CH 3 History (Colonial Agarian Polices)
CH 3 History (Colonial Agarian Polices)
HISTORY
NOTES
Q-1 what was the condition of farmers before the British arrive in
India?
Ans- 1) before the British came to India the farmers used to pay a portion of
the produce from the land as tax.
2) In return their right to hold and cultivate that piece of land remained
intact.
3) Due to this system villages could produce enough food crops to fulfill the
needs of the people living there. Thus, the village became self-sufficient.
Q-2 what was the system of measuring land during the reign of Sher
Shah Suri?
Ans- 1) During the Sher Shah Suri period a system of patta or written record
to its owner was started.
3) Whenever natural disasters like drought or famine affected any region the
amount of revenue to be collected was reduced. Not only was this tax
exempted when the situation was too critical.
Ans- after the Battle of Buxar the EEIC got the Diwani of Bengal which
authorized the company to collect revenue from Bengal and be in charge of
civil administration. Thus, the company thought the best possible deal to
ensure maximum revenue thereby deriving maximum profit.
3) The company created two posts of deputy Diwani__ one for Bengal and
the other for Bihar.
4) For greater profits, the land revenue was now farmed out annually to the
highest bidder.
Ans- 1) the villages those who produce only cash crops were now depended
on other villages for food supplies.
2) Tax collector was only interested in collecting tax rather than improving
the quality of land.
3) The poor peasants were exploited by the tax collector who forced the
peasants to leave their villages and most of them became landless.
Q-6 what was the condition of trade during the rule of the
Britishers?
2) The Indian goods were brought at very low rates from the workers and
sold at much higher prices.
3) The weavers of silk and the artisans were compelled to work under harsh
conditions. Thus the skill of workers got ruined under oppression.
Q-7 how did the system of planned revenue system came into being?
Ans- 1) The Famine of Bengal in 1770 clearly highlighted the plight of the
people.
3) The officials of the EEIC soon realized that a systematic approach to land
revenue collection was needed to secure the maximum amount of revenue in
a timely and predictable.
MAJOR LAND REVENUE SETTLEMENTS
2) Farmers were reduced to the status of tenants and these tenants lost
the rights to use pastures and forest lands, irrigation canals and fishing
ponds.
4) The land revenue was fixed at roughly 50% of the total produce.
Ans- 1) The Company was able to create the class of zamindars as their ally
who acted as the intermediary between them and peasantry.
2) Under the new system the income of the EEIC from the land revenue was
secure, regular and stable. This helped the company to meet its expenses.
Ans- 1) zamindars extracted a large amount of tax from the peasants. They
even imposed illegal tax.
2) The peasants had to pay the revenue even after the crops failed.
3) The land was mortgaged in case the farmers could not pay the loans
taken from the moneylenders forcing them to migrate to cities.
4) Peasants were evicted from the land they had cultivated for generations.
This created a class of landless peasants.
Ans- Mahalwari Settlement was introduced in the modern- day Uttar Pradesh
certain parts of Madhya Pradesh and Punjab by Holt Mackenzie in 1822.
Ans- 1) the term Mahal means a village according to Mackenzie the village
was a very important part of the system that needed to be preserved.
2) Under this system the unit of revenue settlement was the village or
mahal and the revenue demand was made collectively on the village.
Q-14 How was the Mahalwari system different from the Permanent
Settlement?
Ans- 1) The collector of the revenue that is the head of the village was to fix
the revenue on the basis of the type of land, total land under cultivation and
the customs and rights of different agricultural groups.
4) However the conditions of the peasants remained bad as the head of the
village retained the right to extract revenue.
Ans- 1) the land revenue was not collected by the zamindari or Labrador but
was taken from the Riots or cultivators directly.
4) The peasants had to pay even if their crops were destroyed the revenue
was revised and increased after every 20 or 30 years.
Ans- 1) the cultivators had to resort to the mercy of cruel moneylenders for
the payments of revenue.
2) In many villages the Riots fled away leaving their homes deserted.
3) The peasants were overburdened with heavy taxes. They often had to
take loan to pay the land revenue.
Ans- 1) Commercial crops were often cultivated at the cost of food crops
such as rice and wheat.
4) Most of the land was set aside for the nonfood crops the peasants did not
enough to eat.