NCERT Solutions For Class 12 History Chapter 2 Colonialism and the Countryside

1. Paharias resisted the intrusion of outsiders. With their base in the hills, the Paharias regularly raided the plains where settled agriculturists lived.
2. These raids were necessary for survival, particularly in years of scarcity; they were a way of asserting power over settled communities; and they were a means of negotiating political relations with outsiders.
3.  The zamindars on the plains had to often purchase peace by paying a regular tribute to the hill chiefs. Traders similarly gave a small amount to the hill folk for permission to use the passes controlled by them. Once the toll was paid, the Paharia chiefs protected the traders, ensuring that their goods were not plundered by anyone.
4. During the pacification campaigns of British, the Paharias withdrew deep into the mountains, insulating themselves from hostile forces, and carrying on a war with outsiders.

1. Zamindars managed to retain control over their zamindaris by fictitious sale.
2. It involved a series of manoeuvres, for instance, the Raja of Burdwan transferred some of his zamindari to his mother, since the Company had decreed that the property of women would not be taken over.
3. They also manipulated the auctions by using their agents. When a part of the estate was auctioned, the zamindar’s men bought the property, outbidding other purchasers. Subsequently they refused to pay up the purchase money, so that the estate had to be resold. Once again it was bought by the zamindar’s agents, once again the purchase money was not paid, and once again there was an auction. This process was repeated endlessly, exhausting the state, and the other bidders at the auction. At last, the estate was sold at a low price back to the zamindar.

1. The Deccan riots happened in the year 1875 to show the anger of the Deccan ryots against the moneylenders, while the British were the main culprits. Their policies were responsible for the pitiable condition of the peasant but they claimed that the problem was between ryots and moneylenders.
2. The Peasants had to give their main means of production such as land, carts and animals to moneylenders.
3. Without animals the peasants could not continue to cultivate. So they took land and animals on rent. They now had to pay for the animals which had originally belonged to him.
    

1. By the early 19^th century, jotedars had acquired vast areas of land, sometimes as much as several thousand acres. They controlled local trade as well as money lending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region.
2. Within the villages, the power of jotedars was more effective than that of zamindars. Unlike zamindars who often lived in urban areas, jotedars were located in the villages and exercised direct control over a considerable section of poor villagers.
3. They fiercely resisted efforts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties, mobilised ryots who were dependent on them, and deliberately delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar.
4. When the estates of the zamindars were auctioned for failure to make revenue payment, jotedars were often amongst the purchasers.

1. Official sources would reflect official concerns and interpretations of events. The Deccan Riots Commission, for instance, was specifically asked to judge whether the level of government revenue demand was the cause of the revolt. And after presenting all the evidence, the commission reported that the government demand was not the cause of peasant anger. It was the moneylenders who were to blame. This argument is found very frequently in colonial records. This shows that there was a persistent reluctance on the part of the colonial government to admit that popular discontent was ever on account of government action. Official reports, thus, are invaluable sources for the reconstruction of history. But they have to be always read with care and juxtaposed with evidence culled from newspapers, unofficial accounts, legal records and, where possible, oral sources.
2. The main problem of using official sources in writing about the history of peasants is that we cannot rely on them as they were created by the ruling class which did not want to be seen as the culprits in the eyes of historians or higher authorities by accepting their wrong doing in writings.
3. Another cause could be the corruption in the system as we can see in the case of Bengal zamindars that used the loopholes of the British policies to maintain their zamindari rights in Bengal but official records did not tell much about the condition of peasants who were at the receiving end.
4. Some of the government officials also manipulated the data of the peasants and other poor people because if they told the reality to their superiors in Britain, they would have to face the corruption charges or they could be removed from their post.

1. Before the 1860s, three-fourths of raw cotton imports into Britain came from America. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, a wave of panic spread through cotton circles in Britain. As cotton prices soared, export merchants in Bombay were keen to secure as much cotton as possible to meet the British demand. So they gave advances to urban sahukars who in turn extended credit to those rural moneylenders who promised to secure the produce.
2.  These developments had a profound impact on the Deccan countryside. The ryots in the Deccan villages suddenly found access to seemingly limitless credit.
3. Ryots were being given Rs 100 as advance for every acre they planted with cotton. Sahukars were more than willing to extend long-term loans. While the American crisis continued, cotton production in the Bombay Deccan expanded. Between 1860 and 1864, cotton acreage doubled.
4. By 1862, over 90 per cent of cotton imports into Britain were coming from India. But these boom years did not bring prosperity to all cotton producers. Some rich peasants did gain, but for the large majority, cotton expansion meant heavier debt.
5.  As the Civil War ended, cotton production in America revived and Indian cotton exports to Britain steadily declined. Export merchants and sahukars in Maharashtra were no longer keen on extending long-term credit.
6. Merchants could see the demand for Indian cotton fall and cotton prices slide downwards. So they decided to close down their operations, restrict their advances to peasants, and demand repayment of outstanding debts.
7. That left the royts with high debts when prices were falling and cotton fields were disappearing. So they had to turn to the moneylender. But the moneylender now refused loans as he no longer had confidence in the ryots’ capacity to repay.

Many zamindaris were auctioned after the Permanent Settlement as most of the zamindars failed to pay the fixed revenue because -

1. The initial demands were very high.
2. The demands were made at a time when the prices of agriculture produce were depressed and the ryots were unable to pay their dues to the zamindars.
3. The revenue was invariable, regardless of the harvest. Even if the crops failed, the revenue had to be paid punctually.
4. The Sunset law: According to the Sunset law, if the revenue was not paid to the state by the sunset on a particular day, the zamindari was auctioned.
5. The East India Company had fixed the revenue that each zamindar had to pay. The estates of those who failed to pay were to be auctioned to recover the revenue. Since the raja had accumulated huge arrears, his estates had been put up for auction.
6. Sometimes bad harvests and low prices made payment of dues difficult for the ryots. At other times, ryots deliberately delayed payment. Rich ryots and village headmen - jotedars and mandals – were only too happy to see the zamindar in trouble.
7. Jotedars fiercely resisted efforts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties, mobilised ryots who were dependent on them, and deliberately delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar. In fact, when the estates of the zamindars were auctioned for failure to make revenue payment, jotedars were often amongst the purchasers.

1. The Santhals gave up their earlier life of mobility and settled down, cultivating a range of commercial crops for the market, and dealing with traders and moneylenders.
2. The Santhals, however, soon found that the land they had brought under cultivation was slipping away from their hands. The state was levying heavy taxes on the land that the Santhals had cleared, moneylenders were charging them high rates of interest and taking over the land when debts remained unpaid, and zamindars were asserting control over the Damin-i-Koh area.
3. By the 1850s, the Santhals felt that the time had come to rebel against zamindars, moneylenders and the colonial state, in order to create an ideal world for themselves where they would rule.
4. It was after the Santhal Revolt that the Santhal Pargana was created, carving out 5,500 square miles from the districts of Bhagalpur and Birbhum.

1. Paharias lived around the Rajmahal Hills during 18^th century while the Santhals had begun to come into Bengal around the 1780s. Zamindars hired them to reclaim land and expand cultivation, and British officials invited them to settle in the Jangal Mahals.
2. Having failed to subdue the Paharias and transform them into settled agriculturists, the British turned to the Santhals. The Paharias refused to cut forests, resisted touching the plough, and continued to be turbulent. The Santhals, by contrast, appeared to be ideal settlers, clearing forests and ploughing the land with vigour.
3. Their main activities of Paharis were to collect forest produce and practice shifting cultivation while Santhals practised plough agriculture, and become settled peasants.
4.  They cleared the forest to create cultivable lands with their main instrument, hoe. They grew variety of pulses and millets for their own consumption while Santhals were cultivating a range of commercial crops for the market, and dealing with traders and moneylenders.
5. Main forest produce of Paharias were mahua (a flower) for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale and wood for charcoal.
6. Paharias were hunters, shifting cultivators, food gatherers and strongly connected with natural life, that is forest. Meanwhile, the Santhals gave up their earlier life of mobility and settled down.
7. Paharias used to charge money from zamindars to maintain peace in the foothill while Santhals had to pay for taking over the land when debts remained unpaid. Paharias also used to charge some amount for the safety of traders to pass through the jungle.
8. It was after the Santhal Revolt that the Santhal Pargana was created, carving out 5,500 square miles from the districts of Bhagalpur and Birbhum while Paharis had to move deep into the forest to save themselves from the British.