Commercialisation Of Agriculture

Question 1

By when had the East India Company acquired territory in south India, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa?

Answer 1

Mid- eighteenth century

Question 2

Why were territories acquired in Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and south India?

Answer 2

• Rich agriculture
• Flourishing trade in handicrafts

Question 3

Which crops did the company focus on while promoting a controlled commercialization of agriculture and why?

Answer 3

• Indigo (popular commercial crop)
• Cotton
• Raw silk
• Opium( popular commercial crop)
• Pepper
• Tea
• Sugar

Reasons:
- More remunerative than food grains
- Could be sold at higher prices per kg/ cubic meter

Question 4

What led the British to start producing opium in Bengal?

Answer 4

• Imported tea from China
• Had to pay in silver as the Chinese did not want western goods
• Came up with a plan of smuggling and selling opium in China
• Appointed contractors in 1765 to produce opium in Bengal at a fixed price
• Price was set as low as possible to yield a large profit to the state

Question 5

What objectives did the development of opium as a commercial crop fulfill?

Answer 5

• Yeilded huge revenue in India
• Created a channel with the purchase of Chinese tea for the remittance (sending money) of that income to London.

Question 6

Explain the cultivation of Indigo during British rule.

Answer 6

• A blue dye extracted from a tropical plant.
• European planters forced Indian peasants to cultivate and deliver the plants to factories at fixed prices
• When cultivators refused to follow, planters would respond by capturing cultivators and their cattle as well as burning their ripe crops and houses.
• Police and officials supported the British and enforced planter’s rights in 1830 which stated that cultivators breaking indigo contracts were liable to persecution
• Even after the act was repealed (Removed) in 1835, it was still practiced
• Their suffering caused sympathy among all classes of Indians but no organized protest was held for nearly half a century
• A movement against this oppression was headed by Bishnu Charan Biswas and Digambar Biswas from the village of Chaugacha in the district of Nadia.
• As more villages joined, in a course of 2 years, a vow for no cultivation of Indigo was taken by many cultivators across all districts

Question 7

Explain the cultivation of Sugar under British rule.

Answer 7

• In the 1830s indigo planters suffered due to fall in prices and sales
• They started investing in the production of sugar due to the reduction of
  Import duties and rising of demand in the London market
• European speculators were given lots of land and set up sugar plantations in Eastern Uttar Pradesh
• The Indians had so far produced gur for consumption and sale to other parts of India but were now forced to produce thickened sugar cane juice called ‘roots’ which planters processed into sugar
• They were then forced to deliver the crops to factories at a low, fixed price.