AGRICULTURE – COLONIAL PERIOD

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Background

India in the eighteenth century was a great manufacturing as well as a great agricultural country,

Products of the Indian loom supplied the markets of Asia and of Europe….

East Indian Company and the British Parliament, discouraged Indian manufacturers in the early years of British rule in order to encourage the rising manufactures of England.

Background

Under British colonial rule too, agriculture was a major source of livelihood for more than two-thirds of the economically active population in South Asia.

However, during this period, growth rates in agriculture were stagnant and inequality in the region increased, a trend that continued well after 1947

Prior to 1858, agricultural productions constituted mainly food-grains and crops like oilseeds, fiber crops, sugar cane required for domestic consumption.

Agriculture had special importance in self-sufficient village economy.

However, the British Rule changed the nature and structure of Indian economy.

During colonialism, India’s traditional land-use and landownership patterns were changed to ease the acquisition of land at low prices by British entrepreneurs for mines, plantations, and other enterprises.

With the introduction of the land tax under the Permanent Settlement Act 1793, the British popularized the zamindari system at the cost of the jajmani relationship that the landless shared with the landowning class.

After 1765, the Co followed traditional land settlement system in the starting, but gradually modified it in order to collect the maximum possible land revenue.

Introduction of ‘auction ‘ based farming system as the 1st experiment in 1772 wherein revenue collection rights were alloted on contract basis.

Thus, 3 major land settlement systems emegrged.

Zamindari in bengal Raiyatwari/Ryotwari in Madras & Bombay Mahalwari in North Indian provinces. These systems exposed the ‘colonial’

character of British rule and became the basis of primary acquisition of capital

The implementation of the Permanent Settlement system was sudden & dramatic.

Zamindari

Zamindars or landlords were held in perpetuity with a fixed tax burden.

Government tax demand was inflexible & East India collectors refused to make allowances for times of drought, flood or any disaster.

Company would auction the Zamindari rights of any land that were in arrears…& this created a market for land which previously did not exist.

Many of the new purchasers of land were Indian officials within East India Company.

Government aimed that the Zamindari class would not only generate revenue but also serve as intermediaries for the political dominance of their rule.

Zamindars turned into conservative interest groups…they began forcing the tenants into plantation style farming of cash crops like indigo & cotton rather than rice & wheat.

This led to many of the worst famines of 19th century.

Zamindars were absentee landlords who never bothered about investment on land.

Ryotwari

In this system , every registered landholder was recognized as its proprietor and paid rent directly to the government.

Under this, the administration had contact with each farmer.

It appeared more conducive to the interests of the state, which could itself assess the cultivated area & income of the tax payer.

Ryotwari

Therefore, it led to the peasants be liberated from oppressive dominance of a big land owner.

Mahalwari

Introduced in 1822, with the estate or ‘mahals’ being proprietary bodies where land jointly belong to village community, technically called the body of co-shares.

This body of co-shares was jointly responsible to pay land revenue.

Hence, the body of co-sharers were also the cultivators.

However, slowly, this system also became corrupt & exploitative.

The body of officers appointed for assessment of land revenue became corrupt, evaded all the rules & collected land revenue at their own discretion.

Thus, this system too proved miserable for the agricultural class.

Conclusion

In all the land revenue settlement systems, the British had favored certain categories of right holders by conferring on them full & undivided ownership of land.

This led to the exploitation of the cultivating class.

Technological Advancement in Agriculture – 1890’s

Primitive techniques & shrinking sources of manure

Iron cane crushers – 1873 Canal irrigation introduced …. 1. Canal building by using private

British capital failed.2. 70,500 kms of canals were laid down by 1892

3. Canal irrigation led to addition of large parts of land under cultivation.

4. There were some adverse effects of canal irrigation too like depletion of water table, excessive use of water for tillage which harmed crops, creation of malarious swamps & spread of saline efflorescence.

Expansion of Cultivation

By bringing in new land under cultivation Cultivating same land more number of times

during a year. By using different methods, overall expansion

in cultivation outpaced increase in population. The agricultural growth in colonial period is

divided into two phases, one during which cultivable area expanded (1885 – 1920) and the

other when area did not expand (1920 – 40).

Two points are noteworthy. First, crop yields declined in both

periods, and the principal influence on agricultural growth was land area.

Second, land expansion was associated with a form of irrigation development based on canal construction rather than wells.

Post-independence agricultural growth presents a significant contrast.

It was led by yield rather than area. This contrast was associated with another one

in the source of irrigation, which was now wells. Canals were more likely to bring new territories

under cultivation, which was the driver of pre-1920 agricultural growth.

Wells were more likely to lead to a better management of biological inputs and, therefore, higher yields.

And this was the source of agricultural growth after 1950.

Crop Distribution & Specialization

It became possible to expand cultivable area & grow crop according to specialization of the region because of Railway network.

Penetration of rail network helped in leveling of prices in different regions.

This gave a boast to exports.

Crop Distribution & Specialization

Shift from food crops like rice, wheat, jute, oilseeds to non food crops like cotton & jute.

During the years, 1891-1916, area under non-food crops expanded at a rate of 0.42% while the food crop area expanded by 0.31%.