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Peasant Movement & Tribal Rebellion

In pre-colonial India popular protest against the Mughal rulers and their officials was not uncommon. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed many peasant uprisings against the ruling class. Imposition of a high land revenue demand by the state: corrupt practices and harsh attitude of the tax collecting officials, were some of the many reasons which provoked the peasants to rise in revolt.

Moplah Rebellion

The year 2021 was the 100th-year of the Malabar uprising.

About Malabar/Moplah Rebellion

It is also known popularly as the Moplah rebellion, was an armed revolt staged by the Mappila Muslims of Kerala against the British authorities and their Hindu landlords in 1921

• The six-month-long rebellion is often perceived to be one of the first cases of nationalist uprisings in Southern India.
• It occurred within the broader spectrum of the Khilafat/Non cooperation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.
• Moplahs/Mappilas were the Muslim tenants (kanamdars) and cultivators (verumpattamdars) inhabiting the Malabar region where most of the landlords (janmi or jenmies) were upper caste Hindus.
• Moplahs had gained some prominence over their landlords during the Mysorean invasions by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. But after the British occupation of Malabar in 1792 (following the 3rd Anglo-Mysore war), the domination of the Hindu landlords was re-established.
• In this scenario, the Mappilas soon found themselves at the mercy of their Hindu landlords who were sustained by the British authority as their agents.
• The British government responded to the movement with much aggression, bringing in Gurkha regiments to sup press it and imposing martial law. By January 1922, they had taken back the areas held by the rebels and captured all their key leaders.

Causes for Revolt

• History of Feudal Conflicts in the Malabar Region: Peasant landlord relations were historically strained in the region. Evidently, about 32 uprisings were organized by the Moplahs, between 1836 and 1919, against high caste Hindu landlords, their relatives or assistants and British officials.
• Agrarian Discontent: The economic condition of Mappila tenants had deteriorated overtime due to oppressive British policies resulting in increased taxation, insecure tenancy, rack renting, forced evictions etc. This had given rise to anti-British and anti-feudal sentiments.
• Political Mobilization of Mappilas: The Congress reached out to the Mappila cultivators to mobilize support for inde pendence through Khilafat movement and support agrarian reforms in the region. A Khilafat committee was formed in Malabar in June 1920, which became increasingly active. In August, 1920, Gandhi along with Shaukat Ali visited Calicut to spread the combined message of non-cooperation and Khilafat among the residents of Malabar. By January 1921, the Mappilas, under their religious head Mahadum Tangal pledged support to the noncooperation movement.
• Immediate Cause: Mappilas under the leadership of Variyamlcunnath Kunjahammed Haji took up arms in August 1921 due to the arrest ofIChilafat leader Ali Musaliyar and a widespread rumour that a prominent mosque in Thirurangadi has been raided.

Indigo Revolt

• Indigo was recognized as a chief cash crop for the East India Company’s investments, but it was equally non-profitable for farmers
• The indigo farmers in the Nadia district of Bengal revolted by refusing to grow indigo. They attacked the policemen who intervened. The planters, in response to this, increased the rents and evicted the farmers which led to more agitations.
• By April 1860, all the farmers in the Barasat division of the districts Nadia and Pabna went on a strike and refused to grow indigo. Soon, the strike spread to other parts of Bengal.
• The revolt was successful, and British were forced to with draw compulsory indigo-plantation in the region and take corrective measures.

The play Nil Darpan (The Mirror of Indigo) by Dinabandhu Mitra written in 1859 portrayed the plight of Indigo farmers

Tribal Movements

Santhal Rebellion

• The Santhals were agriculturists settled in Rajmahal hills of Bihar.
• With the introduction of permanent settlement in Bengal in 1793, the Santhals were employed as labourers with the promise of wages or rent-free lands.
• However they were forced to become agricultural surfs, exploited at will. The first rebellion erupted in 1854 under
• Bir Singh of Sasan in Lachimpur. It was followed by the

second Santhal rebellion of 1855-56. It was planned by four Murmu brothers -Sidhu, Kahnu, Chand and Bhairav.

• The open war with the British continued till 1856, when the rebel leaders were finally captured, and the movement was brutally suppressed.

Ahom Revolt

• The British had pledged to withdraw after the first Burma war (1824-26) from Assam but in contrast, the British attempted to incorporate the Ahoms territories in the com pany’s dominion after the war.
• This sparked off a rebellion in 1828 under the leadership of Gomdhar Konwar. Finally the company decided to follow a conciliatory policy and handed over upper Assam to Ma haraja Purandar Singh Narendra and parts of the kingdom was restored to the Assamese king.