DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL BANGALORE (SOUTH)

SUBJECT-HISTORY

CLASS XII COLONIALISM AND COUNTRYSIDE(Exploring Official Archives)

Q1. Consider the following statements regarding the early years of the East India Company
establishment in India:

I. The colonial rule was first established in The Bengal.

II. In the beginning, the earliest attempts were made to reorder rural society and establish a new
regime of land rights and a new revenue system.

III. The Permanent Settlement had come into operation in 1793. The East India Company had fixed
the revenue that each zamindar had to pay.

Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?

A. Only I B. I and II C. I and III D. All of the above

Answer: D

Q2. Consider the following statements regarding after the establishment of British East India
Company in Bengal:

I. In 1797 there was an auction in Burdwan (present day Bardhaman) during which A number of
mahals (estates) held by the Raja of Burdwan were being sold.

II. The Permanent Settlement had come into operation in 1793.

III. The estates of those who failed to pay were to be auctioned to recover the revenue.

Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?

A. Only I B. I and II C. I and III D. All of the above

Answer: D

Q3. Consider the following statements regarding the problem of unpaid revenue:

I. In introducing the Permanent Settlement, British officials hoped to resolve the problems they had
been facing since the conquest of Bengal.

II. By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis, with recurrent famines and declining
agricultural output.

III. Officials felt that agriculture, trade and the revenue resources of the state could all be developed
by encouraging investment in agriculture.

Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?

A. Only I B. I and II C. I and III D. All of the above

Answer: D

Q4. Who was the Governor General of Bengal when the Permanent Settlement was introducing in
1793?

A. Warren Hastings B. The Charles Cornwallis C. The Lord Minto D. The Lord Auckland

Answer: B

Q5. Consider the following statements regarding the failure of revenue payment by zamindars:

I. Initially the company made very high initial demand because if the demand was fixed for all time
to come, the Company would never be able to claim a share of increased income from land when
prices rose and cultivation expanded.

II. The high demand was imposed in the 1790s, a time when the prices of agricultural produce were
depressed, making it difficult for the ryots to pay their dues to the zamindar.

III. The revenue was invariable, regardless of the harvest, and had to be paid punctually. In fact,
according to the Sunset Law, if payment did not come in by sunset of the specified date, the
zamindari was liable to be auctioned.

Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?

A. Only I B. I and II C. I and III D. All of the above

Answer: D

Q6. Which of the following statement is incorrect?

A. Taluqdar literally means “one who holds a taluq” or a connection which came to refer to a
territorial unit.

B. Raja (literally king) was a term that was often used to designate powerful zamindars.

C. Ryots in Bengal always cultivate the land directly, but never leased it out to under-ryots.

D. In Francis Buchanan’s survey of the Dinajpur district in North Bengal there is a vivid description of
the class of rich peasants known as jotedars.

Answer: C

Q7. When was the East India Company acquired a charter from the ruler of England?

A. 1600 B. 1602 C. 1603 D. 1605

Answer. A

Q8. Who was the ruler of England at the time when the East India Company got permission to trade
with India?

A. Anne B. Victoria C. Queen Elizabeth I D. George I

Answer. C

Q9. After acquiring the royal charter, the East India Company could:

A. venture across the ocean B. buy goods at cheap price and sell at higher price

C. could carry their business to European countries D. All of the abobe

Answer. D

Q10. Who had discovered the sea route from the west coast of Africa to India?

A. British East India Company B. Columbus C. Vasco Da Gama D. Sir Walter Raleigh

Answer. C

Q11.Who was called a Raja?

A11. Raja (literally king) was a term that was often used to designate powerful zamindars.

Q12.Identify the image.

A12. Burdwan raja’s City Palace on Diamond Harbour Road, Calcutta By the late nineteenth century

many rich zamindars of Bengal had city palaces with ballrooms, large grounds, entrance porches

supported by Corinthian columns.

Q13.Why did an auction take place in Burdwan?

A13. The Permanent Settlement had come into operation in 1793. The East India Company had fixed
the revenue that each zamindar had to pay. The estates of those who failed to pay were to be
auctioned to recover the revenue. Since the raja had accumulated huge arrears, his estates had been
put up for auction.

Q14.How many percent of zamindaris changed hands after the permanent settlement?

A14. Over 75 per cent of the zamindaris changed hands after the Permanent Settlement.

Q!5.Why did the British introduce permanent settlement?

A15. By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis, with recurrent famines and declining
agricultural output. Officials felt that agriculture, trade and the revenue resources of the state could

all be developed by encouraging investment in agriculture. demand. If the revenue demand of the
state was permanently fixed, then the Company could look forward to a regular flow of revenue,
while entrepreneurs could feel sure of earning a profit from their investment, since the state would
not siphon it off by increasing its claim The process,officials hoped, would lead to the emergence of
a class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners who would have the capital and enterprise to
improve agriculture..

Q16.With whom was the permanent settlement made?

A16. Permanent Settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal. They were now
classified as zamindars, and they had to pay the revenue demand that was fixed in perpetuity. In
terms of this definition, the zamindar was not a landowner in the village, but a revenue Collector of
the state. Zamindars had several (sometimes as many as 400) villages under them. In Company
calculations the villages within one zamindari formed one revenue estate. The Company fixed the
total demand over the entire estate whose revenue the zamindar contracted to pay.

Q17.Identify

A17. Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805),painted by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785 He was the

commander of the British forces during the American War of Independence and the Governor
General of Bengal when the Permanent Settlement was introduced there in 1793.

Q18. Why did the zamindars defaulted on payments?OR Why did the permanent settlement fail?

A18. First: the initial demands were very high. This was because it was felt that if the demand was
fixed for all time to come, the Company would never be able to claim a share of increased income
from land when prices rose and cultivation expanded. Second: this high demand was imposed in the
1790s, a time when the prices of agricultural produce were depressed, making it difficult for the
ryots to pay their dues to the zamindar. Third: the revenue was invariable, regardless of the
harvest, and had to be paid punctually .according to the Sunset Law, if payment did not come in by
sunset of the specified date, the zamindari was liable to be auctioned.The Permanent Settlement
initially limited the power of the zamindar to collect rent from the ryot and manage his zamindari.

Q19. How did the company control and regulate the zamindars, subdue their authority and restrict
their autonomy?

A19. The zamindars’ troops were disbanded, customs duties abolished, and their “cutcheries”
(courts)brought under the supervision of a Collector appointed by the Company. Zamindars lost their
power to organise local justice and the local police. Over time the collectorate emerged as an
alternative centre of authority, severely restricting what the zamindar could do. In one case, when a
raja failed to pay the revenue, a Company official was speedily dispatched to his zamindari with
explicit instructions “to take charge of the District and to use the most effectual means to destroy all
the influence and the authority of the raja and his officers”.

Q20.Who was the amlah?

A20. At the time of rent collection, an officer of the zamindar, usually the amlah, came around to the

village.

Q21. Who was happy to see the zamindar in problem?

A21. ryots deliberately delayed payment. Rich ryots and village headmen – jotedars and
mandals – were only too happy to see the zamindar in trouble.

Q22.How many pending suits for arrears of rent payment in 1798 were due?

A22. In Burdwan alone there were over 30,000 pending suits.

Q23.Jotedars rise inevitably weakened zamindari authority. Analyse.

A23. In Francis Buchanan’s survey of the Dinajpur district in North Bengal we have a vivid
description of this class of rich peasants known as jotedars. By the early nineteenth century,
jotedars had acquired vast areas of land – sometimes as much as several thousand acres. They
controlled local trade as well as moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer
cultivators of the region. A large part of their land was cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars
or bargadars) who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field, and handed over half the
produce to the jotedars after the harvest. Unlike zamindars who often lived in urban areas, jotedars
were located in the villages and exercised direct control over a considerable section of poor villagers.
They fiercely resisted efforts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari
officials from executing their duties, mobilised ryots who were dependent on them, and
deliberately delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar. In fact, when the estates of the
zamindars were auctioned for failure to make revenue payment, jotedars were often amongst the
purchasers. The jotedars were most powerful in North Bengal, although rich peasants and village
headmen were emerging as commanding fig

Q24.What are the different names for the jotedars?

A24. Haoladars, elsewhere they were known as gantidars or mandals.

Q25. How did the zamindar devised the ways of surviving the pressures and resisting the British?

A25. Fictitious sale was one such strategy.The Raja of Burdwan, first transferred some of his
zamindari to his mother, since the Company had decreed that the property of women would not
be taken over. Then, as a second move, his agents manipulated the auctions. The revenue demand
of the Company was deliberately withheld, and unpaid balances were allowed to accumulate.
When a part of the estate was auctioned, the zamindar’s men bought the property, outbidding other
purchasers. Subsequently they refused to pay up the purchase money, so that the estate had to be
resold. Once again it was bought by the zamindar’s agents, once again the purchase money was
not paid, and once again there was an auction. This process was repeated endlessly, exhausting the
state, and the other bidders at the auction. At last the estate was sold at a low price back to the
zamindar.

Q26.When and who did the benami purchases?

A26. Between 1793 and 1801 four big zamindaris of Bengal, including Burdwan, made benami
purchases that collectively yielded as much as Rs 30 lakh. Of the total sales at the auctions, over 15
per cent were fictitious.

Q27.Whar were the other ways in which zamindars circumvented displacement ?

A27. When people from outside the zamindari bought an estate at an auction, they could not always
take possession. At times their agents would be attacked by lathyals of the former zamindar.
Sometimes even the ryots resisted the entry of outsiders. They felt bound to their own zamindar
through a sense of loyalty and perceived him as a figure of authority and themselves as his proja
(subjects). The sale of the zamindari disturbed their sense of identity, their pride. The zamindars
therefore were not easily displaced.
Q28.When did the zamindari system collapse?

A28. It was only during the Great Depression of the 1930s that they finally collapsed and the
jotedars consolidated their power in the countryside.

Q29.Discuss the fifth report.

A29. It was the fifth of a series of reports on the administration and activities of the East India
Company in India. referred to as the Fifth Report, it ran into 1002 pages, of which over 800 pages
were appendices that reproduced petitions of zamindars and ryots, reports of collectors from
different districts, statistical tables on revenue returns, and notes on the revenue and judicial
administration of Bengal and Madras (present-day Tamil Nadu) written by officials. the Company
established its rule in Bengal in the mid-1760s, its activities were closely watched and debated in
England. There were many groups in Britain who were opposed to the monopoly that the East India
Company had over trade with India and China. These groups wanted a revocation of the Royal
Charter that gave the Company this monopoly. An increasing number of private traders wanted a
share in the India trade, and the industrialists of Britain were keen to open up the Indian market for
British manufactures. Many political groups argued that the conquest of Bengal was benefiting
only the East India Company but not the British nation as a whole. Information about Company
misrule and maladministration was hotly debated in Britain and incidents of the greed and
corruption of Company officials were widely publicised in the press. The British Parliament passed a
series of Acts in the late eighteenth century to regulate and control Company rule in India.

Q30.What does the 5th report tell about zamindars?

A30. The Fifth Report exaggerated the collapse of traditional zamindari power, as also

overestimated the scale on which zamindars were losing their land. As we have seen, even when

zamindaris were auctioned, zamindars were not always displaced, given the ingenious methods

they used to retain their zamindaris.

Q31.Who was Buchanan?

A31. Francis Buchanan was a physician who came to India and served in the Bengal Medical Service
(from 1794 to 1815). For a few years he was surgeon to the Governor-General of India, Lord
Wellesley. During his stay in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), he organised a zoo that became the
Calcutta Alipore Zoo; he was also in charge of the Botanical Gardens for a short period. On the
request of the Government of Bengal, he undertook detailed surveys of the areas under the
jurisdiction of the British East India Company.

Q32. Who were the hill folk?

A32. The hill folk were known as Paharias. They lived around the Rajmahal hills, subsisting on
forest produce and practising shifting cultivation. They cleared patches of forest by cutting bushes
and burning the undergrowth. On these patches, enriched by the potash from the ash, the Paharias
grew a variety of pulses and millets for consumption. They scratched the ground lightly with hoes,
cultivated the cleared land for a few years, then left it fallow so that it could recover its fertility,
and moved to a new area. From the forests they collected mahua (a flower) for food, silk cocoons
and resin for sale, and wood for charcoal production. The undergrowth that spread like a mat
below the trees and the patches of grass that covered the lands left fallow provided pasture for
cattle The life of the Paharias – as hunters, shifting cultivators, food gatherers, charcoal producers,
silkworm rearers – was thus intimately connected to the forest. They lived in hutments within
tamarind groves, and rested in the shade of mango trees.

Q33.Why did the Paharias regularly raid the plains?

A33. These raids were necessary for survival, in years of scarcity; they were a way of asserting
power over settled communities; and they were a means of negotiating political relations with
outsiders. The zamindars on the plains had to often purchase peace by paying a regular tribute to
the hill chiefs. Traders similarly gave a small amount to the hill folk for permission to use the
passes controlled by them. Once the toll was paid, the Paharia chiefs protected the traders, ensuring
that their goods were not plundered by anyone.

Q34.What was the british policy about the forests?

A34. The British encouraged forest clearance, and zamindars and jotedars turned uncultivated
lands into rice fields. To the British, extension of settled agriculture was necessary to enlarge the
sources of land revenue, produce crops for export, and establish the basis of a settled, ordered
society. They also associated forests with wildness, and saw forest people as savage, unruly,
primitive, and difficult to govern. So they felt that forests had to be cleared.

Q35.What was the policy of pacification?

A35. By the 1780s, Augustus Cleveland, the Collector of Bhagalpur, proposed avpolicy of
pacification. Paharia chiefs were given an annual allowance and made responsible for the proper
conduct of their men. They were expected to maintain order in their localities and discipline their
own people. Many Paharia chiefs refused the allowances. Those who accepted, most often lost
authority within the community. Being in the pay of the colonial government, they came to be
perceived as subordinate employees or stipendiary chiefs. So when Buchanan travelled through the
region in the winter of 1810 -11 the Paharias naturally viewed him with suspicion and distrust.

Q36.Describe Ganjuriya Pahar as told by Buchanan.

A36. At the end of 1810, Buchanan crossed Ganjuria Pahar, which was part of the Rajmahal ranges,
passed through the rocky country beyond, and reached a village. It was an old village but the land
around had been recently cleared to extend cultivation. Looking at the landscape, Buchanan found
evidence of the region having been transformed through “proper application of human labour”. He
wrote: “Gunjuriya is just sufficiently cultivated to show what a glorious country this might be made. I
think its beauty and riches might be made equal to almost any in the universe.” The soil here was
rocky but “uncommonly fine”, and nowhere had Buchanan seen finer tobacco and mustard.

Q37. How did the Santhals reach the Rajmahal hills?

A37. The Santhals had begun to come into Bengal around the 1780s. Zamindars hired them to
reclaim land and expand cultivation, and British officials invited them to settle in the Jangal Mahals.
Having failed to subdue the Paharias and transform them into settled agriculturists, the British
turned to the Santhals. The Paharias refused to cut forests, resisted touching the plough, and
continued to be turbulent. The Santhals, by contrast, appeared to be ideal settlers, clearing forests
and ploughing the land with vigour.

Q38. What is Damin-i-Koh?

A38. The Santhals were given land and persuaded to settle in the foothills of Rajmahal. By 1832 a
large area of land was demarcated as Damin-i-Koh. This was declared to be the land of the
Santhals. They were to live within it, practise plough agriculture, and become settled peasants. The
land grant to the Santhals stipulated that at least one-tenth of the area was to be cleared and
cultivated within the first ten years. The territory was surveyed and mapped. Enclosed with
boundary pillars, it was separated from both the world of the settled agriculturists of the plains
and the Paharias of the hills From 40 Santhal villages in the area in 1838, as many as 1,473 villages
had come up by 1851.

Q39.What are Santhal myths and songs?

A39. of the nineteenth century refer very frequently to a long history of travel: they represent the
Santhal past as one of continuous mobility, a tireless search for a place to settle. Here in the Damin-
i-Koh their journey seemed to have come to an end.

Q40. The battle between the hoe and the plough was a long one. Explain.

A40. When the Santhals settled on the peripheries of the Rajmahal hills, the Paharias resisted but
were ultimately forced to withdraw deeper into the hills. Restricted from moving down to the lower
hills and valleys, they were confined to the dry interior and to the more barren and rocky upper hills.
This severely affected their lives, impoverishing them in the long term. Shifting agriculture depended
on the ability to move to newer and newer land and utilisation of the natural fertility of the soil.
When the most fertile soils became inaccessible to them,being part of the Damin, the Paharias
could not effectively sustain their mode of cultivation. When the forests of the region were cleared
for cultivation the hunters amongst them also faced problems. The Santhals, by contrast, gave up
their earlier life of mobility and settled down, cultivating a range of commercial crops for the
market, and dealing with traders and moneylenders.

Q41.Discuss the causes and the result of the santhal revolt.

A41. The Santhals, found that the land they had brought under cultivation was slipping away from
their hands. The state was levying heavy taxes on the land that the Santhals had cleared,
moneylenders (dikus) were charging them high rates of interest and taking over the land when debts
remained unpaid, and zamindars were asserting control over the Damin area. By the 1850s, the
Santhals felt that the time had come to rebel against zamindars, moneylenders and the colonial
state, in order to create an ideal world for themselves where they would rule. It was after the
Santhal Revolt (1855-56 ) that the Santhal Pargana was created, carving out 5,500 square miles
from the districts of Bhagalpur and Birbhum. The colonial state hoped that by creating a new
territory for the Santhals and imposing some special laws within it, the Santhals could be conciliated.

Q42.Mention the accounts of Buchanan.

A42 His journeys were not simply inspired by the love of landscape and the desire to discover

the unknown. He marched everywhere with a large army of people – draughtsmen, surveyors,

palanquin bearers, coolies. The costs of the travels were borne by the East India Company since it
needed the information that Buchanan was expected to collect. Buchanan had specific instructions
about what he had to look for and what he had to record. When he arrived at a village with his army
of people, he was immediately perceived as an agent of the sarkar It surveyed landscapes and
revenue sources, organized voyages of discovery, and sent its geologists and geographers, its
botanists and medical men to collect information. Buchanan, undoubtedly an extraordinary
observer, was one such individual. Everywhere Buchanan went, he obsessively observed the stones
and rocks and the different strata and layers of soil. He searched for minerals and stones that were
commercially valuable, he recorded all signs of iron ore and mica, granite and saltpetre. He
carefully observed local practices of salt-making and ironore He was inevitably critical of the
lifestyles of forest dwellers and felt that forests had to be turned into agricultural lands.

Q43.Discuss the movement at Supa. OR Deccan riots.

A43. The movement began at Supa, a large village in Poona (present-day Pune) district. It was a
market centre where many shopkeepers and moneylenders lived. On 12 May1875, ryots from
surrounding rural areas gathered and attacked the shopkeepers, demanding their bahi khatas
(account books) and debt bonds. They burnt the khatas, looted grain shops, and in some cases set
fire to the houses of sahukars.From Poona the revolt spread to Ahmednagar. Then over the next two
months it spread even further,over an area of 6,500 square km. More than thirty villages were
affected. Everywhere the pattern was the same: sahukars were attacked, account books burnt and
debt bonds destroyed. Terrified of peasant attacks, the sahukars fled the villages, very often leaving
their property and belongings behind.As the revolt spread, British officials saw the spectre of 1857
Police posts were established in villages to frighten rebellious peasants into submission. Troops
were quickly called in; 951 people were arrested, and many convicted.

Q44. The Permanent Settlement was rarely extended to any region beyond Bengal. Why?

A44. One reason was that after 1810, agricultural prices rose, increasing the value of harvest
produce, and enlarging the income of the Bengal zamindars. Since the revenue demand was fixed
under the Permanent Settlement, the colonial state could not claim any share of this enhanced
income.

Economic theories - By the 1820s, the economist David Ricardo was a celebrated figure in

England. Colonial officials had learnt Ricardian ideas during their college years. In Maharashtra when

British officials set about formulating the terms of the early settlement in the 1820s, they operated
with

Q45.What was the Ricardian theory?

A45. According to Ricardian ideas, a landowner should have a claim only to the “average rent” that
prevailed at a given time. When the land yielded more than this “average rent”, the landowner had a
surplus that the state needed to tax. If tax was not levied, cultivators were likely to turn into
rentiers, and their surplus income was unlikely to be productively invested in the improvement of
the land. Many

British officials in India thought that the history of Bengal confirmed Ricardo’s theory. There the
zamindars seemed to have turned into rentiers,leasing out land and living on the rental incomes.

Q46.Mention the revenue system that was introduced in the Bombay Deccan.

A46. the ryotwari settlement ,the revenue was directly settled with the ryot. The average

income from different types of soil was estimated,the revenue-paying capacity of the ryot was
assessed

and a proportion of it fixed as the share of the state.The lands were resurveyed every 30 years and

the revenue rates increased. Therefore the revenue demand was no longer permanent.

Q47. The first revenue settlement in the Bombay Deccan was made in the 1820s.Discuss.

A47. The revenue that was demanded was so high that in many places peasants deserted their
villages and migrated to new regions.In areas of poor soil and fluctuating rainfall the problem was
particularly acute. When rains failed and harvests were poor, peasants found it impossible to pay the
revenue. However, the collectors in charge of revenue collection were keen on demonstrating their
efficiency and pleasing their superiors. So they went about extracting payment with utmost severity.
When someone failed to pay, his crops were seized and a fine was imposed on the whole village.

Q48.What had struck in the 1830s?

A48. Prices of agricultural products fell sharply after 1832 and did not recover for over a decade and
a half. This meant a further decline in peasants’ income. At the same time the countryside was
devastated by a famine that struck in the years 1832-34. One third of the cattle of the Deccan were
killed, and half the human population died.

Q49. By the mid-1840s there were signs of an economic recovery of sorts.Explain.

A49. Many British officials had begun to realise that the settlements of the 1820s had been harsh.
The revenue demanded was exorbitant, the system rigid, and the peasant economy on the verge of
collapse. So the revenue demand was moderated to encourage peasants to expand cultivation. After
1845 agricultural prices recovered steadily.Cultivators were now extending their acreage, moving
into new areas, and transforming pastureland into cultivated fields. But to expand cultivation
peasants needed more ploughs and cattle. They needed money to buy seeds and land. For all this
they had to turn once again to moneylenders for loans.

Q50. Before the 1860s, three-fourths of raw cotton imports into Britain came from America.Analyse.

A50. British cotton manufacturers had for long been worried about this dependence on American
supplies. In 1857 the Cotton Supply Association was founded in Britain, and in 1859 the Manchester
Cotton Company was formed. Their objective was “to encourage cotton production in every part of
the world. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, a wave of panic spread through cotton
circles in Britain. Raw cotton imports from America fell to less than three per cent of the normal:
from over 2,000,000 bales (of 400 lbs each) in 1861 to 55,000 bales in 1862. Frantic messages were
sent to India and elsewhere to increase cotton exports to Britain. In Bombay, cotton merchants
visited the cotton

districts to assess supplies and encourage cultivation.

Q51.Discuss the cotton boom in India.

A51. As cotton prices soared export merchants in Bombay were keen to secure as much cotton as
possible to meet the British demand. So they gave advances to urban sahukars who in turn extended
credit to those rural moneylenders who promised to secure the produce.When there is a boom in
the market credit flows easily, for those who give out loans feel secure about recovering their
money. The ryots in the Deccan villages suddenly found access to seemingly limitless credit. They
were being given

Rs 100 as advance for every acre they planted with cotton. Sahukars were more than willing to
extend

long-term loans.While the American crisis continued, cotton production in the Bombay Deccan
expanded.Between 1860 and 1864 cotton acreage doubled. By 1862 over 90 per cent of cotton
imports into Britain were coming from India.

Q52.Why did the credit dry up in deccan?

A52. By 1865 these dreams were over. As the Civil War ended, cotton production in America revived
and Indian cotton exports to Britain steadily declined. Export merchants and sahukars in
Maharashtra

were no longer keen on extending long-term credit. They could see the demand for Indian cotton fall

and cotton prices slide downwards. So they decided to close down their operations, restrict their
advances to peasants, and demand repayment of outstanding debts.

Q53.How was the experience of injustice in Deccan?

A53. The refusal of moneylenders to extend loans enraged the ryots. got deeper and deeper into
debt, or that they were utterly dependent on the moneylender for survival, but that moneylenders
were being insensitive to their plight. The moneylenders were violating the customary norms of the
ountryside. Moneylending was certainly widespread before colonial rule and moneylenders were
often powerful figures. A variety of customary norms regulated the relationship between the
moneylender and the ryot.One general norm was that the interest charged could not be more than
the principal. This was meant to limit the moneylender’s exactions and defined what could be
counted as “fair interest”. Under colonial rule this norm broke down. In one of the many cases
investigated by the Deccan Riots Commission, the moneylender had charged over Rs 2,000 as
interest on a loan of Rs 100. In petition after petition, ryots complained of the injustice of such
exactions and the violation of custom.
Q54. The ryots came to see the moneylender as devious and deceitful.Explain.

A54. They complained of moneylenders manipulating laws and forging accounts. In 1859 the British
passed a Limitation Law that stated that the loan bonds signed between moneylenders and ryots
would have validity for only three years. This law was meant to check the accumulation of interest
over time. The moneylender, however, turned the law around, forcing the ryot to sign a new bond
every three years. When a new bond was signed, the unpaid balance – that is, the original loan and
the accumulated interest – was entered as the principal on which a new set of interest charges was
Calculated.In petitions that the Deccan Riots Commission collected, ryots described how this process
worked and how moneylenders used a variety of other means to short-change the ryot: they refused
to give receipts when loans were repaid, entered fictitious figures in bonds, acquired the
peasants’harvest at low prices, and ultimately took over peasants’ property..

Q55. Deeds and bonds appeared as symbols of the new oppressive system Analyse.

A55. The British, however, were suspicious of transactions based on informal understanding, as was
common in the past. The terms of transactions, they believed, had to be clearly, unambiguously and

categorically stated in contracts, deeds and bonds, and regulated by law. Unless the deed or contract

was legally enforceable, it had no value. Over time, peasants came to associate the misery of their
lives with the new regime of bonds and deeds.They were made to sign and put thumb impressions

on documents, but they did not know what they were actually signing. They had no idea of the
clauses

that moneylenders inserted in the bonds. They feared the written word. But they had no choice
because to survive they needed loans, and moneylenders were unwilling to give loans without legal
bonds.

Q56.Discuss the Deccan Riots Commission.

A56. The Government of Bombay was initially unwilling to see it as anything serious. But the
Government of India, worried by the memory of 1857, pressurized the Government of Bombay to
set up a commission of enquiry to investigate into the causes of the riots.The commission produced
a report that was presented to the British Parliament in 1878. This report, referred to as the Deccan
Riots Report,provides historians with a range of sources for the study of the riot. The commission
held enquiries in the districts where the riots spread, recorded statements of ryots, sahukars and
eyewitnesses, compiled statistical data on revenue rates, prices and interest rates in different
regions, and collated the reports sent by district collectors. The Deccan Riots Commission, was
specifically asked to judge whether the level of government revenue demand was the cause of the
revolt. It was the moneylenders who were to blame. This argument is found very frequently in
colonial records. This shows that there was a persistent reluctance on the part of the colonial
government to admit that popular discontent was ever on account of government action.