I.   Answer the following questions in one sentence each:

1.  When did Mughal emperor appoint East India company as Diwan of Bengal?
Ans:
On 12th August 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the East India company as the Diwan of Bengal.

2.  Before 1865,how did the company collect revenue?
Ans:
Before 1865, the company had purchased goods in India by importing gold and silver from Britain.

3.  Why were artisans,deserting villages?
Ans:
Artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to sell their goods to the company at low prices.

4.  What do you mean by permanent settlement 1793?
Ans:
By the terms of the settlement, the rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars who were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the company.The amount to be paid was fixed permanently.

5.  What was the problem with permanent settlement?
Ans: The permanent settlement however created settlements as company officials discovered that the zamindars were in fact not investing in the improvement of land.Even the revenue fixed was so high that even zamindars found it difficult to pay.

6.  What changed the situation by the first decade of the nineteenth century in the zamindari system?
Ans: The prices in the market rose and cultivation slowly expanded by the first decade of the nineteenth century by the zamindari system.

7.  Why were zamindars not interested in improving the land?
Ans:
  Zamindars were not interested in improving the land because some had lost their lands in early years of settlement and the option found was zamindars could give land to tenants and get rent.

8.  Who devised the Mahalwari settlement system?
Ans:
An Englishman called Holt Mackenzie devised the new system in 1822.

9.  How did Holt Mackenzie revise the permanent settlement system?
Ans:
Holt Mackenzie felt that village was an important social institution in the North Indian society. 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 was estimated and payment was to be done.

10.  What do you mean by Mahalwari settlement?
Ans: The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the company was given to village headman. This system was known as Mahalwari settlement.

11.  Why did Thomas Munro wanted British to act as paternal fathers?
Ans:
Thomas Munro wanted British to act accordingly because he felt that in south there were no traditional zamindar’s. They had to make directly with cultivators(ryots). Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed before making revenue assessment.

12.  Which of the crops were persuaded to grow by Britishers?
Ans:
The British persuaded or forced  cultivators in various parts of India to produce jute in Bengal,tea in Assam,sugarcane in the United provinces ,wheat in Punjab ,rice in Madras.

13.  How is blue dye used in Morris print manufactured?
Ans:
It is manufactured from indigo plants cultivated in India.

14.  Why there was demand for Indigo ?
Ans:
In the thirteenth century Indian indigo was being used by cloth manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye cloth.

15.  Which other parts of Europe was woad crop grown?
Ans:
Woad being a plant of temperate zones it was grown in northern Italy,southern France and in parts of Germany and Britain.

16.  Why was there great demand for cloth dyes?
Ans:
Britain began to industrialize and their cotton production expanded dramatically,creating demand for cloth dyes.

17.  What was the proportion increase in indigo import into Britain from India from 1788 to 1810?
Ans:
In 1788 only about 30 percent of the indigo imported into Britain from India but by 1810 the proportion had gone up to 95 percent.

18.  Who began investing in indigo production once trade grew up?
Ans:
Once the indigo trade grew, commercial agents and officials of the company began investing in indigo production.

19.  Who came to India and became planters by looking in high prospects of indigo business?
Ans:
Numerous Scotsmen and English men came to India and became planters of indigo crop.

20.  What were the two main systems of indigo cultivation?
Ans:
The two main systems of indigo cultivation were nij and ryoti.

21.  What do you understand by the term ‘bigha’ .
Ans:
A unit of measurement of land.

22.  How did people rebel against growing of indigo?
Ans:
Ryots refused to pay rents to the planters and attacked indigo factories armed with swords and spears ,bows and arrows.Women turned up to fight with pots and kitchen equipment’s.Those who worked for the planters were socially boycotted,and the gomasthas (agents of Planters) who came to collect rent were beaten up.

23.  What steps did the government take to prevent rebellions of the peasants?
Ans: The government brought in the military to protect the planters from assault,and set up the indigo commission to enquire into the system of indigo production.

24.  What did the intellectuals from Calcutta write about indigo system?
Ans: The intellectuals from Calcutta rushed to the indigo districts.They wrote of the misery of the ryots, the tyranny of the planters, and the horrors of the indigo system.

25.  Where did the planter shifted their operation after Bengal?
Ans: Planter now shifted their operation to Bihar.

26.  What marked the beginning of the Champaran movement?
Ans: Mahatma Gandhi’s visit in 1917 marked the beginning of the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.

27.  What did the dye from woad look like?
Ans:
The dye from woad was pale and dull

28.  Why did the cloth dyers prefer indigo as a dye?
Ans:
The cloth dyers preferred indigo as a dye because it produced a rich blue colour.

II.  Answer the following questions in four sentences :

1.  The cultivator in the villages found the permanent settlement oppressive.
Ans:
(i) In the villages,the cultivator found the permanent settlement oppressive because the rent he paid to the zamindars was high. His right on the land was insecure.
(ii)To pay the rent he had to often take a loan from the moneylender .
(iii)And if they failed to pay the rent he was evicted from the land he had cultivated for generations.

2.  What did optimistic officials imagined about new systems transforming farmers?
Ans:

(i)Within a few years after the new systems were imposed but it was not working well.
(ii)The desire to increase in income from land,revenue officials fixed too high which was not receivable.
(iii) Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the country side and villages became deserted in many regions.Hence the need for transforming was imagined.

3.  What were the problems faced by “nij” cultivators?
Ans:

i) The planters found it difficult to expand the area under ‘nij’ cultivation.
ii) Indigo could be cultivated only on fertile lands and these lands were densely populated.
iii) Planters needed large areas in compact blocks to cultivate indigo in plantations.A large plantation required a vast numbers of hands to operate.
iv) Nij cultivation on a large scale required many plough and bullocks which was a big problem.

4.  What was the “Ryoti” system ? How did the ryoti system work?
Ans:
(i) Under the ryoti system ,the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract OR an agreement.They pressurized the village headmen to sign the contract on behalf of the ryots.
(ii)Those who signed the contract got cash advances from the planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo.
(iii)The planter provided the seed and the drill,while the cultivators prepared the soil sowed the seed and looked after the crop.
(iv)When the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest a new loan was given to the ryot.

5.  The land used for indigo was not useful for rice.Why.
Ans:
(i)The planters insisted that indigo be cultivated on the best soils where peasants preferred to cultivate rice.
(ii) Indigo had deep roots and it exhausted the soil rapidly.
(iii) After the indigo harvest the land could not be sown for rice

6.  In 1859 the zamindar’s and headmen supported the ryots.
Ans:
(i)In 1859,the indigo ryots felt that they had the support of the local zamindars and village headmen in their rebellion against the planters.
(ii) Village headmen who had been forced to sign indigo contracts , mobilised the indigo peasants and fought battles with the Lathiyals.
(iii)The zamindars went around villages urging the ryots to resist the planters.
(iv)The zamindars were unhappy with the increasing power of the planters and angry at being forced by the planters to give them land on long lease.

7.  The British government was worried after the Revolt of 1857?
Ans:
(i)The indigo peasants also imagined that the British government would support them in their struggle against the planters.
(ii)The Lieutenant governor toured the region in the winter of 1859.
(iii)The magistrate Ashley Eden issued a notice stating that ryots would not be compelled to accept indigo contracts.(iv) The word went around that Queen Victoria had declared that indigo need not be sown.
(v) Eden was trying to placate the peasants and control an explosive situation but his action was read as support for the rebellion.

8.  What was the opinion of the indigo commission appointed by the government?
Ans:
(i)The commission held the planters guilty , and criticised them for the FORCEFUL methods they used with The indigo activities
(ii)It declared that the indigo production was not profitable for ryots.
(iii)The commission asked the ryots to fulfill their existing contracts but also told them that they could refuse to produce indigo in future.