Mains Practice Questions

Introduction

The Permanent, Ryotwari, and Mahalwari land revenue systems introduced by the British were more than mere instruments of taxation, they redefined India’s agrarian structure. Aimed at maximising British revenue, they disrupted traditional landholding and had lasting effects on Indian agriculture.

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Impact on Agrarian Economy:

• Revenue First Approach: The British prioritized fixed revenue over peasant welfare, treating land chiefly as a fiscal resource.
  • The Permanent Settlement fixed land revenue, ignoring crop fluctuations and led to rising rents, agrarian distress, absentee landlords, and little incentive for land improvement.
  • Moreover, the lack of security of tenure disincentivized peasants from adopting better farming practices.
• Peasant Indebtedness: In the Ryotwari system, direct tax collection from peasants involved high and inflexible demands.
  • This pushed many into debt, leading to land loss, increased dependence on moneylenders, and fragmented holdings.
• Food Insecurity & Agricultural Commercialization: These settlements promoted cash crop cultivation (e.g., indigo, cotton, opium) over food grains, harming food security.
  • Additionally, Mahalwari settlement assessed revenue on village communities and concentrated power in the hands of village elites, marginalizing ordinary cultivators.

Changes in Land Ownership Patterns:

• New Class of Landlord: The Permanent Settlement entrenched zamindars as landowners and tax collectors. It created a landed aristocracy, often absentee landlords, incentivized to extract maximum rents, this resulted in a feudalist agrarian structure.
• Erosion of Customary Rights: Traditional village communal ownership and hereditary land rights were undermined. The settlements legalized private ownership, which facilitated land sales and transfers, often disadvantageous to small farmers and tribal communities.
• Increase in Tenancy and Sharecropping: Many cultivators became tenants or sharecroppers under oppressive terms, intensifying rural inequality and insecurity of tenure.
  • Finally, the rise of non-cultivating landlord classes and the growing population of landless tenants.
• Lasting Effects: These settlements entrenched structural inequalities, created class divisions in rural India, and contributed to agrarian unrest, including peasant revolts like the Santhal rebellion and Deccan riots.
  • The agrarian distress aggravated famines, as observed during the Bengal famine of 1943, where rigid revenue demands worsened vulnerability.

Conclusion

Colonial land revenue settlements restructured land ownership towards landlord dominance, displacing traditional communal systems, thereby sowing seeds of chronic agrarian distress and social stratification.