Motilal Tejawat: The Eki Movement and the Pal-Dadhvav Massacre

In 1921 a man who had once clerked for a landlord began carrying a message through the Bhil hills. The message was one word: Eki, unity.

Within a year, thousands answered it. On 7 March 1922 troops fired on the gathering at Pal-Dadhvav.

1Who was Motilal Tejawat?

Motilal Tejawat was born at Koliyari in the Mewar region. This village is now in Jhadol tehsil, Udaipur district, Rajasthan. Sources give 1885 or 1886 as his birth year. He studied up to the fifth grade.

He took work in the Jhadol estate, under a local thakur. There he saw how the thakur and his men treated the Bhil people. He resigned in 1920.

He then worked for a shopkeeper in Udaipur. On a business trip to Jhadol, the thakur ordered him to hand over his employer’s building material. He refused. He was beaten and jailed until his employer got him freed.

That event ended his career as a clerk. He gave up his job and turned to full-time public work among the Bhils.

• Birthplace: Koliyari, near Jhadol, Mewar.
• Birth year: 1885 or 1886.
• Resigned from Jhadol in 1920.
• Turned to full-time activism after being beaten and jailed.

2What was the Eki Movement?

Eki means unity. The movement asked Bhil and Garasia villages to stand together. They lived across Mewar and nearby states, in present-day Rajasthan and Gujarat. Together they could refuse dues and unpaid labour far more easily.

Tejawat took his first ideas from the Bijolia peasant movement. He copied and spread its pamphlets in Bhil areas. He also organised village meetings, which led to a committee.

The demands were wide. People wanted an end to begar, lower land dues, access to forest produce, and an end to abuse by lords and police. These were not one narrow tax quarrel. They joined land, labour, forests and dignity.

A memorandum known as the Mewar Pukar set out the demands. Government sources count them differently. One says seven points. Another says twenty-one demands, of which eighteen were accepted. Both agree on the central issues.

Official records describe the agitation as lasting mainly from 1921 to 1923. Some concessions came, but the deeper conflict stayed.

• Eki means unity.
• Inspired by the Bijolia movement.
• Issues: begar, revenue, forests, abuse by local lords.
• Memorandum: Mewar Pukar; the number of demands is counted differently.
• Period: mainly 1921 to 1923.

3What did Gandhi think of him?

Tejawat saw his cause as part of the wider freedom struggle. In speeches he spoke of “Gandhi Raj”. He said that under that rule the people would pay their rulers only one anna in the rupee.

Gandhi did not accept this. In Young India he wrote that he had heard of a man from Udaipur who claimed to be his disciple. He said Tejawat was surrounded by an armed crowd. He added that he had no disciples.

This difference matters. Gandhi feared that big promises and armed crowds would hurt the Bhils. Eki had its own local leaders and its own base. It was not a branch of the Congress.

• Slogan: Gandhi Raj, with one anna in the rupee due to rulers.
• Gandhi wrote in Young India that he had no disciples.
• Eki was a local movement with its own base.

4What happened at Pal-Dadhvav?

On 7 March 1922 thousands gathered near Pal, Chitariya and Dadhvav. This was in the former Idar State. They met beside the Her River under Tejawat’s lead.

The Mewar Bhil Corps arrived under a British officer, Major H. G. Sutton. The force opened fire on the crowd. Tejawat was reportedly wounded but escaped. The event is called the Pal-Dadhvav or Pal-Chitariya massacre.

The toll is hotly debated. Colonial reports named only 22 deaths. Local memory and later accounts say 1,200 or more. The Ministry of Culture also says estimates exceed 1,200.

The gap shows how poorly such events were recorded. Tribal oral history was long ignored. So give a range and name the source. Do not present one disputed number as settled fact.

The event is often compared with Jallianwala Bagh. Both involved troops firing on a large crowd. But the places and politics differed. Jallianwala Bagh was at Amritsar in 1919. Pal-Dadhvav was in Idar State in 1922.

• Date: 7 March 1922.
• Place: near Pal, Chitariya and Dadhvav, Idar State, beside the Her River.
• Force: Mewar Bhil Corps, under Major H. G. Sutton.
• Toll: 22 (colonial) versus 1,200+ (local memory).

5What happened to him afterwards?

The Udaipur state had outlawed Tejawat and set a reward of 500 rupees on his head. He stayed free for several years after the firing.

He was arrested at Khedbrahma on 4 June 1929 by Idar police. They handed him to Mewar. Some accounts say he surrendered. He was held in Udaipur without trial.

Wikipedia gives his release as 23 April 1939. Some official accounts give 1936 or later. Treat the exact year with care. In December 1939 he tried to return to the tribal areas but was barred.

He kept touring for social reform. He was arrested again at Kotra on 24 January 1946. He died in 1963.

• Reward on his head: 500 rupees.
• Arrested: 4 June 1929, at Khedbrahma.
• Held at Udaipur without trial; release year given as 1939 (some say 1936).
• Arrested again at Kotra in 1946.
• Died 1963.

6What are the exam traps?

Keep these Rajasthan-Gujarat movements apart.

• Tejawat: Eki Movement and Pal-Dadhvav, 1922.
• Govind Guru: Bhagat movement and the Mangarh massacre, 1913.
• Vijay Singh Pathik: the Bijolia peasant movement.
• Do not call Tejawat a disciple of Gandhi; Gandhi denied it.
• The force was the Mewar Bhil Corps, not the army of the Raj in Punjab.
• State the toll as a range with sources.
• Read about Govind Guru and Mangarh.
• Read about Vijay Singh Pathik.
• Read about Tantia Bhil.