The Kheda Movement (1918) was a significant peasant uprising in the Kheda district of Gujarat, led by Mahatma Gandhi. It was sparked by the British colonial government's decision to collect full taxes from the farmers, despite crop failures and famine conditions in the region. The peasants, struggling to survive, requested a tax exemption, which the authorities denied.
In response, Gandhi, along with leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Indulal Yagnik, and Shankarlal Banker, organized a nonviolent resistance movement. The peasants refused to pay taxes, and the movement employed Satyagraha (nonviolent protest) to assert their rights.
After months of protests, the British government finally relented and suspended the tax collection, providing relief to the farmers. The Kheda movement marked another successful application of Gandhi’s Satyagraha strategy and strengthened the unity of peasants, laying the groundwork for future struggles for Indian independence.
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The Tebhaga Movement (1946-1947) was a significant peasant uprising in Bengal, aimed at improving the share of produce for tenant farmers. At the time, sharecroppers (bargadars) were required to give half of their harvest to landlords, but the movement sought to reduce this to one-third, hence the name Tebhaga (meaning "three shares").
The movement was led by the Kisan Sabha, the peasant wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Key leaders included Kangal Harinath, Hare Krishna Konar, Ajit Pandey, and Saroj Mukherjee.
The movement gained widespread support from impoverished peasants, particularly in the districts of Dinajpur, Rangpur, and Jalpaiguri. Although it faced severe repression from the colonial government and landlords, the Tebhaga movement was instrumental in drawing attention to the exploitation of peasants and laid the groundwork for land reform movements in post-independence India.
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The Telangana Movement (1946-1951) was a major peasant uprising in the Hyderabad State, led by the Communist Party of India (CPI) against the oppressive feudal system under the Nizam of Hyderabad. The movement was rooted in the exploitation of peasants by feudal landlords, or doras, who controlled vast tracts of land and maintained a system of bonded labor.
Key leaders of the movement included P. Sundarayya, Maqdoom Mohiuddin, and Baddam Yella Reddy, among others. The movement began in Telangana region, with peasants demanding an end to forced labor, high taxes, and illegal levies imposed by the landlords. It also sought to abolish feudal land ownership and distribute land to the tillers.
The movement involved armed resistance, and for a period, large areas of Telangana were liberated from the control of landlords and the Nizam’s army. Though brutally suppressed by the Indian government after Hyderabad’s integration in 1948, the movement highlighted the need for agrarian reforms and influenced future land redistribution policies in independent India.