Ruralisation and the Impoverishment of the Peasantry

At a Glance

• Pressure on land Artisans moved to agriculture
• Government Maximised rents and its revenue share
• Triple burden Government, zamindar and moneylender
• Result Many peasants became landless
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Economic Impact of British Rule

Where Does It Fit?

This is the third topic of the category on the economic impact of British rule. The previous topic covered one-way free trade and the tariff policy. This topic covers the impoverishment of the peasantry. The next topic covers intermediaries and absentee landlordism. Previous topic: One-Way Free Trade and the Tariff Policy.

How Did Ruralisation Affect Agriculture?

The ruin of artisans, described in Charter Act of 1813: one-way free trade Tariffs Nearly 80 per…">Deindustrialisation: Ruin of Artisans and Handicraftsmen, drove many to villages and into agriculture. This increased pressure on land and upset the village economic set-up. An overburdened agriculture was a major cause of poverty during British rule.

What Did Revenue Policy Do to the Peasant?

The government, interested only in maximising rents and securing its share of the revenue, enforced the Permanent Settlement in large parts of the country. A key feature of the new settlement was transferability of land, which caused great insecurity to tenants, who lost all their traditional rights in land. The government spent little on improving the productivity of land.

Who Bore the Triple Burden?

The peasant became the ultimate sufferer under the triple burden of the government, the zamindar and the moneylender, and his hardship increased at times of famine and scarcity. This was as true of zamindari areas as of areas under the Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems. The peasant became landless. As an analytical point, in each system the peasant faced a different mix of the three pressures, but the common element was that the claim of the state and of intermediaries on the produce was fixed or rising while the peasant’s own income depended on weather and prices, which made debt and loss of land likely in any bad year.

What Was the Impact on Village Society?

The changes altered the village. The tenant who had once held land by custom now held it at the will of the zamindar, or of the purchaser who had bought the zamindari at auction, so security of tenure, the basis of the peasant’s life, was gone. The relation between the cultivator and the landlord, which in earlier times had included duties on both sides, became a contract of rent and payment, enforced by courts to which the moneylender had easier access than the peasant. Debt moved land from the farmer to the lender, and in a land shortage, since displaced artisans were also looking for land, rents rose. As an analytical point, the main change was in who bore the risk: under older arrangements the risk of a bad harvest was shared among the village, the ruler and the cultivator, whereas under the new system the cultivator carried it almost alone, and so a failed monsoon could mean loss of land or life. This is the setting for the famines described in Famines and Poverty Under British Rule.

How Did This Link to Later Developments?

The stagnation of agriculture, the rise of intermediaries and commercial pressures that followed are described in Intermediaries, Absentee Landlordism and the Ruin of Old Zamindars, Commercialisation of Indian Agriculture and Famines and Poverty Under British Rule. The peasant risings that arose from these conditions are in Early Peasant Movements: Indigo Revolt, Pabna Leagues and Deccan Riots. The nationalist case that poverty was man-made is in Economic Drain and the Nationalist Critique.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Triple burden A standard Mains framework for the peasant’s condition
• Permanent Settlement effects Transferability of land and loss of tenant rights
• Link to peasant movements Explains the agrarian revolts of the nineteenth century

What Came Next?

The next topic covers intermediaries, absentee landlordism and the ruin of the old zamindars. Next topic: Intermediaries, Absentee Landlordism and the Ruin of Old Zamindars.

Key People and Terms

• Permanent Settlement The fixed revenue settlement with zamindars
• Begar Forced, unpaid labour demanded by zamindars
• Summary eviction Eviction of tenants without proper legal process
• Moneylender Lender who often also bought the farmer’s grain
• Ryotwari Revenue system with individual cultivators
• Mahalwari Revenue system with village communities

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about the effect of colonial revenue policy on the peasant. These points add depth.

• Settlement Insecurity of tenants
• Intermediaries Evictions and dues
• Debt Moneylender’s grip