Vijay Singh Pathik

Vijay Singh Pathik led peasants of Bijolia in Mewar against heavy taxes. He did this years before Gandhi’s big satyagrahas.

Gandhi sent his secretary to study the movement. He later called Pathik “a soldier, brave and impetuous”.

1Who was Vijay Singh Pathik?

He came from a family that had fought the British.

• He was born in 1882 in Guthawali village, Bulandshahr district.
• His birth name was Bhoop Singh.
• His family was Gurjar.
• His father is said to have taken part in the 1857 revolt.
• His grandfather, Inder Singh, was Dewan of Malagarh.
• Inder Singh was killed fighting the British.
• That family story deeply moved the young Bhoop Singh.
• He joined a revolutionary group as a teenager.
• He was named in the Lahore Conspiracy Case of 1915.
• After that case he took the name Vijay Singh Pathik.
• Many accounts link him to the Ghadar plans of 1915.

2What was the Bijolia movement?

It was a long fight over land revenue.

• Bijolia was a jagir in the former state of Mewar.
• It lies in present-day Rajasthan, near Bhilwara.
• The movement ran against excessive land revenue.
• It lasted about half a century, till 1941.
• Trouble grew after the jagirdar changed in 1894.
• New officials were pushed to collect more revenue.
• Taxes called lagat, once rare, became long-term.
• In 1897 peasants sent a delegation to Udaipur.
• They failed to meet the Maharana.
• The Maharana still ordered an inquiry, which found some taxes were imposed arbitrarily.
• The jagirdar answered by punishing the two peasant delegates.
• Some concessions came in 1904, but the next jagirdar withdrew them in 1906.
• In 1913 about 15,000 farmers began a “No Tax” campaign.
• Its leader was Fateh Karan Charan.
• They left land untilled, and farmed rented plots in nearby states.
• Those states were Bundi, Gwalior and Mewar.
• Untilled land cut the estate’s revenue and caused food shortage.
• Sadhu Sitaram Das also led at one stage.

3What did Pathik do at Bijolia?

He gave the movement structure and national fame.

• He reached Bijolia in 1916.
• That year new war-fund payments had angered the peasants.
• He organised them under the Bijolia Kisan Panchayat.
• They opposed the war fund and other taxes.
• Petitions went to the Maharana.
• Newspapers began to cover the agitation.
• The Maharana set up a commission of inquiry.
• It found the peasants’ grievances genuine.
• It advised ending some taxes and begar.
• The Maharana did not act on it.
• Pathik then told peasants to farm unirrigated land, which was taxed less.
• Standard accounts say he was arrested in 1923 and freed in 1927.
• He was kept in a special jail in the Todgarh tehsil building.

4What was the Bijolia Agreement?

It gave relief, but not for long.

• A second inquiry in February 1920 reached the same findings.
• Other jagirdars feared a chain reaction.
• They pressed the Maharana not to act.
• The agitation spread to Begun, Parsoli and Bhinder.
• In December 1921 the Mewar State Resident reported a general refusal to pay revenue.
• He also warned of possible violence if officials forced collection.
• The Agent to the Governor General visited the jagirs.
• He told the state to settle with the peasants.
• The agreement was signed on 11 February 1922.
• It cut the talwar bandhi tax.
• It said no tax was due where nothing was grown.
• It also lowered some other taxes and land revenue.
• By 1928 peasants said the agreement had been broken.
• They also said taxes on unirrigated land stayed very high.

5What else did he do?

He was also a writer and a voice for a united Rajasthan.

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote to Maharana Fateh Singh in support of the peasants.
• Gandhi sent his secretary Mahadev Desai to study the movement.
• Pathik took up the idea of a united Rajasthan with Nehru and Patel.
• He edited the papers Rajasthan Kesari and Naveen Rajasthan.
• He started his own weeklies, Rajasthan Sandesh and Nav Sandesh, from Ajmer.
• He also wrote the novel Ajay Meru.
• He wrote a flag song that was popular in his day.
• He was president of the Rajputana and Madhya Bharat Provincial Congress.
• He married Janki Devi in 1930, and she joined the freedom struggle.
• He died in 1954.
• India issued a stamp in his honour in 1992.

6What are the exam traps?

The big trap is who came first.

• Many students call Champaran the first peasant satyagraha.
• Pathik’s experiments at Bijolia came years earlier.
• Do not credit Pathik with the 1913 No Tax campaign.
• That was led by Fateh Karan Charan.
• Pathik arrived in 1916.
• Pathik was the second phase leader, from 1915 to 1923.
• Bijolia was in Mewar state, not under direct British rule.
• The movement ended in 1941, not at the 1922 agreement.
• His name at birth was Bhoop Singh, not Vijay Singh.
• Compare with Gandhi at Champaran.
• Compare with the Kheda Satyagraha.
• Read about Mahadev Desai.