Peasants Betrayed: Essays in India's Colonial History

Kapil Kumars research on peasant struggles and their relationship with the national movement takes into account the myriad complexities involved in order to understand the contemporary realities that confront rural India. He argues that there was a definite move by the dominant leaders, big businesses and the landed aristocracy to suppress the peasants an approach very much still in practice today. Hence, the need for a historical perspective. Part 1 deals with the struggles of the Oudh peasants and the role of Baba Ram Chandra in mobilizing them. The use of religious literature in mobilizing the peasants and characterizing the Congress leadership, Taluqdars, the British, etc., is a unique example of liberating the religious texts from the ritualistic functions and interpreting them to explain contemporary social realities and offer solutions. The plight of rural women and their struggles is another vital theme covered. Part 2 focuses on Congress-peasant relations during the national movement and the papers deal with a host of issues like the victimization of peasant leaders at the behest of dominant nationalist leadership; the collaboration between the landlords, big businesses and the dominant leaders and also reasons for the peasants support to Gandhi. In Part 3 Kumar argues for a paradigm shift in studying the history of Partition and understanding inter-community relations. This volume is invaluable for scholars of colonial and modern Indian history.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Introduction; Baba Ran Chandra & Peasant Upsurge in Oudh, 1920-1921; The Ramacharitmanas as a Radical Text: Baba Ram Chandar in Oudh, 1920-1950; Ritualism to Radical Social Reality: Some Reflections on the Innovative Uses of Vedic Literature on the Eve of 1942: Baba Ram in Oudh; Rural Women in Oudh, 1917-1947: Baba Ram Chandra & the Womens Question; The Peasants of Congress: Peasants Perception of Gandhi & his Programme: Oudh, 1920-1922; Congress-Peasant Relationship in the Late 1930s; Peasants, Congress & the Struggle for Freedom: 1917-1939; Ideology, Congress & Peasants in 1930s: Class Adjustment or Submission?; Big Business & the Peasantry; Dominant-Grassroots Dichotomy in Hindu-Muslim Relations: A Study of Political Mobilization in Colonial & Post-Colonial India; Index.

About the Author :
Kapil Kumar (1954), a professor of history at Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, presently holds the Professorial Chair of Contemporary Indian Studies at the University of West Indies, Port of Spain, Trinidad.