Social Science VERY SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

The need to improve the agriculture in Bengal arise as it was felt that:

1. 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.
2. Since the revenue demand of the state would not be increased the zamindars would benefit from increased production from the land.

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.

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

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.

Charles Cornwallis was the Governor- General of India when the Permanent Settlement was introduced.

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.

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.

In the nij system, 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.

In the British territories in the south, a new system of land revenue was devised which was known as ryotwar or ryotwari. It was tried on a small scale by Captain Alexander Read and developed by Thomas Munro.

The British forced cultivators to produce crops in various parts of India and these were-jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in United Provinces, wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and Punjab, rice in Madras.

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.

Before 1865, the company had purchased goods in India by importing gold and silver from Britain. Now revenue collected in Bengal could finance the purchase of goods for export.

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.

The amount of revenue the peasants were expected to pay was fixed permanently, that is, it was not to be increased ever in future.

Two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue were:

1. Driven by the desire to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demand.
2. Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages became deserted in many regions.