Very Short Answer Type Questions
1. When did the Mughal emperor appoint the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal?
Answer: On 12th August 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal.
2. Which settlement was introduced during 1793?
Answer: Permanent Settlement was introduced during 1793.
3. Who were appointed to collect rent and pay revenue to the Company during Permanent Settlement?
Answer: Zamindars were appointed to collect rent and pay revenue to the Company during Permanent Settlement.
4. Who devised the system of Mahalwari?
Answer: Holt Mackenzie devised the Mahalwari system.
5. What was the conclusion of Permanent Settlement at end?
Answer: Permanent Settlement got failed.
6. Who initiated and developed the Ryotwari system?
Answer: Captain Alexander Read initiated and Thomas Munro developed the Ryotwari system.
7. Name the two systems adopted for growing indigo by the cultivators.
Answer: Nij and Ryoti were two systems adopted by the cultivators.
8. What is meant by Mahal?
Answer: Mahal means village or groups of villages.
9. What was the aim of the Company after getting Diwani?
Answer: After Diwani the Company aimed at administering the land and organising its revenue resources and this was done in way that could help the Company attaining enough revenue.
10. What was the difficult task for the Company to be done?
Answer: The Company needed to pacify those who ruled the countryside in past. So it was difficult task to eliminate entirely the past rulers of the countryside of the Company.
11. What led to minimise the bringing of gold and silver by the Company for trade purpose in India?
Answer: Revenue which was collected from Bengal was sufficient for the Company to purchase goods for exports so the Company started reducing getting gold and silvers for trade purpose.
12. What was the biggest drawback for zamindars in Permanent Settlement?
Answer: Failure of payment of revenue resulting in loss of the zamindari was the biggest drawback which zamindars faced in Permanent Settlement.
13. At the time of introduction of permanent settlement who was the governor general of India.
Answer: Charles Cornwallis.
14. Who was William Morris in the 19th century under British rule?
Answer: William Morris was a famous poet and artist.
15. By whom was the Morris cotton print designed?
Answer: By William Morris.
16. By whom was the ‘Kalamkari print’ was created?
Answer: By the weavers of Andhra Pradesh Kalamkari print was created.
17. Define ‘Famine’.
Answer: Extreme Scarcity of food is termed as Famine.
18. What was common in Kalamkari and Morris cotton print?
Answer: In both a rich blue colour common by known as ‘Indigo’ was used.
19. Define the term ‘Indigo’.
Answer: Indigo is a plant that produces the blue colour that is rich and is used as dye.
20. What is meant by ‘Vat’?
Answer: A large tank or tube used to hold liquid, especially in industry.
21. Who were ‘Gomasthas’?
Answer: The agents of Planters.
22. Who were the ‘Lathiyats’?
Answer: Lath – weilding strong men maintained by the planters.
Short Answer Type Questions
1: When was the ‘Diwani’ of Bengal granted to the East India Company?
Answer: The ‘Diwani’ of Bengal was granted to the British East India Company, in 1765.
2: During the Mughal rule what was the status of the ‘Diwan’?
Answer: During the rule of the Mughal Empire, the Diwan served as the chief revenue officer of a province.
3: What were the benefits reaped by the East India company as the Diwan of Bengal?
Answer: With the appointment as the Diwan, the Company became the chief financial Administrator of Bengal. The company could now administer the land and revenue resources of Bengal and could utilize the revenue to meet the expanses of the Company.
The Company now had the liberty to trade in all the goods it wanted to.
4: What were the ambitious plans of the East India Company?
Answer: The East India Company wanted to colonise the country side and organise revenue resources. Its priority was to redefine the rights of the people. The Company was also keen to produce the crops it wanted, in India.
5: What were the disadvantages of the ryotwari system?
Answer: The revenue fixed by the British officials in the ryotwari system was too high for the farmers. The farmers who were unable to pay the revenue left the farms. As the farmers left their farms the villages in the region wore a deserted look.
6: What were to the two major systems of indigo cultivation in India?
Answer: The two major systems of indigo cultivation in India were the ‘Nij’ system of cultivation and the ‘Ryoti’ system of cultivation.
7: What were the main features of the ‘Nij’ system of cultivation?
Answer: In the ‘nij’ system of indigo cultivation the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly owned. He either bought the land or rented it from other zamindars and produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers.
8: Give a brief description of the method of producing indigo dye?
Answer: The indigo leaves were fermented in a steeping vat. Then the liquid was extracted and oxidized in a beating vat. Finally, a blue precipitate was allowed to form from the liquid in a settling vat. This precipitate was collected, dried, and compacted. This dried compacted material is the indigo dye.
9: When did the ‘Blue rebellion’ break-out?
Answer: Indian farmers rebelled against being forced to grow indigo plants. In March 1859, thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo. This was known as the ‘Blue rebellion’.
10: What were the findings of the Indigo Commission?
Answer: The Indigo Commission was set up to enquire into the system of indigo production. The Commission declared that the Planters were unfair and that the farmers were not paid enough for their toil. The Commission also stated that in future the farmers could refuse to grow indigo plants and the Planters did not have a right to force them.
11: What was the out come of the Blue Rebellion?
Answer: After the ‘Blue Rebellion’, indigo production collapsed in Bengal. Planters shifted their operation to Bihar.
Long Answer Type Questions
1: What were the main features of the ‘Ryoti’ system of cultivation?
Answer: Under the Ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots or peasants to sign a contract. The village headman was also forced to sign an agreement on behalf of the ryots. The peasants received a loan from the planters to cultivate their land. Due to this the peasants were forced to cultivate indigo in 25% of their land.
The peasants received seeds and ploughs for cultivation from the Planters. They had to cultivate the crop and harvest it. The harvested indigo crop had to be given to the planters.
2. What gave the indigo peasants the power to rebel?
Answer:
- In 1859, the indigo ryots felt that they had the support of the local Zamindar and Village headmen in their rebellion against the planters.
- In many villages, headmen who had been forced to sign indigo contracts, mobilized the indigo peasants and fought pitched battles with the lathiyals.
- In other places even the zamindarswent around villages urging the ryots to resist the planters.
- These zamindars were unhappy with the increasing power of the planters and angry at being forced by the planters give them land on long bases.
- The indigo peasant also imagined that the British govt. would support them in their struggle against the planters.
3. What were the problems with ryoti system?
Answer:
- Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract, an agreement (satta). At times they pressurised the village headman to sign the contract on behalf of the ryots.
- Those who signed the contract got each advances from the planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo. But the loan committed the ryot to cultivating indigo on at least 25 per cent of the area under his holding.
- The planter provided the seed and the drill, while the cultivators prepared the soil sowed the seed and looked after the crop.
- The planters wanted that the indigo should be grows in the best soil.
3. Why was there demand of Indigo in Europe?
Answer:
- British cloth dyers, however, preferred indigo as a dye Indigo produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye from woad was pale and dull.
- By the seventeenth century, European cloth producers persuaded their government to relax the bam on indigo import.
- The French began cultivating indigo in St. Domingue in the Caribbean islands, the Portuguese in Brazil, the English in Jamaica, and the Spanish in Venezuela. Indigo plantations also came up in many parts of North America.
- By the end of the eighteenth century, the demand for Indian indigo increased its existing supplies from the West Indies and America collapsed for a variety of reasons. Between 1783 and 1789 the production of indigo in the world fell by half. Cloth dyers in Britain now desperately cooked for new source of indigo supply.
4: Give a brief description of the ‘ryotwari system’.
Answer: The ‘ryotwari system’ was introduced by Captain Alexander Read. This system was further developed by Thomas Munroe. According to the new system the revenue was to be collected directly from the farmers or ryots. This was necessary as the zamindari system was not prevalent in the southern regions. The lands of each farmer were separately assessed and the revenue was fixed accordingly. This system was also known as the Munro System.
5: Why did the British want to grow the ‘indigo plant’ in India?
Answer: The indigo plant grows primarily in the tropics and this was the primary reason for the British to turn to India for the growth of the indigo plant.
By the thirteenth century Indian indigo was being used by cloth manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye cloth.
The demand for Indian indigo grew, as European cloth manufacturers wanted only Indian Indigo as it produced a rich blue colour. Due to this demand the price of Indian indigo rose in the European market and mediated the British to grow more indigo in the Indian soil.
Another reason was the industrialisation of Britain as this resulted in the expansion of cotton production creating an enormous new demand for cloth dyes.
Indigo production in other countries began to decline and the demand for Indian Indigo increased in European countries. This demand made the East India Company to expand the area under indigo cultivation.
