Question

What is shifting cultivation?why were the shifting cultivation always the problem for the British

Answer 1

Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The British were uncomfortable with groups who moved from one part of the region to the other and did not have fixed homes.

For administrative and economic reasons, the British government wanted  the jhum or shifting cultivators to settle down and become peasant cultivators. However, settled plough cultivation did not prove to be helpful to these jhum cultivators in areas where water was scarce and soil was dry.They often suffered because their fields did not produce good yields.

The new forest laws also affected the lives of the shifting cultivators. Shifting or jhum cultivation is usually done on small patches of forest land. Under the forest laws, the British extended their control over all forests and declared forests as the state property.

Answer 2

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Shifting cultivation or jhum, predominantly practiced in the north-east of India is an agricultural system where a farming community slashes secondary forests on a predetermined location, burns the slash and cultivates the land for a limited number of years.

problem for the British

When a forest was burnt, there was the added danger of the flames spreading and burning valuable timber. Shifting cultivation also made it harder for the government to calculate taxes. Therefore, the government decided to ban shifting cultivation.