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 rebellions, and that a party or organisation is a necessary precondition for any trans‐local or trans‐tribal movement. It concludes by suggesting that varieties of mobilisation within the framework of parliamentary politics should be studied in order to assess the really significant role of the peasantry in the political evolution of post‐independence India.     

Indian peasant historiography: A critical perspective on Ranajit Guha's work

With the publication of six volumes of Subaltern Studies (1982–89), under Ranajit Guha's general editorship, South Asian social and political history, centred round the struggles of the subaltern classes of South Asia under colonial rule, and of the peasantry in particular, was poured into an entirely new historiographical mould. The intellectual foundation for this exciting project was laid in Guha's three major works published during the previous two decades. The historiography of the Indian peasantry, cast in this new mould, constitutes not only a formidable challenge to the dominant mainstream orientations of the metropolitan liberal and natonalist elite historians but has also opened a new frontier of understanding of the dynamics of peasant insurrections which is of significance for the future and for peasant societies in general.     

Passive revolution meets peasant revolution: Indian nationalism and the Telangana revolt

An explanation of how the struggles by villagers in the region of Telangana in the 1940s evolved into the largest rural armed conflict in twentieth‐century India, requires an understanding not just of property relations in the region (the focus of most previous studies of the revolt), but also of the nationalist movement there, and the political conjuncture at the time of Indian independence. As much a nationalist mobilization as a revolt over land and grain, the Telangana struggle attained its success because the enemy was a decrepit sultanate ‐ the princely state of Hyderabad attempting to remain outside an independent India — against whom followers of both the CPI and the Indian National Congress fought.     

Violence,agrarian radicalism and electoral politics: Reflections on the Indian people's front

I am concerned here with the political responses of peasants on the social and economic margin and of agricultural labourers. The argument is that there is in India a vital and dynamic peasant activism happening at many levels of social and economic interest including among the rural poor. I want to understand these phenomena in Indian terms and in local terms, in other words, what is happening in the fields and villages where most Indians live. This raises the fundamental issue of the language or idiom in which agrarian politics, that is the politics of dissent, is expressed and the equally important question of who is listening and what is or is not being done in response. I develop these ideas around the experience of the Indian People's Front in the last decade, specifically in Bihar, while focussing on the arena of electoral politics which the IPF entered seriously in 1989.     

A hidden and complex heritage: Reflections on the history of Germany's women's movements

This paper examines the conditions of early feminism in Germany, the differing attitudes and strategies adopted by early feminists, characterizations of the movement in historical accounts and the relationship of contemporary feminism in Germany to its earlier manifestation. The conclusion reached is that our feminist heritage is a hidden and complex one and can only be understood fully if the ‘underside’ is examined ‘from below’.     

Anjela duval: Breton poet, peasant and militant

In 1981 Brittany lost one of its national heroes, a self-educated woman of extraordinary vision and talent, an adamant defender of her native Breton language, and a full-time farmer. Anjela Duval began writing poetry when she was in her early fifties, and within 10 years was recognized by many of her compatriots as one of the most accomplished and powerful poets of the language. A frequent theme of her poetry was the necessity for Bretons to reclaim their language and their culture from the encroachments of the French: as has literary fame spread, so did her prominence as a leader in the cultural and linguistic revival in Britanny during the 1960s and '70s. Her modest farm became a mecca for poets, writers, singers, and other artists and intellectuals committed to the promotion of the Breton language and culture: her literary and emotional impact on contemporary Bretons has been enormous.This article sketches in the main outlines of this unusual woman's life, filling them in with selected examples of her copious poems (which the author has translated from the Breton). A brief consideration of Duval from a feminist perspective is provided in the final section.     

Dorset,Kincardine and peasant crisis: A comment on David Craig

David Craig's paper ‘Novels of Peasant Crisis’ is to be warmly welcomed. But Craig provides no adequate analysis of the peasant crises underlying the novels which he considers. This paper considers one of Craig's novels; Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song. Craig's explanation of this book in terms of depopulation and the destruction of the Kincardine peasantry from outside is seen to be inadequate. Sunset Song is about the crumbling of a peasant mode of production through the working out of internal contradictions within that mode of production. As an introduction to this discussion of Sunset Song Craig's dismissal of the utility of Thomas Hardy's work for the analysis of rural class relations is argued to be distinctly premature.     

The Campesino-to-Campesino agroecology movement of ANAP in Cuba: social process methodology in the construction of sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty

Agroecology has played a key role in helping Cuba survive the crisis caused by the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the tightening of the US trade embargo. Cuban peasants have been able to boost food production without scarce and expensive imported agricultural chemicals by first substituting more ecological inputs for the no longer available imports, and then by making a transition to more agroecologically integrated and diverse farming systems. This was possible not so much because appropriate alternatives were made available, but rather because of the Campesino-a-Campesino (CAC) social process methodology that the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) used to build a grassroots agroecology movement. This paper was produced in a ‘self-study’ process spearheaded by ANAP and La Via Campesina, the international agrarian movement of which ANAP is a member. In it we document and analyze the history of the Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement (MACAC), and the significantly increased contribution of peasants to national food production in Cuba that was brought about, at least in part, due to this movement. Our key findings are (i) the spread of agroecology was rapid and successful largely due to the social process methodology and social movement dynamics, (ii) farming practices evolved over time and contributed to significantly increased relative and absolute production by the peasant sector, and (iii) those practices resulted in additional benefits including resilience to climate change.     

The Campesino-to-Campesino agroecology movement of ANAP in Cuba: social process methodology in the construction of sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty

Agroecology has played a key role in helping Cuba survive the crisis caused by the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the tightening of the US trade embargo. Cuban peasants have been able to boost food production without scarce and expensive imported agricultural chemicals by first substituting more ecological inputs for the no longer available imports, and then by making a transition to more agroecologically integrated and diverse farming systems. This was possible not so much because appropriate alternatives were made available, but rather because of the Campesino-a-Campesino (CAC) social process methodology that the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) used to build a grassroots agroecology movement. This paper was produced in a 'self-study' process spearheaded by ANAP and La Via Campesina, the international agrarian movement of which ANAP is a member. In it we document and analyze the history of the Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement (MACAC), and the significantly increased contribution of peasants to national food production in Cuba that was brought about, at least in part, due to this movement. Our key findings are (i) the spread of agroecology was rapid and successful largely due to the social process methodology and social movement dynamics, (ii) farming practices evolved over time and contributed to significantly increased relative and absolute production by the peasant sector, and (iii) those practices resulted in additional benefits including resilience to climate change.     

Antonio Garcia: A Mexican peasant,poet and revolutionary

In this article, a letter and poems written by Antonio Garcia Gonzáles, a Mexican peasant from Ixtlán, Mexico, are translated. The letter was written in October, 1971, a few weeks after his arrest for involvement in certain revolutionary activities, and the poems during the early years of his imprisonment (1971–73). They are introduced by some biographical remarks about Antonio and accompanied by a commentary.     

The Awkward Class: a foundation for peasant studies

ABSTRACT

Teodor Shanin's The Awkward Class helped to launch two immensely important research directions. First, resistance by Russian peasants to modernizing agricultural policies by both Tsarist and Soviet governments opened new questions about collectivization of agriculture, and made Russian history relevant to the study of ‘developing societies.’ Second, the idea of cyclical mobility of peasant households challenged the then widely held assumption that peasants were destined to disappear. Instead of explaining ‘persistence’ of peasants, Shanin explored distinct logics of peasant households and communities. This helped to define a new inter-disciplinary field called peasant studies.     

The support function and social change—A feminist case history

The first part of this article describes the history of a Belgian anglophone organisation—W ♀ E (Women's Organisation for Equality)—from the perspective of its role in the process of social change and women's liberation. It then analyses the reasons for W ♀ E's longevity and effectiveness as a feminist support group and as a bridge for women emerging into feminism. Finally the paper suggests how W ♀ E might continue its effectiveness as a support group, but at a new level, taking into account the fact that though women are continuing to need support as they wake up, there is now a large group of awakened women who have been struggling as feminists for a long time.     

A new model for sharecropping and peasant holdings

Sharecropping has posed many puzzles to the theoretician. It seems to disappear with the coming of capitalism and yet again evidence exists for its reappearance and cyclical behaviour. This article maintains that many of these puzzles can be solved by juxtaposing Marxist thought on to the neo‐classical tools of analysis. This is achieved by concentrating on a specific type of sharecropping from which the rest of the puzzle can be explained. The way is also paved for a general model of differentiated peasantry according to the initial endowments of land and labour. The link with the ‘Inverse Relationship’ is also explained.     

From peasant to entrepreneur in Italy and Japan

From Peasant to Entrepreneur: the Survival of the Family Farm in Italy, by Anna Bull and Paul Corner. Oxford: Berg, 1993. Pp. ix + 174. £29.95. ISBN 0 85496 309 X.

Bull and Corner's historical study of the development of the ‘pluriactive’ rural household and its impact on the structure of industry in one region of Italy might go unnoticed by those concerned with rural change in other parts of the world. However, the clear similarities between the experience they describe and contemporaneous developments in Japan suggest the possibility of an alternative pattern of agriculture/industry relations over the course of industrialisation in economies where the small‐scale, multi‐functional, rural household prevails.