THEME - 8 PEASANT, ZAMINDARS AND STATE

• raiyat or muzarian – peasants referred in Indo-Persian
  sources of the Mughal period
• the terms kisan or asami
• khud-kashta –  peasants – residents of the village
• pahi-kashta – non-resident peasants

• Average peasant of north India – possessed a pair of bulls
  and one plough  and others possessed two pairs of bulls and two
  ploughs;most possessed even less.
• In Gujarat peasants – possessed about six acres of land
  – considered to be affluent
• In Bengal – five acres was the upper limit of an
  average peasant farm

• abundance of land – expansion of agriculture – labour
  and the mobility of peasants
• basic staples – rice, wheat or millets
• Monsoons – the backbone of Indian agriculture
• In northern India – the state undertook digging of new canals
• In the Punjab – repaired old ones like the shahnahr during
  Shah Jahan’s reign.

• peasants – used technologies – harnessed cattle energy
• wooden plough – light and easily assembled with an
  iron tip or coulter
• A drill – pulled by a pair of giant oxen, was used to plant seeds
  -broadcasting of seed
• Hoeing and weeding were done simultaneously -using a
  narrow iron blade with a small wooden handle.

• two major seasonal cycles – the kharif and the rabi.
• a minimum of two crops a year
  –some region gave three crops.
• Mughal provinces of Agra produced 39 varieties of crops.
• Delhi produced 43 over the two seasons.
• Bengal produced 50 varieties of rice alone.

• Basic staples – rice, wheat, pulses and vegetables etc.
• cash crops – cotton, oilseeds and sugarcane
• new crops adpoted from different parts of the world
• Maize (makka) from Africa and
• Vegetables – tomatoes, potatoes and chillies – from
  the New World at this time
• fruits – the pineapple and the papaya.

• Caste and the rural milieu.
• Powers and functions of Panchayats and headmen.
  • Jati Panchayat
• Life of Village artisans
  • villages called “little republic”

• In Mughal period – women and men worked shoulder to
  shoulder in the fields.
• Menstruating women – not allowed to touch the plough or the
  potter’s wheel in western India, or enter the groves where
  betel-leaves were grown
• Artisanal tasks – spinning yarn, sifting and kneading clay
  for pottery, and embroidery – involved female labour

• Bride-price – paid by groom – to the bride’s family
• Remarriage was -legitimate for divorced and widowed women.
• Women – right to inherit property.
• Hindu and Muslim women inherited zamindaris

• Beyond settled villages, livelihood came from the gathering of
  forest produce.
• hunting and shifting agriculture, jungles provided a good
  defence.

• Milkiyat – extensive personal lands held by zamindars
• Abu’lFazl’s account indicates Zamindars were from an
  “upper-caste”, Brahmana or Rajput.

• Revenue from the land was the economic main stayof the
  Mughal Empire.
• diwan -supervising the fiscal system of the empire.
• Jama – amount assessed
• Hasil – the amount collected

• The Mughal Empire was the large territorial empires in Asia
  among the Ming (China),Safavid (Iran) and Ottoman (Turkey)
• Created networks for trade from China to the Mediterranean Sea.

• Voyages of discovery and the opening up of the New World
  (America) resulted in a massive expansion of India’s trade
  with Europe.
• huge amounts of silver bullion into India to pay for goods
  procured from India.
• Italian traveller – Giovanni Careri, – 1690, provides a graphic
  account about
  – silver travelled across the globe to reach India.

• Ain-i Akbari – a large historical, administrative
  project – by Abu’l Fazl – Emperor Akbar – in 1598
• Akbar Nama, comprised three books.
• The first two provided a historical narrative.
• The Ain-i Akbari, the third – a compendium of
  imperial regulations and agazetteer of the empire.
• The Ain is made up of five books (daftars), of
  which the first three books describe the administration.

• concerns the imperial household and its maintenance.

Second book: sipah-abadi

• covers the military and civil administration and the establishment
  of servants.

• deals with the fiscal side of the empire and provides rich
  quantitative information on revenue rates, administrative
  and fiscal divisions,total measured area, and assessed
  revenue ( jama).

The fourth and fifth books: (daftars)

• deal with the religious, literary and cultural traditions of the people
  of India and also contain a collection of Akbar’s “auspicious
  sayings”.

Mapping

Steps of mapping include

• divide into set of 25 squares.
• Squares was  set of even smaller square.
• smaller squares –  into yet smaller units.

• thousands of structures – from tiny shrines and residences
  to elaborate temples.
• John M. Fritz, George Michell and M.S. NagarajaRao
  – worked for years at the site