In spite of a substantial number of monographs and articles on different aspects of the socio-political and economic history of East Bengal, there has been little discussion of the peasantry in the region. Various factors are responsible for historians, anthropologists and other social scientists' inadequate treatment of the bulk of the population in this predominantly agrarian region of South Asia. The study of peasants in general. and their politics in particular, is often subject to our "global" and "imperialistic consciousness" in the langu- age of D. B. Miller. Our preconceived notion that the peasants are homogeneous and politically inert "leads us once again to concentrate on what we see as the centre of the political stage, the metropolis, ... until such time as they [peasants] are again defined as of historical significance." Hamza Alavi and other scholars are also critical of that historiography which only portrays the dramatic moments" when the peasants have "in-