Ruling the Countryside

Chapter: Ruling the Countryside

Diwani Right (दीवानी अधिकार): On August 12, 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal. This gave the Company control over the financial administration of the region.
Primary Objective: The Company wanted to rule the countryside to:
- Increase revenue to buy fine cotton and silk textiles.
- Expand its military power.
- Secure enough revenue to purchase goods without relying on gold/silver imports from Britain.

Economic Crisis in Bengal: Artisans deserted villages because they were forced to sell goods at low prices. Peasants could not pay the heavy dues demanded by the Company. Agriculture showed signs of collapse.
The Permanent Settlement (1793):
- Introduced by Lord Cornwallis.
- Key Feature: Rajas and talukdars were recognized as Zamindars. Their job was to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company.
- Fixing the Amount: The revenue demand was permanently fixed. It would never be increased in the future.
- Drawbacks:
  - Zamindars had little interest in improving the land.
  - The fixed revenue was so high that many zamindars failed to pay, lost their lands, and auctions were held.
  - Peasants faced heavy oppression and high rents without traditional protections.

Problem: By the early 19th century, the Permanent Settlement did not bring enough income. A permanent fixed revenue meant the Company lost out on rising agricultural prices and income from expanded cultivation.
Mahalwari Settlement (1822):
- Devised by Holt Mackenzie.
- Key Feature: Revenue was not fixed permanently. It was periodically revised.
- Mahal: In British revenue records, mahal is a revenue estate, which may be a village or a group of villages.
- Collection: The village headman (lambardar or village community) was given the charge of collecting and paying the revenue, rather than the zamindar.

Region: Implemented in the south of India (Madras and Bombay presidencies), largely shaped by Thomas Munro.
Key Feature: Since there were no traditional zamindars in the south, the settlement was made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had tilled the land for generations.
Process: Fields were carefully and separately surveyed before the revenue assessment was fixed.

The British realized that the countryside could not only yield revenue but also grow crops that Europe required.

Opium & Indigo: The British forced cultivators to produce these cash crops.
Demand for Indigo:
- Indigo plant grows primarily in the tropics.
- European cloth manufacturers (in Italy, France, and Britain) relied on woad (a plant giving blue dye, which was a rival to indigo).
- With industrialization, the demand for blue dye skyrocketed, and British planters turned to India for indigo cultivation.

Two main systems were used for indigo cultivation: nij and ryoti.

Nij Cultivation (निज खेती):
- The planter produced indigo in lands that he directly controlled or bought/rented from zamindars.
- Problems: It required vast areas in compact blocks, which were hard to acquire. It also faced a severe shortage of labor (ploughs and bullocks were busy with rice cultivation at the same time).
Ryoti Cultivation (र्योती खेती):
- Planters forced the ryots to sign a contract (satta).
- Those who signed got cash advances at low interest rates to produce indigo, but on at least 25% of the area of their land.
- Problems: The price paid by the planters was very low, and the cycle of loans never ended. After harvest, the soil was exhausted of nutrients and could not be used for growing rice.

The Uprising (March 1859): Ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo, refused to pay rents to planters, and attacked indigo factories with bows, arrows, spears, and pots.
Support: Village headmen (ryots) and even some local zamindars supported the rebellion against the planters.
Response of the Government:
- The government set up the Indigo Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production.
- The Commission held the planters guilty and criticized them for using coercive methods.
- It declared that ryots could refuse to fulfill their existing contracts for indigo in the future.
Result: Indigo production collapsed in Bengal. Planters shifted their operation base to Bihar. (Later, in 1917, Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Champaran marked the famous movement against indigo planters).