48 SOaALSOENTEST cases the then landlords of Bihar even bowed to the pressures exerted by their tenants. Raja Raghunandan Prasad resigned his membership of the Legislative Assembly, 'ostensibly as a protest against the Simon Commission Report, but to no small extent because of the continuous pressure of his tenants whose support of the Congress movement was whole-hearted'.6 The peasants of one village of Kisanganj forced the SDO of that subdivision to conduct an enquiry into the cases of illegal realisation by their zamindar, Hazi Ahmad Hussain. Gandhian restraints on non-violence were breaking down in Bihar towards the end of 1930 and early 1931* with a series of attacks on police parties. The government was greatly concerned over the attack on the police by a peasants' 'mob* of two thousand in Saran District.7 At Darauli in the same district an attack was made on the mounted military police who were visiting villages to assist the collection of chaukidari tax.8 In Champaran an attack was made on the police and the Subdivisional Officer of Bettiah, who were supervising the collection of chaukidari tax and arrested prisoners were rescued.9 The following day reinforcements were sent but again a small body of district lathi police was attacked. Even when the main body of Gurkha Military Police arrived, the 'rioters' (peasants) did not disperse until they suffered heavy casualties.10 At a village in north Munger the SDO with a police force had to withdraw as a large hostile crowd of about 8,000 people had collected.! i The peasants had become so sure of their strength that in some cases they attempted to break up Aman Sabha meetings.12 These Aman Sabhas were associations of the landlords of Bihar through which they openly denounced civil disobedience, using their influence in favour of British imperialism.The government was specially concerned about the movement taking violent forms.1-The increase in crime in districts where civil disobedience was intense was explained by the government as a general disrespect for law and order.14 Economic Nationalism Thus, while civil disobedience was the immediate cause for the suspension of Kisan Sabha activities it also provided the circumstances in which the peasants began to participate in political movements actively and in ever large numbers. This was not merely because of Gandhi's call, but also because of the combination of economic factors with the political elements of nationalism.15 This economic nationalism was intensified by the effects of an unprecedented world-wide economic depression. The price of agricultural produce began to fall drastically about October 1930 and by December 1931 grain was selling at only half its 1929 price.16 For the Bihar tenants the depressed price-level created extraordinary difficulties. Throughout the region there were tenants who had taken up settlements of new lands in the 1920s at high rates. They now found it difficult to pay their rents. The same was true of those tenants who either had their produce rents commuted to cash rents during the years of high prices or had rents enhanced by the landlords through civil suits. The burden on the tenants increased all the more due to a series of natural disasters.17 It was the agrarian sector of the economy, the predominant sector in Bihar, which felt the full impact of the depression and it was to this section of the population that the Congress looked for support. However, the effect of the depression varied for different agrarian classes,18 as in U.P. Initially, absentee landlords and non-cultivating owners with substantial holdings were not seriously affected. But later when the tenants were unable to pay their rents and when after their eviction for arrears of rent, substitute tenants could offer only half the previous