Besides caste and tribal revolts several revolts of civilians or peasants occurred against the British prior to and after the revolt of 1857, which contract the view that the Indians were happy under the British rule. On the contrary, these revolts prove that civilians and peasants were also dissatisfied with the British rule and they expressed their resentment even prior to the revolt of 1857.
Civil Rebellions
In 1817-18 and 1819, the Bhils revolted against the British in Western Ghats. In 1824, the Gurjars at Saharanpur, the Kolis in Gujarat and Jats at Rohtak revolted. In 1824, Diwarkar Dixit established his government in Bijapur and collected revenue. In 1824 and again in 1829, the people of Kittur revolted because of the interference of the British in the succession issue of their king. In 1829-32, revolt occurred in Vizagapatam; in 1831 the landlord of Palkonda revolted; in 1839-45, revolts occurred in Kolahpur and Samantwadi areas; in 1834-35, Zamindar Danajaya Bhauj revolted in the district of Ganjam and in 1842 Bundela landlords, Madhukar Jha and Jawahar Singh revolted in Sagar district.
Religious and Political Revolts
Some revolts occurred because of political as well as religious reasons. Among them the revolts of Wahabis and the Kukas were quite prominent. The leader of the Wahabis was Syed Ahmad Barelvi. He was deeply influenced by the ideas of Saint Abdul Wahab of Arabia. The Wahabis aimed to convert India to a land of Darul-Islam and, for that, fought, between the period 1830-60, first against the Sikh state of Punjab and afterwards, when it was occupied by the English, against the British. The Wahabis preached their ideas in different parts of India though limited their activities mostly in the north-west. In 1860, the British suppressed them with a heavy hand.
The basis of the revolt of the Kukas was also religious. Bhagat Jawahar Mal led a movement in West Punjab to purify the Sikh religion. Later on, the followers of the movement desired to establish Sikh Raj again in Punjab. The British suppressed their revolt between 1863-73 severely.
The revolts of civilians and those based on religion did not occur after the revolt of 1857 because of changed policies of the British. But later on, in the late 19th century and 20th century, several revolts took place because of the revenue policy of the British and their support to landlords or local Sahukars. These were the revolts of the common people who were mostly of peasants.
Peasant revolts
One important revolt among peasants’ revolts was that of Vasudeva Balwant Phadke. Phadké was born in 1845 in Kolaba district near Mumbai. He got some education and got a government service as well. When in 1876-77, famine occurred in West India and he found that the government was indifferent towards the problems of the suffering people he became dissatisfied with the British. He left his service and took a vow to turn out the British from India by force. He got support from young men of peasants among lower castes and started looting state treasuries and rich people. He was captured in 1879 and imprisoned for life. He died in prison in 1883.
Another important peasant revolt took place in Pabna in Bay Bengal. It was called the Pabna revolt. The local landlords increased the revenue arbitrarily which was protested by the peasants. The peasants formed their organisation Krishak Sabha, refused to pay the revenue and collected money to fight out the case in the court. The protest continued during 1870’s and beginning of 1880 and spread out in the nearby districts of Dacca, Maiman Singh, Tripura, Bokerganj, Rajshahi and Bogura. Barring some violent incidents, the protest remained peaceful. Its final result was the ‘Bengal Tenancy Act’ which provided some relief to peasants.
A similar “no revenue payment” was pursued by peasants of Darang district in Assam in 1893-94. They took recourse to social boycott of those who paid revenue. Except for some minor violent incidents the movement remained peaceful. Several such ‘no revenue payment’ movements were organised by peasants at several places in Maharashtra during 1896 and 1897.
In the 20th century, peasant movements were better organised and got support from political parties as well. In 1860, the movement at Champaran started which finally was settled in 1917 when M. K. Gandhi brought out some compromise with the government. In 1920 ‘Awadh Farmers’ Association’ was organised. The peasants at Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Rai Bareilly and Faizabad protested against enhancement in revenue in 1920-21. Peasants’ Associations were formed in other provinces as well. In 1923, N. G. Ranga organised the ‘Ryot Association’, in Andhra Pradesh; in 1927, T. Prakasana and Konda Vankatpayya organised a strong farmers’ movement in the delta of Krishna-Godavati; in 1929, Swami Sahjananda started a ‘Kisan Sabha’ and in 1927, the peasants decided not to pay revenue in Bardoli which was led by Sardat Patel. The peasants at Kheda also successfully led a ‘no revenue payment movement. In 1930’s practically every province had its own peasants’ association which took up the responsibility of checking the exploitation of peasants by landlords. Mostly these associations owed allegiance to “All India Congress”. Therefore the peasant revolt became a part of national movement and demand of abolition of Zamindari was accepted by the Congress.
Deccan Riots
The Deccan riots took place in Maharashtra. Sahukars who were mostly Marwaris gave loans to peasants on high interest and exploited them in several ways which finally used to result in occupation of lands of peasants by Sahukars, because they failed to pay back their debts. That caused hatred of peasants against these Sahukars. But the peasants were aggrieved against the government as well because it charged high revenue which forced peasants to take loans from Sahukars. Afterwards, the same government allowed these Sahukars to occupy lands of peasants because of failure of payment of their debts.
By government records, it was proved that Sahukars had occupied nearly 1/8 land of peasants by unjust means. Therefore, causes of resentment of peasants were always present. However, the protest of peasants against Sahukars started in 1847. It started from a local dispute in village Khardeha in the Poona district. A local Sahukar occupied the land of a respectable local farmer through the court. But the villagers did not like it. They boycotted the Sahukar socially and threw dirt in his house. The Sahukar was finally forced to leave the village. The farmers did the same with other Sahukars and all had to leave the village. Such incidents occurred in several other villages as well.
Finally, quarrels between Sahukars and peasants lead to violence spread to other places and continued for several months. It covered nearly thirty-three villages. The government suppressed this violence and took the help of army as well. Of course, the government also appointed a commission for looking into grievances of peasants and the resultant violence but no relief was given to peasants even after its report. The riots thus proved a complete failure.
Moplah Revolt
Primary cause of the uprising of the Moplahs was economic though it was given a communal colour. In Malabar, the leaseholders and cultivators were mostly Muslims who in the local language were called Moplah while landlords and Sahukars were of higher castes, Hindus mostly of Nambudaris and Nayar Jenmis castes. Population of the Moplahs went on increasing by natural breeding as well as through conversions of untouchable Hindus to Islam. As the Moplahs were mostly uneducated, they developed religious fanaticism. Their communal solidarity was further strengthened by growing number of mosques. From 1852 onwards, the Moplahs were provided leadership by Syed Alwi and his son Syed Fadal who provided them religious zeal. The Moplahs hated English as well because they had experience of the Portuguese who had done conversions by force. Thus, the Moplahs disliked Hindu landlords and English as well.
Yet, the primary cause of dissatisfaction of the Moplahs was economic. They hated Hindu landlords and Sahukars because they exploited them economically and they disliked the English because they supported the Hindu landlords and money lenders legally. While the landlords went on increasing the revenue, the money lenders charged exorbitant interest from debtors who were mostly Muslim cultivators. The Moplahs took recourse to violent means to remove their grievances and their targets were Hindu landlords, money-lenders and government officials. Sometimes they desecrated Hindu temples as well. These violent incidents were endemic particularly in south Malabar.
The Moplahs revolted twenty-two times during 1836-54, repeated their revolts several times between 1882-85 and again in 1896. Further too, their revolts continued casually till 1919. The government suppressed their revolts with a heavy hand and none of these revolts succeeded in any form. Besides, the Moplahs were not well-organised and that remained the cause of their failure to get any useful result.
Moplahs uprisings were given a communal colour because the revolting people were Muslims and their targets were Hindu landlords and money-lenders. But basically these revolts were of the oppressed people against oppressors and a struggle between cultivators and their landlords or money-lenders.
Source used : NCERT, Tamil Nadu Board, IGNOU Modern History, NIOS textbooks. Wikipedia notes for UPSC exam.
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