Abstract
The 1930s in Indian history saw the emergence of a new category, 'Kisan', with the popularization of national movements and a vitalization of the peasant movement. This article attempts to analyze the socio-historical context of this phenomenon by concentrating on the Kisan Sabha movement that evolved in Colonial Bihar. The most important and immediate tradition related to this movement can be traced back to social mobility movements by certain middle-ranking agricultural castes such as Yadav and Kurmi since the beginning of 20th century, whose central goals were to reconstruct their identity in order for their castes to move upwards in their social hierarchy.
Their actions, which often invited violent clashes with the opposing upper-castes, provided them with experiences of concerted assertion through an organization of caste sabha. These experiences also highlighted agrarian issues shared by many in the agricultural castes, and thereby made it possible for them to unite under common agrarian issues, providing them with a broader platform. Thus the Kisan Sabha movement of the 1930s in Bihar provided momentum for this phenomenon and produced a new category of Kisan, under which people from various socioeconomic origins were loosely encapsulated. Under the leadership of the Kisan Sabha, the Kisan put forward common demands and fought against large-scale landlords.
The emergence of this new category can be seen as a process of class formation. This very loosely united body of people is a product of their common experiences of inter-caste conflicts, which provide a common platform for behaving as a class while consisting of groups living in different material conditions. However, there is a strong presence of particular castes in major Kisan struggles, and they consequently took on significant roles in organizing and mobilizing people in the Kisan. Eventually, this continuity from previous caste sabhas and the newly formed Kisan Sabha gradually began to undermine the loosely united class toward the 1940s, when the class of Kisan was being eroded while rifts were widening between caste lines.
