Social Movements
Class based movements
Explain how new farmers' movements differ from earlier peasant movements.
Peasant movements:
| Period | Movement |
|---|---|
| 1859–62 | Indigo revolt in Bengal, against planters forcing peasants to grow indigo |
| 1875 | Deccan riots, against moneylenders |
| 1917–18 | Champaran (Bihar), led by Gandhi, against indigo planters |
| 1928 | Bardoli (Gujarat), led by Vallabhbhai Patel under Gandhi, against higher land tax |
| 1929, 1936 | Kisan Sabhas (peasant associations) formed; the All India Kisan Sabha in 1936 |
| 1946–47 | Tebhaga in Bengal: sharecroppers demanded two-thirds of the crop instead of half |
| 1946–51 | Telangana, against the feudal rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad and its landlords |
| 1967 | Naxalbari (West Bengal): an armed peasant uprising |
New farmers' movements of the 1970s, in Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, were different from these earlier peasant movements:
- they were non-party: independent of political parties;
- they were led by better-off farmers who sold their crops in the market;
- they focused on prices (higher prices for crops), cheaper inputs, and loans, not on land.
Workers' movements:
- Strikes spread in 1917 and after, as industrial workers organised.
- India's first trade union was the Madras Labour Union, founded in 1918 by B.P. Wadia.
- Gandhi founded the Textile Labour Association (TLA) in Ahmedabad.
- The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was formed in 1920.
- In May 1947, the Congress formed its own union, the INTUC, splitting the movement. Since then, unions have been divided along party lines.
- The 1974 railway strike was one of the largest ever.
From land to prices, from strikes to unions: class movements have changed with the economy.
From land to prices; from strikes to unions.
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