Notes: Rural Life & Society | Social Studies & Pedagogy Paper 2 for CTET & TET Exams - CTET & State TET PDF Download

New Words

• Absentee Landlords: Land owners who did not till the lands themselves but rented out their lands to the peasants.
• Agrarian: Related to agriculture
• Famine: Situation in which food grains were in deficient supply leading to mass starvations.
• Indigo: Blue dye obtained from a plant and used in textile industry.
• Land Revenue: Amount paid to the government by landlords who had been declared owners of cultivable lands.

Permanent Settlement: The arrangement between the government and the landlords under which the land revenue was fixed irrespective of yield.
Colonial Agrarian Policies: Their effect on Peasants and Landlords

Main Objective of the Colonial Agrarian Policies

• During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Indian economy was primarily dependent on agriculture. It was the main source of livelihood of the people of India and also a source of revenue
• The East India Company wanted raw materials for their industries in England. it also wanted a lot of revenue to expand their colonies. It, therefore, followed an agrarian policy which served their interests.

Effect of Agrarian Policies

• The agrarian policies benefited the landlords who in general became loyal to the Company.
• The peasants on the other hand suffered heavily.

British Effect on the Indian Economy

Agriculture

• India was transformed into a farming colony of Britain.
• India provided raw materials to British Industry.
• India became a big market for British made goods.

Why did British Introduce Land Revenue Systems

• To pay for the army needed to expand and consolidate the territories conquered by them.
• To pay for the thousands of Englishment in superior administrative and military positions.
• To pay for the purchase of Indian handicrafts and other goods for exports.
• To pay tribute to the British Government in England.
• To pay to the shareholders of the Company.

The British did not follow a uniform system of land revenue in the entire country.
There were three major systems of land revenue:

• Permanent Settlement of Bengal
• Ryotwari System
• Mahalwari System

Permanent Settlement of Bengal – Lord Cornwallis (1793)

• Chief features of the system of Permanent Settlement
  • The zamindars were recognized as the owners or proprietors of the land.
  • The zamindars could sell their lands and were also given the rights to transfer them.
  • The zamindars acted as the agents of the government for the collection of the revenue from the cultivators.
  • The cultivators became the tenants of the zamindars.
  • The zamindars gave to the government 10th or 11th part of the revenue collected by them from the cultivators.
  • The revenue to be paid by the zamindars was fixed on a permanent basis.
  • The zamindars had to pay the revenue, even if the crops failed for some reason or the other.

The Ryotwari System

• The Ryotwari System was introduced in parts of Madras and Bombay Presidencies. The system derives its name from the word 'Ryot' which means 'cultivator or peasant'. This system had the following features:
  • The cultivators became the landowners.
  • The land revenue was raised after every 20 to 30 years.
  • The cultivators themselves deposited the land revenue.

Mahalwari System in Punjab and other Areas

• This system derives its meaning from the word Mahal which means a village or an estate. Under this system the land revenue was charged on the village or the estate. An estate was held by a group of families. The land revenue was collected from the village as one unit. It could be collected through the representative of the village.
  • The amount of revenue was revised periodically.
  • The system was prevalent in parts of Central India, Gangetic Valley, North-West Privince and the Punjab.
  • The Mahalwari system did not lead to any progress in agriculture.

Effects of Colonial Agrarian Policies of the East India Company
Following were the chief evils of the land revenue policy of the East India Company:

• Impoverishment (Extreme Poverty) of the Peasants: The peasants were becoming poor day by day and totally crushed under the triple burden:-
  • High land revenue,
  • Zamindar's heavy demands
  • Unscrupulous (very unfair) methods adopted by hte moneylenders.
• Unremunerative Price for Agricultural Produce: For meeting their immediate needs, the poor peasants were force to sell their produce just after the harvest, at whaever price they could get. Thus, they were left at the mercy of the traders and the money landers who purchased their produce by dictating their own easy terms.
• Oppressive Methods for Realisation of Land Revenue from the Peasants: Not only the quantum of land revenue was excessive, but the methods involved in its realization were very oppressive. The oppressive revenue officials forced for peasants even to sell their personal property to pay off the revenue.
• Indebtendness of the Peasants: The land revenue demands went on increasing year after year, but the produce went on declining on account of the backwardness of agriculture. The peasants got little economic return from the land. The government, on its part, spent very little on the improvement of agriculture. On the gailire of the peasants to pay land revenue, either the government put up their land on sale to realise the revenue or the peasants themselves sold part of their land or they borrowed money from the money lender to pay the revenue. In all these cases, the peasants suffered.

It was usually said "A farmer is born in debt, lives in debt and dies in debt."

Important Factors responsible for deterioration of Indian Agriculture
Important factors leading to the stagnation and deterioration of agriculture were:

• Little investment in land,
• Lack of irrigation facilities and gamble in monsoon,
• Low productivity: lack of improved seeds, manures, and cattle etc.
• Old implements of agriculture,
• Absentee landlords
• Neglect of research in agriculture
• Neglect of agricultural education
• Indebtedness of the agriculturists
• Higher rates of revenue on land

Commercialisation of Agriculture

• By 18th Century Britain had acquired Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and South of India. Since these areas were rich in agriculture. The Britain tried to enrich themselves by making agriculture as commercial activities.
• The East India Company used Diwani of Bengal to pay military and administrative expenses.
• In order to earn huge profits, british purchased the goods at low cost from India and sold them at high rates in England.
• In order to provide commodities to western markets Britain promoted commercialisation of Agriculture special in crops like Indigo, cotton, raw silk, opium, pepper, tea and sugar.
• Britain preferred commercial crops because they were more remunerative than food grains.
• The could cater to a wider market and their sale earned huge profits and transportation const was less.
• The commercialisation of agriculture benifitted only Britain and the India.
• Peasant became impoverished.

The Triangular Trade

• The trade between Britain, India and China is known as Triangular Trade because Britain purchased Tea from China and paid it in silver but China did not wanted to buy any goods from Britain But Britain smuggled opium and sold it to China. This opium was purchased from Bengal by Britain and sold in China. This was done to create a channel between Britain and China for the purchase tea.

Problem faced by Peasant 

• Peasants had to pay high taxes.
• Frequent problems like droughts and flood failure of crop.
• Fall in the production of crops.
• Fall in the prices of goods.
• All these problems were mainly due to commercialisation of Agriculture.

Peasants Revolts

• Many small or minor revolts took place before the major revolts that is the revolt of 1857.
• The minor revolts took place because 
• Annexation of territories by British.
• Exploitation of rural people.
• Introduction of railways, telegraph, the activities of Christian Missionaries.
• All this created widespread discontment among classes of India.

Several peasant revolts took place before and after the major revolt of 1857

• Moplahs led to revolt in 1860's and 1870's due to burden of taxation.
• The Champaran peasant movement took place in 1917 in Bihar.
• In 1920–21, the peasant opposed the rise of Revenues by local Zamindars and Talukdars.
• In 1920 – Oudh Kisan Sabha was formed in Awadh under the leadership of Baba Ramchandra, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru to protect the rights of peasants.
• In U.P., the Kisan movement, finally, resulted in the demand for Abolition of Zamindari system.
• In 1927 – No revenue campaign was organized under the leadership of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel in Bardoli and British government was forced to abondon temporarily the revenue.
• In 1929 – The Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha was started in Bihar by Swami Sahajanand.
• Many Kisan Sabha's were organised to support the cause of peasants and all these movements were supported by large no. of people against injustices of zamindars, money lenders & the Government.

Conclusion

Many peasant revolts and movements led to violence. Many peasant movement merged into National movement under the leadership of Gandhi.