Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside
Contents
Very Short Answer Questions (VSAQs): .................................................................................... 1
Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside Short Answer Questions (SAQs):................................... 3
Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside Long Answer Questions (LAQs): ................................... 6
Very Short Answer Questions (VSAQs):
1. When was the East India Company appointed as the Diwan of Bengal?
Answer
On 12th August 1765, the East India Company was appointed as the Diwan of
Bengal.
2. When did Bengal face a severe famine and how many people were killed in
it?
Answer
A terrible famine occurred in Bengal in 1770 and around 10 million people
were killed.
3. Who were made the owners of land in Permanent Settlement?
Answer
The rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars and they were made
the owners of land.
4. Name the Governor-General of India when the Permanent Settlement was
introduced.
Answer
Charles Cornwallis.
5. What did the Permanent Settlement actually mean?
Answer
The amount of revenue the peasants were expected to pay was fixed
permanently, that is, it was not to be increased ever in future.
6. What was the advantage of Permanent Settlement to the Company?
Answer
As a result of the Permanent Settlement, the Company was assured of a fixed
and regular income.
7. Who introduced the mahalwari system and where?
Answer
An Englishman named Holt Mackenzie devised the mahalwari system in the
north-western provinces of the Bengal Presidency in 1822 CE.
8. What was the unit of measurement in the mahalwari system?
Answer
Mahal or village was the unit in the mahalwari system.
9. Who was to pay revenue in the mahalwari system?
Answer
It was decided that the village would pay the revenue in the mahalwari
system.
10. How did the Diwani of Bengal empower the Company?
Answer
As Diwan, the Company became the chief financial administrator of the
territory under its control. Now it could administer the land and organise its
revenue resources.
11. What did the woad producers in Europe want their government to do?
Why?
Answer
The woad producers wanted their government to ban the import of indigo
because they were worried by the competition from indigo.
12. Why did cloth dyers prefer indigo as a dye?
Answer
Indigo produced a rich blue colour whereas the dye from woad was pale and
dull.
Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside Short Answer
Questions (SAQs):
1. How did the responsibility of the Company change as the Diwan of Bengal?
Answer
• When the Company got Diwani rights of Bengal, it became the chief financial
administrator of the areas under its control.
• Now, the Company had to manage and organise revenue resources.
• The Company was also responsible for the administration of its territory. It
had to yield enough revenue to meet the increasing expenses.
2. How did the Bengal economy fall into a deep crisis?
Answer
• After the Company became the Diwan of Bengal it began its efforts to
increase the revenue as much as it could and buy fine cotton and silk cloth as
cheaply as possible.
• Within five years the value of goods bought by the Company in Bengal
doubled. Before 1765, the Company had purchased goods in India by
importing gold and silver from Britain.
• Now the revenue collected in Bengal could finance the purchase of goods for
export. This caused huge loss of revenue for Bengal which paralysed its
economy.
3. What did the Company officials learn from their past experiences as
administrators?
Answer
• As administrators, the Company officials learnt a lot from their past
experiences. The officials had to move with great caution since they
represented an alien or foreign power.
• They had to pacify the local people who had ruled the countryside and
wielded extensive power in the society.
• The Company officials knew it well that these local rulers could only be
controlled, and not entirely eliminated.
4. What were the consequences of the economic crisis that gripped
Bengal?
Answer
• Artisans began to leave 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.
• The most terrible consequence came to be seen in 1770 when a terrible
famine hit Bengal killing ten million people. About one- third of the population
was wiped out.
5. How was indigo cultivated under the ryoti system?
Answer
Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract, known
as satta. At times they pressurised the village headmen to sign the contract got
cash advances from the planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo. But
the loan committed the ryot to cultivating indigo on at least 25 per cent of the
area under his holding. The planters provided the seed, and the drill, white the
cultivators prepared the soil, sowed the seed and looked after the crop. After
the harvest the crop was delivered to the planters.
6. Why did the demand for Indian indigo increase in the late-eighteenth
century Britain?
Answer
Britain began to industrialise by the end of the eighteenth century. As a result,
its cotton production expanded dramatically. This created an enormous new
demand for cloth dyes. While the demand for indigo increased, its existing
supplies from the West Indies and America collapsed for several reasons.
Between 1783 and 1789 the production of indigo in the world fell by half.
Cloth dyers in Britain now desperately looked for new sources of indigo
supply.
Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside Long Answer
Questions (LAQs):
1. Explain in brief about the Permanent Settlement, the ryotwari system and
the mahalwari system.
Answer
(i) Permanent Settlement
• Permanent Settlement is a system of revenue collection which was
introduced in the provinces of Bengal and Bihar by Lord Cornwallis in 1793.
• The entire work of revenue collection was assigned to zamindars, who were
given hereditary rights over the land on the condition that they would pay a
fixed amount of revenue to the government every year.
(ii) Ryotwari system
• This system of land revenue collection was introduced by the British in the
Madras and Bombay Presidencies.
• The government made settlements with farmers for a specific period of
about 30 years.
• The farmer had to pay 50% of their production to the government every
year. The settlement could be revised after the stipulated period.
(iii) Mahalwari system
• Holt Mackenzie, an Englishman, introduced a new system of mahalwari in
1822.
• In this system, the revenue-collectors went from village to village inspecting
and measuring the land, and recording the customs and rights of different
groups. The estimated revenue was calculated for each village. This demand
was not fixed and could be revised.
• The village headman, and not the zamindar, was given the charge of
collecting revenue and deposit it to the Company.
2. Describe the processes involved in indigo production.
Answer
Indigo production involved the following processes:
• After harvest, the indigo plant was taken to the vats (a fermenting or storage
vessel) in the indigo factory. Three or four vats were needed to manufacture
the dye.
• Each vat had a separate function. The leaves stripped off the indigo plant
were first soaked in warm water in a vat known as the fermenting vat for
several hours.
• When the plant fermented, the liquid began to boal and bubble. Now the
rotten leaves were taken out and the liquid drained into another vat that was
placed just below the first vat.
• In the second vat, known as the beater vat, the solution was continuously
stirred and beaten with paddles. When the liquid gradually turned green and
then blue, lime water was added to the vat.
• Gradually the indigo separated out in flakes, a muddy sediment settled at the
bottom of the vat and clear liquid rose to the surface. The liquid was drained
off and the sediment i.e. the indigo pulp transferred to another vat, known as
the settling vat, and then pressed and dried for sale.