A Century of Protests: Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900 PDF
Preview A Century of Protests: Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900
A Century of Protests This page intentionally left blank A Century of Protests Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900 Arupjyoti Saikia First published 2014 in India by Routledge 912 Tolstoy House, 15–17 Tolstoy Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi 110 001 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Arupjyoti Saikia Typeset by Solution Graphics A–14, Indira Puri, Loni Road Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201 102 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-415-81194-1 Contents List of Tables, Plates and Maps vi List of Abbreviations viii Glossary ix Acknowledgements xiv Introduction 1 1. An Agrarian Setting: 1900–50 21 2. Rural Society, Rural Politics and Nationalist Peasants 73 3. Tenants, Sharecroppers and Communists 122 4. Peasants, Nationalists and Political Possibilities (1920–48) 170 5. Rural World Upside Down: The Valley during 1948–52 207 6. Rural Mobilization, Social Dynamics and Rural Politics 249 7. Peasants, Law and Nationalist Identity: An Unfulfilled Dream 288 Conclusion 327 Notes 333 Bibliography 439 About the Author 468 Index 469 List of Tables, Plates and Maps Tables 1 Categories of Land in Acres (1951) 14 1.1 Area under Sharecropping (1900–30) 23 1.2 Number of Adhiars in Raiyatwari districts 26 1.3 Number of Former Tea Garden Labour Tenants 40 1.4 Numbers of Property Sold at Auction (1925–46) 64 1.5 Khiraj Land Held by the Marwari Traders 69 A Percentage of Agricultural Categories to Total Cultivating Population 339 B Landholding of Indigenous Cultivators 340 C Percentage of Absentee Landowners Owning Land 340 D Estimated Area under Jute Cultivation in Assam 352 E Pattern of Credit Flow 354 F Percentage of Land Owned by the Peasant Proprietors 360 G Percentage of Peasant Families Renting Land 360 Plates 4.1 Panchayat, mouthpiece of the RCPI in 1950 commenting on Zamindari Abolition Bill 192 5.1 Pamphlet on peasant question issued by Krishak Sabha of CPI, 1950 211 5.2 A 1949 issue of Swadhinata, the mouthpiece of RCPI 229 5.3 Pamphlet issued by the Communist Party of India (CPI) asking the Assam government to withdraw its ban on the CPI 244 5.4 RCPI mouthpiece Lal Nichan, April 1952 247 List of Tables, Plates and Maps (cid:14) vii 6.1 Letter from Bishnuprasad Rabha to his communist colleagues, 1953 expressing concern about the ideological stand of RCPI 286 6.2 News of political violence in Naliapool, Dibrugarh, July 1949 287 Maps 1 The Present State of Assam xvii 2 Brahmaputra Valley (At India’s Independence) xviii 3 Eastern Bengal and the Plains of Brahmaputra Valley xix 1.1 Raiyatwari Districts of Brahmaputra Valley 46–47 List of Abbreviations ASP Assam Secretariat Proceedings ASA Assam State Archives OIOC Oriental and India Office Collection NAI National Archives of India NDRR Nowgaon District Record Room ALCP Assam Legislative Council Proceedings APBECR Assam Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee Report APIRR Assam Police Intelligence Record Room APWR Abstract of the Assam Police Intelligence Weekly Report PHA Political History of Assam NMML Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Glossary adhi bhagi tenancy arrangement between landowner and tenant or sharecropper wherein land- owner’s share amounts to half of the produce. adhiar sharecropper agdhan credit given against the security of produce of peasants amlah revenue agent, officials anna unit of currency, equivalent to one-sixteenth of a rupee (no longer in use) atmarakha bahini self-defence militia bandha bonded labour bar saheb popular term for district magistrate barga sharecropping in Bengal basti homestead land bharga/bhag share bhakat a devotee or a tenant-peasant attached to the lands owned by a satra (Vaishnava monastery) beel marshy land bepari petty merchant-cum-moneylenders bhog offering of food and flowers made to a deity in a temple bigha a traditional unit of measurement of an area of land, equivalent to 0.33 acres bhagania migrant bhatia migrant bhumihin landless bidhi babystha rules and rituals of social customs brahmottar grant of rent-free land to Brahmins chamua exempted from manual labour, in practice during the Ahom rule chapori fertile riverine island tract along Brahmaputra.
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