The Story Of A Revolt That Led To Azaadi

Behind the bright white curtain that boasts high employment rates and even higher average incomes lurks a dark, profound truth about the Indian economy that many people overlook. This ignorance is not unintentional, but it is preferred to be overlooked so that it doesn't spoil the so-called success story. Most of us believe that the custom of slavery was banished long back in the 1800s, but little did we know that the Kol community of Uttar Pradesh still worked as serfs for local moneylenders, landlords, and other influential people even till the 2000s.

Kol Rebellion: From the village of Sonbarsa; Image Source: The Wire

In the small town of Sonbarsa, not far away from the eyes of the Indian citizens, lived the Kol community. Though the Kols were forced to work in the farms and quarries of the rich ones, they were never given the freedom they deserved. For generations together, they have been serving the influential people of the village, including the landlords and moneylenders, free of cost.

They were not paid regular salaries and were only given monthly one-kilogram rice. It was difficult for the workers to sustain their entire families with the bare minimum resources that they were provided with. The kids of the laborers were denied education, and their condition became so detrimental that they could feed only a single meal every day. Slaveholders exerted strict physical and emotional control over the enslaved men and women's labor, lives, and thoughts.

The Kol community of Sonbarsa village served as bonded laborers for the Patel caste. But neither were they bonded by duty nor by devotion, but by debts. The Patels trapped the Kol community in debt to ensure they never tried to escape the village and provide free-of-cost services. Patels were the spinal cord of the merchant and landholder community of Northern India, but at the same time, they were listed among the other backward classes in Uttar Pradesh.

Though the Patels were OBCs and had a lower status than the Brahmins or Kshatriyas, their name and wealth were enough to make the Kol community bend in fear. Loans enabled the Patel households in Sonbarsa to control the Kol laborers' movements. The employees were denied a formal education, fed only once a day, and were not paid. They had no idea there was another option for them.

No one dared to raise their voice against the Patel community. If anyone was found to show denial or domination over the Patels, they were charged incessantly. Not only financially, but they were also tortured physically, as the Patels would hold them as captives, kidnap women and kids, torture them, and in some cases, people were even murdered. Sexual abuse and rapes against women were quite common in Sonbarsa. Perhaps the worst sufferers were the Kols, among all the other tribal groups. They revolted in the past against the British government and suffered their monstrosity; this time, too, it was the same.

There was a change in the situation after the coming of a man named Uday Pratap Singh. Monikered as Kanchuki by his friends and relatives, he told the Kols that they were "beautiful pigeons" and the Patels were nothing but "bird hunters" who could be taken down with resistance. Kanchuki organized the Kol community and held meetings late at night to bring them together against the Patels. Moving from hut to hut, he would encourage people to raise their voices against the oppressive landlords. However, with time, the Patels learned about his actions and began giving him death threats. But this did not stop him from pursuing freedom for the Kols.

The Patels tried hard to stop Kanchuki by bribing him and punishing the people from the Kol tribe, but nothing could stop their dauntless determination. One fine day, a man named Virendra Pal from the landlord community punched Kanchuki, which triggered his admirers. Virendra knew that he would have to die at the hands of the Kols.

One day, after the mass rally of Kols, violent fights erupted as the landlords attacked them suddenly. Some people from the landlord community came on their bikes and ran over several women in the Kol community. The tribals fought back for the first time in their lives, and several men from the Patel community were injured. Most importantly, Virendra Pal was also killed. The Kol and Patel men ratio was fifty and eight, respectively, and now you know which side would have won.

After killing Virendra and injuring several other Patel men, the Kols ran away from their villages to save themselves from the wrath of the local police, who danced according to the directions of their landlords. But little did they know that, behind their back, the tiny huts and fields they owned would turn into nothing but ashes.

As if this was not enough, the police made sure to arrest those men who played an essential role in the revolt. Amar Saran, a criminal defense attorney, asked an international organization in Washington DC named Free the enslaved people to intervene in this matter and solve the issues.

A lengthy legal battle continued in the court between the Kols and the Patels, and finally, the Kols were allowed to run their stone quarry. Refusing to work with the Patels anymore, the villagers renamed Sonbarsa, Hullabol, and later it was changed to Azad Nagar. The narrative took several unexpected turns as the Kols established a new course.

Ironically, when the Indian state freed up the area to super-rich mining firms, dispossessing both the Patels and the Kols, the two formerly hostile clans reached a grudging reconciliation. However, forced labor died out since it wasn't profitable or practicable to keep it going. In any event, the Kols would not go any farther with it.

A woman named Laura T. Murphy returned to those times when this revolt took place and brought to us some of the most delicate details that form the basis of our understanding of this movement that remains hidden in the old and pale pages of history. Laura is a leading scholar who has extensively researched contemporary global slavery.

While on her research, she stumbled upon the happenings of Sonbarsa, which later came to be known as Azad Nagar after the villagers succeeded in their revolution to attain freedom from the Patels. She spent years investigating and educating about Azad Nagar and discovered that murmurs and deflections hinted that Azad Nagar's success was unsettling.

After several years of intense research, Murphy was finally confident enough to write two books that carried the story of struggle and success beautifully- Azad Nagar: The Story Of A 21st Century Slave Revolt and Freedomville: The Story of a 21st-Century Slave Revolt. These books captured the sadness of oppression and happiness of freedom, both alike.

Azad Nagar: The Story Of A 21st Century Slave Revolt; Image Source: Amazon