Question

write a short note on Deccan Uprising in 100 words

Answer 1

In May and June 1875, peasants of Maharashtra in some parts of Pune, Sataraand Ahmednagar districts revolted against increasing agrarian distress. The Deccan Riots of 1875 targeted conditions of debt peonage (kamiuti) to moneylenders. The rioters' specific purpose was to obtain and destroy the bonds, decrees, and other documents in the possession of the moneylenders.[1]
As Indian agriculture was drawn into the world economy, credit, commerce, inequality and growth were interrelated. The cultivators' distress resulted from falling agricultural prices, heavy taxation, and a sense of political powerlessness. The commercialization of agriculture under British land revenue policies burdened small peasants by placing a premium on access to credit to finance productive investments in the land. Employing capital advanced by European merchants, local moneylenders obtained unlimited title to the property and labor of their debtors; it gave them the "power to utterly ruin and enslave the debtor."[2] During the 19th century, they used this power to control peasant labour, and not their land, which was of little value without people to work it.