Impact of colonialism on the political economy of india
Answers
heya....
Colonial rule in India by its inherent nature worked for benefit of England and in turn impoverished India. *Agriculture was the main source of livelihood for most of the people of India. However, agrarian relations i.e relations between the peasant and the state changed drastically under the British.
*Earlier system of Jagirdari prevalent under the Mughals was done away with. In this system, the King, the jagirdar and peasant had different rights on land and although there were some instances of land being sold or bought this was not the usual practice. The British introduced three types of land settlements, Permanent, Ryotwari and Mahalwari. In the first revenue settlement was made with the Zamindars, in the second directly with the peasants and in the third with the village communities.
*In the zamindari system, zamindar was recognized as the owner of the land and left free to extract maximum revenue from the cultivators leaving the peasantry impoverished and at the mercy of the zamindar. In other cases, the absence of zamindars did not bring any relief to the peasantry as revenue was fixed at exorbitant rates leaving the peasants in very deprived state.
*Second impact of colonial policies was commercialization of agriculture in some areas where the peasants grew cash crops primarily cotton, jute, tobacco, sugarcane, indigo etc most of which served as raw material for British industries. However, commercialisation proved beneficial only for the rich peasants and the moneylenders...