Peasant Struggles Research Articles

Revolution from Above, Rebellion from Below: The Agrarian Transvaal at the Turn of the Century.

This is a study of rural society and struggle in the Transvaal during the watershed period of the early twentieth century. Though much has been written about the South African War and `Reconstruction' period, this is the first scholarly and comprehensive analysis of their impact on the agrarian Transvaal. Jeremy Krikler analyses the `Revolution from Above' unleashed by British imperialism as it wrought changes of immense significance for the countryside. He explores the relationships between landowners and peasants, traces the struggle between them, and examines the agrarian changes attempted by the British after the war. It is an original, thoroughly researched, and lucidly written account, which illuminates our understanding of the South African War and its aftermath. It also offers new insights into peasant struggles, and into the nature of private property and the colonial state in the Transvaal.

Peasant Struggles and Social Change: Migration, Households and Gender in a Rural Turkish Society

"This article sheds light on the interrelationship of seasonal migration, subsistence production and peasant relations in a community (Sakli) located in Turkey's northwestern countryside.... While migrant labor is understood by local villagers as forming part of a continual battle to preserve local tradition and kinship ties, this article shows how it reduces the dominion of landlords while creating internal household differentiation and gendered hierarchies."

What Makes Rational Peasants Revolutionary? Dilemma, Paradox, and Irony in Peasant Collective Action

Peasant upheavals are studied from the perspective offered by the selective incentives solution to Olson's collective action problem. This article presents much evidence from three different forms of peasant struggles—everyday forms of peasant resistance, unorganized rural movements, and organized peasant rebellions—that demonstrates the widespread existence of selective incentives. Questions about the causes and consequences of selective incentives are then examined. First, what are the conditions under which peasant struggles emphasize material selective incentives rather than nonmaterial altruistic appeals? The level of selective incentives in any peasant upheaval is a function of demand and supply considerations. Peasants demand selective incentives. The suppliers include one or more dissident peasant organizations, the authorities, and the allies of both. A political struggle ensues as the suppliers compete and attempt to monopolize the market. Second, what are the conditions under which the pursuit of material self-interest hurts rather than helps the peasantry's collective cause? Selective incentives supplemented by ideology can be effective; selective incentives alone are counterproductive.These questions and answers lead to the conclusion that the selective incentives solution reveals much more about peasant upheavals than simply that peasants will often be concerned with their own material self-interest. It is therefore important to study the following three aspects of peasant collective action: thedilemmapeasants face, or how peasant resistance is in the interest of all peasants but in the self-interest of none; theparadoxpeasants face, or that rational peasants do solve their dilemma (for example, with selective incentives) and participate in collective action; and theironypeasants face, or that self-interest is both at the root of their dilemma and at the foundation of a solution to their paradox.

Revolution from above, rebellion from below: the agrarian Transvaal at the turn of the century

This is a study of rural society and struggle in the Transvaal during the watershed period of the early twentieth century. Though much has been written about the South African War and `Reconstruction' period, this is the first scholarly and comprehensive analysis of their impact on the agrarian Transvaal. Jeremy Krikler analyses the `Revolution from Above' unleashed by British imperialism as it wrought changes of immense significance for the countryside. He explores the relationships between landowners and peasants, traces the struggle between them, and examines the agrarian changes attempted by the British after the war. It is an original, thoroughly researched, and lucidly written account, which illuminates our understanding of the South African War and its aftermath. It also offers new insights into peasant struggles, and into the nature of private property and the colonial state in the Transvaal.

Peasant Struggles and Social Change: Migration, Households and Gender in a Rural Turkish Society

Peasant Struggles and Social Change: Migration, Households and Gender in a Rural Turkish Society

Errata Corrige: Peasant Struggles and Social Change: Migration, Households and Gender in a Rural Turkish Society"

Errata Corrige: Peasant Struggles and Social Change: Migration, Households and Gender in a Rural Turkish Society"

Revolution from above, Rebellion from below: The Agrarian Transvaal at the Turn of the Century

This is a study of rural society and struggle in the Transvaal during the watershed period of the early twentieth century. Though much has been written about the South African War and `Reconstruction' period, this is the first scholarly and comprehensive analysis of their impact on the agrarian Transvaal. Jeremy Krikler analyses the `Revolution from Above' unleashed by British imperialism as it wrought changes of immense significance for the countryside. He explores the relationships between landowners and peasants, traces the struggle between them, and examines the agrarian changes attempted by the British after the war. It is an original, thoroughly researched, and lucidly written account, which illuminates our understanding of the South African War and its aftermath. It also offers new insights into peasant struggles, and into the nature of private property and the colonial state in the Transvaal.

The Indian stratification debate: A discursive exposition of problems and issues in the analysis of class, caste and gender

In order to analyze the interrelationships between class, caste and gender, it is essential to analyze the relationship between anthropology and political economy. In non-Marxist anthropology, elitism, cultural relativism, and evolutionism are still influential. The tension in Barrington Moore between a materialist and idealist view of the class/caste relationship is finally resolved in favor of idealism. Moore's idealism sharply contrasts with much contemporary work on peasant struggles in India, in which the peasants are no longer denied access to the historical stage. This shift in focus to the oppressed is only partially reflected in the field of gender, caste and class. While some work on gender, caste and class is both evolutionary and elitist in focus, the emphasis is now changing, See particularly the publications: and . and giving way to a more critical historical materialist perspective in which the historical subject is not permanently and inexorably relegated to the wings. There is also a growing interest in post-modernism (particularly discourse analysis) in relation to the analysis of those \ldhidden from history.\rd. This is expressed in the writings of some of the Subaltern Studies group and, K. Sangari and S. Vaid eds. (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1990), reviewed by K. Currie, , 22, 1 (1992).

Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History

This collection fills a very long felt need, a fact which is reinforced by the generally very high quality of the contributions and the fast-growing reputation in international feminist circles of many of the authors.--Arjun Appadurai, University of Pennsylvania The political and social life of India in the last decade has given rise to a variety of questions concerning the nature and resilience of patriarchal systems in a transitional and post-colonial society. The contributors to this interdisciplinary volume recognize that every aspect of reality is gendered, and that such a recognition involves a dismantling of the ideological presuppositions of the so-called gender neutral ideologies, as well as the boundaries of individual disciplines. The first set of essays seeks to analyze the patriarchal discourses of a colonial society and includes an analysis of the shaping of Hindu-Aryan identity, the parameters of the discourse on widow-immolation, the defeminization of popular culture in nineteenth-century urban Calcutta, the nature of the reforms proposed by early women's journals in Hindi, and the implications of the nationalist movement and of Indo-Anglian leterature on middle-class patriarchal norms. The second set of articles relates to women of the productive classes--the reconstitution of patriarchies in the agrarian transition in Haryana, in the Oudh peasant movement, in the armed peasant struggle in Telangana, and among the working class in Bengal. The contributors explore the interrelation of patriarchies with political economy, law, religion, and culture, and suggest a different history of reform movements, and of class and gender relations. Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid are teachers of literature at Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University. Together they have edited a collection of essays, Women and Culture. Kumkum Sangari is associate editor of the Journal of Arts and Ideas. Sudesh Vaid is the author of The Divided Mind: Studies in Select Novels of Defoe and Richardson.

Book reviews

Political Violence and the Struggle in South Africa edited by N. Chabani Manganyi and Andre du Toit (London, Macmillan, 1990, pp. 384, £45). Beyond Apartheid: Labour and Liberation in South Africa by Robert Fine with Dennis Davies (London, Pluto Press, 1990, pp. xii + 338, £27.50). Political Stability and Development: A Comparative Analysis of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda by D. Berg‐Schlosser and R. Siegler (Boulder and London, Lynne Rienner, 1990, pp.225, £32.50). Penetration and Protest in Tanzania: The Impact of the World Economy on the Pare by Isaria N. Kimambo (London, Currey, 1991, pp.224, £9.95 pb). Joe Appiah: The Autobiography of an African Patriot by Joseph Appiah (New York, London, Praeger, 1990, pp. xx + 374, £31.95). Nigeria by Robert A. Myers (World Bibliographical Series: 100, Oxford and Santa Barbara, Clio Press, 1989, pp. xxxii + 462, £57.50). Imperial Sudan: The Anglo‐Egyptian Condominium, 1934–56 by M. W. Daly (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. xiv + 471). Decentralising for Participatory Planning? Comparing the Experiences of Zimbabwe and other Anglophone Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa edited by P. de Valk and K. H. Wekwete (Aldershot, Avebury Academic Publishing, 1990, pp. xvi + 277, £32.50). H.C. Bankole‐Bright and Politics in Colonial Sierra Leone, 1919–1958 by Akin‐tola J.G. Wyse (African Studies Series 64, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 275, £35). The Expedient Utopian: Bandaranaike and Ceylon by James Manor (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp.338, £30/$49.50). Politics of Communalism by Zenab Banu (Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1989, pp. xiii + 226, Rs.200/£19.95). Peasant Struggles, Land Reforms and Social Change: Malabar 1836–1982 by P. Radhakrishnan (London, Sage Publications, 1989, pp.274, £22.50). Rural Change in Southeast India: 1950s to 1980s by Kathleen Gough (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp.528, £11.95). India Africa Relations. Volume I: Issues and Policy Options edited by R.R. Ramchandani (Delhi, Kalinga Publications, 1990, pp. 405, £25). India Africa Relations. Volume II: India Africa Economic Relations in the Context of Economic Co‐operation among Developing Countries by R.R. Ramchandani (Delhi, Kalinga Publications, 1990, pp.380, £22). The Indian Nationalist Movement c. 1912–22: Leadership, Organisation and Philosophy ‐ The Writings of Hugh Owen (Asian Studies Association of Australia, South Asian Publications Series No. 6, 1990, pp.262, Rs. 220). The Political Economy of India's Public Sector: Policy and Performance by Baldev Raj Nayar (Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1990, pp.323, Rs.325.00). A Sinhala Village in the Time of Trouble: Politics and Change in Rural Srilanka by Jonathan Spencer (New Delhi, University of Edinburgh, Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. xi + 285, Rs. 240). South Asians Overseas: Migration and Ethnicity edited by Colin Clarke, Ceri Peach and Steven Vetrovec (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. xvii + 331). Canada Votes 1935–1988 by Frank Feigert. (Durham NC and London, Duke University Press, 1989, pp. xvi + 351, tables, £63.50). Missed Opportunities: The Story of Canada's Broadcasting Policy by Marc Raboy (Montreal, McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1990, pp. 471, $42.70 hb, $18.95 pb). Letters to a Quebecois Friend by Philip Resnick with a reply by Daniel Latouche (Montreal and Kingston, McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1990, pp. 136, £8.45). Maintaining Consensus: The Canadian Jewish Polity in the Postwar World by Daniel J. Elazar and Harold M. Waller (Lanham, MD, University Press of America, 1990, pp.501, $38.75). The Accord and the Australian Labour Movement by Gwynneth Singleton (Carlton, Victoria, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp.viii + 222). Australian Society edited by Keith Hancock (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, in association with the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, 1989, pp. xiii + 258, tables, £25.00). The Cyprus Question and the Turkish Position in International Law by Zaim M. Necatigil (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989, 351pp., Index, £35.00). Grenada: Revolution in Reverse by James Ferguson (London, Latin America Bureau, 1990, pp. 160, £14.99 hb, £4.99 pb). Ideology and Class Conflict in Jamaica: The Politics of Rebellion by Abigail B. Bakan (Montreal, McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1990, pp. 183, £33.20 hb). The New Global Economy and the Developing Countries: Essays in International Economics and Development by G.K. Helleiner (Aldershot, Edward Elgar, 1990, pp.290, £40). Imperial Appeal: The Debate on the Appeal to the Privy Council, 1833–1986 by David B. Swinfen (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1990, pp.268, £12.95 pb). Forging Unity out of Diversity: the Approaches of Eight Nations edited by Robert A. Goldwin, Art Kaufman and William A. Schambra (Washington DC, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1989, pp. 468, $18.75 pb).

Leon Zamosc, Peasant Struggles and Agrarian Reform: The Ecuadorian Sierra and the Colombian Atlantic Coast in Comparative Perspective (Latin American Issues, monograph series number 8, Allegheny College and University of Akron, 1990), pp. 75.

Leon Zamosc, Peasant Struggles and Agrarian Reform: The Ecuadorian Sierra and the Colombian Atlantic Coast in Comparative Perspective (Latin American Issues, monograph series number 8, Allegheny College and University of Akron, 1990), pp. 75.

Review

In 1963, after Indonesia's president Sukarno had passed a basic land reform law, the then second largest communist party in Asia, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), expanded its previously cautious campaigns on Java in particular, focusing on demands for redistribution of property. Chairman Aidit spoke of an imminent revolutionary situation. He declared that the party would support and lead peasant activities to implement land reform laws, even if these activities bypassed the established cooperation and consultation between communists, nationalists, and Muslims. Sukarno had legitimized efforts to pursue the peasant struggle because of the laws and his ideas about self-reliance versus imperialism. The party leaders made strenuous efforts to produce and disseminate statistics and qualitative studies indicating that there was a considerable concentration of land in the hands of a small group of feudal landlords while the vast majority owned no land at all, or else so little that they could not reproduce their families. In their view, about 90 percent of the villagers should rationally have a common interest against the landlords.

Peasant Struggles, Land Reforms and Social Change: Malabar 1836-1982.

Introduction Land and Society in Pre-British Malabar Peasant Struggles and Land Reforms, 1836-1956 Peasant Struggles and Land Reforms, 1957-70 Implementation of Land Reforms, 1970-81 Land Reforms and Changes in Land System, 1970-79 Land Reforms and Social Change, 1970-79 Conclusion

The political crisis and the prospects for rural democracy in Colombia

Colombia's ongoing violence is rooted in a multi‐dimensional political crisis, expressed by widespread popular struggles, continuing guerrilla insurgencies, and the rise of the drug mafia. This article examines the implications for rural democratisation. The peasant struggles are interpreted as a challenge to clientelism and as a bid for the extension of political citizenship. Their democratic potential, however, is restricted by two factors: the absence of political allies capable of incorporating peasant aspirations into a broader democratic project, and the entrenchment of the drug traffickers as a factor of power in the countryside.

Book reviews

Islamic Law on Land Tax and Rent, by Baber Johansen. London: Croom Helm, 1988. Pp.x + 143; £25 (hardback). The Political Economy of Chinese Socialism, by Mark Seiden. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1988. Pp.xii + 241; $39.95 (hardback): $15.95 (paperback). A Share of the Harvest: Kinship, Property and Social History Among the Malays of Rembau, by Michael Gates Peletz. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988. Pp.xxv + 383; US$39.95 (hardback). China's Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928, by Marcia R. Ristaino. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987. Pp.xv + 274; £42.75. Hunters and Gatherers 1: History, Evolution and Change; 2: Property, Power and Ideology, edited by Tim Ingold, David Riches and James Woodburn. Oxford: Berg, 1988. 2 volumes; Pp.x + 323; x + 331; £32 per volume (hardback). Migrants No More: Settlement and Survival in Mambwe Villages, Zambia, by Johan Pottier. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988. Pp.xiii + 210; £32.50 (hardback). Over the Mountains are Mountains: Korean Peasant Households and Their Adaptations to Rapid Industrialization, by Clark W. Sorensen. Seattle: University of Washington Press 1988. Pp.x + 308; maps, tables and illustrations; $25 (hardback). Strong Societies and Weak States: State‐Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World, by Joel S. Midgal. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988. Pp.xxi + 266. US$45 (hardback); US$10.95 (paperback). The Victorian Peasant, by Richard Heath, originally published 1893; abridged version, edited by Keith Dockray. Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1989. Pp.xxvii + 196; £12.95. Colonialism and Agrarian Transformation in Bolivia, by Brooke Larson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988. Pp.xv + 375; £36.40 (hardback); £14 (paperback). Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th‐20th Centuries, edited by Steve J. Stern. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. Pp.xvii + 446. £45 (hardback); £15 (paperback). ‘Oppressed but not Defeated’: Peasant Struggles among Aymara and Qhechwa in Bolivia 1900–1980, by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1987. Pp.xiii + 222; (NP) (paperback). The Agrarian Question in North Vietnam 1974–1979: A Study of Cooperator Resistance to State Policy, by Adam Fforde. Armonk NY and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1989. Pp.xxii + 265; $39.95 (hardback). Peasants and Classes: A Study in Differentiation in Bangladesh, by Atiur Rahman with a foreword by T. J. Byres. London: Zed Books, 1986. Pp.xlvi + 295. £28.95 (hardback); £9.95 (paperback). The Political Economy of Forest Use and Management, by M. V. Nadkarni with Syed Ajmal Pasha and L. S. Prabhakar. London: Sage Publications, 1989. Pp. 182; £22.50 (hardback). Living Standards in Sichuan 1931–1978, by Chris Bramall (Research Notes and Studies No. 8). London: Contemporary China Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1989. Pp.vii + 91. £6 (paperback).

The Defense of Community in Peru's Central Highlands. Peasant Struggle and Capitalist Transition, 1860–1940 , by Florencia E. Mallon (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983, 384 pages).

The Defense of Community in Peru's Central Highlands. Peasant Struggle and Capitalist Transition, 1860–1940 , by Florencia E. Mallon (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983, 384 pages).

IMPASSES POLÍTICOS DOS MOVIMENTOS SOCIAIS NA AMAZÔNIA

A breach between peasant struggles and the political organizations seeking to mediate and direct those struggles has surfaced in recenty years. Resulting from a divergence in time and rhythm and of conceptions, that breach has existed from the inception of those struggles. Rural workers had spontaneously begun to struggle, while the political parties, ideologically divided and politcally repressed, arrived later. Those parties also came on the scene with ideologies that did not view rural workers as political actors, with an historically recognized role. By substituting the economic struggle for agrarian reform to the previous struggle for land, that involved broader political dimensions, they failed to perceive that the meaning of that struggle had been totally redefined due to the alliance between land and capital which was promoted by the military governments.

For an Indian History of Peasant Struggle

For an Indian History of Peasant Struggle

Peasants against State: The Politics of Market Control in Bugisu, Uganda, 1900-1983

Stephen Bunker challenges the image of peasants as passive victims and argues that coffee growers in the Bugisu District of Uganda, because they own land and may choose which crops to produce, maintain an unusual degree of economic and political independence. Focusing on peasant struggles for market control over coffee exports in Bugisu from colonial times through the reign and overthrow of Idi Amin, Bunker shows that these freeholding peasants acted collectively and used the state's dependence on coffee export revenues to effectively influence and veto government programs inimical to their interests. Bunker's work vividly portrays the small victories and great trials of ordinary people struggling to control their own economic destiny while resisting the power of the world economy.

Indian peasant uprisings: Myth and reality

A.R. Desai (ed.), Peasant Struggles in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979. Pp.xxv + 772; Rs. 140. Sunil Sen, Peasant Movements in India: Mid‐Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi, 1982. Pp.275; Rs.75. D.N. Dhanagare, Peasant Movements in India: 1920–1950, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. Pp.xii + 254; £12. This review of some important recent works on peasant movements in India examines four major questions concerning (a) the social locus of rebellions, (b) the role of capitalism and imperialism, (c) the part played by existing state power, and (d) the role of parties or organisations. It is argued that while there is no unchanging social base the disproportionately high degree of tribal participation in armed rebellion may provide some clue to the relative lack of similar participation among the mainstream peasantry, that capitalist imperialism is a multi faceted phenomenon impinging on the peasantry in many ways, that existing state power plays a major part in rebellio...