In the 1940s the famous 'Tebhaga' movement had been organised in North Bengal for the rights of the bargadars. It was a left and a democratic movement. Though the main objective of this movement was to establish the rights of the Bargadars on two-thirds of the total agricultural produce it received got tremendous support from small farmers, factory workers and the urban middle class.

In the villages of North Bengal the Bargadars were known as Adhiyars. Small landowners used to live in the villages, but the big Jotedars lived in towns and were involved in money-lending and other commercial activities. These urban Jotedars were totally separated from the rural Adhiyars. Most of the land in the rural areas was under the direct control of the urban Jotdars and the Adhiyars mostly cultivated these lands. The entire crop cultivated by the Adhiyars used to be taken away by the Jotdars. The Adhiyars received a small share of the yield most of which had to be again handed over to the landlord for the payment of interest on the loans they had taken in the kind during the pre-harvesting season. The landowners/Jotedars always exploited the helplessness of the Adhiyars who along with their family members were essentially treated as bonded labourers of landlords/Jotedars. Even the bodyguards of Jotedars used to sexually exploit the womenfolk of Adhiyar families. Such were the common features of rural life of North Bengal in the British and the post-British Congress era. The Rajbanshi Adhiyars tried to set themselves free from the exploitation of the Jotdars by organising the 'Tebhaga' movement. But the partition of Bengal did not make their efforts successful.