3.  RULING THE COUNTRYSIDE 



NCERT SOLUTION FOR CLASS 8 SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY CHAPTER - 3



Question.1. Match the following:

Answer.1.peasant      
  2. Village       
 3. cultivation on planter’s own land     
 4. cultivation on ryot’s lands

Question.2. Fill in the blanks:
(a) Growers of woad in Europe saw ______ as a crop which would provide competition to their earnings.
Answer.  Indigo 
(b) The demand for indigo increased in late-eighteenth-century Britain because of ________.
Answer.  The expansion of cotton production. 
(c) The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of __________.
Answer.  Synthetic dyes.
(d) The Champaran movement was against __________.
Answer.  Indigo planters.
Question.3. Describe the main features of the Permanent Settlement.
Answer. In order to get a stable revenue income, most of the East India Company’s officials believed that investment in land had to be encouraged and agriculture had to be improved. This led to introduction of permanent settlement in 1793. The main features of the Permanent settlement were:

1. The amount of revenue was fixed permanently, that is, it was not to be increased in ever in future.
2.It was felt that this would ensure a regular flow of revenue into the Company’s coffers and at the same time encourage the zamindars to invest in improving the land.
3.Since the revenue demand of the state would not be increased, the zamindar would benefit from increased production from the land.
4. Under this system revenue had been fixed so high that the zamindars found it difficult to pay.
5. Even when the income of zamindars increased with the expansion of cultivation, the company had no chance of gain because it could not increase a revenue demand that had been fixed permanently.
6. The system proved oppressive for the cultivators.
Question.4. How was the mahalwari system different from the Permanent Settlement?
Answer.:

Mahalwari Settlement

Permanent Settlement

The mahalwari system, devised by Holt Mackenzie, came into effect in 1822, in the North Western provinces of the Bengal Presidency.

The Permanent Settlement was introduced in 1793 by Lord Cornwallis.

It was devised as an alternative to the Permanent Settlement.

It was aimed at ensuring stable revenue for the East India Company.

The village headmen were in charge of collecting revenue.

The rajas and taluqdars were in charge of collecting revenue.

The revenue amount was not fixed, and was to be revised periodically. The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village or mahal had to pay.

The revenue amount was fixed and was never to be increased in the future.
Question.5. Give two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue.
Answer.Two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue were:
  • Driven by the desire to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demand.
  • Peasants were unable to pay the revenue as the crop failed in the countryside and villages became deserted in many regions.


Question.6. Why were ryots reluctant to grow indigo?
Answer.The ryots were reluctant to grow indigo because:
1. They were paid very low-prices for it.
2. The ryots never saw any profit accruing from the indigo plantation.
3.. Ryots were asked to grow indigo on the fertile parts of their land by the planters, which they were apprehensive about.
Question.7. What were the circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of indigo production in Bengal?
Answer.
1. Ryots’ denied producing the indigo anymore.
2. Protests started taking place by the peasants/ ryots supported by the zamindars.
3. Following the protests, the Indigo Commission was constituted by the government which accepted the faults of the planters and asked the planters to stop the cultivation.
4. Planters eventually moved out of the city.