How Deccan riots of 1875 laid foundations of cooperative sector

India Today

20-05-2025

May 12, 1875. It was market day at Supa, a village on the highway from Pune to Ahmednagar (present-day Ahilyanagar). As always, many farmers and money-lenders had thronged the market. There was an argument over a trivial issue between a farmer and a savkar (moneylender) and soon, this escalated into a massive fracas.The moneylenders were attacked in the market. This fanned the simmering discontent against agrarian distress and debt bondage of farmers. The Supa disturbances sparked off a spontaneous peasant uprising against the usurious practices of the savkars in the regions of Pune, Solapur, Satara and Ahmednagar.advertisementThe houses of these moneylenders were attacked and papers, mortgage deeds and other documents related to the debt bondage of peasants were burnt during these agrarian riots. These 'Deccan riots,' which completed 150 years on May 12, laid the foundations of the cooperative sector.The later period of the 19th century had seen crippling droughts. But the government and its officials did not hesitate to force farmers to pay their taxes and dues. For instance, in Pune's Indapur taluka, the years 1871 and 1872 had seen poor rainfall and crop failures; yet officials persisted in recovering land revenue.
This pushed farmers deeper into the vicious circle of debt as they sought loans from moneylenders after mortgaging their cattle, land and houses to make ends meet. Then, there were no formal or institutional sources of credit, and the savkars were the only entities the farmers could fall back on to meet their needs.advertisementIn July 1873, Gopal Narsingh Deshmukh, a vatandar from Indapur, sent a representation to the Bombay government with signatures of 2,500 farmers, complaining that the savkars and the government had robbed them of their rights, and that they had been reduced to the position of serfs. Organisations such as the Pune Sarvajanik Sabha, led by Ganesh Vasudev Joshi aka Sarvajanik Kaka and Justice M.G. Ranade, formed a sub-committee which submitted a report to the government, pointing to the lacunae in the revenue settlement process.The peasants were also upset with the moneylenders. While granting loans, the largely illiterate farmers had to affix their thumbprints on the loan papers. Since the farmers could not read what had been written on these papers, the moneylenders would read out the contents aloud to them.But more often than not, the terms written out on paper were different from what had been told to the farmers. In case of defaults in repayment, the farmers eventually forfeited their lands to the savkars. The farmers had to sell their produce immediately after harvesting, which meant they could not get remunerative prices.The first sign of open hostility to the Marwari moneylenders was shown by the people of Karde in Pune's Shirur in 1874, who boycotted them socially and economically. In his 'Visavya Shatakatil Maharashtra-Khand I' (Maharashtra in the 20th century-Volume I), Y.D. Phadke too says that initially, the farmers had socially and economically boycotted the savkars, who were largely Gujarati and Marwaris.advertisementThe simmering anger among the peasants took a violent form in Supe on May 12, 1875. After the altercation in the market, there was a spontaneous outbreak of disturbance. The houses and shops of savkars in Supe were attacked, and the loan and debt papers in their possession burnt.The 'Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency-Poona' says that at Supe, the house of a Gujar (Gujarati Vani) was burnt down, and about a dozen other houses and shops were broken into and gutted. Account papers, bonds, grain and country cloth were burnt in the street. No personal violence was used.The chief constable of the sub-division, with six or seven constables, arrested about 50 persons and recovered stolen property. Within 24 hours of the riot at Supa, the leading Marwari lender of Kedgaon, about 14 miles to the north of Supa, had his stacks burnt down and house set on fire. During the following days, riots occurred in four other villages in the Bhimthadi belt (the valley of rivers Bhima and Nira), and were threatened in 17 more.advertisementThe farmers would ask the savkars to hand over the papers, and in rare cases when they refused to do so, they were assaulted. The disturbances soon spread to Indapur, Purandar, Parner, Srigonda and other places. However, there were very few instances where the savkars were killed. Eventually, the army had to be used to help the civil authorities restore order.'The most remarkable feature of these disturbances was the small amount of serious crime. A direct appeal to physical force, over a large area, was usually restrained within the limits of a demonstration. The few cases which bear the vindictive spirit usually shown in agrarian disturbances were probably due to the presence of other rioters besides the ordinary Kunbi peasantry. This moderation is in some measure to be attributed to the nature of the movement. It was not so much a revolt against the oppressor as an attempt to accomplish a definite and practical object—the disarming of the enemy by taking his weapons, his bonds and accounts,' the 'Gazetter' notes.In 1875, the Bombay government appointed a commission to inquire into the causes underlying the outbreak. The members held inquiries in the disturbed areas, recorded the statements of landholders and lenders, and compiled other evidence. Their report, which was submitted to the government in 1876, contained a detailed history of the relations of the Deccan landholders and moneylenders since the beginning of British rule.advertisementAccording to the 'Gazetteer', the chief complaints made against moneylenders were that bonds usually ran at excessive interest. A member of the 1875 commission cited a case wherein a loan of Rs 10 was taken in 1863. An amount of Rs 110 was paid from time to time, and, at the end of 10 years, Rs 220 was still due.However, Phadke notes that the colonial regime blamed the moneylenders for the riots without acknowledging the fact that its taxation policies had led the farmers to this situation.As Ravinder Kumar writes in his 'The Deccan Riots of 1875,' these riots 'highlight the social transformations brought about in rural Maharashtra in western India during the first five decades of British rule. The riots are of special interest to the social historian since they hinged upon relations between two important and well-defined rural social groups—the cultivators and the moneylenders'.advertisementKumar says that while all sections of society were affected by the patterns of authority that had shaped up after the fall of the Maratha confederacy in 1818, the tensions which resulted from administrative changes 'found their clearest expression in the relationship between the kunbi (peasant/ tiller) and the vani'. The introduction of the ryotwari system by the British changed the role of the moneylender in the supply of credit to the village. The new system emphasised on individual responsibility instead of the collective responsibility of the village in the payment of land tax, and the money lender dealt with each peasant instead of the village head or Patil.In 1876-77, the Bombay Presidency and the Hyderabad state saw more drought. During these years, thousands of men and animals died due to water scarcity in Pune, Ahmednagar and Solapur. The activists of the Sarvajanik Sabha worked across the state to provide relief. Based on their inputs, Justice M.G. Ranade sent a report to the government on the plight of agriculturists and suggested relief measures.In 1892, there was another crippling drought, and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote about the sorry condition of the farmers. Tilak wrote that during the 1896-97 drought, 'cattle were being sold at the rate of kadba (cattle feed), and cattle feed commanded the price of gold.'However, despite the general apathy of the colonial bureaucracy towards these social and economic realities, some British officials such as Sir Bartle Frere, the governor of Bombay, and William Wedderburn, the district judge of Ahmednagar, were sympathetic to the cause of the farmers.Eventually, in 1879, the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act of 1879 was passed by the Governor-General's Council to reduce interest rates and ensure a check on the predatory tactics of moneylenders. It aimed at restoring the dealings between lender and borrower to an equitable basis. Two years later, Wedderburn, in consultation with Justice Ranade, propounded the launch of agricultural banks, but this turned out to be a stillborn idea. In 1901, the Famine Commission however recommended the establishment of rural agricultural banks through the establishment of mutual credit associations.On March 25, 1904, the Cooperative Societies Bill was enacted. This was based on the recommendations of the Edward Law Committee, which was set up to provide a legal basis for cooperative societies. This 1904 Act provided for the constitution of societies, and laid down rules for issues such as eligibility for membership, liabilities on members, disposal of profits, and shares and interests of members. Apart from credit societies, the law also catalysed the launch of some non-credit initiatives like the Triplicane society in Madras, which ran a consumer store, and weaver credit cooperatives in Dharwar and Hubli, which gave credit in the form of yarn.The 1875 Deccan riots and the preceding and subsequent cycles of drought had another impact—it led to many young Indians being spurred to shake off the British yoke. On February 20, 1879, Vasudev Balwant Phadke launched an armed uprising against the British with the aid of his Ramoshi, Brahmin, Koli, Dalit and Muslim associates. That is of course, another story for another day.Subscribe to India Today Magazine