Ch-3 Ruling the Countryside

A. Multiple choice questions:-

1. After the indigo production collapsed in Bengal, the planters shifted their operation to

a. Gujarat b. Orissa c. Rajasthan d. Bihar

2. In which year did Bengal witness the Great Famine?

a.1770 b.1777 c.1778 d.1775

3. Under the Mahalwari system, the estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to
calculate the revenue that each mahal had to pay. From the given list of options, which one is closest in
meaning to the word mahal?

a. Village(s) b. Tenant(s) c. Landlord(s) d. Zamindar(s)

4. The Company tried many experiments to increase the land revenue. Name the Settlement system
introduced in the Madras and Bombay presidencies?

a. Permanent Settlement b. British Settlement c. Mahalwari Settlement d. Ryotwari Settlement

B. Fill in the blanks:

i. On _______________, the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II appointed the East India Company as the
Diwan of Bengal.
ii. Growers of woad in Europe saw _________ as crop which would provide competition to their earnings.
iii. The demand for indigo increased in late-eighteenth century in Britain because of ____________.
iv. The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of _______________.
v. The Champaran movement was against_______________.
vi. The two main systems of indigo cultivation were _________ and __________.

C. Text book Questions:-

Q1. How was the Mahalwari system different from the Ryotwari Settlement?
Ans :

Q2. Why were ryots reluctant to grow indigo?

Ans : The ryots were reluctant to grow indigo because:

1. Under the ryots system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract an agreement.
2. The planters paid a very low price for indigo.
 3. The ryots didn’t even recover their cost, earning a profit was a far-fetched idea. This meant that the ryot
was always under debt and the cycle of loans never ended.
4. The planters insisted that the peasants cultivate indigo on the most fertile parts of their land, but the
peasants preferred growing rice on the best soils
5. After an indigo harvest the land could not be used for sowing rice as the deep roots of indigo decrease
the fertility of soil, thus the ryots were reluctant to grow indigo.

Q3. What were the circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of indigo production in Bengal?

Q4. What was the reason for the demand of Indian indigo?

Q5. What was nij system of cultivation? Enlist the problems of nij cultivation.