Permanent Settlement (Zamindari System) in Bengal
The Basics
By the 1770s, Bengal's rural economy was in crisis. Famines had struck, and agricultural output was falling.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsModern India · Topic 5 of 20
Economic Policies: Land Revenue, Trade and Deindustrialization
Colonial land revenue systems and the economic transformation of India
Ryotwari Settlement
The Basics
When the East India Company expanded its control over Madras and parts of Bombay in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it found a different countryside from Bengal. Officials believed there were no large zamindars here holding big estates through whom revenue could be collected, and they feared that forcing a zamindari system onto this region would disturb existing arrangements and leave cultivators at the mercy of a new landlord class.
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The Basics
By the early nineteenth century the East India Company had annexed large tracts of North India. These included the Gangetic valley, the North-Western Provinces, parts of Central India, and the Punjab. Here, land was often held and cultivated collectively by village communities. Neither the Bengal zamindari model nor the Madras-Bombay ryotwari model suited this structure.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsImpact of Land Revenue Systems on the Peasantry
The Basics
By the early nineteenth century, revenue systems varied by region, but all pressed heavily on the peasant. Permanent Settlement in Bengal, Ryotwari in Madras and Bombay, and Mahalwari in the North shared one trait. Each demanded a high, fixed revenue. This revenue was collected punctually, regardless of the actual harvest.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsBritish Commercial Policy and the Decline of Indian Trade
The Basics
From 1600 to 1757 the East India Company was mainly a trading body. It bought Indian textiles, spices and other goods and sold them abroad for profit. So it actually encouraged Indian weavers and merchants to produce more. Indian rulers tolerated its factories because trade flowed both ways.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsDeindustrialization - Ruin of Artisans and Craftsmen
The Basics
Before the 1760s, Indian weavers sold cloth freely to French, Dutch, Portuguese and local traders, who competed for their goods, giving weavers bargaining power. After the East India Company won political control of Bengal and the Carnatic in the 1760s and 1770s, it ended this competition. It appointed a paid official called the gomastha to supervise weavers, collect cloth and control quality. Weavers were forced to take advances tied to the Company; once they accepted a loan they had to hand over all cloth to the gomastha alone, at prices fixed below market rates. Unlike earlier supply merchants who lived among weavers, gomasthas were outsiders who marched into villages with sepoys and peons, flogging weavers for delays. Many weavers in Bengal and the Carnatic deserted their villages, some revolted with local traders, and others gave up weaving for agricultural labour by the end of the eighteenth century.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsCommercialization of Agriculture
The Basics
British industry needed raw materials, especially raw cotton for its textile mills in Lancashire. Since 1813, trade policy had already pushed India to export raw cotton, raw silk, indigo and foodgrains, while importing British manufactures. India was turning from a workshop into a farm for someone else's factories.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsEconomic Drain - Mechanism and Forms
The Basics
By the mid-1700s, the East India Company controlled Bengal. Its servants began sending home fortunes extorted from Indian rulers, zamindars and merchants. Nearly six million pounds reached Britain this way between 1758 and 1765.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsFamines in British India and Famine Commissions
The Basics
After Plassey, the East India Company took over revenue collection in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Clive called Bengal in particular the 'paradise of the earth'. The Company extracted maximum revenue while spending almost nothing on governance or irrigation. So when crops failed, there was no cushion left for the peasantry.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsDevelopment of Railways, Roads and Communication
The Basics
By the mid-nineteenth century, India's transport was still backward. It relied on bullock-carts, camels and packhorses. The British wanted a cheap, fast system to carry British goods into India and move Indian raw materials out. Road building began with the Grand Trunk Road, from Calcutta to Delhi. It started in 1839 and was completed in the 1850s.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsIndustrial Revolution in Britain and its Impact on India
The Basics
By the late eighteenth century, Britain underwent major economic change. This is called the Industrial Revolution. It was driven by capital, cheap labour, new machines and an aggressive trading policy.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsDevelopment of Modern Industries in India
The Basics
The first cotton mill in India opened in Bombay in 1854; the first jute mill opened in Bengal in 1855.
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