CHAPTER 3 RULING THE COUNTRYSIDE
Name of the Text-Book: History: Our Pasts - III
No. and Name of the Chapter: Ch. 3 - Ruling the Countryside
Page nos. of the content: Pg. No. 26 to 37 of NCERT Textbook.
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Activity: Find out about the Champaran movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s role in it.
Look into the history of either tea or coffee plantations in India. See how the life of workers in
these plantations was similar to or different from that of workers in indigo plantations.
QUESTIONS TO BE DONE IN NOTEBOOK -
NCERT:
Q1. What were the consequences of the economic crisis that gripped Bengal?
OR
List the changes that took place in village life under the British.
Bengal economy was facing a deep crisis.
i. Artisans fled villages as they were forced to sell their goods to the Company at low
prices.
ii. Peasants were unable to pay the dues that were being demanded from them.
iii. Artisanal production was in decline, and agricultural cultivation showed signs of
collapse.
iv. In 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. About one-third of the
population was wiped out.
Q2. What were the drawbacks of Permanent Settlement?
i. The Permanent Settlement, created problems. Company officials soon
discovered that the zamindars were in fact not investing in the improvement of
the land.
ii. 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.
iii. 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.
iv. Even then the zamindars did not have an interest in improving the land. Some
had lost their lands in the earlier years of the settlement; others now saw the
possibility of earning without the trouble and risk of investment. As long as the
zamindars could give out the land to tenants and get rent, they were not
interested in improving the land.
v. 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.
HOTS Question –
Q3. What were the problems that arose with the new Munro system of fixing
revenue?
i. Within a few years after the new systems were imposed it was clear that all was
not well with them.
ii. Driven by the desire to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed too
high a revenue demand.
iii. Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages became
deserted in many regions.
iv. Optimistic officials had imagined that the new systems would transform the
peasants into rich enterprising farmers. But this did not happen.
Standardization of Curriculum Booklet:
Q4. Describe the two main systems of Indigo Cultivation.
There were two main systems of indigo cultivation – nij and ryoti.
Nij Cultivation
i. Within the system of Nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in lands that he
directly controlled.
ii. He either bought the land or rented it from other zamindars and produced indigo
by directly employing hired labourers.
Ryoti Cultivation
i. Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract, an
agreement (satta). At times they pressurised the village headmen to sign the
contract on behalf of the ryots.
ii. Those who signed the contract got cash advances from the planters at low rates
of interest to produce indigo.
iii. But the loan committed the ryot to cultivating indigo on at least 25 per cent of the
area under his holding.
iv. The planter provided the seed and the drill, while the cultivators prepared the
soil, sowed the seed and looked after the crop.
v. When the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest, a new loan was
given to the ryot, and the cycle started all over again.
Question Bank:
Q5. What problems were associated with the nij cultivation?
i. The planters found it difficult to expand the area under nij cultivation. Indigo could
be cultivated only on fertile lands, and these were all already densely populated.
ii. Only small plots scattered over the landscape could be acquired. Planters
needed large areas in compact blocks to cultivate indigo in plantations. Nor was
labour easy to mobilise.
iii. A large plantation required a vast number of hands to operate. And labour was
needed precisely at a time when peasants were usually busy with their rice
cultivation.
iv. Nij cultivation on a large scale also required many ploughs and bullocks. One
bigha of indigo cultivation required two ploughs. This meant that a planter with
1,000 bighas would need 2,000 ploughs. Investing on purchase and maintenance
of ploughs was a big problem.
v. Nor could supplies be easily got from the peasants since their ploughs and
bullocks were busy on their rice fields, again exactly at the time that the indigo
planters needed them.
Q6. Why were ryots reluctant to grow indigo?
i. When the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest, a new loan was
given to the ryot, and the cycle started all over again.
ii. Peasants who were initially tempted by the loans soon realised how harsh the
system was.
iii. The price they got for the indigo they produced was very low and the cycle of
loans never ended.
iv. There were other problems too. The planters usually insisted that indigo be
cultivated on the best soils in which peasants preferred to cultivate rice.
v. Indigo, moreover, had deep roots and it exhausted the soil rapidly. After an
indigo harvest the land could not be sown with rice.
Q. Compare the three revenue systems introduced by the British.
Permanent Ryotwari Mahalwari settlement
settlement settlement
Introduced by Lord Cornwallis Thomas Munro Holt Mackenzie
Places where Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil the North Western Provinces
prevalent Jharkhand, Orissa Nadu, Karnataka of the Bengal Presidency
(most of this area is now in
Uttar Pradesh),Punjab,
Haryana and Delhi
Owners of land Zamindars Cultivators Village (Mahal)
System of Zamindars collected Cultivators paid Village headman
collection from tenant directly
Years in which 1793 1820 1822
introduced
Map Work – On the Political map of India locate and label the following :
a. States where Permanent settlement was prevalent – Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand,
Orissa
b. States where Ryotwari system was prevalent- Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra
c. a, Karnataka
d. States where Mahalwari system was practised – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Haryana and Delhi
HIGHER LEARNING PROGRAMME
Q1. Why was there a great demand for Indian Indigo? Which European plant
challenged its demand?
Q2. Discuss the overall effects of the introduction of the new revenue settlements
in India.