Class 8 Social Science Ruling the Countryside Exam Notes

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This Class 8 Social Science Ruling the Countryside exam notes page covers how the East India Company became Diwan of Bengal, how it sought revenue, the Permanent Settlement, the Mahalwari and Ryotwari land revenue systems, the British push for export crops, the history of indigo and its cultivation under the nij and ryoti systems, and the Blue Rebellion of 1859 that led to the Indigo Commission and later the Champaran movement.

THE COMPANY BECOMES DIWAN

The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam, in 1765, appointed the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal. The event, which took place in Robert Clive's tent, was witnessed by some Englishmen and Indians. It was a majestic occasion. For the British, it was a wonderful event.

Diwani made the Company the chief financial administrator of the territory where it ruled. It even had to administer the land and organise its revenue administration, to meet the growing expenses of the Company. As traders, the Company had to ensure that it had the products it needed to buy and sell. It moved with a lot of caution. It had to reorganise the revenue resources, clarify the rights of the people living there, and produce the crops which the Company required.

How did the Company get its revenue?

Even after becoming Diwan, the Company still considered itself basically a trader. It required a large revenue income, but did not set up a regular system of assessment and collection. Efforts were made to increase revenue as much as possible, so that fine cotton and silk cloth could be bought at cheap rates. The value of goods bought by the Company doubled in five years. The Company no longer needed gold and silver, as it could now finance the purchase of goods for export from revenue.

Gradually, however, a slide took place in the economy of Bengal, leading to a deep financial crisis. Artisans left villages, being forced to sell their goods to the Company at low prices. Peasants were unable to pay the high revenue asked by the Company. Both agriculture and artisanal work showed signs of decline. In 1770, a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. It wiped out one-third of Bengal's population.

The need to improve agriculture

The Company officials introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793. Under it, the rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars and were asked to collect rent from the peasants. In return, they were supposed to pay the revenue to the Company. The amount to be paid was permanently fixed. It solved the double purpose of the Company, as it got a fixed revenue, and it was expected that zamindars would invest in and improve the land. The revenue demand of the Company did not increase, but the production of the land rose, benefiting the zamindars.

The problem

The Permanent Settlement soon led to many problems for the Company. Company officials realised the real intentions of the zamindars. It was known that zamindars were least interested in the improvement of the land. The revenue fixed earlier was so high that the zamindars could not pay it. Thus, they did not improve the conditions of the land and made only profits out of it. The Company had made a rule that anyone who failed to pay the revenue would lose his zamindari, and several zamindaris were auctioned off by the Company.

By the beginning of the 19th century, prices in the market rose, leading to the expansion of cultivation. This increased the income of the zamindars, but brought no gain to the Company.

The zamindars still did not show any interest in improving the land. Most of them had lost their lands earlier, and the rest realised that they could earn without any investment in the land.

Further, in the villages, the cultivators were unhappy with these developments. The system was called 'oppressive'. The rent to be given to zamindars was too high, and their hold on the land was insecure. To pay rent to the zamindars, the cultivators had to borrow from the moneylender, and if they failed to pay the rent, they were dispossessed of the land they had cultivated for generations.

Evolution of a new system

The beginning of the nineteenth century convinced the Company officials that the system of revenue had to be altered. Thus, in the north-western provinces of the Bengal Presidency, a British officer named Holt Mackenzie devised a new strategy in 1822. Under his supervision and orders, collectors went from village to village to inspect the land, measure the fields and record the customs of different groups.

The roughly estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay. This calculation was to be revised periodically and was not fixed permanently. The task of revenue collection and payments to the Company was entrusted to the village headmen, rather than the zamindar. This system was called the Mahalwari settlement.

The Munro system

In South India, the British territories adopted a similar system. The new system was known as the ryotwar (or ryotwari). It was initially tried on a smaller scale by Captain Alexander Read, and later it was evolved and developed by Thomas Munro all over South India.

Both Read and Munro believed that in the south there were no traditional zamindars. Thus, the settlement could be made directly with the cultivators (ryots). They took great care of their fields. Munro believed that the British could act as a paternal father figure, giving protection to the ryots under them.

Land revenue system: loopholes existed

Within a few years of the evolution of the new system, it became clear that it was not totally successful. The greed to have more projects and the will to increase income from land were there, but the demand of revenue officials was too high. Unable to pay, the ryots fled the countryside, deserting their villages. The officials had thought that with the new system, the misery of the peasants would improve and make them rich peasants, but this did not happen.

CROPS FOR EUROPE

The British soon thought that the countryside should grow desired crops, besides yielding revenue. So, by the late eighteenth century, the Company tried its best to expand the cultivation of its desired crops, i.e., opium and indigo. In the next 50 years, the British got cultivators to produce crops like jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and Punjab, and rice in Madras.

Does colour have a history?

Kalamkari print was created by weavers of Andhra Pradesh in India. A floral cotton print was designed and produced by artists of nineteenth-century Britain.

Both prints used a rich blue colour, commonly called indigo. It is likely that the blue dye used in the floral cotton print in nineteenth-century Britain was manufactured from indigo plants cultivated in India. India was the biggest supplier of indigo in the world at that time.

Why was there a demand for Indian indigo?

The indigo plant mainly grew in the tropics. By the thirteenth century, Indian indigo was in use by cloth manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye clothes.

Very little Indian indigo was able to reach the European market, due to its high demand and low supply, which made it expensive. Finding no alternative, the Europeans depended on another plant called woad, which was used in place of indigo to dye cloth and make violet and blue dyes. Woad was more easily available in Europe and was grown in northern Italy, southern France and parts of Germany and Britain. The producers of woad got worried and forced their government to ban the import of indigo into their country.

But cloth dyers preferred indigo because of its rich blue colour, whereas the dye from woad was pale and dull. By the 17th century, European producers had forced their governments to remove the ban on indigo imports. The French started cultivating indigo in St. Domingue in the Caribbean Islands, the Portuguese in Brazil, the English in Jamaica and the Spanish in Venezuela.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the demand for Indian indigo grew. Britain had also begun its cotton industry and needed dye for its cloth. The demand for indigo increased, but its supply from the West Indies and America reduced. Between 1783 and 1789, the production of indigo in the world fell dramatically by half. Cloth dyers in Britain now looked for new sources of indigo, and the option was India.

Britain turns to India

In the last decade of the eighteenth century, indigo cultivation in Bengal expanded rapidly, and Bengal indigo started dominating the world market. By 1788, about 30 per cent of the indigo imported to Britain was from India, and by 1810 it rose to 95 per cent. Commercial agents and officials of the Company started investing in indigo production.

Many Company officials, Scotsmen and Englishmen were fascinated by the high profits, and they turned into planters. Those who fell short of money could take loans from the Company and from the banks that were set up at that time.

How was indigo cultivated?

Indigo cultivation was of two types: nij and ryoti. In the nij cultivation system, the planter produced indigo on lands controlled directly by him. He purchased the land or took it on rent from zamindars, and manufactured indigo by hiring labour.

The problem with nij cultivation

Planters found it very difficult to increase the area under nij cultivation. Indigo was cultivated only on fertile lands, and all these areas had a huge population. Only small plots scattered over the landscape could be acquired. Planters required large areas to grow indigo in plantations. They tried to take on lease the land around the indigo factory and evacuate the peasants from the area, but this led to tension and conflict between planters and peasants.

Further, large plantations required huge manpower. At this time, peasants were busy with the cultivation of rice, and so hiring labour was an arduous task.

Likewise, nij cultivation on a large scale needed many ploughs and bullocks. One bigha of indigo cropping needed two ploughs. Peasants were unable to supply their ploughs and bullocks for nij cultivation, since they were busy with rice cultivation at this time.

Thus, till the end of the 19th century, planters were reluctant to increase the area under nij cultivation. About 25 per cent or even less of the land producing indigo was covered under nij cultivation. The rest was covered under an alternate system called ryoti.

Indigo on the land of ryots

In the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract or agreement (satta). Several times, they forced the village headman to sign the contract on behalf of the ryots. All those who signed the contract got cash advances from the planters at low rates of interest to manufacture indigo. However, the loan forced the ryot to grow indigo on at least 25 per cent of their land. The planters gave the seed and the drill, while the cultivators tilled the soil, sowed the seeds and harvested the crop.

After the delivery of the crop to the planter, the whole cycle began all over again. Peasants who were initially attracted by the loans soon realised how harsh the system was. The price they received for the indigo they produced was minimal, leading to a chain of loans.

The planters forced cultivators to grow indigo on the best soils, which the peasants used for rice. But if indigo is grown on the best soil, the soil gets eroded and cannot be used for rice cultivation once the indigo is harvested.

THE 'BLUE REBELLION' AND AFTER

The ryots of Bengal in March 1859 refused to grow indigo and to pay rent. They attacked indigo factories, fully armed with swords, spears, bows and arrows. Women also came up, equipped with pans and kitchen ware. Anyone working for the planter was boycotted socially, and the gomasthas, or planter agents, were beaten up when they came to collect revenue. The ryots openly declared that they could not be bullied by the planters or by the lathiyals, the lathi-wielding strongmen of the planters.

The indigo ryots believed that they had the support of local zamindars and village headmen in their revolt against the planters. Village headmen, who had been forced to sign indigo contracts, gathered the indigo peasants to fight pitched battles with the lathi-wielding strongmen. Even zamindars went around villages urging the ryots to resist the planters, as they were unhappy with the growing power of the planters.

The indigo peasants even sought the support of the British government in their rebellion against the planters. When news of a revolt similar to the Revolt of 1857 came from the indigo districts, the Lieutenant Governor visited the region in the winter of 1859. The ryots took this as sympathy for their trouble. Queen Victoria declared that indigo was not to be sown. Magistrate Eden tried to placate the peasants and control an explosive situation. Gradually, even intellectuals from Calcutta joined the revolt and wrote about the miseries of the ryots.

The worry of another rebellion led the British government to appoint the Indigo Commission. The Commission held the planters guilty and took them to task for the cruel methods they used with indigo cultivators. It reported that indigo production was not profitable for the ryots. The Commission told the ryots to fulfil their existing contracts and not to take up new contracts.

After the revolt, indigo production collapsed in Bengal. The discovery of synthetic dyes in the late nineteenth century also shook the indigo business. On Gandhi's return from South Africa, a peasant from Bihar persuaded him to come to Champaran and witness the plight of the indigo cultivators. This visit in 1917 led to the beginning of the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.

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