Ruling The Countryside - Class 8 History - Extra Questions

What were the circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of indigo production in Bengal?

The ryots in Bengal got fed up with the coercive methods the planters used with them and finally refused to grow indigo. They became violent. They not only refused to pay rents to the planters, but also attacked indigo factories armed with swords and spears, bows and arrows.
Meanwhile the local zamindars and village headmen also began to favor the indigo ryots. They mobilized the indigo peasants and fought pitched battles with the lathiyals, the lathi-wielding strongmen maintained by the planters. In other places even the zamindars went around villages urging the ryots to resist the planters. Worried by the rebellion. the government brought in the military to protect the planters from assault. and set up the Indigo commission to inquire into the system of indigo production. 
The commission held the planters guilty and criticized them for the coercive method they used with indigo cultivators. It declared that indigo production was not profitable for ryots. The commission asked the ryots to fulfill their existing contracts but also told them that they could refuse to produce indigo in future. After this revolt, indigo production collapsed in Bengal.


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.

(i) Accounts of earlier Indian history do not mention the use of tea or its cultivation. We get a mention by a Dutch sea-traveller in 1598 that tea is being eaten as well as drunk in India. 
(ii) In 1824, tea plants were discovered in the hills of the Indian state of Assam. The British introduced tea culture into India in 1836. India had been the top producer of tea for nearly a century. 
(iii) The workers in the tea plantations were oppressed. They were given low wages. There were poor housing and lack of social mobility. For making more profits, the tea planters reclaimed wastelands where the workers had to labour hard to develop plantation. For this, the planters introduced indentured labour system. The local as well as outside labourers were employed under contract. 
(iv) There were two types of indentured labour system- Arkatti and Sardari. Under Arkatti system, unlicensed recruitment was carried from Chotanagpur and other tribal areas of the sub-continent. Under the Sardari system new labourers were employed by those who were already employed in the plantation gardens.
(v) The labourers had to work hard. The outside labourers had to stay at the garden for a longer period. They were not permitted to meet their family, even on occasions. They were exploited in many ways. They were not allowed to leave the plantation garden during the contract period. 
(vi) The labourers in the tea plantations and indigo farming were similar in the way that they were exploited heavily. The profit was made by the owners and the labourers got almost nothing. They were different in the way that, however, there was a contract with the planters, but indigo workers were not under indentured labour system. 


Why were ryots reluctant to grow indigo?

The Royts were reluctant as-
  • The planters usually forced the ryots to sign a contract.
  •  Those who signed 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% of the area under his holding.
  • The planter provided the seed and the drill, while cultivators prepared the soil, sowed the seed and looked after the crop.
  • When the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest, the ryots got another new loan. In this way, they were trapped in the cycle of loan from which it was difficult to come out.
  • Soon, they realized that this was a harsh system. They did hard labour day and night and got a very low price for the indigo they produced.
  • Other reason was that the planters usually pressurised the ryots to cultivate indigo on the best soils. But the ryots preferred to grow rice on these soils.
  • Indigo had deep roots and it exhausted the soil rapidly. After an indigo harvest the land could not be used for rice cultivation.


How is Ryotwari system different from Zamindari System?

Zamindari System was introduced by Cornwallis in 1793 through the Permanent Settlement Act and It was introduced in the provinces of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and Varanasi. Zamindars were recognized as the owner of the land and were given the rights to collect the rent from the peasants. The realized amount would be divided into 11 parts and 1/11 of the share belongs to Zamindars and 10/11 of the share belongs to East India Company. 
Ryotwari System was introduced by Thomas Munro in 1820 and the Major areas of introduction included Madras, Bombay, parts of Assam and Coorgh provinces of British India. In Ryotwari System the ownership rights were handed over to the peasants and the British Government collected taxes directly from the peasants. The revenue rates of Ryotwari System were 50% where the lands were dry and 60% in irrigated land.



Answer the following questions in six sentence each:
Explain how the land revenue system of the British affected the Indian farmers .

— British introduced Zamindari system, Ryotwari system and
Mahalwari system
 — In Zamindari system the right to the land ownership was taken
away from the farmers
 — Land tax was fixed based on the area of land
 — Zamindars collected more tax and exploited farmers
 — In Ryotwari system farmers lost the rights to the land, when they
failed to pay the tax
 — Government had the authority to dispose of the land
 — All land disputes were to be settled in courts
 — In Mahalwari system Mahaldars collected more tax and exploited
farmers
 — The objective of all these systems was exploitation of farmers and
amassing wealth. 


What circumstances lead to the collapse of Indigo production in Bengal?

 The indigo cultivators in Bengal were forced to grow indigo on at least 25 per cent of the area under their holdings. The price which they got for their indigo was low. And they had to take loans to repay their previous loans. The indigo crops exhausted the soil fertility rapidly. After an indigo harvest, the land cannot be sown with another crop. All these circumstances lead to "The Blue Rebellion" which broke out in March 1859, which led to the collapse of indigo production in Bengal. 


Find out more about the Champaran movement and Mahatma Gandhi's role in it.

The peasants of  Champaran and other areas of North Bihar were growing indigo under the Tinkathia system. Under this system, the peasants were bound to plant 3 out of 20 parts of land with indigo for the landlord.

This means that out of 20 khatas which make an acre, they had to dedicate 3 khatas for indigo plantation leaving peasants in extreme poverty.

Mahatma Gandhi was invited by some of the peasants to look after their misery. Gandhiji accepted the invitation and started a mass movement.

Gandhiji established an ashram here and handpicked eminent lawyers like Dr. Rajendra Prasad to study the atrocities on the villagers and worked for the betterment of the villages. This was the first time Gandhi used the word Satyagraha.

As a result, Gandhiji was arrested and was asked to leave the province for creating unrest. Finally, a law was passed exempting farmers from Indigo plantation.

It was during this agitation he was called Bapu and Mahatma for the first time.



Explain Mahalwari system.

 Mahalwari system was one of the main revenue systems of the British in India. Holt Mackenzie and Robert Merttins Bird started this system in 1822. In this system, the land revenue was collected by the village headmen, and it was not fixed.  The peasants were the owner of the land, and every peasant had to give his share of the revenue.


Give an account of the problems faced by New Munro system of fixing revenue.

Thomas Munro introduced new Munro or Ryotwari system in 1820. Below are some problems faced by peasants due to this system 

1. The revenue rates were very high due to which farmers were unable to pay taxes.

2. Since the farmers were unable to pay revenue, they stopped farming and migrated from the village in search of another job.



How was the mahalwari system different from the Permanent settlement?

  • Under the Permanent Settlement, the rates of revenue were fixed permanently, i.e. it was not to be increased ever in future. But in the mahalwari system it was decided that the rate of revenue would be revised periodically, not permanently fixed.
  • Under the Permanent Settlement, the zamindars were given the charge of collecting revenue from the peasants and paying it to the Company. But in the mahalwari system this charge was given to the village headman.


Describe the main features of the Permanent Settlement.

In order to get a stable revenue income, most of the East India Company’s officials believed that investment in land had to be encouraged and agriculture had to be improved. Debates on how this was to be done led to the introduction of the Permanent Settlement in 1793.

  • The aim of this settlement was to ensure a regular flow of revenue for the Company.
  •  As per the settlement, 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 and it was not to be increased ever in the future.
  • The Company believed that as the revenue amount was fixed, the zamindars would benefit by investing in land improvement, which would in turn lead to increased production.
  •  If the zamindars failed to pay the revenue, which they usually did as the fixed revenue was very high, they lost their zamindari.




Class 8 History Extra Questions