Saturday, June 25, 2011

Historical Background of British India

East India Company won the Battle of Plassey. But they actually became the ruler of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa when in 1764 they were granted by the Mughal Emperor the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.
Subsequently they won over the territories of north, south, east and west of India in about 100 years of war.
After the gradual defeat the Indians had nothing to do than to find the ways and means of throwing the yoke from their shoulder. Marx said, "the Indians will not reap the fruits of the new elements of society scattered among them by the British Burgeoisie till in Great Britain itself the new ruling classes shall have been supplanted by the industrial proletariat, or till the Hindus themselves shall have grown strong enough to throw off the English yoke altogether."
The social and administrative set up that prevailed in India prior to the advent of British rule were, more or less, self sufficient village communities with local self government at the bottom.i.e., the level of th villages , feudal chieftains, with limited rexponsibilities of tax collection and rendering help during wars, occupying an intermediate position, and the prince or the Emperor at the top.
But when the East India Company was granted diwani by the Mughal Emperor and because the British wanted to exploit the peoples of India for their own benifit they had to impose all ways and means of removing the incoming obstacles from the local authorities. They had to maintain Military and Judicial department for their administration. Moreover they had to change the land ownership for maximum earning of tax collection.
Consequently, they developed three landownership systems-- Zamindari, Ryotwari, and Mahalwari -- with several variants came into existence in different parts of the country.
For instance, in Madras Presidency, under the Ryotwari system, the land revenue collected in the year 1810-1811 was pound 10,00,000, by
1825-1826   ,,       ,,      40,00,000.
In Bombay the revenue collected was
1817           pound     8,00,000
1818               ,,        11,00,000
and by
1837-1838      ,,        18,60,000
Where as in Bengal the agents of the Mughal emperor collected in
1764-1765       pound      8,18,000,
which rose to
1765-1766          ,,           14,70,000 and to
1790-1791          ,,            28,60,000.