PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Indian National Movement

Explain briefly the role of Peasant Movements after 1857 and before independence.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 role steadily expands across the period → local economic protest → hardens into organised political action

Route 2 colonial agrarian exploitation breeds recurring unrest → freedom struggle absorbs the peasantry in stages

Body flow

early revolts (Indigo / Pabna / Deccan) → aimed at planters, zamindars, moneylenders, not yet colonial rule → distress enters public debate + forces colonial legislation → Gandhian phase (Champaran / Kheda / Bardoli) → peasant grievances tied to the national movement → A.R. Desai: mass basis for the first time → 1930s–40s (Kisan Sabhas / AIKS 1936 / Tebhaga / Telangana) → class consciousness + zamindari abolition

Counter-view

broadened the movement, yet Congress hesitant on landlordism → poorer cultivators left at the margins

Conclusion routes

Route 1 mutually useful but uneven partnership → peasants gave nationalism mass depth

Route 2 economic protest matured into political force → agrarian question pushed onto the nationalist agenda

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2025, Indian National Movement