The Role of Peasantry in the Freedom Struggle in Bihar(1912-1947)- An Old and Rare Book

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The purpose of the study is to analyse the role of peasantry of Bihar in the national freedom struggle. It is an attempt at examining the process of socio-economic and political changes in the agrarian society of Bihar vis-a-vis the National Freedom Movement and how the peasants reacted to the policies and programmes of the national organisation in their efforts to gain independence.

However, a lot of work has already been done on this period of the History of Bihar. Swami Sahjanand Saraswati's writings give a valuable information, but they suffer from the subjective bias of an active participant in the movement. Walter Houser's, Peasant organization in India: A study of the Bihar Kisan Sabha 1929-1942 (unpublished Ph.D. Thesis of the University of Chicago, NMML, New Delhi), Rakesh Gupta's Kansan Sabha and the Bihar Peasantry 1936- 47 (New Delhi, 1981) Arvind N.Das's Agrarian unrest and socio- economic change, 1900-1980. Stephen Henningham's Peasant Movement in Colonial India (Anu, 1982). K.K.Sharma's Agrarian Movement and Congress Politics in Bihar 1927-1947 (Delhi 1989) have hardly touched on the role of peasantry in India's freedom struggle. They mostly deal with the agricultural problems of the peasantry. The absence of any detailed account of the role of peasants in the freedom struggle of Bihar prompted me to study the period on the basis of the materials available in India. The work is based on almost all available unpublished sources, like proceedings of the Government of India of different departments and reports on the working of the various departments of the Bihar Government. Besides these sources, which reflect official policy, efforts have been made to study different shades of public opinion from contemporary newspapers, like the Searchlight, Biharee, Hunkar etc. of Bihar. Despite the wide range of source materials utilized, I am perfectly conscious of the subjective limitation, while writing anything related to Indian Nationalism. To ensure the desired objectivity I have deliberately allowed facts to tell their tale as far as practicable.

Bihar at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

The geographical name of Bihar stands for the Ganga plain between the confluence of the 'Gaghra' and the large bend to the east through which the river enters Bengal and flows towards the sea. The middle segment of the Gangetic plain, with alluvial deposits, is very much suitable for agriculture. Its boundaries are marked by national as well as international borders.

Nepal is on its north, and what is now Jharkhand (after the division on 15 November 2000) in on the South, Uttar Pradesh is on the west and west Bengal is on the east. Before 1912, it was the western appendage of Bengal and included in its territory the present-day provinces of Orissa and Jharkhand.'

Presently, Bihar has an area of 93.60 lakh hectares amounting to 2.87 percent of the total geographical area of India, and It has 56.03 lakh hectares of net cultivated area. Bihar accounts for 8.7 percent of the total population of the country. It is situated between 24° 20'10" north and 27 31'40" North Latitude and 83° 19'50" east to 88° 17'40" East Longitude. It is a land locked area."

P Topographically the undivided state had three natural divisions. (a) The districts north of river Ganga or north Bihar (b) Non-tribal districts south of the river or South Bihar and (c) Chotanagpur Plateau. The fertile tract of the Gangetic Basin of north and south Bihar, where the population density often exceeded 500 per sq. Kilometer, accounted for about three-fourth of the state's population.