CBSE Class 12 History HOTs Colonialism and the Countryside

Question. When was the auction held in Burdwan?
a) 1899
b) 1798
c) 1789
d) 1791

Answer : D

Question. For how many years did Chinnery stay in India?
a) 24
b) 28
c) 23
d) 26

Answer : C

Question. Who was the leader of the Santhal rebellion?
a) Birsa Munda
b) Kanu
c) Siddhu Manjhi
d) Paharias

Answer : C

Question. In the 1780s, who was the collector of Bhagalpur?
a) None of these
b) Thomas Gainsborough
c) Charles Cornwallis
d) Augustus Cleveland

Answer : D

Question. Before the Railway age, the town of the collection centre for cotton from Deccan was _.
a) Siwan
b) Devas
c) Mirzapur
d) Salboni

Answer : C

Question. When was the Fifth Report introduced in the British Parliament?
a) 1856
b) 1813
c) 1812
d) 1814

Answer : B

Question. Who was the Governor General of Bengal when the Permanent Settlement was introduced there in 1793?
a) Charles Cornwallis
b) George Thomas
c) None of these
d) Thomas Gainsborough

Answer : A

Question. Damin-i-koh was the land of ___?
a) Santhals
b) Paharias
c) Ryots
d) Dikus

Answer : A

Question. Who was David Ricardo?
a) Governor General
b) An Economist
c) A Surgeon
d) A traveller

Answer : B

Question. Where was the Cotton Supply Association founded?
a) Japan
b) Manchester
c) Beijing
d) Britain

Answer : D

Question. Choose the correct statement.
1. Jotedars were poor peasants.
2. Jotedars cultivate small portions of land.
3. Jotedars were the most powerful in Bengal.
4. Rise of Jotedars strengthened zamindari authority
a) Only 3
b) Only 2
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Only 4

Answer : A

Question. The one who wields the lathi or stick, functions as a strongman of the zamindar. He is called___?
a) Khati
b) Mochi
c) Lathyal
d) Kumhar

Answer : C

Question. Who was the Raja of Burdwan when Permanent Settlement was imposed?
a) Tukaram
b) Tejchand
c) Mehtab Chand
d) None of these

Answer : B

Question. Name the famous film of Satyajit Ray which was shot in Andul Raj Palace?
a) Jalshaghar
b) Aparajito
c) Agantuk
d) Pratidwandi

Answer : A

Question. Where did the Paharias and the Santhals live?
a) Cardamom Hills
b) Rajmahal Hills
c) Himalayas
d) shivalik Hills

Answer : B

Question. When was Manchester Cotton Company formed?
a) 1858
b) 1857
c) 1859
d) 1860

Answer : C

Question. Which commission was set up to investigate the riots of Deccan’s farmers in 1875?
a) Bengal riots commission
b) Deccan riots commission
c) Chota Nagpur plateau riots commission
d) Hyderabad riots commission

Answer : B

Question. Who did the survey of Dinajpur district of North Bengal?
a) Lord Curzon
b) Charles Cornwallis
c) George Thomas
d) Francis Buchanan

Answer : D

Question. The Royatwari system was implemented mainly in which region?
a) Bomaby Deccan
b) Northern India only
c) Calcutta and Northern India
d) Bihar and Assam

Answer : A

Question. Where is Burdwan Raja’s City Palace located?
a) Mysore
b) Thanjavur
c) Calcutta
d) Buxar

Answer : C

CASE-BASED MCQs

Observe the picture carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Question. Identify the British official shown in the picture.
(A) Lord William Bentinck
(B) Lord William Cornwallis
(C) Lord Charles Clausle
(D) Lord Charles Cornwallis
Answer : D

Question. What was his designation during his stay in India?
(A) Governor General of Bengal
(B) Governor General of India
(C) Viceroy of India
(D) President of East India Company
Answer : A

Question. Which revenue system was introduced during his authority?
(A) Ryotwari System
(B) Permanent Settlement
(C) Zamindari System
(D) Mahalwari System
Answer : B

Question. Which was the first princely state that fell prey to  the vices of this revenue system?
(A) Jhansi
(B) Bengal
(C) Burdwan
(D) Mewar
Answer : C

Very Short Answer type Questions

Question. What was Permanent Settlement?
Answer : The practice of collecting land revenue introduced by Lord Cornwalis in 1793 is known as permanent settlement. In this system the land was given to landlords (Zamindars) permanently. The amount of revenue had been fixed in permanent settlement.

Question. Explain the ryotwari system of revenue.
Answer : The revenue system that was introduced in the Bombay Deccan came to be known as ryotwari. In this system, the revenue was directly settled with the ryot. The average incomes from different types of soil were estimated. The revenue- paying capacity of the ryot was assessed and a proportion of it fixed as the share of the state.

Question. What was Deeds of hire?
Answer : When debts mounted the peasants were unable to pay back the loan to the moneylender. They had no option but to give over all land under their possession, carts and animals to the money lenders. But without animals they could not continue to cultivate. So they took land on rent and animals on hire. Now they had to pay for them which had originally belonged to them. He had to sign a Deed of hire stating very clearly that these animals and carts did not belong to them.

Question. Who were santhals? What are the two features of their lives?
Answer : They were the tribes living in the foothills of Rajmahal hills. They cultivated their fields by plough and much civilized than the Paharias.

Question. What do you understand by Deccan Riots commission?
Answer : The commission which was set up to investigate the riots of Deccan’s farmer in 1875. It was set up by the government of Bombay due to immense pressure of Government of India. Its report was presented in 1878 before the British Parliament.

Question. Who were Jotedars?
Answer : The groups of rich farmers were known as Jotedars. They controlled local trade as well as money lending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivator’s of the region.

Short Answer type Questions

Question. Why Zamindars defaulted on payments?
Answer : The reasons for this failure were various-
(i) The initial demands of tax were very high, because the company felt that if the demand was fixed for all time to come they would never be able to claim for high shares in the condition of increased income. (ii) This high demand was imposed in the 1790s, a time when the prices of agricultural produce were depressed, making it difficult for the ryots to pay their dues to the zamindar. If the Zamindar could not collect the rent, how could he pay the company?
(iii) The revenue was invariable, regardless of the harvest, and had to be paid punctually.
(iv) The permanent settlement initially limited the power of the Zamindars to collect rent from the ryot and manage his zamindari.

Question. Why did the Santhals revolted against the British rule?
Answer : The Santhals were revolted against the British rule due to following reasons-
(i) The land that Santhals had brought under cultivation was slipping away from their hands.
(ii) The state was levying heavy taxes on the land that the Santhals had
cleared, money lenders (dikus) were charging them high rates of interest.
(iii) Moneylenders were taking over the land from Santhals when debts remained unpaid, and Zamindars were asserting control over the Damin - i - koh area.
(vi) By the 1850s, the Santhals felt that the time had come to rebel against Zamindars, money lenders and the colonial state in order to create an ideal world for themselves where they would rule.
It was after the Santhal Revolt (1855-56) that the Santhal Pargana was created, carving out 5,500 sq. miles from the districts of Bhagalpur and Birbhum.

Question. Discuss about the life of hill folk of Rajmahal hills, Paharia.
Answer : (i) Paharias lived around the Rajmahal hills, subsisting on forest produce and practicing shifting cultivation.
(ii) They cleared patches of forest by cutting bushes and burning the
undergrowth on these patches, enriched by the potash from the ash, the Paharias grew a variety of pulses and millets for consumption.
(iii) They scratched the ground lightly with hoes, cultivated the cleared land for few years, then left it fallow so that it could recover its fertility, and moved to a new area.
(iv) From the forests they collected Mahua (a flower) for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale, and wood for charcoal production. The life of the Paharias - as hunters shifting cultivators, food gatherers, charcoal producers, silkworm rearers - was thus intimately connected to the forest.

Question. Why was the jotedar a powerful figure in many areas of rural Bengal?
Answer : By the early nineteenth century, jotedars had acquired vast areas of land – sometimes as much as several thousand acres. They controlled local trade as well as moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region. A large part of their land was cultivated through share croppers who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field, and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.Within the villages, the power of jotedars was more effective than that of zamindars. Unlike zamindars, the jotedars lived in the villages and exercised direct control over a considerable section of poor villagers. They prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties, encouraged ryots who were dependent on them to deliberately delay payments of revenue to the zamindar. When the estates of the zamindars were auctioned for failure to make revenue payment, jotedars were often amongst the purchasers.The jotedars were most powerful in North Bengal. In some places they were called haoladars, elsewhere they were known as gantidars or mandals. Their emergence of power later weakened the zamindari authority.

Question. What do you understand about the Fifth Report Commission?
Answer : It was the fifth of a series of reports on the administration and activities of the East India Company in India. The Report ran into 1002 pages that reproduced petitions of zamindars and ryots, reports of collectors from different districts, statistical tables on revenue returns, and notes on the revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras written by officials.

Long Answer type Questions

Question. What are the problems of using official sources in writing about the history of peasants?
Answer : Following are the problems in using official sources in writting about the history of peasants.
(i)The official sources reflect only British official concerns and interpretation of all events from the outlook and angles of the English. For example, the Deccan riots commission was specifically asked to judge whether the level of Government revenue demand was the cause of the revolt.
(ii)Most of the events, revolts and happening have been presented in a blased manner.
(iii)The colonial Government and official had their own political, economic religious,cultural and social interest. They had always tried to present the picture of Indian society, people, tradition, culture and even the achievements.
(iv)The sources have been presented and recorded by such clever and naughty people who have intentionally presented things with false evidences also. For example, the Deccan Riot Commission presenting all the findings with such evidences which were utilized to give authencity to the report of the commission. The commission has presented this fabricated fact that the Government demand was not the cause of the peasants anger. It was the moneylenders (again Indian) who were to be blame for such argument is found very frequently in British colonial records. This shows that there was a persistence on the part of the colonial government to admit that popular discontent was ever on account of Government action.
(v) Official reports, thus are invaluable sources for the reconstruction of history. But they have to be always read carefully and compared with evidence form newspapers, unofficial accounts, legal records and where possible oral sources.

Question. How did settled agriculture affect the life of the Paharia?
Answer : During the last decades of the eighteenth century the frontiers of settled agriculture were being aggressively extended in eastern India.Moreover, the British encouraged forest clearance The zamindar and jotedars turned uncultivated lands into rice fields.For the British, extension of settled agriculture was necessary to enlarge the sources of land revenue, produce crops for export and to establish a settled and ordered society. British further wanted the forest people to be civilised and persuaded to give up hunting and take to plough agriculture.As settled agriculture expanded the conflict between hill folk and settled cultivators enlarged. The former began to raid settled villages with increasing regularity, carrying away food grains and cattle.The colonial officials tried desperately to control and subdue the Paharias. But they found the task difficult.In the 1770s the British initiated a brutal policy of extermination, hunting the Paharias down and killing them. By the 1780s, Augustus Cleveland, the Collector of Bhagalpur, proposed a policy of pacification. According to this agreement,the Paharia chiefs were given an annual allowance and made responsible for the proper conduct of their men. They were expected to maintain order in their localities and discipline their own people.

Question. Who werethe Santhals? How did they emerge as settled cultivators?
Answer : At the end of 1810, Buchanan crossed Ganjuria Pahar and reached a village.
He found evidence of the region having been transformed through “proper application of human labour”.
He wrote: “Gunjuriya is just sufficiently cultivated to show what a glorious country this might be made. I think its beauty and riches might be made equal to almost any in the universe.”
On enquiry he discovered that the frontiers of cultivation here had been extended by the Santhals. They had moved into this area around 1800, displaced the hill folk who lived on these lower slopes, cleared the forests and settled the land.

Question. What were the steps taken by the British East India Company to control the Zamindars?
Answer : The British East India Company took the following steps mainly to maintain its control over the Zamindars.
(i)The zamindar’s troops were disbanded custom duties were abolished. (ii)Their cutcheries (Courts) brought under the supervision of collector appointed by the company.
(iii) The power to deliver local judgment was also taken away from zamindars. In fact zamindars held their control and leadership through local courts and other panchayats. They lost their power to organize local police. Over time, the collectorate emerged as an alternative center of authority, severely restricting what the zamindar could do.
(iv)In case a Raja (powerful zamindars) failed to pay the land revenue, a company official was speedily dispatched to his zamindari which explicit instruction “to take charge of the District and to use the most effectual means to destroy all the influence and the authority of the zamindar and his officers.
(v)Some of the scholars believe that some trouble creators were also used as tools to reduce the influence of Rajas. For example, when the zamindars dispatched their amlah (collector of revenue or representative of zamindar).Some naughty people used to create problem for zamindars. Some ryots and village headmen jotedars and mandals-were only too happy to see the Zamindar in trouble. The zamindar could therefore not easily assert his power over them.

Question. Why did the British East India Company introduce Permanent Settlement in India?
                                                               Or
How did the Company entrusted the task of revenue collection to the the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal under the Permanent Settlement?
Answer : The British officials hoped to resolve the problems they had been facing since the conquest of Bengal. By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis, with regular famines and declining agricultural output. Officials felt that agriculture, trade and the revenue resources of the state could all be developed by encouraging investment in agriculture. This could be done by securing rights of property and permanently fixing the rates of revenue demand. If revenue demand of the state was permanently fixed, then the Company could look forward to a regular flow of revenue and the investors could feel sure of earning a profit from their investment.British hoped that the farmers and rich landowners would improve agriculture with the capital and this class would also be loyal to the Company.After a prolonged debate amongst Company officials, the Permanent Settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal. In terms of this definition, the zamindar was not a landowner in the village, but a revenue Collector of the state.
Zamindars had several villages under them and the villages within one zamindari formed one revenue estate. The Company fixed the total demand over the entire estate whose revenue the zamindar had to pay. The zamindar collected rent from different villages, paid the revenue to the Company, and retained the difference as his income. He was expected to pay the Company regularly, failing which his estate could be auctioned.

Question. What were the problems faced by the peasants due to new land revenue system?
Answer : 1.In many places, peasants deserted their villages and migrated to new regions due to high revenue.
2.In areas of poor soil and fluctuating rainfall the problem was particularly acute. When rains failed and harvests were poor, peasants found it impossible to pay the revenue.
3.When someone failed to pay, his crops were seized and a fine was imposed on the whole village.
4.By the 1830s the prices of agricultural products fell .This meant a further decline in peasants’ income.
5.In1832-34 the countryside was devastated by a famine that struck in the years
6.One third of the cattle of the Deccan were killed, and half the human population died. 7.Unpaid balances of revenue mounted.
8.Revenue could rarely be paid without a loan from a moneylender.
9. Thus the peasants’ dependence on moneylenders increased.

Question. Who were the hill folk Paharias? Why were they so apprehensive of Buchanan’s visit?
Answer : In at late-eighteenth-century a hill folk who lived around the Rajmahal hills, subsisting on forest produce and practising shifting cultivation were known as the Paharias.They cleared patches of forest by cutting bushes and burning the undergrowth. The Paharias grew a variety of pulses and millets for consumption. They scratched the ground lightly with hoes, cultivated for a few years, then left it fallow and moved to a new area.
From the forests they collected mahua (a flower) for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale, and wood for charcoal production.
The life of the Paharias
As hunters, shifting cultivators, food gatherers, charcoal producers, silkworm rearers – was thus intimately connected to the forest. They lived in hutments and rested in the shade of mango trees. They considered the entire region as their land, the basis of their identity as well as survival and resisted the intrusion of outsiders.
Role of chiefs
Their chiefs maintained the unity of the group, settled disputes, and led the tribe in battles with other tribes and plains people.With their base in the hills, the Paharias regularly raided the plains where settled agriculturists lived. These raids were necessary for survival.Traders gave a small amount to the hill folk for permission to use the passes controlled by them. Once the toll was paid, the Paharia chiefs protected the traders, ensuring that their goods were not plundered by anyone.

Passage Based Questions.

Referring to the condition of zamindars and the auction of lands, the Fifth Report stated. The revenue was not realized with punctuality, and lands to a considerable extent were periodically exposed to sale by auction. In the native year 1203, corresponding with 1796 - 1797, the land advertised for sale comprehended a jumma or assessment of sicca rupees 28, 70, 061, the extent of land actually sold bore a jumma or assessment of 14,18, 756 and the amount of purchase money sicca rupees 17,90, 416,. In 1204 corresponding with 1797-98 the land advertised was for sicca rupees 26, 66, 191 the quality sold was for sicca rupees 21, 47, 580. Among the defaulters were some of the oldest families or the country. Such were the rajahs of Nuddea, Rajeshaye Bishenpore (all districts of Bengal), and others, the dismemberment of whose estates at the end of each succeeding year threatened them with poverty and ruin, and in some instances presented difficulties to the revenue officer, in their efforts to preserve undiminished the amount of public assessment.

Q1. Why did Zamindars defaulter on payments?

Q2. Name some of the oldest families who were defaulters in

Q3. What was fifth report?