Economic Causes

SYSTEMATIC DE-INDUSTRIALIZATION

• Dictionary meaning- ‘the reduction or destruction of a nation’s industrial capacity’
• In this process the British destroyed the Indian handicraft industries by introducing cheap mill made goods imported from Britain. The British also introduced measures to ensure that the Indian exports to European markets were highly priced. This competition from the British produce and lack of revenue from own goods led to the decline of the handicrafts and textile industries in India.
• As a result, the artisans were displaced from traditional occupations. Finding no other alternative source of livelihood, the artisans fell back on land.
• ’Over-burdened agriculture failed to generate surplus and consequent shortage of capital resources required for improvements in land leading to pressure on land and thus competition among cultivators to acquire tenancies on grossly unprofitable and high rate of rent.
• This led to increased unemployment in the Indian economy.

COMMERCIALIZATION OF AGRICULTURE

• Not only was land over-burdened with more and more people who were opting for agriculture to compensate for their loss of livelihood through industrial production, but the British had also introduced measures to shift the main focus of agricultural produce.
• They paid the labourers a fixed amount of money to shift their area of cultivation to commercial crops such as indigo,opium and cotton which were in high demand in the European markets.
• The result of this direct agricultural control saw an increase in profit earned by the British and a decline on the self sufficiency of the agricultural sector.
• The sector no longer produced enough food crops like wheat, bajra, millets etc to meet the hunger requirements of all those residing within their own country. As a result food grain shortages began to become a common phenomenon.
• With a decrease in supply and increase in demand of the staple good grains the prices rose leading to competition among the buyers. Thus only the rich could now afford to eat a stomach full meal three times a day while the poor sections of society suffered in terms of malnutrition, decreased immunity and eventual increase in contraction of disease.

LAND REVENUE SYSTEMS

The old rent collection system was abandoned and instead the British introduced three different land revenue system in different parts of the country-

a) Permanent Settlement-Bengal,Bihar, Northern Western Provinces

b) Mahalwari Settlement- North Western Provinces, Central Provinces and the Punjab Province

c) Ryotwari System- Bombay and Madras Presidencies and Assam.

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT:

• A zamindar was appointed by the British who was also recognised as the owner of the land with autonomous control over his land as long as he agreed to pay the rent fixed by the British. It was introduced by Lord Cornwallis is 1793

MAHALWARI SETTLEMENT

• Mahalwari system was introduced in 1833 during the period of lord William Bentick. In this system, the land was divided into Mahals,each comprising of one or more villages. The ownership rights were vested with the peasants but it was the village committees was held responsible for collection of the taxes.
• Though the Mahalwari system eliminated the job of the middleman between the government and the village community and brought about improvement in irrigation facility, yet its benefits were largely enjoyed by the government officials only.

RYOTWARI SYSTEM

• The Ryotwari System was introduced by Sir Thomas Munro in 1820.
• Under the Ryotwari System the ownership rights were handed over to the peasants while it was the British Government that collected that collected the taxes directly from the peasants.
• The land revenue was fixed for a period from 20 to 40 years at a time. Every peasant was directly held responsible for the payment of land revenue to the government.