The Bijolia Kisan Movement began in Rajasthan in:-

Concept — A peasant movement is dated from the earliest recorded collective act of the cultivators against the levy regime they lived under — a joint assembly, petition or refusal by the villagers themselves. It is not dated from the year a prominent outside leader took charge of it, nor from the year a formal peasant body was constituted; those are later stages of the same struggle.

Application — Bijolia was a principal thikana (jagir) of Mewar, lying in the Uparmal plateau of what is now Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. Its cultivators, largely Dhakad peasants, carried a heavy burden of lag-bag cesses together with begar, or unpaid forced labour. The earliest collective step on record belongs to 1897: the peasants assembled at Girdharpura during a death feast, took up the question of the cesses and of begar, and deputed Nanji Patel and Thakri Patel to carry their grievance to the ruler of Mewar. Applying the rule above to that assembly, the Bijolia Kisan Movement begins in 1897.

Cross-check — The dates that are often confused with the beginning belong to later stages of the same movement:

• 1903 — the chanwari (marriage) cess imposed on the peasants revives the agitation.

• 1906 — the talwar-bandhai succession levy adds a further exaction.

• 1913 — a more organised phase takes shape under Sadhu Sitaram Das.

• 1916 — Vijay Singh Pathik takes charge and gives the movement a wider political character.

• 1917 — the Uparmal Panch Board is constituted as the peasants’ own organisation.

• 1941 — the long struggle is finally settled.

Result — The Bijolia Kisan Movement began in 1897. The years 1890, 1892 and 1895 correspond to no recorded collective action of the Bijolia cultivators, and the frequently quoted 1916 marks Vijay Singh Pathik’s leadership rather than the movement’s beginning.