Peasant Resistance and Revolt in South India

Abstract

WX TITH A THIRD OF THE WORLD socialist, and guerrilla movements active in more than a dozen countries, some social scientists in the West have turned their attention to the role of peasants in revolution.1 This article stems from work by Hamza Alavi, Eric Wolf, and A. G. Frank.2 It tries to supplement Alavi's analysis of peasant revolts in two areas of India-Telengana and Bengal-with an account of some peasant actions in the northern part of the state of Kerala, with references for purposes of comparison to Tanjore, a district in southeast Madras. The questions of principal concern are, first: Is rural class struggle endemic in these South Indian regions, or is it engendered by self-interested political parties, especially the communists? Second: in modern peasant insurrections, what have been the respective roles of landlords, rich peasants, middle and poor peasants, and landless labourers? Third: what is the potential for future peasant revolt? Kerala has a large number of types of land tenure, which vary, moreover, as between Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore. The most common traditional tenure has been kdnam, in which the tenant surrenders a fixed rent, often about a third of the crop, to the landlord, in addition to a cash renewal fee every twelve years. In pre-British times this superior tenure was confined to Nayars and other high caste Hindus of similar rank and to relatively high ranking Muslims and Christians. The most common inferior tenure is verumpdftam, in which the tenant pays a fixed rent, usually amounting to about two-thirds of the net produce, to the landlord or the kanam tenant, whichever is immediately above him. Verumpda.tam and simi-