Subaltern Voices in Agrarian Struggles: A Critical Study on the Role of Women in the Peasant Movements of Rajasthan (1900–1950)

Abstract

The historical studies of agrarian movements in colonial India have largely been analyzed in an androcentric fashion and peasants' movements have been assumed to be a solely male affair. This has resulted in the multifaceted contribution of women, especially from the under-represented and socio-economically disadvantaged groups, not being fully represented in the different voices that have been heard. This paper examines the crucial participation of women in the peasant rebellions of the Rajputana (now Rajasthan) region from 1900 to 1950. Peasant women were subjected to a two-step act of subjugation, the first being economic exploitation and the second being a system of patriarchy, that existed in the region with a rigid traditional hierarchy, oppressive feudal exploitation (Thikana system) and colonial dominance. Women are bound into conservative female domesticity but are pushed towards the political by patriotic zeal and necessity of survival. This study critically examines the agrarian and economic factors that brought rural women into the movement and the consequent shift in their role from a mere agricultural worker to a political activist/agitator. On the basis of the examination of the major revolutionary events, such as Bijolia, Bengu and Shekhawati movements, the paper emphasizes how middle and lower class women sustained the agrarian economy during mass arrest, provided protective shelter to underground revolutionaries and also led the movements directly. In conclusion, the research suggests that the peasant struggles also were a forerunner to socio-political empowerment of women in Rajasthan which paved the way for inclusion of women in the larger Indian National Movement.