Chapter - 8
Peasants, Landlords and the State
5 marks answer questions
Question 1. What are the problems with using Ain as a source for writing agricultural history? How do historians deal with these problems?
Answer – Problems – Following are the problems in using ‘Ain’ as a source for writing agricultural history
(1) Many mistakes have been found in the summation of the data.
(2) There are inequalities in its numerical data. The data was not collected equally from all the provinces. While for many provinces detailed information was collected on the caste wise of the zamindars, such information is not available for Bengal and Orissa. Similarly, while the fiscal data for the provinces is given in great detail, important data such as prices and wages for the same regions are not recorded correctly. The detailed list of prices and rates of wages also given in the Ain are taken from the capital of the empire, Agra or its surrounding territories. Clearly, these figures are not relevant for other parts of the country.
To deal with these problems, historians can use ain as well as those sources which were written in the regions far away from the capital of the Mughals. These include documents from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan of the 17th and 18th centuries that give detailed information about the income of the government. Apart from this, there are many documents of East India Company which throw light on the agrarian relations in Eastern India. All these sources record the periodic conflicts between the peasants, the zamindars and the state. These sources help us to understand how the farmers viewed the state and how they expected justice from the state.
Question 2. To what extent can agricultural production in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries be called simply farming for subsistence? Explain the reason for your answer.
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In the Mughal period of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, how were the productions carried out to feed the average farmer's land and trade: how were they related to each other? Explain.
Answer – The main purpose of farming in the 16th and 17th centuries was to feed the people. Therefore, mainly cereals like rice, wheat, millet etc. were cultivated. But this farming was not only for subsistence. By then the nature of agriculture had changed a lot. The following arguments can be made in its favor
(1) Cultivation was carried out during two main seasons of the season—kharif (in autumn) and rabi (in spring). In most places except dry areas and barren land, at least two crops were grown in a year. . Where rainfall or other means of irrigation were available, three crops were also grown in a year.
(2) In the sources, words like Jins-e-Kamil are often found, which means - the best crops, the Mughal state also encouraged the farmers to grow such crops because they would give more tax to the state. Cotton and sugarcane were the main crops among these crops. Cotton was grown on large tracts of land spread across central India and the Deccan Plateau, while Bengal was noted for sugarcane cultivation where oilseeds (such as mustard) and pulses were also included in cash crops. This shows that the production of an average farmer's land for subsistence and the production for trade were intertwined.
Question 3. Give an account of the role of women in agrarian (Mughal-era rural) society.
Answer – Men and women play special roles in the process of production. Even in the Mughal era, men and women worked side by side in the fields. The men plowed the field and plowed, while the women engaged in sowing, weeding and harvesting as well as extracting grain from the ripe crop. With the development of small rural units and individual farming of the farmer, the resources and labor of the household became the basis of production. In such a situation, a distinction made on the basis of gender perception (female for home and men for outside) was not possible. Nevertheless, prejudices persisted in the minds of people regarding the biological activities of women. For example, in western India menstruating women were not allowed to touch a plow or a potter's wheel. Similarly in Bengal women during their menstruation could not enter the betel plantation.
Handicrafts such as spinning yarn, cleaning and kneading clay to make utensils, and embroidering clothes depended on women's labor. The more a commodity was commercialized, the greater was the demand for women's labor to produce it. In fact, farmers, artisans and women not only worked in the fields when necessary, but also went to the homes of the employers and also to the markets.
Question 4. Discuss the importance of monetary business in the period under consideration (Mughal period) with examples.
Answer- (1) During the Mughal period, there was a tremendous increase in the trade across the seas of India and trade of many new items started.
Due to the ever-increasing trade, a large amount of silver came to Asia as payment for the goods exported from India. A large part of this silver reached India. This was a good thing for India as there were no natural reserves of silver. As a result, from the 16th to the 18th century, the availability of metal currency, especially the silver rupee, remained stable in India. Therefore, there was an unprecedented expansion in the circulation of money and minting of coins in the economy. Apart from this, the Mughal Empire also found it easy to collect cash taxes. An Italian traveler, Jovanni Carreri, who had passed through India in about 1690, made a very vivid illustration of how silver reached India from all over the world. From his account we also learn that in the 17th century India, huge amounts of cash and goods were being donated.
(2) Even in villages, mutual transactions started taking place in cash. The linking of villages with urban markets led to a further increase in monetary trade. Thus villages became a part of the money market.
(3) Monetary turnover made it easy for workers to pay their daily wages.
Question 5. Examine the evidence that suggests that land revenue was very important for the Mughal fiscal system.
Answer- Land revenue was the main source of income of the Mughal Empire. Therefore, it was necessary to have an administrative system to control agricultural production and for the assessment and collection of revenue in the rapidly expanding empire. Therefore, the government made all possible arrangements so that all the cultivable land in the state could be plowed. The role of 'Diwan' in this system was very important because the responsibility of looking after the financial system of the entire state was on his department. Thus the account-keepers and revenue officials emerged as a decisive force in the reshaping of agricultural relations.
Assessment of Taxes and Collections - Before determining the tax, the Mughal state collected specific types of information about the land and the production on it. There were two phases of the land revenue system-tax assessment and actual collection. The deposit was the prescribed amount and the actual amount realized was recovered. Akbar had ordered the Amil-Gujar or revenue collecting officers to keep the option of receiving payment in cash as well as payment in the form of crops open to him. 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 make such a recovery.
Measurement of land - In each province, both the cultivated land and the cultivable land were measured. During the reign of Akbar, Abul Fazl compiled all the data of such lands in the Ain-i-Akbari. Efforts to measure the land continued even during the reign of subsequent emperors.
Question 6. To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society?
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Describe the caste and rural environment in Mughal India.
Answer- Due to caste and other discrimination like caste, the agricultural farmers were divided into many types of groups.
(1) A large number of those who plowed the fields were those who were engaged in works considered to be inferior, or labored in the fields. In this way they were forced to live in poverty. A large part of the village's population belonged to such people. They had the least resources and were bound by the shackles of the caste-system. Their condition was very pathetic.
(2) Such discrimination started spreading in other sects also. In Muslim communities, groups associated with bad deeds such as halalkhoran could live outside the village limits. Similarly, the life of the Mallahzadas (literally, the sons of sailors) in Bihar was like that of slaves.
(3) There was a direct relationship between caste, poverty and social status in the lower classes of society. This was not the case in the middle groups. In a book written in Marwar in the 17th century, Rajputs are discussed as farmers. According to this book Jats were also farmers. But their place in the caste-system was not equal to that of the Rajputs.
(4) In the 17th century, the Gaurav community in the region of Vrindavan (Uttar Pradesh) also claimed to be Rajput, even though they were engaged in the work of plowing the land. Due to increasing profits in animal husbandry and horticulture, castes like Ahir, Gujjar and Mali rose up in the social ladder. In the eastern regions, the pastoral and fishermen castes also attained the same social status as the peasants.
Question 7. How did the life of the forest dwellers change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
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Who were the forest dwellers? How did their lives change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
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Describe the life of the people living in the forest during the Mughal period.
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The people settled in the rural India of Mughal period had much more than agriculture. Explain.
Answer – 1. It is almost impossible to average the spread of forests on an all-India level in the sixteenth-seventeenth century, yet on the basis of information from contemporary sources, it can be estimated that this average was about 40 percent.
2. Contemporary works use the word wild for the people living in the forest. But being wild did not mean the absence of civilization, although nowadays this is the prevailing meaning of this word. In those days this word was used for such people. Those who lived on forest products, hunting and shifting cultivation.
3. For example, among the Bhils, forest produce was collected during the spring season, fishing was done in the summer, farming was done in the monsoon months, and hunting was done in the autumn and couple months. stood on the foundation of
4. The expansion of new cultural influences in the forested areas also started. Some historians have also suggested that Sufi saints (pirs) played a major role in the gradual adoption of Islam by the agricultural communities of the newly settled areas.
5. Social reasons also brought changes in the lives of the forest dwellers. The tribes also had chieftains, much like the "big men" of the rural community. The chieftains of many tribes became zamindars and some even became kings. He used to recruit his own brothers and sisters to build the army.
Question 8. Examine the role of landlords in Mughal India.
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Why were the zamindars the focal point in agricultural relations during the Mughal period? Explain.
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Explain the origin, integration and role of zamindars in villages and state whether this class was the only exploiter?
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Explain the role of zamindars in Mughal India in 16th-17th century.
Answer- Role- In the Mughal period the zamindars were the focal point in the agricultural relations. The following points were the mainstays of these relations.
(1) Agriculture was the source of income of the zamindars in Mughal India, but they did not participate directly in agricultural production. They were the owners of their land.
(2) Due to their high position in the rural society, they were given some special social and economic facilities. There were two reasons for the high status of the zamindars in the society. Their caste and the special services rendered by them to the state.
(3) The basis of the prosperity of the zamindars was their extensive personal land. This was called property or property. Proprietary land was cultivated for the personal use of the zamindar. These lands were often employed by daily wage laborers or subordinate laborers.
(4) Zamindars could sell their lands, bequeath or mortgage them to someone else.
(5) Another source of power of the zamindars was that they could collect taxes on behalf of the state. In return, they received financial compensation.
(6) Military resources were another means of power of the zamindars. Most of the zamindars also had their own forts and
There were also detachments consisting of cavalry, artillery and infantry.
(7) If we look at the social relations in the Mughal villages in the form of a pyramid, then the zamindars were part of its narrow head, that is, their position was the highest.
(8) Zamindars played an important role in the settlement of cultivable lands. He helped the cultivators to settle there by lending them farming equipment and money. The process of monetization of villages was accelerated by the purchase and sale of zamindari. Apart from this, the zamindars also used to sell the crops of their lands. There is evidence that zamindars often set up bazaars (haats) where farmers also came to sell their crops.
Question 9. How did the Panchayat and the village headman regulate the rural society? Discuss.
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Explain the role of Panchayat in the Mughal rural Indian society in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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Examine the role of Panchayats as a major component in the Mughal rural society.
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Examine the role of Panchayat in the villages during the Mughal period.
Answer- Formation of Panchayats- The Panchayat of the Mughal village was a meeting of the village elders. Often they were the important people of the village who had their own property. In villages where people of different castes lived, diversity was also found in the panchayat. It was an oligarchy in which the different sects and castes of the village were represented. The decision of the Panchayat had to be obeyed by everyone in the village.
Head of Panchayat - The head of the panchayat was called muqaddam or mandal. It appears from some sources that the chief was elected by the consensus of the village elders. After the election, he had to get its approval from the zamindar. The headman remained in his post only as long as the village elders had confidence in him. Without trust, the elders could remove him. The main job of the chief was to get the accounts of the village's income and expenditure prepared under his supervision. The patwari of the panchayat used to help him in this work.
The common treasury of the Panchayat – The expenditure of the Panchayat was run by a common treasury of the village in which every person contributed.
(1) The expenses for the hospitality of the officials who visited the village from time to time were also used from this treasury.
(2) This fund was also used to deal with natural calamities like floods.
(3) This fund was also used for such community works which the farmers themselves could not do, such as building small earthen dams or digging canals.
Regulation of Rural Society (Rights and Functions) – A major function of the Panchayat was to see that the people of all the communities living in the village lived within the boundaries of their caste. In Eastern India, all marriages took place in the presence of the Mandal. It was an important responsibility of the village headman to keep an eye on the conduct of the people to prevent caste disregard. , Panchayats were empowered to impose fines and expel any guilty from the community. Exclusion from the community was a drastic measure that was enforced for a limited time. Under this, the punished person had to leave the village for the given time. During this time he used to lose his caste and occupation. The purpose of such policies was to prevent the disregard for caste customs.
