Peasant, Tribal & Labour Movements: previous-year questions

Answer: (C) Birsa Munda

Birsa Munda (born 15 November 1875 at Ulihatu, Khunti) proclaimed himself a prophet, founded the Birsait faith and was revered by the Mundas as 'Dharti Aba' (Father of the Earth) and Bhagwan. He led the Ulgulan ('Great Tumult') of 1899-1900 in Chotanagpur against landlords, moneylenders, missionaries and the British, and died in Ranchi jail on 9 June 1900; the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908 followed. His birthday is observed as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas and is also Jharkhand's foundation day. Kanhu Murmu (A) led the Santhal Hul of 1855-56 with his brother Sidhu, while Rupa (Rup Singh) Naik and Joria Bhagat (B, D) were leaders of the Naikda tribal movement in Gujarat in 1868.

Answer: (B) Bhagirath Manjhi

The Kherwar or Sapha Hor ('pure people') movement arose among the Santhals of the Santhal Parganas in the 1870s under Bhagirath Manjhi. It began as a religious reform preaching worship of one God and pure living, and turned into resistance against revenue settlement, rent and moneylenders, a sequel to the Santhal Hul of 1855-56. The other names belong to different movements: Birsa Munda led the Munda Ulgulan (1899-1900); Baba Ramchandra organised the Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920); and Madari Pasi led the Eka movement of Hardoi and neighbouring districts (1921-22).

Answer: (C) Madari Pasi

The Eka (Unity) movement of 1921-22 spread through Hardoi, Bahraich, Sitapur and Barabanki in Awadh. Peasants took a religious vow to pay only the recorded rent and no more, to refuse forced labour (begar) and to stay united against extra levies by landlords and their agents (thekedars). It began with Congress and Khilafat support, but leadership passed to Madari Pasi and other low-caste leaders, and it was suppressed by March 1922. Linked UP movements: the UP Kisan Sabha (1918) and the Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920) of Baba Ramchandra. The distractors: Birsa Munda (Munda Ulgulan), Annie Besant (Home Rule League) and Anugrah Narayan Sinha (Bihar leader associated with the Champaran Satyagraha).

Answer: (C) Jatra Oraon

The Tana Bhagat movement began in 1914 among the Oraons of Chotanagpur (Gumla and Ranchi) under Jatra Oraon, also called Jatra Bhagat. It started as a religious reform, giving up animal sacrifice, liquor and belief in spirits, and grew into a no-rent, no-forced-labour movement against landlords and the British. Its followers later became devoted Gandhians, taking up khadi and joining the Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience movements. The distractors: Sidhu Murmu (with Kanhu) led the Santhal Hul of 1855-56, and Birsa Munda led the Munda Ulgulan of 1899-1900. Tribal movements are a favourite WBCS area, so revise the Santhal Hul, Kherwar, Munda and Tana Bhagat movements together.

Answer: (A) Bengal

The Indigo Rebellion of 1859–60 broke out in Bengal (Nadia, Jessore and nearby districts), where ryots refused to grow indigo for European planters. It was not centred in Andhra, Maharashtra or Kerala.

Answer: (C) Digambar Biswas

Digambar Biswas and Bishnucharan Biswas of Nadia led the Indigo Revolt of 1859–60. Dudu Miyan led the Faraizi movement, Titumir the Wahabi-inspired revolt at Barasat, and Kanhu Murmu the Santhal rebellion.

Answer: (A) Sindhu Murmu

The Santhal Hul of 1855–56 was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu. Birsa Munda led the Munda Ulgulan of 1899–1900, Bishnucharan Biswas the Indigo revolt, and Jyotiba Phule was a social reformer.

Answer: (B) Jawaharlal Nehru

Gaidinliu (1915–93), a Rongmei Naga from Manipur, joined her cousin Haipou Jadonang's Heraka movement at the age of 13 and led the revolt after he was hanged in 1931; she was captured in 1932, aged 16, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Jawaharlal Nehru met her in Shillong jail in 1937, called her the "daughter of the hills" and gave her the title "Rani". She was released only after independence and received the Padma Bhushan in 1982. Thakkar Bapa (A. V. Thakkar) is remembered for work among tribals and Harijans, but had no part in this.

Answer: (D) Haji Shariyatullah

The Faraizi movement was started around 1818 by Haji Shariatullah of Faridpur in eastern Bengal; it called on Muslims to perform their obligatory religious duties ("faraiz") and give up un-Islamic practices. Under his son Dudu Miyan it became an agrarian movement of the peasantry against zamindars and indigo planters. Titumir (Mir Nisar Ali) led a separate rising at Narkelberia near Barasat and built the famous bamboo fort (1831). Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur was a leader of the 1857 revolt in Bihar, and Digambar Biswas, with Bishnu Charan Biswas, led the Indigo Revolt of 1859–60 in Nadia.

Answer: (C) Indigo Revolt

Dinabandhu Mitra's Bengali play Nil Darpan (1860) exposed the oppression of indigo cultivators by European planters during the Indigo Revolt of 1859–60 in Bengal. Its English translation was published by Rev. James Long, who was fined and jailed for it. The Deccan Riots of 1875 in Poona and Ahmednagar were peasant attacks on moneylenders. The Ramosi rising of 1822 in Maharashtra was led by Chittur Singh, while the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 had no link with this play.

Answer: (B) A Peasant movement

The Eka ('unity') Movement of 1921-22 was a peasant movement in the Awadh districts of Hardoi, Bahraich, Sitapur and Barabanki, led by Madari Pasi and other lower-caste leaders, against rents far above the recorded rate, oppression by thikadars and the practice of share-rent. Peasants took a ritual vow to pay only the recorded rent and refuse forced labour, but the movement was agrarian in character, not religious, and not a secret revolutionary society. It followed the Awadh Kisan Sabha movement (1920) of Baba Ramchandra.

Answer: (B) Syed Mir Nasar Ali

Titumir's real name was Syed Mir Nisar Ali (1782-1831). A follower of Syed Ahmad of Rae Bareli, he led a Wahhabi-inspired (Tariqah-i-Muhammadiya) peasant uprising in the Barasat area of 24 Parganas against zamindars such as Krishnadeb Roy, indigo planters and the Company - the Barasat Uprising. He built the famous bamboo fort (Bansher Kella) at Narkelberia, where he was killed by British artillery on 19 November 1831; his lieutenant Ghulam Masum was hanged. Syed Ameer Ali (compare option C) was a jurist who founded the Central National Mahommedan Association (1877).

Answer: (C) Santhal movement

"Hul" means rebellion in Santhali; "Kherwadi Hul" refers to the Santhal Rebellion of 1855 against oppressive landlords and moneylenders.

Answer: (D) All of the above

The play dramatises the suffering of Bengali peasants forced into indigo cultivation under coercion by European planters during the indigo revolt of 1859-60.

Answer: (B) Neel Darpan

'Neel Darpan' (1860), a Bengali play by Dinabandhu Mitra, exposed the oppression of indigo cultivators by European planters; its English translation is attributed to Michael Madhusudan Dutt and was published by Rev. James Long, who was fined and jailed for it. Background: the Indigo Revolt of 1859-60 in Nadia (Digambar and Bishnu Biswas) and the Indigo Commission of 1860. 'Dinabandhu' is the author's name, not a book, and 'Anandamath' (Bankim Chandra, 1882) deals with the Sannyasi rebellion and contains 'Vande Mataram'.

Answer: (A) Fazlul Huq

A. K. Fazlul Huq, 'Sher-e-Bangla', turned the Nikhil Banga Praja Samiti (1929) into the Krishak Praja Party in 1936 with a programme of abolishing zamindari and relieving peasant debt. After the 1937 elections he became the first Premier of Bengal in coalition with the Muslim League, and he moved the Lahore Resolution in 1940. Allah Bux Soomro was a nationalist Premier of Sindh, and Zafar Ali Khan edited the Urdu paper 'Zamindar' from Lahore.

Answer: (C) Lala Lajpat Rai

The All India Trade Union Congress was founded at Bombay on 31 October 1920 with Lala Lajpat Rai as its first president and Dewan Chaman Lall as general secretary; N. M. Joshi was another key figure. C. R. Das presided over its sessions of 1923 and 1924, V. V. Giri was president in 1926, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1929 (Nagpur) and Subhas Chandra Bose in 1931, so the other names are all later presidents and act as traps.

Answer: (B) Dinabandhu Mitra

"Neel Darpan" (1860), depicting the sufferings of Bengal's indigo cultivators under coercive European planters, was written by Dinabandhu Mitra.

Answer: (B) Birsa

Birsa Munda led the Munda Rebellion, known as "Ulgulan" ("The Great Tumult"), against British and landlord exploitation in the Chota Nagpur region.

Answer: (B) Kerala.

The Moplah Rebellion (Mappila Lahala) of 1921 broke out in the Malabar region of Kerala (then part of Madras Presidency). It began as a Khilafat and anti-landlord agitation by Muslim Mappila peasants against Hindu landlords and British authority, and turned into a communal uprising.