Indian Rural Economy during Early British Rule – Part 1
Indian Rural Economy during Early British Rule in
Old Bombay Presidency, present Maharashtra
- 1. INTRODUCTION :
It was in the year 1818 AD British had established a rule in Maharashtra. Right from Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to Last Peshwa, every one struggled with British. But Hon. Elphiston, the then Governor of Bombay Presidency was successful in attaching Pune, Nagar, Nashik, Sholapur, Dharwad and Belgaum districts to British ruled area by granting pension to last Peshwa. In this article it is proposed to talk about the Administrative set up and Economy in early days of British Rule. But for that it is very necessary to take a glance towards the administrative political set up developed by Mongal Kings and adopted by Mharashtrian [Maratha] kings.
2. Mongal and Maratha Set up :
Mongal Empire was ruling India from 1528 AD. They had set up administrative divisions for the purposes of ruling India. Maratha kings were ruling from 1670 AD onwards. Chatrapati Shivaji, the first self declared emperor of Maharashtra, made very little changes in the administrative set up prevalent during Mongal era.
About 60 villages made 1 ‘Taraf’ and 2 to 4 ‘Taraf’ made one ‘Mahal’ or ‘Pargana’. Mahal used to be bigger that Pargana. 2 to 3 Mahals made one ‘Mamlat’ and few ‘Mamlat’s made one ‘Subha’ or ‘Prant’. Different officials noted below, were appointed to look after these divisions and sub-divisions.
i] ‘Subha’, ‘ Desh’ = Subhedar, Sir-subhedar, Divan, Phadnis [looking
or ‘Prant’ after paper work], Potdar [looking after cash],
Muzumdar, Darakdar etc.
ii] Pargana or = Havaldar, Kamavisdar, Mamledar, Desai, Nadgir,
Mahal Nadkarni, Nadgauda, Moharir, Mokashi, Deshmukh
iii] Taraf = Tarafdar
iv] Village, town = Patil, Kulkarni, Shekdar, Mokadam, Jaglya.
3. Patil and Kulkarni [during Mongal and Maratha period] :
Patil used to be a person with strong and stout build up and with commending leadership qualities. In fact he used to be a person whose ancestor had set up a village in ancient days. He was the person who had defended the village from the obstructions by thieves and pendharies [robbers]. Therefore he was the person in whom had faith of all villagers. Patil used to be holding a post of a ‘patil’ as a hereditary right. But usually he used to be an illiterate person. Kulkarni and Deshpande used to help him in reading and writing the letters and documents.
Kulkarni used to keep the notes about agricultural land, its ownership and produce. Kul means agricultural land. Keeper of agriculture land was known as Kulkarni. They were generally from high caste such as Bramhins or Kayastha Prabhus [CKP]. Education had peculiar importance in their community.
Since entire land in the village belonged to the King, Kulkarni was supposed to keep the account of all land of the village. In the village almost all people were illiterate. Therefore Kulkarni used to keep the accounts and documentation of local money lenders [savakar]. The writing used to be in Marathi in Deonagri script or in Modi script.
Jaglya used to defend the village. One who jagto [does not sleep] in the night is jaglya. He used to be from Mahar or Bhilla community. He used to work under supervision of Patil in the ‘Chawadi’, that is village office.
All these persons were paid by the King in the form of income form the land allotted to them. At times they were paid from the revenue collected from the village.
Deshmukh and Deshpande used to get 1/20 th of the village revenue. Patil used to get 1/10. For the purposes of maintaince of temple, mashid, Jatra [fair], common ceremonies, alms, dakshina, and expenses for official visitors, 1/20 of the village revenue were allotted. Rest was sent to the King. It will be seen that most of the village revenue was remaining in the village itself and that is why the development of village never depended on others.
4. Balutedar :
‘Balutedar’ means a person who recovers his rights with ‘balut’ that is by force. Certain communities used to work all the year round, for the entire village without taking any remuneration. But they used to recover the remuneration for their services at the end of the year by way of some share in the production of the agricultural land.
In a village there were 12 such communities namely, chaugula, mahar, sutar, lohar, chamar, kumbhar, nahi, sonar, joshi, dhobi, gurav, and koli. Since they were very useful to the village they were also called ‘Karoo’, means ‘kam karnare’ [doing useful work].
As against ‘balutedar’, there were communities known as ‘alutedar’, meaning without whom the land can be cultivated. They were 18 of the kind namely, teli, Tamboli, Sali. sutar, sangar, shimpi, mali, gondhali, dawari, bhat, thakar, gosavi, jangam, mulana, vajantri, dhadsi, kalavant, taral, bhoi. They used to get varying remuneration as a ‘dharam’ [religious grant] or as a token of love.
5. Year for agriculture :
In early times main crop form the land was jawar, bajri, gahu [wheat], tandul [rice], nachni, dali [pulses], kutki. There were food crops. But after entry of British the cultivation of cotton and oil seeds increased a lot.
Agricultural year was ‘fasli’ means ‘harvesting’. The year started from ‘mruga nakshtra’ [start of rainy season that is June]. Mamlatdadr used to prepare a budge [ajmas] for the fasli year. Recovery of installments for land revenue, number of ploughs and pairs of bullocks depended on such budget.
Inamdar, Deshmukh and Deshpande were responsible for the recovery of land revenue. The defaulters were punished by the Mamlatdar. At times the land revenue was recovered by auctioning the land. At times the dues of an individual were recovered from all the villagers.
6. Rural Priestly System :
Bramhins were acting as priests in a village. They were known a ‘Gram Joshi’. They were educated and used to learn the procedure of ‘puja’ by heart. They were the representatives of vocal learning and remembering tribes of ancient Aryans. Later on they formed the small groups according to the rituals of the Gods and Goddesses they worshiped. Gurav and Jangam were worshiping ‘Shiva’. ‘Vishnu and Hanuman’ were worshiped by Bairagi. ‘Devi’ used to be worshiped Bhute and Gaondhali. Bharadi and Kunbies used to worship ‘Bhairava’. ‘Khandoba’ was worshiped by Vaghya and Murali. ‘Mariaai’ was worshiped by Mahar and Mang. ‘Krishna’ was worshiped Mahanubhava. Muslim worshiped ‘Pir’. Vasudeo, Mahanubhave, Fakir used to move from village to village telling ‘Puja’.
7. Inam and Vatan :
It was necessary to make payment to the officers and worker appointed for smooth running of the kingdom. But the money was very insufficient in quantity. The remuneration was mostly made in the form of agricultural produce. As immovable property was free from theft, king used to make remuneration in the form of land or the produce coming out of land. This was called as ‘Inam’ [gift] or ‘Vatan’ [inheritance]. This would have zero cost to the king’s treasury and at the same time untilled land used to come under cultivation. Such gift was to be enjoyed by the person and his descendants who were expected to give same service to the king. Thus the appointment and their remuneration were hereditary in nature. In the beginning this system of hereditary appointment was restricted to the Commanders in the army and the Priests in the temple and mashid. But later on the hereditary payments in the nature of produce from the certain piece of land was extended to the payment to be made to artisans and servants. Such gifted land was four different types as under:
i] Jagir or Saranjam – ‘Ja’ means land and ‘gir’ means which is received. Land received from Mongal kings was called ‘Jagir’. If the land is received from Martha kings it was called ‘Saranjam’. Saranjam means goods or articles. Goods given by the king is saranjam. Such inam was used to be given to Divan, Army chief, Fadnavis, Mujumdar, Chitnavis.
ii] Inam to temples and mashid – For the maintaince of temple, tomb, mashid, pir, darga, fairs and festivals in the village, such inam was attached to them, so that they could be maintained by the person in charge of them.
iii] Gavki inam – For looking after the village, mahal, pargana the income form certain land was assigned to the officials who were appointed by the king. In these cases the land was not given but only the produce [or some part of the produce] from that land was to be used by officials.
iv] Toda girase inam – Some strong persons of the village used to extort money from the villagers. To stop their hindrance all the villagers used to pay certain part of the produce to such strong and noisy persons. That was called as toda girase inam.
[We will see about village shops, village bazaar [market] and fairs, money lenders, village courts, system of Patil and Kulkarnis, in next article.]
Written by ntnirale on November 14th, 2009 with
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