This is an investigation of the anatomy and internal dynamics of peasant movements in India. It makes a comparative analysis of the Tebhaga (Bengal, 1946-47), Telengana (Andhra, 1948-52) and Naxalite (North Bengal, 1967-71) movements to study the ways in which grassroots mobilizations transform and institutionalize themselves, forge new collective identities and articulate new strategies for survival and resistance. The author uses empirical data and secondary research to argue that radicalism in peasant movements is in inverse proportion to institutionalization. As spontaneous expressions of discontent against oppression and marginalization become institutionalized movements, the space for radical challenge shrinks. Therefore, in Bengal, the co-option of the peasant movement by the ruling communist party and the state has largely killed the scope for radical action. In Andhra Pradesh on the other hand, the relative independence of the grassroots mobilization process (along with logistic and ideological inputs from NGOs and radical social and Naxalite groups) has allowed the peasantry to exercise multiple options for collective action. However, in both cases, the grassroots mobilization has led to a transformation of the social identity of the peasant, and created a social environment in which issues of dominance and resistance have an important place. The study of the Indian experience is placed in the context of theories of peasant identity and resistance to oppression. The first chapter of the book is devoted to the summing up of sociological perspectives on peasant societies, identities and movements. It includes references to the works of Marx and Lenin, Redfield, Chayanov, Wolf and Gramsci, and, in the Indian context, Beteille, Byres and several others. The book reexamines problems that have got relatively less importance in recent years. It seeks to understand issues that are of enduring relevance in the Indian countryside that continues to simmer with unrest even as it comes to grips with a new economic situation. The book will be of as much interest to researchers and policymakers as to the intelligent general reader.

"Why, in the 1917-42 period, did no radical challenge to the social order develop? Why did the peasants of north Bihar seek merely to reform existing social and political arrangements instead of attempting to transform the social structure to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth and power? This book seeks to answer these questions. After portraying the economy and society of north Bihar in the early twentieth century, it examines the peasant movements in detail. It explores their general context and particular setting, their leadership and following, their general characteristics and course of development, and their interactions with the colonial state and with the Bihar branch of the Indian National Congress"--Page 2.

The central concern of this book is to examine in a comparative framework, the ways in which grassroots mobilizations transform and institutionalize themselves, forge new collective identities and articulate new strategies for survival and resistance. Debal K SinghaRoy focuses on three major radical movements--Tebhaga and Naxalite in West Bengal and Telangana in Andhra Pradesh. Based on empirical data and supported by a wide range of secondary sources, the author argues that as spontaneous expressions of discontent against oppression, domination and marginalization turn into institutionalized movements, the space for radical challenge shrinks. As exemplified in West Bengal, the co-option of peasant movements by the state has largely stifled the scope for radical action. In Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, the relative independence of the grassroots mobilization process has allowed the peasantry to exercise multiple options for collective action.

This classic work in subaltern studies portrays the peasant insurgency in British India from the peasant's viewpoint.

Covers post and pre independence period.