Social Science - The British India

Ruling the Countryside System adopted by company to collect the revenue worsened the condition of people.

Farmers suffered a lot across the country.

East India

Company Become Diwans

Of Bengal, Orissa

and Bihar

Robert Clive Receiving the "Diwani" of Bengal

from the Moghul Empire in 1765

In the year 1765 Moghul Emperor Shah Alam granted to the company the diwani of Bengal , Bihar and Orissa 

The company agreed to pay annually 26 lakh rupees to the Moghul Emperor and got right to keep the all-surplus amount of collected revenue.

The grant of the Diwani gave to the company a de jure status of an official of the Moghul Emperor.

Moghul Emperor appointed two persons in the province that is Subah; one was called as Nawab and second was Diwan

company made the agreement with the Nawab that he will not maintain the army and company will pay him an annual allowance of 53 lakh rupees for his expenditure and criminal judicature.

After this agreement, company became Supreme Authority regarding Bengal.

Many people appointed as tax farmers absconded with as much revenue as they could during the time period between inspections. The agricultural cultivation had collapsed. In 1770, a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. Parliament took note of the disastrous consequences of the system, and in 1784 British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger directed the Calcutta administration to alter it immediately. In 1786 Charles Cornwallis was sent out to India to reform the company's practices.

Revenue for the company

Permanent Settlement Concluded by the Cornwallis administration in 1793. Under the contract, the landholders or zamindars were admitted into the colonial state system as the absolute proprietors of landed property.

Permanent SettlementsIntroduced

Besides being turned into proprietors of land, the zamindars were endowed with the privilege of holding their proprietary right at a rate which was to continue unchanged for ever.

Under the contract the government was barred from enhancing its revenue demand on the zamindars.

The Permanent Settlement, however, created problems.Company officials soon discovered that the zamindars were in fact not investing in the improvement of land.The revenue that had been fixed was so high that thezamindars 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.

Problems Caused Due to Permanent

Settlements

By the first decade of the nineteenth century the situation changed. The prices in the market rose and cultivation slowly expanded. This meant an increase in the income of the zamindars. And no gain for the company.Since it could not increase a revenue demand that had been fixed permanently

Most of the landlords did not take any interest in the improvements of the land but were merely interested in extracting the maximum possible rent from the tenants, being under the constant fear had no incentive improve the land.

the Permanent Settlement stands condemned. By recognising the absolute right of ownership of the zamindars the Company sacrificed the interests of the peasants whether of property or occupancy. In a way the peasants suffered from a double injustice, first by surrendering their property rights secondly by being entirely left at the mercy of the zamindars that rack-rented them.

In many villages of Bengal, some of the powerful ryots did not cultivate, but instead gave out their lands to others, taking from them very high rents. In 1806, H. T. Colebrook described the conditions of these undertenants in Bengal:The under-tenants, depressed by an excessive rent in kind, and by usurious returns for the cattle, seed, and subsistence, advanced to them, can neverextricate themselves from debt. In so abject a state, they cannot labour in spirit, whilethey earn a scanty subsistence without hope of bettering theirsituation.

ColebrookOn Bengal Ryots

By early nineteenth century many of the company officials were able to make believe that the system of revenue was to be changed.

In north-western parts of Bengal {most

of the areas now in Uttar Pradesh} a Englishman known as Holt Mackenzie, devised a new system which came into practicing and effect by 1822.

Mahalwari settlement

As his thinking was that village was an important social institution in north Indian society and were needed to be preserved.

under his directions,collectors went from village to village inspecting the land measures the fields and recording the customs and rights of different groups.

The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village or territory had to pay. This charge was given to village headmen or zamindars.

*The british territories in the south there was similar move

away from the idea of permanent settlement. The

system that was devised to be known as the ryotwar system.

The munro system

As British required revenue , the company officials wanted to increase the income of land, so they fixed too high revenue demands. Peasants we not able to fulfil this demand ,which was demanded by the company officials. In some areas the villagers became poor. company officials thought that by this system the peasants would become rich farmers but this didn't happen.

Problems with revenue

British realised that the countryside could not only yield revenue but can also grow the crops which Europe required. by the late eighteenth century company was trying its best to expand their cultivation of opium and indigo. britishers forced Indians in many parts of India to grow the crop that they wished like: jute in bengal,tea in assam,cottan in madras, sugarcane in united provinces, wheat in Punjab and rice in madras.

Europe with crop demands

By the thirteenth century indigo was started being used in manufacturing cloths in italy,france and britain.only small amount of Indian indigo reach in the Europe which meant high demand and similarly high rates in European market.

*Europeans had to be dependent on the other plant known as woad which gave a dull violet and blue coloured dye’s. Woad was easily available in the europe,it was grown in the northern italy,southern France and in parts of Germany and Britain. the woad producers asked for ban on indigo to be imported in the Europe.

Demand of Indian indigo grew

Shades of indigo and woad....

Britain Turns To IndiaFaced with the rising demand for indigo in Europe, the

Company in India looked for ways to expand the area under indigo cultivation.

From the last decades of the eighteenth century indigo cultivation in Bengal expanded rapidly and Bengal indigo came to dominate the world market. In 1788 only about 30 per cent of the indigo imported into Britain was from India. By 1810, the proportion had gone up to 95 per cent.

As the indigo trade grew, commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in indigo production. Over the years many Company officials left their jobs to look after their indigo business.

Problems In Nij Cultivation

Under nij cultivation the planters faced difficulty in expanding the area.

Indigo could be cultivated only on flat fertile land which was already densely populated.

Only small plots scattered over the landscape could be re-acquired.

Planters needed large areas in compact blocks to cultivate indigo in large plantations.

Labor was also not easy to mobilize

INDIGO CULTIVATION:RYOTI

WHAT IS INDIGO?

INDIGO IS A DECIDUOUS SHRUB OF SOUTH-EASTERN ASIA HAVING

PINNATE LEAVES AND CLUSTERS OF RED OR PURPLE FLOWERS; A SOURCE

OF INDIGO DYE.

CULTIVATION OF INDIGOTHERE WERE TWO WAYS TO OZF INDIGO

CULTIVATION. THEY ARE NIJ AND RYOTI.IN NIJ CULTIVATION ,THE FARMER PRODUCED INDIGO IN LANDS THAT WERE DIRECTLY

CONTROLLED .UNDER THE RYOTI SYSTEM,THE PLANTERS FORCEDTHE RYOTISTO SIGN A

CONTRACT .

RYOTI CULTIVATIONUNDER THE RYOTI SYSTEM, THE PLANTERS FORCED THE RYOTS

TO SIGN A CONTRACT (SATTA). STEPS INVOLVED IN RYOTI CULTIVATION:

• THOSE WHO SIGNED THE CONTRACT GOT CASH ADVANCES FROM THE PLANTERS AT LOW RATES OF INTEREST TO PRODUCE INDIGO.

• THE LOAN COMMITTED THE RYOT TO CULTIVATING INDIGO ON AT LEAST 25 PER CENT OF THE AREA UNDER HIS HOLDING.

Contractor got cash from planter in advance

Planter provided the seed and the

drill

Cultivators prepared the soil, sowed the seed and looked after the crop.

Then the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest.

STEPS INVOLVED IN RYOTI CULTIVATION

PROBLEMS IN RYOTI CULTIVATION

1. PEASANTS SOON REALISED THAT THE SYSTEM WAS NOT CORRECT. THEY GOT LESS MONEY FOR INDIGO AND THE CYCLE OF LOAN DID NOT END.

2. PLANTERS WANTED THE INDIGO TO GROW IN THE BEST SOIL FOR A GOOD YIELD. BUT THE BEST SOIL WAS USED FOR RICE CULTIVATION.

3. IF THEY GROW THE INDIGO IN THAT SOIL , THE SOIL WILL BE EXHAUSTED. ONCE INDIGO IS HARVESTED PADDY(RICE)CANNOT BE GROWN IN THAT SOIL.

THE BLUE

REBELLION..!!!

KEY RE@SON....In March 1859 thousands of

ryots in BENGAL refused to grow Indigo , They refused to pay

taxes,They attacked Indigo factories with swords ,spears, bows n

arrows , Women also turned up to fight with pots , pans and

kitchen implements .

AFTER GETTING SUPPORT• In 1859,the Indigo ryots succeeded in

getting support of the local zamindars and village

headmen in their rebellion against the planters.

• After the revolt of 1857, the british government was

worried about the possibility of another popular rebellion.

•With the spread of a simmering revolt in the indigo

districts ,the Lieutenant Governor toured the region

in the winter of 1859.• The ryots saw the tours a sign of government

• sympathy for their plight.

•Word went around that QUEEN VICTORIA had declared that indigo need not be sown.•With the spread of the intellectuals from CALCUTTA rushed to the indigo districts.

•They wrote of the misery of the ryots ,the tyranny[in human treatment] of the planters and the

horrors of the indigo system.• Mahatma Gandhi started the Champaran

Movement to fight for the rights of the indigocultivators.

INDIGO CASH CROP !!

USES OF INDIGO !!