Introduction

The Punjab Riasati Praja Mandal represents the heroic struggle of the agrarian peasantry, tenant farmers (muzaras), and disenfranchised subjects against the autocratic feudal monarchies that ruled nearly a third of Punjab’s territory. While the Indian National Congress and Akali Dal challenged British rule across directly administered colonial districts, the subjects of princely states—such as Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, and Kapurthala—endured medieval oppression: arbitrary detention, draconian agricultural surcharges, absence of civil rights, and compulsory unpaid forced labor (begaar).

Foundation at Mansa (1928)

  • Outraged by the autocratic extravagances and civil suppression orchestrated by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, delegates from various princely domains assembled clandestinely at Mansa on July 17, 1928.
  • They incorporated the Punjab Riasati Praja Mandal, electing revered Akali patriarch and social reformer Sardar Sewa Singh Thikriwala as President and Bhagwan Singh Longowalia as General Secretary.
  • The Mandal drafted a revolutionary charter: the restoration of civil speech and press, reduction of agrarian water and land rates, abolition of feudal privileges, and constitutional democracy.

The Epic Martyrdom of Sardar Sewa Singh Thikriwala

  • The princely administration retaliated brutally against Mandal workers, seizing ancestral lands and imprisoning leaders under trumped-up criminal charges.
  • In 1933, Sardar Sewa Singh Thikriwala was arrested and confined in Patiala Central Jail under squalid, degrading conditions.
  • To assert the fundamental rights of political detainees, Thikriwala embarked on an epic nine-month hunger strike. Despite coercive tube-feeding, psychological torture, and deteriorating health, he refused royal pardons that demanded renouncing the Praja Mandal.
  • On the midnight of January 19–20, 1934, Sewa Singh Thikriwala attained martyrdom in prison. His sacrifice triggered massive rural rebellions across Malwa, permanently shattering the moral legitimacy of princely despotism.

The 'Muzara' Tenant Revolt and Agrarian Triumph

Under the subsequent leadership of communist stalwarts like Comrade Teja Singh Swatantar and Dharam Singh Fakkar, the Praja Mandal morphed into the militant Muzara Movement:

  • Tenant cultivators seized control of lands they had tilled for generations, adopting the militant slogan: Zamin Ohdi Jehra Vaahe (The Land belongs to the Tiller).
  • Following Indian Independence in 1947, the princely states were consolidated into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) in 1948. Under relentless pressure from the Praja Mandal veterans, PEPSU passed landmark agrarian reform acts, conferring unconditional proprietary landownership upon over 700,000 tenant farmers.

References

  1. Dr. Ramesh Walia (1972), Praja Mandal Movement in East Punjab States, Punjabi University Patiala.
  2. Master Hari Singh (1980), Punjab Peasant in Freedom Struggle (Vol. 2), People’s Publishing House.
  3. Jaswant Singh Jaswant (1984), Amar Shaheed Sardar Sewa Singh Thikriwala, Patiala.