HISTORY-CH-3(RULING THE COUNTRYSIDE)

• Introduction
• What are we going to study in this chapter?

On 12 August 1765, the Company becomes the Diwan.

Revenue for the company.=> Agriculture=> Problems=> Solutions
The need to improve agriculture and problems faced by them.
The new system was devised.
Mahalwari Settlement
Ryotwari System or The Munro System and its problems
Crops for Europe
Why the demand for Indian Indigo?
Britain turns to India
How indigo was cultivated?- Nij System and Ryoti System
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The Company becomes the Diwan.
Discuss Battle of Buxar in 1764

• On 12 August 1765, The Mughal Emperor appointed the East India Company as
the Diwan of Bengal.

• As Diwan, the company became the chief financial administrator of the

territory under its control.

• The company came to colonise the countryside, organize revenue resources,

redefine the rights of people and produce the crops it wanted.
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Revenue for the Company.

• The company got the Diwani rights and started extracting more and more
revenue out of it and used various measures.
• Before 1865, the company purchased goods in India by importing gold and
silver from Britain. Now they used revenue collected in Bengal for purchasing of
goods.
• Bengal economy was facing a deep crisis. Why???
• In 1770, a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. Explain
 HISTORY-CH-3(RULING THE COUNTRYSIDE)
Revenue for the Company.

• The company got the Diwani rights and started extracting more and more
revenue out of it and used various measures.
• Before this, the company purchased goods in India by importing gold and silver
from Britain. Now they used revenue collected in Bengal for purchasing of
goods.
• Bengal economy was facing a deep crisis. Why???
• In 1770, a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. Explain
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The Need to Improve Agriculture: pg no 28

1. The company introduced Permanent Settlement in 1793 under the reign of

Charles Cornwallis.
2. Under Permanent Settlement, a fixed revenue was to be given to British and
it would not increase in future.
3. Zamindars were recognised as the collectors of revenue and it was assumed
that they would invest money to improve the crop production and fertility of
soil.
4. Zamindars did not pay attention to the condition of land and tried to keep
more and more money left after collection.
5. The Rajas and taluqdars were recognized as Zamindars.
6. As a result of greed for more revenue they blindly exploited the land
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The Problem with Permanent Settlement: pg no 28

1. Numerous zamindaris were sold off at auctions organized by the company, as

anyone who failed to pay the revenue lost his zamindari.
2. The zamindars were not interested in the improvement of land which led to
reduced production of crop.
3. But later with the rise in crop expansion and prices of crops, lead to the
expansion of markets. But the income of Britishers was not increasing, this
concerned them alot.
4. Because of the less revenue collection, British tried some other new method
of revenue generation such as Mahalwari system and Ryotwari system.
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A new system was devised/Mahalwari System: pg no 29

1. Many of the company officials were convinced that the system of revenue
had to be changed again because to get maximum profit.
2. An Englishman, Holt Machenzie devised the new system which came into
effect in 1822. This was introduced in North western provinces of Bengal
Presidencies and came to be known as Mahalwari settlement.
Village Important social institution
3. Mahalwari system gave the revenue collection work to the village headman
(Mahal) instead of zamindar and revenue was not fixed permanently.
4. Under this system the revenue was collected by Mahal and was given to
British company.
5. This system was initiated in central part of India.
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• MAHALWARI SYSTEM
• Collector=> Officers went to different villages for inspection of lands

• Fields were measured

• Customs and rights of the people were recorded

• Estimated revenue of each plot within the village was added up to calculate the revenue
that each village (mahal) had to pay.

• The revenue was not permanently fixed. It was to be revised periodically.

• Instead of zamindars the village headman was made responsible of collecting and paying
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The Munro System or Ryotwari System: pg no 29
Munro thought that the Britishers should act as paternal father figures protecting the ryots under their charge.
• In the British territories in the south, a new system was devised which was known as
Ryotwar or Ryotwari.
• Ryotwari was initiated by Captain Alexander Read and Thomas Munro. This system was
extended all over the south India.
• Tried on small scale=> later all over South
• Ryots=> Small cultivators in South India=> There were no traditional zamindars=>
• In this system, ryots were directly involved for the collection of revenue and it was fixed after
the proper assessment of individual land.
• British officials were appointed to collect the revenue and used coercive methods for
revenue collection.
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All was not well:: pg no 30

1. Under the Ryotwari system, peasants were charged with a very high rate of tax.(55%)

This was also very oppressive system=> Madras famine=> Madras Torcher Commission was set
up.
Desire to increase the income=> Revenue demands
Therefore peasants were unable to pay
2. They started deserting the countryside.
3. Many of the company officers were of the view that the new system of collection will help
peasants in becoming rich. But this never happened.
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Permanent Settlement Mahalwari System Ryotwari System

Introduced in the year 1793 Introduced in the year 1822 Introduced in the year 1820

revenue was not fixed. estimated revenue was not fixed. Each field
revenue was fixed revenue of each plot was added to was carefully measured and
the total revenue of the village assessed

instead of zamindars, the revenue

zamindars were ordered to collect was collected by the village britishers collected the revenue
the revenue headman

introduced in Bengal, Bihar and introduced in north western introduced in Madras, Bombay,
Orissa frontier, Punjab, Gangetic valley, etc. Coorg, etc.

Zamindars were the owner of the peasants were the owner of the peasants were the owners.
land land
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Crops for Europe
COUNTRYSIDE)
Ruling The Countryside

Revenue Crops
Countryside provided the crops that Europe required
• By the late eighteenth century, Britishers tried to expand the cultivation of opium and indigo in various parts of
India.
• They also forced the cultivators to grow various other crops such as:
• Jute in Bengal
• Tea in Assam
• Sugarcane in U.P
• Wheat in Punjab
• Cotton in Maharashtra and Punjab
• Rice in Madras
What is ‘Plantataion’?
More emphasis was laid on cultivation of indigo but why was it so important to cultivate indigo?
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• Why the demand for Indian Indigo?
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• Why the demand for Indian Indigo?
• Indigo was so important because:
• It can only be grown in tropical climate.
• India was the main exporter of indigo
• It was of high demand in Europe.
• In Europe, a plant named woad was cultivated which was used for dying clothes.
• The woad cultivators pressurized their respective governments to ban the import of indigo.
• The French in Caribbean island, The Portuguese in Brazil, The Spanish in Venezuela, The English in
Jamaica also started cultivating indigo plants.
• Between 1783 and 1789 the production of indigo fell by half.
Britain began to industrialize.

• The British dyers started looking for new sources of indigo supply so they turned to India to meet their
 HISTORY-CH-3(RULING THE
• Britain turns to India
COUNTRYSIDE)
• The demand for indigo was rising in Europe.

• Bengal was the largest exporter of indigo to the Britain.

• In 1810 about 95% of the indigo imported by Britain was from Bengal.

• The commercial agents and company officials started investing in the indigo
business.

• Many Englishmen settled in India, became indigo planters.

• Even loans were granted by the company and the banks for indigo cultivation.
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• Topics left
COUNTRYSIDE)

How indigo was cultivated?- Nij System and Ryoti System

The ‘Blue rebellion’ and after.

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How indigo was cultivated?

Indigo was cultivated under two systems. They were as follows:

• Nij – Planters produced indigo on the land which was under his control.
Either he was the owner or he had rented it for indigo cultivation.
The nij cultivators found it difficult to grow indigo as it required a large fertile
area.
 Even labourers were not available sometimes as they were busy with the rice
cultivation.
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Ryoti –The planters entered into contract with ryots or village headman.

According to the contract, 25% of land was exclusively kept for the cultivation of
indigo and loans were provided for its cultivation.
The planter used to provide the seeds and drill to the farmer and he in return had
to take care of the plants.
The ryots realized that this system was not an easy one.
They got trapped in the cycle of loans which were unending and the income they
received through indigo plantation was also very meager.
Even the fertility of the land deteriorated.
As the system of indigo plantation was very oppressive, all the peasants
became rebellious.
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The ‘Blue rebellion’ and after
• In March 1859 a rebellion broke in Bengal.
• Many ryots refused to pay rents to the planters.
• They attacked indigo factories.
• The village headmen who were forced to enter into a contract by the
planters, also supported this rebellion.
• Britishers did not support peasants, they became cautious after the
revolt of 1857.
• They brought military for safeguarding planters in the indigo districts.
• Queen Victoria ordered to issue a notice stating that ryots would not be
forced to enter into indigo contracts. Magistrate of Barasat, Ashley Eden
• An indigo commission was setup to look into the matter.
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The commission came up with the following conclusions:
Planters were found guilty.
Planters were coercing (forcing) ryots to enter into contracts.
Indigo cultivation was not profitable for ryots.
The ryots were asked to fulfill the existing contracts but they got
the right to refuse for indigo cultivation in future .
After the revolt, as production of indigo came to an end in
Bengal, planters shifted to Bihar. There also, they faced
similar revolt known as Champaran revolt in year 1917
which was supported by Mahatma Gandhi.