Question

The impoverishment of the Indian peasantry was a direct result of the transformation of the agrarian structure under the British. Discuss.

Answer 1

Indian society had always been based on rural economy and agrarian

activities of the rural areas, in which peasant is the central and important

element. And this agrarian structure on Indian peasantry had always been

oppressed by arbitrary evictions of the land lords and suffered from high

rents, illegal levies, and unpaid labour in zamindari area. The

impoverishment of the Indian Peasantry was a direct result of the

transformation of the agrarian structure due to -

§ Colonial economic poliies.

§ Ruin of the handicrafts leading to overcrowding of land.

§ The new land revenue system.

§ Colonial administrative and judicial system.

The peasants fearing loss of his only source of livelihood often

approached the local moneylender who made full use of the farmer’s

difficulties by extracting high rates of interests on the money rent.