PEASANT UPSURGE IN OUDH 37 The peasants ofOudh were ready to take to any means to achieve redressal of their grievances. They formed a peasant organisation—the Kisan Sabha at Rure in Partapgarh District—under the homespun leadership of poor peasants like Jhinguri Singh and Sahdcv Singh, who set up small sabhas which were not able to extract the desired concessions from the taluqdars and their protectors—the British Government. They however, sought out people of greater education than themselves, like Baba Ram Chandra, who agreed to take up the cause of the oppressed peasantry. The Early Years Baba Ram Chandra, whose real name was Shridhar Balwant Jodhpurkar, was a Maharashtrian brahmin. He was born in the year 1864 in a small village ofGwalior Estate.8 He left for Fiji as an indentured labourer in 19049 and there he changed his name to Ram Chandra Rao in order to conceal his identity, as the Maharashtrian brahmins were suspect in the eyes of the British.10 It is difficult to concur with the view of Panegrehi that he changed his name ^to add to his person some religious and moral colour".11 He stayed in Fiji for thirteen years (1905-1917) and took active part in the movement to emancipate the lot of the indentured labourers. He has been referred to in the official literature as ^a successful agitator in Fiji"12. He came in contact with Manilal Gandhi, a companion of C F Andrews, who took keen interest in social and emancipatory movements in Fiji.18 Ram Chandra often used religion to organise the people. He was responsible for the staging of ^Ram Lila9 (a traditional and very popular stage drama displaying the life of the Hindu God Rama) in Fiji which helped in creating a sense of solidarity among the coolies of Indian origin. He also ensured the dismissal of an official who rode roughshod over the religious sentiments of the coolies. He led popular demonstrations in Fiji, to focus on the grievances of indentured labourers.14 He smuggled into India an article on the deplorable and inhuman conditions of indentured labourers, which was published in Bharat Mitra, a newspaper from Calcutta.15 The Fiji Government was alarmed by this article and was on the look out for its writer. The article created such a furore that Ram Chandra was advised by his friends to leave Fiji before the authorities were able to lay their hands on him.16 Ram Chandra returned to India in 1917 because he wished to carry on the battle on behalf of the indentured labourers in India itself.17 Further, a letter from Bal Gangadhar Tilak advised him to come to India and carry on the struggle.18 In India he started giving discourses on religion which endeared him to the simple and religious peasantry ofOudh who flocked in ever greater numbers to listen to him. The change from social to religious questions was attributed by him to some divine visions he had while asleep*19