Abstract
We seldom date a title like this on the outline state of Orissa. Bengal, Andhra, UP and Maharashtra are the favourites for this course. This is a welcome departure. The author begins with the usual transition from feudalism to capitalism and equilibrium or otherwise of the peasant society. As he is not a student of economic history, Sushanta Bag does not go deep into the economics of static expansion or agricultural involution or the question of vulgar commercialism and desiccation of a self-contained peasant society. He quickly jumps into the impact of non-cooperation which triggered peasant uprising. But he does not negatively portray a dropout A. Baba Ramchandra herein. The time has come to underscore the first stirrings of Orrisa peasants by the Gandhian chain of movements, such as Champaran and Khera. It is a candid account without any blinkers, imperialist or Marxist. Similarly, Salt Satyagraha is also taken up to gauge the peasant participation; in the paradigm of spontaneous versus contrived. Next comes the story of the Kissan Sabha and the state people’s movement carrying the same question carrying the same paradigm. This is followed by the saga of Quit India and how people observed it in Orrisa. There are fascinating details not unrevealed before. The author then peruses popular protest towards freedom and how it pushed the princely state’s annexation to the Indian Union.
The author empirically tries to assess the divergence and convergence of these peasant movements with the national freedom struggle. He argues that much of it was spontaneous from below movements without any kind of vertical mobilisation by the political parties. He also traces their beginnings from anti-landlord and anti-ruler movements emerging finally as anti-imperialist freedom struggle. They crossed the hurdles of dominant classes, such as the landlords and rulers of the princely states and the colonial state. It is a delight to read such plain tales from a remote state like Orissa without any kind of formula. The most delightful aspect of the exercise is the depiction of peasant leaders riding the waves of popular protest. It is the story of the groundswell of popular initiatives. Gandhi is not unnecessarily debunked nor any communist leader highlighted. Popular leaders, such as Birendra Sasmol of Midnapur, Baba Ramchandra of UP and Bitthalbhai Patel of Gujarat, are reinforced by the Orissa peasant leaders to create a tradition of popular initiatives. The elitist history of political mobilisation or imperfect mobilisation has been abandoned in this book. The result is a believable grass-roots history or people’s history for which the author must be congratulated.