Session 5

What I find interesting in today's reading is the continuation of the theme of agency that the peasants have. From Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah who says that his orders are coming from God to the peasants in Awadh who use the symbolism of Gandhi's name to push their agenda, the many layers of agency are highlighted. Badra seems to imply that the peasants are not aware of the wider context when he says that 'the rebel had yet not found his way to his own world' but this view seems to be challenged by Pandey who mentions how the peasants were using instruments of resisting that the nationalist movement had not thought of. There is of course geographical and time difference between these two readings but still a more nuanced approach seems to be the key.

The question of the 'enemy' is also one I find it worthwhile to explore. In Encounters and Calamities, the problems seem to evolve from Sunni-Shia conflict to a Hindu-Muslim conflict. In others, the enemy is the British Raj or the taluqdars. I just wonder that if we look into the individual struggles and find that people are struggling against different forms of oppression, is it possible to term these as part of a single process or movement at all?

Two minor points of interest were the question of the criminal becoming the leader and the question of gender. It does seem to show that the idea of who the state has branded a criminal needs to be questioned. Even the question of morality and someone having a 'bad character' is driven from state sanctioned ideas of the morality. In Pandey's article, it is mentioned that when Gandhi's instructions were sent to the peasants, one of them was that they would treat all women like their mother or sisters. To my mind, it brings the question of why was it necessary to send this instruction? Were there any instances of women being harassed or attacked that prompted this instruction and if they were, how come they are not mentioned at all?