Indian economic development Class XII

Chapter 1, Agricultural sector, Indian Economic Development

1. Indian Economy on the Eve of Independence Group 1: Agricultural Sector Group Members : Aarush Verma Abhijeet Bharadwaj Aditya Garg Anirudh Damani Ansh Rastogi Class XII-C1 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

2. Agriculture before the british arrival "When the British left, India was a multireligious, multiethnic country, exploited, backward and poor from colonialism . “ THROUGH THE EYES OF HISTORIANS Indian economy was, in a bird's eye view, an agriculturally dominated economy. Before the British colonial period, Indian agriculture was dominated by subsistence farming organized in small village communities.

3. The farmer usually only grew enough food to feed himself and the non-agricultural people of the village community. When his crop production exceeded consumption because of favourable climatic conditions, he stored the surplus for use in lean years. The storage of food grains constituted the only remedy against famines and other crises. IN SUM AND SUBSTANCE, THE FARMERS OF INDIA BEFORE THE BRITISH ENJOYED A LIFE FULL OF SATISFACTION, PRODUCING ONLY FOR THEIR SUSTENENCE.

4. Through the eyes of Economists During the British rule, about 85% of Indian population lived in villages and 70% of it was dependent directly or indirectly on agriculture. The contribution to GDP by agriculture remained the same even after independence and during the B ritish rule, but the standard of living and the status of farmers substantially declined. China India Japan United States

5. Unemployment during British rule was on an all time high, as the jobs of craftsmen had been dispelled by the British, who systematically dismantled the handicraft industry. As a result, many of the former artisans were absorbed into agriculture, only increasing its plight multifold . As a result, negative returns started arising from agriculture. Though the number of people it fed was extremely high, but only about 4% of them could be called prosperous.

6. Through the eyes of british The British saw agriculture only as a golden cow: all they were worried about was how they could churn out more and more money from the earlier flourishing agriculture. In this quest, they badly harmed the agricultural framework of the country. Only bent on collecting revenues, they brought about the land revenue systems, the most notable being the zamindari system .

7. THE ZAMINDARI SYSTEM: A DYSMAL HEADACHE FOR FARMERS. At the end of the eighteenth century, village communities began to disband under the pressure of new forces. The permanent land settlement of Lord Cornwallis in 1793 impacted Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, and later North Madras, forming a class of zamindars, a social elite group with the right to collect tax . House of Zamindars

8. The zamindars became landlords in perpetuity and were the intermediaries between the colonial rulers and the peasantry. Peasants were required to pay fixed amounts of money to the zamindars. Most of the cultivators became landless labourers. To pay taxes to the government, the peasants were forced to borrow from the moneylender, compounding the problem because indebted peasants could not be agricultural producers, thus throwing them into a debt trap.

9. WHY THE ZAMINDARS STABBED TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURE Under the Zamindari system, the Zamindari was recognised as the owner who could mortgage, bequeath and sell the land. The state held the Zamindari responsible for the payment of land revenue and in default thereof the land could be confiscated and sold out. The zamindars did not heed the economic conditions or problems of the farmers, they just wanted to deposit the revenue and enjoy their own portion of profit.

10. They therefore did nothing to sympathise, let go improve the famers' state. Hence, the farmers had to cut their own pockets to pay the revenue. Moreover, they had to submit the revenue and rent to the state at specified dates and hence they did not care about whether the money actually came from farming or from loans of farmers. Basically , it was a win-win situation for the zamindars and British and a lose-lose situation for the farmers, small cultivators and share croppers who were stranded between the state and zamindars.

11. THROUGH THE EYES OF THE FARMERS The farmers were completely stuck in a trap; the land revenue system, the production of cash crops were all designed to exploit them. There were some social tensions, but they never assumed the shape of a a larger struggle.

12. The farmers had no advanced technology to carry out agriculture, moreover , with the traditional methods abandoned, they were falling deeper into the abyss of poverty. Production was carried out with simple irrigation techniques purely dependent on the monsoon patterns, with irrational tools and negligent use of fertilisers as the british state wanted only profit, not prosperity. Some of the peasants were even forced to give away their lands, which was confiscated if taxes were not paid and in some cases forcefully snatched. There was fragmentation of land holdings and the zamindars did nothing to encourage the development of collective farming techniques, already flourishing in Russia at the time.

13. THROUGH THE EYES OF BRITISH PLANNERS The British brought about a complete commercialisation of India's agriculture. Commercialisation translates to the emphasis n production of cash crops instead of food crops, the food crops life wheat, rice, barley etc. prevalent before in the Indian subcontinent. The cash crops include cotton and other textile crops which were exported to the British industries for producing finished clothes there .

14. Indigo cropping was encouraged in many states like Bihar Therefore, the needs of India were kept on the side-lines and the British slowly transformed India to a self sustained agro nation to one with stagnated agriculture and a corrupt land revenue system. Still, the agriculture formed about 50% of India's GDP but most of it was in British hands and the traitors of India- the zamindars.

15. CONCLUSION In a nutshell , the British played a role in paralysing the Indian economy and led to the complete wrack and ruin of the agricultural sector. They saw India as a cash cow and as a colony, not as a society or as an economy teeming in itself. Agriculture fell into such a great whirlpool that rescuing it took decades of effective planning in India. The story is depressing, but only these stories are the ones worth to the told, because they have a mine of lessons we can learn from.