Class 12 History Chapter 10 — Colonialism and Rural Society: Evidence from Official Reports
Welcome to HSLC Guru. This page offers a complete set of question answers for ASSEB Class 12 History Chapter 10 — Colonialism and Rural Society: Evidence from Official Reports (NCERT Theme 10: Colonialism and the Countryside). The notes cover the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, the Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems, the displacement of zamindars, the Paharia and Santhal communities, the Santhal rebellion of 1855-56, the cotton economy of the Bombay Deccan and the 1875 Deccan Riots — all carefully prepared from official reports, NCERT and verified board sources to help students score high in the HS Final Examination.
About the Chapter
This chapter examines how British colonial rule transformed rural India between the late eighteenth and the late nineteenth century. It uses official documents — revenue records, survey reports, the Fifth Report (1813), the records of the Deccan Riots Commission and the Buchanan journals — to reconstruct the experience of zamindars, peasants, tribal communities and moneylenders. The chapter explains three major land revenue systems: the Permanent Settlement of Bengal (1793) introduced by Lord Cornwallis, the Ryotwari Settlement of Madras and Bombay developed by Thomas Munro and Alexander Read, and the Mahalwari Settlement of North-Western Provinces drafted by Holt Mackenzie. It looks at how these settlements led to the decline of old zamindars, the rise of jotedars in Bengal, displacement of the Paharias from the Rajmahal Hills, the settlement of Santhals in Damin-i-koh, the great Santhal rebellion (Hul) of 1855-56, the spread of cotton cultivation in the Bombay Deccan during the American Civil War, and the violent peasant-moneylender conflict of 1875 known as the Deccan Riots.
Summary
The British East India Company’s takeover of Bengal after 1757 created an urgent need for a stable land revenue system. In 1793 Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement, recognising zamindars as proprietors of land in return for a fixed annual revenue payable to the Company. The amount was high, the “Sunset Law” was strict, and within a few decades many old zamindars lost their estates at public auction. A new class of jotedars — rich peasants in north Bengal — gained power locally, often outbidding the zamindar’s authority in the village. The Fifth Report presented to the British Parliament in 1813 documented these developments, though it exaggerated the decay of zamindars to justify Company policy.
In Madras and Bombay, Alexander Read and Thomas Munro developed the Ryotwari Settlement, under which revenue was fixed directly with each cultivator (ryot) for limited periods. In the North-Western Provinces, Holt Mackenzie framed the Mahalwari Settlement (Regulation VII of 1822), where revenue was assessed on each mahal or village and collected through the village headman. Each system was designed to maximise revenue for the Company, but in practice all three produced agrarian stress, indebtedness and, frequently, peasant resistance.
In the hills of Rajmahal lived the Paharias, shifting cultivators and hunter-gatherers whose forests were progressively cleared by the British. From the 1780s the Company invited the Santhals to settle the foothills, designating in 1832 a tract called Damin-i-koh (“the skirts of the hills”) as Santhal land. The Santhals cleared forests, paid revenue and became settled cultivators, but were soon trapped by zamindars, moneylenders (dikus) and Company officials who charged crushing interest and seized their lands. In 1855-56 the Santhals, led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu, rose in revolt — the great Santhal Hul. Although crushed, the rebellion forced the British to create the Santhal Pargana in 1856 with special protective laws.
In the Bombay Deccan, ryotwari peasants suffered under heavy revenue demands. When the American Civil War (1861-65) cut off cotton supplies from the United States, Indian cotton boomed; Deccan peasants borrowed heavily from sahukars (moneylenders) to expand cultivation. After 1865 cotton prices crashed, but moneylenders kept demanding repayment with high interest. In May 1875, ryots of Supa village in Poona district attacked moneylenders’ shops, burning bonds and account books; the riots spread across Poona and Ahmednagar. The Government appointed the Deccan Riots Commission, whose report (1878) blamed moneylenders and led to the Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act of 1879. These official reports, although shaped by colonial perspectives, remain essential evidence for reconstructing the rural history of nineteenth-century India.
সাৰাংশ
১৭৯৩ চনত লৰ্ড কৰ্ণৱালিছে বঙ্গত চিৰস্থায়ী বন্দোৱস্ত প্ৰৱৰ্তন কৰে — জমিদাৰক ভূমিৰ মালিক বুলি স্বীকাৰ কৰি বছৰি এক নিৰ্দিষ্ট ৰাজহ আদায় কৰাৰ ব্যৱস্থা। উচ্চ ৰাজহ আৰু “সূৰ্যাস্ত আইন”ৰ ফলত বহু পুৰণি জমিদাৰে ভূমি হেৰুৱালে; জোতদাৰ নামৰ এক নতুন ধনী কৃষক শ্ৰেণীয়ে ক্ষমতা লাভ কৰে। মাদ্ৰাজ আৰু বোম্বাইত আলেকজেণ্ডাৰ ৰীড আৰু টমাছ মুনৰোৱে ৰাইয়তৱাৰী বন্দোৱস্ত প্ৰৱৰ্তন কৰে — প্ৰতিজন কৃষকৰ লগত প্ৰত্যক্ষ ৰাজহ-চুক্তি। উত্তৰ ভাৰতত হল্ট মেকেঞ্জিয়ে মহালৱাৰী বন্দোৱস্ত প্ৰৱৰ্তন কৰে — গাঁওক একক ধৰি ৰাজহ ধাৰ্য্য।
ৰাজমহল পাহাৰৰ পাহাৰিয়াসকল বনাঞ্চল হেৰুৱাই জুম খেতিৰ পৰা বিচ্যুত হ’ল। ১৮৩২ চনত কোম্পানীয়ে দামিন-ই-কোহ অঞ্চল সাঁওতালসকলৰ বাবে নিৰ্দিষ্ট কৰে। কিন্তু সুদখোৰ (‘দিকু’) আৰু জমিদাৰৰ অত্যাচাৰৰ বিৰুদ্ধে ১৮৫৫-৫৬ চনত সিধু-কান্হু নেতৃত্বত সাঁওতাল বিদ্ৰোহ (‘হুল’) সংঘটিত হ’ল। ফলত ১৮৫৬ চনত সাঁওতাল পৰগণা গঠন কৰা হ’ল।
বোম্বাই দাক্ষিণাত্যত আমেৰিকান গৃহযুদ্ধৰ (১৮৬১-৬৫) সময়ত কপাহৰ চাহিদা বঢ়াৰ ফলত ৰাইয়তসকলে সুদখোৰৰ পৰা ধাৰ লৈ খেতি বঢ়ালে। যুদ্ধৰ পিছত মূল্য পতনে কৃষকক ঋণৰ বোজাৰ তলত পেলালে। ১৮৭৫ চনৰ মে’ত পুনাৰ চুপা গাঁৱৰ ৰাইয়তে সুদখোৰৰ দোকানত আক্ৰমণ চলালে আৰু ৰাজহ-বন্ড পুৰি দিলে — ই ‘দাক্ষিণাত্য বিদ্ৰোহ‘ নামে পৰিচিত। চৰকাৰে দাক্ষিণাত্য বিদ্ৰোহ আয়োগ গঠন কৰিলে আৰু ১৮৭৯ চনত দাক্ষিণাত্য কৃষক সাহায্য আইন প্ৰৱৰ্তন কৰিলে।
NCERT Textbook Question Answers
1. Why was the jotedar a powerful figure in many areas of rural Bengal?
Answer: By the early nineteenth century, while many old zamindars were declining under the weight of the Permanent Settlement, a class of rich peasants known as the jotedars consolidated their power, especially in the district of Dinajpur in north Bengal. They were powerful for several reasons. First, they owned vast tracts of land — sometimes several thousand acres. Second, they controlled local trade as well as moneylending, and exercised immense influence over the poorer cultivators of the region. Third, a large part of their land was cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars) who brought their own ploughs but had to surrender half the produce after the harvest. Fourth, the jotedars lived in the villages and dealt directly with the peasants, while the zamindars were absentee landlords living in towns. They resisted attempts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties, mobilised ryots against the zamindar and even purchased estates auctioned for non-payment of revenue. Their position was therefore stronger than that of zamindars in the countryside.
2. How did zamindars manage to retain control over their zamindaris?
Answer: The Permanent Settlement of 1793 made the zamindar’s position precarious because failure to pay the fixed revenue on the appointed day led to the auction of his estate under the Sunset Law. Yet many zamindars devised ingenious strategies to retain control over their estates. (i) Fictitious sales — the zamindar would transfer some of his land to women of his family, since the Company had ruled that women’s property could not be taken over. (ii) Estates put up for auction were often purchased by agents of the zamindar himself, who then refused to pay the auction price; the estate had to be re-auctioned and was eventually bought back at a lower price. (iii) Outsiders bidding for an estate were threatened or driven away by the lathyals (armed retainers) of the zamindar. (iv) Old ryots and peasants on the estate also resisted outside purchasers, identifying themselves with the zamindar. (v) Many zamindars formed alliances with revenue officials and obtained delays in payment. Through such methods, a number of old zamindari families managed to retain their estates well into the nineteenth century.
3. How did the American Civil War affect the lives of ryots in India?
Answer: Britain’s cotton industry depended heavily on imports from the southern states of the United States. When the American Civil War (1861-65) broke out, supplies were cut off, and Britain turned urgently to India for raw cotton. Demand for Indian cotton, particularly from the Bombay Deccan, soared and prices doubled. Cotton merchants in Bombay advanced loans to sahukars in the countryside, who in turn extended credit to ryots willing to expand cotton cultivation. Many peasants were also given seeds and ploughs on credit. For a brief period, ryots in the Deccan enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. However, when the American Civil War ended in 1865, US cotton flooded the world market again, prices crashed and credit dried up. Sahukars stopped advancing loans, but they continued to demand repayment of old debts at high rates of interest. Revenue demand was also raised in 1867 by 50 per cent or more in many districts. The peasants found themselves trapped in mounting debt — a situation that culminated in the violent Deccan Riots of 1875.
4. What were the main features of the Permanent Settlement?
Answer: The Permanent Settlement was introduced in Bengal by Lord Cornwallis in 1793. Its main features were: (i) The rajas and taluqdars of Bengal were recognised as zamindars and made the proprietors of land. (ii) They were required to collect rent from peasants and pay a fixed revenue to the Company. (iii) The amount of revenue was fixed permanently, never to be raised. (iv) Payment had to be made by sunset of a specific date — the Sunset Law; failure resulted in auction of the estate. (v) Zamindars were expected to invest in agricultural improvement, since their share would be the surplus over the fixed revenue. (vi) Two-thirds of the total agricultural produce or rental was claimed as revenue, of which the zamindar paid 10/11 to the Company and kept 1/11 for himself. (vii) The settlement created landed proprietors loyal to the British. (viii) Initially the revenue demand was so high and rigidly enforced that many old zamindars failed to pay and lost their estates.
5. How was the livelihood of the Paharias different from that of the Santhals?
Answer: The Paharias and the Santhals lived in and around the Rajmahal Hills, but their ways of life were sharply different. The Paharias were forest-dwellers who practised shifting (jhum) cultivation. They cleared small patches of forest with axe and hoe, scratched the soil lightly, grew pulses and millets, and abandoned the patch after a few years to allow the forest to regenerate. The forest provided them with food (mahua flowers, fruit, silk cocoons, resin) and grazing for cattle. Their chief led the community, settled disputes and led raids on the plains. They saw the forest as their identity and resisted any encroachment on it. The Santhals, in contrast, were settled agriculturists. After 1832, when the Damin-i-koh was demarcated, they cleared forests on a vast scale, ploughed the land and grew commercial crops like rice and cotton. They built permanent villages, accepted Company authority, paid land revenue, and dealt with traders and moneylenders of the plains. Where the Paharia represented a forest-based, mobile, subsistence economy, the Santhal represented a settled, plough-based, market-linked economy that the British actively promoted.
6. Why did the moneylender become a figure of hatred in the countryside in the nineteenth century?
Answer: The moneylender — sahukar, mahajan or bania — became a figure of hatred for many reasons. (i) He charged exorbitant rates of interest, often violating customary norms; the Deccan Riots Commission found rates of 25 to 50 per cent and even higher. (ii) He insisted on written bonds (khata), in which clauses were inserted that the illiterate peasants could not understand. (iii) Bonds were renewed repeatedly with new interest added, so that the original principal multiplied many times over. (iv) He refused to give receipts for repayments. (v) He took peasants’ standing crops at low prices in lieu of interest. (vi) When the peasant defaulted, he seized land, cattle and even household goods through the law courts that the British had established. (vii) He represented the cash economy that the colonial state had thrust upon the village. By 1875, the peasants of the Deccan saw the moneylender as a symbol of their dispossession, and during the riots they specifically attacked his shops, burnt his deeds and bonds, but spared his life and the rest of his property.
7. What forms did the Santhal rebellion take?
Answer: The Santhal rebellion of 1855-56, known as the Hul, was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu. According to Santhal tradition, Thakur (the supreme God) himself appeared and commanded them to rebel against the dikus — the outsiders, including zamindars, moneylenders, traders and the Company’s officials. The rebellion took the form of a mass uprising of around sixty thousand Santhals. They burnt the houses of moneylenders and zamindars, attacked police stations, refused to pay rent, declared the end of Company rule and proclaimed the establishment of a Santhal kingdom. They cut roads and railway lines and looted government property. The British declared martial law, sent troops with the help of zamindars, and crushed the rebellion brutally. After the suppression, the Santhal Pargana was created in 1856 — a separate administrative tract carved out of the districts of Bhagalpur and Birbhum, where special laws protected Santhal land from being transferred to outsiders.
8. Why was Buchanan’s account so important?
Answer: Francis Buchanan was a physician who came to India and served in the Bengal Medical Service. He travelled widely on behalf of the East India Company, surveying the natural resources, agriculture, soils, minerals, peoples and customs of various regions. His detailed journals and reports are an invaluable source for the historian, because they record what villages looked like, what crops were grown, who lived where, what local industries existed and how the landscape was being changed by colonial rule. However, Buchanan was not a neutral observer. He was a Company employee, and he saw the countryside through the eyes of the colonial state. He admired the dense forests of the Rajmahal Hills as raw material that ought to be cleared and brought under the plough; he disliked the ways of the Paharias because they did not fit British ideas of “improvement”. His writings therefore reveal both a treasure of local detail and a clear colonial bias — and the historian must use them carefully, weighing fact against the perspective from which they were recorded.
Short Answer Type Questions
1. When and by whom was the Permanent Settlement introduced?
Answer: The Permanent Settlement was introduced in 1793 by Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General of British India.
2. What is meant by the “Sunset Law”?
Answer: Under the Permanent Settlement, the zamindar had to deposit the fixed land revenue at the Company treasury before sunset of a specified date. If he failed, his estate would be auctioned the next day. This rule was called the Sunset Law.
3. Who introduced the Ryotwari Settlement?
Answer: The Ryotwari Settlement was first developed by Captain Alexander Read in the Baramahal area in the 1790s, and then extended and systematised by Sir Thomas Munro, particularly in the Madras Presidency.
4. Who designed the Mahalwari System?
Answer: The Mahalwari System was designed by Holt Mackenzie of the Bengal civil service and put into operation in 1822 (Regulation VII) in the North-Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency.
5. What was a “mahal”?
Answer: In British revenue records a “mahal” was the village or sometimes a group of villages treated as a single unit for the assessment of land revenue under the Mahalwari Settlement.
6. Who were the jotedars?
Answer: Jotedars were a class of rich peasants in north Bengal who, by the early nineteenth century, had acquired large holdings of land, dominated local trade and moneylending, and lived in the villages controlling the poorer ryots — often more powerful than the absentee zamindars.
7. Who were the dikus?
Answer: Diku was the term used by the Santhals for outsiders — the moneylenders, traders, zamindars and Company officials — whose presence in their region symbolised exploitation, debt and dispossession.
8. What is Damin-i-koh?
Answer: Damin-i-koh, meaning “the skirts of the hills”, was the tract of land at the foot of the Rajmahal Hills demarcated by the Company in 1832 as the territory in which the Santhals were to be settled and converted into agricultural cultivators.
9. Who led the Santhal rebellion of 1855-56?
Answer: The Santhal rebellion (Hul) of 1855-56 was led by the brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, along with their brothers Chand and Bhairav, against the oppression of zamindars, moneylenders and the British administration.
10. What was the Fifth Report?
Answer: The Fifth Report was a long official report (over 1,000 pages) submitted to the British Parliament in 1813 on the administration and activities of the East India Company in India, especially in Bengal, and is an important source on the working of the Permanent Settlement.
11. What were the main causes of the Deccan Riots?
Answer: The main causes were the heavy ryotwari revenue demand, the collapse of cotton prices after the American Civil War, the high rates of interest charged by sahukars, fraudulent bonds, seizure of land by moneylenders and the revenue enhancement of 1867.
12. When and where did the Deccan Riots break out?
Answer: The Deccan Riots broke out on 12 May 1875 in the village of Supa in Poona district, Maharashtra, and quickly spread to Ahmednagar and other parts of the Bombay Deccan.
13. What was the Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act?
Answer: Following the Deccan Riots Commission’s report of 1878, the colonial government passed the Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act in 1879, which restricted the powers of moneylenders, regulated interest rates and offered some protection to indebted ryots in the Bombay Deccan.
14. Who was Francis Buchanan?
Answer: Francis Buchanan was a Scottish physician employed by the East India Company who travelled across eastern India between 1807 and 1814, surveying the land, people and resources. His detailed journals are a key source for early nineteenth-century rural India.
15. What is the meaning of “ryot”?
Answer: Ryot is an Anglicised Persian-Urdu term for a peasant or cultivator. In the Ryotwari Settlement, the revenue contract was made directly with the individual ryot rather than with a zamindar.
Long Answer Type Questions
1. Discuss the main provisions and consequences of the Permanent Settlement of Bengal.
Answer: The Permanent Settlement was introduced in Bengal by Lord Cornwallis in 1793 to provide the Company with a stable income, encourage agricultural investment and create a class of loyal landlords. Provisions: (i) The rajas, taluqdars and other revenue collectors were recognised as zamindars and given proprietary rights in land. (ii) They had to pay a fixed annual revenue to the Company, never to be increased. (iii) Payment had to be made by sunset of a specified date — the Sunset Law — on penalty of auction. (iv) Two-thirds of the rental was claimed as revenue. (v) Zamindars could collect rent freely from ryots within their estates. Consequences: (i) The fixed revenue was so high that within a few decades many old zamindars defaulted and lost their estates. Burdwan, Nadia and Rajshahi witnessed massive auctions. (ii) A new class of moneyed townspeople and Company officials’ agents purchased estates and replaced the older landed gentry. (iii) Ryots were squeezed by zamindars demanding higher rents and abwabs (illegal cesses), causing distress and resistance. (iv) In north Bengal a class of jotedars rose, often more powerful than the zamindars themselves. (v) The Company gained predictable revenue but lost any share in agricultural growth. (vi) Investment in land improvement, expected by Cornwallis, did not materialise — the new owners preferred to live in towns and rent out land. The Permanent Settlement thus restructured rural Bengal in ways neither anticipated nor intended by its framers.
2. Compare and contrast the Permanent, Ryotwari and Mahalwari Settlements.
Answer: Each of the three British land revenue settlements responded to a different region and a different official perception of agrarian society. Permanent Settlement (Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, parts of Madras and Banaras, 1793) — Cornwallis’s system — fixed revenue permanently with the zamindar, who became the proprietor; failed to collect was punished under the Sunset Law. Ryotwari Settlement (Madras and Bombay Presidencies; began 1792-1820 with Read and Munro) — revenue was fixed directly with each cultivating ryot for a period of 20-30 years and then revised. There was no zamindar; the state dealt directly with the peasant; assessment was based on a survey of each field. Mahalwari Settlement (North-Western Provinces, Punjab, Central India; framed by Holt Mackenzie under Regulation VII, 1822) — revenue was assessed on each mahal (village or estate) as a whole; the village headman or a body of co-sharers collected the dues; the assessment was periodically revised. Common features: all three were designed to maximise the Company’s income, all three pushed the agrarian sector into the cash economy, all three caused indebtedness and peasant unrest. Differences: Permanent was rigid and benefited zamindars; Ryotwari was flexible but bypassed intermediaries; Mahalwari recognised village community rights. Together, by the late nineteenth century, they had transformed the rural economy and produced the very forms of distress visible in the Santhal Rebellion and the Deccan Riots.
3. Describe the displacement of the Paharias and the settlement of the Santhals in the Rajmahal Hills.
Answer: The Rajmahal Hills, lying along the western bank of the Ganga in present-day Jharkhand, were home to the Paharias — shifting cultivators, hunters and gatherers of forest produce. They were fiercely independent and frequently raided the agricultural plains for grain and cattle. The British first tried to suppress them by force in the 1770s under Augustus Cleveland, then attempted to “pacify” them by paying allowances to chiefs. But they refused to settle as ploughing peasants. Meanwhile the Company’s hunger for revenue and timber demanded that the forests be cleared. From the late eighteenth century the Company encouraged the Santhals — a community of skilled cultivators from Birbhum, Bankura and Manbhum — to migrate north and clear the lower hills. In 1832 a tract of 1,366 square miles at the base of the hills was demarcated as Damin-i-koh, “the skirts of the hills”, and reserved for the Santhals. They were promised land, low revenue and protection. The Santhals cut down the forests, built villages and ploughed the soil. Numbers grew from a few thousand in 1800 to over eighty-three thousand by 1851. The Paharias, deprived of forest, retreated higher into the hills, suffering hunger and disease. Within a generation, however, the Santhals too were under pressure. Revenue rates rose, moneylenders and zamindars from the plains entered Damin-i-koh and seized land for unpaid debts at exorbitant interest. Out of this collision was born the Santhal Hul of 1855-56.
4. Examine the causes, course and consequences of the Santhal Rebellion of 1855-56.
Answer: Causes: (i) The Santhals had cleared the Damin-i-koh on the promise of secure tenancy, but soon faced steep increases in land revenue. (ii) Moneylenders charged 50 to 500 per cent interest, refused receipts and seized land of defaulters. (iii) Zamindars from neighbouring areas claimed jurisdiction over Damin-i-koh and demanded rent over and above what was paid to the Company. (iv) Traders cheated the Santhals using fraudulent weights and measures. (v) The British police and courts sided with the dikus. (vi) The Santhals saw their world being overturned by the new colonial order. Course: On 30 June 1855, at Bhognadih, Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu summoned around ten thousand Santhals and declared that Thakur, their God, had ordered the destruction of the dikus and Company rule. Within weeks the rebellion involved sixty thousand Santhals across Bhagalpur, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Hazaribagh and Pakur. They burnt the houses of moneylenders and zamindars, attacked indigo factories and post stations, killed officials and proclaimed an independent Santhal Raj. The British declared martial law, deployed troops, allied with zamindars, and crushed the revolt by February 1856. Sidhu and Kanhu were captured and executed. Consequences: (i) Around fifteen to twenty thousand Santhals are estimated to have been killed. (ii) The British carved out a separate Santhal Pargana in 1856, with administrators and laws protecting Santhal land from sale to outsiders. (iii) The rebellion became a powerful tradition of resistance, inspiring later movements such as Birsa Munda’s Ulgulan in 1899. (iv) It revealed the deep agrarian crisis produced by colonial revenue policy and the rise of moneylending capital in tribal regions.
5. Discuss the causes, events and consequences of the Deccan Riots of 1875.
Answer: Causes: (i) The Bombay Deccan was settled under the Ryotwari System; revenue demand was high and rigidly collected. (ii) Cotton boom during the American Civil War (1861-65) led ryots to borrow heavily from sahukars to expand cultivation. (iii) After 1865 cotton prices crashed, but old debts remained at usurious rates of 25-50 per cent. (iv) The general revenue revision of 1867 raised the demand by 50 per cent or more in many talukas. (v) Sahukars stopped extending fresh credit, demanded immediate repayment and seized land, crops and cattle of defaulters using the law courts. (vi) Many moneylenders were Marwaris and Gujaratis from outside the village, intensifying the local sense of injustice. Events: On 12 May 1875, the ryots of Supa in Poona district attacked the houses and shops of moneylenders, dragged out their bonds and account books and burnt them. The riot spread quickly across the talukas of Bhimthadi, Indapur, Parner and Sirur in Poona and across Ahmednagar district, lasting through May and June. Significantly, the rioters did not generally kill moneylenders or burn their houses; the target was the bond and the account book — symbols of debt. Consequences: (i) The colonial government appointed the Deccan Riots Commission, which collected evidence in 1875 and submitted its report in 1878. The Commission concluded that revenue demand was not the principal cause and blamed the moneylender — a useful conclusion for the colonial state. (ii) The Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act of 1879 was passed, restricting moneylenders’ powers and offering some protection to ryots. (iii) The riots exposed the deep distress of the ryotwari peasantry and the role of commercial agriculture and moneylending capital in producing rural poverty.
6. Critically assess the official reports as a source for the history of rural society in colonial India.
Answer: Reports such as the Fifth Report (1813), Buchanan’s journals (1807-14) and the Deccan Riots Commission Report (1878) are indispensable sources for the historian of nineteenth-century rural India because they contain a vast quantity of detail — about villages, crops, prices, peoples, customs and disputes — that is not available anywhere else. Strengths: (i) They are based on direct surveys, statistical compilations and oral testimony from peasants, moneylenders and officials. (ii) They preserve the voices of those — like the Santhals or the ryots of Poona — who left no written records of their own. (iii) They provide chronological depth, allowing comparison across decades. Limitations: (i) They were produced by the colonial state and reflect its interests; the Fifth Report exaggerated the decline of zamindars to justify Company policy and the Deccan Commission deflected blame from revenue policy onto the moneylender. (ii) They were shaped by British ideas of “improvement”, which dismissed indigenous practices like jhum as wasteful. (iii) They often homogenised diverse peasant experiences under simple categories. (iv) Statistical figures were sometimes invented or rounded. The historian, therefore, must read these reports against the grain — using their facts but questioning their framework, and supplementing them with peasant petitions, oral traditions and quantitative data from local archives.
Comparison of British Land Revenue Systems
| Feature | Permanent Settlement | Ryotwari Settlement | Mahalwari Settlement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year introduced | 1793 | 1792 (Baramahal); systematised 1820s | 1822 (Regulation VII) |
| Region | Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, parts of Banaras and Madras | Madras and Bombay Presidencies | North-Western Provinces, Punjab, Central India |
| Architect | Lord Cornwallis | Alexander Read & Thomas Munro | Holt Mackenzie |
| Revenue payer | Zamindar (made proprietor) | Individual ryot (cultivator) | Village (mahal) headman |
| Period of assessment | Permanent — fixed forever | Periodic, every 20-30 years | Periodic revision |
| Share of revenue | 10/11 to Company, 1/11 to zamindar | Fixed proportion of estimated produce | Fixed share of village rental |
| Strength | Predictable income for Company | Direct contact with cultivator | Recognised village community |
| Weakness | Inflexible — many zamindars ruined; ryots squeezed | High demand led to indebtedness, riots (Deccan 1875) | Heavy demand caused village distress |
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. The Permanent Settlement was introduced in Bengal in —
(a) 1773 (b) 1784 (c) 1793 (d) 1813
Answer: (c) 1793
2. Who introduced the Permanent Settlement?
(a) Warren Hastings (b) Lord Cornwallis (c) Lord Wellesley (d) Lord Dalhousie
Answer: (b) Lord Cornwallis
3. The Sunset Law was associated with —
(a) Ryotwari Settlement (b) Mahalwari Settlement (c) Permanent Settlement (d) Subsidiary Alliance
Answer: (c) Permanent Settlement
4. The Ryotwari Settlement was introduced by —
(a) Cornwallis (b) Thomas Munro (c) Holt Mackenzie (d) Lord Bentinck
Answer: (b) Thomas Munro
5. The Mahalwari Settlement was framed by —
(a) Alexander Read (b) Holt Mackenzie (c) Charles Metcalfe (d) William Bentinck
Answer: (b) Holt Mackenzie
6. The Fifth Report was submitted to the British Parliament in —
(a) 1793 (b) 1803 (c) 1813 (d) 1833
Answer: (c) 1813
7. Jotedars were powerful peasants of —
(a) Bombay Deccan (b) Madras Presidency (c) North Bengal (d) Punjab
Answer: (c) North Bengal
8. The Damin-i-koh was demarcated for the —
(a) Paharias (b) Mundas (c) Santhals (d) Bhils
Answer: (c) Santhals
9. Damin-i-koh was demarcated in —
(a) 1822 (b) 1832 (c) 1855 (d) 1858
Answer: (b) 1832
10. The Santhal rebellion took place in —
(a) 1831-32 (b) 1855-56 (c) 1857-58 (d) 1875-76
Answer: (b) 1855-56
11. The Santhal Hul was led by —
(a) Birsa Munda (b) Sidhu and Kanhu (c) Tilka Manjhi (d) Tana Bhagat
Answer: (b) Sidhu and Kanhu
12. The Santhals called outsiders —
(a) Sahibs (b) Dikus (c) Sahukars (d) Marwaris
Answer: (b) Dikus
13. The Paharias were inhabitants of the —
(a) Vindhya Range (b) Aravalli Hills (c) Rajmahal Hills (d) Nilgiri Hills
Answer: (c) Rajmahal Hills
14. The Deccan Riots broke out in —
(a) 1857 (b) 1865 (c) 1875 (d) 1878
Answer: (c) 1875
15. The Deccan Riots first started at —
(a) Pune city (b) Supa village (c) Ahmednagar (d) Sholapur
Answer: (b) Supa village
16. The Deccan Riots Commission submitted its report in —
(a) 1875 (b) 1878 (c) 1879 (d) 1881
Answer: (b) 1878
17. The Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act was passed in —
(a) 1859 (b) 1875 (c) 1879 (d) 1885
Answer: (c) 1879
18. The American Civil War took place during —
(a) 1857-60 (b) 1861-65 (c) 1865-69 (d) 1870-74
Answer: (b) 1861-65
19. Indian moneylenders in the Deccan were called —
(a) Banias (b) Sahukars (c) Mahajans (d) All of these
Answer: (d) All of these
20. Francis Buchanan was a —
(a) Soldier (b) Physician and surveyor (c) Missionary (d) Judge
Answer: (b) Physician and surveyor
21. Adhiyars or bargadars were —
(a) Zamindars (b) Sharecroppers (c) Moneylenders (d) Revenue officials
Answer: (b) Sharecroppers
22. The Mahalwari Settlement was introduced under —
(a) Regulation V of 1813 (b) Regulation VII of 1822 (c) Regulation IX of 1833 (d) Regulation X of 1859
Answer: (b) Regulation VII of 1822
23. The Ryotwari Settlement was first tried by Alexander Read in —
(a) Tanjore (b) Baramahal (c) Bellary (d) Madurai
Answer: (b) Baramahal
24. The Santhal Pargana was created in —
(a) 1832 (b) 1855 (c) 1856 (d) 1858
Answer: (c) 1856
25. In which presidency was the Mahalwari Settlement introduced?
(a) Bengal (b) Madras (c) Bombay (d) North-Western Provinces
Answer: (d) North-Western Provinces
Key Terms and Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Zamindar | A landlord recognised by the British as proprietor of an estate, responsible for paying land revenue. |
| Ryot | A peasant or cultivator of the soil; the basic unit of the Ryotwari Settlement. |
| Jotedar | Rich peasant in north Bengal who owned large lands, controlled trade and moneylending and dominated the village. |
| Mahal | A village or group of villages treated as a single unit for revenue assessment under the Mahalwari Settlement. |
| Sunset Law | Rule under the Permanent Settlement requiring the zamindar to pay revenue by sunset of an appointed day. |
| Fifth Report | 1813 report to the British Parliament on the East India Company’s administration in India. |
| Damin-i-koh | “Skirts of the hills” — the area at the foot of the Rajmahal Hills demarcated for Santhal settlement in 1832. |
| Diku | Santhal term for outsiders — moneylenders, zamindars, traders and Company officials. |
| Sahukar / Mahajan / Bania | Indian moneylenders and traders, often from outside the village. |
| Hul | The Santhal word for “rebellion”; specifically the uprising of 1855-56. |
| Adhiyar / Bargadar | Sharecropper who cultivated a jotedar’s land and surrendered half the produce. |
| Lathyal | Armed retainer (literally “stick-wielder”) employed by zamindars to enforce their authority. |
| Abwab | Illegal cesses or surcharges levied by zamindars on top of regular rent. |
| Khata | Account book maintained by moneylenders recording loans and interest. |
| Deed of Hire | A bond signed by a peasant pledging his labour or land to a moneylender as security for a loan. |
| Ulgulan | “Great Tumult” — name given to Birsa Munda’s rebellion (1899-1900), inspired by the Santhal Hul. |
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