Q1. Fill in the blanks.

i. Growers of woad in Europe saw indigo as a crop which would

provide competition to their earnings.
ii. The demand for indigo increased in late eighteenth- century
Britain because of industrialisation.
iii. The international demand for indigo was affected by the
discovery of synthetic dyes.
iv. The Champaran movement was against the indigo planters.
v. Before 1865, the Company had purchased goods in India by
importing gold and silver from Britain.
vi. In 1792 France abolished slavery in the French colonies.

Q2. True/False
i. Mahalwari Settlement was introduced in Bengal presidency. True
ii. India was the biggest supplier of indigo in the world in
nineteenth-century. True
iii. Being a plant of the temperate zones, woad was more easily
available in India. False
iv. After the revolt, indigo production collapsed in Bengal and the
planters shifted their operation to Bihar. True
v. Mahatma Gandhiji started the Champaran movement against the
indigo planters. True

Q3. Who and when did the Permanent Settlement introduced in Bengal?
Ans. The Permanent Settlement was introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1793.

Q4. What role did women play in the cultivation of indigo?

Ans. Women usually carried the indigo plant to the vats.

Q5. Who were the gomasthas?

Ans. Gomasthas were the agents of planters.

Q6. Who was William Morris?

Ans. William Morris, a famous poet and artist of nineteenth-century Britain.
Q7. Who created Kalamkari print?
Ans. Weavers of Andhra Pradesh in India created Kalamkari print.

Q8. What are the two main system of indigo cultivation in India?
Ans. There were two main systems of indigo cultivation – nij and ryoti.

Q9. Who were the lathiyals?

Ans. Lathiyals were the lathi-wielding strongmen maintained by the planters.

Q10. Where did the English cultivate indigo?

Ans. The English cultivated indigo in Jamaica.

Q11. Where did the Portuguese begin cultivating indigo?

Ans. The Portuguese began cultivating indigo in in Brazil.

Q12. Where did the Spanish begin cultivating indigo?

Ans. The Spanish began cultivating indigo in in Venezuela.

Q13. Who was the President of the Indigo Commission?

Ans. W. S. Seton Karr was the President of the Indigo Commission.

Q14. Who gave the extensive description of Carribean islands?

Ans. Jean Baptiste Labat wrote extensively about Carribean islands.

Q15. Where did the French begin cultivating indigo?

Ans. The French began cultivating indigo in St Domingue in the Caribbean
islands.

Q16. What did the Permanent Settlement actually mean?

Ans. The amount to be paid was fixed permanently, that is, it was not to be
increased ever in future.

Q18. Which tragedy occurred during 1770 in Bengal?

Ans. In 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. About one-
third of the population was wiped out.
Q19. What is indigo?
Ans. Indigo is a tropical plant which was formerly widely cultivated as a
source of dark blue dye.

Q20. Who hold the responsibility of paying the revenue in the Mahalwari
Settlement?
Ans. Village headman holds the responsibility of paying the revenue in the
Mahalwari Settlement.

Q21. What is common in the two prints—-a Kalamkari print and a Morris
cotton print?
Ans. There is one thing common in the two prints: both use a rich blue colour
– commonly called indigo.

Q22. Where did the slave revolt take place in 1791?

Ans. In the French colony of St Domingue situated in the Caribbean islands,
the African slaves who worked in plantations rebelled in 1791.

Q23. Why did cloth dyers prefer indigo to woad?

Ans. Cloth dyers, however, preferred indigo as a dye because Indigo
produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye from woad was pale and dull.

Q24. Why were Bengal artisans deserting villages?

Ans. Artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to sell
their goods to the Company at low prices. Peasants were unable to pay the
dues that were being demanded from them.

Q25. What was nij cultivation?

Or
Explain nij cultivation.
Ans. Within the system of nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in
lands that he directly controlled. He either bought the land or rented it from
other zamindars and produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers.

Q26. What problems did zamindars face under the Permanent Settlement?
Ans. The revenue that had been fixed was so high that the zamindars 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.
Q27. What were the causes of Champaran Movement?
Ans. When Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa, a peasant from
Bihar persuaded him visit Champaran and see the plight of the indigo
cultivators there. Mahatma Gandhi’s visit in 1917 marked the beginning of
the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.

Q28. By the late nineteenth century, the Company forced cultivators in

various parts of India to produce which crops?
Ans. The British persuaded or forced cultivators in various parts of India to
produce other crops: jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in the United
Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and
Punjab, rice in Madras.

Q29. How did indigo trade attract foreign traders?

Ans. 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. Attracted
by the prospect of high profits, numerous Scotsmen and Englishmen came to
India and became planters.

Q30. Give two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing
revenue.
Ans. Two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing
revenue were:
i. Driven by the desire to increase the income from land, revenue
officials fixed too high a revenue demand.
ii. Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and
villages became deserted in many regions.

Q31. By the end of the 18th century, the demand for Indian indigo grew
further. What were the reasons behind it?
Or
Why did the demand for Indian indigo increase?
Ans. By the end of the eighteenth century, the demand for Indian indigo
grew further. Britain began to industrialise, and its cotton production
expanded dramatically, creating an enormous new demand for cloth dyes.
While the demand for indigo increased, its existing supplies from the West
Indies and America collapsed for a variety of reasons. Between 1783 and
1789 the production of indigo in the world fell by half. Cloth dyers in Britain
now desperately looked for new sources of indigo supply.
Q32. Explain how the Bengal economy landed up in a crisis under the Diwani
of the Company.
Or
How did the Bengal economy fell into deep crisis?
Ans. After the Company became the Diwan of Bengal it began its efforts to
increase the revenue as much as it could and buy fine cotton and silk cloth
as cheaply as possible. Within five years the value of goods bought by the
Company in Bengal doubled. Before 1865, the Company had purchased
goods in India by importing gold and silver from Britain. Now the revenue
collected in Bengal could finance the purchase of goods for export. This
caused huge loss of revenue for Bengal which paralysed its economy.

Q33. Why was the Indigo Commission set up by the government? What were
its findings and suggestions?
Ans. Worried by the rebellion, the government brought in the military to
protect the planters from assault, and set up the Indigo Commission to
enquire into the system of indigo production. The Commission held the
planters guilty, and criticised them for the coercive methods they used with
indigo cultivators. It declared that indigo production was not profitable for
ryots. The Commission asked the ryots to fulfil their existing contracts but
also told them that they could refuse to produce indigo in future.
Q34. What were the consequences of the economic crisis that gripped
Bengal?
Or
State the consequences of the economic crisis that gripped Bengal?
Ans. Consequences of the economic crisis that gripped Bengal
i. Artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to
sell their goods to the Company at low prices.
ii. Peasants were unable to pay the dues that were being demanded
from them.
iii. Artisanal production was in decline, and agricultural cultivation
showed signs of collapse.
iv. Then in 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal.
About one-third of the population was wiped out.
Q35. What was the “Blue Rebellion”?
Ans. In March 1859 thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo. This
was known as the 'Blue rebellion'. As the rebellion spread, ryots refused to
pay rents to the planters, and attacked indigo factories armed with swords
and spears, bows and arrows. Women turned up to fight with pots, pans and
kitchen implements. Those who worked for the planters were socially
boycotted, and the gomasthas – agents of planters – who came to collect
rent were beaten up. Ryots swore they would no longer take advances to
sow indigo nor be bullied by the planters’ lathiyals.

Q36. How was the Mahalwari System different from the Permanent
Settlement?
Ans.
Mahalwari system Permanent Settlement
1. Mahalwari system, devised 1. Lord Cornwallis introduced the
by Holt Mackenzie came into Permanent Settlement in 1793.
effect in 1822, in the North
Western Provinces of the
Bengal Presidency.
2. The amount to be paid was 2. The amount to be paid was
to be revised periodically, not fixed permanently, that is, it was
permanently fixed. not to be increased ever in
future.
3. The charge of collecting the 3. The charge of collecting the
revenue and paying it to the revenue and paying it to the
Company was given to the Company was given to the
village headman. zamindar.
Q37. What was the Munro system?
Or
What was Ryotwari system?
Or
What are the main aspects of Ryotwari system?
Or
Describe the Munro system.
Ans. The new system that was devised came to be known as the ryotwar (or
ryotwari). It was tried on a small scale by Captain Alexander Read in some
of the areas that were taken over by the Company after the wars with Tipu
Sultan. Subsequently developed by Thomas Munro, this system was
gradually extended all over south India. Read and Munro felt that in the
south there were no traditional zamindars. The settlement, they argued, had
to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had tilled the land for
generations. Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed before
the revenue assessment was made.

Q38. How was indigo cultivated under the ryoti system?

Ans. Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract,
an agreement (satta). At times they pressurised the village headmen to sign
the contract on behalf of the ryots. 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 per cent of
the area under his holding. The planter provided the seed and the drill, while
the cultivators prepared the soil, sowed the seed and looked after the crop.
When the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest, a new loan
was given to the ryot, and the cycle started all over again.

Q39. Give a brief description of the Mahalwari System.

Or
Brief notes on the Mahalwari System.
Or
Describe mahalwari system.
Ans. In the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency, an
Englishman called Holt Mackenzie devised the new system which came into
effect in 1822. He felt that the village was an important social institution in
north Indian society and needed to be preserved. Under his directions,
collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring 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 (mahal) had to pay. This demand was to be
revised periodically, not permanently fixed. The charge of collecting the
revenue and paying it to the Company was given to the village headman.
This system came to be known as the mahalwari settlement.
Q40. What were the problems faced by the planters in the NIJ system?
Or
What were the problems with nij cultivation?
Or
Why were planters reluctant to expand the area under nij cultivation till the
late 19th century?’
Ans. The problems faced by the planters in the nij system were:
i. The planters found it difficult to expand the area under nij
cultivation. Indigo could be cultivated only on fertile lands, and these
were all already densely populated. Only small plots scattered over the
landscape could be acquired. Planters needed large areas in compact
blocks to cultivate indigo in plantations.
ii. Nor was labour easy to mobilise. A large plantation required a
vast number of hands to operate. And labour was needed precisely at
a time when peasants were usually busy with their rice cultivation.
iii. Nij cultivation on a large scale also required many ploughs and
bullocks. Investing on purchase and maintenance of ploughs was a big
problem.

Q41. Why did the indigo cultivators decide to rebel? How did they show their
anger?
Or
Why did the indigo cultivators decide to rebel?
Or
Why did the indigo peasants decide they would no longer remain silent?
Ans. The condition under which the indigo cultivators had to work was
intensely oppressive. Finally they decided not to grow indigo. They became
united and rebelled. They showed their anger in the following ways:
i. Ryots refused to pay rents to the planters, and attacked indigo
factories armed with swords and spears, bows and arrows.
ii. Women turned up to fight with pots, pans and kitchen
implements.
iii. Those who worked for the planters were socially boycotted, and
the gomasthas – agents of planters – who came to collect rent were
beaten up.
 iv. Ryots swore they would no longer take advances to sow indigo
nor be bullied by the planters’ lathiyals.

Q42. What problems did Permanent Settlement pose?

Ans. Problems
i. 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 the zamindars found it difficult to pay.
ii. 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 but
no gain for the Company since it could not increase a revenue demand
that had been fixed permanently.
iii. Some had lost their lands in the earlier years of the settlement;
others now saw the possibility of earning without the trouble and risk
of investment. As long as the zamindars could give out the land to
tenants and get rent, they were not interested in improving the land.

Q43. Describe different stages of the production of indigo.

Or
How was indigo produced?
Ans. After harvest, the indigo plant was taken to the vats in the indigo
factory. Three or four vats were needed to manufacture the dye. Each vat
had a separate function. The leaves stripped off the indigo plant were first
soaked in warm water in a vat for several hours. When the plants
fermented, the liquid began to boil and bubble. Now the rotten leaves were
taken out and the liquid drained into another vat that was placed just below
the first vat. In the second vat the solution was continuously stirred and
beaten with paddles. When the liquid gradually turned green and then blue,
lime water was added to the vat. Gradually the indigo separated out in
flakes, a muddy sediment settled at the bottom of the vat and a clear liquid
rose to the surface. The liquid was drained off and the sediment – the indigo
pulp – transferred to another vat (known as the settling vat), and then
pressed and dried for sale.

Q44. Describe the main features of the Permanent Settlement.

Or
What were the terms of the Permanent Settlement?
Ans. Main features of the Permanent Settlement
i. The Company finally introduced the Permanent Settlement in
1793.
 ii. By the terms of the settlement, the rajas and taluqdars were
recognized as zamindars.
iii. They were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay
revenue to the Company.
iv. The amount to be paid was fixed permanently, that is, it was not
to be increased ever in future.
v. It was felt that this would ensure a regular flow of revenue into
the Company’s coffers and at the same time encourage the zamindars
to invest in improving the land.
vi. Since the revenue demand of the state would not be increased,
the zamindar would benefit from increased production from the land.

Q45. Why were ryots reluctant to grow indigo?

Ans. Ryots were reluctant to grow indigo because of the following reasons.
i. Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a
contract, an agreement (satta).
ii. Those who signed the contract got cash advances from the
planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo.
iii. But the loan committed the ryot to cultivating indigo on at least
25 per cent of the area under his holding.
iv. When the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest, a
new loan was given to the ryot, and the cycle started all over again.
v. The price they got for the indigo they produced was very low and
the cycle of loans never ended.
vi. The planters usually insisted that indigo be cultivated on the best
soils in which peasants preferred to cultivate rice.
vii. Indigo, moreover, had deep roots and it exhausted the soil
rapidly. After an indigo harvest the land could not be sown with rice.

Q46. Define the following terms: Mahal, Ryot, Satta, Bigha, Slave and
Plantation
Ans. Mahal – In British revenue records mahal is a revenue estate which
may be a village or a group of villages.
Ryot - Ryot was a general economic term used throughout India for peasant
cultivators.
Satta – Satta means an agreement.
Bigha - A unit of measurement of land. Before British rule, the size of this
area varied. In Bengal the British standardised it to about one-third of an
acre.
Slave - A person who is owned by someone else – the slave owner. A slave
has no freedom and is compelled to work for the master.
Plantation – A large farm operated by a planter employing various forms of
forced labour. Plantations are associated with the production of coffee,
sugarcane, tobacco, tea and cotton.

Q47. What were the circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of
indigo production in Bengal?
Ans. The circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of indigo
production in Bengal were:
i. The indigo ryots felt that they had the support of the local
zamindars and village headmen in their rebellion against the planters.
ii. The indigo peasants also imagined that the British government
would support them in their struggle against the planters.
iii. The ryots saw the tour of the Lieutenant Governor as a sign of
government sympathy for their plight.
iv. The magistrate Ashley Eden issued a notice stating that ryots
would not be compelled to accept indigo contracts.
v. As the rebellion spread, intellectuals from Calcutta rushed to the
indigo districts. They wrote of the misery of the ryots, the tyranny of
the planters, and the horrors of the indigo system.
vi. Worried by the rebellion, the government set up the Indigo
Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production. The
Commission held the planters guilty, and criticised them for the
coercive methods they used with indigo cultivators.
vii. It declared that indigo production was not profitable for ryots.
The Commission asked the ryots to fulfil their existing contracts but
also told them that they could refuse to produce indigo in future.
viii. After the revolt, indigo production collapsed in Bengal.