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
R1 role steadily expands across the period → local economic protest → hardens into organised political action R2 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 srievances 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
R1 mutually useful but uneven partnership → peasants gave nationalism mass depth R2 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.
