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and thus recover from his pitiable condition. Even Permanent Settlement (Focus on Bengal and
his children had to live a bonded life.
Just Think!
Why do peasants commit suside even now?
The Indian peasants and craftsmen were often the
same people. When peasants were not busy in
cultivation, they were busy making tools, weaving
clothes, making pottery etc. The British bought
raw materials from India and brought here
machine-made articles. These articles were
cheaper in price and better in quality. The artisans
could not compete against these articles, so their
economic life was greatly disturbed.
Info Bits
Info Bits
The indigo crisis continued even in the twentieth
century when Mahatma Gandhi too started his
movement in the favour of indigo cultivators in
Champaran (Bihar).
BRITISH AGRARIAN POLICY
The chief objective of the British agrarian policy
was to get them as much land revenue as possible.
The systems of land tenures and policies of land
administration aggravated the condition of the
peasants to a great extent. They adopted the
following types of land revenue systems :
Ijardari System (Focus on Bengal and Bihar)
After the British got the diwani rights in Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa in 1765, they continued with the
old system of revenue administration. In this, the
revenue officials collected land revenue from
peasants. They deducted 10 percent from this as
their commission, and deposited the remaining
amount with the treasury. However, Warren
Hastings brought a change in this system. He gave
the land for revenue collection to the highest
bidder. Since these bidders had to deposit a fixed
amount of land revenue, they tried to extract as
much revenue from the peasants as possible. With
a profit motive, they did not pay any attention to
any land reforms. This resulted in the pitiable
condition of both land and peasants.
Bihar)
Lord Cornwallis introduced a new system of land
revenue in 1793, called the permanent settlement,
with the objective of getting a regular income
from land revenue. This system was introduced in
Bengal and Bihar, and was later introduced in
Orissa, parts of Madras and Banaras. Earlier the
peasants were the owners of their land. Under this
system, if a peasant failed to pay the land revenue,
he was evicted from his land and this land was put
to auction. A large number of peasants were
rendered landless. This created a new class of
landlords. The landless labourers worked on the
fields of the landlords.
Merits of Permanent Settlement
This system had its impact not only on agriculture,
but also on social, political and administrative
aspects. The new class of landless peasants were
totally dissatisfied which often resulted in their
revolt. The new class of landlords were greatly
benefited, so they became loyal to the British. It
was a matter of administrative convenience for the
British as they now had to deal with a few
landlords in the place of a large number of
peasants. Since landlords were rich, they put in
more labour in the fields and got more produce.
Thus, this system proved beneficial to the British
and landlords.
Demerits of Permanent Settlement
The high rates of land revenue compelled
peasants to take loan from the village
moneylenders at high rates of interest, which they
were unable to repay, so they and their children
had to pass a bonded life. The condition of
landless peasants became very pitiable as they had
to work on the landlord’s land for a meagre
wages.
The permanent settlement was abolished by the
government of India in 1955.
Quiz Time
Fill in the blanks :
1. A large part of the Indian population lived in
__________ and depended on __________ .
Ruling the Countryside
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