RAS question
The Bijolia Peasant Movement, one of the longest peasant movements in India, started in which year?
Correct answer: (D) 1897.
The Bijolia Peasant Movement began in 1897 in the Bijolia estate of Mewar as a peasant protest against excessive and unjust taxes.
Explanation
The answer is 1897 because the Bijolia agitation began in the Bijolia estate of Mewar as a peasant protest against excessive land revenue and numerous cesses. The Times of India identifies it as a peasant movement that started in 1897 against unjust taxes imposed by jagirdars under the Mewar rulers. This is why 1897 is the anchor year for the movement, not the later years associated with its wider spread or more organised leadership. Sadhu Sitaram Das initiated the agitation, while Vijay Singh Pathik later gave it organised direction. For RAS, the key is to link Bijolia with Mewar, agrarian taxation, and the 1897 starting point.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1905 is too late for the beginning of the Bijolia agitation, which had already started in 1897 against excessive taxation in the Bijolia estate.
- (B) 1913 does not mark the start of the movement; it belongs to a later phase after the original 1897 protest had already begun.
- (C) 1920 falls within the later course of the agitation and cannot be the starting year, since the movement is traced back to 1897.
Concept
This tests agrarian movements in Rajasthan under princely rule, especially peasant resistance to jagirdari exactions in Mewar. It recurs in RAS because Bijolia links local Rajasthan history with the wider pattern of peasant mobilisation in colonial India.