Tonko Andolon: A forgotten slice of history

Around 1:40 am on 24 March, Kumudini Hajong, the last surviving rebel of the Tonko Andolon, died in her homeland in Baheratoli, a bordering village in Netrokona's Durgapur Upazila. 

A soul-crushing Nor'wester blew over the capital just after I got the news. It was an 83-kilometre/hour hail storm that destroyed my plants and blew away my red scarf into the dark night. 

It was as if nature was reminding us of the end of a stormy era; the end of the last witness to the Colonial era peasant revolutions that were often brutally crushed. 

Growing up in a home with strong Communist sympathies - Comrade Moni Singh, Hajong Mata Rashmoni, and Kumudini Hajong of Netrokona of the famous Tonko Andolon - were some of the names religiously uttered in our house. 

My father would always repeat the same story of how thrilled he was when he met Comrade Moni Singh; how the peasant revolutions in 19 districts of agrarian Bengal, between 1937 and 1950, like the Tebhaga Andolon and the Tonko Andolon, removed the landlords or Zamindars, and even the British colonial rulers, from the subcontinent.  

Around 2016, I went to Susang Durgapur at the base of Garo Hills on the banks of the crystal-blue Someshwar River to meet the Under-16 football players of the village. Maria Manda, a Hajong girl, was in that team. 

As I met Maria and her mother working in the fields, I imagined Kumudini Hajong, Rashmoni Hajong, and all those who fought for their rights on lands, and on the paddy they grew. 

I remembered the legend of Hajong Mata Rashmoni - how she jumped on the British police to rescue her fellow fighter Kumudini and was killed by the police. 

In his book The Indian Village Community, BH Baden Powell explained how, from ancient times till the British colonials came, individual peasant-land ownership had undergone no major change, except for the amount of tax to be paid. 

But everything changed when the British East India Company started collecting revenue, which led to the famine of 1769-70, killing one-third of the population of Bengal. 

They introduced the Permanent Settlement Act in 1795. The cultivators lost their rights on land, and the Zamindars started oppressing them for taxes. 

In the Garo Hills area of Susang in Netrokona, the Zamindars did not have much ownership of the plains. So, they forced the Hajong people of the land to work on the mineral-rich forest hills. In 1885, the British rulers passed 'The Garo Hill Act' that said the Zamindars of the land would not have any ownership of the hills. 

After being deprived of the golden-egg-laying Garo Hills, the Zamindars came up with another way to earn and eventually oppress the Hajong people - the Tonko, or tax. 

What is Tonko?

Tonko means paddy tax. Whether there is paddy on the land or not, the farmers would have to pay the paddy to the landlords. 

This practice was prevalent in Kalma Kanda, Durgapur, Halua Ghat, Nalita Bari, and Srivarddi police stations in the north of the Mymensingh district. Its prevalence was ubiquitous in Susang Zamindari areas. 

Comrade Moni Singh, in his autobiography Jiban Sangram (Life is a Struggle), explained the reality of that era.  

Farmers had no ownership over the Tonko land. For 1.25 acres of land, the farmers would have to pay from 7 to 15 maunds (280 kg to 600 kg) of paddy a year, which was equivalent to an average of Tk17, as per maund rice was Tk2.25. 

The rent of farmland was Tk5 to Tk7 per 1.25 acres. Not only the zamindars, but the middle class and the moneylenders also benefited from the Tonko system.

The sharecropper (borga chashi) had to pay Tk100 to Tk200 per 1.25 acres to be able to just use the land for a particular period of time. These poor farmers could not afford to pay this amount, also known as a nazrana. So, it was convenient for them to cultivate the lands in the Tonko system where no nazrana was involved. 

Does this remind you of the distress of the indigo farmers who would have to pay extra tax to grow rice but not indigo? These helpless people had no option but to turn to indigo farming.

This continued until November 1937 when Comrade Moni Singh of CPI (Communist Party of India) organised the farmers and launched the Tonko Andolon, or the Hajong rebellion.

All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS)

Abdullah Rasul, in his book The history of the All India Kisan Sabha, said that the year 1936 was a turning point in India's peasant history. The Indian National Congress in its Lucknow session of 1935, instead of suggesting specific measures to address the peasant question in India (and specifically in Bengal) held British imperial exploitation responsible for the situation and demanded its removal. 

This demand totally ignored the role of the native exploiting classes, especially the Zamindars, and jotedars. The Congress's attitude and ignorance about the peasant mobilisation in Bengal resulted in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in 1936. 

The Communist Party of India (CPI) took a leading role in organising AIKS and BPKS. The main objectives were "to secure complete freedom from economic exploitation and achievement of full economic and political power to the peasants and workers and other exploited classes." 

Its manifesto further emphasised that the Kisan Sabha shall be an organisation of peasants to fight for their immediate political and economic demands, in order to prepare them for their emancipation from every form of political exploitation. 

It was the Communist Party that brought for the first time in Indian politics the peasant question on a class basis. 

The legend of Hajong Mata Rashmoni

In 1946, when the Hajong rebellion was at its peak, the government set up police camps at several places in the Tonko area. 

A police camp was set up at Birishiri in Durgapur. A magistrate was also sent there to order the firing of the agitators on behalf of the government. 

The police forces started looking for the rebel farmers. On 31 December, a shocking murder by the police took place in Baheratali village, four miles from Birishiri.

Enraged at not finding some of the leading agitators at their homes, the police grabbed Laskeshwar Hajong's newlywed wife, Kamudini Hajong, and headed towards the Birishiri camp through a playground. 

In his book, Moni Singh described how Rashmoni Hajong, of the same Baheratoli village, ran to rescue Kumudini, when the police fired at her. 

Hajong Mata died on the spot. After that, over a hundred men and women intercepted the police force with local weapons. Two policemen were killed that day. Kumudini and her husband survived.

In the meantime, the British left the land. Bengal was divided into two parts. But the oppression took three more years to end. 

In mid-1950, Chief Minister of East Pakistan Nurul Amin made an official announcement to abolish the Zamindari and Tonko system. 

Then, in the year 1950, the Provincial Council passed the Zamindari Eviction Act. According to this law, the Zamindari system was removed from Bangladesh forever. With that, the Tonko tradition also ended forever.

Many years later, in 2016, when I met the football playing girls in Birishiri Durgapur, now a Bangali Muslim majority land, I remembered Nazma, Sanjida, and Maria saying, "people in the village do not like that we play football wearing shorts and T-shirts. They scared our parents, saying that nobody would marry us. But we did not give a damn. We will play, and bring cups for Bangladesh."

Now that I think of that day, I feel even though we cannot keep a person like Kumudini Hajong or Rashmoni Hajong living with us forever, their spirit can still live with us. I saw that spirit that day in Nazma, Sanjida and Maria. I hope it forever stays alive in the heart of Susang Durgapur, and in the hearts of all Hajong women.

Sketch: TBS