Popular Protests and Nationalist Movement in Mufassil Bengal: Maldah 1925 - 1934

Abstract

Focusing' on Maldah, a northern district of Bengal, an attempt has been made in this work to demonstrate that the complexity of the nationalist movement can be gauged through an indepth study of the localities. The study attempts to throw significant light on the different facets of nationalism. The study draws attention to the view that nationalism was not only marked by a series of urban and popular rural protests but was also a struggle where people, in a variety of positions, taking a wide range of steps, posed a severe challenge to the British 'authority and hegemony. Tile popular struggles, which converged with the Civil Disobedience movement, moved .beyond the parameter _of congress programme and threw up their own agendas. Focusing on Maldah, this study throws light on the popular perceptions and translations of nationalism: which were linked up with the desires and aspirations of the adivasi peasants.