Learning Objective
- Bengal and the Zamindars
- The Hoe and the Plough
- A Revolt in the Countryside the Bombay Deccan
- The Deccan Riots Commission
Bengal and the Zamindars
- Colonial rule was first established in Bengal. In Bengal, East India Company tried to reorder the rural society and establish new land rights and new revenue system.
An auction in Burdwan
- There was an auction held at Burdwan (present day Bardhaman) in 1797, which was popularly known as Grand Public Event.
- Company fixed the revenue and each zamindar was supposed to pay. This fixing of revenue was done under the Permanent Settlement and it become operational from year 1793.
- The Zamindars who failed to pay the revenue, their estate was auctioned to recover the revenue. But sometimes it was found that the purchasers at auction were servants and agents of the zamindar himself, e.g. auction in Burdwan.
The Problem of Unpaid Revenue
- The British officials fell that agriculture, trade and the revenue resources of the state could be developed by encouraging investment in agriculture.
- This could be done by securing rights of property and permanently fixing the rates of revenue demand. After a prolonged debate amongst company officials, the permanent settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal.
- Zamindars had several, sometimes even 400 villages under them.Zamindars collected rent from the different villages, paid the revenue to the company, and retained the difference as his income.
Why zamindars defaulted on payments?
- The initial demand was very high. It was felt that if the demand was fixed for all time to come, the Company would never be able to claim a share of increased income from land when prices rose and cultivation expanded. To minimise this anticipated loss.
- This high demand was imposed in the 1790s, a time when the prices of agricultural produce were depressed, making it difficult for the ryots (raiyat, used to designate peasants) to pay their dues to the zamindar.
- The Permanent Settlement initially limited the power of the zamindar to collect rent from the ryot and manage his zamindari.
The rise of the jotedars
- A group of rich peasants consolidated their position in the villages. This class of rich peasant was known as jotedar. The jotedars had acquired vast areas of land.
- They controlled local trade as well as money lending,exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region A large part of their land was cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars).
The zamindars resist
- To prevent the weakening of their authority, zamindar took series of steps-like fictitious sale or transferring of property to female- member of family, manipulated the auctions, withhelding revenue deliberately, threating or intimidating the people outside their zamindari, if they try to bought an estate.
The Fifth Report
- It was the fifth of a series of report on administration and activities of East India Company in India. It was submitted to the British Parliament in 1813.
- It became the basis of intense parliamentary debates on the nature of East India Company’s rule in India. Fifth report has shaped our conception of what happened in rural Bengal during that period and evidence contained in the 5th report are very important.
The Hoe and the Plough
In the hills of Rajmahal
- Francis Buchanan, a physician travelled through Rajmahal hills and he gave an account about it.
- Originally in the Rajmahal hills Paharias lived. They lived on hunting, shifting cultivation, food gathering and was intimately connected to forest.
- In last decade of 18th century British encouraged forest clearance and zamindar and jotedar also started to turn uncultivated land into rice fields. Around 1780, Santhal came into these areas. They cleared the forest and ploughed land.
The Santhals: Pioneer settlers
- Zamindars and Britishers after having failed to subdue the Paharias and transform them into settled cultivators turned to Santhals.
- The Santhal appeared to be ideal settlers, cleared the forest and ploughed land. After land was granted, population of Santhals increased exponentially and their villages also increased in number.
- When the Santhal were settling, the Paharias resisted but were ultimately forced to withdraw deeper into hills. It impoverished the Paharias in the long term.
- Santhals now lived a settled life, cultivated a range of commerical crops for market and dealt with traders,’moneylenders.
The accounts of Buchanan
- Francis Buchanan undertook detailed surveys of the areas under the jurisdiction of the British East India Company. Buchanan journey was sponsored by the company and it was planned according to its need.
- He had specific instruction about what he had to look for and what he had to record. Buchanan observed the stones, rocks, different layers of soil, minerals, and stones that were commercially valuable.
- Buchanan wrote about landscape and how these landscapes could be transformed and made productive.
A Revolt in the Countryside The Bombay Deccan
- The Bombay Deccan Through the nineteenth century, peasants in various parts of India rose in revolt against moneylenders and grain dealers. One such revolt occurred in 1875 in the Deccan.
Account books were burnt
- The movement began at Supa, a large village in Poona (present-day Pune) district. It was a market centre where many shopkeepers and moneylenders lived.
- On 12 May1875, ryots from surrounding rural areas gathered and attacked the shopkeepers, demanding their bahi khatas (account books) and debt bonds. They burnt the khatas, looted grain shops, and in some cases set fire to the houses of sahukars.
A new revenue system
- As British rule expanded from Bengal to other parts of India, new systems of revenue were imposed. Since the revenue demand was fixed under the Permanent Settlement, the colonial state could not claim any share of this enhanced income.
- Keen on expanding its financial resources, the colonial government had to think of ways to maximise its land revenue. The revenue system that was introduced in the Bombay Deccan came to be known as the ryotwari settlement.
- Unlike the Bengal system, the revenue was directly settled with the ryot. The average income from different types of soil was estimated, the revenue-paying capacity of the ryot was assessed and a proportion of it fixed as the share of the state. The revenue demand was no longer permanent.
Revenue demand and peasant debt
- The first revenue settlement in the Bombay Deccan was made in the 1820s. The revenue that was demanded was so high that in many places peasants deserted their villages and migrated to new regions.
- In areas of poor soil and fluctuating rainfall the problem was particularly acute. When rains failed and harvests were poor, peasants found it impossible to pay the revenue.
- However, the collectors in charge of revenue collection were keen on demonstrating their efficiency and pleasing their superiors. So they went about extracting payment with utmost severity. When someone failed to pay, his crops were seized and a fine was imposed on the whole village.
Then came the cotton boom
- Cotton boom in the 1860s led to a surge in demand for alternative cotton sources due to disruptions in American supplies.
- The Cotton Supply Association and Manchester Cotton Company were established in Britain to encourage global cotton production. India, particularly the Bombay Deccan, emerged as a promising region for cotton cultivation.
- American Civil War (1861) drastically reduced raw cotton imports to Britain, causing panic in British cotton circles. Imports from America dropped from over 2,000,000 bales in 1861 to 55,000 bales in 1862.
- Formation of the Cotton Supply Association in Britain in 1857 and the Manchester Cotton Company in 1859 to explore alternative sources.
- India, with suitable soil, favorable climate, and cheap labor, was identified as a potential cotton supplier.Panic in Britain prompted frantic messages to India to increase cotton exports.
- Ryots (peasants) in Deccan villages gained access to significant credit, receiving Rs 100 advance for every acre planted with cotton.Cotton acreage in the Bombay Deccan doubled between 1860 and 1864.
- By 1862, over 90% of cotton imports to Britain were sourced from India.While some rich peasants benefited, the majority faced heavier debts due to expanded cultivation. The boom years did not bring prosperity to all cotton producers.
Credit dries up
- During the cotton boom, Indian merchants envisioned global dominance in raw cotton, challenging America’s position. The end of the American Civil War in 1865 led to a revival of American cotton production, resulting in a decline in Indian cotton exports.
- Merchants and sahukars in Maharashtra withdrew from extending long-term credit due to the decreasing demand for Indian cotton and falling prices.
- Dreams of permanently displacing America as the primary supplier to Lancashire faded by 1865. As credit dried up, ryots faced increased revenue demands during the next settlement, rising dramatically from 50 to 100 percent.
- Falling cotton prices and disappearing fields posed challenges for ryots in meeting inflated revenue demands. Ryots, forced to turn to moneylenders, found them reluctant to provide loans, lacking confidence in the ryots’ repayment capacity.
The Experience of Injustice
- Peasants got deeper and deeper into debt and now they were utterly dependent on moneylender for survival but now moneylenders were refusing their loan.
- They complained of moneylenders manipulating laws and forging accounts. To tackle this problem, British in 1859 passed Limitation Law that stated that loan bond would have validity for 3 years only.
- It was meant to check accumulation of interest. But moneylenders now forced ryot to sign a new bound every 3 years in which total unpaid balance of last loan was entered as principal amount and interest was charged on it.
- Money lenders also acquired the harvest at low price and ultimately took over property of peasant. They have no choice because to survive they needed loan but inoneylenders were not willing to give it without bonds.
The Deccan Riots Commission
- 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 enquiry to investigate into the causes of the riots.
- The commission produced a report that was presented to the British Parliament in 1878.
- This report provides historians with a range of sources for the study of the riot.
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