Chapter 3: Ruling the Countryside
The Company Becomes the Diwan
On 12 August 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal. As Diwan, the Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory under its control. It now had to think of administering the land and organising its revenue resources. The Company's main aim was to increase the revenue as much as it could and buy fine cotton and silk cloth as cheaply as possible.
A New System of Revenue
The Company introduced new systems to ensure a regular income.
The Permanent Settlement (1793)
Introduced by Charles Cornwallis. Under this system, the rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars. They were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company. The amount to be paid was fixed permanently. The problem was that the fixed revenue was very high, and zamindars who failed to pay lost their zamindari. Peasants found the system extremely oppressive.
The Mahalwari System (early 19th century)
Devised by Holt Mackenzie and implemented in the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency. Under this system, the revenue was not fixed permanently. It was to be collected from a village or 'mahal', and the village headman was in charge of collecting it.
The Munro System (Ryotwari System)
This system was developed by Thomas Munro and was gradually extended all over south India. The settlement was made directly with the cultivators (ryots). Their fields were separately surveyed and the revenue was fixed.
Crops for Europe
The British realised that the countryside could not only yield revenue, it could also grow the crops that Europe required. By the late eighteenth century, the Company was trying its best to expand the cultivation of opium and indigo. The British 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, and rice in Madras.
The "Blue Rebellion" and After
Indigo cultivation was highly oppressive. The planters forced the ryots to sign a contract and take cash advances at low rates of interest to produce indigo on their best soils. The price they got for the indigo was very low. In March 1859, thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo. This was known as the Blue Rebellion. The government brought in the military to protect the planters but also set up the Indigo Commission to inquire into the system. The Commission held the planters guilty and declared that indigo production was not profitable for ryots. After the revolt, indigo production collapsed in Bengal.
Exercise Questions and Answers
1. Match the following:
ryot - village
mahal - peasant
nij - cultivation on ryot’s lands
ryoti - cultivation on planter’s own land
ryot - peasant
mahal - village
nij - cultivation on planter’s own land
ryoti - cultivation on ryot’s lands
2. Fill in the blanks:
(a) Growers of woad in Europe saw _______ as a crop which would provide competition to their earnings.
(b) The demand for indigo increased in late eighteenth-century Britain because of _______ .
(c) The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of _______ .
(d) The Champaran movement was against _______ .
(a) Growers of woad in Europe saw indigo as a crop which would provide competition to their earnings.
(b) The demand for indigo increased in late-eighteenth-century Britain because of the expansion of cotton production as a result of industrialisation, which in turn created an enormous new demand for cloth dyes.
(c) The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of synthetic dyes.
(d) The Champaran movement was against the indigo planters.
3. Describe the main features of the Permanent Settlement.
The main features of the Permanent Settlement were:
1. It was introduced by Charles Cornwallis in 1793.
2. The rajas and taluqdars were recognized as zamindars.
3. The zamindars were responsible for collecting rent from the peasants and paying revenue to the Company.
4. The revenue demand was fixed permanently, meaning it would not be increased in the future. The idea was to encourage zamindars to invest in improving the land, as they could keep any surplus income.
5. If a zamindar failed to pay the fixed revenue, their zamindari was auctioned off.
4. How was the mahalwari system different from the Permanent Settlement?
The key differences were:
1. Unit of Settlement: In the Permanent Settlement, the settlement was made with individual zamindars. In the mahalwari system, the settlement was made with a 'mahal', which was a village or a group of villages.
2. Revenue Demand: In the Permanent Settlement, the revenue was fixed forever. In the mahalwari system, the revenue was not fixed permanently; it was to be revised periodically.
3. Revenue Collection: In the Permanent Settlement, the zamindar collected the revenue. In the mahalwari system, the village headman was given the charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company.
5. Give two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue.
Two problems that arose with the Munro (Ryotwari) system were:
1. The revenue demand was too high. Driven by the desire to increase income from land, revenue officials fixed a very high revenue demand that peasants were unable to pay.
2. As a result of being unable to pay the high revenue, ryots fled the countryside, and many villages became deserted in large regions.
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