Peasants, zamindars and the state

Agrarian society and the mughal

( C, sixteenth,seventh centuries )

Introduction

Mughal plays an important role in the agrarian relationship made up rural society

Agents of the state

Revenue assessors
Collectors
Record keepers

Sought to control rural ensure the cultivation .

Many crops were grown for sale , trade , money and markets entered the villages and linked the agriculture areas with the towns

peasants and agriculture production .

The basic unit of agriculture society was the village , inhabited by peasnats who performed the manifold seasonal tasks that made up agricultural production throughout the year

Tilling the soil
Sowing seeds
Harvesting

Looking for sources

Our major source for the agrarian history of the 16th and early 17th centuries are chronicles and documents from the mughal court .
One of the most important chronicles was the Ain-i- Akbari authored by Akbar 's court historian Abuil fazl .
These sources record instances of conflicts between peasants zaminders and the state
The central purpose of the Ain was to present a vision of akbar 's empire where social harmony was provided by a strong ruling class .
The extensive records of the East India company provide us with useful descriptions of agriculture relationship in Easter
They gives us an insight into peasants ' perception of and their expectations of fairness from the state

Peasants and their lands

The terms which Indo - Persian sources of the mughal period most frequently used to denoted a peasant was raiyat or muzarian
In addition , we also encounter the terms kisan or asami
The 17th century refer to two kinds of peasants - khud - khasta and pahi kastra

Irrigation and technology

There were three factors that contributed for the expansion of agriculture

Abundance of land
Available labour
Mobility of peasants

The primary purpose of agriculture is to feed people , basic staples such as rice , wheat or millets etc
Through agriculture was labour intensive , peasants ,did use technologies that often harnessed cattle energy

.Intensive subsistence

An Abundance of crops

Agriculture was organized around two major seasonal cycles, the kharif and the rabi
The mughal provinces of Agra produces 39 varieties of crops and Delhi produced 43 over the two seasons
Bengal produced 50 varieties of rich alone
crops such as cotton and sugarcane were jins-i kamil par excellence
During the 17th century several new crops from different parts of the world reached the India subcontinent
Maize was introduce in India via Africa and Spain
Vegetable like tomatoes , potatoes ,and chilies were introduced from the new world at this time as were fruits like the pineapple and the papaya

The village community

Agricultural production involved the intensive participation and initiative of the peasantry.
The collective village community as far as many aspects of their social existence were concerned
There were three constituents of this community

The cultivators
The panchayat
The village headman

Caste and the rural milieu

Despite the abundance of cultivable land, certain caste groups were assigned menial tasks and thus relegated to poverty
In muslim communities menials like the halalkhoran were housed outside the boundaries of the village
The mallahzadas in Bihar were comparable to slaves .

In a manual from 17th century

Marvar , Rajputs are mentioned as peasants , sharing the same sapce with jats , who were accorded a lower status in the cast hierarchy

Panchayats and headmen

The village panchayat was an assembly of elders , usually important people of the village with hereditary rights over their property .
The panchayat was usually a heterogeneous body
The panchayat represented various caster and communities in the village so it is called an oligarchy
The panchayat was headed by a headman known as mandal

Function of panchayat

The panchayat derived its funds from contributions made by individuals to a common financial pool
The panchayat also made arrangement against natural calamities , like floods , famine , drought etc.

Role played by the jati panchayat

In addition to the village panchayat each caste or jati in the village had its own jati panchayat
In rajasthan jati panchayats arbitrated civil disputes between members of different caster

Village artisans

Village artisans - potters , blacksmith provided specialised services in return for which they were compensated by villagers by a variety of means .
In Maharashtra such lands became the artisans miras or waton - their hereditary holding

A little republic

There was individual ownership of assets and deep inequities based on caste and gender distinctions
A group of powerful individuals decided the affairs of the village , exploited the weaker section and had the authority to dispense justice
In mughal heartland to revenue was assessed and collected in cash .

Women in Agrarian society

Women and men had to work sholder to sholder in fields
Men tilled and ploughed , while women sowed weeded threshed and winnowed the harvest .
Women were considered an important resource in agrarian society also because they were child bearers in a society dependent on labour .
Marriage in many rural communities required that payment of bride - price rather than dowry to the bride 's family
Remarriage was considered legitimate both among divorced and widowed women .
Hindu and muslim women inherited zamindar which they were free to mortgage
Women zamindars were known in eighteen - century

Forests and tribes

Beyond settled village

There was more to rural India than sedentary agriculture
Through it is nearly impossible to set an all - India average of forests cover for this period , conjectures based on contemporary sources suggest an average of 40%
Forests dwellers were termed jangali in contemporary texts
The forests was a subversive place - a place of refuge for trouble markers

Indroads into forests

External forces entered the forest in different
The state required elephants for the army
The peshkash levied from forest people often included a supply of elephants
In the mughal political ideology ,the hunt symbolized the over whelming concern of the state to relate to all its subjects rich and poor .
Elephants were also captured and sold trade involved an exchange of commodities through barter as well .
New cultural influences also began to penetrate into forested zones

The Zamindars

The zaminders who were landed proprietors who also enjoyed certain social and economic privileges by virtue of their superior status in rural society
Zamindars also derived their power from the fact that they could often collect revenue on behalf of the state , a service for which they were compensated financially .
Most zamindars had fortresses as well as an armed contingent comprising units of calavery, artillery and infantry
Zamindars were an exploitative class , their relationship with the peasantry had an elements of reciprocity , paternalism and patronage.
In the 17th century zamindars often received the support of the peasantry in their struggle against the state .

Land Revenue system

Revenue from the land was the economic mainstay of the mughal empire
The collect revenue from across the length and breath of the rapidly expanding empire .
Revenue officials and record keepers penetrated the agriculture domain and became a decisive agent in shaping agrarian relations
The mughal state tried to first acquire specific information about the extent of the agricultural information about the extent of the agricultural lands in the empire .
The land revenue arrangements consisted of two stages - first , arrangements and then actual collection.
The Ain compiled the aggregates of such lands during Akbar's rule .

The Flow of silver

The mughal empire was among the large territorial empires in Asia that had managed to consolidate power and resources during the 16th and 17th.
These empires were the Ming , Safavid and ottoman
Voyages of discovery and the opening up of the new wold resulted in a massive expansion of Asia 's trade with Europe .
The period between the 16th and 18th centuries was also marked by a remarkable stability in the availability of metal currency , particularly the silver rupya in India.
The circulation of money in the economy as well as the ability of the mughal state to extract taxes and revenue in cash.
Giovanni Careri's gives an idea of the phenomenal amounts of cash and commodity transactions in seventeenth - century India

The Ain - i Akbari of Abul Fazl Allami

The Ain-i Akbari was the culmination of a large historical , administrative project of classification undertaken by Abul Fazl at the order of Emperor Akbar .
It was completed in 1598
The Ain was part of a larger project of history writing commissioned by Akbar
The history of Akbar is known as the Akbar Nama
The Ain is made up of five books .

The first book is called manzil - abadi
The second book is called sipah - abadi
The third book is called mulk - abadi
The fourth and fifth books deal with the religious , literary and cultural traditions of the people of India .

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Class 12 NCERT chapter 8 history