Deccan Uprising (Deccan Riots): 1875 | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Introduction to Deccan Riots

• Targeted against the excesses of Marwari and Gujarati money lenders.

Expansion of British Rule:

• As British rule spread from Bengal to other parts of India, new revenue systems were imposed.
• The Permanent Settlement was rarely extended beyond Bengal.
• The colonial state could not claim a share of enhanced income under the Permanent Settlement.
• To expand financial resources, the colonial government sought ways to maximize land revenue.
• In newly annexed territories, temporary revenue settlements were established.

Ryotwari Settlement in the Bombay Deccan:

• Unlike Bengal, where revenue was settled with intermediaries, the Ryotwari Settlement directly settled revenue with the ryot (peasant).
• Average income from different soil types was estimated, the ryot's revenue-paying capacity was assessed to fix the state's share.
• The first revenue settlement in the Bombay Deccan occurred in the 1820s.
• High revenue demands led to peasant migrations and desertions.
• Poor harvests and failed rains made it impossible for peasants to pay revenue.
• By the 1830s, the situation worsened with sharply falling agricultural prices and a devastating famine between 1832-34.
• One-third of Deccan cattle and half the human population perished during the famine.
• Survivors had no agricultural stocks to endure the crisis and resorted to borrowing.
• Revenue payments often required loans from moneylenders, leading to increased dependence on them.
• Mounting debt made it difficult for ryots to repay loans, they needed loans for everyday needs and production expenses.
• By the 1840s, officials observed alarming levels of peasant indebtedness.

Cotton Boom:

• Before the 1860s, Britain relied heavily on American imports for raw cotton, with three-fourths of its supply coming from the U.S.
• British cotton manufacturers were concerned about this dependence. When the American Civil War began in 1861, it caused panic in Britain’s cotton industry.
• Raw cotton imports from America plummeted to less than three percent of the usual amount.
• In response, Britain sent urgent requests to India and other countries to increase cotton exports.
• In Bombay, cotton merchants visited cotton-growing regions to evaluate supplies and boost production.
• As cotton prices surged, export merchants in Bombay aimed to secure as much cotton as possible to satisfy British demand.
• They provided advances to urban sahukars, who then extended credit to rural moneylenders promising to deliver cotton.
• This sudden influx of credit allowed ryots(farmers) in Deccan villages to access seemingly unlimited funds.
• Between 1860 and 1864, cotton acreage doubled, by 1862, over 90 percent of Britain’s cotton imports came from India.

Crisis Again:

• After the Civil War ended in 1865, American cotton production recovered, leading to a decline in Indian cotton exports to Britain.
• Export merchants and sahukars in Maharashtra were no longer willing to extend long-term credit.
• While credit tightened, the demand for revenue increased. The first revenue settlements occurred in the 1820s and 1830s. In the new settlement, the demand was significantly raised,from 50 to 100 percent.
• Farmers once again had to rely on moneylenders for loans. However, moneylenders were now unwilling to extend loans due to a lack of confidence in the ryots' ability to repay.
• The refusal of moneylenders to provide loans angered the ryots. Their frustration stemmed not only from their increasing debt and dependence on moneylenders for survival but also from the moneylenders' insensitivity to their situation.
• In one case investigated by the Deccan Riots Commission, a moneylender charged over Rs 2,000 in interest on a loan of Rs 100, highlighting the exploitative practices of moneylenders during this period.

Issue of Land Transfer:

• Deccan Uprisings: According to Ravinder Kumar, these uprisings were rooted in a shift in social power dynamics within Maharashtra's villages, particularly between the Maratha Kunbi peasants and the sahukar moneylenders.
• The ryotwari system transformed the relationship between peasants and moneylenders by creating individual property rights and a land market. This led to increased demand for land and necessitated more credit for peasants.
• Sahukar moneylenders began mortgaging peasants' land at high interest rates under the ryotwari system. If peasants failed to repay, the moneylenders could seize the land through court decrees.
• Due to caste prejudices, moneylenders avoided directly farming the land (touching the plough). Instead, they leased the land back to the original owner-cultivators, turning them into tenants of their own land.
• The extent of land transfer in Maharashtra during this period and its role in causing riots are debated among historians.
• Ian Catanach(1993) acknowledges land transfers but disputes Kumar's claim that it was the main cause of peasant unrest.
• Neil Charlesworth downplays this factor, arguing that only about 5 percent of cultivable land had shifted to Marwari or Gujarati moneylenders by the time of the riots.
• Despite the small percentage, the lost land was the most fertile in the region, making its loss significant and deeply resented by the local populace.

Increase in Revenue Rate:

• In 1867, the government raised revenue rates, citing expanded cultivation and higher agricultural prices as reasons.
• In the Indapur taluka, average revenue increases were around 50 percent, with some villages experiencing hikes of 200 percent.
• Charlesworth argues that the new taxes were not the primary cause of the riots, as the most affected villages did not undergo tax revisions, while some revised areas remained quiet.
• However, the timing of the new rates was problematic. The cotton boom in the Deccan, driven by demand during the American Civil War, had just collapsed, leaving peasants impoverished and deeply in debt. In this context, the increase in revenue heightened panic.

Appeal for revision of rates:

• The Kunbis sought a revision of the new rates,
• but their traditional leadership was disconnected from emerging institutions and the demand for a new, rational, and legal communication style.
• The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, a middle-class intellectual group, intervened in 1873, advocating for a revision of the revenue rates.
• The Sabha sent volunteers to villages to mobilize Kunbi peasants against the new rates.
• Responding to this pressure, the Bombay government made a significant concession: if a peasant failed to pay revenue, movable properties would be seized first, with land auctioned only if movable properties were insufficient.
• This concession led to conflict between peasants and moneylenders, as moneylenders in 1874 refused to extend credit to peasants for land revenue payments, citing inadequate security.

Other Factors:

• The riots of 1875 were not caused by a single factor but by a combination of issues, including:
  • Economic disruption due to the American Civil War.
  • Poorly planned changes to land tax.
  • Agitation by the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha.
  • Ongoing conflicts between Kunbi peasants and moneylenders.

Social Boycotts:

• A spontaneous protest movement started in December 1874 in Kardab village, Sirur taluq.
• When peasants failed to convince the local moneylender Kalooram to stop enforcing a court decree to demolish a peasant’s house, they initiated a social boycott against ‘outsider’ moneylenders.
• The boycott involved:
  • Refusing to buy from their shops.
  • Not cultivating their fields.
  • Village servants like barbers, washermen, carpenters, ironsmiths, shoemakers refusing to serve them.
  • Domestic servants refusing to work in their houses.
• Social sanctions were imposed against those who did not join the boycott.
• The boycott quickly spread to villages in Poona, Ahmednagar, Sholapur, and Satara districts.
• When the social boycott did not yield the desired results, it escalated into agrarian riots.

Start of the Deccan Uprising of 1875

• The riots began on 12 May 1875 in a village called Supe in the Poona district. The unrest initially targeted the houses and shops of moneylenders and quickly spread to neighboring villages.
• Supe was a market center with many shopkeepers and moneylenders. Farmers from surrounding areas attacked these shopkeepers, demanding their account books and debt records.
• The rioters burned account books, looted grain shops, sometimes set fire to the homes of sahukars, who were both moneylenders and traders.
• After starting in Poona, the revolt spread to Ahmednagar and then expanded over an area of 6,500 square kilometers, affecting more than thirty villages within two months.
• The rioters aimed to obtain and destroy debt documents, such as bonds and decrees, held by the moneylenders. Violence occurred only when moneylenders refused to hand over these documents.
• Villagers were led by traditional headmen known as Patels. The uprising also involved social boycotts of moneylenders and any villager who did not participate in the boycott.
• Support later came from the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, led by Justice Ranade.
• As the revolt spread, the authorities established police posts in villages to intimidate rebellious peasants. Troops were called in, many were convicted, but it took months to regain control.
• If the British authorities had not acted quickly to suppress the revolt, the unrest could have spread throughout Maharashtra.
• The Bombay government responded swiftly to prevent future riots and protected peasants from land grabbing through the Deccan Agriculturists Relief Act of 1879.
• While colonial officials and some historians refer to the events of 1875 as the Deccan Riots, the peasants viewed it as a revolt, linking it to a long tradition of resistance in Maharashtra.

 Result of Deccan Uprising:

• When the revolt spread in the Deccan, the Government of Bombay was initially unwilling to see it as anything serious.
• But the Government of India, worried by the memory of 1857, pressurised the Government of Bombay to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate into the causes of the riots.
• The Deccan Riots Commission produced a report that was presented to the British Parliament in 1878. The Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act of 1879 was passed.
• Now the peasants could not be arrested and sent to jail if they failed to pay their debts.

Character of revolt:

• Everywhere the Gujarati and Marwari moneylenders were attacked not simply because they were “outsiders”, but because they were thought to be more avaricious.
• There was very little violence against the person of the sahukars; only their debt bonds were seized and destroyed.
• In most places, the ‘riots’ were demonstrations of popular feeling and of the peasants’ newly acquired unity and strength.
• The rioters had clearly identified their target, an instrument of oppression and dominance, thus seemed to have been quite aware of the new institutional framework of power relations.
• This uprising also involved social boycott of moneylender and any villager who didn’t socially boycott the moneylender.
• The modern nationalist intelligentsia of Maharashtra supported the peasants’ cause.
• The Deccan disturbances had very limited objectives. There was an absence of anti-colonial consciousness.