Important :-
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, about 85 percent of the people in India lived in villages.
Agriculture was the main occupation of the people. Farmers and landlords were engaged in agricultural production. Agriculture, the common occupation of peasants and landlords, created a relationship of cooperation, competition and conflict between them. Historical sources of agricultural society and Mughal Empire :-
To understand agricultural history, we have Mughal sources and historical texts and documents which were written under the supervision of the Mughal court.
The basic unit of agrarian society was the village, in which the farmers who worked manifold lived. Such as tilling the soil, sowing seeds, harvesting crops, etc.
The major sources of history are chronicles and documents from the 16th and early 17th centuries.
Mughal Empire :-
Agriculture was the main source of revenue for the Mughal Empire. This is the reason why the revenue accessors, collectors and record keepers always tried to control the rural society.
Ain-e-Akbari: -
The sources were one of the most important historical texts. Ain-i-Akbari which was written by Mughal court historian Abul Fazl in Akbar's court.
The main objective of the Ain was to present such a blueprint of the empire of the court. Where a strong ruling class maintained social interaction. What we come to know about the farmers from the Ain is the attitude of the higher corridors of power.
The Ain is made up of five books (daftars), of which the first three books describe the administration of Akbar's reign. The Fourth and Fifth Books (Daftari) deal with the religious, literary and cultural traditions of the people and also contain a collection of Akbar's 'Shubh Kahan'.
Note :- Despite its limitations, the Ain-i-Akbari remains an extra ordinary document of that period.
other sources :-
Those documents found from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are included. Which give details or detailed information of the income of the government. Apart from this, there are many documents of the East India Company which present a useful blueprint for agriculture in Eastern India.
Farmers and their land and agriculture :-
Indian Persian sources of the Mughal period generally used the term raiyat (plural riya'a) or mujarian for farmers. Also we get words like farmer or Assamese.
Seventeenth century sources mention two types of farmers.
- (i) Khudkasht
- (ii) Pahi - Kasht
| self-cultivation | Pahi - Kasht |
| Khudkasht – The first type of farmers were those who lived in the same villages in which they had land. | The second type of farmers were those who were cultivators who used to come to other villages to do contract farming. People used to become Pahi Kasht on their own free will (if the condition is met better in some other village) and also compulsorily (out of financial trouble after famine and starvation. |
An average farmer in North India rarely owned more than a pair of oxen and two ploughs. Most would have had less than that. Farming was based on the principle of personal ownership. Farmers' land was bought and sold in the same way as other property owners.
One of the major consequences of such a diverse and flexible method of agricultural production was that the population gradually increased. According to economic historians or according to their calculations, despite the periodic starvation and epidemics, it increased by about 50 million . In 200 years , this was an increase of about 33 percent .
Although there was no shortage of cultivable land, yet only people of some castes were given jobs which were considered lowly. Thus they were forced to remain poor.
Irrigation and Technique:-
According to Baburnama, there was a lot of land suitable for cultivation from India, but there was no arrangement for running water anywhere. That's because there was absolutely no need for water for growing crops or for gardens.
Autumn crops were produced only by rain water and surprisingly the spring season crops were produced even when there was no rain at all.
Nevertheless, water was carried to small trees by means of buckets or rahats.
In Lahore, Dipalpur (both in today's Pakistan) and other such places, people used to irrigate through Rahat.
Plenty of crops :-
There were at least two crops in a year. Where rain or other means of irrigation were present at all times, crops were grown thrice a year.
Variety is found in the yield, for example, Ain tells us that by combining both the seasons, 39 varieties of crops were grown in the Mughal province of Agra while 43 varieties of crops were grown in Delhi province . Only 50 varieties of rice were produced in Bengal.
We have often got Jeans-e-Kamil (best crops) from sources. Cotton was grown on large tracts of land spread over central India and the southern plateau, while Bengal was famous for its sugar. Oilseeds (like mustard) and pulses were cash crops. Crops like cotton and sugarcane were the best gins-e-kamil. The Mughal state also encouraged the farmers to cultivate such crops because they used to get more taxes for the states.
In the 17th century, many new crops from different parts of the world reached India, the subcontinent, maize came to India via Africa and Pakistan, and by the 17th century it was counted among the main crops of western India.
Vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers were brought from the New World. Fruits like pineapple and papaya came all the same.
Spread of Tobacco: -
This plant was the first to reach the Deccan. From there it was brought to North India in the early years of the 17th century.
Ain does not mention tobacco in the list of crops of North India. Akbar and his nobles saw tobacco for the first time in 1604 AD.
The addiction to tobacco smoking (in hookah or chilim) seems to have taken hold around this time.
Jahangir was so worried about the spread of this bad habit that he banned it. This ban proved to be completely ineffective as we know that till the end of the 17th century, tobacco was one of the main items of cultivation, trade and use throughout India.
Panchayat and Mukhiya :-
There used to be a gathering of elders in the village panchayats. They used to be important people of the village. Those who had ancestral rights to their land.
In villages where people of many castes lived, there was often diversity in the panchayat. It was an oligarchy in which the different communities and castes of the village were represented. There is no place in this for the agricultural laborers doing small and rough work, the decision of the panchayat had to be accepted by everyone in the village.
The head of the panchayat was a headman called muqad or mandal. The chief was elected by the general consent of the village elders and after this election he had to get its approval from the zamindar.
The headman remained on his post as long as the village elders had confidence in him. Otherwise, the elders could have dismissed him.
The main work of the headman was to get the accounts of the income and expenses of the village prepared under his supervision and the patwari of the panchayat helped him.
The expenses of the Panchayat were met from the common treasury of the village to which each person contributed. This treasury was also used to meet the expenses of those tax officers who used to visit the village from time to time.
A major function of the Panchayat was to ensure that the people of different communities living in the village lived within the limits of their caste.
Rural artisans:
In the villages, artisans lived in good numbers and somewhere 25% of the total households belonged to artisans.
Rural artisans like potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers and even goldsmiths used to give their services to the people of the village. In return, the villagers used to pay him for his service in different ways.
Usually they were given either a part of the crop or a piece of village land, perhaps some land that was lying idle even though it was cultivable. What would be the nature of the payment, it was probably decided by the Panchayat. In Maharashtra, such lands became the home of artisans. On which the artisans had ancestral rights.
This system was sometimes found in a slightly modified form. Where the artisans and each agricultural family used to negotiate with each other and agree on one arrangement of payment. In such a situation there was usually an exchange of goods and services.
Social and economic status of women in village communities:
The men plowed the field and the women sowed, weeded, hoeed, harvested, and together they worked to extract the grain of the ripe crop.
Handcrafted works such as cutting yarn, cleaning and kneading clay for making utensils, and embroidery on cloth were aspects of production that depended on women's labour.
Farmers and artisan women not only worked in the fields when needed, but also went to employers' homes and markets.
In many rural sects, marriage required the payment of bride price and not dowry. Remarriage was considered valid for both the divorcee and the widow. Women had the right to inherit property.
Jungle and Clan :-
Contemporary works use the word wild for the people living in the forest. But being wild did not mean the absence of civilization at all, but nowadays this is the prevailing meaning of this word.
In those days, this word was used for such people who made a living from forest produce, hunting and shifting cultivation. For example, forest products were collected in miles in the spring season. Fish is caught in summer and is cultivated from the month of monsoon. Hunting was done in the months of Sharad and Jado.
As far as the state is concerned, for it the forest was a turning point, that is, a shelter for the miscreants. Babur writes that the forest was such a shield against which the people of the pargana were becoming fiercely rebellious and refused to pay taxes.
External forces used to enter the world in many ways. Army for the state. Hats were needed. For this, elephants were often included in the offerings taken from the forest dwellers.
Zamindar and his power :-
There were zamindars who were the owners of their land and who had got certain social and economic facilities because of their high status in the rural society.
One of the reasons behind the increased status of Zamindars was caste. The second reason was also that they used to give certain types of services to the state.
The reason for the prosperity of the zamindars was that their vast land is called property, that is, the property / milfiy land was cultivated for the personal use of the zamindar, often daily wage laborers or subordinate laborers worked on these lands. The zamindars could sell these lands as per their wish. Could be in someone else's name and could also mortgage them.
The power of the zamindars came from the fact that they could or would often collect taxes on behalf of the state. In return, they received financial compensation. Military resources were another source of their strength. Most of the zamindars had their own forts and their own troops, consisting of cavalry, artillery and infantry soldiers.
According to Ain, the combined military power of the zamindars in Mughal India was as follows : 3,84,558 (3 lakh 84 thousand 558) horsemen 4277057 on foot 1863 elephants 4260 cannon 4500 boats .
Land Revenue System :-
There were two phases in the arrangement of land revenue.
(i) Tax assessment
(ii) Actual Recovery
The deposit was the prescribed amount and the amount received was actually the amount recovered.
While fixing the revenue, the state tried to keep its share as much as possible, but due to the local situation, sometimes it was not possible to actually collect this much.
In everything, both the plowed land and the cultivable land were measured. During the reign of Akbar, Abul Fazl has compiled all the records of such lands in Ain and after that efforts to measure the land continued even during the reign of the emperors.
In 1665, Aurangzeb gave clear instructions to his revenue servants to keep an annual account of the number of cultivators in each village. Despite this, not all areas were measured efficiently because many large parts of the subcontinent were surrounded by forests and were not measured.
note :-
(i) Amil :- Amil was an employee. Whose responsibility was to ensure that the state rules were being followed in the provinces.
(ii) Polaj: - It is the land in which each crop is cultivated one after the other annually and in which it was never left vacant.
(iii) Parauti:- It is the land on which cultivation is stopped for some days so that it can regain its lost strength.
(iv) Chachar :- It is the land which remains vacant for 3-4 years.
(v) Barren: - That is the land which has not been cultivated for 5 or more years.
The flow of silver on the economy :-
The Mughal Empire was one of the largest empires in Asia that managed to consolidate its hold on power and resources in the 16th and 17th centuries. These empires were Ming (in China), Safawi (in Iran), Ottoman (in Turkey).
The political stability of these empires helped in laying a vibrant web of land trade from China to the Mediterranean Sea.
The opening of the new world from the explorer travelers led to a huge expansion in the trade of Asia, especially India, with Europe. This victory brought another geographical diversity in India's cross-sea trade, and on the other hand, trade of many new goods also started.
With the ever-increasing trade, a large amount of silver came from Asia to pay for the goods exported from India. A large part of this silver was pulled like India.
This was good for India because there were no natural resources of silver, on the one hand, there was an unprecedented expansion in the economy of currency communication and transportation of coins. On the other hand, the Mughal states found it easy to collect cash taxes.
|
History – Themes
in Indian History |
||
|
Pol
Science – Contemporary World Politics |
||
|
– Politics
in India since Independence |
||
|
Geography – Indian
People and Economy |
||
|
|
|
|
|
– Fundamental of Human Geography |
||
|
Chapter 1: - Population: Distribution, Density, Growth
and Composition |
||
|
Chapter 12: - Geographical Perspective on Selected
Issues and Problems |
||
