,
put weight on the indigo-creating raiyats to proceed with its generation. The ensuing clash between
the raiyats and the grower prompted open resistance by raiyats. The movement started in Jessore
and Nadia in 1859. It rapidly spread in other indigo locale and proceeded through 1862, when
government meddled for the raiyats.
Towards the end of the 1850s and the start of the 1860s, the Indigo movement turned out to be
increasingly rough and spread in practically all the indigo-developing locale. The opposing raiyats
got thoughtful help from the christian ministers who, form compassionate and converting
intentions, uncovered the types of mistreatments and misuses of the indigo grower. Supported by
the Missionaries, the local press additionally made point by point provides details regarding the
onerous indigo generation framework. A dramatization called Nildarpan (1860, reflection of
indigo) by dinabandhu mitra and some paper remarks of kishori chand mitra and harishchandra
mukherjee had helped form popular assessment for the opposing raiyats. Every one of these
components induced the administration to set up a commission in 1860 to investigate the issue.
With the production of the indigo commission Report an Act was passed denying intimidation of
raiyats for indigo development and the measure prompted the end of the movement.

Figure 4: Indigo Cultivation

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Reference
1. GB, Report of the Land Revenue Commission, Bengal (BGP, 1940) [hereafter RLRC], I,
p. 67.
2. Panjia Report (Report of 4th Annual BPKS Conference, held at Panjia, Jessore, 8–9 June
1940).
3. Bengal Bargadars Temporary Regulation Bill, Calcutta Gazette, 22 Jan 1947.
4. Census 1951: West Bengal, Land and Land Revenue Department, The Tribes and Castes
of Bengal (BGP, 1953), p. 2.
5. Strong, F. W., Dinajpur, Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers, X (Allahabad: The Pioneer
Press, 1912). p. 35Google Scholar.
6. GB, Bengal Land Revenue Proceedings, Nov 1914, Nos. 18–19, Settlement Officer,
Midnapore to the Director of Land Records, 30 Sept 1913. Cited in “PDB,” p. 151.
7. ADRPB, pp. 180–81; Sen, Shila, Muslim Politics in Bengal, 1937–1947 (New Delhi:
Impex Press, 1976)Google Scholar, passim.

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