52 SOCIAL SCIENTIST buys land and struggles for a liquor contract. The Gujarati and Marwari vanis gain money through trade and usury and put their saving into business. (Today they are the biggest landowners). The Mussulman rents salt pans, sets up a rice-cleaning establishment and becomes a cattle- or hardware-dealer. The Kunbis, the Kolis and Agris lend money and buy land. '^All classes turn much of their savings into ornaments or hoards of money in their houses...Moneylending is rarely carried out as an exclusive occupation^.7 Small loans taken during periods of drought or for marriage compelled a peasant to mortgage his land. The rational-legal system introduced by the British accelerated the pace of pauperization of the peasant. From the peasant-proprietor he was reduced to the status of a tenant paying half to a third of his produce as rent or even to that of bonded labourer.8 Civil servant Symington reported in the fourth decade of the twentieth century the prevalence of veti (enforced labour) ^which was hardly distinguishable from slavery.'59 He also reported that by this time land had totally passed out of the hands of the tiller- Stirrings fro m Below Symington's report stimulated the setting up of Adivasi Seva Mandal (Service Society for the aboriginal Adivasis) by Kher and Bhise in 1940. This organization was supported by the Indian bourgeoisie,10 and locally by the president of the Timber Merchants Association. Incidentally this particular individual is the biggest grass merchant of Saravali today.z 1 The aim of the Seva Mandal was to bring about a change of heart which it signally failed to achieve. The Congress ministry in 1946'under the leadership of B G Kher passed the Agrarian Debt Relief Act. It brought no relief. There was no perceptible change either of heart or of agrarian relations, but what really did bring about a change, and a fairly radical one at that, was a movement from below. Its effects were remarkable though limited. The period immediately after the Second World War was one of revolutionary upsurge which made its presence felt in this area in 1945-46. Prices were rising and with them the level of discontent, as agricultural wages remained stable. Success of a movement in the neighbouring Umergaon taluka under the leadership of the Kisan Sabha (Peasants) Organization) sparked off a spontaneous1 a and strong movement of the Varlis. The Communist Party willingly accepted the leadership of the struggle. The achievements of this struggle were briefly a) abolition of heriditary slavery and serfdom in 1945ls; b) rise of wage rates, between one anna and 12 annas, to Rs 2—Rs 3; and c) wiping out of all arrears of rent. The gains were not sustained, there were even some reverses, partly due to the ebb of the revolutionary movement in India in the early 50s. The repressive power of the state had increased. This is not to imply that the Communist Party gave up its leadership in this area. Much later it did some good work but again, this has not changed the