ABSTRACT
Rural Bihar continued to be the happy hunting ground of merchant capital in the first half of the eighteenth century as it supplied mostly saltpetre and cotton textiles to Europeans. The East India Company encouraged the cultivation of opium which it exported to China and opium replaced saltpetre as the main export commodity of rural Bihar. The 1930s opened with a worldwide depression which caused a steep fall in agricultural prices. The distress of petty, landholders and sharecroppers was more pronounced. Hence, the Indian National Congress set up an Agrarian Enquiry Committee so that it could formulate its politics towards the peasantry. At the same time, the Kisan Sabha gained in support among a section of the peasantry whose economic demands it was primarily championing. The Kisan Sabha opposed the commutation of produce rent into cash rent since the fall in agricultural prices had adversely affected its followers. This brought them in conflict with the zamindars.
