Book: Themes in Indian History – Part III | Chapter 9
Colonialism and the Countryside
Exploring Official Archives
1. Learning Objectives
After reading these notes, you will be able to:
1
Explain the Permanent Settlement in Bengal — its aims, the problems it created for zamindars, and how zamindars resisted.2
Describe the rise of jotedars and why they weakened zamindari authority.3
Understand the life of the Paharias and Santhals in the Rajmahal hills — their livelihoods, conflicts and eventual displacement.4
Analyse the Deccan Ryot revolt of 1875 — its causes, including the ryotwari system, peasant debt and the cotton boom and bust.5
Critically evaluate official sources like the Fifth Report and the Deccan Riots Commission Report.6
Understand the role of Francis Buchanan’s surveys as historical sources and their limitations.2. Introduction
This chapter examines what colonial rule meant for those who lived in the countryside. The English East India Company established its raj in rural areas through new revenue policies that changed the lives of zamindars, peasants and forest-dwelling tribes. Laws determined who grew richer and who became poorer, who gained land and who lost it. People were not merely victims of these laws — they also resisted, acting according to their own sense of justice. The chapter covers three major case studies: Bengal (Permanent Settlement), Rajmahal hills (Paharias and Santhals), and the Bombay Deccan (Ryotwari and the Deccan Revolt of 1875).
🗺️ Three Major Case Studies
Colonialism and the Countryside🏯 BengalPermanent Settlement 1793
Zamindars & Jotedars
Zamindars & Jotedars
🌲 Rajmahal HillsPaharias & Santhals
Hoe vs Plough
Hoe vs Plough
🌾 Bombay DeccanRyotwari System
Revolt of 1875
Revolt of 1875
📜 Fifth ReportParliamentary document, 1813
Critique needed
Critique needed
📖 Buchanan’s SurveysCompany agent
Biased but valuable
Biased but valuable
⚖️ Deccan Riots CommissionReport 1878
Official source, biased
Official source, biased
3. Bengal and the Zamindars
Colonial rule was first established in Bengal, and here the earliest attempts were made to reorder rural society, establish new land rights and a new revenue system.
🔔 3.1 The Permanent Settlement (1793)
- By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis — recurrent famines, declining agricultural output.
- British officials felt that agriculture, trade and revenue could be improved by securing property rights and permanently fixing revenue rates.
- The Company introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793 under Governor-General Charles Cornwallis.
- The rajas and taluqdars of Bengal were now classified as zamindars. They had to pay a permanently fixed revenue demand to the Company.
- Each zamindari with its villages formed one revenue estate. The zamindar collected rent from villages, paid revenue to the Company, and kept the difference as income.
- The zamindar was not a landowner in the village — he was a revenue collector of the state.
- Zamindars sometimes controlled as many as 400 villages.
💡 British Hope vs Reality
The British hoped the Permanent Settlement would create a class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners who would invest in agriculture and be loyal to the Company. In reality, over 75% of zamindaris changed hands in the years after 1793.⚠️ 3.2 Why Zamindars Defaulted on Payments
Reason 1 — High Initial Demand
- Revenue demand was set very high so the Company wouldn’t lose out as prices rose. The idea: burden would decline as agriculture expanded. But the initial rate was crushing.
Reason 2 — Depressed Agricultural Prices
- High demand imposed in the 1790s when prices of agricultural produce were depressed. Ryots couldn’t pay rent to zamindars. Zamindars in turn couldn’t pay the Company.
Reason 3 — Sunset Law
- Revenue was invariable regardless of harvest and had to be paid punctually. The Sunset Law stated: if payment didn’t arrive by sunset on the specified date, the zamindari would be auctioned.
Reason 4 — Restricted Powers
- The Permanent Settlement limited zamindars’ power to collect rent. Their troops disbanded, customs duties abolished, courts (cutcheries) brought under a Company-appointed Collector. The collectorate became an alternative centre of authority.
📊 The Auction Problem
- An officer of the zamindar (the amlah) came to villages to collect rent — but collection was a perennial problem.
- Rich ryots and village headmen (jotedars and mandals) were happy to see the zamindar in trouble and often deliberately delayed payments.
- In Burdwan alone there were over 30,000 pending suits for rent arrears in 1798.
- Famous example: 1797 auction in Burdwan — estates of the Raja put up for auction. Over 95% of sales were fictitious — buyers turned out to be servants and agents of the raja who bought the land back on his behalf.
📈 3.3 The Rise of Jotedars
- While zamindars faced crisis, a class of rich peasants called jotedars was consolidating power in villages. Described vividly in Francis Buchanan’s survey of Dinajpur district (North Bengal).
- By early 19th century, jotedars had acquired vast areas of land — sometimes several thousand acres. They controlled local trade and moneylending.
- Their lands were cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars) who handed over half the produce after the harvest.
- Jotedars lived in the villages (unlike zamindars who often lived in towns) and exercised direct control over the poor.
- How jotedars resisted zamindars: resisted efforts to increase the jama; prevented zamindari officials from executing duties; mobilised ryots; deliberately delayed revenue payments; bought zamindari estates at auctions when they were put up for sale.
- Jotedars were most powerful in North Bengal. Elsewhere called haoladars, gantidars or mandals.
🛡️ 3.4 How Zamindars Resisted Displacement
- Fictitious (benami) sales: The Raja of Burdwan transferred zamindari to his mother (Company couldn’t seize women’s property). His agents then bid at auctions, bought the property, refused to pay, forcing repeated re-auctions until price fell, then bought it cheaply. Between 1793–1801, four big Bengal zamindaris made benami purchases worth Rs 30 lakh; over 15% of auction sales were fictitious.
- Physical resistance: When outsiders bought estates at auction, their agents were attacked by the zamindar’s lathyals (men wielding lathis). Even ryots resisted entry of outsiders — they felt loyal to their zamindar as a figure of authority and saw themselves as his proja (subjects).
- By early 19th century, price depression ended, revenue rules became more flexible, and surviving zamindars consolidated their power. They finally collapsed only during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when jotedars took over.
📜 3.5 The Fifth Report (1813)
- Submitted to the British Parliament in 1813 — fifth in a series of reports on Company administration. Ran into 1002 pages, of which 800+ were appendices (petitions of zamindars and ryots, district collector reports, statistical tables).
- Context: From the 1760s, Company activities were debated in England. Groups opposed to Company’s trade monopoly, industrialists wanting to open Indian markets, political groups arguing Bengal conquest benefited only the Company — all created pressure. Parliament passed Acts to regulate Company and forced it to produce regular reports.
- The Fifth Report became the basis of intense parliamentary debates about the nature of Company rule.
⚠️ Critical Reading of Official Sources
The Fifth Report shaped historians’ understanding of Bengal for over 150 years. But recent research shows it exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power and overestimated the scale of land loss by zamindars. It was written to criticise Company maladministration — so its evidence is valuable but must be read carefully alongside zamindari archives and local district records.4. The Hoe and the Plough — Rajmahal Hills
Moving from the wetlands of Bengal to drier zones — the Rajmahal hills — we see a different story: one of shifting cultivation, forest-dwelling tribes, and the aggressive expansion of settled peasant agriculture that displaced them.
🏕️ 4.1 The Paharias — Life in the Hills
- The hill folk around the Rajmahal hills were known as Paharias. Their entire livelihood was linked to the forest.
- Their activities: Shifting cultivation (jhum) — cleared patches of forest by cutting bushes and burning undergrowth; grew pulses and millets; scratched the ground lightly with hoes; moved to new areas after a few years, letting old land recover fertility.
- Collected mahua (a flower) for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale, wood for charcoal production. Undergrowth and fallow lands provided pasture for cattle.
- They considered the entire region their land — the basis of their identity and survival. Resisted intrusion of outsiders. Chiefs maintained group unity, settled disputes, and led the tribe in battles.
- Paharia raids on the plains were a means of survival (especially in famine years), asserting power over settled communities, and negotiating political relations with outsiders. Zamindars on the plains paid tribute to hill chiefs; traders paid a toll for passage through controlled passes.
⚔️ 4.2 Paharias vs Colonial State
- The negotiated peace between Paharias and plains people broke down as the British aggressively extended settled agriculture in eastern India in the late 18th century. Forests were cleared by zamindars and jotedars to create rice fields.
- The British associated forests with wildness and forest people with savagery — they felt forests had to be cleared and forest people made to practise plough agriculture.
- As settled agriculture expanded, forests and pastures contracted → sharpened conflict → Paharias raided settled villages more frequently.
- 1770s: British embarked on a brutal policy of extermination — hunting the Paharias down and killing them.
- 1780s: Augustus Cleveland, Collector of Bhagalpur, proposed pacification — Paharia chiefs given annual allowances and made responsible for their people’s conduct. Many chiefs refused. Those who accepted lost authority within the community (seen as “stipendiary chiefs”).
- Paharias withdrew deeper into the mountains. When Buchanan visited in 1810–11, they viewed him with suspicion and hostility.
🌱 4.3 The Santhals — Pioneer Settlers
- Santhals had begun coming into Bengal around the 1780s. Zamindars hired them to reclaim land; British officials invited them to settle in the Jangal Mahals.
- The British preferred Santhals over Paharias — Santhals were willing to clear forests and plough the land with vigour.
- 1832: A large area was demarcated as Damin-i-Koh — declared to be Santhal land. Conditions: they had to practise plough agriculture and at least one-tenth of the area had to be cleared and cultivated within the first 10 years.
- Rapid growth: From 40 Santhal villages in 1838 → 1,473 villages by 1851. Population grew from 3,000 to over 82,000. Revenue flowing into the Company’s coffers increased.
- As Santhals settled in the lower hills, Paharias were forced to retreat deeper into the dry, barren, rocky upper hills — severely impoverishing them. Their shifting cultivation became unsustainable as the most fertile soils were now in the Damin.
⚔️ The Santhal Revolt (1855–56) — Hul
By the 1850s, Santhals found that the land they had cleared was slipping away — the state levied heavy taxes, moneylenders (dikus) charged exorbitant interest and seized land, and zamindars encroached on the Damin. Led by Sidhu Manjhi, the Santhals rose in revolt against zamindars, moneylenders and the colonial state. After the revolt was crushed, the Santhal Pargana was created — carving 5,500 sq miles from Bhagalpur and Birbhum districts with special laws.📖 4.4 Francis Buchanan’s Accounts — Critical Reading
- Buchanan was a physician employed by the Bengal Medical Service (1794–1815). He was also surgeon to Governor-General Lord Wellesley. He undertook detailed surveys of Company-controlled areas at the Government of Bengal’s request.
- His surveys were not simply scholarly explorations — he marched with a large army (draughtsmen, surveyors, palanquin bearers, coolies) all funded by the Company. He was immediately perceived as an agent of the sarkar.
- Buchanan obsessively observed rocks, soil strata, minerals, iron ore, mica, granite, saltpetre — all commercially valuable for the Company.
- When he described landscapes, he focused on how they could be transformed and made productive — what crops could be grown, which trees cut down. His priorities were shaped by commercial concerns of the Company and Western notions of progress.
- He was inevitably critical of forest dwellers’ lifestyles and believed forests should be converted into agricultural lands.
📜 Source 3 — Buchanan on the Santhals
Buchanan wrote dismissively: “They are very clever in clearing new lands, but live meanly. Their huts have no fence, and the walls are made of small sticks placed upright, close together and plastered within with clay. They are small and slovenly, and too flat-roofed, with very little arch.” His description reflects his colonial prejudices rather than an objective account.
5. A Revolt in the Countryside — The Bombay Deccan
Moving to western India and a later period — the Bombay Deccan in the 19th century. Here a different revenue system, the ryotwari settlement, was imposed, leading to a cycle of debt, exploitation and ultimately the Deccan Ryot Revolt of 1875.
🔥 5.1 The Revolt Begins — Supa, 1875
- On 12 May 1875, ryots from rural areas near Supa village, Poona district, gathered and attacked shopkeepers and moneylenders.
- They demanded bahi khatas (account books) and debt bonds. They burnt the khatas, looted grain shops, and set fire to houses of sahukars (moneylenders/traders).
- The revolt spread to Ahmednagar, then over an area of 6,500 sq km. More than 30 villages were affected. Everywhere: sahukars attacked, account books burnt, debt bonds destroyed. Terrified sahukars fled villages.
- British officials, alarmed by the spectre of 1857, established police posts, called in troops; 951 people arrested, many convicted. Took months to restore order.
📜 5.2 The Ryotwari System — A New Revenue Regime
- As British rule expanded, the Permanent Settlement was rarely extended beyond Bengal — after 1810, agricultural prices rose, but the fixed Bengal revenue meant the Company couldn’t benefit from rising land values.
- Influenced by the economist David Ricardo‘s ideas (popular in England by the 1820s) — a landowner should have claim only to “average rent”; surplus above this should be taxed by the state. Officials felt Bengal zamindars had become rentiers, leasing out land without investing in it.
- The ryotwari settlement was introduced in the Bombay Deccan: revenue was settled directly with the ryot (not a zamindar intermediary). Average income from different soil types was estimated, revenue-paying capacity assessed, and a proportion fixed as the state’s share.
- Lands were resurveyed every 30 years and revenue rates increased — so it was not permanent.
😰 5.3 Revenue Demand and Peasant Debt
- First revenue settlement in the Bombay Deccan: 1820s. Revenue demand was so high many peasants deserted their villages and migrated.
- When rains failed, peasants couldn’t pay. Collectors — keen to impress superiors — extracted payment with utmost severity: crops were seized, fines imposed on whole villages.
- By 1830s, problem became severe: prices of agricultural products fell sharply after 1832 and didn’t recover for over a decade. A famine struck 1832–34 — one-third of Deccan cattle killed, half the human population died.
- Peasants were forced to borrow from moneylenders to pay revenue. Once a loan was taken, it was hard to repay. Debt mounted. By the 1840s, officials found alarming levels of peasant indebtedness everywhere.
- Mid-1840s: Some recovery — revenue demand moderated, agricultural prices recovered after 1845. Peasants expanded cultivation — but still needed loans from moneylenders for ploughs, cattle, seeds.
🌾 5.4 The Cotton Boom (1861–65)
- Before the 1860s, three-fourths of Britain’s raw cotton came from America. Britain worried about dependence on American supply. In 1857, the Cotton Supply Association was founded; in 1859, the Manchester Cotton Company was formed — seeking alternative cotton sources.
- India was seen as ideal — suitable soil, favourable climate, cheap labour.
- 1861: American Civil War broke out. Raw cotton from America fell from over 2,000,000 bales in 1861 to just 55,000 bales in 1862. Frantic demand for Indian cotton. By 1862, over 90% of cotton imports into Britain were coming from India.
- Cotton prices soared. Bombay export merchants gave advances to urban sahukars → who extended credit to rural moneylenders → who gave advances to ryots. Ryots received Rs 100 advance per acre planted with cotton. Between 1860–64, cotton acreage doubled.
- But boom years didn’t bring prosperity to all — large majority found cotton expansion meant heavier debt.
📉 5.5 Credit Dries Up
- As the American Civil War ended (1865), American cotton production revived and Indian cotton exports to Britain steadily declined.
- Export merchants and sahukars stopped extending credit — demand was falling, prices sliding. They demanded repayment of outstanding debts.
- At the same time, the new revenue settlement increased the demand dramatically — from 50 to 100%. Ryots had to turn again to moneylenders. But moneylenders now refused loans.
⚖️ 5.6 The Experience of Injustice
- The ryots’ anger was not just about debt — it was about moneylenders violating customary norms. Before colonial rule, one norm was that interest charged could not exceed the principal. Under colonial rule, this norm broke down — in cases investigated by the Deccan Riots Commission, a moneylender charged over Rs 2,000 as interest on a principal of Rs 100.
- When debts mounted, the peasant gave his land, carts and animals to the moneylender. He then had to hire back his own bullocks and carts, signing a “deed of hire” acknowledging he had no ownership. Without animals, he couldn’t cultivate.
- The British Limitation Law of 1859 said loan bonds were valid only for 3 years (meant to check interest accumulation). Moneylenders turned this around — forced the ryot to sign a new bond every 3 years where the original loan + accumulated interest became the new principal.
- Moneylenders also refused receipts when loans were repaid, entered fictitious figures in bonds, acquired harvest at low prices, and ultimately took over property.
- Peasants feared the written word — they didn’t understand what they were signing. But they had no choice — survival depended on loans, and moneylenders wouldn’t give loans without legal bonds.
📜 Source — Ryot Petition to Deccan Riots Commission
A ryot from Mirajgaon complained: “The sowkars have begun to oppress us… necessary clothes and grain are sold to us at 25–50% more than cash rates… The produce of our fields is taken by the sowkars, who assure us it will be credited to our account, but they do not actually make any mention of it in the accounts. They also refuse to pass us receipts for the produce removed by them.”
6. The Deccan Riots Commission
- When the revolt spread, the Government of Bombay was initially unwilling to see it as anything serious. But the Government of India — worried by the memory of 1857 — pressured Bombay to set up an inquiry.
- The commission produced a report presented to the British Parliament in 1878 — referred to as the Deccan Riots Report.
- What the commission collected: enquiries in riot-affected districts, statements of ryots, sahukars and eyewitnesses, statistical data on revenue rates, prices and interest rates, reports from district collectors.
⚠️ Critical Reading of the Deccan Riots Report
The commission was specifically asked to judge whether the government revenue demand caused the revolt. After presenting evidence, it reported that the government was not to blame — the moneylenders were. This argument is found repeatedly in colonial records. It reflects a persistent reluctance by the colonial government to admit that popular discontent could be caused by government action. Official reports are invaluable sources, but must be read critically alongside newspapers, unofficial accounts, legal records and oral sources.7. Key Sources — Comparison
📜 Fifth Report (1813)
Submitted to British Parliament. Contains petitions of zamindars and ryots, collector reports, revenue statistics. Value: invaluable evidence of rural Bengal. Limitation: exaggerated zamindari collapse to criticise Company maladministration.
📖 Buchanan’s Surveys (1800s)
Physician and Company employee. Surveyed Dinajpur, Rajmahal hills etc. Value: vivid descriptions of rural life, tribal people, landscapes. Limitation: Company agent’s view — his “development” ideas reflected commercial priorities, not local needs.
⚖️ Deccan Riots Report (1878)
Produced by the Deccan Riots Commission. Contains ryot and sahukar testimonies, revenue and interest rate data. Value: rich historical evidence of the revolt. Limitation: official source — denied government revenue demand was to blame, blamed only moneylenders.
📌 Lesson for Historians
All three are official sources. They must be read alongside petitions, newspapers, unofficial accounts, zamindari archives and local records. Official sources reflect the concerns, prejudices and political agendas of those who wrote them.8. Summary — Quick Revision
1
The Permanent Settlement (1793) was introduced by Cornwallis in Bengal. Zamindars were made revenue collectors with permanently fixed demands. Over 75% of zamindaris changed hands because the initial demand was too high, the Sunset Law was strict, and zamindars’ powers were curtailed.
2
Jotedars — rich peasants of North Bengal — rose as zamindars declined. They owned thousands of acres, controlled trade and moneylending, and worked land through sharecroppers (adhiyars/bargadars) who gave half the harvest. They were more powerful locally than zamindars.
3
Zamindars resisted through benami (fictitious) sales — transferring land to family members (especially women whose property the Company couldn’t seize), and using agents to manipulate auctions. Between 1793–1801, over 15% of auction sales were fictitious.
4
The Fifth Report (1813) shaped historians’ views of rural Bengal for 150+ years. It was a parliamentary document produced by a Select Committee to criticise the Company. Recent research shows it exaggerated zamindari collapse.
5
The Paharias of the Rajmahal hills practised shifting cultivation, hunting, gathering and charcoal production. They resisted colonial intrusion. British policy moved from extermination (1770s) to pacification (1780s). Paharias retreated deep into the hills.
6
The Santhals were ideal settlers for the British — willing to clear forests and plough. The Damin-i-Koh was demarcated in 1832 as their territory. Santhal villages grew from 40 to 1,473 between 1838–1851. But heavy taxes, moneylender exploitation and zamindar encroachment led to the Santhal Revolt (1855–56).
7
The Ryotwari system in the Bombay Deccan settled revenue directly with the ryot. The first settlement (1820s) was excessively high, causing peasant migration and debt. The 1832–34 famine worsened the crisis. Peasants became deeply dependent on moneylenders (sahukars/dikus).
8
The American Civil War (1861) cut off US cotton supply to Britain. India’s cotton acreage doubled between 1860–64. By 1862, over 90% of British cotton imports came from India. When the war ended (1865), cotton prices crashed and credit dried up — pushing ryots deeper into debt.
9
The Deccan Ryot Revolt (1875) began at Supa, Poona district. Ryots attacked sahukars, burned account books and debt bonds. Spread over 6,500 sq km, affecting 30+ villages. The Deccan Riots Commission (report 1878) was set up. It blamed moneylenders, not government revenue, for the revolt.
10
Francis Buchanan was a Company physician who undertook detailed surveys. His journals are valuable but reflect Company priorities — he described landscapes in terms of commercial transformation, was critical of forest-dwelling lifestyles, and searched obsessively for minerals and resources.
9. Timeline — Chapter 9
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1765 | English East India Company acquires Diwani of Bengal |
| 1770s | Rural economy of Bengal in crisis — famines, declining agricultural output; British begin brutal policy of extermination of Paharias |
| 1773 | Regulating Act passed by British Parliament to regulate the East India Company |
| 1780s | Augustus Cleveland proposes pacification policy for Paharias; Santhals begin coming into Bengal |
| 1793 | Permanent Settlement introduced in Bengal by Cornwallis |
| 1797 | Famous auction in Burdwan — over 95% of sales fictitious |
| 1800s | Santhals settle in the Rajmahal hills and extend cultivation; Buchanan surveys Dinajpur and Rajmahal hills (1810–11) |
| 1813 | Fifth Report submitted to British Parliament |
| 1818 | First revenue settlement in the Bombay Deccan (Ryotwari system) |
| 1820s | Agricultural prices begin to fall; Ricardian ideas influence British revenue policy |
| 1832 | Damin-i-Koh demarcated as Santhal territory |
| 1832–34 | Devastating famine in the Deccan — one-third of cattle killed, half the human population died |
| 1840s–50s | Slow agrarian expansion in the Bombay Deccan; Santhal settlements expand rapidly |
| 1855–56 | Santhal Rebellion (Hul) led by Sidhu Manjhi against zamindars, dikus and the colonial state |
| 1857 | Cotton Supply Association founded in Britain |
| 1859 | Limitation Law passed — loan bonds valid for only 3 years |
| 1861 | American Civil War begins → cotton boom in India; cotton acreage in Deccan doubles by 1864 |
| 1865 | American Civil War ends → Indian cotton prices crash; credit dries up |
| 1875 | Deccan Ryot Revolt — begins at Supa, spreads over 6,500 sq km; 951 people arrested |
| 1878 | Deccan Riots Commission Report presented to British Parliament |
| 1930s | Great Depression — Bengal zamindars finally collapse; jotedars consolidate power |
10. Important Terms to Remember
- Permanent Settlement (1793): Revenue settlement introduced by Cornwallis in Bengal — fixed the revenue demand of zamindars permanently. Zamindars became revenue collectors of the Company. If they failed to pay, their estates were auctioned.
- Sunset Law: Provision of the Permanent Settlement — if revenue was not paid by sunset on the specified date, the zamindari would be auctioned. Created enormous pressure on zamindars.
- Raja: A term often used to designate powerful zamindars. Literally means “king.”
- Taluqdar: Literally “one who holds a taluq (connection/territorial unit).” Under the Permanent Settlement, taluqdars of Bengal were classified as zamindars.
- Ryot: The British spelling of raiyat — the term used for peasants in colonial records. In Bengal, ryots did not always cultivate land directly but leased it out to under-ryots.
- Jotedar: Rich peasants of North Bengal who had acquired large areas of land (sometimes several thousand acres), controlled local trade and moneylending, and worked land through sharecroppers (adhiyars/bargadars). Most powerful in North Bengal. Also called haoladars, gantidars or mandals in other regions.
- Adhiyar / Bargadar: Sharecroppers who cultivated jotedars’ land, brought their own ploughs, and handed over half the produce after the harvest.
- Amlah: An officer of the zamindar responsible for coming to villages to collect rent.
- Lathyal: Literally “one who wields the lathi.” A strongman employed by the zamindar.
- Benami / Fictitious sale: Literally “anonymous.” A transaction made in the name of a fictitious or insignificant person while the real beneficiary remains unnamed. Zamindars used this to retain estates at auctions.
- Proja: Literally “subjects.” Ryots viewed their zamindar as a figure of authority and themselves as his proja — this loyalty helped zamindars resist displacement.
- Fifth Report (1813): A report submitted to the British Parliament by a Select Committee. It documented the administration and activities of the East India Company in India, and became a basis for parliamentary debates. Its evidence is valuable but must be read critically.
- Paharias: Hill folk who lived around the Rajmahal hills, practising shifting cultivation, gathering forest produce, hunting and producing charcoal. They considered the entire region their land.
- Shifting cultivation (Jhum): A method of cultivation in which patches of forest are cleared by burning, cultivated for a few years, then left fallow to recover fertility, while the cultivator moves to a new patch.
- Mahua: A flower collected by Paharias for food. Also a source of alcohol and oil.
- Augustus Cleveland: Collector of Bhagalpur who in the 1780s proposed the pacification policy for Paharias — giving chiefs annual allowances in exchange for maintaining order.
- Santhals: A tribal community that came into Bengal in the 1780s. They cleared forests and practised plough agriculture — seen as ideal settlers by the British. Given the Damin-i-Koh territory in 1832.
- Damin-i-Koh: A large area demarcated in 1832 as the official territory of the Santhals in the foothills of Rajmahal. Santhal villages grew from 40 (1838) to 1,473 (1851).
- Diku: The term used by Santhals for moneylenders (outsiders who exploited them) — and more broadly, for any outsider.
- Santhal Revolt / Hul (1855–56): A major rebellion by Santhals against zamindars, moneylenders and the colonial state, led by Sidhu Manjhi. After the revolt, the Santhal Pargana was created.
- Ryotwari settlement: A revenue system introduced in the Bombay Deccan (first settlement 1820s). Revenue settled directly with the individual ryot, based on estimated average income from soil type. Lands resurveyed and revenue revised every 30 years.
- Sahukar: Someone who acted as both a moneylender and a trader — a key figure in the Bombay Deccan countryside.
- Bahi khata: Account book — the main target of the Deccan ryots’ anger during the 1875 revolt. Burning the khata symbolised destroying the record of debt.
- Debt bond: A legal document signed by a ryot acknowledging a debt to a moneylender, specifying terms of repayment. Under the Limitation Law (1859), valid for only 3 years — but moneylenders forced ryots to sign new bonds every 3 years, re-entering accumulated interest as fresh principal.
- Deed of hire: When a debtor peasant had to give his bullocks and carts to the moneylender, he would then sign a deed of hire acknowledging he was now renting these animals from the moneylender — at a monthly rate. Changed the ownership relationship entirely.
- Limitation Law (1859): British law stating that loan bonds between moneylenders and ryots were valid for only 3 years. Meant to check interest accumulation, but moneylenders subverted it by forcing new bonds every 3 years.
- Cotton boom (1861–65): When the American Civil War cut off US cotton supply, India became Britain’s primary cotton source. Cotton acreage in the Deccan doubled. By 1862, over 90% of British cotton imports came from India. When the war ended, cotton prices crashed.
- Deccan Riots Commission Report (1878): Official report investigating the 1875 Deccan Ryot Revolt. Held enquiries, collected ryot and sahukar testimonies, compiled data on revenue rates, prices and interest. Found moneylenders, not government revenue demand, responsible — reflects official reluctance to admit government’s role in popular discontent.
- Francis Buchanan (Buchanan-Hamilton): A Company physician (Bengal Medical Service, 1794–1815) who undertook detailed surveys of Company territories. His journals are rich sources for rural history but reflect the Company’s commercial priorities and Western ideas of progress.
- Rentier: A person who lives on rental income from property rather than actively working the land. British officials felt Bengal zamindars under the Permanent Settlement had become rentiers — a reason for the ryotwari system in the Deccan.