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2. The __________ settlement was abolished by the authority to revise the rates of land revenue, so
the government of India in 1955. it was a better system for the government. The
3. The __________ labourers worked on the fields mahalwari system was introduced in western Uttar
of the landlords. Pradesh, Delhi, North-West Province, Punjab and
Central India.
4. __________ gave the land for revenue
collection to the highest bidder. OVERALL IMPACT OF BRITISH AGRARIAN POLICY
5. A __________ is chiefly grown for selling in the The overall impact of different types of revenue
market for commercial use.
systems was adverse for the peasants which
Ryotwari System (Focus on Madras and impoverished rural India. The following were the
Bombay) impacts of the British agrarian policy :
The ryotwari system was somewhat an q The rates of land revenue were very high
improvement over the system of permanent which put the peasants in various problems
settlement. In this, land revenue was not collected including debts.
from landlords, but from the cultivators (called q When a peasant was not able to pay the land
ryots) directly. A fixed amount of land revenue
revenue, he was either forced to take a loan
was settled depending on the quality of soil and
from the village moneylender at exorbitant
crops. This revenue was deposited by the rates of interest. This deteriorated his condition
cultivators in the treasury. This system was
from which he could never recover.
introduced in parts of Madras and Bombay.
q The land became a saleable commodity, due
Merits of Ryotwari System
to which a new class of absentee landlords
A cultivator was recognised as the owner of the emerged. These landlords seldom visited the
land, so he was not exploited by any middleman fields. They least cared for the cultivators, but
like a landlord. He was not evicted from his land remained loyal to the British, even during the
so long he paid his land revenue. The British too First War of Independence or even later during
got a regular income from land revenue. Also, the the national movement .
British could increase the amount of land revenue q The policy of land revenue impoverished the
from time to time, which was generally twenty to
rural India completely.
thirty years.
q The British were interested in extracting more
Demerits of Ryotwari System
and more land revenue but without any
The rate of land revenue was fixed at one-half of interest in the improvement of land or
the produce, which was too high. As agriculture irrigation methods.
mostly depended on monsoons, cultivators were q As the Indian trade and industry stagnated due
often at the mercy of rains and revenue officials.
to machine-made goods from Britain, it put
When crops failed, the moneylenders came into
more pressure on agriculture.
the picture who exploited them still further.
Mahalwari System (Focus on Punjab, CULTIVATION OF COMMERCIAL CROPS
Western and Central India)
The British wanted to have raw materials from
By ‘mahal’ is meant ‘a village’ or ‘a group of Indian agriculture in order to run their industries
villages’. It was a further improvement over the in Britain. A large number of industries were
other systems of land revenue. In this, the whole established in Britain as a result of the Industrial
mahal was taken as a unit, in which the Revolution. So, they compelled the Indian
representative of the village collected and peasants to grow cash crops, such as indigo,
deposited the land revenue. The government had cotton, poppy, jute etc. The British brought the
Contemporary Social Science-8
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