TheCoolie-Begar or Coolie- Utar movement was a non-violent movement by the general public ofKumaun in theBageshwar town ofUnited Provinces in 1921. This movement was led byHargovind Pant andBadri Datt Pandey, who were awarded the titles of 'Jannayak' and 'Kumaon Kesari' respectively after the success of this movement. The aim of this movement was to put pressure on the British to end the practice ofCoolie-Begar.Mahatma Gandhi, while praising the movement, named it 'Bloodless Revolution'.
‘Coolie Begar’ or ' Coolie-Utar' referred to the law requiring locals of the hill regions of Kumaun to provide free transportation for the luggage of travelling British officials.[1] It was the responsibility of the 'Village Head' of different villages, to make available a certain number of coolies for a certain period.[2] For this work, there was a regular register, in which the names of all the villagers were written and everyone was forced to do this work alternately.[3]
The dissatisfaction between the public, due to the collusion of the Village Heads, the landlords and the patwaris, and the discrimination between the people increased as the head and patwari of the village started promoting this virtue to get rid of their personal interests. Sometimes, people were also forced to do extremely disgusting things. Such as picking up garbage or washing clothes for the British etc. The locals were being exploited by the British physically and mentally. Eventually, people started to unite to protest against this.
TheChand rulers, during their reign, initiated a tax related to horses in the state. It was possibly the earliest form of the 'Coolie Begar' exploitation. This practice took a widespread form of governance under the rule ofGorkhas.[4] Though the British ended it initially, they gradually not only re-enforced this system, but brought it to its formidable form.[5] Earlier this was not on the general public, but on those salaried farmers who used to collect tax from the landowners or collectors. Hence, this practice directly influenced those tenants who owned land. But the reality was that these rich landlords and jurists had imposed their parts of slavery on landless farmers, laborers and weak sections of society who accepted it as conditional remuneration. Thus, this practice continued, despite the opposition of local people.
During theIndian Rebellion of 1857,Haldwani, that was the gateway to theKumaon area, was seized by the rebels ofRohilkhand. Though the British succeeded in crushing the rebellion in its infancy itself, the tension of suppression of that time sporadically flared into different forms of resistance from time to time.[6] There was also a dissatisfaction with the British's exploitation of the forests of Kumaon.[1]
Coolie Begar was made mandatory for the residents ofKumaon division in 1913. It was opposed everywhere;Badri Datt Pandey led the movement inAlmora, while other leaders like Anusuya Prasad Bahuguna andPt. Govind Ballabh Pant also played an active role in the Movement inGarhwal andKashipur respectively.[7] Through hisAlmora Akhbar, Badri Datt Pandey started protesting against this evil.[8] In 1920, the annual Convention of theCongress was held inNagpur. several leaders including PtGovind Ballabh Pant,Badri Datt Pandey,Hargovind Pant, Victor Mohan Joshi, Shyam Lal Shah etc. attended the session, to take the blessings ofMahatma Gandhi for the Coolie Begar movement.[9] When they came back, they started raising awareness against this evil.
On 14 January 1921, on occasion of the Uttarayani fair, this movement was initiated from the grounds of Confluence (Bagad) ofSaryu andGomati.[10][11][12] Before the commencement of this movement, a notice was issued by the District Magistrate toHargovind Pant, Lala Chiranjilal andBadri Datt Pandey, but it had no effect on them.[13] To participate in this movement, people from different villages came out to the fair ground, and turned it into a huge show.[14] The people first went to theBagnath Temple to offer prayers, and then about 40 Thousand people went to Saryu Bagad, in front of the procession carrying a flag, with the words "End the Coolie Begar". After that, there was a meeting in Saryu Ground, Badri Datt Pandey, while addressing the gathering, took an oath saying, "Taking the water of the sacred Saryu, and with the Bagnath temple as a witness, we pledge that we will not tolerate 'Coolie Utar', 'Coolie Begar' and 'Coolie Burdayash' any more." All the people took this oath and the Village heads who had brought the 'record registers' with them, flung these registers into the confluence while raising slogans in praise ofBharat Mata.[15]
The then deputy commissioner ofAlmora district was also present in the crowd. Though he wanted to open fire on the crowd, he had to step back due to the lack of police force.
After the success of this movement, people gave the title of 'Jannayak' toHargovind Pant and that of 'Kumaon Kesari' toBadri Datt Pandey. People not only supported the movement but also strictly followed it and continued to protest against this practice. The result was that the government was forced to end the tradition by bringing a bill in the House.[16][17]Mahatma Gandhi was very impressed with this movement and paid a visit toBageshwar andKausani himself in 1929.[18][19] He also established a Gandhi Ashram in Chanunda. After this, Gandhiji wrote about this movement inYoung India stating "its effect was complete, it was a bloodless revolution."[20]