CHAPTER - II

Farmers’ Movements in India-Farmers’ Movement in

Karnataka-as an ante-thesis of development accepted

by the government as the new-Development paradigm

16

CHAPTER - II

Farmers’ Movements in India-Farmers’ Movement in Karnataka-as an

ante-thesis of development accepted by the government as the new-

Development paradigm

Post- independence history of India presents many writings on the

Farmers’ movements in India. A number of books and articles have been

published on peasant movements in India1. They deal with various categories of

struggles in different parts of the country launched by various sections of the

Agrarian population through different periods of British rule. Some of the books

and articles give excellent accounts of specific struggles. But there is no work

which provides an all India picture of tribal and peasants struggles which took

place during British rule2. Nor do we find an account, which portrays the

historical development of these movements, during the period, which can reflect

the varieties of forms and methods adopted by these movements. Similarly these

is no systematic analytical work which examines these struggles from the point

of view of delineating the role of specific sections and classes of the rural

population which took leadership provided guidance, raised specific issues and

elaborated various forms of mobilization and struggle.

Historically the peasant movements in India can broadly be grouped in

three distinct phases3.

1. The initial phase (1857-1921): This phase was characterized by the sporadic

growth of peasant movements in the absence of proper leadership.

2. The second phase (1923-1946): This phase was marked by the emergence of

the class conscious peasant organizations, its distinct feature was that during

this period peasant movements were led by people who gave priority to

kisan problems in the struggle for national liberation.

1 R. Palme Dutt, 1947, India today, people publishing house, Bombay.

2 Airs Desai (Ed) (1985) Peasant struggle sin India, Oxford university press p.6.

3 Mehta, Uday (1965), peasant Movement in India, Vol Xvi, New Delhi, The call Pp. 14 -16

17

3. Post – independence phase: this era witnessed the uninterrupted continuity

of the agrarian movements due to the failure of the ruling party to resolve

any of the basic problems of the working masses of rural India. The peasant

struggles in this period were led predominantly by left political parties like

the communist party of India (CPI), praja sociologist party (PSP), and

Socialist party (SP), through their Kisan organizations.

The initial phase: The tyranny of zamindars along with the exorbitant rates of

land revenue led to a series of spontaneous peasant uprising in different parts of

the country during this period. The periodic recurrence of famines coupled with

the economic depression during the period further aggravated the situation in the

rural areas and consequently led to number of peasant revolts’. The following

were notable agrarian movements of this phase:

• The santhal rebellion of 1855 against the oppression by the British

Government.

• Deccan riots of 1875 against money leaders

• The Bengal tenants struggles against Zamindari tyranny during 1870-85

• The Oudh Insurrection

• The Punjab Kisan struggles against the money leaders in the last phase

of the 19th century.

In 1917-18, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian national

congress led two significant peasant struggles. It organized the struggle of the

peasants of Champaran in Bihar against the indigo planters, most of whom were

Europeans. It also launched the satyagraha movement of peasants of Kaira

against the collection of land revenue, which they were unable to pay due to the

failure of crops.

The Second Phase: Radical sections of the peasant movements increasingly

realized that the congress was solicitous of the interests of the capitalists and

capitalists land magnets. They felt that to protect the interest of the kisans, their

18

own class organizations and leadership must be evolved. Consequently, the

Kisan organizations came into existence in different parts of the country.

The first Kisan congress held in Lucknow in 1935 led to the formation of

the All India Kisan sabha. The programmes of the sabha reflected the aspirations

and needs of the entire peasantry in agrarian India. All India Kisan sabha was

composed of radical forces within and outside Indian national congress, And

also supported by congress socialist party and later the communist party of India.

In Andhra Pradesh it launched anti-settlement agitation against Zamindari

zulum in 1927. Swami sahajanand of All India Kisan Sabha led a heroic

movement for the abolition of zamindari in Bihar. Also a powerful struggle was

initiated against the oppressive forest laws in South India in 1927. Similar

movements were led in Utter Pradesh and other parts of India against the tyranny

of zamindars.

In 1942 Indian farmers responded to the congress call of civil dis-

obedience movement most historically. In Utter Pradesh (UP) Bihar, Bengal,

Maharastra and Tamilnadu they formed parallel Governments. The outstanding

achievement was in Midnapore in Bengal, where for years the British rulers

were unable to regain control.

Post-independence era: The future of the government measures in resolving

agrarian problems has been widely recognized. The land reforms and community

development programmers meant for promoting capitalist farming in India have

succeeded in intensifying the Agrarian crisis. The government policies have not

fared well in providing relief to the problems of farmers, but aggravated their

miseries. This has been amply demonstrated in various reports of the

government and evaluation reports and non-official enquiries on the impact of

welfare measures on rural society. So the Rural agrarian society is seething with

discontent, economically after independence. On the eve of independence the all

India kisan sabha led a very heroic battle of the peasants in the Telengana district

of erstwhile Hyderabad state. Over 2000 villages set up their own peoples

19

committees, took over the land and maintained their own administration and

owned defense over an area of 15000 sq miles and resisted the onslaught of the

Nizam’s army. But could not sustain it for long and led to failure of the

movement. Tebhaga movement of crop sharing in Bengal, worli revolt against

forest contractors and money lenders in Maharastra, Anti-betterment levy in

Punjab, agitation against food hoarders and seizing food-grains, prices in Bihar,

movement for implementation of landceilings in Bihar, agitation for fixing

higher prices for sugarcane are some of the movements to be noted as peasant

movements. In Kerala the struggle for land reforms, in Andhra for rehabilitation

of landless labourers on wastelands, for higher wages of agricultural labourers in

Tamilnadu and Maharstra to be noted as important farmers movements.

FARMERS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA:

The Farmers in India had to undergo great struggle in all the states to stop

exploitation by the Jagirdars and Zamindars. Some of the movements were

successful, but others failed. D.D. Kosambi and R.S. Sharma, together with

Daniel thornes, brought peasants into the study of Indian history for the first

time4.

At the Global level the French revolution had changed the course of

history, as it was the working class which became the vanguard of revolution in

Europe. During the first half of the 20th Century, national liberation struggles

started against colonization. In these colonies, very little industry was present

and their working class, if it existed at all, was still in infancy, making the

impulse for these rebellions have to come from somewhere else. It was Mao’s

peasant revolution in China which became a catalyst for national liberation

movements in many colonies including India.

4 Op cit., 155.

20

Indigo cultivators strike in 1860:

Centuries before the modern chemical industry began producing artificial

blueing dyes, Indian cultivators had been growing a plant called indigo which

yielded the dye necessary for blueing cotton clothe. With the growth of modern

textile industry in Great Britain in the late eighteenth and early Nineteenth

centuries, there was a great expansion in the demand for the dye indigo trade

became a source of high profits for the east India company in India. However, its

cultivation was too limited to meet the growing needs of the British textile

industry. Retired officers of the east India Company and young upstarts, who

had previously been slave drivers in America, decided to acquire lands from

native Zamindars in Bihar and Bengal and extend the cultivation of this crop on

a large scale as a plantation industry. Tenants were forced to grow Indigo crop

under a system of oppression.

Though the government knew of the oppression of the planters to the

Growers, the government was callous in initiating any action to mitigate the

oppression. During the course of the next 40 years, local monopolies and

acquisition of Zmindaris by European planters were extended a great deal. With

this the oppression of the cultivators was all the more intensified. Indignation

was growing all over the indigo growing districts. Peasant’s resistance was

growing in Nadia, Barasat and Pabna. In place of mute Protests, the peasants

were getting together and taking action on a mass scale. In April 1860 all the

cultivators of the Barasat subdivision undertook what was probably the first

great general strike in the history of the Indian peasantry5. They declared

themselves against the oppression of the planters and refused to sow any indigo.

The peasants were not only content with declaring a general strike. The

very fact that over 2000 farmers drawn from 52 villages collected at one point

ready for action indicates the extent of active unity and organization they had

succeeded in building up6.

5 Desai. A.R (Ed) peasant struggles in India, (1979), New Delhi, Oxford University press. P-159.

6 Havildar Sheebho Khan’s Commanding a battallian of Bengal’s Police, account in a letter dt April 10 ,

1860.

21

This was a unique event in the history of the Indian peasantry. Indigo

cultivators in the large districts of Pabna and Nadia and in the Barsat sub-

division have declared the first general strike which soon spread to jessore,

Khulna, Rajshahi, Dacca, Maldah and Dinajpur, encompassing most of the

Bengal. Even before the start of the Indian working class movement, even before

the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the peasants in these districts had taken to the path

of general strike.

Faced with such solid unity and immovable determination of the

peasantry and haunted by the fear of another great agrarian uprising, the

government was compelled to issue a proclamation “protecting the liberty of the

Farmer in planting indigo or any other crop he likes, without any interference on

the part of the planter or anyone else”7.

This was a complete victory for the indigo cultivators. As a result of this

strike, indigo cultivation was largely forced out of these districts to Bihar and

Uttar Pradesh.

Maratha Uprising: 1875

The conditions which led to the agrarian uprising in the Poona and

Ahmednagar districts were in the main typical conditions in the Ryotwari area.

The main concern of the east-India company administrators was to obtain a

steady flow of large revenue from the land. At the time of land settlements, the

assessment imposed on the cultivators was excessive. It has to be paid in cash

and without respect to crop conditions. As early as 1850, Sir G. Wingate had

drawn attention to this fact “there can be little doubt that the over estimate of the

capabilities of the Deccan, formed and acted upon by an early collector, drained

the country of its agricultural capital8. Deccan Ryot commission also agreed for

this excess assessment.

7 Op cit., 155.

8 Ibid., P. 159.

22

Famines and Scarcity were also very common in this area. But rain or no

rain, the government demands had to be satisfied. The Price of agriculture

produce was also fluctuating under these circumstances, the farmers, to save

their land on forfeiture and public action by the government for farmers to pay

revenue demands had to turn to money lenders. Before this, the money lender

was no more than a humble village servant, mainly village accountant or a small

shopkeeper. Now with land offered as security and with a government ever

ready to grant his claim against the peasant, the money lender assumed a highly

important role. If the peasant repaid the loan he would benefit from a high rate of

interest, if the loan was not repaid he would get the peasants’ land through a

government decree. No wonder in a business where there never was a chance of

loss, the money lenders prospered rapidly.

Peasant’s indebtedness was mounting. With it was also raising the

number of civil suits to take possession of the peasants land. In the course of

fourteen years, the number of civil suits increased by seven to eight fold9. Once

the Farmers land was mortgaged, it was practically lost. The commission stated

that the instances of redemption of mortgages are almost unknown: mortgages

are equivalent to transfer of the Ryot’s title10

.

After such an outburst of self criticism immediate steps must have been

taken to make the laws more favourable to the peasants. But nothing of that kind

happened. Nearly 12 years later official attention was again drawn on the

subject. In 1870, the revenue commission of the northern division sounded a

strong warning to the indifferent government. A mountain might have moved,

but not the government of Bombay, especially in matters concerning the

wellbeing of the people11

. The condition of the Farmers was deteriorating

rapidly. Cotton prices which had sky rocketed during the American civil war in

the sixties had fallen into a deep slump. With this all other agricultural

depression, Farmers cash incomes suffered a disastrous blow. Added to this was

9 Ibid,p. 160

10 Ibid,p. 161

11 Ibid,p. 162

23

a major famine in 1876. Land revenue, which even in prosperous years was an

unbearably heavy burden, now became impossible to pay. The Deccan Riots

commission also ridiculed this revenue system. Nearly one-third of the

cultivators were reported to be suffering under heavy indebtedness, this

according to the Deccan riots commission, meant certain transfer of their lands12

.

Enraged at the loss of their lands, the peasants of Poona and Ahmednagar

districts let loose their accumulated anger against the bonds, documents, deeds

and decrees which the money lenders held against them. The first warming of

the approaching peasant uprising in these two districts was given in December

1874 by the event in the village kardeh in situr taluka. While uprisings were

going on in Poona district, similar outbreaks were also occurring in the

neighboring talukas of Ahmed nagar district. During a fortnight following the

first signal given at supa on May 12 there were uprisings in Srigonda, Parner,

Nagar and Karjat Talukas13

. While the peasants in their desperation were trying

to undo the past injustices of the money lenders by burning their documents, the

government lost no time in moving against them. The government, which in

quarter of a century had not once lifted its finger to help the peasants, despite

repeated urges and warnings from its own officers and commissions, suddenly

burst forth into repressive activity, by justifying money lenders activities.

The echoes of the peasant uprisings in Poona and Ahmednagar traveled

far and wide. The news of the uprising had no doubt reached all parts of the

country. The active phase of the uprising in Poona and Ahemadnagar lasted only

three weeks. The peasants, unprepared as they were to withstand the onslaught

of terrific repression by the government, had no alternative, but to abandon

active struggle. Only through such bitter struggles were they to learn the lesson

that the government was the protector of the money lenders and the land lords.

12

Ibid,p. 163. 13

Ibid,p. 165

24

Agrarian struggles in Bengal:

The decade which preceded the enactment of the Bengal tenancy Act VIII

of 1885 was an important period in the history of agrarian relations in eastern

and central Bengal. It saw a perceptible change in the relations between the

landlords and the tenants, a change which almost inevitably produced wide-

spread agrarian conflicts in the region.

The forerunner of the disturbances was the agrarian conflict in the

districts of pabna in 1873. It was a protest of the occupancy riots of the districts

against the conscious and systematic attempts of the landlords to do away with

the occupancy title granted to a large number of cultivators by the Rent Act X of

1859. This resistance of Pabna peasantry had assumed the character of an

organized and legalistic agrarian upsurge under the aegis of a powerful agrarian

league which controlled and directed the movement from its base at Serajgunje,

the prosperous Jute mart of eastern Bengal.

The movement in pabna though it did not succeed in ending landlord

exploitation in the district, it greatly restricted the landlords absolute power in

estate management. By emphasizing the basically unstable nature of landlord-

tenant relationship the disturbances in pabna inspired agrarian movements in

other parts of eastern and central Bengal which soon took the character of a

widespread peasant protest against the concept of high landlordism14

.

The fundamental cause of friction in east Bengal was the land-lords

persistent refusal to recognize tenant right which even the law of the country

partially accepted. A large number of East Bengal landlords made deliberate

attempts during 1835-85 to destroy this newly acquired right of the peasantry.

The Ruthlessness with which some of the east Bengal landlords sought to fulfill

this objective brought about a sharp change in the relations between the

14

The agrarian league of pabna- Kalyan kumar sengupta, Indian economic and social history review,

Vol-VII, No 2, June 1970, p 153.

25

landlords and tenants and planted the seeds of mutual discord and animosity

which directly led to combined peasant resistance in many east Bengal districts.

Since the character of landlord exploitation was practically similar

throughout eastern and central Bengal the combined resistance of the tenants,

represented not the ephemeral discontent of a particular local peasant group but a

general protest against the concept of landlordism. Like the pabna landlords, the

Zamindars of eastern and central Bengal also sought to destroy the occupancy

rights, raised rents, demanded illegal case and applied illegal co-ersive measures

to enforce their demands. The methods of peasant resistance in all these areas

also bore a striking resemblance to those adopted by the Pabna Ryots. The Pabna

episode was therefore not an event rather it was a symptom of a general

ill-feeling existing between the landlords and the tenants is several districts of

which pabna was one.

Farmers’ movements in the 20th

Century:

The period during which the peasant struggles took a qualitatively new-

turn saw a number of simultaneous national and international developments.

During this phase the nationalist movement gathered momentum in India,

enveloping larger and larger strata of society. Broadly this period can be divided

into three phases:

(a) The period from 1901 to 1913 (b) 1914-18 during which Indian society was

drawn into World War I by the British and (c) The period from 1919 to 1923,

wherein Indian society and Polity became entangled in the first phase of post-

world war adjustments. The first decade of the 20th

century began in India with

the rapid development of objective and subjective situations for various classes.

In this period the nationalist movement gathered momentum enveloping a vide

strata of the population, including the peasantry.

During the second decade the Indian people were enmeshed in the I

World War while involvement in the war assisted the growth of certain

industries and strengthened a section of the Indian Capitalist class, the British

26

put as many obstacles as possible in the path of this development. The war had a

damaging effect on the overall economy and the living conditions of the masses

of the Indian people. The ruthless policies adopted by the British against anti-

war movements, aggravated the situation in the country. The working people in

rural and urban areas suffered heavily as a consequence of the effects of the war

on the Indian economy. The war exposed Indian masses to larger international

political economic developments and generated a new awakening about larger

issues national and international. The nationalist forces launched movements for

constitutional reform, responsible government and Home rule. Anti-British

sentiments deepened and reached the layers of peasantry and prepared them to

fight the oppression and exploitation of their own landlords, Zamindars and

moneylenders supported by British rule. A social climate for an all-India anti-

imperialist nationalist militant struggle to throw British rule from India in the

next phase.

The period from 1918 to 1923 has been crucial. During this period the

Indian national congress emerged as a mass organization spreading its influence

among the masses. Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a strong and mass leader.

Mahatma Gandhi led many movements during this period. His astute

organizational devices to prepare the chain of leaders to organize workers and

peasants which would harness their energy and direct these energies to fight

imperialist power interms of a non-violent movement. Mahatma Gandhi was

able to generate conscious unleashing of movements under the Indian national

congress and was able to raise the consciousness of workers and peasants to

view their problem in a wider nationalist perspective.

During this period India becomes the theatre of the first nation wide

organized movement against imperialism. It takes the form of protest against

Rowlatt Acts, Jallian wallehbagh massacre, launching of non-co-operation, civil

disobedience and kilafat movement against constitutional reforms proposed by

the British rulers in the form of Montague-Chelmsford reform Act. During this

period a widespread movement of workers, peasants and middle classes burst out

27

in various parts of the country, which the context of political calls given by the

Indian national congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi acquired

gigantic proportions15

.

The Kisan Sabha movement:

The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the Bihar provincial kisan

Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilize peasant grievances against the Zamindari

attacks on their occupancy rights. Gradually the peasant movement intensified

and spread across India. All these radical developments on the peasant front

culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (ALKS) at the

Lucknow session of the Indian national congress (INC) in April 1936 with

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati as its first elected president. At the Global level

the French revolution had changed the course of history, as it was the working

class which became the vanguard of revolution in Europe. During the first half

of the twentieth century, national liberation struggles started against colonization

In these colonies, very little industry was present and their working class was

still in its infancy, making the impetus for these rebellions have to come from

somewhere else. It was Mao’s peasant revolution in China which became a

catalyst for national liberation movements in many colonies, including India.

Farmer movements in Punjab:

It was in Punjab that India’s first farmers’ movement emerged. The role

played by Ghadar party, led by Raja Mahendra pratap; in the political awakening

in India was an important step. The Sikhs of Punjab were the first to migrate to

the United States and Canada in the Nineteenth century. They financed and

helped the formation of Ghadar party, which when gave the call to Indians

abroad to return home fight British imperialism, had its call immediately heeded

to, the majority of those who did return, 8000 of them comprised Punjab’s Sikhs.

Despite its apparent failure, the Ghadar movement was to have a powerful

15

Op cit., p 217.

28

impact on Punjab Politics and especially peasants, it established the tradition of

militant and secular, anti-imperialism, enriched in subsequent years by social

radicalism, which was to continue to inspire subsequent generations.

The peasant conferences were held in Lahore, Faisalabad, Lyallpur and

other places of west Punjab-the most famous among them being 1938-39 long

morcha in Lahore when peasants from all over Punjab courted arrests for nine

months in front of the assembly building. The slogan of pagri sambal O Jatta

(Hold your head high, Oh peasant) was first raised at the mass gathering in

Lyallur in 1907, Ten thousand people-The Hindus the Muslims and the Sikhs

alike-attended the gathering.

Farmers’ movement in Gujarat:

Mahatma Gandhi had led two great revolts of communities of poor Indian

Farmers’ against the tyranny of the British government and allied landlords in

Chapmparan, in Bihar, Kheda in Gujarath, success in both struggles had helped

win the farmers’ economic and civil rights and electrified India’s people.

In 1920, the Indian national congress under Gandhi leadership launched

the non-cooperation movement. Millions of Indians revolted against the British,

Boycotting the courts, government services, schools and disavowing titles,

pensions and British clothes and goods. The freedom fighters known as

satyagrahis, peacefully protested authoritarian British laws and called for India’s

independence, many thousand farmers were beaten tortured and arrested.

Bardoli Satyagraha:

Bardoli Sayagraha of (1925) in the state of Gujarath, India during the

British raj was a major event of civil disobedience and revolt in the Indian

independence movement. In 1925, the taluka of Bardoli in Gujarath suffered

from floods and famine, which hurt the crop, leaving Farmers’ facing great

financial troubles. However, the government of Bombay presidency had raised

the tax rate by thirty percent that year and despite petitions from civic groups,

refused to cancel the raise in the face of calamities. The situation for the

29

Farmers’ was grave enough, that they barely had enough property and crops to

pay off the tax, let alone for feeding themselves afterwards.

Gujarathi activists Narhari Parikh, Ravi Shankar Vyas and Mohanlal

Pandya talked to village chieftains and farmers and solicited the help of Gujarats

most prominent freedom fighter, Vallabbhai patel. Patel had previously guided

Gujarat’s Farmers’ during the Kheda struggles and had served recently as

Ahmedabads municipal president. He was widely respected by common

Gujaratis across the state. patel and Gandhi decided that the struggle be left

entirely to the people of Bhardoli taluka.

The government declared that it would crush the revolt. Along with tax

inspectors, bands of pathans gathered from North West India to forcibly seize

the property of the villagers and terrorize them. The pathans and the men of the

collectors forced themselves into the houses, took all property, including cattle.

The government began to auction the houses and lands. But not a single

man from Gujarath or anywhere else in India came forward to buy them. Patel

had appointed volunteers in every village to keep watch. As soon as he sighted

the officials who were coming to auction the property, the volunteer would

sound the bugle. The Farmers’ would leave the village and hide in the jungles.

The officials would find the entire village empty. They could never find out who

owned a particular house. Members of the legislative councils of Bombay’s and

across India were angered by the terrible treatment of the protesting farmers.

Indian members resigned their offices and expressed open support to farmers’

Even many in the British offices heavily criticized the government.

In 1928, an agreement was finally brokered by a parsi member of the

Bombay government. The government agreed to restore the confiscated lands

and properties, as well as cancel revenue payment not only for the year but

cancel 30% raise until after succeeding years, while patel credited Gandhis

teaching and the farmers’ undying resolve, people across the nation recognized

his vital leadership. Gandhi and his fellow satyagrahis call him sardar for the

30

first time, which in Gujarathi and most Indian languages means chief or leader.

It was after Bardoli, that Sardar patel became one of India’s most important

leaders.

Farmers’ movement in Rajasthan:

Rajasthan is known as the land of kings and palaces and whose history is

replete with encomium of their kings, the land known for sati, the land known

for its vast tracts of deserts was witness to a history in making, the successful

agitation of farmers and peasants for their right to livelihood.

The twenty two princely states of erstwhile Rajputana state did not form a

common political collectivity which can be termed as a unified political action

model. Each state had its own territorial area, which was exclusive politically in

that it had its separate administration and army of each state retained its cultural

and linguistic distinctiveness. Political authority varied from ruler to ruler

depending upon the terms of contract or convent with the paramount power

dating back to the period of subsidiary alliance of lord. Wellesley. Obviously in

a state like this, the freedom movement was bound to be divided and segmented,

depending upon the degree of unity and cohesiveness among political players in

each state. The two states of Jaipur and Jodhpur provided differential patterns of

political movements.

Justice Kan Singh in particular, the retired judge of the high court of

Rajastan, has written about exploitation of farmers’ by Jagirdars prior to

independence as under: “Everything that the kisan had, never treated as his own.

In Jagir areas all cultivators were really landless. There was no tenancy law and

one could be thrown away from the land one cultivated at the pleasure of

Jagirdar, his ‘malik’. In most of the Jagirs, a Jagirdar would in the first place be

taking fifty percent of the produce. This would be taken by actual division of the

produce on the thrashing floor or by appraisal of the standing crop (Kunta). Then

over and above the share of the produce the kisan had to pay numerous ‘Jags’ or

cesses. Together with the share of the produce known as ‘Hasil,’ these cesses

31

meant that the Kisans had to part with more than eighty percent of their produce.

This would be taken by actual division of the produce on the thrashing floor or

by appraisal of the standing crop (kunta). Then over and above the share of the

produce the kisan had to pay numerous ‘lags’ or cesses.

Together with the share of the produce known as ‘Hasil’, these cesses

meant that the kisans had to part with more than eighty percent of their produce.

The findings of the Sukhdeonarain Committee in the year 1940-42 bear this out.

If a kisan had to marry his daughter he had to pay “chavri lag”, to hold a dinner

then a ‘Kansa Lag’, if members of the family separated then ‘Dhunwa lag’ and

so on if the Jagirdar had a guest then fodder for his mount had to be supplied.

Then there was beggar that is forced labour, for tilling the personal lands of the

Jagirdar. The homestead in which the kisan lived in the ‘Abadi’ had to vacate in

case he ceased cultivating the land. He could not alienate the plot anyone.

Sri Kan Singh Parihar played a great role in drafting and enactment of

Marwar tenacy Act of 1949 and Marwar land revenue Act of 1949. Sri Parihars

idea of fixing all tenants cultivator possession as khatedars thus making all of

them almost the proprietors of all their fields, wells etc., without paying any

premium or compensation and further being relieved from paying any lag bag,

cesses etc., impacted these documents. This Marwar tenancy Act of 1949 and

Marwar land revenue Act of 1949 became a role model for the Rajasthan

assembly in 1955 and similar laws were passed based on these Acts thus greatly

benefiting the Farmers’ of Rajasthan.

Shekhawati Farmers’ movement:

The farmers of the Sekhawati region are considered to be the most

advanced in the state of Rajasthan. The Sekhawati regioin has the highest

literacy in the state. The most dominating farmer community in the rural areas of

Sekhawati is Jat. The Jats are politically and economically very sound. The

major land holdings are with jats, the Rajputs.

32

The condition of Farmers before independence was worst. The farmers’

of the region were exploited by the jagirdars during British Raj. They were

deprived of fundamental rights. They were given inhuman treatment when the

Jagirdars did not get their dues they were given hand punishments and their crop

used to be destroyed.

The farmers of shekawati, mainly jats united against oppression of

Jagirdars by forming ‘Sikar Jat-Kisan-Panchayat and stopped giving lags or

cesses to the Jagirdars. The jaipur praja mandal also supported the Shekhawati

farmers’ movement against abolition of Jagirdari system. The leaders of Bijoria-

Kisan-movement of 1922, 1931 and 1932 supported the movement of

Shekhawati farmers. The Jagirdars tried to suppress the movement of

Shekhawati farmers. The Jagirdars tried to suppress the movement in many

ways. Many farmers were killed and a large number were sent to jail. A jat

farmer was beaten to death in market of Sikar town, his dead body was thrown

and insulted. This movement got support from famous kisan leaders like Bladev

Ram mirdha, Nathuram Mirdha and Kumbharam Arya. After a long struggle the

farmers got rid of oppression and got the ownership right over land they were

cultivating.

Peasant movement TEVAGA in West Bengal just before independence,

1946, farmers of Nandigram, Sutahata and Mahishadal of South Midnapore

district revolt against Zamindari pratha. They demanded Adi nay Tevaga (1/3

cultivated crops would go to Zamindar and 2/3to the farmers). Bimala majee,

Ananta Majee and Bhupal Panda were the leaders of Tevaga in South

Midnapore. Hindu and Muslim peasants unitedly fought against Zamindars,

Zotdars. Participation of Hindu and Muslim, Women were significant in Tevaga.

Tevaga continues till 1949.

In 1958, the praja socialist party (PSP) launched a satyagraha for relief

measures for the famine stricken areas of Utter Pradesh and further organized

protest movements against irrigation Cess levies from Utter Pradesh farmers a

struggle for proper implementation of land ceilings in Bihar, an agitation against

33

heavy water tax in Rajastan, a movement against food scarcity and for

rehabilitation of landless labourers in Madhya Pradesh and the Blurt agitation

against oppressive forest laws in Rajastan are some of the significant peasant

movements organized by the Praja Socilist party (PSP) in recent years. The Praja

socialist party also organized a massive satyagraha for the settlement of the

landless labourers on grassland in the Paradi taluka of Gujarath state. The Praja

Socialist party prepared a comprehensive plan for launching civil disobedience

movements simultaneously in different parts of the country. ‘Ghera Dalo’

movement, started in Utter Pradesh during 1956 was part of this broad

programme. These struggles were mainly directed against high prices of food

grains and for relief measures in the famine stricken areas of Utter Pradesh. The

demands of the socialist party included (a) free kitchen and cheap food grain (b)

fixation of reasonable prices by the Government and legal action against the

hoarders and profiteers (c) remission of taxes, levies rents etc., in famine

stricken areas (d) fixation of ceiling and completion of land redistribution

programme within the prescribed time, and scaling down of irrigation rates and

(e) abolition of taxes on profit less agriculture etc.,16

According to the socialist party, the movements led by the CPI and PSP

are mere symbolic protest against the Governments agrarian policy while the

‘Ghera Dalo’ and other struggles launched by the SP involved direct action by

hungry peasants themselves.

“The socialist party’s approach towards peasant movements appears to be

more dynamic than that of the CPI and PSP. Nevertheless, the absence of a clear

perspective and resultant inconsistency and contradiction policy prevents its

leadership from developing any effective agrarian movement on a national

plane17

.

A non-Marxist, the Republication party of India combined the cause of

the agrarian proletariat and even lead their struggle at an all India level.

16

A.R. Desai, (1985), Peasant movements in India, Oxford university press, Bombay 1985, p. 748. 17

Mehta, Uday (1965) peasant movement in India New Delhi: the call, vii-xvi, Pp.14-16

34

The Revolutionary socialist party tried to build up class organizations of

the rural poor and agricultural labourers and championed their cause in India.

The period of late 1930’s together with the Post-war period 1947-50 saw

the most intense politically sponsored activity among middle and poor peasants

has occurred in south India. These agitations known as tenants agitation, such as

Kagodu18

Satyagraha in Karnataka during19

1950-51, Uttara-Kannada during

1950-70 etc., were carried over the issues such as forcible ejection, debts and

rents it took the forms of forcible occupation of lands and sometimes culminated

in violent agitations Although these kinds of agitations20

were very powerful in

1960’s its frequency varied between the states. According to home mistry

government of India these agitations were held in Assam, Utter Pradesh and

Andhra Pradesh. Three agitations were reported in Karnataka, Bihar, Orissa,

Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, witnessed only two agitations. As against this in

Maharastra, Gujarath only one incident was reported. There were also attempts

of violent agitations in Naxalbari, West-Bengal, which brought the Indian State

face-to face with the peasantry.

The other type of agitations, demanding secured employment, better

wages rights over certain share of the produce, better working conditions and

minimum wages were also noticed. This development has been due to the

agriculture where new technology use has resulted in the use of agricultural

labourers. This brought the farmers and laboures to face each other, in places

like Allepy Tanjore in 1968, Guntur, West-Godavari in Andra Pradesh. They

demanded more wages and received a severe blow when the peasantry ruthlessly

suppressed these agitations21

.

During 1960’s and 1970’s the peasantry effectively organized not only

within their village, but also regional, political level to protect its interest this led

18

G. Rajashekar, Kogodu satyagraha, Akshara, Shimoga, 1980. 19

G.V. Joshi, “tenant movements, land legislation and agrarian change, the case of uttar kannada, social

science probing vol-2, No-3, September 1985, pp 325-40. 20

Assadi, Muzaffar, Politics of peasant movement in Karnataka, 1980-87, thesis 21

Ibid , Assadi-p 67

35

them to a dual political battle22

facing the urban industrial class on the one hand

and the agricultural labourers on the other. In the 1960’s Sri Charansingh

emerged as the champion of the Farmers’ in the indo-Gangetic belt of Northern

India. With his emergence a new discourse of the Farmers started23

. He favored

the blending of Nehruvian and Gandhian strategy of development. He opposed

heavy Industries, state trading, believed in land of 25 to 27.5 acres as ideal

holdings and small scale low capital intensive Investment in agriculture. To

protect the interest farmers he opposed land tax in the Utter Pradesh Assembly

and played an important role in zamidari abolition Act, apposed surcharge on

land24

. Agrarian politics of India in this region took a massive strength and

defeated C.B. Guptas Government in 1967. subsequently Sri Charan sing formd

Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD) and Bharatiya Lokdal in (BLD) 1974. Even now

the Agrarain politics of Sri Charan Singh is being continued by his high highly

educated son Sri Arunsingh continuing in the congress ministry in the central

government with the Rastriya Likdal (RLD) as his political party.

Outside the political process the Farmers’ politics was growing in

strength, with non party agitations during 1970’s a big convention of Farmers’

was held in 1973 in New-Delhi. The farmers’ demanded procurement prices,

abolition of agricultural taxes25

. The other biggest convention was held in 1978.

On the eve of Sri Charan Singh’s birthday which presented the 20 point charter

of demands26

to the government of India. The demands like bridging the

imbalance between Agriculture and Industry, representation to farmers in

various decision making bodies, subsides for agricultural inputs, support prices,

decentralization of planning, reducing income parity more allocation of

resources to rural areas, opening up of kisan banks etc.,

22

Gail Omvedt - Land, caste and politics in the Indian state, teaching politics, New Delhi, 1982, p. 29 23

Charan Singh- Indias economic policy: The Gandhian, blueprint, vikas, New Delhi, 1978, pp 20-78. 24

Paul Bross “Division in the congress and the rise of agrarian interest and issues inUter Pradesh

politics, John wood, state politics in contemporary India, west view, Boulder and London, 1984, pp. 25-

28. 25

T.J. Byres “The new technology class formation and class action in the countryside, the journal of

peasant studies, vol-8, No-4, July 1981, p 444. 26

The Hindustan times, December 14, 1978.

36

With these developments the non-party farmers’ agitations increased in

different parts of India, especially in Tamilnadu and Punjab.

In Punjab27

, “Kethbari Zamindari union came into existence in 1972.

Which until 1980 carried six major struggles, such as in 1974 for anti-single

state food-zone in 1974-75 against power like, in 1975 against the increased

water rates, revenue and commercial taxes, in 1977-78 for replacement of

defective tractors, in the same year Diesel moscha and for remunerative

sugarcane price.

In Tamilnadu Vyavasigal Sangam (TNVS) was inaugurated in 1966

under the leadership of Sri Nrayana swamy Naidu. Between 1970’s and 1980’s

Tamilnadu Vyavasigal Sangam lead four important agitation28

. In 1970 the main

demand was focused on the electricity tariffs, this was also highlighted in 1972.

In 1974 Agricultural income tax, land tax, land cess, debt relief were added to

the demands of TNVS. In 1978 the TNVS concentrated on debt relief, reduction

of electricity charges, subsidies to agricultural labourers, procurement prices for

paddy, cotton and milk. In 1979 the procurement prices dominated their

agitations these agitations stressed Gandhian way of struggle for peaceful co-

existence-through agitations, Dharanas satyagrahas. In this way they appear

more as progressive movements. The real turning point was in the 1980’s29

,

when the objective conditions at all India level as well as in the regional areas

created a more favorable situation of Farmers’ movements to emerge on larger

scale.

Thus in 1980, in Maharasta Shekari Sanghtan under the leadership of

Sharad Joshi and Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) under the leadership

of Prof. M.D. Nanjundaswamy have created an atmosphere of bigger farmers’

movements across the regions of the Indian Union.

27

Hardeep Singh Gill emergence of Bharatiya Kissn union, Punjab, M. Phi dissertation, JNU, 1987

pp.11-30 28

Pandyan “Decrying the rural power in Tamilnadu EPW, vol-18, No-43 June 21, 1980, pp 11-82. 29

Assadi, Muzaffar-Peasant movements inIndia 1980-87, ph.D., Thesis, June 1988.

37

The Shetkari Sangatana of Maharastra became very influential in the

vidarba and Maratha-Wada region of Maharastra. Sharad Joshi, Educated, suave

leader, back from his career in World Bank appeared as a messiah of the

farmers’ of the region. Infact the all India media presented sharda Joshi as a

messiah of Indian farmers’, Shetkari Sanghatan was not based on a systematic

study of the agriculture of India. Shetkari Sangahatan main plank of agitation

revolved around one point programme of getting better price of the crops like

onion, cotton and milk. Prof. M.D. Nanjundaswamy termed the one point

programme of getting better price for a crop does not fully serve the problems of

farmers and rural areas30

. With the emergence of Sri V.P. Singh becoming the

Prime minister of the country in the general elections of 1989, Sharad Joshi

became part of the Government by becoming chief of the Agricultural price and

cost commission of Government of India.

Sri Charan Singh was the Champion of the Farmers of the Western UP,

Eastern Rajastan, Punjab and Haryana. Issues raised by Mr. Charansingh made

him the unchallenged leader of the farmers’ of North India. This leadership also

flowed from the hierarchical leadership as all of Groups of regions ultimately

culminating in the caste leadership. The Sikhs of the northern India states of

Punjab, Harayana, Eastern Rajasthan and Western Utter Pradesh were

systematically organized under the supreme leader in Mr. CharanSingh. With the

demise of Sri Charan singh, The mantle of leadership came to Sri Mahendra

singh tikaith of Sisouli village in Bhagpath distict of Utter Pradesh state. Sri

Mahendra singh tikaith is 6 foot 2’’ tall, broad frame, rustic and down to earth

farmer, lead the Farmers of Northern India as a big force. Unlike Charansingh,

who presented a powerful political personality, Mahendrasingh Tikaith

presented a non-political farmers’ leadership. The outfit of farmers’ was called

Bharath Kisan Union (BKU). After the formation of Bharat Kisan Union it

30

In a conversation in Manvi, Raichur District, In the study camps organized by Raichur unit of KRRS,

5-7 May 1985.

38

stretched its influence in the whole of North India. Bharath Kisan Union leader

Mahendra singh tikaith appeared as a real messiah of the Indian Farmers.

By then the whole of India had been subjected to one or the other

farmers’ agitation. Under the leadership of Prof. M.D. Nanjundaswamy of

Karantka Rajya Ryoth Sangha (KRRS) an Interstate co-ordination committee of

Farmers (ICC) was formed in Hyderabad in 1982. This Interstate Co-ordination

committee led many agitations at the All India level. Kurj-mukth was one of the

movements. Bharath Kisan Union called for a panchayath in Delhi, being filled

with Bullock carts. New-Delhi area wore the look of villages of India being

converged in New-Delhi. The demand of the farmers in the agitation was better

procurement price for the farmers’ produce and to demand for writing-off of

farmers’ loan, ‘Kurz-mukthi. Delhi was shocked for the large turnout of

Farmers. The Government of India had to inevitably recognize the emerging

strength of rural India in the weeklong Mahapanchayth held in New-Delhi.

Bharath Kisan Union is still powerful in representing farmers of North India

under the leadership of Narendra singh tikaith, son of Mahendra singh Tikaith.

Farmers’ Agitation in Karnataka:

The Farmers’ agitation in Karnataka in the 1970’s and 1980’s reflected in

raising the issues of ‘land to the tillers’31

. This was able to have influence on

middle and small categories of Farmers’ and took them into its fold32

. With this

the Farmers’ agitation looked more as a socialist movement. In fact Hamza

Alan33

and Eric-wolf34

located the middle peasantry as a revolutionary potential

which other writers fail to notice. The 1980’s Farmers’ agitation has a distinct

Character of itself by including agricultural labourers as the part of the agitation

unlike the Farmers’ agitation of the 1970’s which reflected the protection of

Group interests. There was a strong influence of socialist ideology among the

31

Assadi, Muzaffar, peasant movements in Karnaktak: 1980-87, Ph.D. thesis, JNU, P.78 32

Ibid, p-78 33

Hamza Alan peasant & revolution Kathleen Caugh and Hari P. Sharma (ED) imperials & revaluation,

New-York 1973, Pp. 293-334. 34

Eric wolf-peasant wars of 20th century” Faber, London 1977,p-291.

39

leaders which specifically believed that village poor’s interest can be better

served in organizing the peasantry and not by splitting it into its various

sections35

.

Farmer’s agitations in the 1970’s:

Shimoga Kabbu belegarara Sangha: Shimoga District got their lands irrigated

through Bhadra reservoir project which came up bordering Shimoga and

Chikmagalur districts. The newly irrigated land also was exposed to sugar cane

cultivation. A sugar mill Tungabhadra Sugars of Mayura Industries came up in

the command. The exploitation of sugarcane farmers by the sugar mills led to

the formation of shimoga kabbu belagarara Sangha. The Sangha was fighting for

remunerative prices, payment of over dues and higher price for sugar cane36

.

This SZKBS is the foreumer for later Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha. The

activites of Shimoga Zilla kabbu belegarara sangha under which they carried

their struggle appeared more to be a trade-union movement37

.

At the other end the farmers of Tungabhadra command, Bellary District

agitating for better deal for farmers’ appeared almost as Karnataka Rajya Ryota

Sangha demands. The demands of Bellary farmers included writing-off of

agricultural loans, declaring agriculture as an industry, establishment of small

and cottage industries, floor price for agricultural produce. Reduced interest,

scrapping of agricultural income tax, exemption of taxes on agricultural

machinery, dissolution of land tribunals, increase in the ceiling of irrigated land,

low input price, restoring the lands, remunerative prices for sugarcane,

cancelling of collection of market cess, construction of irrigation tanks,

scrapping of levy of paddy etc.38

, Many of the demands of the Bellary Farmers

sowed the seeds for the later Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha in the 1980’s

35

Acharya Narendradeva- Socialism and national revolution Puna publications, Bombay 1946, Pp-46-47. 36

Shimoga Zilla kabbu belegarara singha, Karyakari mandaliya vishesha manavi, September 7, 1975.

SZKBS Sarvasadsyara vishesh sabhe resolution nov. 22, 1978. 37

Assadi, Muzaffar, the peasant movement of Karnatka 1980-7. Ph.D. thesis of JNU 38

District Farmers conference of Bellary distinct, resolution, 24 October 1977.

40

Karnataka Sugarcane Growers Association39

was formed in 1977 and they

prepared a charter of demands of the Sangha. It’s principal demands were

uniform levy prices, parity prices between agricultural produce and the industrial

commodities, reasonable electric power charges, nationalization of private sugar

factories, new accounting for transport charges, adequate arrangements of loans,

establishment of sugar boards, and Diversifying the purchase tax for rural

development programmes. This Association also paved the way for later

formation of a unique Farmer’s association in Karnataka.

Dakshina Bharatha Sanna belegara Okkuta:

Small Growers Association of South India was established in 197840

. this

assoicatioin is unique in itself from the Association of Sugar cane Growers, on

the matter of taking up issues of commercial crops such as coffee, cardamom

and paddy. The activities of this Sangha were confined to Shimoga, Hassan and

Chkmagalur districts. Its main activities were confined to opposition to the levy

system, attachment of farmers property, placing restrictions on the movement of

food grains. One of the important action programmed for the movement, is to

break the check post at the border of Mudigere taluk and beginning of Dakshina

Kannada Distinct, Karkala taluk under the leardship of Prof. M.D.

nanjundaswamy and Sri N.D. Sundaresh. The demands of the Okkuta included

uniform market prices, supply of inputs through Co-operatives, increase in the

quality of loans, remunerative prices, establishment of Sugar factories

nationalization of coffee processing and business41

.

Most of the leaders of this movement were from socialist background of

Lohia and Santaveri Gopalagowda, so they lead this agitation successfully. Since

these leaders had a long tactical experience in organizing the farmers hardly any

challenge developed against their capacity for leading the movement42

. This

39

Karnataka Pradesh sugarcane Growes Association memorandum submitted to Sri K Bhanu Pratap

Singh, union minister of state for agriculture & irrigation Tumkur, November 7, 1977. 40

Dakshina Bharata Sanna belegarara Okkuta, levy Thade virodhi Chaluvali, mudigere. 41

Ibid, Mudigere, n.d. 42

Assadi Mazaffar, Karnaktka peasant movement 1980-89, ph.D thesis, JNU.

41

skillful capacity to lead the movement paid them rich dividends in the form of

the Farmers’ movement of the 1980’s

The beginning of the 1980’s in Karnataka presented a favourable

atmosphere for a sustained farmers’ movement to take its birth. Particularly in

the newly irrigated commands of Malaprabha and Gathaprabha areas in the

middle part of Karnataka covering the districts of Darwad, Belagavi and Bijapur.

This area represented an accumulation of contradiction between Agriculture and

Industry on the one hand and the peasant and the state on the other43

. This

contradiction in the conditions of 1980 resulted in the Farmers’ of this command

area coming together to lead an agitation of farmers, to last a long time in terms

of mobilization and influence not only in Karnataka but also at the All India

level.

Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangaha (KRRS): a new discourse:

The new discourse of the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangh (KRRS) is

expressed explicitly when they argue that the farmers’ are the honest people

living in villages and working hard to derive their livelihood, but still they live in

object poverty. For this farmers have not been able to find the reasons, knew

they have been responsible for their poverty44

.

The causes for their poverty and indebtedness are not farmers themselves,

but due to the policies towards agriculture like levy policy, price policy, credit

policy, revenue policies which have been responsible for their poverty45

.

Pricing Policy:

Pricing of all other sectors of the economy have freedom to fix their

goods price taking into consideration costs to take care of their living and also

43

V.N. Halakatti-Kisan uprising in Karnataka: beginning of a peasant movement state and society, vol-2

July-Sept, 1980, p60. 44

Why farmers agitation-Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) 1982, Shimoga, p.13 45

Ibid.p.13

42

fixing the price keeping better profit margin can fix a free price, Whereas

agriculture has no liberty to fix a remunerative price for their produce46

.

To fix the price of agricultural commodities the state has created

Agricultural price commission. This commission also has to take into

consideration cost of cultivation and a price which can compensate the costs of

living of the Farmers’. Their produce pricing is not based on any of these

considerations. The government has not made policies for price fixation. So the

prices fixed by the commission rob the farmers. And there are no policies to

stabilize the prevailing prices to rule from sowing to harvesting47

.

Instead of passing essential laws like this, the state has created a dual

market. An agricultural market and also a levy policy for agricultural crops exist

side by side. This type of dual market does not exist for other occupations.

The Farmers of Karnataka, according to the levy law, from 1966 to 1982,

they have surrendered two crores of quintals of food crops to the state at thirty

percent lower price from the market price. That comes to around 60 crores of

rupees of food grains, farmers’ have lost48

.

In addition to this, from 1966-83, the Farmers of Karnataka have

produced 300 crore quintals of crops they have sold in the open agricultural

markets. Because of no policy to stabilize the prices from harvest to harvest, the

business commonly has been enabled to loot Farmers at Rs. 30 to 40 Rs. Per

quintal. In this loot the Farmers have lost Rs. 5,000-00 to 6,000-00 crores over

the period. In the prevailing market prices and the actual cost of cultivation for

the Farmers in tobacco, sugarcane, paddy, Jowar, Ragi, Cotton the loss is around

Rs. 2,000-00 cores over the period. These have been responsible for the poverty

of Farmers and rural India49

.

46

Ibid.p.13 47

Ibid.p.13 48

Ibid.P.14 49

Ibid.P.15

43

Created Indebtedness:

The Karnataka Rajjaya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) Says, that the government

which has looted farmers at lower prices says farmers are indebted. The debt the

farmers have to pay for the state and private Banks is around 100 crores, but the

looted amount alone stands at Rs. 6,000-00 crores. Therefore it is not the

Farmers who are indebted to the state but the state is indebted to the Farmers50

.

The Credit policy lacking sense:

The Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) says the credit policies lack

common sense. It applied the credit policy in the same way as they lend to

industry and business and to agriculture which is subjected to uncertainties in

rainfall, sometime excess, sometimes drought. So Agriculturist have to borrow at

13 percent interest and sometimes compound interest which makes it 16 percent,

all these works at 20 percent interest, with this documentation costs and

corruption at all levels include it comes to 24 percent51

. So it is unjustified for

the state to impose this unjust interest on the agricultural loans. The state must

provide loans for agriculture without interest52

. What the Government says the

loan farmers have to pay the government has already been repaid already, argues

Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha.

Step-motherly Tax Policy:

Even in taxation the state is following unjust Laws, like land revenue,

water tax, Betterment levy and income tax lacks the character of progressive

taxation, they are feudal in character and also unscientific in their practice.

Taxing of inputs of production is also unscientific; Land and Water, like

air and light are inputs in agriculture. These cannot be taxed. By using these

inputs, the produced output can be taxed as is being followed in other activities

50

Ibid.P.15 51

Ibid.P.15 52

Ibid.P.15

44

of production. So taxing input should be stopped at once argues Karnataka Raya

Ryota Sangha (KRRS).

Even imposing Betterment levy is also illogical, speaks of lack of sense

on the part of state to perceive increase in the value of land due to irrigation.

There is some reason in taxing the produce in the irrigated land but not irrigated

land. Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) Fought against this levy and got it

abolished in 198053

says the Farmer’s organization.

Even in the imposition of Agricultural income tax, the state has been

unjust in its action. Whereas in other sectors on income of Rs. 22,000-00 per

year invites income tax. But for Agriculture it is imposed on the holdings of land

it is imposed. This lacks sense of justice and wisdom. The farmers’ movement

got taxing food crops stopped in 1980 through their agitation54

.

Even in charging for electricity also the state exhibited its cunningness. In

pricing urban use of light for housing, commercial purposes is charged less when

compared to charges of lighting in villages and use in running irrigation pump

sets55

. Therefore even in charging power tariffs, the state should discriminate the

use a charge like other activities.

Demand for parity price:

Government dual pricing policy, unjust credit policy and tax policies have

pauperized farmers of India, more than this the cheating of Farmers is increasing

in not regulating the price of industrial products. The industrial products are

marketed with temporarily pegged up prices. This is a process of keeping

farmers poor for even by allowing industries to price exorbitantly their products.

For example increase in the price of chemical fertilizers also from 1972 to 1982

the industries have looted Rs. 400 crores. In 1979-80 alone they have looted Rs.

58 crores, this loot is continuing even today56

.

53

Ibid.P.16 54

Ibid.P.16 55

Ibid.P.16 56

Ibid.P.17

45

Therefore the pricing of industrial products and agricultural produce

should be on the same principle of pricing; only then the poverty of farmers can

be removed57

, argued Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS).

In pricing of the agricultural produce the value of labour calculated in

terms of the value of man-hours, cost of cultivation and cost of leading a life of

dignity should be the base58

. So even pricing industrial products, pricing should

also include cost of raw-material and real value of labour in terms of man-hours

should be included. So in pricing of both the sector output valuing of human

labour should be based on the same values of valuation and marketing price

should also be based on common values in determining the rate of profit59

. To

accomplish the parity price between Agriculture an industry, the world follows a

policy of industrial product pricing, not exceeding 1 ½ times of the cost. To

achieve the parity price, the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) argues this

is the only way60

.

Reasonable pricing for different agricultural crops:

The Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) has calculated the price of

different agricultural crops, which has also been accepted by the Farmers

Associations at the all India level. The prices are for Paddy Rs. 200 Sugar cane

per tone Rs. 200, Cotton Rs. 1000 to 1200 per quintal, Maize, Ragi, Bajra Rs.

200, groundnut Rs. 500 per quintal, Onion and potato Rs. 100 per quintal,

Tobacco Rs. 20 per kg61

.

These prices, argues the movement, if ensured for Farmers, Farmers can

be made free from indebtness. The Farmers of Karnataka, keeping the loot since

independence , are organizing themselves to fight with the state for writing-off

of unjust loans, dues of revenues and returning the properties of farmers

appropriated by the state and to start a new life with loans without interest for

57

Ibid.P.17 58

Ibid.P.17 59

Ibid.P.17 60

Ibid. P.17 61

Ibid. P.18

46

deriving scientific price for their crops. Until these are realized the Karnataka

Rajya Ryota Sangha call for no-payment of tax to the state62

.

New life to Agricultural labourers:

The problem of small farmers and Agricultual labourers is a serious issue

in the rural India. To remove these problems the government should declare

Agriculture as an industry argues the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS).

Then all laws of Industrial labour should be extended to the agricultural

labourers. In addition to scientific prices for its produce it is also important

scientific wage for the labourers should be implemented63

.

It is also important that the wasteland should be distributed to the landless

and the state should assist them for cultivation; this reduces pressure on the

existing agricultural land. Also starting Cottage Industries, Small Industries in

order to generate employment should be taken up- argues the movement64

. With

these housing for the agricultural labourers who have been neglected for a long

time, have to provided. So that they can start a new social living, free scholling

for their children, health facilities and pension for their old age65

-argues

Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS).

At no-cost ownership of lands to the tenants:

Karnatka Rajya Ryota Sangha also reiterates its commitment to ensure

ownership rights of land to the tenants without any payment what so-ever as per

the land reforms law. The state should ensure their ownership rights and pay

land looser at one payment66

.

Planning for Villages:

Another important argument of Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha is

Demand major share of the national cake for the villages of India. They demand

62

Ibid. P.18 63

Ibid. P.18 64

Ibid. P.18 65

Ibid. P.19 66

Ibid. P.19

47

since 80 percent of the population lives in villages, the planning process has

completely neglected these villages and direct resources to flow for urban areas,

where only 20 percent of the population lives. This should change to 80 percent

of the resources of India should flow to Rural areas so that life is rural India can

be made better67

.

Reservation in Educational Institution and employment:

To increase the participation of the children of the agriculturist in various walks

of life like, education and employment, 50 percent of the reservation be given to

them68

argues Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha.

Other demands of the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha69

:

1. The uses of tractors and trailers for agricultural purposes have to be freed

from any restrictions.

2. Cane purchase price imposed on Sugar-cane growers has created burden on

them, this should be removed at once.

The Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha also indicates to achieve success in

writing –off of all loans, Revenue and to get scientific price for agricultural

produce, to realize healthy villages and to change the planning priorities it needs

a persistent agitation70

.

The states which are treating rural India in a step motherly attitude, to

take control of them, controlling beauracracy which keeps troubling always, the

looter of agriculture, the corrupt officials, industry and trade and commerce, we

have to identify ways to control them through our agitation to establish equality

with other sectors of the Indian economy. This need dedicated and perseverant

67

Ibid. P.19 68

Ibid. P.120 69

Ibid. P.19 70

Ibid. P.20

48

fight for the workers of the movement to established justice-avers the

movement71

.

The issues the organizers of the movement to disseminate with the

Farmers’:

The Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) is a well organized cadre

based organization, the organization train workers on issues which are very

essential for the farmers to know-about72

.

1. Farmers’ indebtedness is a lie. The cheating price policy of the state,

unjustifiable taxes, unethical interest on his loan have made him indebted to

the state.

2. The goods farmers’ purchases have been enormously priced by the collusion

of the state with industrialists have facilitated looting of the farmers’ by the

industrialists.

3. Our industries have no capacity to compete with foreign producers.

Therefore they need raw materials at cheap price, labours at low wages and

prices of food articles should not raise. Urban people to purchase their

goods, they should not spend more on food. So to keep the urban people

happy the farmers’ have to live in poverty.

4. Because of these reasons minimum price is fixed for the food crops and

imposition of levy on farmers. In this levy account only the farmers have

given free food of Rs. 60 crores. Total loss in looting price the farmers have

lost Rs. 3000 to Rs. 4000 crores.

5. The farmers who are already in difficulties, is imposed with high interest

rates and high revenue charging have pauperized the Farmers of the State.

The government’s bad revenue policy, credit policy and pricing policies are

responsible for the poverty of Farmers’.

71

Ibid. P.21 72

Ibid. P.21

49

Reliefs from these problems:

The Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha which has identified problems has

also tried to give reliefs to the farmers. The relief measures are73

.

1. The misery inflicted on farmers should be removed by the state itself. The

debts imposed on the farmers have to be repaid by the State. Revenue

dues should also be cleared by the state. The loan and revenue over dues

are not more than Rs. 100 crore.

2. The system of looting should be dismantled, the villages have to start a

new life. For this all debt of Farmers’ has to be written-off. All over-dues

of taxes should be written-off. In future the farmers should be ensured

with scientific price so that he can never be in debt, all taxes should be

removed.

3. In addition to this, the Industries which are making huge profits, their

price should be based on scientific consideration. The price of Farmers

produce and industrial produce should have equal profitability. The

luxury life in urban areas by looting farmers should be stopped. The

incomes of the urban people should be limited. Land in rural areas, urban

commercial property should also have a ceiling.

The path of agitation:

The Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) has a clear view of its agitation

path like74

1. The Farmers should come out of slavery; they should declare that the

imposed debt should be refused. Paying various taxes should also be

refused. Paying various taxes should also be refused, and should refuse

paying levy.

73

Ibid. P.22 74

Ibid. P.22

50

2. What is saved on these should be used for conducting current agricultural

operation on their farms.

3. Even though the yield is low, when market price is high, the Farmers’

should sell their produce when the market price is equal to the price fixed

by the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) the KRRS should try build

markets for the Farmers.

4. After this, the farmer’s lot will see some improvement, now industrialists

will use this opportunity to enormously increase the prices of goods, now

the farmers should refuse to purchase these goods, instead the farmers

should start producing handloom clothes in villages, soap, Jaggery,

Slippers, match box should be produced in the village with KRRS taking

the lead.

5. The corruption of the urban people to lead a luxury life should be fought

by KRRS.

6. The Farmers should never pay corruption to anybody under any

compelling circumstances.

7. The KRRS should supervise the officials involved in public service

resorting to corruption.

8. Farmers should oppose the ostentationus living which breeds corruption.

For this the luxury hotels, luxury production of cloth, Hitech School,

luxurious business, sales of luxury articles should be closed. All people

live a quality and simple life which gives no scope for corruption.

Partyless agitation:

The KRRS calls for the agitation of Farmers’ to free from political

shades, then only the farmers problems can be effectively tackled75

.

75

Ibid. P.24

51

1. The agitation of the KRRS should be by only Farmers. At no point

political interests can infiltrate in this agitation. Because the political

parties and politicians are funded by industry, trade and commerce.

Therefore political parties work for the funding masters, never for the

farmers cause.

2. Also the workers of the political parties generally will be untrained and

irresponsible workers working for a cause. People with low education,

low moral personalities are the nature of workers in the existing political

parties.

3. Political parties are most of the time silent on many issues, when people

organize for a cause then parties enter to take the leadership with a view

to get votes. The political party does not exhibit the character of

organizing people to fight for cause. Therefore farmers should reject all

existing political parties.

4. Even press most of the time serves the interest of irresponsible political

parties. Therefore the organizers should be careful about press, when they

play to break, disorganize people by reporting wrong news.

Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS): the structure of Organization76

:

Name of the organization –Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) Units:

1. The KRRS at state level will have four levels of organization village or

panchayat unit will be primary unit of organization Taluk level organization

District level organization state level organization

The Primary unit will have freedom in organizing the unit, a minimum of

15 members with 5 percent of representation to agricultural labourers.

One representative from Panchayat to taluk Committee one taluk

Committee representative to Jilla Committee one Jilla committee representative

to State Committee.

76

Ibid. P.19

52

Office bearers:

There will be one president, secretary and treasurer for all the four level of the

committee.

The above office bearer should not be the members of any political party.

Membership:

Any individual who is interested in the problems of Farmers can be members of

the organization.

Membership fee:

There is option in member ship-the fee is a minimum of one Rs to 25 Rs.

Donations can be collected from the members of the organization.

The membership of the dry land villages is Rs. 300/- irrigated village fee is

Rs. 900/-. The organizations at taluk, district and state organizations share this

fee equally.

Party less organization:

KRRS should be party less

Relationship with other organization:

If the other farmers’ organizations are party less the KRRS can have relations

built with such organizations.

The Farmers Committees of political parties:

The KRRS should not have any relations with them. The KRRS should works

with its units at different level not with any other type of committees.

Objectives of KRRS:

To keep fighting for continuous exploitation and injustice for Farmers and

agricultural labourers. The fight on issues should be purely non-violent in

nature77

.

77

Ibid. P.26

53

Table 1: The loot of the Farmers through dual pricing according to

Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KKRS)

From 1966 to 1980 involving only cereals, pulses, Sugarcane and cotton,

in crores of quintals, in total farmers have grown 260 crore quintals of food

grains.

1966-67 11.20 1973-74 17.59

1967-68 13.06 1974-75 17.63

1968-69 15.06 1975-76 18.77

1969-70 14.25 1976-77 16.23

1970-71 15.38 1977-78 19.86

1971-72 16.29 1978-79 20.60

1972-73 13.83 1979-80 20.60

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

Out of this nearly 100 crores quintals of food grains which has gone to

market, through differences in price during the harvest to the next harvest season

with at difference of Rs. 30 to 40 per quintal the state has looted Rs 3000 to Rs.

4000 crores with the involvement of agents of the market78

.

Table 2:Farmers loot through levy on Paddy (Quantity in tonnes)

1967-68 92701 1973-74 1,86,169

1968-69 1,91,760 1974-75 2,60,552

1969-70 1,03,095 1975-76 97,608

1970-71 20,224 1976-77 64,804

1971-72 62,388 1977-78 1,40,911

1972-73 76,707 1978-79 65,571

1973-74 1,73,987 1979-80 8,785

Source: Why Farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha, 1982, Shimoga

78

Ibid. P.28

54

According to the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) the total levey

collected in Karnataka in paddy alone is 14,55,260 tonnes with this Ragi, Jowar

is also collected.

In Paddy alone around 1 ½ core quintal of paddy is collected at a lower

price than the market price, at Rs. 30 less than the market price the government

has looted Rs. 45 crores from Farmers.

From 1983-84 government is collecting 40 percent of the paddy as levy

from the Rice mills. This is worse the direct collection of levy from the Farmers.

This levy is more than four times of the earlier levy policy. The KRRS calls for a

serious fight against this levy policy79

.

Table 3: Loot of the Farmers through Chemical fertilizers (By increasing

the price of fertilizers the State loot) (quantity in tones)

1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1976 1978 1979 1980

Urea 940 2028 - 2028 1799 1696 1593 - 1980

Super

phosphate

410 1050 - - 615 529 518 600 800

Postash 493 1180 - 1180 830 725 725 800 1100

Omonium

sulphate

524 - - - - - - 100 1700

Mixers 1052 2823 2354 2576 2024 2003 2003 2240 3040

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

Over and above this marketing price Rs. 50/- per tone profit for the

retailer should be included.

Table 4: The use of these Chemical fertilizers by Karnataka Farmers’ (in

lakh tones)

1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 1979-80

4.4 4.25 4.4 4.4 6.0 6.0 6.0

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

79

Ibid. P.29

55

The Farmers of Karnataka have purchased from 1973-74 around 30 lakh

tones of Fertilizers in 1979-80 they have purchased 6 lakh tones.

By increasing the price of fertilizers 1973-79, the companies have looted

farmers by Rs. 400 crores and Rs. 93 lakhs.

This is happening almost every year80

The Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha has also calculated the cost of

production of almost every crop.

Table 5: Cost of Cultivation of Jowar81

(under Irrigation) (all in 1982 prices)

1. Ploughing 150=00

2. Compost Manure 200=00

3. Transport & Spread 30=00

4. Seed 33=00

5. Crop (inter Cultivation) 20=00

6. Chemical manure 168=00

7. Transport and Spread 26=00

8. inner ploughing 60=00

9. Weeding (twice) 180=00

10. Chemicals & Pesticides 100=00

11. Watch & ward 540=00

12. Harvest & transport 226=00

13. Transport to market 27=00

14. Interest for 6 months at 15 percent 1760

15. Capital Rs. 5000 crore interest at 10 percent 132=00

16. Taxes 600=00

Yield at 12 quintal per acre 2494=50

A. Cost of producing one quintal of Jowar is 207.87

At market price of 105 1260=00

B. for 12 quintals total loss 1234=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

80

Ibid. P.30. 81

Ibid. P.31

56

Table 6: Cost of Cultivation of Jowar per acre82

(non irrigated) 1982 prices)

1. 2 ploughing 40=00

2. Inner Ploughing (2 times) 40=00

3. Levelling (ploughing) 20=00

4. Compost manure 180=00

5. Spreading 10=00

6. Seeds 21=00

7. Sowing & Covering 30=00

8. Chemical manure (30 to 50 kg) 125=00

9. Transport and Spreading 10=00

10. Inner Cultivation (2 times) 40=00

11. Labour (inner cultivation) 20=00

12. Weeding (2 times) 80=00

13. Chemicals Pesticides (2 times) 80=00

14. Sprayer Rent (10x2) 20=00

15. Sprinkling (20x2) 40=00

16. guarding (45 days) 225=00

17. Cutting 50=00

18. Putting it in harvest field 30=00

19. Cutting the shelf 20=00

20. Pounding stone 30=00

21. airing (cleaning) 8=00

22. Bag and transport to house 5=00

23. transport to market 25=00

24. Boarding charges for labourers 312=50

Total 1417=50

at 18 percent interest to the society land value at 4000 Rs.

interest at 12 percent

128=00

A. Total expenditure 480=00

B. Total yield of 4 quintal at market price of Rs. 150 420=00

Lay cost 45=00

loss (A-B) 1560=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

82

Ibid. P.33

57

Table 7 : Cost of Cultivation of Ragi per acre (none irrigated) (in Rs.) (1982 prices)

1. Two Ploughing 40=00

2. Inner cultivation 20=00

3. Stuff cultivation 20=00

4. Compost manure (6 car/load) 180=00

5. Splashing manure 10=00

6. Seeds (2 kg) 4=00

7. Level ploughing 30=00

8. Chemical fertilizers 187=00

9. Transport of manure & spreading 20=00

10. Inner Cultivation-1 40=00

11. Inner cultivation-2 20=00

12. Weeding 80=00

13. Pesticides 18=00

14. Spraying & Rent of Sprayer 30=00

15. Watch & ward 75=00

16. Cutting 50=00

17. Stocking (Hay hill) 50=00

18. Harvesting 72=00

19. Bags & transport 5=00

20. Transport to market 25=00

21. Expenses in market (85 x 2 ½ ) 212=00

Total cost 1188=00

22. Interest for the expenditure cost at (18 % ) 214=00

23. Capital for the lands 480=00

Total 1882=00

Production 4 quintals x 120 480=00

nay two cart loads 80=00

total productivity 560=00

loss 1332=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982. Shimoga, P.35-36.

58

Table 8: Cost of Cultivation of Ragi in irrigated land per acre (at 1982

prices)

1. Bunds mending 25=00

2. Ploughing 150=00

3. Nursery 53=00

4. Compost (5 cart loads) 125=00

5. Spreading Manure 30=00

6. Inner Cultivation 81=00

7. Chemical fertilizer 316=00

8. fertilizers transport & spreading 20=00

9. Transportation 100=00

10. Weeding (twice) 100=00

11. Pesticides (2 times) 46=00

12. Watch & ward 30=00

13. Harvesting & transport 226=00

14. Transport to market 27=00

Total 1329=00

Interest for Six months 120=00

Interest on Capital 600=00

2049=00

Land revenue 2=00

2051

Production 9 quintals X 115 1035=00

hay 75=00

total income 1110=00

loss to the grower 940=50

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

59

Table 9: Cost of Cultivation per acre of Chilli production (in 1982 prices)

1. Nursery 134=00

2. Ploughing 150=00

3. Compost (5 cart loads) 125=00

4. Spreading compost 30=00

5. Inner cultivation 512=00

6. Chemical manure 316=00

7. Transportation & Spreading 20=00

8. Transplanting 60=00

9. Weeding (2 times) 180=00

10. Pesticides 100=00

11. Plucking fruits 280=00

12. Transport and drying 29=00

13. Transport to market 40=00

14. RMC Commission & porting 81=00

15. Revenue (Land) 2=00

16. Packaging 28=00

Total 2087=00

17. Interest for the expenditure 188=00

18. interest on the land capital 600=00

2875=00

Production of 3 quintals X 500 1500=00

Total loss 1375=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

60

Table 10: Cost of Cultivation of Virginia Tobacco per acre (at 1982 prices)

1. Ploughing 180=00

2. Plant cost 150=00

Preparing Bed – 5 for 10,000 photos 11=00

½ cart load manure – seed Transport 25=00

3. Transplanting-

Watering 100=00

applying manure I time 432=00

spreading this manure 32=00

4. Inner ploughing 40=00

Soil bunding 30=00

Ridging 20=00

Inner Cultivation 180=00

2nd

time manure 112=00

5. pesticides I spray 112=00

II spray 224=00

Parathian spray 62=00

6. Leaves Plucking 125=00

Preparing leaves for the barne 270=00

7. Fuel 850=00

8. Watching the barne 216=00

9. Barne unloading 40=00

10. leaves unstitching 50=00

11. Grading 150=00

12. Packing 16=00

13. Parcel and transporting 25=00

Total 3452=00

14. Interest on expenditure 400=00

interest on Barne 225=00

Depreciation 100=00

15. Interest on capital 112=00

16. Depreciation of instruments 150=00

Total cost 30=00

Production 400 to 450 kg x at Rs. 8/- 3600=00

Total loss for the Grower 839=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

61

Table 11: Cost of Cultivation of Jowar per acre83

(non irrigated) 1982

prices)

1. Ploughing charges 150=00

2. Compost 3 cart loads 200=00

3. Rice mills ash -10 cart loads 52=00

4. Transport & Spreading 210=00

5. Seeds 270=00

6. Seeding Instrument charges 26=00

7. Chemical fertilizers 300=00

8. Transport and Spreading 20=00

9. Inner Cultivation (3x 20) 60=00

10. Weeding (2 times) 180=00

11. Pesticides 50=00

12 Watch & Ward 75=00

13. Plucking charges 210=00

14. Transport & drying 56=00

15. Transport to market 45=00

1908=00

16. Interest for this expenditure 142=00

17. Land as a capital interest at 12% 600=00

18. revenue 2=00

(a) total expenditure (per quintal 442.16) 2653=00

(b) total earning for 6 quintals 250x6 = 1500 1500=00

Total loss A-B 1153=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

83

Ibid. P.33.

62

Table 12: Cost of Paddv Cultivation in one acre84

(irrigated) (1982 prices in

Rs).

1. Bunding 64=00

2. Tilling nursery 37=50

3. Nursery (readying) 16=00

4. Compost for nursery 25=00

5. Seeds (24 kg) 76=00

6. Seeds Spreading & Closing with soil 8=00

7. Chemical manure-nursery 35=50

8. Pesticides for nursery 21=00

9. Watering & Water of the nursery 56=00

10. 10 cart loads of compost for paddy field 250=00

11. Spreading of the manure 32=00

12. ploughing the land four times 400=00

13. Chemical manure 150 kg 663=00

14. transport & spreading 31=00

15. Transplantation 150=00

16. Levelling the land 24=00

17. Weeding (3 times) 110=00

18. Pesticides 78=00

2077=00

19. Pesticide second time 78=00

20. Supervision, watering & others 600=00

21. Harvesting & preparing the plot for clearing 244=00

22. Pounding for harvest 98=00

23. Airing 32=00

24. Transport of Paddy to home or market 60=00

25. Bags & Miscellaneous 52=50

Total, Expenditure 3241=90

26. Rate of interest for this expenditure private loan at 24% 56=00

27. At 12% of land capital 300=00

28. Water tax and revenue 36=00

29. Allowing fallow for six months in three years & raising

green manure.

2578=00

30. Expenditure of living in this time for the year 859=00, six

months

429=00

(a) Total expenditure 4663=15

(b) Total production 15 quintals 15 x 125 1875=00

Hay 500 packs 100=00

Loss 1-b 2688=15 Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

84

Ibid. P.33.

63

Table 13: Cost of Cultivation of one acre paddy in Malnad areas of Karnataka (in 1982 prices)

1. Preparing the land 511=00

2. Nursery, Seed, Compost 150=00

3. Transplantation 130=00

4. Compost for the total area 150=00

5. Weeding 50=00

6. Bunding & fencing 55=00

7. Watch & Ward 100=00

8. Cutting, Bundling & harvesting 175=00

Total cost 1321=00

9. Rate of interest for this capital (at 15%) 99=00

10. Land as capital (acre-4000/-) at 12% interest 480=00

11. land revenue and water tax 22=00

Total cost for Six quintals of 1922=00

Production 708=00

Earning for 6 quintals x 118 Total loss 1214=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

64

Table 14: Cost of Cultivation of Tur-dal per acre in Gulbaraga District (at 1982 prices)

1. Seeds 12-50

2. Preparation of the land 150=00

3. Compost manure 750=00

4. Spreading the manure 30=00

5. Second Ploughing 175=00

6. Sowing 132=00

7. Weeding 100=00

8. Inner cultivation 100=00

9. Pesticides 3 times 330=00

10. Spraying 63=00

11. Watch & ward 180=00

12. Cutting 32=00

13. Bundling 16=00

14. Stocking in hay 16=00

15. Harvesting & transporting to the market 219=00

Total 2251=00

16. at 18% for 6 months 202=00

17. Land value as Capital (at 10% interest) 500=00

Total expenditure 2954=00

for 3 quintals produced at 375 X3= 1125=00

Expenses in Market 100=00

Earning total 1025

Loss 1929

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

65

Table 15: Cost of Cultivation of Varalakshmi Cotton per acre Shimoga (Dry area at 1982 prices)

1. Cotton seeds 150=00

2. preparing the land 75=00

3. Planting seeds 10=00

4. 1st sprays 30=00

5. Inner cultivation 15=00

6. Compost, transport & spreading 180=00

7. II maturing 50=00

8. II spray of pesticides 215=00

9. 3rd

Cultivation & pesticides & manure 235=00

10. 4th Inner cultivation, pesticides spraying 370=00

11. 5th level cultivation, pesticides spraying 115=00

12. Cost of Pulling Cotton from plants (6 times) 270=00

13. Transport cost to market 150=00

Total cost of cultivation 1865=00

at 18% of interest 335=00

Land as capital at 10% interest 300=00

Earning at 400 Rs. per quintal 1600=00

for 4 quintals market

commission at 5% 80=00

Total loss 1520=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

66

Table 16: Cost of Cultivation of Cotton per acre in Bijapur & Gulbarga area (in 1982 prices)

1. Seeds 7=00

2. Preparing the land & sowing 185=00

3. Weeding 25=00

4. Compost manure 10 cart loads & spreading 292=00

5. Inner cultivation 120=00

6. Plucking Cotton 25=00

7. Ginning 12=00

8. Transportation 15=00

total expenditure 682=00

at 18% interest for expenditure 123=00

Land value as capital (at 10% 300=00

total expenditure 1105=50

½ Quintal Cotton 375=00

1 quintal seeds of cotton 150=00

525=00

3% market commission & tax 15=00

earning in cotton per acre 509=00

Total expenditure 1105=50

earning 509=00

Total loss 686=25

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

67

Table 17: Cost of Cultivation of Silk in Bangalore, Kolar Irrigated areas (in 1982 prices)

To grow mulberry & rearing silk worms Mulberry growing

1. Preparation of the land 360=00

2. Compost manure & other manures 1272=00

3. Ploughing & Preparing the land 208=00

4. Seedlings 282=00

5. Planting th seed links 37=00

6. Watering, Weeding & Bunding 318=00

7. 2nd

Manuring & Watering 352=00

total cost of procuring mulberry 2831=50

8. 2nd

Mulberry rising cost 169=00

9. 3rd

rising 312=00

10. 4th rising of mulberry 50=00

11. 5th rising of mulberry 306=00

Total cost of Mulberry rising at18% of interest for this expenditure

660=00

Total cost of Mulberry 4328=00

Irrigated Mulberry rising 4328=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

Electricity, Water charges; 18% for expenditure

68

Silkworm rearing – 5 crops, Expenditure

1. 100 plates of worth raring 180=00

2. 100 chandrike 540=00

3. Stand for putting plates 900=00

4. mosquito net 360=00

5. Eggs 250 125=00

6. 1st Plucking of leaves 96=00

7. 2nd

plucking of leaves 102=00

8. 3rd

plucking leaves 256=00

9. 4th

plucking leaves 192=00

10. Stage cost 768=00

11. Plucking the best 158=00

12. 3 days supervision of plates 48=00

13. Plucking the worms 166=00

14. Transportation of worms 60=00

Total expenditure 3951=00

15. for 5 reavings expenditure at 18% interest for this 19755=00

expenditure 889=00

total cost of rearing (5 times) 20644=00

16. One year cost of Pumpset cultivation 24970=00

17. Irrigated cultivation 24852=00

18. Cost of Pumpset, well, land value at 10% 5000=00

19. Land as value (10%) 1500=00

20. Worm rearing house at 18% 3600=00

So pumpset irrigation rearing comes 33570=00

Channel Irrigation rearing comes 29952=80

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

69

Table 18:The Cost of Production of Potato per acre (in 1982 prices)

1. 3 quintals of seeds 750=00

2. Transport of seeds 20=00

3. Planting with Medicine 150=00

4. 20 Cart loads of Compost Manure 560=00

5. Lining for sowing 20=00

6. 2 ½ quintals of Chemical Manure 700=00

7. Transport of Manure & spreading 90=00

8. Weeding 150=00

9. Inter Cultivation 80=00

10. Spraying of Pesticides 150=00

11. Watch and ward 700=00

12. Plucking & Transport 200=00

13. Cleaning Potato 50=00

14. Feeding labourers 325=00

Total expenditure 18% interest for 3945=00

this 355=00

12% on the value of the land 600=00

Total expenditure for varying 21 4900=00

quintals per quintal expenditure 233=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

70

Table 19:The Cost of Production of raising Vegetables for 5 months (in 1982 prices)

1. Ploughing 300=00

2. Inner Cultivation 200=00

3. Leveling the land 300=00

4. Sheepshed Manure 500=00

5. Compost Manure 1000=00

6. Chemical Manure 1000=00

7. Pesticides 300=00

8. Weeding 6 times 1500=00

9. Seeds 300=00

10. Diesel Charges 1300=00

11. Engine Wear & tear 600=00

12. 5 months watering plucking 1500=00

13. Preparing for the market 2000=00

14. Share of the Landlord 5600=00

15. 5 months watch & ward 1500=00

16. Preparing nursery 100=00

total expenditure 18000=00

interest on this expenditure 1800=00

Total expenditure 19800=00

450 kg Brinjal, Chilli, ladies 6750

finger , at (10 kg 15 Rs)

other vegetables 10 kg at Rs.10 4800 12550=00

Loss 7250=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

71

Table 20:The Cost of Cultivation of onion per acre (in 1982 prices)

Rs. Ps.

1. Ploughing 300=00

2. Cleaning 50=00

3. nursery Plots 50=00

4. 20 cart load of compost 400=00

5. Chemical manure 100 kg 320=00 1000=00

6. Diesel charges 640=00

7. Pesticides spray (2 times) 240=00

8. manure spreading 100=00

9. Repair of motor 350=00

10. Watering and Watch & Ward 900=00

11. Onion Plants transplanting 150=00

12. 4 times weeding 1200=00

13. Plucking the crop 800=00

14. Transport to market 1550=00

15. Partition paid to land owner 3200=00

16. Onion harvesting 250=00

17. Supervision over the crop 1000=00

Total expenditure 11500=00

Interest for 3 months 50=00

80 quintal of production costs 11550=00

for an quintals of onion 80 Loss 8000=00

x 100

Total loss 3550=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

72

Table 21: The Cost of Cultivation of raising coconuts plantation per acre in non irrigated area (in 1982 prices)

1. Land cost 1500=00

2. Farm house 1000=00

3. Preparing pits 1000=00

4. Plants (40x50) 2000=00

5. Transport and plucking 400=00

6. Transport & plucking 400=00

7. Setting the transplant (pounding 4 days) 75=00

8. Fencing 1000=00

Total expenditure 20775=00

the land for 10 years at 18% interests 31162=00

total expenditure 51937=00

1 year expenditure 7775=00

2nd

years expenditure 8480=00

3rd

year expenditure 7942=00

4th

year expenditure 5371=00

5th

year expenditure 4978=00

6th

year expenditure 13335=00

7th

year expenditure 4192=00

8th

year expenditure 3799=00

9th

year expenditure 3406=00

10th year expenditure 3013=00

Total expenditure of planting plants + 51937=50

Expenditure of ten years 62295=00

1st Year 114232=50

For labourers at least 300 3600=00

73

Rs. per month for ten years

Interest for this at 15% 5400=00 9000=00

2nd

year labour charge, interest at 15% 3600+4800 8460=00

3rd

year charges +8 years 3600 7920=00

3600 + 4320

4th

year + 7 years 3600+ 7380=00

15% interest 3600 + 3780 5 year cost of labour 6840=00

Sixth year cost of labour 6340=00

Seventh year cost of labour 5760=00

eighth year cost of labour 5220=00

Night year 4680=00

Tenth year 4140=00

Total cost of labour 657000=00

Coconut raising 10 years expenditure 114232=00

Supervision labor cost for ten years 65700=00

179932=00

Interest for the total Capital (at 15%) 26989=00

Yield from the Plantation 4000 nuts for one acre income is

interest for the invested capital

26980=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

Farmers need for their living Rs. 9050 on the basis of this calculation, to

meet the living expenses of a farmers family the nut should sell at Rs. 9 in the

market, at least Rs. 60 per kg of copra.

74

Table 22:The Cost of Production different crops grown (in one acre of land) and the real price to be paid to the farmers

Crops Yield Cost of

Production

Cost per

quintal

the Price the

farmer should

get at 15%

profit

1 2 3 4 5

Jowar (Irrigated) 12 quintals 2494=00 2-8=00 239=20

Jawar (rainfed) 4 quintals 2025=50 506=00 581=05

Ragi (rainfed) 4 quintals 1882=00 470=50 541=05

Ragi (Irrigation) 9 quintals 2051=00 227=05 262=15

Paddy (Irrigation) 15 quintals 4663=15 310=-85 357=50

Paddy (Rain) 6 quintals 1992=80 320=50 368=60

Sugarcane 40 tonnes 14748=00 368=95 424=15

Chilli 3 quintals 2875=00 958=50 1102=25

Tobacco 400 kg 4439=00 1109=75 1276=25

Groundnut 6 quintals 2653=00 442=00 508=30

Turdall & othr pulses 3 quintals 2954=00 984=65 1132=40

Varalakshmi cotton 4 quintals 2500=00 625=00 718=75

Lakshmi cotton Silk 15 quintals 1105=00 737=00 847=55

Well irrigation 30 kg 33570=00 223=80 257=40

Channel irrigation 30 kg 299952=00 199=68 229=68

Potato 21 quintals 4900=00 233=35 267=35

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

75

Table 23: Cost of Living of a Farmers family (per year) (at 1982 prices)

House rentigated) 1800=00

Rice (12 quintals) 2700=00

Grocery 1800=00

Clothing 750=00

Medicine 250=00

Schooling expenses 500=00

Fuel expenses (3 tonnes) 450=00

Kerosene to light the lamps (10 x 12) 200=00

Miscellaneous (per year) 600=00

Total 9050=00

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

76

Table 24: The Cheap food grains the Farmers of Karnataka supplied to the people of Karnataka (at 1981-82 statistics)

(out put in tones)

Crops Production Production

cost

Market

price Difference

Supplied food

grains at loss

(in crores of Rs)

1 2 3 4 5

Rice 2361180 300 150 150 354.17

Jowar 1771255 520 140 380 673.07

Ragi 1411837 465 110 355 501.12

Bajra 318173 465 125 340 108.17

Maize 419411 400 125 275 115.33

Wheat 210733 540 200 340 71.64

Pulses 7277045 740 350 390 2838.04

Cotton 718037 800 450 350 251.31

Sugarcane 13381293 378 168 210 281.00

Chillis 47144 960 600 360 169.71

Coconuts 912451 9000 2750 6250 1140.05

Tobacco

(in kgs)

30780 11 6 5 15.39

Oil seeds 834459 550 350 200 166.89

Total 6685.89

Source: Why farmers agitation? Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha 1982, Shimoga.

This does include pepper cordomum, coffee, cashew nuts, Areca nut

potato and vegetable prices.

To include all the above the Karnataka Farmers have been looted up to

8000crores of Rs. every year.

With these issues raised by, the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS)

introduced, a new discourse in the development dialogue. The State never have

imagined a peoples movement can raise issues which are very important to be

77

addressed by the development paradigm. The development paradigm accepted as

development programme pass through the discussion and dialogue of the best

brains in the country, where they failed to perceive the possible issues that can

emerge in the course of the implementation of the programmes and the

consequences which can throw in these new challenges.

In the 1980’s development discourse underwent a through change due to

the emergence of the KRRS as an important movement which emerged as a

voice of not only rural Karnataka but the voice of the whole of rural India.

Theoretical Framework for the thesis:

The farmer’s movement in India and Karnataka are the response of the

civil society to the development paradigm initiated in India in 1950’s. This

initiation by the government in terms of modern economic development is an

important step forward by the government to launch development as planned

development of the Indian economy. The development in the planned

development model is defined as industrialization of the Indian economy. The

success of industrial evolution of Britain in 1850 ensured Britain with enormous

economic prosperity to strengthen its capacity to rule its empire as, sun never use

to set in the empire. This process of industrialization was experimented by

Britain in the western part of Europe between 1850-1914, with the capital and

technology of Britain. This initiated process has been able to have enormous

impact on the western part of Europe in ensuring a huge economic prosperity for

this part of the world. So the world has come to realize that the process of

economic development viz-a-viz defined interms of industrialization of the

world has come to be accepted as a process to be initiated in all parts of the

world where there is no experience interms of industrialization, particularly in

the continents of Africa, Latin America and Asia.

But the world has to wait up till the end of II world war to initiate this

process of industrialization in all parts of the world as an inevitable process to

be initiated in the period between 1914 to 1944 because of two world wars. The

78

manmade destruction of the two wars was so vast; almost all countries of the

world have to be involved in these wars. Though I world war was not massive as

the II world war. The corridor of the I world was Europe. The end of the I world

war reparations imposed on Germany and the establishment of the league of

nations were not enough to stop the war, but sowed the seeds of another war,

which resulted in the II world war to start the corrections of the I world war. The

magnitude of the war is also so massive that the whole world was involved in the

war efforts. The values that stood out for the humanity to protect world freedom

and democracy, so the countries which loved freedom and democracy joined

hands of the allied forces lead by the Great Britain with all their strength at their

command. The opposing Axis forces led by Germany stood for conquering the

world to convert them as slaves of these forces. So this tug-of-war between

freedom, democracy for humanity averts slavery resulted in a massive war

efforts resulting in massive resources put to stake in increasing the stakes of war.

This caused lot of destruction of the countries involved in the war. Ultimately

the Allied forces ensured defeat of the Axis forces, heralding victory for freedom

and democracy for the humanity all these happened in 1944.

After the defeat of Germany the world leaders who fought for the victory

of the humanity met in Bretton-woods a small town in Britain to plan for the

restructuring of the world economy. This process brought in the establishment of

international Bank for reconstruction and development (IBRD) now popularly

known as world bank, international monetary fund (IMF) and also thought

interms of an International trade organization (ITO) to facilitate world trade but

restrained itself in not to interfere in the trade of the partner countries, as it is the

exercise of sovereign rights of the nation states in deciding about their

participation in trade. So intentional trade organization did not get institutional

structure and trade was left for the bilateral regime.

This process of initiation of development which is popularly known as

modern economic development (MED) was initiated in the continents of Asia,

Africa, and Latin America. They defined this process of Economic development

79

as industrialization of these continent where 70% of the humanity lived in this

part of the world. This process was initiated as a massive process of production

of goods and services with capital and technology made available in the

continents, international Bank for recantation and development (IBRD) begin as

a consortium of the supply of the inputs to the other world where the

development was initiated.

This process of economic development was also accepted by the Indian

government as the ultimate panacea for the basic problems of the country

defined interms of poverty and unemployment. The mechanism of development

planning was devised to implement this programme of massively industrializing

the Indian economy as is being reflected in the industrial policy resolution of

194885

and made explicitly clear in the industrial policy resolution of 195686

.

The second five year plan 1955-6087

is supposed to be the plan for laying a firm

foundation for mass industrialization of the country. Massive resources were

made available for initiating industrial activities to mitigate the problem of

unemployment which can be approached well through employment generation in

industrial sector. This is the approach of the development plan of the country,

by 1980, 30 years of massive resource flow for industrialization neither

generated employment nor transformation of large mass of population depending

on agriculture to non-agricultural occupations by providing them with an

alternative and better source of income. This resulted in rural India reacting

massively in the form of agitations throughout the country blaming the

development paradigm being responsible for depriving of an alternative in terms

of employment and better income. This agitation of rural India introduced a new

discourse the accepted development paradigm.

The new discourse of famers at the all India level and more so with

Karnataka farmers discourse took a serious turn interms of mass of farmers

85 Industrial policy resolution, 1948, government of India 1948 p. 5 86

Industrial policy resolution 1958, government of India, 1956, in the preamble. 87

Second five year plan 1955 -60, planning commission government of India, 1955, forward.

80

resorting to agitation against the existing development paradigm and demanding

a shift in the discourse of development from industrialization, urbanization to the

need for rural centered approach in development particularly agriculture based

approach to the development paradigm.

The new development discourse:

The new development discourse started by farmers’ centered around the

wealth produced by the rural India should be made available interms of

resources for the development of rural India. Since Rural India constituted 80%

of India, 80% of the national resources should be made available to rural India.

Rural India should have better schools, medical facilities, roads, communication

and other infrastructure facilities available for the betterment of rural India.

So the new discourse of the farmers’ was to achieve maximum welfare

for the majority of the rural community. So the mass mobilization of rural

masses for agitations to gain for the mass better welfare.

Bergsons theory of Maximum social advantage:

Since the farmers movements are mass organization of mass of

population of India for a better welfare of this mass. It was in a famous article in

1958 that Professor Abram Bergson developed the concept of a formal device

for positing something like a community indifference curve or a set of social

preferences and orderings88

. Since then the concept has acquired immense

importance in welfare economics.

The social welfare function is thought of as a functions of each

individuals welfare which intern depends both on his personal well-being and on

his appraisal of the distribution of welfare among all members of the

community. It hopes to solve many crucial problems of welfare economics at

least in terms of formalism.

88

Kundu, Kunja Bihari-welfare economics introductory analysis, navbharath publishers, November

1971, Calcutta – 9 p. 406.

81

The economics of welfare has undergone a new rehabitaitoin in the hands

of modern economists like Bergson. Samuelson, Tintner and others they hold

that if welfare economics does not introduce value judgments from outside

economics it cannot be made to offer meaningful proposition in the technical

sense. In their view welfare economics is essentially a normative study and only

with the aid of some ethical norms the analyst can make meaningful objective

statements about economic welfare. Inspite of this fact welfare economics can be

studied scientifically89

.

In its original formulation Bergsons welfare function was supposed to

depend on changes in economic events that had a direct bearing on individual

welfares90

that is it was originally designed to rank the combinations of all those

variables influencing Individual welfares, in particular, the goods consumed and

the services rendered by each of the individuals in society. In its more recent

formulation it is designed to rank the combinations of the utility levels of all

individuals and it reflects the views concerning the effect that the utility level of

the ith individual has on society’s welfare level. The function in its general form

is as follows:

W = w (u1, u2, u3, ……… un )

where u1 is the utility level of ith

individual each u1 depends only on the

individuals own consumption of goods and supply of services and not on the

amounts consumed by others. If we are provided with the fully defined (ordinal)

utility functions of all individuals and set of precise rules about their relative

weights from the point of view of social welfare then we can draw a series of

parallel and well-behaved social indifference curves in the commodity space.

Each of these curves will then show different distributions of utility among

individuals for which the level of social welfare remains the same. The so called

Bergson’s frontiers are one type of such curves.

89

Ibid. P. 407 90

Ibid. P. 408

82

In the utility space too, the social welfare function can be translated

intems of a diagram. we can construct an indifference map ranking different

combinations of utilities accruing to the members of society. It incorporates the

value judgments of society as to what is good life and emphasizes the political

nature of this type of economic decision. Such an indifference map describing

the evaluation decided upon is called social welfare function91

. With its aid the

economist can now say if a proposed policy change increases welfare or not .

If the proposed changes causes society to move from a lower to a higher

indifference curve only then the change is an improvement. Further with the aid

of this social welfare map the super optimum or best available bliss point as

Samuelson calls it can be ascertained.

The can be represented in the form of a diagram92

.

Figure 1.1: Social Welfare Frontiers of Abram Bergson.

Source: Kunja Bihari Kundu, Welfare economics, 1971, Nababharat Publishers,

Culcutta, P. 366.

Where W1, W2, W3, represents social indifference contours, B, B

represents the utility frontier, the social indifference curves W1 W2 W3 show

utility combinations that result in equal levels of social welfare. The higher the

curve the greater is aggregate social welfare. At point q utility possibility

91

Ibid, p-409. 92

91 Ibid, p-409.

83

Envelope frontier is tangent to the highest contour of the W-welfare function. At

Q welfare is at a maximum and also the Samuelsson bliss point.

With this theoretical background the farmers movements of India and

Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha (KRRS) in particular, have tried through the

agitations process in maximizing the benefit from the changes in the policies of

the state influenced through the movement often resorted and mobilized mass of

rural India for a new welfare frontier.