Peasants, Zamindars and the State Notes in English Class 12 History Chapter-8 Book-Themes in Indian History-II
0Team Eklavyaअप्रैल 23, 2025
Introduction
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, about 85 percent of the people in India lived in villages. Both small farmers and landowning elites were involved in agricultural production and both were claimants to shares of the crop. This created relationships of cooperation, competition and conflict between them. At the same time, many external forces also entered the rural world. The most important among them was the Mughal state . The Mughal state derived a large part of its income from agricultural production.
Representatives of the State-
1. Revenue assessees
2. Revenue collectors
3. Accounting
4. They tried to control the rural society.
5. They wanted to ensure that the fields were ploughed and the state received its share of taxes from the produce on time.
6. Many crops were grown for sale, hence trade, currency and markets also started taking place in the villages due to which the agricultural areas got connected to the cities.
Farmers and agricultural production
Farmers did different jobs in different seasons throughout the year
As -
1. Ploughing of the land
2. Sowing the Seeds
3. Harvesting the crop when it is ripe
Apart from this, they also participated in the production of those products which were agriculture based like sugar, oil etc. but farming of the farmers settled in the plains was not the only specialty of rural India.
There were also many areas that were in hilly terrain over vast stretches of dry land.
Where farming could not be done in the same way as was done on more fertile lands; besides, a large portion of the land was covered with forests.
Thus, when we talk about agricultural society, we have to take into account these geographical diversities.
Looking for sources
Our main sources for understanding the agricultural history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are historical texts and documents that were written under the supervision of the Mughal court. Because farmers did not write about themselves, we do not get information about the activities of rural society from those who worked in the fields.
Ain-e-Akbari
Therefore Ain-e-Akbari is considered an important historical text
आइन - ए - अकबरी अकबर के दरबारी इतिहासकार अबुल फज्ल ने लिखा था ।
Ain-e-Akbari
1. Regular plowing of fields
2. Collection of taxes by representatives of the state
3. The account of the relationship between the state and the landlords has been presented very carefully in this book.
The main objective of Ain-e-Akbari: -
Akbar's empire was intended to present a model where a strong ruling class maintained social harmony.
According to the author of the Ain, any rebellion against the Mughal state or any assertion of autonomous power was doomed to fail.
Whatever we get to know about farmers through the law is the viewpoint of the higher corridors of power.
Along with the information from the Ain, we can also use sources which were written in areas far away from the Mughal capital.
These include documents from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which provide detailed information about government income.
In addition, there are a number of East India Company documents that provide a useful overview of agrarian relations in eastern India. All these sources record the conflicts between peasants, landowners and the state.
These sources help us understand how the peasants viewed the state and what kind of justice they expected from the state.
Farmers and their land
Indian Persian sources of the Mughal period tell us that the term rayat or muzarian was used for farmers.
Sometimes we also find words like farmer or Assamese.
Seventeenth century sources discuss two types of peasants
1. Self-cultivation
Khud-Kasht were farmers who lived in the same villages in which they owned their lands
2. Pahi - cultivation
Pahi-Kasht were those farmers who came from other villages to do farming on contract. People also became Pahi-Kasht on their own will.
Irrigation and technology
Agriculture expanded steadily due to the abundance of land, the presence of laborers, and the mobility of peasants.
The primary purpose of farming was to feed the people, hence crops needed for daily food like rice, wheat, jowar etc. were grown the most.
In areas where there was 40 inches or more of rainfall per year, rice was cultivated more or less.
Cultivation of wheat and jowar-millet was more popular in areas with less rainfall.
Monsoon was the backbone of Indian agriculture, as it is even today, but there were some crops which needed additional water and artificial means of irrigation had to be devised for them.
Irrigation works also received state support; in North India the state dug many new canals and drains and repaired many old ones, such as the Shah Nahar in Punjab during the reign of Shah Jahan.
Agricultural technology adopted by the farmer –
Animal power was used for farming. Light wooden plough was used which had an iron blade or blade at one end.
Such ploughs did not dig too deep into the soil, which helped conserve moisture during the hot summer months.
Farmers used to use a drill pulled by a pair of oxen to sow seeds, but the practice of sowing seeds by sprinkling them by hand was more popular.
Thin iron blades with wooden handles were used for tilling the soil as well as weeding.
abundance of crops
Farming was done during two main weather cycles:
1. Kharif (autumn) – June to September
2. Rabi (spring) – October to March
Except in dry areas and barren lands, in most places there were at least two crops a year.
Where rain or other sources of irrigation were available all the time, even three crops could be grown in a year and hence there was a great diversity in the yield.
It is known from the Ain-i-Akbari that combining both seasons, 39 varieties of crops were grown in the Mughal province of Agra while 43 varieties of crops were grown in the Mughal province of Delhi.
Only 50 varieties of rice were grown in Bengal.
Jins-e-Kamil - Best Crops The Mughal state also encouraged farmers to grow such crops because they brought more taxes to the state. Crops like cotton and sugarcane were the best Jins-e-Kamil.
Cotton was grown on large tracts of land spread across Central India and the Deccan Plateau. Bengal was famous for its sugar.
Oilseeds (like mustard) and pulses also were included in cash crops.
In the seventeenth century many new crops reached the Indian subcontinent from different parts of the world.
Maize came to India via Africa and Spain Vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes and chillies were brought from the New World Fruits like pineapple and papaya also came from there
Rural community
The farmer had personal ownership of his land.
Also, as far as their social existence is concerned, in many ways they were part of a collective rural community.
There were three components of this community –
1. Agricultural farmer
2. Panchayat
3. Headman of the village (Muqaddam or Mandal)
Caste and rural environment
Due to caste discrimination, agricultural farmers were divided into many groups.
A large number of those ploughing the fields were people who were engaged in work considered lowly or worked as labourers in the fields.
Even though there was no shortage of cultivable land, people of certain castes were given only menial jobs and were forced to remain poor.
There was no census at that time, but the little data and facts we have show that a large part of the village population belonged to such groups.
Those who had the least resources and were bound by the restrictions of the caste system, their condition was more or less the same as that of the Dalit Muslim community in modern India. Groups associated with 'lowly' jobs like Halalkhoran could live only outside the boundaries of the village.
Similarly, the boatmen in Bihar could be compared to slaves.
A book written in Marwar in the seventeenth century refers to Rajputs as farmers. According to this book, Jats were also farmers but their place in the caste system was lower than that of Rajputs.
Due to increasing profits from animal husbandry and horticulture, castes like Ahir, Gujjar and Mali rose up the social ladder.
Panchayats and headmen
The village panchayat was a gathering of elders, usually important people of the village who had ancestral rights to their property.
In villages where people of many castes lived, diversity was often found in the Panchayat also.
This was an oligarchy in which different sects and castes of the village were represented.
Everyone in the village had to accept the decision of the Panchayat. The head of the Panchayat was a chief who was called Mukaddam or Mandal.
From some sources it seems that the headman was elected by consensus of the village elders and after this election he had to get approval from the landlord.
The chief remained in his position only as long as the village elders had confidence in him, otherwise the elders could dismiss him.
The main work of the head was to get the accounts of income and expenditure of the village prepared under his supervision and the Patwari of the Panchayat used to help him in this.
The expenses of the Panchayat were met from the common treasury of the village to which every person contributed.
This treasury was also used to pay for the maintenance of tax officials who visited the village from time to time. The fund was also used to deal with natural calamities such as floods and for community work that the farmers could not do themselves, such as building small earthen dams or digging canals.
A major function of the Panchayat was to ensure that people of different communities living in the village remained within the boundaries of their caste.
In Eastern India all marriages took place in the presence of a mandal.
One of the responsibilities of the village headman was to monitor the conduct of the people "to prevent caste disrespect".
Panchayats had the power to impose more severe punishments, such as fines and expulsion from the community.
Expulsion was a harsh measure that was enforced for a limited period of time. Under this, the punished person had to leave the village (for a given period of time). During this period, he lost his caste and profession. The aim of such policies was to prevent violation of caste customs.
Apart from the Gram Panchayat, every caste in the village had its own Panchayat. These Panchayats were very powerful in the society.
In Rajasthan, caste panchayats used to settle disputes between people of different castes.
They settled disputes over land claims, decided whether marriages were conducted according to caste norms, and also who would be given preference over whom in village functions.
The collected documents from western India, particularly from states like Rajasthan and Maharashtra, contain numerous petitions complaining to the panchayat against “upper” castes or state officials for exacting taxes or forced labour from the people.
Usually these petitions were filed by people from the lowest strata of the rural community. Often such petitions were also filed collectively. In these, people of a particular caste or community expressed their opposition against the demands of the elite groups which they considered morally illegal.
Rural artisans
Village surveys done in the early years of British rule and Maratha documents reveal that artisans lived in considerable numbers in the villages - in some places, as much as 25% of the total houses belonged to artisans.
It was sometimes difficult to distinguish between peasants and artisans, as there were many groups who performed both types of work.
The farmer and his family participated in the production of a variety of goods such as dyeing, printing on cloth, baking pottery and making or repairing agricultural implements.
During the months when they had free time from farm work, these farmers used to do handicraft work. Rural artisans like potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers and even goldsmiths used to provide their services to the villagers in return for which the villagers used to pay them in different ways.
Usually they were given either a share of the crop or a piece of village land, perhaps some land that was lying uncultivated even though it was suitable for cultivation.
a "small republic"
Some nineteenth-century British officers saw Indian villages as "mini republics" where people shared resources and labour on a collective basis in a brotherly manner, but it does not seem that there was social equality in the villages.
Property was privately owned; at the same time, there were deep inequalities in society on the basis of caste and gender.
Some powerful people used to take decisions on village issues and exploit the weaker sections. They also had the right to dispense justice.
Women in Agrarian Society
Women and men worked shoulder to shoulder in the fields.
Men used to plough the fields and women used to sow, weed, harvest and take out grains from the ripe crops.
In Western India, menstruating women were not allowed to touch the plough or the potter's wheel; in Bengal, women could not enter betel plantations during their menstruation.
Handicraft work such as spinning yarn, cleaning and kneading clay for making utensils, and embroidery on clothes were done by women. These were the aspects of production that depended on women's labour.
The more commercialized a product became, the greater was the demand for women's labor to produce it.
Peasant and artisan women not only worked in the fields when required but also went to their employers' homes and to markets.
Since society was dependent on labor, women were seen as a vital resource because of their ability to bear children.
There was a shortage of married women as the mortality rate among women was very high due to malnutrition, repeated motherhood and deaths during childbirth.
This gave rise to social customs within peasant and artisan societies that were very different from those of elite groups; many rural communities required the payment of a "bride price" for marriage, rather than a dowry.
Both divorced women and widows could legally marry.
Women's reproductive power was given so much importance that there was a great fear of losing control over it.
According to established customs, the head of the household was a man; thus the woman was kept under strict control by the men of the family and community.
Women could be given terrible punishments merely on suspicion of infidelity.
Documents recovered from areas of Western India like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra contain requests sent by women to the Gram Panchayat in the hope of getting justice and compensation.
Wives are seen protesting against their husbands' infidelity or accuse the man of the household of neglecting his wife and children.
Male infidelity was not always punished, but the state and "upper" caste people often tried to ensure that the family was able to provide for itself.
Mostly, when women submitted applications to the Panchayat, their names were not recorded in the documents; the applicant was referred to as the mother, sister or wife of the male/head of the household.
Among the Bhumihar gentry, women had the right to ancestral property. There are examples from Punjab where women (including widows) actively participated in the rural land market as sellers of ancestral property.
Hindu and Muslim women inherited land, which they were free to sell or mortgage.
Women landlords were also found in Bengal. One of the biggest and most famous landlordies of the eighteenth century was the landlordship of Rajshahi which was headed by a woman.
Forests and tribes ( beyond the settled villages)
Except in the intensively cultivated areas of northern and north-western India, vast tracts of land were covered with forests or bushes (kharbandi).
Such areas were spread across entire eastern India including Jharkhand, central India, northern region (which includes the Terai of the India-Nepal border area), the Western Ghats of southern India and the Deccan plateau. It has been estimated that this average was about 40 percent.
The writings of that period tell us that the word 'Jangli' was used for those who lived in the forests. Being Jangli meant those who made a living from forest produce, hunting and Jhum farming.
This work was done according to the seasons; forest products were collected in the spring season, fishing was done in the summer, farming was done in the monsoon months, hunting was done in the autumn and winter months, this process stood on the basis of continuous mobility and also strengthened this foundation.
Continuously moving from one place to another was a characteristic of the tribes living in these forests.
As far as the state was concerned, for it the forest was a topsy-turvy area: a haven (mawas) for miscreants.
Babar says that -
The forest was a protective shield "behind which the people of the pargana became bitter rebels and refused to pay taxes".
intrusion into the woods
The state needed elephants for its military might, so the offerings from forest dwellers often included elephants.
Hunting expedition -
The emperor would visit every nook and corner of his vast empire in the name of hunting expeditions and thus personally look into the problems and grievances of the people of different regions.
Hunting scenes appeared repeatedly in the paintings of court artists.
Impact of commercial farming –
Forest products such as honey, beeswax and lac were in great demand.
Some items like lock were major items of overseas export from India in the seventeenth century.
Elephants were also captured and sold. Goods were also exchanged as part of trade.
There were changes in the lives of forest dwellers due to social reasons also.
There were chieftains of various tribes, chieftains of many tribes became landlords and some even became kings. In such a situation, they needed to raise an army. They recruited people of their clan in the army and demanded military service from their own brothers.
The tribal armies of the Sindh region consisted of 6,000 horsemen and 7,000 infantry.
In Assam, the Ahom kings had their own Paiks. These were people who had to render military service in exchange for land. The Ahom kings had also declared their monopoly on catching wild elephants.
Landowner
Zamindars were a class whose income came from farming but who did not directly share in the agricultural production.
Zamindars were the owners of their land and had a high status in the rural society. Due to their high status, they had certain special social and economic facilities.
One reason behind the increased status of zamindars was caste; they rendered certain services (khidmat) such as collecting taxes on behalf of the state
One reason behind the increased status of the zamindars was the caste system. They provided certain services (khidmat). The reason for the prosperity of the zamindars was their vast personal holdings, called miliyat (property).
The proprietary land was cultivated for the personal use of the landlord. These lands were worked by daily wage labourers or dependent labourers. The landlord could sell these lands, transfer them to someone else or mortgage them as per his wish.
The zamindars were more powerful because of their military resources. Most of the zamindars also had their own forts and their own military units which included groups of cavalry, artillery and infantry.
land revenue system
Revenue from land was the economic foundation of the Mughal Empire.
Therefore, the Mughal Empire needed to establish an administrative machinery to control agricultural production and to assess and collect revenue in all areas of the rapidly expanding empire.
Hence the appointment of the Diwan (diwan being a post charged with the responsibility of looking after the finances of the entire state), as an accountant and revenue officer. Before fixing the burden of tax on those who entered the world of agriculture, the Mughal state tried to collect specific information about the land and its production.
Land Revenue
1. Tax assessment
2. Actual recovery
Deposit - fixed amount
Realised - amount actually recovered
Amil - Guzar - These were such officers during the Mughal period
Revenue Collection
Akbar ordered the Amil-Guzar who used to collect revenue that they should try to make the farmers pay in cash and the option of paying in crops should also be open. While determining the tax, the state tried to keep its share as much as possible.
But due to local conditions it was sometimes not possible to actually collect that much. In every province, both cultivated land and cultivable land were measured.
During the reign of Akbar, Abul Fazal compiled all the data of such lands in the Ain.
Later rulers also continued their efforts to measure land.
In 1665 A.D., Aurangzeb gave clear instructions to his revenue officials to keep an annual record of the number of farmers in every village, despite which all the areas were not measured successfully.
Large areas were covered with forests and were not measured
Silver Drift
The Mughal Empire was one of the major Asian empires that succeeded in strengthening its hold on power and resources during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The voyages of discovery and the opening up of the 'New World' led to a great expansion in trade between Europe and Asia, especially India.
Because of this, there was geographical diversity in India's overseas trade and trade of many new goods also started.
With ever-increasing trade, a huge amount of silver came into Asia to pay for the goods exported from India. A large part of this silver was drawn towards India. This was good for India as it had no natural resources of silver.
Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, there was a fair amount of stability in the availability of metal currencies in India, especially silver rupees.
Along with this, on the one hand there was an unprecedented expansion in monetary circulation and minting of coins in the economy and on the other hand it became easier for the Mughal state to collect cash taxes.
Ain-e-Akbari by Abul Fazal
Ain-e-Akbari was a major project and the responsibility of this was given to Abul Fazal by Emperor Akbar.
It was completed in 1598 A.D., in the forty-second year of Akbar's reign, after five revisions.
The Ain was part of a larger project of writing history initiated by Akbar.
The result of this project was Akbarnama which was written in three volumes.
1. The first two volumes presented the historical story.
2. The third volume was Ain-e-Akbari
Akbar Nama
Historical Tale
Historical Tale
Ain-e-Akbari
Ain - e – Akbari
Palace
Administration
Organization of the army
Sources of Revenue
Geography of provinces of the Akbari Empire
Literary, cultural and religious customs of the people
All the departments of Akbar's government
About the various provinces (subas) during Akbar's period
Ain-e-Akbari
1. Floor population
Information is available about the royal house and its maintenance.
2. Sepah population
It is about military and civil administration and the system of servants.
This part contains brief biographies of imperial officers (mansabdars), scholars, poets and artists.
3. Country population
It contains detailed statistical information on the financial aspects of the empire and the provinces, and statistics of revenue rates, and also includes geographical, topographical and economic sketches of the provinces and their various administrative and fiscal units (sarkars, parganas and mahals).
The total measured land and the assessed revenue (jama) for each province and its various units are also given.
4. Religious cultural customs
It deals with the religious, literary and cultural customs of the people; and finally, there is also a collection of Akbar's "good sayings".
Drawbacks of Ain-e-Akbari -
5 revisions (decrease in authenticity)
This book is not completely free from problems.
Many mistakes have been found in the addition.
There are anomalies in numerical data.
There is not much information about Bengal and Orissa.
