All India Kisan Sabha

2025-09-19T06:07:50Z

2602:FB95:8:0:192:197:201:115:

{{short description|Farmers' wing of Communist Pary of India}}
{{For-multi|the earlier Kisan Sabha|Kisan Sabha (1919-1922)|the farmers' wing of CPIM|All India Kisan Sabha (36 Canning Lane)}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)
| logo = [[File:AIKS Flag.png|250px]]
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| formation = {{Start date and age|df=yes|p=y|1936|4|11}}, [[Lucknow]], [[United Provinces of British India|United Province]], [[British India|British Raj]]
| headquarters = Ajoy Bhavan, 15, Indrajit Gupta Marg, [[New Delhi, India]]-110002
| type = Peasant Organisation
| leader_title = National President
| leader_name = Rajan Kshirsagar
| leader_title2 = General Secretary
| leader_name2 = R. Venkaiah
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| purpose =
| location = India
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| affiliations = [[Communist Party of India]]
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'''All India Kisan Sabha''' ({{small|abbr.}} '''AIKS'''; [[Literal translation|lit.]] ''All India Farmers Union'', also known as the '''Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha''') is the peasant or farmers' wing of the [[Communist Party of India]], an important [[peasant movement]] formed by [[Sahajanand Saraswati]] in 1936.<ref>{{cite book | first = Śekhara | last = Bandyopādhyāya | title = From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India | publisher = [[Orient Longman]] | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-81-250-2596-2 | pages = 523 (at p 406)}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=75 Years of AIKS: A Saga of Glory |url=http://www.newageweekly.in/2011/06/75-years-of-aiks-saga-of-glory.html|website=newageweekly.in |language=en}}</ref>

==History==
The Kisan Sabha movement started in [[Bihar]] under the leadership of Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) to mobilise peasant grievances against the [[zamindari]] attacks on their occupancy rights and thus sparking the farmers' movements in India.<ref>{{cite book
| first = Śekhara
| last = Bandyopādhyāya
| title = From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India
| publisher = [[Orient Longman]]
| year = 2004
| isbn = 978-81-250-2596-2
| pages = 523 (at p 406)
}}</ref><ref name=pea>''Peasant Struggles in India'', by Akshayakumar Ramanlal Desai. Published by Oxford University Press, 1979. ''Page 349''.</ref>

Gradually, the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of [[India]]. All of those radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha at the [[Lucknow]] session of the [[Indian National Congress]] in April 1936, with Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first president.<ref>{{cite book
| first = Śekhara | last = Bandyopādhyāya
| title = From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India
| publisher = [[Orient Longman]] | year = 2004
| isbn = 978-81-250-2596-2 | pages = 523 (at p 407)}}</ref> The other prominent members were [[N.G. Ranga]], [[Ram Manohar Lohia]], [[Jayaprakash Narayan]], [[Acharya Narendra Dev]] and Bankim Mukerji. It involved prominent leaders like [[E.M.S. Namboodiripad]], [[Indulal Yagnik]], [[Sohan Singh Bhakna]], [[Z. A. Ahmed]], [[Karyanand Sharma]], [[Yamuna Karjee]], [[Yadunandan Sharma]], [[Rahul Sankrityayan]], [[P. Sundarayya]], [[Yogendra Sharma]] and [[Bankim Mukherjee]]. The Kisan Manifesto, released in August 1936, demanded the abolition of the [[zamindari]] system and the cancellation of rural debts. In October 1937, it adopted the red flag as its banner.<ref name="ma">''Mahatma Gandhi'', by Sankar Ghose. Published by Allied Publishers, 1991. {{ISBN|81-7023-205-8}}. Page 262.</ref> Soon, its leaders became increasingly distant with Congress and repeatedly came in confrontation with Congress governments in [[Bihar]] and in [[United Province]].

In subsequent years, the movement was increasingly dominated by Socialists and Communists as it moved away from the Congress. By the 1938 [[Haripura]] session of the Congress, under the presidency of [[Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose]], the rift became evident<ref name="ma" /> and by May 1942, the [[Communist Party of India]], which was finally legalised by the government in July 1942,<ref>''Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India: The Namasudras of Bengal, 1872-1947'', by Shekhar Bandyopadhyaya. Routledge, 1997. {{ISBN|0-7007-0626-7}}. Page 233.</ref> had taken over All India Kisan Sabha all across India, including [[Bengal]] where its membership grew considerably.<ref name="sta">''States, Parties, and Social Movements'', by Jack A. Goldstone. Cambridge University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-521-01699-1}}. Page 192.</ref> It took on the Communist Party's line of [[people's war]] and stayed away from the [[Quit India Movement]], which started in August 1942, and so lost its popular base. Many of its members defied party orders and joined the movement. Prominent members like [[N. G. Ranga]], [[Indulal Yagnik]] and [[Swami Sahajananda]] soon left the organisation, which increasingly found it difficult to approach the peasants with its watered-down pro-British and pro-war approach. That made increase its nationalist agenda, much to the dismay of the British Raj.<ref>''Peasants in India's Non-violent Revolution: Practice and Theory'', by Mridula Mukherjee. Published by SAGE, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7619-9686-9}}. Page 347.</ref>
{{Further|All India Kisan Sabha delegation to Europe, 1955}}

==Conferences and office bearers==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! National Conference !! Year !! Place !! President !! General Secretary
|-
|1<br/>(founder conference)||11 April 1936|| Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh ||[[Sahajanand Saraswati]]||[[N. G. Ranga]]
|-
|2||25–26 December 1936||Faijpur||[[N. G. Ranga]]||[[Sahajanand Saraswati]]
|-
|3||11–14 May 1938
||Comilla<br /> (now in Bangladesh)||[[Sahajanand Saraswati]]||[[N. G. Ranga]]
|-
|4||9–10 April 1939||Gaya, Bihar||[[Narendra Dev]]||[[Sahajanand Saraswati]]
|-
|5||26–27 March 1940||Palasa, Andhra Pradesh||[[Rahul Sankrityayan]]||[[Indulal Yagnik]]
|-
|6||29–31 May 1942||Patna||[[Indulal Yagnik]]
|rowspan=2|[[Sahajanand Saraswati]]
|-
|7||1–4 April 1943||Bhakhna, Punjab||[[Bankim Mukherjee]]
|-
|8||14–15 March 1944||Vijayawada Andhra Pradesh||[[Sahajanand Saraswati]]
|rowspan=2|[[Bankim Mukherjee]]
|-
|9||5–9 April 1945||Netrakona <br /> (now in Bangladesh)||[[Muzaffar Ahmad]]
|-
|10||22–26 May 1947||Secunderabad, Aligarh||[[Karyanand Sharma]]||[[M.A. Rasul]]
|-
|11||22–23 April 1953|| Kannur, Kerala
|rowspan=2|[[Indulal Yagnik]]
|rowspan=5|[[N. Prasad Rao]]
|-
|12||13–19 September 1954||Moga, Punjab
|-
|13||17–22 May 1955||Talasari, Dahanu, Maharashtra||[[Nana Patil]]
|-
|14||28–30 September 1956||Amritsar
|rowspan=5|[[A. K. Gopalan]]
|-
|15||28 October – 3 November 1957||Bangaon, West Bengal
|-
|16||29 April – 3 May 1959||Mayuram, Tanjaur, Tamil Nadu
|rowspan=2|Bhabani Sen
|-
|17||17–19 May 1960||Gazipur, Uttar Pradesh
|-
|18||30 March – 2 April 1961|| Thrissur, Kerala
|[[Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri]]
|-
|19||10–12 January 1968||Amravati
|rowspan=2| [[Teja Singh Sutantar]]
|rowspan=2|[[Z.A. Ahmed (Indian politician)|Z.A. Ahmed]]
|-
|20||1–5 April 1970||Barasat, West Bengal
|-
|21||19–23 September 1973|| Bhatinda
|rowspan=2|[[Z.A. Ahmed (Indian politician)|Z.A. Ahmed]]
|rowspan=2| [[Indradeep Sinha]]
|-
|22||7–10 June 1979||Vijayawada Andhra Pradesh
|-
|23||28–31 December 1986||Barabanki Uttar Pradesh||[[Indradeep Sinha]] ||[[Y. V. Krishna Rao]]
|-
|24||16–19 June 1993||Madhubani, Bihar||[[Y. V. Krishna Rao]]||[[Bhogendra Jha]]
|-
|25||||Bihar
|rowspan=2|[[Bhogendra Jha]]
|[[Y. V. Krishna Rao]]
|-
|26||1997
|Thrissur
|rowspan=5|[[Atul Kumar Anjan]]
|-
|27||2001
|Kauntai, West Bengal||[[C. K. Chandrappan]]
|-
|28||9–12 December 2010||Aurangabad, Maharashtra
|rowspan=2|[[Prabodh Panda]]
|-
|29||27–29 March 2015||Hyderabad, Telangana
|-
|||16 November 2021||In CC meeting||R. Venkaiah
|}

== Activities ==
=== Protest against three Agri-bills ===
AIKS led nationwide protests against the [[Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020]]; the [[Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020]]; and the [[Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020]].

*'''2 October 2018''': The AIKS organized a march of farmers at the bundary of [[Delhi]] and [[Uttar Pradesh]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-kisan-krant-march-aiks-terms-police-action-as-barbaric-says-centre-s-acceptance-of-demands-hoax-2670818|title=Kisan Krant March: AIKS terms police action as 'barbaric'; says Centre's acceptance of demands 'hoax'}}</ref>
* '''26 January 2021''': The AIKS organised a tractor rally in the national capital.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/india/farmers-delhi-police-gear-up-for-republic-day-tractor-rally-unions-announce-parliament-march-on-1-feb-9238731.html|title=Farmers, Delhi Police gear up for Republic Day tractor rally; unions announce Parliament march on 1 Feb|newspaper=[[First Post]]|date=2021-01-26|access-date=2021-01-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/delhi-police-flags-threat-to-farmers-tractor-rally-on-january-26-121012500005_1.html|title=Delhi Police flags threat to farmers' tractor rally on January 26|newspaper=[[Business Standard, India]]|publisher=Agencies|date=2021-01-24|access-date=2021-01-26}}</ref>
*'''26 February 2022''': The AIKS led thousands of farmers started marching to the Collector's Office in [[Dhule district]], [[Maharashtra]], to demand forest land certificates.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sarkarnama.in/maharashtra/uttar-maharashtra/trible-farmers-march-to-collector-office-start-at-shirpur-sd67|title = वनपट्ट्यांसाठी रणरणत्या उन्हात शिरपूर ते धुळे लाँग मार्चला सुरवात| date=26 February 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sarkarnama.in/maharashtra/uttar-maharashtra/angry-triblefarmerssaid-governers-break-the-centres-law-sd67|title = राज्यपाल कोशियारी यांनी आदिवासींच्या वनहक्क कायद्याची मोडतोड केली?| date=March 2022 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|2}}
* ''Swami Sahajanand and the Peasants of Jharkhand: A View from 1941'' translated and edited by [[Walter Hauser]] along with the unedited [[Hindi]] original ([[Manohar Publishers]], paperback, 2005).
* ''Sahajanand on Agricultural Labour and the Rural Poor'' translated and edited by [[Walter Hauser]] Manohar Publishers, paperback, 2005).
* ''Religion, Politics, and the Peasants: A Memoir of India's Freedom Movement'' translated and edited by [[Walter Hauser]] Manohar Publishers, hardbound, 2003).
*Swami And Friends: Sahajanand Saraswati And Those Who Refuse To Let The Past of Bihar's Peasant Movements Become History By [[Arvind Narayan Das]], Paper for the Peasant Symposium, May 1997 [[University of Virginia]], [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]], [[Virginia]]
*Bagchi, A.K., 1976, "Deindustrialisation in Gangetic Bihar, 1809- 1901" in ''Essays in Honour of Prof. S.C. Sarkar'', New Delhi.
*Banaji, Jairus, 1976, "The Peasantry in the Feudal Mode of Production: Towards an Economic Model", ''Journal of Peasant Studies'', April.
*Bandopadhyay, D., 1973, "Agrarian Relations in Two Bihar Districts", ''Mainstream'', 2 June, New Delhi.
*[[Judith M. Brown]], 1972, ''Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics, 1915–1922'', London.
*Chaudhuri, B.B., 1971, "Agrarian Movements in Bengal and Bihar, 1919-1939" in B.R. Nanda, ed., ''Socialism in India'', New Delhi.
*Chaudhuri, B.B., 1975, "The Process of Depeasantisation in Bengal and Bihar, 1885-1947", ''Indian Historical Review'', 2(1), July, New Delhi.
*Chaudhuri, B.B., 1975a, "Land Market in Eastern India, 1793-1940", ''Indian Economic and Social History Review'', 13 (1 & 2), New Delhi.
*[[Arvind Narayan Das]], 1981, ''Agrarian Unrest and Socio-economic Change in Bihar, 1900-1980'', Delhi : Manohar.
*[[Arvind Narayan Das]] (ed.),1982, ''Agrarian Movements in India : Studies on 20th Century Bihar'', London : Frank Cass.
*[[Arvind Narayan Das]], 1992, ''The Republic of Bihar'', New Delhi : Penguin.
*[[Arvind Narayan Das]], 1996, ''Changel : The Biography of a Village, New Delhi'' : Penguin.
*Datta, K.K., 1957, ''History of the Freedom Movement in Bihar'', Patna.
*Diwakar, R.R., ed., 1957, ''Bihar Through the Ages'', Patna.
*[[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi]], 1921, "The Zamindar and the Ryots", ''Young India'', Vol. III (New Series) No. 153, 18 May.
*[[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi]], 1940, ''An Autobiography or The Story of My experiments in Truth'', Ahmedabad.
*Mishra, G., 1968. "The Socio-economic Background of Gandhi's Champaran Movement", ''Indian Economic and Social History Review'', 5(3), New Delhi.
*Mishra, G., 1978, ''Agrarian Problems of Permanent Settlement: A Case Study of Champaran'', New Delhi.
*Mitra, Manoshi, 1983, ''Agrarian Social Structure in Bihar: Continuity and Change, 1786–1820'', Delhi : Manohar.
*Pouchepadass, J., 1974, "Local Leaders and the Intelligentsia in the Champaran Satyagraha", ''Contributions to Indian Sociology'', New Series, No.8, November, New Delhi.
*Prasad, P.H., 1979, "Semi-Feudalism: Basic Constraint in Indian Agriculture" in Arvind N. Das & V. Nilakant, eds., ''Agrarian Relations in India'', New Delhi.
*[[Teodor Shanin|Shanin, Teodor]], 1978, ''Defining Peasants: Conceptualisations and Deconceptualisations: Old and New in a Marxist Debate'', Manchester University.
*Solomon, S., 1937, ''Bihar and Orissa in 1934-35'', Patna.
* ''Socialism in India'', by [[Bal Ram Nanda]], [[Nehru Memorial Museum & Library|Nehru Memorial Museum and Library]]. Published by Vikas Publications, 1972.Page 205.
* ''A History of the All India Kisan Sabha'', by Md. Abdullah Rasul. Published by National Book Agency, 1974.
* ''Peasants in History: Essays in Honour of Daniel Thorner'', by Eric J. Hobsbawm, Daniel Thorner, Witold Kula, Sameeksha Trust.Published by Oxford University Press, 1981.
* ''Bihar Peasantry and the Kisan Sabha, 1936-1947'', by Rakesh Gupta. Published by People's Pub. House, 1982.
* "The Constitution of All India Kisan Sabha" ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties'', by O. P. Ralhan, Published by Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2002. {{ISBN|81-7488-865-9}}. ''Page 1-10''.
{{refend}}

{{Indian Independence Movement}}

[[Category:Nonviolent resistance movements]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India mass organisations]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1936]]
[[Category:1936 establishments in India]]
[[Category:Peasants]]
[[Category:Organisers of 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest]]

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All India Kisan Sabha