3. Ruling the Countryside:
Q1. Match the following:
Answer:
| ryot | peasant |
| mahal | village |
| nij | cultivation on planter’s own land |
| ryoti | cultivation on ryot’s lands |
Q2. 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 lateeighteenth- century Britain because of __________.
(c) The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of __________.
(d) The Champaran movement was against __________.
Answer:
(a) Indigo
(b) Industrilasation
(c) Synthetic dyes
(d) Indigo planters
Let’s discuss
Q3. Describe the main features of the Permanent Settlement.
Answer: The main features of the Permanent Settlement are as follows;
(1) Kings and taluqdars were recognized as landlords.
(2) The task of collecting rent from the farmers and paying the company revenue was entrusted.
(3) The amount to be repaid on their behalf was fixed permanently.
(4) The British made a law for investing in land and farming.
Q4. How was the mahalwari system different from the Permanent Settlement?
Answer: The task of collecting revenue and paying it to the company was entrusted to the head of the village instead of the landlord. This system was named as Mahalwari settlement.
Q5. Give two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue.
Answer: Following are the two problems that have arisen due to the new Munro system of fixing revenue.
(i) It was expected from the ryots that they would try to improve the land but they did nothing like this.
(ii) The revenue officials had kept the rate of land revenue quite high, the ryots were not in a position to give so much land revenue.
Q6. Why were ryots reluctant to grow indigo?
Answer: These are following reasons by which ryots reluctant to grow indigo -
1) He was given advance loan for indigo cultivation.
(2) At harvest, they were forced to sell the crops at very low prices.
(3) They had to cultivate only a certain part of their land. Therefore, for the second crop they had only a small portion of land left.
(4) Indigo cultivation required extra time and effort.
Q7. What were the circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of indigo production in Bengal?
Answer: The ryots began to resist indigo cultivation. In their conflict, the village headmen and some Zamindars backed them up. The protests were so large that the government had no choice but to interfere. The Indigo commission was formed to look into the issues. The planters' flaws were accepted by the Commission, and the ryots were free to graw anything they wanted. Bangal's Indigo manufacturing eventually came to a halt as a result.
