ALL INDIA KISAN SABHA

Subject: Modern History

Context: All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) welcomed the four farm legislations passed by the Punjab Assembly and urged all other States to follow the model.

Concept:

• In 1936, at the Lucknow session of the Congress, All India Kisan Sabha was formed with Sahajanand as its first president
• All India Kisan Sabha is also known as ‘Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha.’ The secretary of this association was NG Ranga.
• The motives of the All India Kisan Sabha were:

                     To abolish the Zamindari system,

                     To reduce land revenue,

                     To institutionalize credit.

Rift between AIKS and INC:

• A good number of the INC leaders were Zamindars themselves, while the peasants and workers came from another class. Thus this class clash within the INC was a hurdle, in implementing all the schemes that were visualized by Gandhi, Nehru and others.
• So, by and large, the INC failed to meet all the promises they had claimed to fulfil to the peasants. The peasants thus became disillusioned with the INC government.
• Thus, the All India Kisan Sabha felt betrayed by the INC and this is why, when in 1942, Mahatma Gandhi gave a call for the Quit India Movement, the peasant leaders such as Swami Sahajanand Saraswati appealed to the peasants not to support Gandhi or the INC.
• The peasant movement started being dominated by the socialists and communists and in the INC Haripura session, the rift between INC and AIKS became evident.
• In May 1942, CPI took over AIl India Kisan Sabha all across the country.
• There are two organisations at present working under the name AIKS (following the split of Communist Party of India in 1964):

All India Kisan Sabha – Communist Party of India’s Peasant Wing

All India Kisan Sabha – Communist Party of India-Marxist’s Peasant Front; also known as All India Kisan Sabha (36 Canning Lane).

Additional Information: Various state Kisan Sabhas

• Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha – 1929 by Sahajanand Sarawsati
• UP Kisan Sabha – 1918 by Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narayan Dwivedi and was supported by Madan Mohan Malaviya.
• Awadh Kisan Sabha – 1920 by Baba Ramachandra.