Historical Sketch of Peasant Activism: Tracing Emancipatory Political Strategies of Peasant Activists of Sindh

Peasant activism in Sindh is very diverse and has its own typical history. Temporally, it has been focused on contextual issues that demand more than just land reforms. Peasant activists have, over the years, pursued roughly articulated, expedient and highly diverse agendas that are enacted by the mix of civil society activists, NGOs and ethnic peasant activists. In this article, which is the result of ethnographic study and the analysis of secondary ethnographic and historical data, effort has been made to trace the formation of peasantivist agendas and strategies in Sindh, particularly tracing it from the peasant struggle of Shah Inayat in 17th century. The introduction of exploitative Batai system during British rule, the consequent institutionalization of sharecropping, establishment of Hari Committee in 1930s, the launching of Batai Tehreek and Elati Tehreek have been traced in relation to shifting peasantivist agendas. Failure of peasant activists to bring about substantive land reforms and the recent process of NGO-ising of peasant activism, have been analyzed vis-à-vis historical past.