Peasant Movements in Post-Colonial India: Dynamics of Mobilization and Identity

277 Pages·2004·1.03 MB·English

by  Debal K. Singha Roy

Peasant Movements in
Post-colonial India

Peasant Movements in
Post-colonial India
Dynamics of Mobilization
and Identity
Debal K. SinghaRoy
SAGE Publications
New Delhi / Thousand Oaks / London
To the Unknown Peasants ... whose tales of resistance have
remained untold
Copyright © Debal K. SinghaRoy, 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the pub-
lisher.
First published in 2004 by
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Sage Publications Inc Sage Publications Ltd
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Published by Tejeshwar Singh for Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd,
typeset by Rachna Laserset, New Delhi in 10 pt Bookman, and
printed at Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
SinghaRoy, Debal K., 1957–
Peasant movements in post-colonial India: dynamics of
mobilization and identity / Debal K. SinghaRoy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Peasantry—India—Andhra Pradesh—Political activity. 2. Peas-
antry—India—West Bengal—Political activity. 3. Peasantry—
India—Andhra Pradesh—Social conditions. 4. Peasantry—
India—West Bengal—Social conditions. I. Title.
HD1537.I4R68 305.5¢633¢095414—dc22 2004 2003022592
ISBN: 0-7619-9826-8 (US-Hb) 81-7829-296-3 (India-Hb)
0-7619-9827-6 (US-Pb) 81-7829-297-1 (India-Pb)
Sage Production Team: Ankush Saikia, Sushanta Gayen and
Santosh Rawat
Contents
List of Tables 6
Preface 8
Chapter 1
Towards a Conceptual Framework 15
Chapter 2
Radical Peasant Movements: An Interface with History 51
Chapter 3
Peasantry in the Emerging Agrarian Social Structure 93
Chapter 4
Contemporary Peasant Movements:
An Account from Within 135
Chapter 5
Trends of Mobilization:
From Radicalization to Institutionalization 175
Chapter 6
Domination, Dependency and Discontent:
Peasant Praxis for New Identity and Autonomy 199
Bibliography 246
Index262
About the Author 276
List of Tables
2.1 Percentage Distribution of Household and Area
Owned by Sizes of Landholding Class in Rural
India in 1953–54, 1961–62 and 1971–72 79
2.2 Changes in the Percentage of Landless House-
holds and Leased-out Area during 1953–54,
1961–62 and 1971–72 79
2.3 Landholding and Sharecropping in West Bengal 81
3.1 Percentage Distribution of Households and Area
Owned by Categories of Households in Rural
Areas in India in 1971–72, 1982 and 1992 97
3.2 Changing Patterns of Ownership of Land in
Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal by Categories
of Landholding 100
3.3 Comparative Picture of Landless, Semi-landless
and Average size of Landholdings (in ha) in
Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal 101
3.4 Changing Proportions of the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes in Rural Households and
their share in Landholding in Andhra Pradesh
and West Bengal 101
3.5 Patterns of the Landholding among Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh
and West Bengal in 1992 102
3.6 Work Participation in Rural Areas in Andhra
Pradesh and West Bengal in 1981,1991 and
2001 103
List of Tables U 7
3.7 Demographic Profile of Khanpur 107
3.8 Occupational Patterns in Khanpur 109
3.9 Patterns of Landholding by Caste in Khanpur 110
3.10 Patterns of Landholding under Sharecropping
and Recipients of Surplus Vested Lands in
Khanpur 112
3.11 Land Occupied under Sharecropping System
and Received under Land Distribution
Programme in Khanpur (in acres) 114
3.12 Demographic Profile of Malla Reddy Palle 115
3.13 Occupational Patterns in Malla Reddy Palle 117
3.14 Patterns of Landholding in Malla Reddy Palle 119
3.15 Patterns of Distribution of Surplus Vested Land
and Government-constructed Houses in Malle
Reddy Palle 120
3.16 Land Occupied under Sharecropping System
and Received under Land Distribution
Programme in Malla Reddy Palle (in acres) 121
3.17 Demographic Profile of Sabdollajote 123
3.18 Demographic Profile of Prasadujote 124
3.19 Occupational Patterns of Sabdollajote and
Prasadujote 125
3.20 Patterns of Landownership in Sabdollajote and
Prasadujote 126
3.21 Patterns of Landholding under Sharecropping
and Recipients of Surplus Vested Land in
Prasadujote and Sabdollajote 128
3.22 Area Occupied under Sharecropping system
and received under Land Distribution
Programme in Sabdollajote and Prasadujote (in
acres) 129
5.1 Facets of Commonalties and Differences in the
Grassroots Mobilizations in Andhra Pradesh
and West Bengal 190
5.2 Patterns of Contemporary Mobilizations and
Peasants’ Responses 192
5.3 Trends of Mobilizations in the Radical and
Reformative Peasant Movements 196
Preface
Social movements have always been an inseparable part of
social progression, and through organized protests and re-
sistance against domination and injustice they pave the way
for new thoughts and actions that rejuvenate the process of
change and transformation in society. They bring forth for
public scrutiny the hard and hidden realities of social dy-
namics. However the history of the intellectual journey to
comprehend and conceptualize these processes is of recent
origin in comparison to the history of these processes itself.
Notwithstanding the recentness of these intellectual efforts,
this area of research has over a very short span posited sev-
eral new perspectives for understanding and accommodating
social movement in the social science discourses on social
change, social transformation and social development. How-
ever, social movements are conceptualized in a particular
historical and social context. For example in America Haberle
(1951) has conceptualized social movements as potentially
dangerous forms of non-institutionalized collective political
behaviour that threaten the stability of the established so-
cial order. Blumer (1951) and other symbolic interactionists
however, have viewed the emergence of new norms of adap-
tive behaviour, problem solving and learning orientations in
a social movement. In the 1950s and 1960s Turner and
Killian (1957), Parsons (1969), and subsequently Smelser
and many others, framed the collective behaviour perspec-
tive to comprehend social movements as non-institutionalized
Preface U 9
collective actions which emerged due to the breakdown ei-
ther in the organs of social control or normative integration,
or due to structural changes (Eyerman and Jamison 1991:
14).
After World War II, the ‘welfare state’ philosophy provided
a political space for the emergence and sustenance of demo-
cratic movements in Western Europe and in the non-
authoritative regimes, and recognized collective mobilization
and protests as part of the modern polity. In this political
climate the Marxists used the dialectical perspectives of so-
cial transformation to explain social movements, and em-
phasized class to be the sole actor of social transformation,
while the Functionalists laid emphasis on structural stabil-
ity and equilibrium, viewing social movements as dysfunc-
tional aspects of society.
These existing theoretical perspectives however proved in-
adequate in explaining the vehement outburst of the black
civil rights, students, women’s, peace, environment and other
movements of the 1950s and 1960s in Europe and North
America marking a sharp departure from the earlier organ-
ized movements of labour and the working class. These move-
ments visualized the emergence of new social actors, new
logics of conflict and new issues and ideas than those of the
industrial society, and were caused by a fundamental shift
in social structure and the emergence of post-industrial so-
ciety.
Scholars identified these phenomena as the ‘new social
movements’ and ‘potential bearers of new social interests’
(Touraine 1981, 1983). However in the European tradition,
emphasis is given to the issues of new identity formation
and historicity of collective action by recognizing them pri-
marily in symbolic terms (Melucci 1996). The American tra-
dition, on the other hand, has emphasized the logic of
participation in collective action. Here the resource mobili-
zation theorists have highlighted the effectiveness of the so-
cial movement organization for achieving their success (Zald
and McCarthy 1987) and collective action in terms of the
pursuit of common interest (Tilly 1978a).
Social movements in the developing countries are mani-
fested in different socio-political contexts. Historically, the