{"id":3490,"date":"2026-08-11T22:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/notes\/peasant-and-workers-movements\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T02:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:28:10","slug":"peasant-and-workers-movements","status":"publish","type":"psir_note","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/notes\/peasant-and-workers-movements\/","title":{"rendered":"Peasant and Workers Movements"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PSIR Notes<\/a>\u203a<\/span>I-B Indian Government and Politics<\/a>\u203a<\/span>Peasant and Workers Movements<\/span><\/div>\n
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Paper I \u00b7 Indian Government and Politics<\/div>\n

Peasant and Workers Movements<\/h1>\n
Syllabus \u00b7 Paper I-B \u00b7 1<\/b> \u2014 Indian Nationalism : (a) Political Strategies of India\u2019s Freedom Struggle : Constitutionalism to mass Satyagraha, Non-cooperation, Civil Disobedience; Militant and Revolutionary Movements, Peasant and Workers Movements<\/span>. (b) Perspectives on Indian National Movement; Liberal, Socialist and Marxist; Radical Humanist and Dalit.<\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Peasant Movements & Nationalism<\/h3>\n

Causes.<\/span> High revenue demand \u00b7 Zamindari \/ Ryotwari \/ Mahalwari pressure \u00b7 Indebtedness, moneylender \u00b7 Forced cash crops \u00b7 Famines, loss of land \u00b7 Commercialisation, arbitrary rents \u2014 peasants came to see state, landlord & moneylender as one oppressor<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Movement<\/th>\nYear<\/th>\nNote<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Indigo \u00b7 Pabna \u00b7 Deccan<\/td>\n1859\u201375<\/td>\nEarly agrarian resistance (see \u00a74).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Champaran \u00b7 Kheda<\/td>\n1917\u201318<\/td>\nGandhi’s entry into Indian Satyagraha.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Awadh (Baba Ramachandra<\/span>) \u00b7 Eka (Madari Pasi<\/span>)<\/td>\n1920\u201322<\/td>\nTenant militancy in the UP.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mappila Rebellion<\/td>\n1921<\/td>\nAgrarian + communal in Malabar.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bardoli Satyagraha<\/span> (Vallabhbhai Patel<\/span>)<\/td>\n1928<\/td>\nAgainst 22% revenue enhancement.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
All India Kisan Sabha<\/span> (Swami Sahajanand Saraswati<\/span>, 1st Pres.)<\/td>\n1936<\/td>\nDemanded abolition of zamindari, tenancy rights.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tebhaga \u00b7 Telangana<\/span><\/td>\n1946\u201351<\/td>\nAnti-colonial politics fused with agrarian class struggle.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Historiographical debate<\/h4>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
School<\/th>\nArgument<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Marxist<\/td>\nR.P. Dutt<\/span>, A.R. Desai<\/span>: bourgeois Congress restrained peasants when property was threatened. D.N. Dhanagare<\/span>: constructive work as “tension management”<\/span>. Kapil Kumar<\/span>: support used, economic Swaraj neglected.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Subaltern<\/td>\nRanajit Guha<\/span>: the peasant as maker of his own rebellion<\/span>, with his own consciousness. Gyanendra Pandey<\/span>: independent Awadh roots. Shahid Amin<\/span>: peasants reinterpreted Gandhi in their own terms.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Congress-defence<\/td>\nMridula Mukherjee<\/span>: the national movement awakened peasant consciousness; nationalist cadres organised many struggles.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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“To acknowledge the peasant as the maker of his own rebellion is to attribute \u2026 a consciousness to him.”<\/p>\n

Ranajit Guha<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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“The Indian cultivator is born in debt, lives in debt, and dies in debt.”<\/p>\n

Malcolm Darling<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Staffan Lindberg<\/span> later marked the shift from “Land to the tiller!”<\/span> to “Remunerative prices!”<\/span><\/p>\n

UPSC 2025 \u00b7 10m<\/span>Explain briefly the role of Peasant Movements after 1857 and before independence.<\/span>Answer<\/a><\/div>\n

Working Class & Trade Union Movements<\/h3>\n

A modern working class formed through plantations, coal, railways, cotton & jute mills, iron & steel \u2014 under 12\u201316 hour days, low wages, child labour & bondage. Dipesh Chakrabarty<\/span> on Bengal working-class consciousness.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n
Workforce by 1914<\/th>\nThree phases<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Cotton mills 264 \u2192 2.6 lakh \u00b7 Jute mills 60 \u2192 2 lakh \u00b7 Railways \u2192 6 lakh \u00b7 Plantations \u2192 7 lakh \u00b7 Mines \u2192 1.5 lakh.<\/td>\nI. 1850s\u20131918<\/span> sporadic, philanthropic (Lokhande<\/span>, S.S. Bengalee<\/span>); Congress neglect \u2014 opposed Factory Acts 1881\/1891. II. 1918\u201337 AITUC, 1920<\/span> (1st Pres. Lala Lajpat Rai<\/span>); communist militancy \u2014 Bombay Textile (1928), Calcutta Jute (1929). III. 1937\u201347<\/span> Congress ministries, anti-war strikes, Quit India, INA & RIN-Mutiny solidarity (1945\u201346).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Nationalist relationship.<\/span> Congress was cautious \u2014 sought labour support but avoided class war; Gandhi favoured arbitration & trusteeship<\/span> (Ahmedabad TLA stayed outside AITUC). E.M.S. Namboodiripad<\/span>: Congress under-served workers. Rajnarayan Chandavarkar<\/span>: workers were not pawns \u2014 they held nationalist and<\/em> class identities at once. Chitra Joshi<\/span>: Gandhi’s labour engagement had both reach & limits.<\/p>\n

UPSC 2022 \u00b7 10m<\/span>Analyse the workers’ movement in India in the pre-Independence period.<\/span><\/div>\n

Labour & LGBTQ+ Movements<\/h3>\n

Labour movement<\/span><\/p>\n

Origins:<\/span> textile and jute factories (1850s), railway expansion, visible labour problems. First Labour Commission, Bombay (1875, led by Sorabjee Shapurji Bengalee<\/span>); Factories Act, 1881<\/span>; the Bombay Mill Workers Association founded by Narayan Meghaji Lokhande<\/span> \u2014 India\u2019s first organised labour body. Early character: welfare over rights, not all-India, issues of women and child workers.<\/p>\n

Early trade-union era (1918\u201324):<\/span> spurred by the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the ILO (India a founder member; Narayan Malhar Joshi<\/span> at ILO). AITUC; Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association (Anasuyaben Sarabhai<\/span>); Madras Labour Association (Bomanji Pestanji Wadia<\/span>). 1925\u201334:<\/span> AITUC split into the National Trade Union Federation and the All-India Red Trade Union Congress (led by S. V. Deshpande<\/span> and Bhalchandra Trimbak Ranadive<\/span>); Varahagiri Venkata Giri<\/span> led the Congress-linked NTUF. Laws: Trade Union Act, 1926<\/span>; Trade Disputes Act, 1929<\/span>; Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946<\/span>. The Great Bombay Textile Strike (1982) briefly reunited unions; after liberalisation, disorganised labour drew less support. Present central unions: AITUC, INTUC, BMS, CITU.<\/p>\n

LGBTQ+ movement<\/span><\/p>\n

A rights movement against prejudice, legal discrimination, stigma and denial of equal citizenship \u2014 a demand for justice, equality, dignity, autonomy and recognition; a democratic state must protect minorities. Issues: Section 377 IPC, religious opposition, the \u201celitist\u201d charge, invisibility. Milestones: Naz Foundation judgment (2009), Navtej Johar judgment (2018), Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, and the same-sex marriage \/ Special Marriage Act debate \u2014 the intersection of civil liberties, identity politics and constitutional morality (\u201cjustice delayed is justice denied\u201d).<\/p>\n

Previous<\/em>Militant and Revolutionary Movements<\/b><\/a>Next<\/em>Socialist and Marxist perspectives on the national movement<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n

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