Caste, Peasant & Trade Union Movements

Table of Contents
1. South India
2. Western India
3. Northern and Eastern India
4. Peasant Movements - Organisation and Leaders
5. Trade Union Movements - Organisation, Legislation and Strikes
6. Causes for the Rise of Caste Movements
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South India

Justice Movement

The Justice Movement was an intermediate-caste political movement centred in the Madras Presidency around 1915-16. It was launched by leaders such as C. Natesa Mudaliar (commonly cited as C. M. Mudaliar in some sources), T. M. Nair and P. Tyagaraja Chetti on behalf of intermediate castes - for example the Tamil Vellalas, Mudaliars and Chettiars, Telugu Reddis, Kammas and Balija Naidus, and Malayali Nairs. The movement protested Brahmin predominance in education, government service and colonial-era politics.

• The leaders formed the Justice Party to secure greater access to government jobs and legislative representation for intermediate castes.
• The party often declared loyalty to the British government as a tactical move to obtain administrative posts and official recognition in the new representative institutions.
• The Justice Party played a key role in demanding non-Brahmin representation in local administration and in the public services of Madras Presidency.

Self-Respect Movement

The Self-Respect Movement was founded in 1925 in Tamil Nadu by E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar). It was a populist and radical social reform movement that directly challenged Brahmin dominance and caste privilege.

• Major aims included promotion of rationalism, equal social status for lower castes, abolition of caste-based discrimination and social practices that reinforced hierarchy.
• It advocated social reforms such as weddings without Brahmin priests, forcible temple entry for oppressed castes, campaigns against the Manusmriti, and at times an explicit critique of religious orthodoxy and advocacy of atheism.
• Periyar published the Tamil journal Kudi Arasu (from 1924) to spread Self-Respect ideas and mobilise public opinion.

Nadar Movement

In the Ramnad district (south Tamil Nadu) the caste historically called Shanans - who were toddy tappers and agricultural labourers - developed into a more prosperous mercantile group by the late 19th century and began using the proud title Nadar. They sought higher ritual status and social mobility.

• In 1910 they organised the Nadar Mahajan Sangam, raised funds for education and social welfare, and adopted many customs of the upper castes (a process described by sociologists as sanskritization).
• These moves combined social aspiration with institution-building - schools, mutual aid and political organisation - to improve their social and economic position.

Movement of the Pallis

• From about 1871 some lower caste groups in northern Tamil Nadu known as Pallis began claiming Kshatriya status and called themselves Vanniya Kula Kshatriya.
• They imitated upper caste customs, including restrictions such as taboos on widow remarriage, as a route to social uplift through Sanskritization.

Ezhava Movement

• The Ezhavas, an oppressed community of Kerala, were led in social reform by Sree Narayana Guru (popularly called Narayan Guru or historically referred to as Nanu Asan). His movement began in the late 19th and early 20th century.
• The Ezhavas adopted some higher-caste customs and emphasised education and community organisation. In later decades many Ezhava supporters moved towards left politics and became significant supporters of the communist movement in Kerala.

Nair Movement

In the princely state of Travancore the numerically dominant intermediate caste of Nairs organised from the late 19th century to contest the social and political dominance of the Nambudiri Brahmins and non-Malayali court Brahmins (Tamil and Maratha).

• C. V. Raman Pillai helped organise the Malayali Memorial (1891), which protested Brahmin predominance in government jobs. His historical novel Martanda Varma (1891) evoked earlier Nair military glory.
• After 1900 a more assertive Nair leadership emerged under K. Ramakrishna Pillai and M. Padmanabha Pillai. K. Ramakrishna Pillai edited the journal Swadeshabhimani and his attacks on the Travancore court led to his expulsion in 1910.
• M. Padmanabha Pillai founded the Nair Service Society (NSS) in 1914, which worked for social and political advancement of the Nair community.

Western India

Satyashodak Movement

The Satyashodak Movement was initiated by Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra. Through his book Ghulamgiri (1872) and the organisation Satyashodak Samaj (founded 1873), Phule exposed the social and economic consequences of caste hierarchy and campaigned for the rights of lower castes.

• The movement had two strands: an urban elite-based aspiration for upward mobility through Sanskritization (adopting upper caste practices), and a rural mass radicalism that sought to challenge caste oppression more directly, especially among Maratha peasants.
• Phule's critique targeted Brahminical domination and the use of religious texts to legitimise inequality.

Mahar Movement

• The Mahar movement was led by B. R. Ambedkar for the untouchable Mahars of Maharashtra from the 1920s onward.
• Their demands included the right to use public tanks, entry into temples, abolition of the Mahar watan (traditional hereditary service obligations), and separate representation in legislative councils.
• From about 1927 some Mahar activists publicly burned the Manusmriti as a deliberate act of repudiation of orthodox Hindu social law.
• Earlier in the late 19th century, Mahar leaders such as Gopal Baba Walangkar had organised to secure more employment in the army and government services.

Northern and Eastern India

• In Bengal the Kaivartas of Midnapore, a lower caste that had achieved relative economic strength, began calling themselves Mahishyas. They formed a Jati Nirdharani Sabha in 1897 and a Mahishya Samiti in 1901; these organisations later participated actively in the nationalist movement.
• The Namasudras of Faridpur (Bengal), an untouchable peasant community, started forming associations after 1901 under the influence of a small educated elite and missionary encouragement.
• Kayasthas of northern and eastern India, who had interprovincial professional links, formed an All-India Kayastha Association and published the newspaper Kayastha Samachar (Allahabad) by about 1910.
• Overall, Brahmin dominance in north and east India was less uniform than in the south and west. Other high castes (for example Rajputs and Kayasthas in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and Vaidyas and Kayasthas in Bengal) acted as social and administrative buffers, and mobilization along caste lines developed later in these regions and often in different forms.

Peasant Movements - Organisation and Leaders

Peasant organisations and leaders emerged regionally to defend ryots' economic interests, demand land reforms and challenge landlord abuses. Their growth strengthened during the 1920s and 1930s.

• All India Kisan Sabha (formed at Lucknow in 1936) provided a pan-Indian organisational platform for peasant demands; the first session was presided over by Swami Sahajanand.
• Regional organisations included the U.P. Kisan Sabha (formed 1918 by Indira Narain Dwivedi) and numerous local ryot associations such as the one organised by N. G. Ranga at Guntur (1923).
• The South Indian Federation of Peasants and Agricultural Labour was established in 1935 (Madras) to articulate agricultural labourers' and small peasants' demands in the Madras Presidency.
• Prominent leaders such as Swami Sahajanand Saraswati were especially active in Bihar and at the all-India level between the mid-1920s and mid-1930s.

Trade Union Movements - Organisation, Legislation and Strikes

The growth of factories and modern industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced an organised labour movement in India. Early trade union activity combined local workers' initiatives, sympathetic middle-class organisers and later national structures.

• Keshav Rao Koratkar/Lokhande (commonly cited as Lokhande) was responsible for organising the first conference of workers in Bombay, a formative moment for labour organisation.
• A. C. Banerji organised an Indian Millhands' Union in 1906.
• The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) held its inaugural session in Bombay on 31 October 1920, becoming the principal national body for organised labour in the inter-war period.
• Major industrial actions included the Tata Iron and Steel Works strike (Jamshedpur, 1922) and the Ahmedabad textile strike (1923), when 56 out of 64 mills closed against a proposed 20% wage cut.
• The Trade Unions Act, 1926 provided for voluntary registration of unions and a legal framework for union activity; under the Act seven members were the minimum for registration.
• By 1938 the AITUC and the moderate NFTU held a joint session in Nagpur, indicating efforts to coordinate wider labour politics.

Causes for the Rise of Caste Movements

• Grievances of educated men from lower and intermediate castes who faced exclusion from higher education, government employment and political influence; such grievances fuelled movements like the Justice Party and the urban strand of the Satyashodak movement.
• The desire for upward social mobility through sanskritization, where groups adopt customs and symbols of higher castes to assert greater social status. Examples include the Nadar, Palli and some Ezhava initiatives.
• Radical elements among lower and intermediate castes sought more fundamental change by attacking Brahmin domination and, in some cases, the foundations of the caste system itself - for example the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu and the rural radicalism in the Satyashodak and Mahar movements.

Conclusion

The period from the late 19th century to the 1930s saw the consolidation of caste-based mobilisation, peasant organisation and labour unionism. These developments were shaped by regional variations: southern and western India witnessed earlier and more visible intermediate-caste and anti- Brahmin movements, while north and east India showed different trajectories influenced by local caste hierarchies. Peasant and trade union movements grew in response to agrarian distress and industrial labour grievances and contributed significantly to the broader political and social reform currents of the time.