Kisan Movement in East Thanjavur District

Abstract

In Tamil Nadu the Kisan Movement mainly confirmed among the agricultural labourers especially in Thanjavur district, which was one of the kisan strongholds in Tamil Nadu. In the district the agricultural lands were not equally distributed among the Kisans. The agrarian society determines on the basis of the class structure, namely landowners, who do not participate in any manual work connected with agriculture. The second the peasants participate in the agricultural activities throughout the year. Lastly agricultural labourers who mainly live on wages hiring out on their labour power. The agrarian struggles were prevalent in the delta area viz. Thiruthuraipoondi, Mayavaram, Nagapattinam, Nannilam, Sirkali and Mannargudi. The communist party took advantage of the conditions, it first organised the share croppers who belonged middle class it was easier for them to propagate the party’s ideology, among the agricultural labourers. After attaining some influence among the tenants, the Communist Party of India extended its activities among the labourers who were lower class illiterate and under traditional bondage to higher class mirasdars. The party’s activities in the delta area especially in Nagapattinam, Mannargudi and Thiruthuraipoondi taluks were initiated under the leadership of A.K.Gopalan with the assistance of Manali C.Kandasamy, P.Venkatesan, R.Ramanujam and R.Amirthalingam. The agricultural labourers were provoked by the mirasdars to complain to the Government against the troublesome land-owners. An example of such struggle surfaced on the estate of Brahmin Landlord, Ganapathi Subramaniya Iyer of Kaliyakudi village in Nannilam taluk who owned over 100 velis of land. He had 100 pannaiyals working under him and paid them lower than customary wages. In March 1939 they refused to work under him and petitioned to the Government for higher wages. The labourers and share-croppers were not organised into a union at this time, and the organisation of the first Agricultural labourers union (ivasaya Thozhilalars Sangam) was organized by some individual in 1939 at Mannargudi. The formation of the union did not reveal any specific objectives. It was an accidental one.²