why did farmers worsen due to British policies?
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Answer:
East India company came as traders but as time passed and their greed grew they gradually took over political and administrative power in their hands. Being a company they were mainly concerned about profits so they came up with many land revenue systems which changed the whole pattern of indian agriculture. Three main systems which changed indian agriculture were Zamindari system , Ryotwari system and Mahalwari system.
All these system brought following changes :
a) Land became property. Private ownership of land came.
b) Farmers became poor and food insecurity grew. Britishers demanded revenue in cash which made farmers to grow cash crop like indigo, cotton so area under food crop declined. As a result india saw many famines and many people died of starvation.
c) Britishers constructed many canals and more area was brought under cultivation but most of the canals caused salanity and swamps . Productivity declined over years. As tax on canal irrigation was high so mostly it was used to grew cash crop.
d) Indebted farmer- Britishers forced farmers to grew cash crop for which input cost was high. They were not spared even during drought and famines. In such situations they borrowed money from local money lenders which trapped them in debt cycle.
e) British land revenue system transferred ownership of land from farmer to local moneylender.
f) India became village based agriculture economy- deurbanization and deindustrialization crated great pressure on agriculture.
All these policies changed the traditional pattern of Indian agriculture thus creating a ripple effect across rural society and created hatred for the foreign rule which got manifested through various rebellions and revolts of peasants and tribals.