Class 12 : History (English) – Lesson 9. Colonialism and the Countryside
EXPLANATION & SUMMARY
🔵 Explanation
🌾 why this chapter matters: countryside + archives
🔷 the rural world supplied revenue, labour, and grain to the colonial state; understanding its transformation explains how empire worked on the ground.
🟢 official archives (reports, surveys, inquiries) were produced by the state itself; reading them critically helps us see both what officials observed and what they wanted to prove.
🧭 this chapter trains you to read sources like investigators: who wrote, for whom, for what purpose, and with what methods.
🗺️ late-18th-century bengal: agrarian setting before major reforms
🔶 riverine plains, rice ecology, and dense village clusters formed a tightly peopled countryside.
🟡 land rights were layered: village headmen, revenue-farming intermediaries, cultivating households, and various sharecroppers.
📜 revenue had long been collected through indigenous institutions; colonial rule sought predictable cash flows and clearer paperwork.
🏛️ the permanent settlement, 1793: goals, promises, and design
🔷 aim: create a class of loyal landed magnates (zamindars) who would ensure punctual revenue and maintain local order.
🟢 key idea: fix land revenue demand permanently at a high but stable figure, payable in cash on strict dates.
🧮 zamindars were declared proprietors of the land; cultivators (ryots) were to pay them rent; the company took a fixed share from zamindars.
💰 logic: stable, “permanent” revenue would please investors in britain and reduce administrative uncertainty in india.
⚖️ trade-off: in return for secure property, zamindars had to meet the demand unfailingly; default could trigger auction of estates.
🧱 consequences on the ground: auctions, intermediaries, and pressure
🔶 many zamindars struggled to pay punctually in years of flood, drought, or market slump; estates went to auction buyers.
🟡 new layers appeared—patnidars, under-tenure holders, estate managers—who intensified rent collection to meet deadlines.
🌾 ryots faced enhanced dues, abwabs (illegal cesses), and tighter supervision; petitions and village-level negotiations continued but with less leverage against clock-bound cash demand.
🧭 yet the countryside was not uniform: powerful jotedars (substantial peasants) in some regions commanded grain, credit, and labour, occasionally out-muscling zamindars in local arenas.
📚 the “fifth report” (1812): what it is and why it was written
📜 compiled by a committee of the british parliament to review the east india company’s rule in india, especially revenue and administration in bengal and neighboring areas.
🟢 content mix: long essays, minute books, translated vernacular petitions, tables of revenue/arrears, and case studies of default and auction.
🎯 purpose: inform parliamentarians and critics in britain; justify or question company practices; search for “abuses” and propose fixes.
🔍 value for historians: a dense snapshot of rural administration, disputes, and money flows; but it is also an argumentative document with a reformist agenda.
🧪 reading the fifth report critically
🔷 strengths: preserves village petitions, depositions, revenue balances, and procedural rules; allows micro-level glimpses of rent-demand, timing, and conflicts.
🟡 limits: compiled to make a case; exaggeration or selective sampling is possible; village voices arrive filtered through translation and official framing.
🧭 method: cross-check with district registers, inscriptions on endowments, travellers’ notes, and physical traces (canal alignments, bunds, settlement spreads).
📌 takeaway: treat it as evidence and argument together—useful, but never the whole countryside.
🌾 ryots, jotedars, zamindars: everyday relations
🧑🌾 ryots ranged from smallholders with ploughs to under-raiyats and sharecroppers; their bargaining power rose when harvests and grain prices were high, and sank in bad years.
🏷️ jotedars controlled substantial plots and granaries; they loaned seed, employed labour, and sometimes dominated panchayats and local markets.
🏛️ zamindars and estate agents pressed for punctual rent; they used receipts, rent rolls, and peons; some negotiated abatements in crisis, others hardened terms.
📈 markets mattered: access to haats and river transport shaped how quickly produce could be converted into cash for rent deadlines.
🌲 forest-edge societies: paharias and santhals in the archive
🏞️ paharias, older forest-dwelling communities in the rajmahal hills, lived by shifting cultivation, hunting, and raiding caravan routes; early company pacification campaigns tried to fence, police, and subsidise them.
🌱 santhals, encouraged later to settle and farm in a demarcated tract (damin-i-koh), cleared forests, opened paddy and millet fields, and policed routes for the company.
🧭 archival view: officials celebrated “improvement” when clearings expanded and tolls rose; they worried when debt, rent, or land alienation produced discontent and flight.
📌 insight: the archive frames forest peoples in terms of revenue and order—historians must add ecological and cultural lenses to recover their standpoint.
🧭 contrasting settlements: a brief look beyond bengal
📍 ryotwari (madras/bombay): revenue fixed directly with cultivators (ryots), re-measured and revised periodically; less reliance on zamindars but intense surveying and classification.
📍 mahalwari (north-western provinces): revenue demand assessed village-wise (mahal) and shared collectively.
📌 relevance: comparing systems shows that fixity, frequency of revision, and identity of the “payer” shaped rural power and vulnerability differently across regions.
📉 cycles of boom and bust: money, markets, and debt
💸 monetisation deepened as cash revenue and trade grew; moneylenders advanced seed and cash against mortgages of crop and land.
📊 world events (e.g., war, price shocks) altered commodity values; peasants who shifted to high-value crops could gain—until prices fell, when debt traps tightened.
🧾 paperwork—bonds, receipts, court decrees—entered village life; archives preserve these trails but rarely capture informal help, gift exchange, and community credit that coexisted with formal debt.
⚖️ the deccan riots commission (1875): another archive of the countryside
📜 context: post-civil war fall in cotton prices hit deccan ryots hard; heavy ryotwari assessments and moneylender foreclosures triggered attacks on sahukar records and property.
🔍 the commission collected depositions from peasants, moneylenders, officials; it mapped debt instruments (bonds, mortgages), interest practices, and court processes.
🟢 value: shows how law, credit, and revenue intersected; reveals peasant strategies (petitioning, hiding records, collective action) and official reforms debated thereafter.
📌 method lesson: official inquiries capture conflict moments vividly—use them to reconstruct everyday pressures that usually remain invisible.
🧩 paperwork and power: how archives were made
🖋️ records arose from need to audit, justify, and plan; they were written by trained scribes in offices, translated across languages, and bundled for committees.
📦 selection bias: what entered files were disputes, arrears, reforms—not routine kindnesses, informal bargains, or small mercies.
🧭 material traces—signatures, corrections, marginalia—reveal hesitation and politics within the bureaucracy.
📚 historians read “against the grain”: what is missing? which voices are paraphrased? what metaphors describe peasants or chiefs?
🌱 everyday village life under colonial rule: rhythms and ruptures
🕰️ agricultural calendars continued: sowing, weeding, transplanting, harvesting, threshing—anchored by monsoon rhythm.
🧑🌾 women’s labour remained central in transplanting, winnowing, storage, and household processing.
🪵 commons (grazing, fuel, thatch) supported poorer households; enclosure, policing, or private claims strained these supports in some places.
🛕 ritual and market calendars intertwined with rent collection and audits; temple/mosque endowments, fairs, and pilgrim traffic adjusted to new documentation and dues.
⚠️ conflict points: water-turns, boundary stones, new levies, forced labour claims; village councils negotiated many disputes, but courts increasingly adjudicated with written contracts.
🧭 skills for reading official archives (your toolkit)
🔍 always ask four questions: who authored the document; for which audience; using what methods; in response to what problem.
🧮 separate categories: assessment (demand) vs realisation (collection); tenure vs occupancy; legal rule vs local practice.
🗂️ triangulate: pair official texts with petitions, vernacular newspapers, missionary tracts, travellers’ notes, maps, and the physical landscape.
📉 watch numbers: averages can hide extremes; a rise in revenue may co-exist with falling cultivator margins.
🧭 language matters: terms like “improvement,” “waste,” “lazy,” or “turbulent” reveal ideology, not just description.
🧱 continuity and change across the 19th century
📈 surveys became more precise; maps, cadastral records, and settlement reports multiplied.
🧾 law courts standardised contracts and foreclosure; moneylending professionalised; peasant petitions grew more legalistic.
🌾 new crops and canal colonies expanded in some regions; in others, drought and famine exposed the fragility of monetised agrarian life.
🧭 political awareness rose: grievances were framed in legal and moral languages that the archive faithfully preserved—because officials had to reply.
🌟 what the chapter wants you to learn
📜 knowing an archive is not enough; you must interpret it.
🧭 compare regions and settlements; do not generalise from one report.
⚖️ balance administrative aims, market forces, and village institutions when explaining change.
📌 above all, see the countryside as a negotiated arena—colonial policies pressed, local actors pushed back, adapted, or collaborated.
🟡 Summary (~300 words)
🔷 the colonial countryside changed under new revenue systems and tighter documentation. in bengal, the permanent settlement (1793) made zamindars proprietors and fixed revenue permanently; punctual cash payment was enforced through auctions. this hardened deadlines and encouraged new layers (patnidars, estate agents) to intensify rent collection. ryots’ experiences varied with harvests, markets, and local power—especially where strong jotedars controlled grain and credit.
🟢 the fifth report (1812), compiled for the british parliament, reviewed company rule in eastern india. it preserved petitions, balances, and case files that show how rent and revenue worked, why estates defaulted, and how auctions and appeals unfolded. the report is rich but argumentative; historians read it alongside district records, maps, and material traces to avoid its biases.
🟡 forest-edge societies (paharias, later santhals) appear in archives as objects of “pacification” and “improvement.” the creation of damin-i-koh brought new fields and order duties, while also planting the seeds of later grievances over debt and land alienation. contrasting settlements elsewhere—ryotwari and mahalwari—demonstrate that fixity, revision frequency, and identity of the payer shaped rural relations differently across regions.
🔴 monetisation deepened as cash revenue and trade grew; moneylenders’ credit bound villages to markets. when prices fell or monsoon failed, debt and foreclosure spiked; official inquiries (like the deccan riots commission, 1875) recorded such flashpoints in detail and prompted debates on reform.
🟣 archives are products of power and administration: they highlight disputes, arrears, and reform schemes more than routine compromises. reading “against the grain,” triangulating sources, and tracing the language of improvement and disorder help recover the countryside’s diverse voices.
✔️ overall, colonialism in the countryside was a process of negotiation and paperwork: policies pressed for punctual revenue; local society adapted, bargained, and sometimes rebelled; the archives both reveal and conceal these dynamics.
📝 Quick Recap
🧭 official archives like the fifth report are evidence plus argument—useful but biased; always cross-check.
🏛️ permanent settlement fixed revenue in bengal, empowered zamindars, and tightened rent deadlines through auctions and intermediaries.
🌾 ryots, jotedars, and zamindars negotiated rents, credit, and labour within market and monsoon cycles.
🏞️ forest-edge histories (paharias, santhals, damin-i-koh) show how “improvement” reworked ecologies and rights.
📜 inquiries such as the deccan riots commission capture conflict moments that expose everyday pressures.
🧰 historian’s toolkit: ask who wrote, for whom, and why; separate model from practice; triangulate texts with terrain, maps, and petitions.
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QUESTIONS FROM TEXTBOOK
📜 Question 1: Why was the jotedar a powerful figure in many areas of rural Bengal?
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Jotedars were substantial peasants owning large plots, granaries, and draft animals—giving them economic clout.
🏛️ • They controlled local credit networks—advancing seed and loans to smaller raiyats and even zamindars during revenue crises.
📉 • They could withhold rent or grain, affecting zamindar cash flows and revenue auctions.
⚔️ • Many led village panchayats or militias, influencing disputes and security.
📜 • Thus, their grain, credit, and leadership made them decisive actors under colonial revenue pressure.
📜 Question 2: How did zamindars manage to retain control over their zamindaris?
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • They cultivated ties with influential jotedars and village elites—offering favourable leases or patronage.
🏛️ • They employed estate managers (gomastas, patnidars) to intensify rent collection while negotiating abatements.
📜 • They sponsored temples, mosques, or fairs, reinforcing ritual authority.
⚖️ • Strategic marriages and credit arrangements bound rivals; they sometimes bribed revenue officials or MPs.
📈 • Such alliances and adaptive tactics let many old houses survive Permanent Settlement auctions.
📜 Question 3: How did the Paharias respond to the coming of outsiders?
🧭 Answer:
🏞️ • Initially retreated deeper into the Rajmahal Hills, using shifting cultivation and forest resources to avoid control.
⚔️ • Resisted through raids on caravans and villages—asserting autonomy.
🌾 • When pacification campaigns intensified, some accepted subsidies or served as hill police/scouts.
🗺️ • Their flexible mix of retreat, resistance, and negotiation preserved identity under colonial intrusion.
📜 Question 4: Why did the Santhals rebel against British rule?
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Santhals, settled in Damin-i-koh, faced escalating rents, usurious moneylenders, and encroaching traders.
🏛️ • Forests were reduced; hunting grounds shrank; debt and dispossession rose.
⚔️ • Frustration erupted in the Santhal Hul (1855–56)—targeting moneylenders, zamindars, and British outposts.
📜 • They aimed to restore a moral world of fair dealing and community autonomy.
📜 Question 5: What explains the anger of the Deccan ryots against the moneylenders?
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Post-American Civil War fall in cotton prices left ryots unable to repay loans taken at inflated wartime rates.
🏛️ • Moneylenders seized lands and cattle through courts—seen as unjust and exploitative.
⚔️ • Ryots attacked sahukar property and records in 1875—Deccan Riots—to destroy evidence of debt.
📜 • Their anger reflected crushing interest, legal bias, and loss of livelihood.
📜 Question 6: Why were many zamindaris auctioned after the Permanent Settlement?
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • High fixed revenue ignored harvest fluctuations—flood or drought meant arrears.
🏛️ • Strict cash deadlines allowed little negotiation—default triggered auction.
📉 • New absentee investors and speculators purchased estates, displacing old families.
📜 • The policy aimed for punctual revenue but destabilised traditional zamindar authority.
📜 Question 7: In what way was the livelihood of the Paharias different from that of the Santhals?
🧭 Answer:
🏞️ • Paharias relied on shifting cultivation, forest produce, and caravan raids; they stayed mobile in hills.
🌾 • Santhals practiced settled plough agriculture in Damin-i-koh with fixed fields.
🏛️ • Santhals policed routes and supplied grain to markets; Paharias avoided direct colonial supervision longer.
📜 • Thus, one was forest-mobile and resistant, the other settled and revenue-linked.
📜 Question 8: How did the American Civil War affect the lives of ryots in India?
🧭 Answer:
📈 • Cotton supplies from the US collapsed (1861–65); British mills turned to Indian cotton.
🌾 • Prices soared; ryots expanded cotton acreage—often borrowing from moneylenders.
🏛️ • Initial prosperity gave way to post-war price crash, debt, and land loss.
📜 • The boom-bust cycle tied rural households more tightly to global markets and credit.
📜 Question 9: What are the problems of using official sources in writing about the history of peasants?
🧭 Answer:
📜 • Bias: written by colonial officials serving administrative or political aims—may exaggerate disorder or hide compromise.
🏛️ • Selectivity: preserve disputes, arrears, and reforms, not routine cooperation or peasant voices.
🌾 • Translation filters distort petitions and testimonies; indigenous terms lose nuance.
🗺️ • Numbers (averages, tables) can mask regional variation or extreme hardship.
🧭 Historians’ remedies: cross-check with vernacular accounts, oral traditions, archaeology, and landscape evidence to recover fuller rural histories.
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OTHER IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR EXAMS
📜 Question 1: Which 1812 British parliamentary document critically reviewed Company rule in Bengal?
📚 A. Fifth Report
🏛️ B. Cornwallis Code
🗺️ C. Permanent Settlement Deed
🌾 D. Deccan Riots Commission Report
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 2: The Permanent Settlement fixed revenue with:
🌾 A. Ryots directly
🏛️ B. Zamindars as proprietors
📚 C. Village panchayats
🗺️ D. Moneylenders
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 3: Jotedars in Bengal villages were mainly:
📜 A. British officials
🌾 B. Substantial peasants with local influence
🏛️ C. Itinerant traders
🗺️ D. Urban bankers
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 4: The Damin-i-koh was created to:
🏛️ A. House British soldiers
🌾 B. Settle Santhals for agriculture
📚 C. Grow indigo exclusively
🗺️ D. Establish missionary schools
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 5: Paharias first responded to outsiders by:
🌾 A. Seeking zamindari titles
🗺️ B. Retreating into hills and raiding caravans
🏛️ C. Building canals
📚 D. Joining colonial police
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 6: The main aim of Permanent Settlement auctions was to:
🏛️ A. Encourage local crafts
🌾 B. Ensure punctual cash revenue
📚 C. Fund missionary activity
🗺️ D. Reduce land under cultivation
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 7: Which crops boomed during the American Civil War?
🌾 A. Cotton in India
🏛️ B. Tea in Assam
📚 C. Jute in Scotland
🗺️ D. Coffee in Arabia
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 8: The Deccan Riots (1875) targeted primarily:
🏛️ A. Zamindars’ palaces
🌾 B. Moneylenders’ records and property
📚 C. British forts
🗺️ D. Railways
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 9: In colonial revenue terms, jama signified:
🌾 A. Actual collection
🏛️ B. Assessed demand
📚 C. Tax remission
🗺️ D. Grain price index
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 10: Hasil in revenue records meant:
🌾 A. Assessed demand
🏛️ B. Actual realisation
📚 C. Permanent lease
🗺️ D. Boundary stone
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 11: A patwari’s role was to:
🏛️ A. Command troops
📜 B. Keep village land and crop registers
🌾 C. Supervise fairs
🗺️ D. Collect customs duty
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 12: Match: (i) Ryotwari (ii) Mahalwari (iii) Permanent Settlement
A. Direct with ryots — Village-wise — Fixed with zamindars
B. Zamindar — Ryot — Village-wise
C. Village-wise — Fixed with zamindars — Direct with ryots
D. Fixed with zamindars — Village-wise — Direct with ryots
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 13: Assertion–Reason
Assertion (A): Many zamindaris were auctioned after 1793.
Reason (R): Revenue demand was high and inflexible; default led to sale.
A. Both A & R true, R explains A
B. Both true, R does not explain A
C. A true, R false
D. A false, R true
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 14: Assertion–Reason
A: Santhals accepted settlement in Damin-i-koh.
R: They sought stable plough fields and access to markets.
A. Both A & R true, R explains A
B. Both true, R does not explain A
C. A true, R false
D. A false, R true
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 15: Identify the device: “Oxen turned a wheel with pots to raise water.”
🏛️ A. Jarib
🌾 B. Saqiya
📜 C. Qanat
🗺️ D. Chakla
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 16: Colonial officials considered which groups “wild” and in need of “improvement”?
📜 A. Paharias and other forest communities
🌾 B. Jotedars
🏛️ C. Moneylenders
🗺️ D. Zamindars
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 17: The Deccan Riots Commission collected:
🌾 A. Cotton export contracts
🏛️ B. Peasant, moneylender, and official depositions
📜 C. Indigo planters’ diaries only
🗺️ D. Zamindars’ marriage registers
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 18: Who were the gomastas?
🏛️ A. British soldiers
🌾 B. Estate agents managing rent collection
📜 C. Temple priests
🗺️ D. Santhal headmen
🧭 Answer: B
📜 Question 19: Chronology — arrange: (a) Permanent Settlement, (b) Fifth Report, (c) Santhal Hul, (d) Deccan Riots.
🌾 A. a-b-c-d
🏛️ B. b-a-c-d
📜 C. a-c-b-d
🗺️ D. b-a-d-c
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 20: In official archives, “waste” land often meant:
🌾 A. Unused for revenue, even if grazed or foraged
🏛️ B. Poisoned soil
📜 C. Sacred grove
🗺️ D. Village tank
🧭 Answer: A
📜 Question 21: Picture/ID (text alt): Identify the body that investigated 1875 Deccan disturbances.
🌾 A. Deccan Riots Commission
🏛️ B. Fifth Report Committee
📜 C. Indigo Inquiry Commission
🗺️ D. Cornwallis Council
🧭 Answer: A
🏛️ SECTION B — Short Answer I (Q22–Q25, 60–80 words)
📜 Question 22: Explain why historians must “read against the grain” when using the Fifth Report.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • It was written for British parliamentarians with reformist or critical agendas.
🏛️ • Selective evidence may exaggerate abuse or omit routine cooperation.
📚 • Translation and official framing filter peasant voices.
🗺️ • Cross-checking with maps, petitions, and material remains balances its bias.
📜 Question 23: Distinguish between Paharias and Santhals in livelihood and colonial interaction.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Paharias stayed mobile in Rajmahal hills—shifting cultivation, hunting, raiding caravans—resisting outsiders.
🏛️ • Santhals accepted plough farming in Damin-i-koh—policed routes and supplied grain—tied early to revenue networks.
📚 • Archives praise Santhals’ “industry” but cast Paharias as “wild.”
📜 Question 24A (choice): State two economic effects of the American Civil War on Indian countryside.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Cotton prices soared; ryots expanded acreage using credit.
🏛️ • Post-war crash brought debt, land loss, and closer moneylender control.
📜 Question 24B (choice): List three reasons zamindars’ estates went to auction under Permanent Settlement.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • High fixed revenue ignored harvest failure.
🏛️ • Strict cash deadlines left no negotiation.
📚 • Debt and absenteeism weakened old lineages.
📜 Question 25: Give two ways jotedars influenced village politics and one way they challenged zamindars.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Controlled grain and credit; chaired panchayats or festivals.
🏛️ • Could withhold rent or support peasant petitions—undermining zamindars’ revenue flow.
📜 Question 26A (choice): State three features of Permanent Settlement revenue demands that shaped rural society.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Revenue fixed permanently—no adjustment for harvest failure.
🏛️ • Strict cash deadlines enforced punctual payments.
📚 • Zamindars became proprietors but risked auction, creating intermediaries and tighter rent extraction.
📜 Question 26B (choice): Mention three problems historians face using official archives on peasants.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Bias—written to defend or critique Company rule.
🏛️ • Selective—records disputes and arrears, ignores routine cooperation.
📜 • Translation filters distort local voices and terms.
📜 Question 27: Explain two reasons Deccan ryots attacked moneylenders in 1875 and one outcome of the inquiry.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Cotton price crash after Civil War left ryots indebted.
🏛️ • Moneylenders seized land/cattle via courts—seen as unfair.
📚 • Deccan Riots Commission gathered testimonies, leading to debt-relief debates.
🏰 SECTION C – Long Answer (Q28–Q30, 8 marks each, 300–350 words)
📜 Question 28A (choice): Analyse the impact of Permanent Settlement on zamindars, ryots, and jotedars.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Zamindars: Fixed revenue gave them property rights but high demand meant default risk; auctions created new owners; many relied on patnidars and gomastas to press rents.
🏛️ • Ryots: Faced stricter rent deadlines, abwabs, and reduced customary negotiation; some fled or litigated, others bargained collectively.
📚 • Jotedars: Benefited as substantial peasants with grain and credit; bought auctioned estates, influenced panchayats, and sometimes bypassed zamindars.
🗺️ • Markets: Monetisation linked villages to urban demand; grain and cash flows increased but vulnerability to price shocks rose.
⚖️ • Politics: Permanent Settlement created a landed elite loyal to Company rule but also fostered local conflicts, petitions, and occasional uprisings—showing how a fiscal fix reshaped society.
📜 Question 28B (choice): Describe the Fifth Report and assess its value and limits for agrarian history.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • 1812 parliamentary document reviewing Company governance in Bengal and adjoining areas.
🏛️ • Contained essays, revenue tables, translated petitions, and case studies of default/auction.
📚 • Value: Preserves vernacular voices and procedural details; snapshots of disputes, rent flows, and administration.
🗺️ • Limits: Written to influence debate in Britain—may exaggerate abuses or omit routine harmony; translation errors and selective sampling distort peasant perspectives.
⚖️ • Historians’ use: Cross-check with district records, maps, archaeology, later inquiries; read “against the grain” to reconstruct peasant agency and everyday practice.
📜 Question 29A (choice): Discuss the role of jotedars and moneylenders in shaping Bengal’s countryside.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Jotedars: Substantial peasants; controlled grain, labour, and credit; chaired panchayats; sometimes resisted zamindars or bought estates at auction—balancing village needs with market forces.
🏛️ • Moneylenders: Financed cultivation and rent payments; their bonds and foreclosures tied peasants to markets; could provoke resentment, as in later Deccan riots.
📚 • Together they linked villages to cash economy, markets, and colonial courts—creating new power dynamics beyond zamindars and Company officials.
📜 Question 29B (choice): Evaluate colonial strategies toward forest communities like Paharias and Santhals.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Paharias: Early resistance through raids; Company used pacification campaigns, subsidies, and policing to control passes.
🏛️ • Santhals: Encouraged to settle in Damin-i-koh, clear forests, farm, and police routes—initial cooperation turned to grievance as rents rose and forests shrank.
📚 • Strategies mixed coercion, co-option, and “improvement” rhetoric, embedding forest groups into revenue and market systems while eroding autonomy.
📜 Question 30: Explain how official records like the Deccan Riots Commission reveal peasant strategies and colonial responses.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • The 1875 inquiry compiled testimonies from peasants, sahukars, and officials.
🏛️ • Reveals ryots using petitions, debt record destruction, and collective action to press for relief.
📚 • Shows colonial administration balancing order with reform—debating interest regulation and procedural fairness.
🗺️ • Highlights how crises turn routine tensions visible, offering historians rich insights into rural economy, law, and resistance.
⚔️ SECTION D – Source/Case-Based (Q31–Q33, 1+1+2 marks each)
📜 Question 31:
Source: “Zamindars failing payment shall forfeit estates; punctual revenue secures imperial stability.”
🧭 Answer:
🌾 (a) Identifies Permanent Settlement clause on auctions.
🏛️ (b) Suggests Company sought steady cash flow.
📚 (c) Shows colonial logic: loyalty via property rights and discipline via forfeiture.
📜 Question 32:
Source: “Peasants petition: rents unbearable, abwabs illegal, floods ruined crops.”
🧭 Answer:
🌾 (a) Highlights peasant agency—using petitions.
🏛️ (b) Indicates zamindar excess beyond fixed rent.
📚 (c) Demonstrates archival value: exposes stress between fixed revenue theory and village reality.
📜 Question 33:
Source: “Oxen turned the saqiya; tanks filled fields; moneylenders advanced seed against future harvest.”
🧭 Answer:
🌾 (a) Saqiya shows irrigation technology.
🏛️ (b) Tanks reveal local water management.
📚 (c) Credit ties peasants to markets and revenue deadlines—integrating ecology, labour, and finance.
🗺️ SECTION E – Map Work (Q34.1–Q34.4, 5 marks)
📜 Question 34.1: Mark and label Damin-i-koh (Jharkhand) on an outline map.
🧭 Answer: 🌾 • Damin-i-koh in present Jharkhand—Santhal settlement zone.
📜 Question 34.2: Mark and label Rajmahal Hills (Jharkhand/Bihar border).
🧭 Answer: 🌾 • Rajmahal Hills—Paharia homeland and early resistance area.
📜 Question 34.3: Mark and label Poona/Deccan region (Maharashtra) tied to 1875 riots.
🧭 Answer: 🌾 • Deccan—cotton belt affected by boom-bust and moneylender conflict.
📜 Question 34.4: Identify any two marked centres from the key and state their significance.
🧭 Answer:
🌾 • Damin-i-koh—Santhal settlement under Company rule.
🏛️ • Deccan (Poona)—site of 1875 Deccan Riots revealing credit tensions.
💬 VI Alternative: List three sites—Damin-i-koh (Jharkhand), Rajmahal Hills (Jharkhand/Bihar), Deccan (Maharashtra)—and give significance for any two as above.
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MIND MAPS
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