Social Science notes RBSE 10th : Bijolia Peasant movement

TrinityGuru is here again with Social Science notes RBSE 10th. This part is all about Bijolia Peasant movement. You can visit our RBSE section for some other easy and consise notes.

Bijolia Peasant Movement

During the time of Britishers, the ruling structure was three tiers i.e. Rulers, Land lord jagirdar’s and farmers. This system includes mutual understanding of the all three. In the beginning, relations were normal but later on due to increased exploitation of the farmers these relations begin to decline.

Causes of Peasant movements are as follows –

Decline of dependency of farmers: Inter-dependency of landlords or jagirdars became strong and on the other hand dependence on jagirdar on farmers began declining.
Increased imposition and collection of begar and taxes or lagaan collection.
Due to increased dependency on the agriculture of people results in increase in the number of labours which made jagirdars more arrogant.
High revenue collection and low earning with the farming made farmers too unsatisfied.
Due to British model of ruling the outlook of the jagirdar toward the farmer declined with the passage of time.

Bijolia peasant movement: This movement started in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. Most of the farmer here were of Dhakar caste.

Phase 1 (Social Science notes RBSE 10th : Bijolia Peasant movement)

Till the death of Rao Gangadhar Das the relations of farmer and landlords were fine.
- With the appointment of new landlord Rao Kishan Singh (Krishan Singh) number of taxes increased on farmers. Landlord collect about 87% of the income and 84 types of taxes and revenue used to prevail.
- In 1897, farmers gathered at death feast of Gangaram Dhakar’s father death. Farmers Decided to made Maharana of Mewar aware about this.
- No results obtained after appoint of Hamid (revenue officer) by Maharana..

Phase 2

The situation of farmers became more miserable due to ‘Chappania Akal’. Still after this, Kishan Singh imposed new tax names ‘Chanwari Tax’.
‘Chanwari tax means farmers had to deposit 5 rupees as tax on the occasion of their daughter’s marriage. Due to this, many farmers stared opposition peacefully and postponed their daughter’s marriage for 2 years.
As farmers started opposition, Kishan Singh was forced to remove Chanwari tax, collection of 2/5^th of the part produce on lands of estate and stop sending armed men to collect kunta.

Phase 3

In 1906, newly appointed Jagirdar Prithvi Singh ended all concessions. He also imposed a new tax named ‘Talwar Bandhai’.
Due to increased exploitation, under the leadership of Sadhu Sitaram Das, Fatehkaran Charan and Brahmadeo farmers refused to plough the fields under landlords. This caused huge loss to the estate.
After this, due to increased atrocities and exploitation Fatehkaran and Brahmadeo were terrified and left Bijolia. Further, Sitaram Das was deprived of his job of a librarian.
The self-motivated movement promoted by Sadhu Sitaram Das Became unsuccessful till 1913 CE.

Phase 4

Sadhu Sitaram Das invited Vijay Singh Pathik to lead the movement.
In 1917 CE, on the day of Haryali Amavasya, they formed an association named ‘Uparmal Panch Board’.
Impressed by the bravery of the farmers, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote about then in his newspaper ‘Kesari’ and wrote a letter to Maharana Fateh Singh about the miserable condition of farmers of his state.
On the other hand, in order to revive the farmers of Bijolia, Manikyalal Verma composed a song named ‘Panchira’.
Along with this, Pragyachakshu Bhanwarlal Sawarkar tried his best to ignite the farmers through his poems.
Vijay Singh Pathik also established ‘Uparmal Ka Danka’.
Pathik to promote this movement sent his silver bracelet to Ganesh Shankar Vidhyarthi the editor of newspaper ‘Pratap’. He requested Ganesh to publish about the movement and Ganesh accepted the request.
The representation of this public movement through Premchand’s novel ‘Rangbhoomi’ was reflection of Bijolia Movement.

Phase 5

In April 1919 CE, the Udaipur State government formed a commission to hear complaints of the Bijolia farmers.
The commission advocated suggestions but Mewar government ignored it.
Further, the foreign ministry of Indian government estimated that if the movement kept on going like this, it might take a violent form.
A high-level committee was formed under the chairmanship of Robert Holland – the AGG (Agent to Governor General) of Rajasthan.
He held meeting with the farmers and waived off 35 taxes but failed to make this permanent.

Last Phase

In 1927 CE, as per the advice of Vijay Singh Pathik to pressurize estate, farmers left their lands uncultivated. But estate got new farmers who were ready to work on land.
Vijay Singh Pathik was considered as the responsible person for making farmers separate from their lands and he moved out from the movement.
After this, farmers continued the movement to get their land back till 1941 CE.