Agrarian unrest and socio-economic change in Bihar, 1900-1980

The present work is an attempt at writing a contemporary history of agrarian unrest and its place in the process of socio-economic change in Bihar.

The study is unusually large in its time span-it covers the various peasant movements in Bihar during the first eighty years of the twentieth century.

The aim of the study is to place agrarian events in the context of the development of the political economy of rural Bihar. It endeavours to understand the agrarian structure, changes and tensions within the agrarian situation, agrarian unrest and movements and peasant organisations by critically examining the perception and response to circumstances of different types of participants themselves.

More specifically it studies seeds of peasant unrest, the Kisan Sabha, its origin, its leadership and organisational structure, its move ments and their programmatic content and the Kisan Sabha's interface with political parties like the Congress, Socialist and Communist parties. It then deals with the agrarian reforms introduced from 'above' like the Zamindari abolition and Bhoodan movement, goes on to deal with peasant movements and concludes with the success story of a peasant organisation in Chotanagpur.

This scholarly work unique in its approach offers an insightful history, with a contemporary perspective, of peasant unrest in India and is an Indispensable book for all those interested in the field.