Peasant Movements in India: Introduction

Peasant movements in India has a special significance in studying Indian society or sociology of India. This is because India is predominantly an agrarian economy. Till date 70 % of India's population is dependent on agriculture either directly of indirectly. Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihoods in India. 70 percent of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82 percent of farmers being small and marginal. In 2017-18, total food grain production was estimated at 275 million tonnes (MT).  India is the largest producer (25% of global production), consumer (27% of world consumption) and importer (14%) of pulses in the world. India's annual milk production was 165 MT (2017-18), making India the largest producer of milk, jute and pulses, and with world's second-largest cattle population 190 million in 2012 (Source:http://www.fao.org/india/fao-in-india/india-at-a-glance/en/). 

Direct dependence on agriculture means that those households or the total population which is completely dependant on agriculture for their income or source of livelihood. Rest of the rural population, mainly, is dependent on agriculture indirectly. This means that they are engage with various farm-based activities like working as contractual labourers in the rice-mills or may be working as labourers in the potato storage houses. In other words it can be said that India, being a predominantly agrarian economy with a vibrant rural society has made a mark in the history as a land of peasant movements. It is worthwhile to state that peasant movements in India are among those first important movements which have taken place in forms of struglles for identity. 

These struggles were mainly led by the marginalised section of the agrarian community to fight for their rights over land for agriculture and independent sources of livelihood. However, instances of peasant movements in India show that these movements have also been a source of division in Indian society from the pre-colonial period to the post-colonial and post-Liberalisation (after 1990s) as well. The sociology of peasant movements in India deals with the analysis of various important peasant movements which have taken place in India; what is the impact of such peasant movements on the Indian political, economic and social structure; what are the various factors which have led to the formation and development of such peasant movements; who are the major stakeholders in these movements and finally, in what way these movements had led to a social change in India. These are some of the important questions of analysis which has been brought forward by sociologists like D.N. Dhanagare, Ghanshyam Shah, A. R. Desai, T.K. Oomen in their accounts of peasant movements in India. As James C. Scott in his book The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (1977, Yale University Press), discussing about the peasant movements in Burma and Vietnam, stated that movements or peasant rebellion are important means or voices of the weak which help to put forth their demands and thus restore the 'moral economy' by the peasants. Similarly, the peasnt movements in India were important struggles led by the different groups of cultivators, mainly the marginalised sections of cultivators, who wanted to restore the 'moral economy' in the rural society of the country. 

Broadly the peasant movements in India can be divided in different historical time-periods: pre-colonial period (mainly before 1757 or the Battle of Plassey), colonial period (starting from 1757 till the time of Independence), post-Independence period (from 1947 to 1990s) and finally, the neo-Liberal period or the post-Liberalisation period (after 1990s). The nature and causes of the peasant movements have changed in due course of time. The nature of peasant movements which took place in the pre-colonial period is very much different from the movements which are taking place in contemporary Indian economy. This change has taken place with the development of society, changes in the social structure, introduction of technology, changes in the political scenario of the country and also as a result of several International influences over the Indian economy. 

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https://selfstudyhistory.com/2016/06/06/agriculture-production-in-mughal-india/

cpsindia.org/index.php/art/114-science-sustainability-and-indian-national-resurgence/d-science-and-technology-under-the-british-rule/158-d1-indian-agriculture-before-modernisation