Oudh Kisan Sabha

History glossary

Also called: Awadh Kisan Sabha · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"

Meaning

The Oudh Kisan Sabha (also called the Awadh Kisan Sabha) was a peasant organisation set up in Awadh (in present-day Uttar Pradesh) in October 1920. It was led by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and a few others. It fought the big landlords, called taluqdars, over high rents, begar (forced unpaid labour) and eviction. Within one month it had over 300 branches in the villages.

It matters because it shows how Gandhi's name and the Non-Cooperation Movement reached ordinary peasants. It also shows that peasants turned the movement into their own fight, which sometimes went far beyond what the Congress had asked for.

Explanation

Background: why Awadh peasants were angry

The enemy was the taluqdar. Taluqdars were the big landlords of Awadh. They squeezed the peasants in four ways:
Rents were much higher than the land could pay.
Peasants had to pay extra cesses (small forced payments on top of rent).
They had to do begar (forced work for the landlord with no wages).
They had no security of tenure (no right to stay on their land). A landlord could evict them at any time, so no peasant could keep the same land for long.
The leader came from below. Baba Ramchandra was a sanyasi (a holy man who has given up worldly life). Before that he had been an indentured labourer in Fiji, meaning a worker sent abroad on a fixed contract that tied him to his employer.
The national setting. The Congress approved Non-Cooperation at Calcutta in September 1920 and launched it that December. People were asked to give up titles, boycott government schools, courts, services, foreign goods and elections, and finally to refuse to pay taxes [3].

Main features: what the Sabha demanded and how it fought

Founded in October 1920 by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra and others.
It grew very fast. It set up over 300 branches in a single month.
Its demands:
lower rents,
an end to begar,
a social boycott of landlords who treated peasants badly.
Its main weapon was the nai–dhobi bandh.
In this boycott the barber (nai) and the washerman (dhobi) refused to serve a landlord.
This cut the landlord off from village life. It was a non-violent way to put pressure on him.

How it changed: from organisation to unrest (1921)

The Congress tried to bring the Awadh struggle into Non-Cooperation. It wanted the peasants' fight to become part of the all-India movement.
The peasants went further than the Congress wanted. In 1921:
taluqdars' houses were attacked,
bazaars were looted,
grain was seized.
They did all this in Gandhi's name. Their slogans were "no taxes" and "land to the poor". Many believed Gandhi had approved these actions.
This went beyond the Congress programme. The Congress had never asked for rent strikes or attacks on property.

Results: what it shows

For the Awadh peasant, swaraj (self-rule) meant no rent and no begar. For the Congress leaders, it meant political self-government.
Peasants joined the movement very quickly. The link that held them was emotional, not organisational: Gandhi's name tied a local fight against a taluqdar to the national movement.
That same loose bond meant Gandhi and the Congress could not always control it. Awadh, like Chauri Chaura, showed the danger of the movement turning violent.

Time, place and evidence

Period: the Gandhian era, during the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22). The Sabha was founded in October 1920, and the unrest came in 1921.
Place: Awadh (Oudh), a region of present-day Uttar Pradesh where taluqdars were very powerful.
Key people:
Baba Ramchandra, a sanyasi and former indentured labourer in Fiji, who was the main peasant leader.
Jawaharlal Nehru, part of the 1917–22 group of leaders who joined Gandhi, who was a co-founder.
How we know:
NCERT Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India" tells this story under "differing strands" of the movement.
NCERT Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement" gives the wider picture of how villagers saw Gandhi.
In the same region (eastern UP, 1921), historian Shahid Amin studied rumours about Gandhi's miracles. These rumours are used as evidence of what peasants believed and hoped for, not as facts about Gandhi.

Don't confuse with

Gudem Hills / Rampa rebellion (Andhra): this was a tribal guerrilla war led by Alluri Sitaram Raju (August 1922 – May 1924) against the closing of forests [2]. Awadh was a peasant movement against taluqdars, and its main weapon was the non-violent nai–dhobi bandh.
Assam plantation workers' walk-out: for tea garden workers, swaraj meant the right to leave the garden, which the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 denied them. The Awadh issue was rent, cesses, begar and eviction.
Praja Mandals: these were people's associations in the princely states, where the Congress could not work openly. The Oudh Kisan Sabha worked in British-ruled Awadh.
All India Kisan Sabha: this was a later all-India peasant body, set up in 1936. The Oudh Kisan Sabha was a regional body of 1920.

Prelims Hooks

Oudh Kisan Sabha was founded in October 1920 by Jawaharlal Nehru and Baba Ramchandra, and had 300+ branches within one month.
Baba Ramchandra was a sanyasi who had earlier been an indentured labourer in Fiji.
Nai–dhobi bandh means the barber and washerman refused service to landlords in Awadh.
Grievances against taluqdars: high rents, cesses, begar, and no security of tenure.
Chronology: Congress approves Non-Cooperation at Calcutta (September 1920) [3] → Oudh Kisan Sabha (October 1920) → Non-Cooperation launched (December 1920) [3] → attacks on taluqdars' houses and looting of bazaars (1921).
Trap: the 1921 Awadh slogans "no taxes" and "land to the poor" were raised in Gandhi's name, but they were not part of the official Congress programme.

Mains Points

One symbol, many swarajs. For the Awadh peasant, swaraj meant no rent and no begar. For the Congress it meant self-rule. Gandhi's name worked as a common umbrella over these different hopes.
This explains why peasants joined so fast: 300+ branches in a month.
It also explains why the Congress lost control: the looting in Awadh in 1921 is an example.
History from below. The Awadh movement had its own leader (Baba Ramchandra), its own methods (nai–dhobi bandhs) and its own goals. This shows that peasants were active players who reshaped nationalism, not passive followers of the Congress. Shahid Amin's study of rumours in eastern UP (1921) supports this reading.
Tension between the national and the social struggle. The Congress wanted landlords as well as peasants on its side, so it avoided rent strikes and attacks on property. Peasant militancy in Awadh showed that class conflict inside Indian society could clash with the Congress strategy of united anti-colonial action.

Related concepts

The people's Mahatma: differing strands of swaraj

Sources

1Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India" (primary)
2Alluri Seetha Rama Raju: A Folk Hero of Rampa Rebellionpib.gov.in · tier 1
3What made Gandhiji wear only Loincloth or Dhotipib.gov.in · tier 1