Origin and Back Ground of Land Movement in Colonial and Post 1947 Jalpaiguri District

Land movement has a rather long history, and there is always a just cause for Indian peasants, laboring under difficult conditions– uncertain weather, the mendacity of moneylenders, oppressive taxation or revenue assessments, fluctuating prices of crops, poor or negligible government subsidies, and the support of large families, among many others– to join a rebellion or to instigate one. Economic instability in Jalpaiguri district agriculture was a primary cause of agrarian discontent during the twentieth century. Land movement was a part of the agrarian unrest in the district. A rigorous analysis of the issue, estimates of economic instability in agriculture and evidence on the location and intensity of agrarian unrest in colonial and post 1947 Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal is important for an understanding of the nature of political development in this district.