All India Kisan Sabha (36 Canning Lane)

For the earlier Kisan Sabha, see Kisan Sabha (1919–1922). For the farmers' wing of CPI, see All India Kisan Sabha.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), or Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, is the peasant front of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and works for farmer's rights, peasant rights, and anti-feudal movement in India.^[1]

All India Kisan Sabha

Abbreviation	AIKS
Formation	28 January 1968 (57 years ago) (1968-01-28)
Type	Peasant Organisation
Legal status	Active
Headquarters	Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan, 10, 11, 12, Indrajit Gupta Marg, Rouse Avenue, New Delhi, India–110002
President	Ashok Dhawale
General Secretary	Vijoo Krishnan
Affiliations	Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Website	kisansabha.org

This organization is sometimes referred to as All India Kisan Sabha (36 Canning Lane), to distinguish it from the All India Kisan Sabha of Communist Party of India. All India Kisan Sabha (36 Canning Lane) was previously known as All India Kisan Sabha (Ashoka Road).^[1]

History

Further information: 1964 split in the Communist Party of India

After the 1964 split in the Communist Party of India, there were efforts to retain AIKS as a united organization. However, there were tensions between the leftist and rightist factions within the AIKS. But soon, at the 28 August 1967 Central Kisan Council meeting in Madurai, differences arose over the membership figures. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) faction in AIKS accused the Communist Party of India faction of presenting falsely inflated membership data of state units in order to increase their influence in the organization. The dispute led to a walk-out from the Central Kisan Council. Due to the disruptive activities of those leaders, finally, there was a split in the Kisan Sabha, and another Kisan Sabha was constituted in October 1967, after a section of the leadership left the AIKS and formed a separate Sabha.^[2]

Basu, Ranadive, Mukherjee, Basavapunnaiah, and Konar in the conference of AIKS held in Barsul, West Bengal in 1969

As a result, the CPI faction constitutes a parallel All India Kisan Sabha of its own by holding their 19th All India Conference at Amravati, Maharashtra, in January 1968. And the CPI(M) faction constitutes All India Kisan Sabha (36 Canning Lane) by holding its 19th All India Conference at Madurai, Tamil Nadu, on January 26–28, 1968. In Madurai, the conference amended its constitution and abolished AIKC as it rarely met. As there was no AIKC, the conference directly elected the CKC and office bearers for the first time. The conference elected A. K. Gopalan as its president, and Hare Krishna Konar was elected the general secretary. The conference also elected a 33-member CKC, including office bearers. On the last evening, a public rally was held at Madurai. A large number of peasants, agricultural workers, and working-class people attended the huge gathering. It was addressed by J. S. Lyallpuri, E. M. S. Namboodiripad, P. Ramamurthi, and others. A decision was taken to shift the central office. The Central Office of the Kisan Sabha was shifted from Delhi, 4 Ashoka Road, in April 1968, to Calcutta, first at 49 Lake Place and then to 36A Beniapukur Road, Calcutta 14.^[2]

National office bearers

The 35th All India Conference held at Thrissur, Kerala from 13–16 December 2022 elected Vijoo Krishnan as the general secretary of All India Kisan Sabha. National president Ashok Dhawale and finance secretary P. Krishna Prasad retained their positions from the previous Hisar conference.^[3]

National Conference	Date	Place	President	General Secretary
19th	26–28 January 1968	Madurai	A. K. Gopalan	Hare Krishna Konar
20th	30 October–3 November 1969	Barsul
21st	23–26 September 1971	Rurka Kalan
22nd	11–14 April 1974	Sikar
23rd	30 March–1 April 1979	Varanasi	Benoy Choudhury	K. Chathunni
24th	8–11 November 1982	Midnapore	Udaraju Raman	Santimoy Ghosh
25th	17–19 May 1986	Patna	Godavari Parulekar	N. Sankaraiah
26th	27–30 April 1989	Khammam	Harkishan Singh Surjeet	Ram Narayan Goswami
27th	27–30 September 1992	Hisar	N. Sankaraiah
28th	19–20 November 1995	Cuttack	Benoy Krishna Konar	S. Ramachandran Pillai
29th	5–8 March 1999	Kozhikode	S. Ramachandran Pillai	K. Varadarajan
30th	6–9 March 2003	Jalandhar
31st	28–31 January 2006	Nashik
32nd	7–10 January 2010	Guntur
33rd	24–27 July 2013	Cuddalore	Amra Ram	Hannan Mollah
34th	3–6 October 2017	Hisar	Ashok Dhawale
35th	13–16 December 2022	Thrissur		Vijoo Krishnan

Membership chart

This chart uses the Indian numeral system

State/Union territory	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999–2000
Andhra Pradesh	2,11,465	1,37,100	2,25,137	2,25,234	1,00,808	2,15,930	1,00,000
Assam	1,44,538	1,59,723	1,01,324	1,44,545	1,18,611	1,61,277	1,44,588
Bihar	2,10,000	2,30,100	1,52,000	2,00,000	2,04,000	2,17,000	1,84,000
Gujarat	13,000	9,140	11,500	6,000	6,000	8,400	10,440
Haryana	14,500	12,500	12,300	13,000	15,000	14,100	16,150
Himachal Pradesh	5,200	5,000	6,000	7,000	13,000	12,780	10,000
Jammu and Kashmir	4,500	5,000	5,000	5,000	6,000	4,000	7,000
Karnataka	52,000	75,000	89,633	92,568	67,160	73,515	70,775
Kerala	10,05,760	12,26,488	11,91,666	13,23,562	13,33,620	17,66,606	19,45,366
Madhya Pradesh	19,000	19,252	36,012	37,482	48,965	37,534	50,411
Maharashtra	69,800	70,000	85,343	92,273	90,371	92,340	1,21,807
Manipur	5,740	4,100	4,720	5,140	4,700	4,960	-
Odisha	22,000	18,349	26,392	21,700	22,000	31,364	30,000
Punjab	80,000	1,05,600	1,30,120	90,000	1,02,000	1,06,000	1,20,000
Rajasthan	32,432	71,659	36,000	54,040	55,893	59,496	50,950
Sikkim	500	1,600	2,000	-	1,600	-	-
Tamil Nadu	2,50,000	2,50,000	2,46,289	3,00,000	2,71,355	3,00,000	4,01,029
Tripura K.S.	1,01,000	1,11,920	1,26,500	2,12,000 (KS+GMP)	1,21,500	1,38,000	1,35,650
Tripura G.M.P	52,000	60,000	85,000	see above	92,000	92,000	70,000
Uttar Pradesh	89,655	1,28,450	1,26,000	1,60,000	1,15,844	1,37,499	1,15,084
West Bengal	99,54,652	1,05,38,499	1,11,06,406	1,14,59,519	1,00,55,121	1,12,18,075	1,10,11,153
Total:	1,23,37,742	1,32,39,480	1,36,25,726	1,44,49,063	1,28,45,248	1,46,90,879	1,45,94,403

Activities

Protest against three Agri-bills

AIKS demonstrators in Ramlila Maidan, Delhi, on 2005

AIKS led nationwide protests against Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

• 26 January 2021: AIKS organized tractor rally in national capital.^[4][5]
• 25 January 2021: 50,000 farmers from various regions of Maharashtra marched towards the Raj Bhavan and submitted its charter of demands to Governor Bhagat Singh Kosyari.^[6]
• 24 January 2021: 20,000 farmers’ vehicle march from Golfclub Maidan in Nashik to Mumbai, Maharashtra.^[7]