Bihar Kisan Movement

The peasant movement in Bihar during the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a structural response to the exploitative land tenure systems established under British rule. The movement transformed from localized, unstructured protests into a highly organized, class-conscious institutional framework that fundamentally altered the political economy of eastern India.

Structural Oppression of the Permanent Settlement (1793)

The Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord Cornwallis converted traditional tax collectors into absolute hereditary landlords (Zamindars). The state fixed its land revenue demand in perpetuity, but left the rent extracted from actual cultivators variable and legally ambiguous. This led to widespread sub-infeudation, rack-renting, and an absentee landlord class living in urban centers like Patna and Calcutta.

The Great Depression and the Agrarian Squeeze

The global economic crash of 1929 caused agricultural commodity prices to plunge by 50% to 60%. While the income of Bihar’s cultivators dropped drastically, the cash rents demanded by Zamindars remained fixed. This economic mismatch caused a sharp increase in rural debt, widespread land seizures for default, and an escalation of land alienation across the province.

Structural Stratification of the Bihar Peasantry

Institutionalization through the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha

The agrarian discontent in Bihar moved from sporadic local protests to a coordinated provincial movement through the creation of dedicated institutional bodies.

Formation of the Kisan Sabha (1929)

The formal institutional history began with the establishment of the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) at the Sonepur Fair in November 1929. The organization was formed to unify regional peasant units and establish an independent front to represent agrarian interests before the colonial state and the Indian National Congress.

Foundational Leadership Structure

• President: Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, a radical sanyasi who abandoned religious reclusion to organize the peasantry against landlordism.
• Secretary: Shri Krishna Sinha (later the first Chief Minister of Bihar).
• Key Organizers: Rahul Sankrityayan, Yadunandan Sharma, Karyanand Sharma, and Panchanan Sharma.

The Expansion Network

By the mid-1930s, the BPKS grew into the largest and most influential provincial peasant organization in British India, boasting a registered membership of over 250,000 cultivators. It established localized district (Zila) and sub-divisional (Tehsil) Kisan Sabhas across major agrarian centers, including Patna, Gaya, Shahabad, Champaran, and Monghyr.

The Core Grievance: The Bakasht Land Disputes

The defining struggles of the Bihar Kisan Movement centered on the reclamation of Bakasht lands, which became a major source of rural conflict between 1936 and 1939.

The Mechanism of Bakasht Creation

During the price crash of the Great Depression, thousands of occupancy tenants fell behind on their cash rent payments. Zamindars used the colonial civil courts to systematically auction off these lands to recover rent arrears. The landlords kept these properties under their personal control as Bakasht land, letting the original owners continue cultivating them as short-term sharecroppers without any legal occupancy rights.

The Threat of Summary Evictions

As agricultural prices began to recover slightly in the late 1930s, Zamindars feared that sharecroppers might claim permanent occupancy rights under existing tenancy laws if they completed twelve years of continuous cultivation. To prevent this, landlords launched a campaign of summary evictions (Bedakhli), replacing long-term tenants with outside day laborers.

Modus Operandi of the Bakasht Agitations

Under the radical leadership of the BPKS, the peasantry shifted from legal petitions to direct action to resist evictions:

• The Barahiya Tal Agitation (Monghyr): Led by Karyanand Sharma, thousands of peasants organized a collective strike, entering disputed Bakasht fields to harvest crops despite armed opposition from landlords’ mercenary guards (Lathiyals).
• The Reora and Amwari Satyagrahas (Gaya): Spearheaded by Yadunandan Sharma and Rahul Sankrityayan, peasants formed defensive squads to block court-ordered evictions, resulting in mass arrests and police confrontations.
• The Tool of Holy Oaths: Activists used religious symbols and collective oaths to ensure community discipline, pledging that no local peasant would accept or cultivate a plot from which a fellow tenant had been evicted.

Interaction with the 1937 Congress Ministry

The entry of provincial autonomy under the Government of India Act, 1935, altered the political dynamic between the Kisan Sabha, the Indian National Congress, and the landed elite.

High Expectations from the Congress Victory

During the 1937 provincial legislative elections, the BPKS campaigned heavily for the Indian National Congress, helping it win a majority in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The peasantry expected the new Congress ministry, led by Shri Krishna Sinha, to immediately abolish landlordism and restore forfeited lands.

The Congress-Zamindar Concordat

Fearing that radical land reforms would alienate wealthy, conservative funders within the party, the Bihar Congress leadership sought a compromise with the Zamindars. The ministry signed a secret pact with the landlord lobby, watering down proposed agrarian bills and delaying the implementation of sweeping land redistribution programs.

Legislative Reforms and Structural Flaws

To pacify the growing unrest, the ministry passed a series of legislative adjustments between 1937 and 1938:

The Bihar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1937

This statute cancelled all illegal rent enhancements imposed by Zamindars after 1911 and reduced existing cash rents by an average of 25%.

The Bihar Restoration of Bakasht Lands Act, 1938

The law established a legal procedure to return Bakasht lands to original tenants, but it included a major loophole: it only applied if the tenant could prove continuous occupancy and pay a portion of the original rent arrears in cash, which excluded the poorest sharecroppers.

Radicalization and the Breach with Congress

Disillusioned by these partial reforms, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati and the BPKS broke away from the Congress leadership. The Kisan Sabha accused the ministry of protecting feudal property rights, leading the Congress Working Committee to pass resolutions banning party members from participating in the Sabha’s radical rallies.

Transition to the National Stage and Late Colonial Resistance

The organizational strength developed during the Bihar agitations allowed its leadership to reshape agrarian politics at the national level.

Formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (1936)

In April 1936, the BPKS leadership coordinated with peasant organizations from Madras, Punjab, and Bengal to establish the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at Lucknow. Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was elected its first national president, making Bihar the intellectual and operational center of the national peasant movement.

Ideological Shift and the “People’s War” Alignment

During the Second World War, the leadership of the Bihar Kisan Sabha became increasingly influenced by socialist and communist cadres. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the communist faction within the AIKS took control of the organizational apparatus and adopted the “People’s War” policy, supporting the British war effort. This decision caused a split with nationalist leaders, including Swami Sahajanand, who briefly left the organization to form the All India Industrial and Agricultural Peoples’ Organisation.

Post-War Resurgence and Abolition Blueprints

Despite internal divisions, the grassroots networks of the movement launched a final wave of Bakasht agitations between 1945 and 1946. This widespread rural unrest proved to the incoming leadership that the landlord system was no longer politically stable, paving the way for the drafting of the Bihar Abolition of Zamindari Bill immediately after independence.

Important Facts and Trivia for Civil Services Examination

The Iconography of the Red Flag

At its third provincial conference held at Hajipur in 1935, the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha formally abandoned traditional Congress symbols and adopted the Red Flag featuring a hammer and sickle as its official emblem, marking its alignment with radical class politics.

The “Danda” Slogan

During the intense Bakasht struggles of 1937–1938, Swami Sahajanand coined the popular Hindi slogan: “Kaise loge Bakasht, lath hamara zindabad” (How will you seize our land, long live our staff). The staff (danda) became a symbol of peasant self-defense against the landlords’ guards.

Scholarly Contributions of Rahul Sankrityayan

The famous Buddhist scholar, linguist, and traveler Rahul Sankrityayan served as the president of the Shahabad District Kisan Sabha. He was arrested and jailed in 1939 for leading the Amwari Bakasht Satyagraha, during which he wrote radical pamphlets in jail using the pen name ‘Damodar’.

The First Kisan Sabha Publication

The official media organ of the movement was the Hindi weekly journal Hundi, edited directly by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati from Patna. The publication served as the primary media tool to share strategy, expose landlord atrocities, and counter government press releases across northern India.