The Tebhaga Movement (1946-47), in which sharecroppers demanded two-thirds of the harvest instead of half, took place in:

The Tebhaga Movement (1946-1947) was a peasant movement of the sharecroppers (bargadars or adhiars) of Bengal.

Meaning of the term:

• "Tebhaga" means "three shares" or "three parts".
• The sharecroppers demanded that their share of the harvest be increased from one-half to two-thirds, with only one-third going to the landlord (jotedar).

Background:

• In Bengal, a large part of the land was cultivated by sharecroppers, who gave half or more of the crop to the jotedars (rich landholders).
• The Floud Commission (Bengal Land Revenue Commission, 1940) had recommended that the sharecroppers should get two-thirds of the crop.
• After the Bengal famine of 1943, the condition of the poor peasants was very bad.

The movement:

• It was organised by the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha, with the support of the Communist Party of India, in the autumn of 1946.
• It spread to many districts of Bengal, especially in the north (Dinajpur, Rangpur, Jalpaiguri, Malda) and in the south (24 Parganas, Midnapore).
• Sharecroppers took the harvested crop to their own threshing floors, instead of the jotedars', and kept two-thirds of it.
• Many tribal and Dalit peasants, such as the Rajbanshis, Santhals and Hajongs, took part.
• Women played an important role in the movement.

Suppression:

• The landlords and the police tried to suppress the movement; there were many clashes, and many peasants were killed in police firing.
• The Bengal government introduced a Bargadari Bill in 1947, but it was not passed then.
• The movement declined after the partition of Bengal in 1947.

Later:

After independence, the West Bengal government passed laws to protect sharecroppers, and "Operation Barga" (1978) recorded the rights of sharecroppers.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Telangana, Kerala and Punjab saw other peasant movements.