Struggle in rural India
Part- 1
At the outset I like to give the references of the renowned anthropologists dealing with the nature of aboriginals and give a brief account of how the primitive people did enter into the category to be termed as nation.
While I have decided to write about the patterns of struggle of the rural people of India against the exploiting class in the country side, I happen to look upon the toil of the working class in the respective stage of development for livelihood as something like a precious job for the society and as a means to lay foundation of the country’s economy. Verrier Elwin has given a vivid picture of the struggle of the tribal people in his book ` A PHILOSOPHY FOR NEFA’. He wrote, “The first Aryan settlers in India regarded them with antipathy, characterizing them as devils, man-eaters, black as crows,…….’’. (I am afraid, these terms are outdated now). In the Mahabharata they were classified as `sinful creature of the earth ‘,akin to Chandalas, ravens, and vultures’’. In the literature of Bana the designs of these people have been described in the crudest possible language, which I feel, should not be uttered for any section of human being in these modern days. Even it ought to have some mention of the senses that these people were treated like, which need to be displayed. It has been narrated by Bana that their shastra( scripture) was the cry of the jackal; their teachers were good and evil were owls; their friends were the bows that worked cruel deeds; etc. The descriptions as above, carrying the messages of the ages from the time of arrival of Aryans to the days of the Gupta era, do not suit at all to the present day situation. So it may strike absurd to the readers of the day. It is a clear indication that the environment imparts material causes to the manual and mental statutes of man’s physical existence. So, for a considerably long period man was under the rule of the environment. His struggle was then oriented against the unsuitable components of environment. Steepness of the forest hills, scarcity of water, ferocious animals, inability in procurement of food in all seasons are the major difficulties put forward by the environment for the hill tribes to fight against. So we find here contradiction between hill tribes and the environment.
In Mahabharata there was an occasion when a Brahmin visited a village of Dasyus and found them wealthy, truthful and hospitable. He was very much pleased with Sabara chief and exclaimed in admiration with the words ` Horrible he was, he yet inspired awe by reason of his natural greatness and his form could not be surpassed.’ Here the composite nature of sabaras was described `awe’ and `hospitable’
The rural combinations in respect of varieties of population are different according to local variations of the environment. Likewise,in the Ramayana, Rama and Laxmana, while they were in the deep forest in search for Sita, were received by an ascetic sabari in Rishyamukh hill. The sabari. on the bank of river Pampa, collected sweet fruits to offer them as food. She showed the beauty of the forest full of flowers, fruits, animals , birds, all living in harmony. That description revealed the eco system of forest life, signifying the hard realities of the comfort of forest life that the sabari was leading. Here we can learn how the forestry moulded the human lives to suit the wild habits. Here the situation was not so urged upon to fight forest, rather the situation influenced the humans to adjust with it. The description of the Matanga’s forest would tempt us to go back to that nature of life we have left behind some thousands of years back. It is, as if, we have advanced in exchange of great loss. The anthropologist Verrier Elwin has narrated the forest lives with the remarks : “ There is, of course, no idea as yet of `doing anything’ for the forest people—- but it is most significant to find, even so long ago, an attitude towards them which anticipates the friendliness respect which come in fruition in modern times….’’. The tribes in the forest area get engaged in creating and preserving plants, producing and collecting fruits, saving the wild animals, providing woods for the dwellers of the cities, towns, plane area villages and in one word, for the country people. But the nation does not properly value their contribution; instead, there has arisen a section of vested groups to plan for evicting these basic people from their native place and for grabbing their lands. All these anti-social activities are being done in the name of erecting industrial projects or other welfare schemes where personal interest plays an important role.
I am trying to display how the people of rural India made advances against the oppressive role of the ruling classes by breaking through the obstacles raised by the exploiters under the shelter of their class rulers. Let us have an idea why a section of people had shifted to the deep forest. In ancient India when the Aryans intruded into the main land of the country, the then existing people might have not allowed them to settle at the cost of themselves already living there. Naturally the question of raising obstacles had had appeared. As many of them could not withstand the attacks, some had been killed, some became captive in the hands of the invaders. It was natural that a vast part of the population had shifted elsewhere, entering into deeper forests. Those who were captive or somehow adjusted to retain and to live there itself under the control of the intruders, ultimately assimilated the socio-cultural practices of the ruling communities, may be with a difference as far as practicable. But those who got shifted to far more dense forest or hilly tracts of land, maintained the prestige and dignity in cherishing their own style and did not surrender their own identities. They developed societies, customs, kingdoms and kings, economy, languages, religions, etc, in their traditional fashions. Actually these are the sections of people who are now categorized as scheduled tribes. The areas they chose to live in were separated and got blocked geographically. The isolation promoted their safety and security. Even then the British looked upon them with dignity, as it was difficult to bring them under full control.
The tribal people were not included in the Vedic set of people inscribed in usual population coming under ‘ chaturvarna`. It was not `caste’ that figured first in the social system, that means, in the `division of labour’ that engaged man in building up a stable social structure. It was not unnatural that the people of any period would resort to divide amongst themselves the responsibility of jobs to give the society a complete form in a particular point of time. This happened in the Aryan society. In the plain areas the division of labour was created like this, a brief being noted beforehand:
1. Brahmins—this segment was entrusted with the task of worshiping God or gods and dealing with Vedic teachings.
2. Kshatriyas – this segment was entrusted with war affairs, with the maintenance of safeguarding the lives and properties of the state and its people.
3. Vaishyas—This segment was entrusted with business, commercial matters and agricultural managements.
4. Shudras—This segment consisted of the labour-devoting people, entrusted with the task of production of consumable goods, for the purpose of the upper three segments and for their own consumption. But they are not entitled to own anything.
This way the people got divided amongst themselves into four segments depending on the pattern of works each segment had to perform. As the father used to draw the young kids to his profession for help, they used to get habituated in the pattern of works they would have to take up in their grown up ages. So the young kids did not have the opportunity to opt for alternative mode of works but to get swayed by the close touch of the guardians’ styles of works. The inducement of association of the parents from the very childhood had cast on the off- springs an easy approach of getting accustomed to the parents’ professions. This is one way of following suit the parental occupations. This customary process continued generations after generations and years after years entailing in the newer generations an obligatory task and a devotion to the pattern of works as something destined on them to accomplish. The job followed years together by parents and then by their future generations used to give them recognition which section of people he or she happened to belong to. Thus the section emerged in the human society as caste, the symbol to recognize him. The caste system got registered in the minds of men in the way to follow particular task in the society. So the division of labour gave rise to division of people into castes. That means , classes of people oriented by division of labour turned into castes.
I like to assert here the truth behind this change of ideas from division of labour to the emergence of caste-system. The secret was the dialectical process. A system does not retain in one stage all along. Gradual change peeps up and matter goes to change. Repetition of the profession of the father to the son, ther to grand son and so on accentuates quantitative change. The emergence of caste from division of labour is the qualitative change. The change of divisions of labour to the formation of castes had had a bearing on the formation some attitudes reflecting relations among different castes with activities deserving to them and necessary for the society.
It may be analyzed in another way. The people engaged in one form of occupation would develop in them the capacity of endurance of hardness, the capacity of digesting filthy food, adjustment with rough body smell owing to release of sweat due to exertion for hours together in case of lower castes, thus making the separate sets of people depending on the suitability of their filthy life style. This status of livelihood had risen to segregate the section of people engaged in unclean occupation. It was considered that these people might be carrying non-sense body odour and injurious germs on account of the profession they performed. So the other higher caste people should keep distance from them. This impression had resulted in the creation of untouchable communities as outcaste or 5th caste category. This relegation of a downward movement of castes was the result of dialectical process implied in the caste system. For the suitability of the human society the varna system was given the status of a permanent structure, so that these people remain bogged in that status as a rule.
The Manusmriti had been created to imbibe the iron-hard principle for these segment of the working people including the outcastes to succumb to the profession as having been destined to remain so in the term `swadharma’ performance. It was made rule-bound to observe swadharma as `permissible ‘ under any circumstances what so ever. The sudras were identified to pursue an unchanging life as destined to put labour for the pleasure of the higher three castes with a condition not to own any wealth, any land, not to wear absolutely new clothes, even not to use untesils of their own. Only right they were permitted was to eat dirty foods left out by the upper caste people, to wear the left out torn clothes, to live the places provide by the upper castes on mercy and the like.Thus was made complete the process of proletarianization. The relegation of all labour-oriented jobs like agricultural labour, the works of artisans and craftsmen, all sorts of jobs pertaining to manual labour to the sudras by the upper castes and was termed as jobs under swadharma. So it was a bounden duty as an iron rule of the day at that time. The people of this segment were forbidden to hear the readings of the Vedas, not to speak of reading by themselves.
The life style of Adivasis was an isolated one. They did not subscribe to Aryan culture. So they remained separated from the mainstream people. This way they also turned to be out caste( the level of `atisudras’. Those who live isolatedly in forests were termed a `nishadas’ or `shabaras’ and those sheltered in hills and mountains were termed as `kiratas’. They also were treated as untouchables. The characteristics with the nishadas and kiratas were the fact that they did not undertake the customs followed by the Aryans, They were very conscious about being the overpowered by the plain area people and their properties being seized and their rights being snatched or their own-cherished culture being ruptured. They did not like that their geographical protection should be destroyed or disturbed. The creation of roads and streets was not treated a compulsory one. This was the reasons the they also were treated by the upper castes to be untouchables. However, the British emperors, though strongly prevented, managed to penetrate into their periphery and tried to wave some sorts of airs of civilization without making any radical destabilization of their identities. The Christian missionaries had made great headways among this population.
As the segments of Shudras and Adivasis(indigenous people) occupied big land areas full of minerals, oils, gases, mines etc, and remained deprived of plain land advantages, the difference of cross-benefits rowed the seeds of disputes and conflicts with the three advantageous upper sections. So the preservation of identities, safeguarding the identities, properties, rights, local benefits, cultures, became an ardent responsibilities on the part of the indigenous people. On the other hand the advanced sections of people with science in their hand were naturally attempting to expand their power to that unseen and uncovered areas . The advancement and dominance of the capitalism did not spare any place of wealth and habitation as enshrined in the following statement of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels laid down in the communist manifesto : “ The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all , even the most barbarian, nations into civilization. The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations , on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilization into their midst, i.e. , to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.’’
I am to refer here the statement `It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production….’’ and say that the people living in the hilly and mountainous areas, however inaccessible it might be, were not left out by the capitalist classes in their way of harnessing the properties hidden in nature in any corner and the march for explosion of wealth is going on even to day in courses of changes embedded in nature and with the growingly improved role of human being. Isolation does not stick, identities cherished by the isolated patterns of lives do not remain guarded for long. The forces of matter go their own way by knocking, pushing or tilting whatever come in line, according to the law of dynamics. The people in an area get jerking and are met with changes in the inertia. All these motional changes come under the single term `struggle’. Man and society are running ahead against difficulties and for a better status of life. This mode of race of humans are landmarked in Indian history as class struggle in the courses of upliftment of the societies. The growing patterns of livelihood and the people’s struggle in shaping the structure will be narrated in the second part of the article with possible illustration of the hilly region and the plain one.

Part-2

Genesis of nationhood in India
Here in above, I have tried to impress upon the whereabouts of the societies in forests while peoples were leading the primitive stage of livelihood and other activities. The formation of the society did not take a regular shape as yet. If we categorize the structures of different forms of societies, we do come across Indian societies broadly in four phases, though some historians divide it into three segments. The stages may be classified like this :
a) The Aryan society or the Hindu society, b) Buddhist society, Islamic society and d) The English society mostly based on Christianity.
a) It refers to the Vedic era. Firstly it was a forest life. The society created four segments among men to accomplish all the activities of the human society. The matter how four segments were created has already been dealt with. Primarily this classification was made simply to accomplish all the purposes and works that would be necessary to satisfy the needs of the human society, so that every one will render his assigned jobs as a rule and without any objection. This was necessary for smooth conduct of the society and to make its onward advancement possible.
The distribution of jobs as already discussed was continuing for generations together, The son followed the father in respect of his duty to the society. Moreover it was natural for him to follow suit the task of his father and thus he became accustomed to the nature and art of the job that was easy for him to learn in the homely atmosphere. The son grew strong day by day and year to year with the father getting weak. According to the theory `thesis- antithesis-synthesis’ the father went extinct and the son got established in the profession with more skill and vigour. Negation of negation got quite applied here. That was why the son of a Brahmin became a Brahmin, the son of a kshatriya a kshatriya, vsishya’s son a vaishya, shudra’s son a shudra. Proceeding that way for years, decades, centuries and thousands of yesrs, the society in India entailed a structure where the recognition of a man and his job got registered by birth, not merely by distribution of job. It hypnotized a man to undertake the job of his father automatically, if he had to survive. Thus arose a situation where a Brahmin move away from the class Brahmin , a man to worship god on behalf of the entire set of population, to the caste Brahmin , a man to be known as a Brahmin by birth irrespective of whether he would become engaged in worshipping or not. According to Marxian theory it may be termed as transformation of the class to caste. Similar has been the case in respect of the classes kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras.
As the society in its run up to progress to the newer stages of development began to suffer from the impediment of caste arrogance, the caste conflicts went on in the increasing manner. The human life in this subcontinent became a burden for the lower castes, the shudras in particular, and partly on the part of vaishyas also. Brahmins rose to the supreme position to impose orders, interpret the meaning of the Vedic hymns, give judgements where violations occurred owing to disobliging the instructions as per Vedic rules. For the same nature of offense, Brahmins would go unpunished, kshatriyas would have to be fined by two pices, vaishas by three pices and shudras by five pices, etc. Shudras were not allowed to enter into the houses of the upper three castes; they were not entitled to read the Vedas, even not to hear it. The shudras were marked by bells round the neck, so that the members of other castes might be alert of the movement of the shudras and could avoid getting polluted by the touch of their shadows, etc, The social torture was inflicted not only on the shudras, but also on the vaishyas, and kshatriyas to the proportionately less degrees. Thus the society got advanced in reaching a stage where the vast population was thrust upon by the unbearable pressure of injustice creating great impediment in the growth of civilization. The kshatriyas were the rulers, the Brahmins were the advisers, and others were to carry out the instructions. Area-based administration cropped up. Geographical boundary gave the rulers some advantage to make command over the people. When the people’s anger would break limit, The boundary got modified. Owing to the vastness of the subcontinent, Sanskrit could not maintain its position uniformly and local effects began to modify it in adaptation to the local environment. Thus the qualities got multiplying and started splitting from the mother language of Sanskrit in order to suit respective environmental effects. In this way, the area-wise affinity for dresses, food-habits, caste-oriented biases and adjustments and availability of other necessaries formed unit-like segments of land economically, geographically, linguistically, culturally, religiously. These characteristics together evolve into a nation. Later on, the caste-based torture and social bondages came in conflict with the tradition of the society. The Brahmins consolidated the structure of the society with the monarchs under their control. The lower castes were be-wildered as to how to survive amidst the social tortures heaped on them. At that time an atmosphere of a great relief appeared with the advent of Buddhism and Jainism which rose to the occasion by the slogan of `all are equal’ , Buddha having been the boldest one to proclaim` there is no God’. Here also we observe the truth of the law ` thesis-antithesis-synthesis’ This is the secret of evolution of nations.
As the Sanskrit language got modified to different shapes curved differently by the local effect and as the geographical advantages barricaded the people regionally, a situation bred for the people of the same region, same language, same culture and same ruler to culminate into a nation of a particular design, like Punjabees, Bengalees, Asamese, Oriyas, etc. Thus India emerged as a multinational state.
Theory of “Leaving them alone’’
The great scientist Isaac Newton in his laws of motion defined one position of objects as inertia. Inertia was of two types—inertia of rest and inertia of motion. If an object remains at rest, it will remain at rest if no external force pushes it to set it in motion. The same is true for an object in motion. The virtue has proved to be true in regard to human character too. One does not want to change its situation until compelled. Of course material properties make the situation to undergo change. The village people cannot adjust with the city life and feel uneasy. The tribal people are accustomed to a pattern of life in the forest-based environment with the people there having been served their necessaries by the forest, like food, medicine, water from hill-streams, having the art and culture of the hilly design been evolved, etc. The people living traditionally in the forest get so much accustomed to that environment and earn adaptation that while the modern enlightenment enthuse them for an upgraded status, they are adverse to it and treat it as an interference. So many of the anthropologists suggested to pursue for them a policy of ` leaving them alone’ or `largely alone’, as because they desire so in the grandeur of freedom in enjoying well adjusted hilly lives.
Man always makes a good adjustment with the environment and tries to maintain the status conveniently. Their food habit, kinds of dresses, nature of production, dwelling huts and other components of livelihood have been achieved through their struggle against nature and in settlement with environment as implied in the process `thesis-antithesis synthesis.’ As the environment keeps changing with the go of the days, human nature keeps abreast with the norms and forms in relation to environment. But if they are told to shift from hills to planes or to a still denser hilly forest, reactions and oppositions are bound to come. A change is inevitable, but not the change of abrupt nature or against interest of the incumbent people. Cosmetics suit a urban lady, may gladden a rural poor, but it will harm an aboriginal if his continuity in the wild environment is abruptly disturbed by his compulsory stay in an urban area for a period all on a sudden. I myself was bewildered, about sixty five years back, when firstly getting admission at Agartala for my studies in 8th standard, continued to dwell in capital town delighted with street lights, shops and markets showing all bright with houses well furnished and with people in modernized clothes, speaking sweet, I felt inconvenient to pull on. I could not adjust. Having been successfully promoted to class ix, I was happy to get back in village school. Of course, after one year, under compulsion, I came back to Agartala. Likewise lots of obstructions were faced by the people of rural areas when deforestation started in an area in a large scale, unearthing the close areas which were open to a civilized society or to a noble society, placing them to a state of contrast. When the left front government in Tripura started creating more schools in rural areas and posting the teachers to the remote localities, reports poured abundantly that some of the teachers attended schools with almost no student coming there. The gaon panchayats were moved to convince guardians of the utility of education. The teachers also had to campaign the value of coming to school. It is true that the Janashiksha samiti under the leadership of Dasharath Deb, Sudhanwa Deb barma etc had made a wide campaign for education and succeeded in setting up schools in hilly areas to a considerable extent, but the coverage was in a fraction only. In the other uncovered areas, it was still all dark. As the system of free education during the Left front government was also a hard task to proceed in remote areas as explained above, the other components of growth of development would naturally have also been the harder tasks proportionately. The terrorists capitalized this inconvenience as a weapon and facilitated a move against break-through of the areas by enlightened sections with, of course, political motive. The move against penetrations and virtually against development, was erected out of the conservative out look, so that their wealth, their culture, their usual way of life would not be put to the seizure of exploiters. At present, the tendency of preservation of the own styles of livelihood, reservation of tendencies to maintain own cultures and practices, safe-guarding properties including land, preservation of wealth and customs, are all recognized and denoted by a single term `identity politics’. Now let us minutely locate the features and reasons crippling their development and progress and standing in the way of eradication of miseries. The tribal lives suffered from the constraints generated by some or all of the barriers as follows:
1) The forest based habitation deprived them of amenities that were flourishing plain-landed habitations. But they are accustomed to the traditional ways.
2) The circumstances made them keep confined in hill-tracks bounded by forest and high mountainous ranges.
3) They remained almost separated from urban civilization and hence were deprived of the growing amenities of civic life.
4) The facilities like education, markets, roads and bridges, electricity, drinking water, etc, were not available in the rural areas.
5) The landed properties in the rural areas having been the reserves of wealth like forest base properties, minerals, ores of metals, having the vacant places to make provision of industrial estates or commercial sites, have become a prey to the greedy eyes of the big capitalists .
6) The flow of development of a country pushes the millionaires to move from plane areas to the inaccessible regions. The most of the governments being in favour of the exploiting classes, the innocent tribal people easily become the victims of their economic aggression.
7) Ignorance of the upcoming tenacity of progress and growth in the face of the economic pressure used to drive the rural people either to succumb to the circumstances or to rise against oppression.
But capitalism does not stop governing over the newer areas and bringing those areas in the clamps of exploitation by the millionaires. Every area has the wealth of social value in terms of consumption by people. Industry is vigorously proceeding to grasp objects of all varieties to turn into usable commodities. In the communist manifesto Marx and Engels had vividly explained the march of capitalism over the vast uncovered region. We are observing to-day that the hilly areas are more favored than the plane land for economic purpose. River flows from mountains and is used for generation of electricity. The hills are having reserves for gases and minerals and are gaining importance.
We have had some vivid experiences about how the innocent tribal people had to rise against the British and the feudal lords to rebound the assaults on their right to properties and to maintain identity in the minimum.
Some features of Peasant movement including the movement of different tribes :
As I already told the tribal areas have kept in store mineral wealth underneath and abundant forest reserves on the surface, being the precious raw materials as resource for industrial products. Formerly these were under the hegemony of feudal lords. The tribal people had been ruthlessly squeezed by the exploiters with dominant role in feudalism. The types of sufferings of the tribal people were the factors of alienation from land, usurpation, unavoidable engagement as labour under force, land grabs, nominal wages, money lending, advanced cheap sale of labour, mortgaging lands for subsistence money, falling prey to forceful occupation, forceful eviction and such other numerous forms of oppressions in series from the era of feudalism to capitalism. The tribes that were victims of oppression by the exploiters were Warlis, Munda, Santhals,Kol, Bhils, tribes in Jharkhand, Mappilas, Baiga, Bhutia, Bhumij, Banjara, Gorkha, peasants in Rangpur, Nagas, Mizos, Garos, Bodos, Khasis, Muria Gonds, Bhuiyas, Daflas, Kondhas,Kukis, Tripuris, Deoris, Karbis, Khamtis, Oraons, other tribes in Andhra and Telengana, Kerala, north-eastern states and so on.
Isolation and neglectful treatment by the plain landed zaminders and their administrative organs, ethnic outlook of the upper-strata classes, tortures from money lenders, and class hatred oppressions, land grabs, etc were the main causes of depression. Tribal people sometimes became tenants on their own land and sometimes bonded laborers even. During British government the merchants and contractors could procure permission to fell trees from forest, but the tribal inhabitants could not touch even. The corrupt people could loot the forest resources through illegal means of bribery. The tribal people being the most adjusted section in the forest, before whose eyes the trees grow and become economic resource, cannot enjoy benefits. More over they are blamed as forest-destroyers. This is the tragic irony of fate for the tribals. They remained debarred from the forest produces. They could not use wood, cannot hunt animals, cannot pluck fruits. No body thought of their amenities like drinking water, medical help, education, ration, agricultural tools, their earning means and their means to livelihood. Over and above having been subjected to inhuman troubles, the tribal people in Assam, Orissa, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharasthra suffered also from land grabs, low wages, harassment from forest officials, and the like. All these troubles and sufferings formed the background of the tribal revolts in different provinces of India during British regime. Some examples are mentioned below for reference.
In the 18th century : Halba rebellion in Bastar at Chhattisgarh, Pahariya Sardars’ revolt and Tamar revolt at Chhota Nagpur, Mahadev Koli tribes in Maharasthra ( 1784-85); Kurichya rebellion against Wayanad invasion of British, Singphos attack on Sadiya with 3000 tribal warriors, The Kol uprising including the Ho and Munda people, Khond revolt in Orissa, the great rebellion by Santhal community against the British in Eastern India led by Sido and Kanho, the Bhil revolt under the leadership of Bhagoji Naik and Kajar Singh, Santhal revolt in Dhanbad, Andamanese in the battle of Aberdeen, the Lushai tribES raided in 1860 the then British Tripura and killed 186 British subjects, The Synteng tribal revolted in Jaintia hills in North East India, the Juang tribals’ revolted in Orissa, the Koya tribal revolted at Malkangiri in Orissa, the Sentinelese revolted in Andaman and Nicibar islands and attacked the British, agitation by Mundas took place against British. The tribals of the North-East India revolted against the British in 1895, the Lushai people revolted against the British in 1895 and In 1895 a revolt was resorted by the Munda tribal community under the leadership of Birsa Munda.
In the 20th century the remarkable revolts were ;
Bastar Revolt by tribal people, Tana Bhagat movement in Bihar,Naga revolt in 1932,The Kuki uprising in Manipur,The Koya tribal revolted at Rampa against British, The Nagas revolted under the leadership of 14-year old Rani Guidallo in NE India, The Gond and the Kolam revolted in Telengana, Tribal revolted in Orissa under leadership of Laxman Naik. History says that the British army was strongly resisted by the Nagas and Mizos in the expedition of Naga hills and Mizo hills.
These revolts were oriented against the British rule and its Subsidiaries to preserve the right and identity , to contain land grab, injustice and exploitation. The revolts and rebellions were the grand examples of class struggles between the freedom fighting people and the British imperialist or the rival exploiting authorities. This is also the mark of the brave battle of the oppressed and the exploited classes of people against the oppressors and the exploiter British regime. Among numerous examples I am referring to some glaring ones as below .
These movements for rights to the land against feudal lords took a vigorous shape in the periods after the second world war, enthused by the news of victory of Soviet Russia against fascist war monger Hitler. One of the stirring movements was marked by the peasants of Telengana in Andhra Pradesh organized by All India Kisan Sabha under the able leadership of P Sundaraya, a veteran communist leader. The land battle was waged against landlords known to be jagirdars and deshmukhs under the rule of Nizam of Hyderabad. The peasants were successful in establishing a base in Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda districts. Land was distributed to the small and landless peasants. The peasant movements in India were spread in Bengal, popularly known as Tebhaga movement, in Kerala known as Punnapra Vayalar and North Malavar movement, in Maharasthra known as Warli Adivasi movement in Thane district. The peasant movement was spread in Tamil Nadu also. It was in the East Thanjavur where peasants waged struggle to establish their right to land. One of the most fierce battles was fought by the tribal people of Tripura led by the veteran mass leader Dasharath Deb under the banner of Gana Mukti Parishad. The battle was launched against the military operation of Nehru Govt at the centre. This Ganamukti Parishad later on merged with communist party and Dasharath Deb became a famous leader through people’s struggle and was elected to Lok Sabha number of times and also became the chief minister of Tripura. Peasants movement was also spread in Assam in Surma Valley area.
Struggle against upper caste dominance :
The key point lying at the root of social structure and development of India is the domination of upper castes over the lower castes since inception of the chaturvarna system in the human society. The atrocities on the lower castes inflicted by the upper castes got favour from the ruling class during both feudalism and capitalism as the case might be. Mention may be made of Kilvarmani massacre in Tamil Nadu. In this massacre 44 striking dalits (untouchables) village labourers were killed by a gang of reportedly landlords hencemen. The dalit peasants demanded very reasonable higher wages in a situation initiated by the Green Revolution.
In Uttar Pradesh , a history of uprising against atrocities of the depressed section was created by renowned bandit Phoolan Devi. She came of a traditional boatman class Mallah family. She was once kidnapped by a gang of decoits. The fact of the matter was that the Gujjar leader of the gang tried to rape her, but she was saved by the deputy leader Vikram, who belonged to her caste. Later, an upper caste Thakur friend of Vikram killed him, abducted Phoolan and confined her in a room under lock where she was put to serial rapes by Thakur men for days together. However , she managed to escape after three weeks. She them formed a gang of Mallahs, The gang robbed of upper caste moneyed men in the north and central India and resorted to distribute the looted wealth to the poorer section of the lower castes. He took revenge by killing the rapists and kidnappers. She became a true friend of the dalits and poor class. She was elected to the Loksabha twice. She was shot dead by unknown assasins on July 25, 2001.Though she took revenge against the kidnappers and rapists and also other rich families, she was criticized by the innocent widows of the victim husbands of the rich class, because the women do constitute a depressed class by themselves in Indian society.
The groups of militia are also formed by the ruling class in the face of armed offensive created by the exploited sections. One example is Ranvir Sena of Bihar , reportedly formed by higher-caste landlords to fight against the outlawd naxals in rural areas. Dalits have become victims in a large scale. History will pay for the terrible sufferings perpetrated against the dalits. The Bara Massacre of 1992 in Bihar, perpetrated by Maoist communist Centre of India against Bhumihar caste (1992) and the Bathani Tola Massacre(1996), Laxmanpur Bathe Carnage, all in Bihar, and incidents like these, have created blood sheds in Bihar in an fake form of class struggle without having any concrete destination of mass killings, though the incidents bear the senses of class anger. So far my assessment goes, the conspiracies against the communist groups led by CPI and CPI(M) has resulted in the rise of the high-handed role of the extremist groups. In the prevalence of the truth in the operation of ` thesis-antithesis-synthesis’, the parties like RJD, Loka Janashkti Party, JDU have locally stood on sound footing. The upper caste arrogance has many a time in different parts of India relegated to murderous intolerance against the dalit groups. The Melavalau murders stand a typical proof where victory of a candidate from the downtrodden section in Melur panchayat ignited fury among the upper caste causing attacks and deaths in 1996.
Dr, B. R. Ambedkar, the unparallel leader of the dalit communities of India had shown how hard it was to stand and fight the higher caste hegemony all through his life. His life itself stands testimony of protest against social tortures, lacunae in legally protectable means and the hegemonic overcast in atmospheric sphere . But his life long protests, both ethical and manual, and successful uprisings of the dalits under his leadership have paved the way to elevate him to the supreme position in the constitution bench to frame Indian constitution and provided for the dalits and downtrodden sections of people the rights and opportunities to upgrade them to the level playing status. The constitution of India has formulated democracy as the proper means to elucidate equal rights to thrive to the state of prosperity. But the state has retained the two opposite warring classes like `haves’ and `have-nots’, landlords and landless, the rich and the poor, caste system, with the rich in the political power to administer. That is why money power and muscle power are found to grow stronger day by day. On one side the democratic forces are trying to come ahead, dashing through the blockades raised by the exploiting classes in power. The constitution
These movements go to establish the fact that the people who may be illiterate and apparently ignorant and innocent. But they have the capacity to rebound and stand against the oppressors when the situation warrants. The contradiction between the exploited and the exploiter, between the peasants and the landlords, between the kings and their subjects cannot lie dormant for all the times. The degree of exploitation is sure to generate the seeds of protests and rebellions in the course of time. There are examples of number of people’s upsurges against kings and feudal lords in the thousands of kingdoms that remained spread all over India. Sometimes the kings retreated and again counter attacked with the help of neighbouring kings or the forces aided by the British government. These all are laid down in the respective histories. Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels rightly enunciated that the past histories are the histories of class struggle. This is very much relevant in Indian history also.

In the foregoing discussion, it appeared to be relevant that wherever there had arisen obstruction, the forces of changes were found to accumulate there and ultimately paved the way to further progress in the system or to bust it off to enter into a new era. The social tortures on the depressed classes in the ancient Aryan civilization invited the appearance of Lord Buddha. The society could witness a leap in ideas from the stage of grave faith in God or gods to the the stage belief of existence of no God absolutely, the first of its kind in the history of spiritual world. How nice is the play of dialect! Is it not enjoyable?
All the struggles referred as above do pose to entirely mean a struggle in the rural India. Behold the Navaratna of Akbar’s council. Of the nine jewels, at least four were from the Hindu cult. It traverses the truth that unity in diversity (the two being opposite) clamped together. This strength was manifested many a time in Indian history. The biggest one was the battle during the battle between the East India Company and the Nawab Siraj Ouddullah . The whole rural people was dormantly behind the Nawab, though not prepared for an armed offensive. The fleeing of the existing people to the deeper and farther forest area in the face of Aryan expedition instead of making surrender had given them a separate life style and separate pattern of livelihood, turning them to tribes with a full identical character. The isolation for a long time had yielded that results. We have seen in our Tripura how the struggle for education in rural Tripura turned into struggle against Nehru government at the centre, further turning it to armed struggle. The red flag of warli’s in Maharastra, the Vayalar-Punnapra uprising in Travancore, the great Telengana struggle led by the communists are the landmark rural struggles in India, where the emancipation of the suppressed sections got involved. All these culminated into rural struggle and at the same time the struggle against the ruling class. It will remain in history as the set of examples of class struggle in rural India.