Stagnation and Deterioration of Agriculture | NCERT – UPSC | IAS | PCS
As a result of overcrowding of agriculture, excessive land revenue demand, growth of landlordism, increasing indebtedness, and the growing impoverishment of the cultivators, Indian agriculture began to stagnate and even deteriorate resulting in extremely low yields per acre
At a time when agriculture all over the world was being modernised and revolutionised, Indian agriculture was technologically stagnating, hardly any modern machinery was used.
There was a sudden and quick collapse of the urban handicrafts which had for centuries made India’s name a byword in the markets of the entire civilised world
The peasant was also progressively impoverished under British rule, his material condition deteriorated and he steadily sank into poverty. In the very beginning of British rule in Bengal, the policy of Clive and Warren Hasting of extracting the largest possible land revenue had led to such devastation
By 1815, half the total land in Bengal had passed into hands of money-lenders, merchants, and rich peasants who usually got the land cultivated by tenants. The new zamindars, with increased powers but with little or no avenues for new investments, resorted to land-grabbing and sub-infeudation.Warren Hastings’ policy of auctioning the rights of revenue collection to the highest bidders, (Izaredari System)
Economic Impact of British Rule in India | UPSC – IAS
