Sociology for You

From the hunting and gathering society evolution took place and resulted in the formation of the next higher level of society which was the Pastoral society and the Horticultural society. Before leading to the agrarian society or the peasant society these two stages of evolution are considered to be the intermediate stages of development and are essential to understand the evolution process. In due course of time, the nomads or the hunters and gatherers started settling in different places with the increase in the number of members in their tribes. As a small group it was possible for the herds or the tribes to move around different places. However, when slowly the population in the tribes or herds increased and started settling in the agriculturally productive regions, the people started moving into the next stage of evolution. This stage of evolution was forming the family and kinship system and also as Rousseau and Locke pointed out they also formed political system. The political s...

The hunters and gatherers are also called as nomads or nomadic tribes. This is because they moved around different places in search of food. their main occupation was hunting for their tribesmen (or the members in their tribe) and gathering food material. In other words, the hunters and gatherers lived by exploiting the natural resources. Gerhard Lenski, in his book Human Societies (1970), stated that hunting and gathering society is the oldest and simplest type of society. They spent a nomadic way of life and used very primitive technology for the purpose of hunting and gathering. Important tools like axes, knives, using stone for fire are some of the simplest technology which have been used by the hunters and gatherers. For example, the San people of Kalahari desert in Southern Africa , Aranda tribe of the Central Asian desert are some of the examples of such societies.        Some of the important characteristic features of the hunting and gathering society are a...

Every society has transformed or changed from one phase to another. There are various historical evidences which show that evolution of human society has taken place through various phases or parts. The earliest phase was the development of the apes. Scientific evidence shows that human beings or homo sapiens have evolved from apes. This transformation did not take place in one day or in one month. It took years for this evolution when changes in body parts and development of a formal society with human beings has taken place. The first form society formed in this way is the society of the hunters and gatherers. According to August Comte, all societies have passed through distinct stages of belief or ideology and all these societies have moved from a lower stage to a higher stage of development.   According to Comte there are mainly three types of societies 1) the military society which is based on theological thinking 2) the legal society which is based metaphysical thinking and...

Bardoli Satyagraha: This movement started in 1928 and was led by the bonded agricultural labourers who served the upper class of landowners in Gujarat in the district of Surat. Like in every state in Guj arat too the exploitation of the small peasants were going on for the collection of taxes and land rents by the British officials. Surat is an agriculturally productive region of the state. The land revenue system which existed in the state was called as the Hali system. The landowners or the big landlords who imposed taxes on the peasants were called as the halpatis . Like in Bengal, in Gujarat too, the small peasants had to give away land to the big landlords when they were unable to pay the revenues or if they were not able to pay off the loans. The small peasants in the rural areas were dependent on the money borrowed from the landowners or the landlords and the moneylenders for marriage purposes or any other financial requirement of the peasant household. These loans were usual...

Pabna Rebellion 1873: The Pabna Rebellion took place in 1873 in Serajgunj sub-division of Pabna district in East Bengal (present Bangladesh) . This rebellion resulted in the introduction of many Acts to create a new form of land ownership system. During this period in many parts of Bengal, there was a new class of cultivators who were trying to rise up to the position of being big landlords or zamindars. The existing local landlords or zamindars had a problem in this rise of the new cultivator class. The Bengal Rent Act X of 1859 provided legal rights of occupying land to the new class of cultivators. However, since the existing zamindars did not want the new class of cultivators to get any form of legal right to occupy land for cultivation, they tried to lease land (or to give out land in rent) and created many levels of tenants. Tenants refers to the small and medium peasants who take land from the local zamindars for cultivation and they have to pay a fixed rent or tax to the zami...

Indigo Cultivators' Strike 1860- the Indigo Cultivators' strike in 1860 started as a result of excessive commercialisation of agriculture . Commercialisation of agriculture means when agriculture is not only used for household production but production takes place at a larger scale. This extra production is sold in the market to earn profits by the big landlords in the rural economy. Before the British East India Company had started its colonial rule, agriculture in India was only meant to fulfill the demand of food grains needed by the households in a particular village. In due course of time, production increased to help people from other villages also to get enough food grains. However, there was no motive of profit-making with the help of this form of agricultural production. Along with this during this time production of food crops like rice, wheat, barley, pulses were mainly grown which were needed for the people in the village and the neighbouring villages. The British ...

One such lesser known movement took place in 1855-56 in undivided Bengal. L. Natarajan noted in his work on the Santhal Insurrection in 1855-56 that seeing the good opportunity of trade and economic benefits, the moira (sweet makers) and the bania (traders) encroached in the tribal belts in the districts of Burdwan and Birbhum and Bhojpuri and Bhatia families from Shahbad, Chaprah, Betah and Arrah. The local mahajans or moneylenders and traders were forcefully buying the agricultural produce from the tribal at lower price than the market price. The Santal land were being taken away and women and children were forcefully abducted. The local tribal people were not allowed to sell their agricultural produce in the local markets. The moneylenders and traders considered the tribal people to be timid and that they will not fight for their rights against these groups of exploiters. However, in due course of time the problem increased when the government officials had physically assaulted...

As I had mentioned in the previous post that I have divided the peasant movements in India into four historical periods: the pre-colonial period (before 1757 or the Battle of Plassey), the colonial period (starting from 1757 till the time of Independence), the post-Independence period (starting from 1947 to 1990s) and finally, the post-Liberalisation period (from 1990s till present). We often ignore the first period of peasant movements and usually focus on the movements which have started during the fight for Independence against the colonial rule. The nature and factors resulting in the development of these movements has varied in different time periods. The nature and factors which led to the peasant movements in the pre-colonial period is very much different from the factors and nature of the peasant movements which took place in the colonial and post-Independence period. The time period for the peasant movements in pre-colonial India has been taken till 1757 AD because wi...