With slogans such as "We will give our lives, but not our paddy", "No half share, we want three shares", "The land belongs to the one who ploughs it" and "We have not forgotten, and will not forget, the spirit of Tebhaga", the historic Tebhaga Day is being observed in Dinajpur on Sunday 4 January. To mark the day, the Tebhaga Chetona Parishad pays tribute to the martyrs at Talpukur-Bajitpur in Chirirbandar upazila, where Shibram Majhi and Samiruddin, the first martyrs of the Tebhaga movement, were shot dead by the British police.

Of the great peasant movements the world has seen, the Tebhaga movement in undivided Bengal under British rule is one of the most notable. A famous Asian peasant movement grew up on the soil of Bengal, stained with the blood of Hindu, Muslim and tribal farmers, men and women. It remains a glorious chapter in the history of peasant struggle in undivided Bengal. Of the three major peasant revolts in Bengal, Tebhaga is the brightest, and it achieved unprecedented success in establishing farmers' rights. As a result, the sharecropping agreements between landowners and adhiar sharecroppers were later reformed, bringing positive change to the social structure of undivided Bengal.

Neglected farmers took part spontaneously in the movement, organised in 1946. From lists of Tebhaga martyrs compiled from various sources, 132 names are known, and 3,119 farmers were arrested at the time. The movement spread to 19 districts: Dinajpur, Rangpur, Pabna, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Khulna, Jashore, Faridpur, Bogura, Chattogram, Medinipur, 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, Bankura, Birbhum, Malda and Jalpaiguri. It was mainly a movement of sharecroppers demanding two-thirds of the crop they produced, organised by activists of the undivided Bengal Krishak Sabha.

In September, the Krishak Sabha council decided to organise movements in district after district for Tebhaga. Earlier, in 1945, the Krishak Sabha had waged a successful struggle against jotedars and black marketeers. At its call, volunteer training and campaigning began in the districts, and as soon as the work started, the Tebhaga demand lit a wildfire of revolt in farmers' minds across the country. It was in the Tebhaga movement that farmers first raised the cries "The land belongs to the one who ploughs it", "Not half, we want Tebhaga", "Inquilab Zindabad", "Bring the paddy to your own threshing floor" and "We will give our lives, but not our paddy". Tebhaga was therefore not only a fight for a share, but also a fight for farmers' self-assertion.

It was in the Tebhaga struggle that sharecroppers first gave the zamindars their share and carried their own due paddy from the field to their own yards. After the Permanent Settlement, the jotedari and zamindari systems allowed small farmers to be exploited; jotedars treated them like slaves to collect rent. This exploitation, oppression and deprivation bred anger that gradually became a movement. The main centres were large areas of Dinajpur, Rangpur, Rajshahi and Jalpaiguri districts, where jotedars treated sharecroppers inhumanely and exploitation was extreme. In Dinajpur district, the movement was strongest in Thakurgaon subdivision (now a district), the movement's main centre.

In what was then greater Dinajpur district, the movement spread quickly in 22 of 30 police stations. It was intense in Nilphamari subdivision (now a district) of Rangpur. In Jashore district it took place in Narail subdivision (now a district). It grew in part of Pabna district, and initiatives were taken at four places in Mymensingh district, where the main movement was the Tonk movement. It also grew in the Kukutia area of Dhaka district.

In Dinajpur and the surrounding districts the movement was led by Haji Mohammad Danesh, Gurudas Talukdar, Kali Sarkar, Rupnarayan Roy, Bibhuti Guha, Ajit Roy, Janardan Bhattacharya, Sudhir Samajpati, Sachindra Chakraborty and Sushil Sen, among others. As the movement intensified, farmers built resistance against zamindars and jotedars. In 1946–47, when it reached its height, hundreds of farmers resisted when police went to arrest Tebhaga leader Doma Singh in the Ranishankail area of Thakurgaon. Safur Chand, Makut Singh and Nendeli Singh were killed by police gunfire.

On 4 January 1947, a brutal massacre was carried out at Talpukur and Bajitpur villages in Chirirbandar police station of Dinajpur district to crush the Tebhaga movement. Many sharecroppers were killed or wounded by police gunfire, and Shibram Majhi and Samirdai (as the name is spelt in this passage) lost their lives. Six people, including Khukiram Mardi, Khiluhasda, Paresh Mahanta and Dayaram, died of bullet wounds. Elsewhere in Dinajpur, 16 farmers were killed by police gunfire. The most brutal killing took place at Khanpur in South Dinajpur. There were fierce Tebhaga protests at Atwari in Panchagarh and at the Khagakhari house in Dimla, Nilphamari. Gradually the movement spread across the country.

As far as is known, Shibram Majhi and Samiruddin were the first Tebhaga martyrs. Tribute is paid at the Tebhaga memorial at Chendu Bottola in Talpukur-Bajitpur village in Chirirbandar upazila of Dinajpur, the place stained with their blood.

The Tebhaga Parishad, Dinajpur, has been observing 4 January as Tebhaga Day. On its relevance, the age of zamindars and jotedars is gone, and the question of three or four shares no longer arises. Today's farmers cultivate their own land or land leased yearly from other private owners, in their own way. Farmers' problems have taken a different form.

Management of farm subsidies, the supply of fertiliser, seed and pesticide to farmers, problems with farm credit, and the complexity and reform of land law, land being the farmer's main means of production, are creating an ever more serious crisis. Farmers are at a loss, and the middle farmer is on the way to becoming landless. A peasant movement in a new form has become urgent to resolve these crises. It is natural for farmers to organise and press their demands in today's context. There is no reason for despair: a movement built properly will succeed. That is the historical reality, and every peasant movement in the world bears witness to it. The Tebhaga movement continues to inspire farmers in the same way.

The recent peasant movement in India also shows that farmers' united action forced the government to back down and upheld their rights. This will be seen as a source of hope for farming communities around the world. Each year the Tebhaga Parishad, Dinajpur, lays wreaths for the martyrs and holds a discussion meeting, but it must not stop there.

The inspiration and spirit of Tebhaga must be taken to farmers today, and an effective movement for their betterment built by creating that spirit among ordinary farmers. Only then will observing the day be meaningful. Discussions with recommendations on solving today's farmers' many problems are needed. The hope is that, rather than marking Tebhaga Day as a formality, the Tebhaga Parishad will move forward with effective steps on how to win real rights for farmers and the overall development of agriculture and farmers.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.