Chapter – 8

Peasants, Zamindars and the State

In this post, we have given the detailed notes of Class 12 History Chapter 8 (Peasants, Zamindars, and the State) in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 12 board exams.

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Peasant Landlord and State

Farmers and Agricultural Production  

• The basic of the society was many villages in which farmers lived.
• Farmers used to work throughout the year to ensure that the crop yields good in the field.
• Such as ploughing the land, sowing seeds and harvesting the crop when the crop is ripe.
• Apart from this also farmers used to produce other commodities like sugar, oil etc.
• Agriculture was not the same everywhere, the main reason for this being that many areas were dry and also rocky and many areas fertile.

Looking for Sources

• Farmers did not write about themselves, so we get little information about them.
• Our main source for understanding the agricultural history of 16th and 17th century was a historical text “Ain-i-Akbari”.
• Which was written by Abul Fazl in Akbar’s court.
• We get the accounts of the fields and farmers from this book.
• The main objective of the Ain was to present a structure of Akbar’s empire in which all the ruling classes lived in social harmony.
• If any rebellion against the Mughal state could not be successful.
• Some sources have also been found which were written away from the Mughal court.
• These documents found from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan of 17-18th century give us detailed information about the income of the government.
• Some other sources have also been found which help us to understand how the peasants viewed the state.
• And what kind of justice did they expect from the state.

Irrigation and Technology 

• The presence of laborers and the mobility of the farmers led to the continuous expansion of agriculture.
• The primary purpose of farming was to feed the people.
• Crops for daily needs like rice, wheat, jowar etc. were grown.
• Rice was grown in areas that received more than 40 inches of rain per year.
• And the cultivation of wheat, jowar, millet was prevalent in areas with less rainfall.
• Irrigation work was also supported by the state.
• Answer- In India, the state dug many new canals and drains and got the old canals repaired.
• For example, during the reign of Shah Jahan, “Shah Canal” was built in Punjab.
• Farmers also used plows, cattle and hoe for farming.

Panchayats and Heads 

• Panchayats were usually the important people of the village who had their own ancestral property.
• In the village where people of many castes lived, diversity was also found in the panchayat.
• Small and big disputes of the village were settled by these panchayats.
• And everyone had to accept the decisions of the panchayats.
• The head of the panchayat was a headman who was also called a muqad or mandal.
• The chief was elected by the elders of the village.
• The chief remained on his half only as long as the village elders had confidence in him.
• The chief’s job was to keep an account of the income and expenses of the village under his supervision.
• The expenses of the Panchayat were run from the common treasury of the village in which every person contributed.
• On the other hand, this fund was also used to deal with natural calamities like floods.
• And community works of the village such as building dams, digging canals were also done.
• A major function of the Panchayat was also to ensure that the people of different communities living in the village remained within their limits.
• Village marriages were done under the supervision of the Mandal so that no one disregarded the caste.

Rural Artisans 

• We come to know from village surveys and Maratha documents that there were a large number of village artisans at that time.
• At some places, 25 percent of the total households were artisans.
• Sometimes it was difficult to differentiate between farmers and artisans because they did both types of work, both handicraft and farming.
• When farmers had no work, they used to do handicraft work.
• Rural artisans like potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers and even goldsmiths also rendered their services to the people of the village.
• And the villagers gave him a part of the crop or a piece of wasteland in return.

Women in Agricultural Society

• In the society, women worked side by side with men.
• The men plowed the field and the women did the work of sowing, weeding and harvesting as well as extracting the grain of the ripe crop.
• When there was growth of small units and individual farming of the farmers, then gender distinction started being made.
• Women will do household chores and men will do outside work.
• In western India, menstruating women were not allowed to touch the hall or the potter’s wheel.
• Similarly, women in Bengal could not enter the “paan garden” during menstruation.
• Women also had a big hand in handicraft work.
• used to go. And women also had equal rights on property.
• Farmers and artisan women used to go to others’ homes or markets for work when needed.
• Women were seen as an important resource in the society as women can give birth to children.
• In many rural sects, marriage required the payment of the “bride’s price” and not a dowry.
• The head of the household was a man and on the suspicion of infidelity, women were punished severely.

Jungle and Clan

• The people settled in rural India had much more to offer than agriculture.
• Except for the deeply cultivated regions of north and north-western India, vast tracts of land were covered with forest and shrubs.
• The word wild was used for the people who lived in the jungles.
• These words were used to refer to people who made their living from forest produce, hunting, and shifting cultivation.
  • These people used to work according to the season:
  • Collecting forest produce in spring.
  • summer fishing
  • Farming in monsoon.
  • Hunting in autumn.

Zamindar

• This was a section of people living in the village whose income came from agriculture, but they did not work in the field.
• These were the zamindars of the village and they were the owners of their land.
• Due to their high status in the rural society, they had got some special social and economic facilities.
• One reason behind the increased status of the zamindars was “caste” and the other reason they used to provide certain services to the states.
• Zamindars used to get laborers to work on their land, they did not work on their own land.
• Zamindars could sell their land or give it to others as per their wish.
• The second main function of the zamindars was not to “collect taxes” from the villagers on behalf of the state, in return, the zamindars used to get financial compensation.
• The zamindars also had their own troops.
• In which there were cavalry, artillery and foot soldiers.

Land Revenue System

• Revenue from land was the economic foundation of the Mughal Empire.
• Administrative machinery was created for agricultural production and revenue collection.
• The Diwan was responsible for overseeing the financial system of the state.
• Account keepers and revenue officials entered the world of farming.
• Taxes can be fixed on a large number of people who collect land information.
• There were two phases of land revenue arrangement:
  • First assessment and second actual recovery.
  • The deposit was the prescribed amount and the amount received was actually the amount recovered.
• Akbar had ordered his officers to pay from the people of the village in the form of cash and if they do not have cash, then keep the option of cropping open.

Silver Flux

• The opening of the “New World” through travels in the 16-17th century led to a huge expansion in the trade of Asia, especially India, with Europe.
• Another geographical diversification came in the maritime trade of India and trade of new goods also started.
• Large amounts of silver came into Asia to pay for the goods being continuously exported with Europe.
• In this way a large part of silver was drawn towards India.
• And this was good for India as there were no natural silver resources.

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