Colonialism and The Countryside

Where was colonial rule first established?

Bengal

Who was the Raja of Burdwan when permanent settlement was imposed?

Tejchand

Then it was Mehtab Chand

What sharpened the conflict between hill folk and settled agriculture?

Expansion of settled agriculture

How was Buchanan’s journal written?

Diary of places he went to

Who painted Bengal Village Scene?

George Chinnery,

Everyday life of common people in Rural Bengal, including jotedars and moneylends

Who was Charles Cornwalis painted by?

Thomas Gainsborough

Who painted rural scene?

Willaim Princep

Permanent Settlement was rarely extended to any region beyond Bengal?

New systems of revenue were imposed

Where was there an auction?

Burdwan 1797

95% fictitious

What was the auction for?

Number of mahals held by the Raja of Burdwan were being sold

Raja had arrears and his estates were put to sael

When did the Permanent Settlement come into operation?

1793

Zamindars had to pay a revenue to the East India Company

Those who failed to pay had the revenue had their estates auctioned to recover the revenue

Who is a Raja?

(King) used to designate powerful zamindars

What happened at the auction?

The found out that the buyers had been servants and agents of the raja

How much of the sale at Burdwan auction was fictitious?

95%

Per cent of zamindaris that changed hands after the Permanent Settements

75%

What did the British hope to resolve by introducing the Permanent Settlement?

Rural Economy in Bengal was in crisis.

Officials felt that trade and revenue resources could be fixed by encouraging investment in agriculture

Wanted to secure rights to property and permanently fix the rates of revenue demand

What did stable revenue rates mean?

Entrepreneurs could feel safe because state wasn’t going to increase rates

Regular flow of revenue

Would lead to emergence of yeomen farmers and rich landowners who have the capital and enterprise to improve agriculture

Class would be loyal to the British

What problem did the British encounter in Permanent settlement?

Identifying individuals who could both improve agriculture and contract to pay the fixed revenue to the state

With whom was the permanent settlement made?

Rajas and Taluqdars of Bengal

Now classfied as Zamindars

What was a Zamindar under the British?

Not a landowner but a revenue Collector of the state

Could have as many as 400 villages

Collected rent from different villages, paid the revenue to the Company and the difference was his income.

If he failed to pay the company his estate could be auctioned

Troops were disbanded

Cutcheries were brought under supervision of Collector by the Company

Lost power to organise local justice and local police

Distributing the revenue demand over villages

Who was Charles Cornwallis?

Commander of the British forces during the American war and Governor General of Bengal when Permanent Settlement was introduced in 1793

How was a zamindar paid?

Collected rent from different villages, paid the revenue to the Company and the difference was his income.

Who is a Taluqdar?

One who holds a taluq or connection

Taluq came to refer to a territorial unit

What did the British consider one revenue estate?

One zamindari

What were the 4 reasons as to why Zamindars defaulted?

Initial demands were very high, it was kept high because when the revenue increased the British won’t be able to capitalize. Burden on zamindars would decrease

Prices for agriculture were depressed so Ryots could not pay the zamindars

Revenue was invariable and had to paid punctually. Sunset Law

Permanent settlement limited the power of the Zamindar to collect rent from the ryot and manage his Zamindari

What are Ryots?

Raiyat was spelt like that in the British records.

Used to designate peasants

In Bengal did not always cultivate it by leased it out to under-ryots

What was the Sunset Law?

If payment did not come in by sunset of the specified date zamindari was liable to be auctioned

What did the Company want to do with zamindars?

Recognized them as important

wanted to control and regulate them

Restrict their autonomy

What became the alternative centre of authority?

Collectorate

Who was the officer of Zamindar who came around to the village for rent collection?

Amlah

Who were happy at the decreased influence of zamindat?

Rich ryots and village headmen (jotedars and mandals)

Prosecution for defaulters was long drawn

How many pending suits were there in Burdwan in 1798?

30,000

What is kist?

Instalments

Jotedar

What are pottahs?

Deeds of contract

Who were Jotedars?

Rich peasants

North Bengal
Also known as haoladars, gantidats or mandals

Who were adhiyars or bargadars?

Sharecroppers

Brought their own ploughs, labored in the fields and handed over half the produce to the jotedars

Who gave survey of Dinajpur district in North Bengal? Jotedars

Francis Buchanan

What powers did the jotedars have?

Had acquired several thousand acres

Controlled local trade

Controlled moneylending

Exercised power over poorer cultivators

More powerful than zamindar in the village

Lived in Village

Their land was cultivated by adhiyars or bargadars who bought their own ploughs and handed produce to him

Resisted efforts to increase jama

Prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties

Mobilized ryots who were dependent on them

Delayed payments of revenue

Bought Zamindar estate when he went down

Most powerful in North Bengal

Resisted more jama

What powers did the jotadars have?

Gave out loans to other ryots and sold their produce

How do we know about jotedars?

Francis Buchanans’s survey of the Dinajpur district in North Bengal

Who were under-ryots?

Paid rent to the ryots

How did Zamindars resist?

Fictitious sale

Didn’t pay revenue

Bought the property

Refused to pay purchase money

Process of defaulting and not paying in auction led to exhausting of state and other bidder at the auction

In the end, it was sold back at a cheaper price

When other people bought the estate they would be attacked by lathyals

What did the Raja of Burdwan do?

Transferred some land to mother (Company decreed that the property of women would not be taken over)

His agents manipulated the auctions

Withold revenue from company then bid on the estate and not pay money

Collective amount benami?

Rs 30 lakhs

Four big zamindaris

What does Benami mean?

Transaction made in the name of fictitious or relatively insignificant person.

Real beneficiary remains unarmed

1793-1801

Hindi word

30 lakh and 15% of sales

How much of the auctions were benami?

15%

30 Lakh

Who was the Lathyal?

One who wields the LATHI functioned as a strongman of the zamindar

What would happen when people outside the Zamindari bought the land?

They would be attacked by the lathyals of the former zamindar

Why did ryots resist the entry of outsiders and like the Zamindar?

Felt a sense of loyalty

Saw him as figure of authority

Saw themselves as proja (subjects)

Sale of Zamindars land disturbed sense of identity and pride.

When did the power of zamindar strengthen?

When the depression in prices was over

Revenue payment was made flexible.

Nineteenth century

When did the jotedars consolidate the power? Zamindars lost power

During the great depression of the 1930s

What was the Fifth Report?

1813

1002 pages

800 pages were appendices that showed petition of zamindars and ryots, reports of collector from different districts

Statistical tables on revenue returns

Notes on the revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras

Select Commitee

When was the fifth report published?

1813

1002 pages

800 were petitions

When was the fifth report published?

1813

1002 pages

Who was Maharaja Mehtab Chand?

Tejchand was the Raja of Burdwan. Subsequently under Mehtab Chand the estate prospered. Mehtab Chand helped the British during the Santhal rebellion and the 1857 revolt.

When did the Company establish rule in Bengal?

Mid 1760s

What did the people in Britian not like?

That India was controlled only by the East India Trading Company

Royal Charter gave them the power

Did not benefit all of Britian

Misrule, maladministration, greed and corruption in the Company

Why was the Fifth Report made?

Made by Select Commitee

One of a series of acts in the late eighteenth century to produce regular reports on the administration of India

Used to regulate East India company

Where was Satayjit Ray’s movie Jalshangar shot?

Andul Raj Palace

What is Andul Raj Palace?

Mentioned in Jalshanghat of Satyajit Ray

How long did the Fifth Report shape out conception of what happened in Bengal?

Century and a half

What was the Fifth Report innaccurate about?

Intended to criticizes the maladmistration of the company

Exaggerated the collapse of traditional zamindari power

Overestimated the scale on which zamindars were losing their land

Who was Francis Buchanan?

Physician who came to India and served in the Bengal Medical Service

Surgeon to the Governor-Genral of India, Lord Wellsely

Organises Calcutta Alipore Zoo

Charge of Botanical Gardens

Went back to India in 1915

Also Known as Buchanan-Hamilton

What were people like in Rajmahal hills?

Hostile and apprehensive of officials and unwilling to talk

His record did not tell us about their whole history
Place was inpenetrable

What were the people of Rajmahal hills known as?

Paharias

How did the Paharias live?

Subsisted on forest produce and practicing shifting cultivation (Mahua for food, silk cocoons and resin)

Cleared patches of forest by cutting bushes and burning the undergrowth

Grew pulses and millets enriched with potash from the ash

Scratched ground lightly and cultivated the land and left it to fallow so that it could recover its fertility

hunters, shifting cultivators, food gatherers, charcoal producers, silkworm rearers

What did the paharias collect from the forest?

Mahua for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale and wood for charcoal production

Undergrowth in forest provided pasture to cattle

Where did Paharias live?

Hutments within tamarind groves and rested in the shade of mango trees

The region was the basis of their identity and survival

What is Aquatint?

A picture produced by cutting into a copper sheet with acid then printing it

Who maintained unity in the Paharians?

The chiefs maintained the unity of the group settled disputes and led the tribe in battle

Why did Paharias raid the plains?

In years of scarcity

Meant to assert power over settled communities

Mean to negotiate relation with outsiders

What did Zamindars have to do for the Paharias to purchase peace?

Paid a regular tribute to the hill chiefs

What did Traders give to the hill folk?

Gave a small amount to use passes controlled by hill folk

Hill folk promised to protect them

When did peace with Paharias break down?

Last decades of eighteenth century

Why did peace with paharias break down?

British encouraged forest clearance

Zamindars and Jotedars turned uncultivated lands into rice fields

Why did the British want to expand?

Wanted to enlarge land revenue, produce crops for export and establish the basis of a settled, ordered society.

Encouraged Jotedars and Zamindars to cultivate rice

What did the British see forest people as?

Savage, unruly, primitive and difficult to govern

They had to be tamed, civilized and persuaded to give up hunting to take up plough agriculture

What did Paharias do for subsistence when foraging was not possible?

Raided villages and carried food grains and catlle

When did the British embark on a policy to kill Pahrias?

1770s

When was the policy of pacification proposed?

1780s by Augustus Clevland, the collector of Bhagalpur

What was pacification?

Paharia chiefs were given an annual allowance and made responsible for the proper conduct of their men

Expected to maintain order in their localities and discipline their people

What happened to Paharia chiefs who accepted authority?

Lost authority within the community
Perceived as subordinate employees or stipendiary chiefs

What happened as a result of Pacification?

They withdrew deep into the mountains

Every white man appeared to represent a power that destroyed their life

When did Francis Buchanan travel through Rajmahal hills

1810-11

What was hoe vs plough?

Hoe was the Paharia life

Plough was the settler/Santhal way

What was the life of Paharias?

Hunters, Shifting cultivators, food gathers, Charcoal producers and silkworm rearers

What did Buchan find in Ganjuria pahar?

Ganjuria Pahar was transformed through “proper application of human labour”

It was sufficiently cultivated show what a glorious country it might have became

Soil was rocky by uncommanly fine

Had finer tobacco and mustard

How did Santhals come into Ganjuria Pahar in 1800s?

Began to come in Bengal in the 1780s.

Zamindars hired them to reclaim land and expand cultivation

British officials invited them to settle in Jangal Mahals

Were ideal settlers and ploughed land with vigour

Persuaded to settle in foothills of Rajmahal

Cultivated Cotton and Rice

What was Damin-i-Koh?

1832

Land that was demarcated to the Santhals

What was the land grant with the Santhals?

Live in the land and practice plough agriculture

They were to clear and cultivate 1/10 of the land in 10 years

How many santhal villages in 1838? What was the population?

40

3000

How many santhal villages in 1851? What was the population?

1473

82,000

What did the Hymns and songs of Santhals say?

That they had a long history of travel

The Damin-i-Koh was their end

What was the Santhals new way of life?

Gave up mobility

Cultivated commercial crops for the market

Dealt with traders and money lenders

What happened to Paharias?

Withdrawn deeper into the hills

Could not practice shifting agriculture

Why was there a revolt by the Santhals?

State was levying heavy taxes on their land

Dikus charged them high rated of interest and took over the land if they were unpaid

Zamindars asserted control over the area

Who was the leader of the Santhal rebellion?

Sidhu Manjhi

When did the Santhal Revolt take place?

1855-56

What was the outcome of the Santhal revolt?

Santhal Pargana was created

5,500 square miles from districts of Bhagalpur and Birbhum

Creating a state with special laws could concile the Santhals

Who did Buchanan march with?

Draughtsmen, surveyors, palanquin, coolies

Costs beared by East India Company

Had specifc instruction of where to look and what he had to record.

Agent of sarkar