RULING THE COUNTRYSIDE GRADE VIII

HISTORY

ANSWER KEY

1.i) ryot peasant

ii)mahal village

iii)nij cultivation on planter’s own land

iv)ryoti cultivation on ryot’s lands

2. a)Growers of woad in Europe saw Indigo as a crop which would provide competition
to their earnings.

(b) The demand for indigo increased in late-eighteenth-century Britain because of

the expansion of cotton production that lead to an enormous demand for cloth dyes.

(c) The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of synthetic dyes.

(d) The Champaran movement was against indigo planters.

3. The Permanent Settlement was a land revenue system introduced in 1793 by East
India Company. The main features of the Permanent Settlement system were:

• By the terms of this 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 of the revenue 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
coffers and at the same time encourage the Zamindars to invest in improving the
land.

4.
Mahalwari System Permanent Settlement

It was introduced by Holt Mackenzie

It was introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1793.
in 1822

The village headman was in charge The Zamindars were in charge of collecting
of collecting the revenue. revenue.
The revenue was to be revised The revenue was fixed, that is, it was never to
periodically. be increased in the future.

Ans-5. The problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue were:

• 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.
• Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages became
deserted in many regions.
Ans-6. The ryots were reluctant to grow indigo due to the following reasons:

• The price that the ryots got for indigo was very low and the cycle of loans never
ended.
• The planters insisted to grow indigo on the fertile parts of land but the farmers
preferred growing rice on the best soils.
• Indigo had deep roots and it exhausted the soil. So, after an indigo harvest, the
land could not be used for sowing rice.

Ans-7. The circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of indigo production in
Bengal are mentioned below:

• In March 1859 thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo.

• They started protesting as they thought that they had the support of village
headmen in their rebellion. The zamindars also supported the farmers as they
were unhappy with the increasing powers of the planters.
• The indigo farmers also believed that the British government would support them
in their rebellion against the planters because the government did not want
another rebellion after the Revolt of 1857.
• Following the protests, the Indigo Commission was constituted by the
government which held the planters guilty of using coercive methods to deal with
the indigo peasants and asked the planters to stop the cultivation.
• This eventually led to the eventual collapse of indigo plantation in Bengal.