NCERT Class 9 History Peasants and Farmers

Peasants and Farmers

In the previous two chapters you read about pastures and forests, and about those who depended on these resources. You learnt about shifting cultivators, pastoral groups and tribals. You saw how access to forests and pastures was regulated by modern governments, and how these restrictions and controls affected the lives of those who used these resources.

In this chapter you will read about peasants and farmers, with a special focus on three different countries. You will find out about the small cottagers in England, the wheat farmers of the USA, and the opium producers of Bengal. You will see what happens to different rural groups with the coming of modern agriculture; what happens when different regions of the world are integrated with the capitalist world market. By comparing the histories of different places you will see how these histories are different, even though some of the processes are similar. Let us begin our journey with England where the agricultural revolution first occurred. 

The Coming of Modern Agriculture in England

On 1 June 1830, a farmer in the north-west of England found his barn and haystack reduced to ashes by a fire that started at night. In the months that followed, cases of such fire were reported from numerous districts. At times only the rick was burnt, at other times the entire farmhouse. Then on the night of 28 August 1830, a threshing machine of a farmer was destroyed by labourers in East Kent in England. In the subsequent two years, riots spread over southern England and about 387 threshing machines were broken. Through this period, farmers received threatening letters urging them to stop using machines that deprived workmen of their livelihood. Most of these letters were signed in the name of Captain Swing. Alarmed landlords feared attacks by armed bands at night, and many destroyed  their own machines. Government action was severe. Those suspected of rioting were rounded up. 1, 976 prisoners were tried, nine men were hanged, 505 transported – over 450 of them to Australia – and 644 put behind bars. Captain Swing was a mythic name used in these letters. But who were the Swing rioters? Why did they break threshing machines? What were they protesting against? To answer these questions, we need to trace the developments in English agriculture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

1.1 The Time of Open fields and Commons

Over the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the English countryside changed dramatically. Before this time in large parts of England the countryside was open. It was not partitioned into enclosed lands privately owned by landlords. Peasants cultivated on strips of land around the village they lived in. At the beginning of each year, at a public meeting, each villager was allocated a number of strips to cultivate. Usually, these strips were of varying quality and often located in different places, not next to each other. The effort was to ensure that everyone had a mix of good and bad land. Beyond these strips of cultivation lay the common land. All villagers had access to the commons. Here they pastured their cows and grazed their sheep, collected fuelwood for fire and berries and fruit for food. They fished in the rivers and ponds, and hunted rabbit in common forests. For the poor, the common land was essential for survival.

Questions

1. Explain briefly what the open field system meant to rural people in eighteenthcentury England. Look at the system from the point of view of :

a. A rich farmer

b. A labourer

c. A peasant woman

2. Explain briefly the factors which led to the enclosures in England.

3. Why were threshing machines opposed by the poor in England?

4. Who was Captain Swing? What did the name symbolise or represent?

5. What was the impact of the westward expansion of settlers in the USA?

6. What were the advantages and disadvantages of the use of mechanical harvesting machines in the USA?

7. What lessons can we draw from the conversion of the countryside in the USA from a bread basket to a dust bowl?

8. Write a paragraph on why the British insisted on farmers growing opium in India.

9. Why were Indian farmers reluctant to grow opium?

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 9 History Peasants and Farmers