Nankar Movement Nankar was the name of a type of land tenure characterised by payment of rent in produce or labour during the zamindari period. The term nankar is derived from nan (bread) and kar (tax or rent). In Bengal land administration system, the term applied to an assignment of a portion of the land or revenue of an estate to the occupant as an allowance for his subsistence, usually amounting to about five to ten per cent on the assessment payable to the state. The nankar may not be confused with malikana, which is an allowance, usually ten per cent on the gross revenue demand, for ownership right. If the zamindar was dispossessed for some reason or other, he used to enjoy the malikana allowance. But the nankar or maintenance allowance ceased when the zamindar was not in possession of his estate.

The nankar system of land tenure has a relationship with the modes of production and payment. In the absence of money economy in the rural areas, various forms of exchanges emerged. Nankar was one of them. Zamindar got the nankar allowance for maintaining his establishment. Since he did not pay his officials in cash, he gave them nankar or a land assignment in lieu of salary. In turn, the officer engaged people as labourers, palanquin bearers, cleaners, servants, lathials (clubmen), etc on nankar term. These people were paid for in nankar assignment of land. In the chain of nankar tenure everybody, from the zamindar to actual cultivators, got paid for themselves in produce and services. Obviously nankar system was strong in places were money economy was either weak or non-existent. In Sylhet area, which was then a part of Assam, money economy was weak even in the late nineteenth century. Consequently, the nankar system of production and payment, though eroding from the beginning of the 20th century, continued to operate quite significantly down to the end of zamindari system. One reason of the continuation of this pre-money system was the refusal of the landholders to give raiyati rights to the nankar peasants. The Survey and Settlement of Sylhet did not recognise the nankar peasants as raiyats or under-raiyats.

But the agrarian relations had so changed by the end of the colonial rule that the nankar peasants began to assert their rights on the land they had been cultivating from generation to generation. They demanded that zamindars must recognise their rights on land as normal raiyats and that their rent must be proportionate to the rent level of general raiyats. They also demanded the abolition of the system of begar labour.

The conflicts between the landlords and nankar raiyats came to surface in 1922-23, when the nankars of Dharmapasha in Sylhet district revolted after a zamindar had kidnapped a nankar woman. It may be mentioned that abuse of nankar women by the zamindars and their officials was very common. The nankars gheraoed the zamindar's house and the woman was rescued. The series of uprisings that took place later included the Shukhair rising, Kulaura uprising (1931-32), and Bhanubil uprising (1933-35). Through the beginning of a general nankar rebellion in 1946, the nankar unrest took a serious turn. Under pressure, many zamindars recognised the rights of nankar raiyats. Many were so intimidated that they fled to cities for safety. The nankar rebellion continued even after the Partition of Bengal (1947). Finally, the movement died down when the zamindari system was abolished in 1950 and nankars were recognised as normal raiyats guaranteeing their rights on land. The organisational leadership of the nankar movement came mainly from the district level communist leaders. The local communists received ideological and strategic instructions from the bengal provincial krishak sabha. [Sirajul Islam]