Question

describe the peasant movement of Rajasthan

Answer 1

The Bijolia movement (Hindi: बिजोलिया आंदोलन) was a peasant movement in the Bijolia jagir of the former Mewar state (in present-day Rajasthan in India) against excessive land revenue exactions. Originating in the former jagir (feudal estate) of Bijolia (near the town of Bijolia in Bhilwara district), the movement gradually spread to neighbouring jagirs. Leadership to the movement was provided, at different times, by Sitaram Das, Vijay Singh Pathik, and Manikyalal Verma.
 The movement continued till 1941 after a bitter struggle lasting about half a century, gained national attention and resisted state oppression

Answer 2

In the two decades the study of peasant movements has

became the main focal point for the historians of the modern

Indian socio-economic history. There has been a steady stream

of works on this topic in the form of research articles, theses and

books. The Marxist scholars mainly developed this field of study

in its initial stages. To-day it has became a subject of common

interest.

Studies on peasant movements have been conducted both

at micro and macro levels. The micro studies are mainly conce-

ntrated at regional, district or village levels due to their inherent

limitations. The macro level studies on the other hand only

present an overview of the peasant movements though in an

integrated manner. Significant macro studies in the field include,

among others, Sukhbir Ghaudhary’s Peasant’s and Worker's

Movement in India-1905-1929 (1971), A. R. Desai’s edited volume

on Peasant Struggles in India (1979), Sunil Sen’s Peasant Move-

ments in India (1982). All these studies did not, however, take

account of the various facts of the peasant movements of Rajasthan.

Only passing references were made to the peasant movement in

Rajasthan in the works of A. R. Desai and N. G. Ranga. Ranga, in

his article entitled ‘‘Indian Peasant’s struggle and achievements”

thus outlifted the rise and growth of Rajasthan peasant movements,

“Then rose the Jaipur, Gwalior and Udaipur peasants against

their local Thakors and other feudal lords. They made use of

the internal quarrels and contradictions between the states,

princes and the thakors of Jaipur. They achieved victory on

their economic front. The Udaipur revolt was put down cruelly.

But forced labour had to be abandoned” (p. 80).

The present study entitled ‘‘Peasant Movements in

Rajasthan (1920-1949,” seeks to fulfil the gap left by the above

cited works. Though, some scattered works have been published