Question

why were bengal peasants unwilling to grow opium during british rule

Answer 1

Indian farmers were unwilling to grow opium on their lands for the following reasons:

• Opium could be cultivated only on well manured lands. Often pulses were produced on these lands. Growing opium on these lands would have meant that pulses would have to be grown on lands of inferior quality. This would have resulted in bad harvests of pulses. 

• Many cultivators owned no land. Hence, they had to cultivate land by paying rent and leasing land from landlords. The rent or fee to be paid was very high which made it impossible for them to pay.

• Opium crop required a lot of care and nurturing as it was a delicate crop. Cultivation of this crop was a difficult process and cultivators had to spend long hours looking after it, ignoring the rest of the crops.

• The price paid by the government to the cultivators for the opium they produced was very low.