How Did British Rule Affect The Indian Villages And What Are The Changes Introduced By Them In India ?

Once the British gained power, they introduced many changes in the Economic, Political, and Social spheres. We have seen that India in the 1750s saw the decline of the Mughal Empire and the emergence of Successor States. The British who came to India for trade become the rulers of territories. They introduced many changes disrupting the economy, polity, and society.

Economy: The British policies towards agriculture and industry were mainly aimed at their benefit. This resulted in the commercialization of agriculture and the ruin of traditional Indian industries.

Polity: Various Acts passed by the English had positive and negative outcomes. However, the most significant result of the new laws was the enforcement of the British authority over the Indian mainland. New laws like the Regulating Act of 1773, Pitts India Act 1784, various Charter Acts, etc led to the constitutional development. On the administration part, too various changes were introduced – particularly the revenue administration, civil services, police, army, and judicial services.

Society: British policies towards education, language, and culture resulted in significant transformation in Indian society. While the positive changes were welcomed by Indian society, the oppressive measures resulted in revolts and rebellions. We will be covering each of these details in subsequent posts. In this post, we mainly concentrate on the changes made by the British from a broad perspective covering rural India as well as urban India.

HOW DID BRITISH RULE AFFECT THE INDIAN VILLAGES: Ruling the Countryside

The Company had become the Diwan, but it still saw itself primarily as a trader. But at the same time, the Bengal economy was facing a deep crisis due to Company’s unholy revenue collection. In 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. About one-third of the population was wiped out.

Now, most Company officials began to feel that investment in the land had to be encouraged and agriculture had to be improved. This resulted in the introduction of many land-revenue systems like Zamindari, Mahalwari, and Ryotwari.

The Company introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793. Cornwallis was the Governor-General of India at that time. By the terms of the settlement, the rajas and taluqdars were recognized as zamindars.

They were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company. The amount to be paid was fixed permanently – it was not to be increased ever in future.The Permanent Settlement, however, created problems. Company officials soon discovered that the zamindars were in fact not investing in the improvement of land.

The revenue that had been fixed was so high that the zamindars found it difficult to pay. Anyone who failed to pay the revenue lost his zamindari. Numerous zamindaris were sold off at auctions organised by the Company.

In the 19th century, the situation changed. Now the market rose a bit. But Company never gained because it could not increase a revenue demand that had been fixed permanently.On the other hand, in the villages, the cultivator found the system extremely oppressive.

The company needed more money but the permanently fixed revenues couldn’t help them in this regard.So in North-Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency (most of this area is now in Uttar Pradesh), an Englishman called Holt Mackenzie devised the new system which came into effect in 1822.He felt that the village was an important social institution.Under his directions, collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring the fields, and recording the customs and rights of different groups.The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay.This demand was to be revised periodically, not permanently fixed.

The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar. This system came to be known as the mahalwari settlement.

Earlier Captain Alexander Read and later Thomas Munro felt that in the south there were no traditional zamindars.The settlement, they argued, had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots ) who had tilled the land for generations.Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed before the revenue assessment was made.