Question

During colonial period India was semifeudal economy justify

Answer 1

Dear Student,

New land system of the British ruler also created a serious impact on the Indian economy. During the East India Company rule, the company administrators imposed land revenue at exorbitant rates and thereby realised larger returns from land.

Thereafter, the British Government introduced the land settlement in 1793. Permanent settlement was introduced in Bengal and other neighbouring areas, and then gradually extended to other states. This settlement led to introduction of zamindary system where zamindars were responsible for collecting and remitting the land revenue to the British rulers.

Later on, another system known as rayotwary settlement was also introduced in Bombay and Madras and then subsequently to north­eastern and north-western India where peasant landlords were directly responsible to the state for the annual payment of land revenue.

Under both these systems, the land revenue or the rent fixed was excessively high and this led to destruction of the organic village community in India.
In this connection, Daniel and Alice Thorner wrote, “Whereas the zamindary system made the landlords masters of the village communities, the Ryotwary system cut through the heart of the village communities by making separate arrangement between each peasant cultivator and the state”.

Thus the new land system of the British created a class of absentee landlords making way for exploitation of the peasants. Thus both the zamindary system and the Ryotwary system introduced by the British led to the concentration of economic power in the hands of few. This resulted total depression in agriculture and industry.

British Colonial Rule: Impact # 3.

Commercialisation of Agriculture:

Commercialisation of Indian agriculture during the British period created a serious impact on the Indian economy. Commercialisation of agriculture indicates production of various crops not for home consumption but for sale. Industrial revolution in Britain had raised the demand for agro-raw-materials, especially raw cotton, jute, sugarcane, groundnuts etc. for British industries.

As the British industries were offering higher prices for commercial crops the peasants gradually started to shift their cropping pattern substituting commercial crops for food crops. In some areas commercialisation of agriculture reached to such an extent that the peasants even could not produce food crops for their home consumption and started to purchase foodstuff from the mandis.

Moreover, the development of irrigation also intensified the commercialisation of agriculture in India.

British Colonial Rule: Impact # 4.

Development of Railway Network:

The development of an elaborate railway network primarily intensified the commercialisation of agriculture and on the other hand brought foreign machine made manufactures to India. This sharpened the competition of machine made goods with Indian handicrafts which resulted into total destruction of Indian handicrafts industry.

Regards