The demand for the Tebhaga Peasant Movement in Bengal was for:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (a) the reduction of the share of the landlords from one-half of the crop to one third.
The Tebhaga movement (1946–47) was a struggle by sharecroppers (bargadars) in Bengal. They wanted to keep two-thirds of the crop instead of the customary half, so the landlord's share would fall from one-half to one-third. It was a demand about crop-sharing. It did not ask for land ownership, abolition of zamindari or cancellation of debts.
- ✓ (a) Tebhaga means 'three shares'. Sharecroppers demanded two-thirds of the produce for themselves, which cut the landowner's share from one-half to one-third.
- ✗ (b) The movement did not demand ownership of land for the tillers. It asked for a better share of the crop on land they already cultivated as sharecroppers.
- ✗ (c) Ending the zamindari system and serfdom was not the Tebhaga demand. It was a limited demand about the crop share.
- ✗ (d) Cancellation of all peasant debts was not the defining demand. The movement was about the sharecropper's share of the crop.
Remember · Tebhaga (1946–47, Bengal, Kisan Sabha/Communist-backed): sharecroppers demanded two-thirds of the crop instead of one-half. Do not confuse it with the Telangana movement (1946–51).
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Social Change and Development in India, Ch 8 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 12 · Social Change and Development in India, Chapter 8 “The first was a struggle of sharecroppers in Bengal in North Bihar for two thirds share of their produce instead of the customary half.”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2013, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·
