AGRARIAN STRUCTURE

UNDER THE BRITISH

CHAPTER -3 (HISTORY)
  BRITISH INCREASED THEIR FINANCIAL
RESOURCES BY
• MAXIMISING TRADE

THE REVENUE • BUYING RAW MATERIALS AT A CHEAPER RATE

FROM INDIA AND SELLING MANUFACTURED
SYSTEM PRODUCTS OF ENGLAND AT A HIGHER RATE
• COLLECTION OF LAND REVENUES FROM
PROVINCIAL GOVERNERS
Company as Diwan

On 12 August 1765, the Mughal

emperor appointed the East India
Company as the Diwan of Bengal.

As Diwan, the Company became

the chief financial administrator of
the territory under its control.
 The effort was to increase
It wanted a large revenue Within five years the value
the revenue as much as it
income but was unwilling to of goods bought by the
could and buy fine cotton
set up any regular system of Company in Bengal
and silk cloth as cheaply as
assessment and collection. doubled.
possible.

Before 1865, the Company Now the revenue collected

had purchased goods in in Bengal could finance the
India by importing gold and purchase of goods for
silver from Britain. export.
Soon it was clear that the Bengal economy was facing a deep
crisis.

Artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to

sell their goods to the Company at low prices.

Peasants were unable to pay the dues that were being demanded
from them.

Artisanal production was in decline, and agricultural cultivation

showed signs of collapse.

Then in 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal.

About one-third of the population was wiped out.
THE QUINQUENNIAL
SETTLEMENT
 INTRODUCED BY WARREN HASTING IN 1772
 5 YEAR SETTLEMNT OF LAND REVENUE
 ESTATES WERE FARMED OUT TO THE HIGHEST
BIDDER
 NO PREFERENCE TO ZAMINDARS
 SETUP SIX PROVINCIAL COUNCIL TO SUPERVISE
THE WORK OF INDIAN DIWANS
 CORRUPT TAX COLLECTORS WERE REPLACED
 BIDDING PROCESS WAS NOT
TRANSPERENT

DEMAND FOR REVENUE WAS

PROBLEMS FIXED MUCH HIGHER
THE DIWANS RESORTED TO
HARSHNESS IN TAX
COLLECTION
Permanent settlement/
decennial settlement
The Company finally introduced the Permanent
Settlement in 1793.

By the terms of the settlement, the rajas and taluqdars

were recognised as zamindars.

They were asked to collect rent from the peasants and

pay revenue to the Company.

The amount to be paid was fixed permanently, that is, it

was not to be increased ever in future
It was felt that this would ensure a regular
flow of revenue into the Company’s coffers
and at the same time encourage the
zamindars to invest in improving the land.

Since the revenue demand of the state would

not be increased, the zamindar would benefit
from increased production from the land.
 The Permanent Settlement, however, created problems.

Company officials soon discovered that the zamindars were in fact

not investing in the improvement of land.

Problems The revenue that had been fixed was so high that the zamindars
found it difficult to pay.

Anyone who failed to pay the revenue lost his zamindari.

Numerous zamindaris were sold off at auctions organised by the

Company
By the first decade of the nineteenth century the situation changed.

The prices in the market rose and cultivation slowly expanded.

This meant an increase in the income of the zamindars but no gain

for the Company since it could not increase a revenue demand that
had been fixed permanently
On the other hand, in the villages, the cultivator found the system extremely oppressive.

The rent he paid to the zamindar was high and his right on the land was insecure.

To pay the rent he had to often take a loan from the moneylender, and when he failed to pay the
rent he was evicted from the land he had cultivated for generations.
 In the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency (most of this
area is now in Uttar Pradesh), an Englishman called Holt Mackenzie
devised the new system which came into effect in 1822

He felt that the village was an important social institution in north

MAHALWARI Indian society and needed to be preserved

SETTLEMENT
. Under his directions, collectors went from village to village,
inspecting the land, measuring the fields, and recording the customs
and rights of different groups.

The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to

calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay.
This demand was to be revised periodically, not
permanently fixed

The charge of collecting the revenue and paying

it to the Company was given to the village
headman, rather than the zamindar.

This system came to be known as the mahalwari

settlement
The Munro system or Ryotwari

In the British territories in the south there was a similar move away
from the idea of Permanent Settlement.

The new system that was devised came to be known as the ryotwar (or
ryotwari ).

It was tried on a small scale by Captain Alexander Read in some of the

areas that were taken over by the Company after the wars with Tipu
Sultan.

Subsequently developed by Thomas Munro, this system was gradually

extended all over south India.
Read and Munro felt that in the south there were no traditional zamindars.

The settlement, they argued, had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had
tilled the land for generations.

Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed before the revenue assessment was
made.

Munro thought that the British should act as paternal father figures protecting the ryots
under their charge.
 Within a few years after the new systems were imposed
it was clear that all was not well with them.

Driven by the desire to increase the income from land,

revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demand.
PROBLEMS
Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside,
and villages became deserted in many regions.

Optimistic officials had imagined that the new systems

would transform the peasants into rich enterprising
farmers. But this did not happen.
IMPACT OF BRITISH AGRARIAN POLICIES

CONFLICT OF CLASSES
IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE PEASENTRY
DISINTEGRATION OF VILLAGE COMMUNITIES
RURAL INDEBTNESS
GROWTH OF COMMERCIAL CROPS
REVOLTS OF THE PEASENTS

FAQIR AND SANYASI REBELLION

1770- AFTER BENGAL FAMINE

SPREAD FROM RANGPUR TO DHAKA

JOINED BY THE ARMY OF PEASENTS

TWICE DEFEATED THE BRITISH TROOPS

TOOK 30 YRS TO SUPRESS THE REBELLION

 PAGAL PANTHIS : A SOCIO-RELIGIOUS ORDER THAT
EMERGED IN THE LATE 18TH CENTURY

THE ORDER SOUGHT TO UPHOLD RELIGIOUS

PRINCIPLES AND THE RIGHTS OF LANDLESS
REVOLTS OF PEASANTS IN BENGAL; UNDER THE LEADERSHIP
OF TIPU SHAH,
THE
THE MOVEMENT SOON EVOLVED INTO A POPULAR,
PEASENTS ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST BRITISH RAJ AND
THE ZAMINDAR (LANDLORD) SYSTEM.

IT WAS CRUSHED WITH THE HELP OF THE ARMY IN

1833
REVOLTS OF THE PEASENTS

THE FAMINE, ENHANCED LEADER OF THIS REVOLT

CHUAR REBELLION
TAXES, OPPRESSIVE WAS DURJAN SINGH, A
OCCURRED IN 1796-1816 IN
DEMANDS AND ECONOMIC DISPLACED ZAMINDAR WHO
BANKURA / MIDNAPORE
DISTRESS DUE TO FAMINES ALONG WITH HIS 1500
DISTRICTS OF MODERN WEST
WERE COMMON REASONS OF FOLLOWERS CREATED
BENGAL.
REVOLTS OF THAT PERIOD. HAVOC.

HE BRITISH WAS ABLE TO

HE ESTABLISHED HIS RULE SUPPRESS THE REBELLION
OVER 30 VILLAGES AND WITH UTMOST CRUELTY AND
ATTACKED THE EAST INDIA DECEIT WITH THE HELP OF
COMPANY ESTABLISHMENTS. LOCAL LANDLORDS.
T AROUND 200 REBELS WERE
EXECUTED IN THE PROCESS.
 THE ANGLO-KHASI WAR WAS PART OF THE INDEPENDENCE
STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE KHASI PEOPLE AND THE BRITISH
EMPIRE BETWEEN THE YEARS 1829-1833.

THE WAR STARTED WITH TIROT SING'S ATTACK ON A BRITISH

GARRISON THAT DISOBEYED ORDERS OF THIS KHASI KING TO STOP

REVOLTS OF A ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECT THROUGH THE KHASI HILLS.

THE THE KHASIS WERE DEFEATED IN THIS WAR AND THE BRITISH
GAINED SUPREMACY OVER THESE HILLS

PEASENTS THE FARAIZIS MOVEMENT: MUSLIM SEC ADVOCATED RADICAL

CHANGES IN BENGAL

ALSO SUPPORTED PEASENTS

 Leader :Syed Ahamed of rae Bareily

Advocated revival of Islam

The Wahabi
movement Condemned the British policies and
spread anti- British sentiments

Peasants and artisans joined their revolt

THE INDIGO
REBELLION
 TOOK PLACE IN
BENGAL 1859
 THOUSANDS OF
PEASENTS UNITED
TOGETHER AND
REFUSED TO GROW
MORE INDIGO
WHAT WAS
INDIGO?
 GREW IN TROPICAL
REGIONS
 PRODUCED RICH BLUE
COLOUR
 USED AS DYE FOR
CLOTHES
 INDIA WAS A BIG PRODUCER AND EXPORTER
OF INDIGO

BY THE END OF 18TH CENTURY THE DEMAND

INDIGO FOR INDIGO INCREASED FURTHER
CULTIVATIO
N IN INDIA COMPANY WANTED TO INCREASE THE AREA
UNDER INDIGO CULTIVATION

ATTRACTED BY THE HIGHER PROFITS

OFFICERS AND AGENTS OF THE COMPANY
INVESTED IN INDIGO PLANTATIONS
INDIGO NIJ SYSTEM
CULTIVATION
SYSTEMS IN
INDIA RYOTI
SYSTEM
 PLANTERS CULTIVATED INDIGO ON THE
LANDS DIRECTLY CONTROLLED BY THEM

BOUGHT THE BID OR TOOK IT ON RENT,

HIRED LABOURERS

NEED FERTILE LAND FOR THE

NIJ SYSTEM CULTIVATION OF INDIGO

EVICTION OF PEASENTS LED TO

CONFLICTS

NEEDED MANY BULLOCKS AND

PLOUGHS- EXPENSIVE FOR PLANTERS
 GAVE MONEY IN CASH TO
INDIGO PLANTERS SIGNED THE RYOTS AT LOW
CONTRACT WITH RYOTS INTEREST RATES TO
PRODUCE INDIGO

RYOTS HAD TO GROW

INDIGO IN ATLEAST 25%
ON DELIVERING THE
INDIGO CROP TO
PLANTERS ,A NEW LOAN
RYOTI
OF HIS TOTAL AREA OF
CULTIVATION
WAS GIVEN TO THE RYOTS
FOR FRESH PRODUCTION SYSTEM

FERTILITY OF SOIL
THIS CYCLE CONTINUED
DECRESED
START OF REBELLION

1859, RYOTS IN BENGAL

JOINED THEIR HANDS
LEADER: DIGAMBAR
TOGETHER AND STARTED IN
BISWAS AND BISHNU
REFUSED TO GROE GOVINDPUR VILLAGE
BISWAS
MORE INDIGO
TOGETHER

ZAMINDERS, VILLAGE
ATTACKED INDIGO
HEAD MAN,
FACTORIES, PEASENTS
PRESS ,INTELLIGENTSIA
WENT ON STRIKE,
AND MISSIONARIES
COLLECTED FUNDS TO
LENT FULL SUPPORT TO
FIGHT COURT CASES
RYOTS
GOVERTMENT WAS FORCED TO BRING IN MILITARY TO SUPPRESS THE REBELLION

ALARMED BY THE UNITY OF THE REBELS, IT ISSUED A NOTIFICATION IN NOV 1860

IT STATED THAT RYOTS WOULD NOT BE COMPELLED TO GROW INDIGO

PLANTERS WERE FOUND GULITY

COMMISSION GAVE THE RYOTS THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ANY FUTURE INDIGO CULTIVATION
CHAMPARAN
MOVEMENT