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Civil Rebellions & Tribal Uprisings

Bengal and Eastern India

Name Time Area Leaders Causes & Effects

Sanyasi Revolt 1770s Bengal => Majnu shah Imposition of ban on visits to holy places;
(Rangpur to / Bhawani Famines 1770-73
Dhaka) Pathak Sanyasis organized raids on company => Warren
Hastings suppressed.
Anandmath,1882 (BC Chatterjee) has Vande
Matram

Chuar Uprising 1766 - Midnapore Durjan Famine, enhanced land-revenue demand,

1772 & (Bengal) Singh economic distress => aka Jungle Mahal
1795 -
1816

Ho Rising 1820-37 Chotanagpur Ho & munda tribes

Kol Mutiny 1831 Chotanagpur Budho Large-scale transfer of land from Kol => outsiders
Bhagat (Punjabi and Muslim merchants)

Kandh Uprising 1837-56 Patna Chakra Kandhs against British putting end to practice of
Bishnoi human sacrifices (mariah)

Santhal Hool 1854 Rajmahal Sido and Oppression by revenue officials, police,
onwards hills Kanhu moneylenders, landlords & other outsiders (dikus)
Banned shifting cultivation & Santhal Pargana
tenancy act 1876

Pagal Panthis 1825 - Bengal - Karam shah Semi-religious; opposed exploitation of tenants by
1840s Garo hills & Tipu landlords

Faraizi Revolt 1838-57 East Bengal Dadu Mian Advocated radical religious & political changes;
(Son of Haji organized people to throw British out from Bengal
Shariatullah)

Munda Revolt 1890s Chotanagpur Birsa Munda Armed uprising against intrusion of revenue
(Ulgulan) (killed=> farmers and moneylenders=> Destruction of
1900) traditional systems of common land holdings
Chotanagpur tenancy act 1908
(“Khuntkattidar” system recognized & banned
beth begari)

Paika Revolt 1817-18 Orissa Bakshi Occupation in 1803, Paika (traditional militia of
Jagbandhu state) disbanded from service

Sambalpur 1827-40 Orissa Surender Interference in internal affairs of princely state

Outbreak Lal

North East India

Name Time Area Leaders Causes

Kachhoa-Naga 1882 Cachar Shambhu

(Assam) Dana

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Khasi Uprising 1830s Northeastern Tirath singh British wanted to build a road through Garo, Khasi,
states & Jaintia hills => people revolted

Ahom Revolt 1828 Assam Gomdhar British promised to withdraw from Assam after 1st
Konwar Burma war (1824-26), but didn’t => rebellion

Zeliangrong 1920 - Naga tribes Haipou Heraka movement, initially spiritual=> Later political
Movement 1935 Jadong /
Rani
Gaidinliu

Kuki Rebellion 1917-19 Manipur Guerilla warfare tactics, Against recruiting Indians
for WW1

Western India

Name Time Area Leaders Causes

Bhil Uprising 1817-46 Panchmahal Sewaram Fear of agrarian hardship under EIC
1913-20 (GJ) Dashrath
Rajasthan Govind guru

Kutch Rebellion 1819 Kutch (GJ) Rao British deposed ruler + imposed high land revenues
Bharmal

Waghera rising 1820 Baroda - Gaikwad fought

Koli Rising 1830s Gujarat -

Ramosi 1822-29 Satara- W. Chittur Inferior police ranks under Maratha, later-
1877-87 Ghats Singh >farmers=> heavy revenue => given land grants &
(1822) V.B recruited as hill police
Phadke
(1877-87)

Surat Salt 1844 Gujarat - Government withdrew duty

Agitations

Kolhapur/ 1844 Maharashtra Gadkaris Hereditary martial class=> disbanded by British =>
Sawantwadi Revolt.
Revolts

South India

Name Time Area Leaders Causes

Revolt of 1765 Northern EIC acquired territory & demanded huge tribute =>
Vizianagaram Sarkars revolt

Poligar’s revolt 1856 Malabar, Oppressive land revenue system

Dindigul,
Madras,
Arcot

Dewan Velu 1810s Travancore Velu Thambi Overuse of subsidiary alliance arrangement & Nair
Tampi’s Revolt battalion

Rampa Revolt 1879 Coastal Alluri New restrictive forest regulations

(Kovas) Andhra Sitaram raju

Kittur Uprising 1824-29 KNT Chennama Doctrine of lapse

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North India

Name Time Area Leaders Causes

Wahabi 1830s Syed Islamic revivalist movement (back to the Prophet’s

Movement Ahmed => times); first jihad was declared against Sikh
Rai Bareilly kingdom of Punjab => after 1849, the British
became the sole targets

Kuka Revolt / 1840 - Punjab Baba Ram Started as a religious purification movement =>
Namdhari Revolt 1870s (Hazra) Singh / later turned political; advocated abolition of caste
Bhagat amongst Sikhs.
JawaharMal One of the earliest users of NC and CD.
/ Baba
Balak Singh

Peasant Revolts
Name Time Area Leaders Causes

Indigo Revolt 1859-60 Bengal Digambar/ Bishnu European Planters fraudulent ‘forward
Biswas contracts’;
No-rent campaign, & organized a force=>
Bengali intelligentsia helped them;
HC mukharjee wrote in Hindu patriot
1860, Indigo commission
Dinbandhu Mitra => Neel Darpan - 1860

Pabna Revolt 1873-76 Eastern Bengal Ishan Chandra Enhanced rents beyond legal limits; Forced
(Jute growing Roy, Shambhu Pal evictions.
district) & Khoodi mollah Agrarian Leagues & legal resistance against
Zamindars in courts, Hindu-Muslim unity
Support of BC Chatterjee, RC dutt, S
Banerjee etc
Very little violence was used => Bengal
Tenancy Act 1885 (emergence of jotedars)

Deccan Riots 1874-79 Poona, Vasudev Balwant Ryotwari system => heavy taxation
Ahmednagar, Phadke 1864 -> end of American civil war led to
Solapur & crash in cotton prices;
Satara 1867 ->bad harvests;
1874 -> social boycott movement against the
outsider moneylenders.
Violent => agrarian riots, where the debt
bonds & deeds of moneylenders were burnt.
MG Ranade => Poona sarvajanik sabha
=> Deccan Agri. Relief Act in 1879.

No-Revenue 1893 - Punjab, Assam Ryotwari areas=> High revenue demand

Movements 1900 & Bombay Famine code in MH (Tilak, Ranade)
Against moneylender’s debt cycle
Punjab Land allocation act 1902 =>
restricted land transfer to moneylender from
peasants

Champaran 1917 Bihar Gandhi & Tinkathia system

Satyagraha RajKumar Shukla

Kheda 1918 Gujarat Gandhi, Patel & Plague & famine (1898-1906), WW1-> prices
Satyagraha Indulal Yagnik rose, Crop failure => fasting by Gandhiji

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Kisan Sabha 1920s Awadh, UP, Home rule leaders After 1857 revolt, British gave Awadh
Movement Bengal, Bihar, (Gauri Shankar taluqdars their lands back; who now
Punjab & Mishra, Indra subjected the peasants to high rents,
Andhra Dwivedi, MMM) summary evictions (bedakhali) etc.
JLN, GSM, Baba World War 1, Home Rule leagues => Kisan
Ramchandra & NG Sabhas asked peasants not to till bedakhali
Ranga lands, and not offer beggar/ hari => In 1921,
the movement became violent, and
thereafter fizzled out.
Bakasht movement in Bihar, 1936

Bijolia 1897 - Udaipur state Vijay singh Pathik Lagbags(cessess), custom duties, begar
movement 1941 (Mewar)- & Manikya Lal (forced labor), heavy revenue, 3 phases,
Rajasthan Verma attack on feudalism

Eka (Unity) 1921 United Madari Pasi, & High rents; NCM time=> Vowed that they
Movement Provinces other lower-caste would pay only the recorded rent (but would
leaders pay that on time), & would refuse to do
forced labour

Mappila 1921 Malabar Ali Musaliar & NCM time

Revolt Kunhammed Haji Oppression & exploitation of muslims
(mappillas) peasants by hindu landlords =>
Started by attack on British, later hindu
landlords => This isolated the Mapillas from
the Khilafat movement, & by December
1921, all resistance fizzled out.

Bardoli 1928 Surat Patel & Gandhi In 1926, authorities increased the land
Satyagraha revenue by 22%=> Social boycott who paid
revenue (oath in name of gods), resist
eviction and jabti
KM munshi resigned from BLC, Patel (who
got the title ‘Sardar’ here), led the Bardoli
peasants no revenue campaign
Maxwell-Broomfield commission

Peasants in 1930 Punjab Land tax, canal tax => Rose because of All
Punjab India Congress committee activities

All Indian 1936 Lucknow Swami Sahajanand

Kisan Saraswati & NG
Congress Ranga
Sabha

Tebhaga 1946 North Bengal Rajbanshis, a low Demand was for 2/3rd share of the harvest to
Movement caste of tribal the sharecroppers (bargadars), instead of
origins, Bargadars the usual half=> Bargardari Bill
Movement dissipated under repression,
calls for Bengal’s partition, and communal
riots in Calcutta

Telangana 1946-51 Hyderabad Peasants organized to take on the

Movement State Razakars;
Biggest peasant guerilla warfare =>
Resistance fizzled out after Indian
stormtroopers took over Hyderabad
Operation Polo-1948

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