Tebhaga movement - Bengal

• The Tebhaga movement was an independence campaign initiated in Bengal by the Kisan Sabha in 1946-1947. At that time share-cropping peasants  had to give half of their harvest to the owners of the land. The demand of the Tebhaga (sharing by thirds) movement was to reduce the share given to landlords to one third.
• In many areas the agitations turned violent, and landlords fled villages leaving parts of the countryside in the hands of Kisan Sabha.
• As a response to the agitations, the then Muslim League ministry in the province launched the Bargadari Act, which provided that the share of the harvest given to the landlords would be limited to one third of the total. But the law was not fully implemented.