GRADE: XII THEME 8: PEASANTS, ZAMINDARS AND THE STATE

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Q1. What are the problems in using the Ain as a source for reconstructing agrarian
history? How do historians deal with this situation? (Alveera) (Pg197 and 220)
Ain-i-Akbari authored by Akbar’s court historian AbulFazl is a major source for the
agrarian history of the 16th and the early 17th centuries. Historians who have carefully
studied the Ain point out that it is not without its problems. These above mentioned
limitations are as follows:
i. Errors in Totaling:
-Numerous errors in totaling have been detected. These are ascribed to simple slips of
arithmetic or of transcription by Abu’l Fazl’s assistants.
-These are generally minor and do not detract from the overall quantitative veracity of the
manuals.
ii. Skewed Nature of Data:
-Another limitation of the Ain is the somewhat skewed nature of the quantitative data.
-Data were not collected uniformly from all provinces. For instance, while for many subas
detailed information was compiled about the caste composition of the zamindars, such
information is not available for Bengal and Orissa.
iii. Improper Documentation of Vital Aspects:
Further, while the fiscal data from the subas is remarkable for its richness, some equally
vital parameters such as prices and wages from these same areas are not as well
documented.
iv. Unavailability of Detailed Lists and Prices:
The detailed list of prices and wages that the Ain does provide is mainly derived from data
pertaining to areas in and around the imperial capital of Agra and is therefore of limited
relevance for the rest of the country.

Whatever we learn from the Ain about the peasants remains a view from the top, is
subjective and its central purpose was to present a vision of Akbar’s empire where social
harmony was provided by a strong ruling class.

However historians have dealt with the situation through the following ways:
(i) Supplementing Information Provided:
-Fortunately, the account of the Ain can be supplemented by descriptions contained in
sources emanating from regions away from the Mughal capital. These included detailed
revenue records from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan dating from the 17th and 18th
centuries.
(ii) Records of East India Company:
-Further, the extensive records of the East India Company provide us with useful
descriptions of agrarian relations in eastern India. All these sources record instances of
conflict between peasants, zamindars and the state.
-In the process they give us insight into the peasant’s perception of and their expectations
of fairness from the state.
 (iii) Works of Akbar’s Contemporaries:
-Works of Akbar’s contemporaries like Badauni and Nizamuddin Ahmed also throw light
on the actual revenue system.
Q2. To what extent is it possible to characterise agricultural production in the
sixteenth-seventeenth centuries as subsistence agriculture? Give reasons for your
answer. (Pg198-201) (Alveera)
The basic unit of agricultural society was the village, inhabited by peasants who
performed the manifold seasonal tasks that made agricultural production throughout the
year – tilling the soil, sowing seeds, harvesting the crop when it was ripe. They also
contributed their labour to the production of agro-based goods such as sugar and oil. We
can characterize the nature of production in this period as subsistence in the following
ways:
I. Constant Expansion of Agriculture/3 factors:
-The abundance of lands, available labour and the mobility of peasants were three factors
that accounted for the constant expansion of agriculture.
II. Primary Purpose of Agriculture/Basic staples:
-Since the primary purpose of agriculture was to feed people, basic staples such as rice,
wheat or millets were the most frequently cultivated crops.
-Areas which received 40 inches or more of rainfall a year were generally rice-producing
zones, followed by wheat or millets, corresponding to a descending scale of precipitation.
III. Organizing Irrigation/Monsoon:
-Monsoons remained the backbone of Indian agriculture, as they are even today. But
there were crops which required additional water. Artificial systems of irrigation had to
be devised for this.
IV. Irrigation projects:
-Irrigation projects received state support as well. For example, in northern India the
state undertook digging of new canals (nahr, nala) and also repaired old ones like the
shahnahr in the Punjab during Shah Jahan’s reign.
V. Agricultural Technology
-Though agriculture was labour intensive, peasants did use technologies that often
harnessed cattle energy. One example was the wooden plough, which was light and easily
assembled with an iron tip or coulter. It therefore did not make deep furrows, which
preserved the moisture better during the intensely hot months.
-A drill, pulled by a pair of giant oxen, was used to plant seeds, but broadcasting of seed
was the most prevalent method. Hoeing and weeding were done simultaneously using a
narrow iron blade with a small wooden handle.
VI. Seasonal Cycle/Types of crops:
-Agriculture was organised around two major seasonal cycles, the kharif (autumn) and
the rabi (spring). This would mean that most regions, except those terrains that were the
most arid or inhospitable, produced a minimum of two crops a year (do-fasla), whereas
some, where rainfall or irrigation assured a continuous supply of water, even gave three
crops. This ensured an enormous variety of produce.
-For instance, we are told in the Ain that the Mughal provinces of Agra produced 39
varieties of crops and Delhi produced 43 over the two seasons. Bengal produced 50
varieties of rice alone
VII. Jins-i-Kamil:
-However, the focus on the cultivation of basic staples did not mean that agriculture in
medieval India was only for subsistence. We often come across the term jins-i kamil
(literally, perfect crops) in our sources. The Mughal state also encouraged peasants to
cultivate such crops as they brought in more revenue.
 -Crops such as cotton and sugarcane were jins-i kamil par excellence. Cotton was grown
over a great swathe of territory spread over central India and the Deccan plateau, whereas
Bengal was famous for its sugar. Such cash crops would also include various sorts of
oilseeds (for example, mustard) and lentils.
-This shows how subsistence and commercial production were closely intertwined in an
average peasant’s holding.
VIII. The New World/Imports from different countries:
-During the seventeenth century several new crops from different parts of the world
reached the Indian subcontinent. Maize (makka), for example, was introduced into India
via Africa and Spain and by the seventeenth century it was being listed as one of the
major crops of western India.
-Vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes and chillies were introduced from the New World at
this time, as were fruits like the pineapple and the papaya.

Q3. Describe the role played by women in the agricultural production.(Pg206-207)

(Alveera)
In many different societies, the production process often involves men and women
performing certain specified roles. But women did play an important role in the
agricultural production. The reasons for the same are as follows:
i- Role of Both Genders in Fields:
-Women and men had to work shoulder to shoulder in the fields. Men tilled and
ploughed, while women sowed, weeded, threshed and winnowed the harvest. -With the
growth of nucleated villages and expansion in individuated peasant farming, which
characterised medieval Indian agriculture, the basis of production was the labour and
resources of the entire household.
Naturally, a gendered segregation between the home (for women) and the world (for men)
was not possible.

ii- Biases Related to Biological Functions:

Nonetheless biases related to women’s biological functions did continue. Menstruating
women, for instance, were not allowed to touch the plough or the potter’s wheel in western
India, or enter the groves where betel-leaves (paan) were grown in Bengal.
iii- Production Dependent on Female Labour:
-Artisanal tasks such as spinning yarn, sifting and kneading clay for pottery, and
embroidery were among the many aspects of production dependent on female labour.
-The more commercialised the product, the greater the demand on women’s labour to
produce it. In fact, peasant and artisan women worked not only in the fields, but even
went to the houses of their employers or to the markets if necessary.
iv- Women’s role in agrarian society was of great importance as the children they
produced provided the required labour. High mortality rates due to various factors such
as malnutrition, frequent pregnancies, death during childbirth led to the shortage of
wives. This led to the system of bride price given to the bride’s family. Remarriage too
was considered legitimate both among divorced and widowed women.

These points can be considered if it is a 8 mark Q.

• The importance attached to women meant that the fear of losing control over them,
hence there were social norms which said that the household was headed by a
male. Thus women were kept under strict control if infidelity was suspected
they could inflict draconian punishments on them. However if the wives protested
 against the infidelity of their husbands or the neglect of wife and children by the
male head – they were not always punished.

• Among the landed gentry, women had the right to inherit property. Women,
including widows, participated in the rural land market selling property which they
had inherited especially in Punjab. Both Hindu and Muslim women inherited
zamindaris which they were free to sell or mortgage. In eighteenth century Bengal
had many women-zamindars. In fact the Rajshahizamindari which was one of the
most famous of the time was headed by a woman.

Q4. Discuss with examples, the significance of monetary transactions during the
16th and 17th century (Matilda)
The Mughal Empire was among the large territorial empires in Asia that had managed to
consolidate power and resources during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The
significance of monetary transactions during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were:

• LAND REVENUE
In the early decades of sixteenth century farmers were allowed to pay land
revenue in cash or kind. Due to the facility to pay land revenue in cash money,
monetary transactions played vital role in Indian economy.
• Village artisans (potter, blacksmith, barber, etc.) use to provide specialized
services to the villagers. Though most common way of compensating them was
giving them a share of the harvest but there was another system also under this
system artisans and individual peasants, house hold entered into a mutually
negotiated system of remuneration, most of the time goods for services. (Does not
come under monetary)

• JAJMANI SYSTEM:
✓ Artisans and individual peasant households entered into a mutually negotiated
system of remuneration, most of the time goods for services.
✓ For example, eighteenth-century records tell us zamindars in Bengal who
remunerated blacksmiths, carpenters, even goldsmiths for their work by paying
them “a small daily allowance and diet money”. This later came to be described
as the Jajmani system.
✓ Such evidence is interesting because it indicates the intricate ways in which
exchange networks operated at the micro-level of the village.

• LITTLE REPUBLICS:
A cash nexus had already developed through trade between villages and towns. In
the Mughal heartland too, revenue was assessed and collected in cash. Artisans
producing for the export market (for example, weavers) received their advances
or wages in cash, as did producers of commercial products like cotton, silk or
indigo.

• ZAMINDARS:
Zamindars spearheaded the colonisation of agricultural land, and helped in settling
cultivators by providing them with the means of cultivation, including cash loans.
The buying and selling of zamindaris accelerated the process of monetisation in
the countryside.
FLOW OF SILVER
 ✓ An expanding trade brought in huge amounts of silver bullion into Asia to pay for
good procured from India, and a large part of that bullion gravitated towards India.
This was good for India as it did not have natural resources of silver.
✓ As a result, the period between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries was also
marked by a remarkable stability in the availability of metal currency,
particularly the silver rupya in India.
✓ This facilitated an unprecedented expansion of minting of coins and the circulation
of money in the economy as well as the ability of the Mughal state to extract taxes
and revenue in cash.

The testimony of an Italian traveler, Giovanni Careri, who passed through India c. 1690,
provides a graphic account about the way silver traveled across the globe to reach India.
Thus we get an idea of the phenomenal amounts of cash and commodity transactions in
the 16th-17th century India.

Q5. Examine the evidence that suggests that land revenue was important for the
Mughal fiscal system. (pg 213) (Matilda)

Revenue from land was the economic mainstay of the Mughal Empire. It was therefore
vital for the state to create an administrative apparatus to ensure control over agricultural
production and to fix and collect revenue from across the length and breadth of the
rapidly expanding empire.

1. Penetration of agricultural domain- This administrative apparatus included the

office of the diwan who was responsible for supervising the fiscal system of the empire.
Thus revenue officials and record keepers penetrated the agricultural domain and
became a decisive agent in shaping agrarian relations.
2. Steps taken by the Mughals- The Mughal state tried to first acquire specific
information (measure lands cultivated and uncultivated, classify them, collect
information on what they produced and fix revenue) about the extent of the agricultural
land in the empire and what these lands produced before fixing the burden of taxes on
people.
3. Land revenue system- The land revenue system consisted of two stages – first
assessment (jama) and then actual collection (hasil). Akbar decreed that the amil guzar
or revenue collector should strive to make cultivators pay in cash; however the option of
payment in kind was also to be kept open.
4. Maximize claims- While fixing revenue, the attempt of the state was to maximize its
claims. The scope of actually realizing these claims was however thwarted by local
conditions.
5. Measuring of lands- Both cultivated and cultivable lands were measured in each
province. The Ain compiled the aggregates of such lands during Akbar’s rule. Efforts to
measure lands continued under subsequent emperors like Aurangzeb. Yet not all areas
could be measured successfully as huge areas of India were covered with forests.

While attempts were made to maximise its claim, the state was conscious of not to
antagonize the peasants. The state was constantly making efforts to expand area under
cultivation e.g. waste lands through loans and differing revenue rates.

Q6. To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and
economic relation in agrarian society? (pg201-202) (Matilda)
Caste did play an important role in influencing social and economic relation in the highly
stratified agrarian society in the following ways:

1. High stratification - Agrarian society in medieval times was highly stratified; deep
inequities on the basis of caste and other caste-like distinctions meant that the
cultivators were a highly heterogeneous group. Among those who tilled the land, there
was a sizeable number who worked as menials or agricultural laborers (majur).

2. Significant features- Abundance of land, labour and mobility of peasants were

significant features of agrarian society. Yet large proportions of rural peasantry
comprised of landless laborers were poor and socially discriminated against. One of the
factors responsible for this was caste norms, according to this certain communities were
not allowed to bring areas under cultivation.

3. Poverty among village population Despite the abundance of cultivable land, certain
caste groups were assigned menial tasks and thus relegated to poverty. Though there
was no census at that time, the little data that is available suggest that such groups
comprised a large section of the village population and had the least resources and were
constrained by their position in the caste hierarchy much like the Dalits of modern India.

4. Distinctions among communities- Such distinctions began permeating into other

communities too. For e.g. in the Muslim communities menials like halalkhoran
(scavengers) were housed outside the boundaries of the village so also the
mallahzadas(literally, sons of boatmen) in Bihar were comparable slaves.

5. Social and economic correlation:

There was a direct correlation between caste, poverty and social status at the lower strata
of society. In a manual from the seventeenth century- Marwar Rajputs are mentioned as
peasants sharing the same space with Jats who were accorded a lower status in the caste
hierarchy.

6. Caste mobility- Castes such as the Ahirs, Gujars and Malis rose in the hierarchy
because of the profitability of cattle rearing and horticulture. In the eastern regions,
intermediate pastoral and fishing castes like the Sadgops and Kaivartas acquired the
status of peasants.

7. Panchayats- In mixed caste villages, the panchayats were usually a heterogenous

body, representing various castes and communities. The decision made by the
panchayats was binding on all.

8.Functions of the Panchayat:

✓ One important function of the panchayat was to ensure that caste boundaries
among the various communities inhabiting the village were upheld. In eastern India
all marriages were held in the presence of the mandal. In other words one of the
duties of the village headman was to oversee the conduct of the members of the
village community “chiefly to prevent any offence against their caste.”
✓ In case of violation of caste norms they had the authority to levy fines and inflict
punishments like expulsion; the person became an outcaste and lost his right to
practice his profession.
9. Jati Panchayat:
 In addition to the village panchayat each jati/caste had its own jati panchayat which
wielded considerable power. In Rajasthan jati panchayats arbitrated civil disputes
between members of different castes.
✓ Records from western India show that often petitions for redressal of grievances by
lower castes were made to panchayats against the superior caste or state officials
collectively protesting against extortions or demand for unpaid labour.

10. Little Republic:

✓ Some British officials saw the village as little republic made up of fraternal partners
sharing resources and labour in a collective way.
✓ However, this was not a sign of rural egalitarianism. There was individual
ownership of assets and deep inequities based on caste and gender distinctions.
✓ A group of powerful individuals decided the affairs of the village, exploited the
weaker sections and had the authority to dispense justice.

There was direct correlation between caste, poverty and social status. Thus, caste
definitely defined social and economic relations.

7. How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries? (Naveena)
Factors which led to the transformation of lives of forest dwellers in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries:
Own culture, way of life and occupation- Forest dwellers were termed jangli in
contemporary texts. Being jangli, however, did not mean an absence of “civilisation”,
rather the term described those whose livelihood came from the gathering of forest
produce, hunting and shifting agriculture.

Performances of seasonal activities – Gathering forest produce, hunting and shifting

agriculture were activities which were largely season specific. Among the Bhils, for
example, spring was reserved for collecting forest produce, summer for fishing, the
monsoon months for cultivation, and autumn and winter for hunting. Such a sequence
presumed and perpetuated mobility, which was a distinctive feature of the tribes
inhabiting these forests.

Intrusion of people (refugees)- For the state, the forest was a subversive place- a place
of refugee (mawas) for troublemakers. According to Babur, jungle provided a good defense
for people like the paragana who were stubbornly rebellious and paid no taxes.

Collection of elephants– Eternal forces entered the forest in different ways. For
instance, the state required elephants for the army so the Peshkash levied from forest
people often included a supply of elephants.

Symbolization of the hunt–In the Mughal political ideology, the hunt symbolized the
overwhelming concern of the state to ensure justice to all its subjects, rich and poor.
Court historians tell us that for the hunting expeditions the king had to travel across the
extensive territories of his empire and personally attend to the grievances of its
inhabitants. The hunt was a subject frequently painted by the court artist. The painter
resorted to the device of inserting a small scene somewhere in the picture that functioned
as a symbol of a harmonious region.
Commercial agriculture – This was an important external factor that impinged on the
lives of those who lived in the forests. Forest products like honey, beeswax and gum lac
became major items of overseas export from India in the seventeenth century. Trade
involved an exchange of commodities through barter as well. Some tribes like the Lohanis
in the Punjab, were engaged in overland trade, between India and Afghanistan, and in
tht town country trade in the Punjab itself.

Social factors – They too wrought changes in the lives of forest dwellers. The tribal
chieftains had become Zamindars and some even kings. For this they required to build
up an army and recruited people from their lineage groups or demanded that their
fraternity provide military service. In Assam, the Ahom kings had their paiks, people who
were obliged to render military services in exchange for land.

Transition to monarchical System- Though the transition from a tribal to a

monarchical system had started much earlier, the process seems to have become fully
developed only by the sixteenth century. This can be seen from the Ain’s observations on
the existence of tribal kingdoms in the north-east. War was a common occurrence.

Cultural influences also began to penetrate into forested zones. Some historians have
indeed suggested that sufi saints (pirs) played a major role in the slow acceptance of Islam
among agriculturalcommunities emerging in newly colonised places.

Q8. Examine the role played by Zamindars in Mughal India. OR Explain why the
Zamindars were central to the agrarian relations in the Mughal period. (Pg211-12)
(Naveena)
The Zamindars were that class of people who did not directly participate in the processes
of agricultural production. They enjoyed an elevated status in society.

1. Role of zamindar
Zamindars were a dominant section of rural society that lived off land. In addition
to owning land they had hereditary rights of collecting revenue from a number of
villages or his zamindari. Their role approximated to that of intermediaries between
state and the peasantry. Due to their social status, political dominance over clan
personalities and the fact that they controlled vast resources, no imperial authority
could afford to ignore them.
Zamindars were landed proprietors who also enjoyed certain social and economic
privileges by virtue of their superior status in rural society. Caste was one factor
that accounted for the elevated status of zamindars; another factor was that they
performed certain services (khidmat) for the state.

2. Milkiyat-The zamindars held extensive personal lands termed milkiyat, meaning

property. Milkiyat lands were cultivated for the private use of zamindars, often with
the help if hired or servile labour. The zamindars could sell, bequeath or mortage
these lands at will.

3. Financial compensation-In Mughal India zamindar in return for the services

(khidmat) for the state were adequately compensated financially. They set social
standards and helped expansion of agriculture by colonization of new lands, by
providing cultivators with means of cultivation including cash loan.
 -Zamindars also derived their power from the fact that they could often collect
revenue on behalf of the state, a service for which they were compensated
financially. Control over military resources was another source of power. Most
zamindars had fortresses (qilachas) as well as an armed contingent comprising
units of cavalry, artillery and infantry.

4. Origin of Zamindars – Contemporary documents give an impression that

conquest may have been the source of the origin of some zamindars. The
dispossession of weaker people by a powerful military chieftain was quite often
a way of expanding a zamindari. It is ,however, unlikely that the state would
have allowed such a show of aggression by a zamindar unless he had been
confirmed by an imperial order (sanad).
5. Zamindari Consolidation - More important were the slow processes of
zamindari consolidation, which are also documented in sources. These involved
colonisation of new lands, by transfer of rights, by order of the state and by
purchase. These were the processes which perhaps permitted people belonging
to the relatively “lower” castes to enter the rank of zamindars as zamindaris
were bought and sold quite briskly in this period.
6. Combination of Factors - A combination of factors also allowed the
consolidation of clan- or lineage-based zamindaris. For example, the Rajputs
and Jats adopted these strategies to consolidate their control over vast swathes
of territory in northern India. Likewise, peasant-pastoralists (like the Sadgops)
carved out powerful zamindaris in areas of central and southwestern Bengal.
7. Agricultural land- Zamindars spearheaded the colonisation of agricultural
land, and helped in settling cultivators by providing them with the means of
cultivation, including cash loans. The buying and selling of zamindaris
accelerated the process of monetisation in the countryside. In addition,
zamindars sold the produce from their milkiyat lands. There is evidence to
show that zamindars often established markets (haats) to which peasants also
came to sell their produce.
8. Relationship with peasants- Although the Zamindars were an exploitative
class their relationship with the peasants had an element of paternal
reciprocity, paternalism and patronage. Zamindars often received support of
the peasants in their struggle against the state. Two aspects reinforce this
view.
- First, the bhakti saints, who eloquently condemned caste-based and other forms
of oppression, did not portray the as exploiters or oppressors of the peasantry.
Usually it was the revenue official of the state who was the object of their ire.
-Second, in a large number of agrarian uprisings which erupted in north India in
the seventeenth century, zamindars often received the support of the peasantry in
their struggle against the state.
Thus the relationship between Mughals and Zamindars was based on mutual benefits in
economic and military sphere. In turn the Zamindars relationship with the peasant
though exploitative was based on patronage and reciprocity. These formed the basis of
agrarian relationships in Mughal India.

Q9. Discuss the ways in which panchayats and village headmen regulated rural
society. (Naveena)
The village panchayat was an assembly of elders usually important people of the village
with hereditary rights over their property.
1. General composition – In mixed-caste villages the panchayat was usually a
heterogeneous body. An oligarchy, the panchayat represented various castes and
communities in the village, though the village menial-cum-agricultural was
unlikely to be represented here. The decisions made by these panchayats were
binding on the members.
2. Headman or muqaddam – The panchayat was headed by a headman known as
muqaddam or mandal. Some sources suggest that the headman was chosen
through the consensus of the village elders and that this choice had to be ratified
by the zamindar. Headman held office as long as they enjoyed the confidence of
the village elders, failing which they could be dismissed by them. The chief
function of the headman was to supervise the preparation of village accounts,
assisted by the accountant or patwari of the panchayat.

3. Source of income – The panchayat derives its funds from contributions made by
individuals to a common financial pool.The funds were used for defraying the
costs of entertaining revenue officials who visited the village from time to time.

4. Expenditure –Expenses for community welfare activities such as tiding over

natural calamities like floods were met from these funds. Often these funds were
also deployed in construction of a bund of digging a canal which peasants usually
could not afford to do on their own.

5. Functions of the Panchayat – One important function of the panchayat was to

ensure that caste boundaries among the various communities inhabiting the
village were upheld. During marriages the village headman was to oversee the
conduct of the members of the village community chiefly to prevent any offence
against their caste.

6. Imposing fines – panchayat also had the authority to levy fines and inflict more
serious forms of punishment like expulsion from the community. The later was
a drastic step and was in most cases meted out for a limited period. It meant
that a person forced to leave the village became an outcaste and lost his right to
practice his profession. Such a measure was intended as a deterrent to violation
of caste norms.

7. Caste or Jati Panchayat: In addition to the village panchayat each caste or jati
in the village had its own jati panchayat. These panchayats wielded considerable
power in rural society. In Rajasthan jati panchayats arbitrated civil disputes
between members of different castes. They mediated in contested claims on land,
decided whether marriages were performed according to the norms laid down by
a particular caste group, and determined who had ritual precedence in village
functions, and so on. In most cases, except in matters of criminal justice, the
state respected the decisions of jati panchayats.

8. Petitions presented by caste panchayat and their impact:

(1)Archival records from western India-notably Rajasthan and Maharashtra-
contain petitions presented to the panchayat complaining about extortionate
taxation or the demand for unpaid labour (beggar) imposed by the “superior” castes
or officials of the state.
 2) These petitions were usually made by villagers, from the lowest rungs of rural
society. Often petitions were made collectively as well, by a caste group or
communities protesting against what they considered were morally illegitimate
demands on the part of elite groups.
(3) These included excessive tax demands which, especially in times of drought or
other disasters, endangered the peasant’s subsistence. In the eyes of the
petitioners of right to the basic minimum for survival was sanctioned by custom.
They regarded the village panchayat as the court of appeal that would ensure that
the state carried out its moral obligations and guaranteed justice.

The decision of the panchayat in conflicts between “lower-caste” peasants and state
officials or the local zamindar could vary from case to case. In cases of excessive revenue
demands, the panchayat often suggested compromise. In cases where reconciliation
failed, peasants took recourse to more drastic forms of resistance, such as deserting the
village. The relatively easy availability of uncultivated land and the competition over
labour resources made this an effective weapon in the hands of cultivators.

SOURCE/PASSAGE BASED QUESTIONS (Sruthy)

Page 198, Source 1
1) Give the name of Babur’s memoirs. -Babur Nama.

2) Describe the aspects of agricultural life that struck Babur as particular to regions in
northern India.

a) How fast in Hindustan villages were abandoned and new settlements set up with
resources from surrounding areas.
b) Fertility of soil and excessive dependence of agriculture on rainwater (monsoons)

3) What formed the backbone of Indian agriculture? Also list some of the frequently
cultivated crops and 2 commercial crops.
-The monsoons formed the backbone of Indian agriculture.
-Frequently cultivated crops were rice, wheat or millets.
-2 commercial crops: Sugarcane and cotton.

4) Why do you think state could not indulge in excessive exploitation of the peasants?
The State could not indulge in excessive exploitation of the peasants because:
-in case of distress, the peasants would take drastic steps such as deserting the villages.
-Another factor was relative easy availability of uncultivated land and competition over
labor resources.

5) What were the different categories of peasants? Give one point of difference.
a) Khud-kashta b) Pahi-Kashta
-The two can be differentiated on the point of occupancy. Khud-Kashta were residents
of the village in which they held their lands. The latter were non-resident cultivators who
belonged to some other village, but cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis.
-People became pahi-kashta either out of choice – for example, when terms of revenue in
a distant village were more favourable – or out of compulsion – for example, forced by
economic distress after a famine.

Page 199, Source 2

1) What was the major criterion for selecting crops for sowing?
The major criterion for selecting crops for sowing was availability of rain water and
irrigation facilities in a region.

2) What was the most common method of irrigation in northern India?

Well irrigation was the most common method of irrigation in northern India.

3) Give 2 devices used for lifting water from the wells. Which do you think was most
suited to irrigate larger fields?
Devices used for lifting water from the well were:
- the simplest method was to draw water with a rope and bucket by hand without any
mechanical aid.
-Another method was rope pulley was used with addition of employment of a pair of oxen.
-Use of wheel for lifting water from well, also called the Persian wheel.

4) List differences between irrigation devices observed by Babur and those used in
Vijayanagara.
-Babur observed use of wells, with distinct modes of drawing water in northern India. -
In Vijayanagara, lakes, tanks, reservoirs, embankments and canals were the most
prevalent methods used for irrigation.

5) Which system could ensure participation of peasants in improving agricultural

technology?
The use of wells, and improvement in devices of lifting water would ensure larger
participation of peasants as compared to use of lakes, Tanks, embankments as these
devices entailed heavy expenditure and therefore could be undertaken only by state, local
chiefs and rich temple management Eg; Madaklake built by Vijayanagara rulers.

Page 210, Source 4

1) How were goods transported from hills to the plains?
A) backs of men
B) stout ponies and on
C) goats.
Because these modes were best suited for the mountainous terrain and narrow rugged
passes of the northern mountains.

2) Name the items they sold and the items that hill people brought from plains to take
back?
-Articles that were sold were : Gold, copper, lead, musk, tails of the kutas cow, honey,
chuck, ginger, long pepper, wax, woolen stuffs, etc.
The articles that hill tribes carried back – clothes, amber, salt, ornaments, glass and
earthen ware.

3) Mention the cultural influences that penetrated in to forest areas?

-Some historians have suggested that sufi saints played a major role in the slow
acceptance of Islam among agricultural communities emerging in newly colonial areas.

4) Why did the Mughal state intrude into forest areas? Explain.
a) the state required elephants for the army. Therefore, the peshkash levied from the
forest people included elephants.
b) the royal hunt also led to the Mughal intrusion of the Mughal state.
Page 214, Source 5
1) Explain briefly the classification of lands by Akbar.
a) Land which remained continually under cultivation and paid full land revenue
demand was classified polaj.
b) Lands which remained fallow intermittently and paid full rates as and when under
cultivation were called paraunti. Land which had been fallow for 3 or 4 years, due to
factors like inundation were brought under a progressive land revenue policy.
c) Full rates were applied when fully brought under cultivation. They were called
chachar. Cultivable waste land or banjar paid full revenue rates in the 5th or 8th year of
cultivation. In this way the state helped in bringing virgin wasteland under cultivation.
d) Continuity of the cultivation was kept in mind before fixing the revenue. Land of
the first 2 kinds was classified under good, middling and bad. Produce of each sort was
added together and the third of this represented the medium produce, one-third of which
was exacted as the royal due.

2) How the revenue was fixed for the two types of lands?
Continuity of the cultivation was kept in mind before fixing the revenue. Land of the first
2 kinds was classified under good, middling and bad. Produce of each sort was added
together and the third of this represented the medium produce, one-third of which was
exacted as the royal due.

3) Suggest some other way as your feel better.

Some other better way could be ‘kankut.’ Revenue to be assessed on the basis of standing
grain. If any doubt rose, crops could be cut estimated in three lots-good, middling and
bad

Page 215, Source 6

1) Name the 4 methods of assessing the land revenue.
a) Kankut b) Batai (or bhaoli) c) Khet-batai d) Lang-batai

2) What are the 2 forms of paying the land revenue ?

a) cash b) in kind

3) Which of the 4 methods according to you is best suited for the farmer and why?
The langbatai system was the most fair because the crop was divided after cutting of the
grain. The dues were comuted there and then to the advantage of both the state and the
peasant. This system left no scope for either the state or the peasant being in any doubt,
as in the case of kankut or khetbatai. The only essential requirement was an army of
honest officials to be present at the time of division.

4) Explain jama and hasil.

The land revenue settlement consisted of two stages: assessment and collection. Jama
was the amount assessed as opposed to Hasil, which was the amount collected.

Page 219, Source 9

1) List all the sources that Abu’l Fazl used to compile his work.
a) Copies or originals of imperial farmans used to compile the Ain.
b) Eye witness accounts.
c) Reports of ministers and high officials.
d) Chronicle of events gathered from Record Office.
2) To what extent do you think his work would have been influenced by his relation
withAkbar. Give reasons in support.
Abul Fazal’s work would have been influenced by his relation with Akbar because:
a) His writing was officially sponsored to facilitate emperor govern his empire.
b)conflicting accounts were referred to Akbar who made the necessary corrections.
c) the manuscript was revised 5 times by the author at times in consultation with Akbar.
d) it gives an ideal account rather than a faithful about the administration and its actual
working
e) It was a view of the regions from the centre, a view of society from its apex for data was
not available from all provinces. Example: Bengal and Orissa.

3) Give 2 characteristic features of Abu’lFazl’sAin.

a) Abu’l Fazl’s Ain is free from religious biases and unlike previous chroniclers who mostly
wrote about political events Ain gives qualitative and quantitative evidence for the study
of agrarian relations.
b) Oral testimonies were cross checked and verified before being incorporated as facts.
c) Its information on people, their profession and trades and on imperial establishment
and grandness of the empire enables historians to reconstruct the social fabric of that
time.

**********

Q. 01. Discuss, with examples, the significance of monetary transactions

during the period 16th and 17th century.

Anns. The significance of monetary transactions during sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries:
• In the early decades of sixteenth century farmers were allowed to pay land revenue
in cash or kind. Due to the facility to pay land revenue in cash money, monetary
transactions played vital role in Indian economy.
• Village artisan (potter, blacksmith, barber, etc.) use to provide specialized services
to the villagers. Though most common way of compensating them was giving them
a share of the harvest but their was another system also under this system artisans
and individual peasants, house hold entered into a mutually negotiated system of
remuneration, most of the time goods for services. For example, eighteenth-century
records tell us a zamindars in Bangal who remunerated blacksmiths, carpenters,
even goldsmiths for their work by paying them “a small daily allowance and diet
money”. This later came to be described as the Jajmani system, though the term
was not in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Such evidence is
interesting because in indicates the intricate ways in which exchange networks
operated at the micro-level of the village. Cash remuneration was not entirely
unknown either.
• The seventeenth-century French traveler Jean-Baptists Tavernier found it
remarkable that in “India a village must be very small indeed if it has not a money
changer called a Shroff. (They) act as bankers to make remittances of money (and
who) enhance the rupee as they please for paisa and the paisa for these (cowrie)
shells”.
• An expanding trade brought in huge amounts of silver bullion into Asia to pay for
good procured from India, and a large part of that bullion gravitated towards India.
This was good for India as it did not have natural resources of silver.
 • As a result, the period between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries was also
marked by a remarkable stability in the availability of metal currency, particularly
the silver rupya in India.
• This facilitated an unprecedented expansion of minting of coins and the circulation
of money in the economy as well as the ability of the Mughal state to extract taxes
and revenue in cash.
• The testimony of an Italian traveler, Giovanni Careri, who passed throught India c.
1690, provides a graphic account about the way silver traveled across the globe to
reach India. It also gives us an idea of the phenomenal amounts of cash and
commodity transactions in seventeenth-century India.

Q. 02. To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and
economic relations in agrarian society?
Caste as a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society.
• Sizeable number of major (labourer). Deep ineqities on the basis of caste and other
caste like distinctions meant that the cultivators were a highly heterogenous group.
Among those who tilled the land, there was a sizeable number who worked as
menials or agricultual, labourers (major).
• Despite the abundance of cultivable land, certain caste groups were assigned
menial taks and thus relegated to poverty. Though there was no census at that
time, the little data that we have suggest that such groups comprised a large
section of the village population, had the least resources and were constrained by
their position in the caste hierarchy, much like the Dalits of modern India. Such
distinctions had begun permeating into other communities too.
• Muslim halakhoran etc. : In muslim communities menials like the halakhoran
(scavengers) were housed outside the boundaries of the village, similarly
mallahzadas (literally, sons of boatmen) in Bihar were comparable to slaves.
• Direct co-relation between caste and socio economic position : There was a
direct correlation between caste, poverty and social status at the lower strata of
society such correlations were not so mared at intermediate levels. In a manual
from seventeenth century Marwar, Rajputs are mentioned as peasants, sharing the
same space with Jats, who were accorded a lower status in the caste hierarchy.
The Gauravas, who cultivated land around Vrindavan (Uttar Prades), sought
Rajput status in the seventeenth century.
• Rise in hierarchy of caste : Castes such as the Ahirs, Gujars and Malis rose in
the hierarchy because of the profitability of cattle rearing and horticulture. In the
eastern regions, intermediate pastoral and fishing castes like the sadgops and
Kaivartas acquired the status of peasants.

Q. 03.Discuss the ways in which panchayats and village headmen regulated rural
society.

Ans. Regulation of rural society by Panchayats and headmen :

Meaning of Panchayat : The village panchayat was an assembly of elders, usually

important people of the village with hereditary right over their property.

General composition and importance of Panchayat decision : In mixed-caste villages,

the panchayat was usually a heterogeneous body. An oligarchy, the panchayat
represented various castes and communities in the village, though the village menial-
cum-agricultural worker was unlikely to be represented there. The decisions made by
these panchayats were binding on the members.

Selection dismissal and main function of headman or muqaddam : The panchayat

was headed by a headman known as muqaddam or mandal. Some sources suggest that
the headman was chosen through the consensus of the village elders, and that this choice
had to be ratified by the zamindar. Headmen held office as long as they enjoyed the
confidence of the village elders, failing which they could be dismissed by them. The chief
function of the headman was to supervise the preparation of village accounts, assisted
by the accountant or patwari of the panchayat.

Funding of Panchayat or sources of Income Panchayat. : The panchayat derived its

funds from contributions made by individuals to a common financial pool.

Item of expenditure : These funds were used for defraying the costs of entertaining
revenue officials who visited the village from time to time. Expenses for community
welfare activities such as tiding over natural calamities (like floods), were also meet from
these funds. Often these funds were also deployed in construction of a bund or digging a
canal which peasants usually could not afford to do on their own.

Various function of panchayat : One important functions of the panchayat was to

ensure that caste boundaries among the various communities inhabiting the village were
upheld. In estern India all marriage were held in the presence of the mandal. In other
words one of the duties of the village headman was to oversee the conduct of the members
of the village community “chiefly to prevent any offence against their caste”.

Imposing fines and expulsion from caste and community : Panchayat also had the
authority to levy fines and inflict more serious forms of punishment like expulsion from
the community. The later was a drastic step and was in most cases meted out for a limited
period. It meant that a person forced to leave the village became an outcaste and lost his
right to practise his profession. Such a measure was intended as a deterrent to violation
of caste norms.

Caste or Jati Panchayat : In addition to the village panchayat each caste or jati in the
village had its own jati panchayat. These panchayates wielded considerable power in
rural society. In Rajasthan jati panchayats arbitrated civil disputes between members of
different castes. They mediated in contested claims on land, decided whether marriages
were performed according to the norms laid down by a particular caste group, determined
who had ritual precedence in village functions, and so on. In most cases, except in
matters of criminal justice, the state respect the decisions of jati panchayats.

Petitions presented by caste panchayat and their impact : Archival records from
western India-notably Rajasthan and Maharashtra-contain petitions presented to the
panchayat complaining about extortionate taxation or the demand for unpaid labour
(beggar) imposed by the “superior” castes or officials of the state. These petitions were
usually made by villagers, from the lowest rungs of rural society. Often petitions were
made collectively as well, by a caste group or a community protesting against what they
considered were morally illegitimate demands on the part of elite groups. These included
excessive tax demands which, especially in times of drought or other disasters,
endangered the peasants subsistence. In the eys of the petitioners of right to the basic
minimum for survival was sanctioned by custom. They regarded the village panchayat as
the court of appeal that would ensure that the state carried out its moral obligations and
guaranteed justice.