Eka Movement and Bardoli Satyagraha: Peasant Resistance in the 1920s

The Eka Movement and Bardoli Satyagraha are two of the most studied peasant struggles of the 1920s in colonial India. The Eka Movement of 1921–22 was a tenant uprising in the Hardoi, Bahraich, Sitapur and Barabanki districts of Awadh in the United Provinces, led by Madari Pasi, against rack-rent, oppressive nazrana, and the bedakhli (eviction) practices of taluqdars and zamindars. The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, by contrast, was a disciplined no-tax campaign by the relatively prosperous Patidar peasantry of Bardoli taluka in Surat district, Gujarat, organised by Vallabhbhai Patel — who emerged from it as “Sardar” — against a 22% revenue enhancement imposed by the Bombay government.

For UPSC aspirants, the Eka Movement and Bardoli Satyagraha sit at the heart of the modern history syllabus on peasant movements and the consolidation of the Congress’s rural base. They illustrate two very different models of agrarian protest: spontaneous, leaderless, partly violent (Eka) and disciplined, organised, non-violent (Bardoli).

Quick Facts: Eka Movement

• Period: Late 1921 to March 1922
• Region: Hardoi, Bahraich, Sitapur, Barabanki — northern Awadh, UP
• Leader: Madari Pasi (a Pasi by caste, hence the title)
• Issue: Excessive rent, illegal nazrana (forced gifts), bedakhli (eviction)
• Method: Mass oath-taking (eka = unity), refusal to pay enhanced rent
• Suppression: Heavy police action by March 1922
• Significance: Independent of Gandhian Non-Cooperation; led by low-caste tenants

Quick Facts: Bardoli Satyagraha

• Period: February to August 1928
• Region: Bardoli taluka, Surat district, Gujarat
• Leader: Vallabhbhai Patel (titled “Sardar” by the women of Bardoli)
• Issue: 22% land revenue enhancement by the Bombay government
• Method: Disciplined no-tax satyagraha; non-payment, social boycott of officials
• Outcome: Maxwell-Broomfield enquiry; enhancement rolled back to 6.03%
• Significance: Patel emerges as a national leader; model for later Civil Disobedience

The Eka Movement: Background

When the Non-Cooperation Movement was launched by Gandhi in 1920–21, it rapidly absorbed an existing wave of peasant unrest in Awadh. The earlier Kisan Sabha movement under Baba Ramchandra had stirred up the southern Awadh districts of Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Faizabad. When that movement was suppressed in 1920–21, peasants in northern Awadh — Hardoi, Bahraich, Sitapur, Barabanki — picked up the cause under their own leadership.

The grievances were severe. Rents had been raised arbitrarily — often above 50% of the produce. Tenants were charged nazrana (gifts on rent renewal) and various illegal cesses. Most painful of all was bedakhli — eviction at the landlord’s will, with no security of tenure. Tenants in northern Awadh were overwhelmingly low-caste — Pasis, Kurmis, Muraos, Ahirs — and the landlords were largely taluqdars patronised by the colonial state.

Why “Eka” — Unity

The movement got its name from the oath of unity that peasants took at meetings in the autumn of 1921. The eka oath had four clauses:

1. Pay only the recorded rent, not the enhanced rent
2. Pay rent on time and obtain a receipt for every payment
3. Refuse forced labour (begar)
4. Refuse to obey landlord-imposed eviction

The oath was sworn by lighting a small heap of cow-dung and salt and walking around it — a peasant ritual giving the unity solemn force.

Madari Pasi: Leader From the Margins

The principal organiser of the Eka Movement was Madari Pasi, an outsider to elite politics. Pasis are a low-caste community traditionally associated with toddy-tapping and watching of crops. Madari was charismatic, drew thousands to mass meetings, and was largely independent of the Congress and Khilafat leadership. The Eka Movement is sometimes described as the first major peasant movement in India led by a low-caste leader without national-level Congress patronage.

Suppression

By early 1922 the colonial state was alarmed. Police repression intensified; mass arrests, beatings, raids on villages and the imposition of punitive fines were used to break the movement. By March 1922 — coinciding with Gandhi’s call to suspend Non-Cooperation after Chauri Chaura — the Eka Movement had been crushed. Madari was eventually arrested.

What the Eka Movement Achieved

Although suppressed, the Eka Movement achieved several things:

1. It forced the colonial government to acknowledge bedakhli abuses and ultimately to legislate against arbitrary eviction
2. It created a base of organised peasant consciousness in Awadh that would resurface in the Civil Disobedience and Quit India phases
3. It demonstrated the autonomy of peasant movements from the urban Congress leadership
4. It established a template of mass oath-taking as a method of rural mobilisation

The Bardoli Satyagraha: Background

Six years later, in early 1928, a very different kind of peasant movement broke out in Bardoli taluka of Surat district. The Bombay government had ordered a 22% increase in land revenue based on a settlement report by an official named Jayakar. The increase was steep, the assessment poorly grounded, and the Patidar peasantry — relatively prosperous, well-organised, with strong links to the Congress through the Kheda Satyagraha (1918) — refused to pay.

The Bardoli Taluka Congress Committee approached Vallabhbhai Patel, then a senior Gujarat Congress leader and member of the Ahmedabad Municipality. Patel agreed to lead the no-tax campaign, but only on a strict condition: complete discipline, non-violence, and willingness to suffer.

Patel’s Method

Patel built a remarkable rural organisation. He divided Bardoli taluka into 13 work zones, each headed by a chhavni (camp) with full-time volunteers. Daily news bulletins (Bardoli Satyagraha Patrikas) were printed and circulated to keep peasants informed. Women, mobilised by leaders such as Mithuben Petit and Maniben Patel (Vallabhbhai’s daughter), took an active role in propaganda and morale. Boycott of officials was strict: no village would supply food, water, transport or labour to revenue collectors.

The Title “Sardar”

It was the women of Bardoli — overcome by Patel’s calm, methodical leadership and unflinching commitment — who first addressed him as “Sardar” (chief, leader). The title stuck. From August 1928 onward, Vallabhbhai Patel was universally known as Sardar Patel.

Outcome and Significance of Bardoli

The Bombay government resorted to confiscation of land, livestock and household goods of those who refused to pay. But the boycott held. Officials sent to enforce the assessment found themselves shunned by entire villages — barbers, washermen, cart-drivers, even servants refused to work for them.

By August 1928, the government — embarrassed nationally and pressured by liberals in the Bombay Legislative Council — agreed to a settlement. The Maxwell-Broomfield Enquiry was instituted to re-examine the revenue assessment. Its eventual finding rolled back the enhancement from 22% to a modest 6.03%, confiscated property was restored, and arrested satyagrahis were released.

The Bardoli Satyagraha was thus a clear, unambiguous peasant victory — rare in the colonial period.

Why Bardoli Mattered Nationally

The Bardoli Satyagraha demonstrated three things to the national movement:

1. A disciplined no-tax campaign could succeed even against a determined colonial state
2. Vallabhbhai Patel was capable of leading at the national level, paving his way to the Congress presidency (Karachi 1931) and beyond
3. Rural Gujarat was a reliable base for nationalist mobilisation, as it would prove again in the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930

Bardoli was the laboratory in which the methods of mass non-violent resistance were perfected before being deployed nationally in 1930.

Comparing the Two Movements

The Eka Movement and Bardoli Satyagraha differ on almost every dimension:

What unites them is that both were peasant movements of the 1920s that exposed the agrarian crisis at the heart of colonial rule. Both contributed to the Congress’s eventual realisation that the rural base — the overwhelming majority of Indians — could not be ignored if the freedom struggle was to succeed.

Significance for UPSC

The Eka Movement and Bardoli Satyagraha matter for UPSC because they:

1. Illustrate two contrasting models of peasant resistance — autonomous versus Congress-led
2. Mark the emergence of Sardar Patel as a national leader
3. Reveal the caste dimension of agrarian movements
4. Demonstrate the rural base of the freedom struggle
5. Prepare the ground for Civil Disobedience (1930) and Quit India (1942)

Frequently Asked Questions

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