Change in Bengal Agrarian Society C. 1760-1850

Ratnalekha Ray (Author), Ananda Bhattacharyya (Author)

9789390035878

Hardback, published 20 November 2024

388 pages
23 x 15 x 2.4 cm, 0.75 kg

Change in Bengal Agrarian Society c. 1760-1850seeks to trace the course of change in the agrarian society of Bengal under the rule of the East India Company with special reference to the impact of the Permanent Settlement introduced in Bengal and Bihar on 1 May 1793 and later in Madras and Varanasi presidencies and most of northern India.

Divided into three parts, Part One is an attempt to describe the nature of land tenures and the different categories of land rights, as they prevailed before the Permanent Settlement. Part Two is an exploration of five localities covering districts from West, North, and former East Bengal and covers a wide spectrum of geographical and social con­ditions including the lie of the land, the composition of the population, the conditions of land tenure before the Permanent Settlement, the resultant rent-sharing structure, etc. Part Three deals with changes and continuity in the rural order as it emerged in the nineteenth cen­tury?from?the?1790s.

The work is based on wide ranging original source material. Ananda Bhattacharyya’s Introduction to this remarkable work places it in context.

• Chapter I The Problem
• A Fundamental Distinction: Zamindar and Jotedar
• Part I
• Bengali agrarian society and the permanent settlement
• Chapter II The Evolution of Pre-modern Agrarian Society in Bengal: Zamindars The Mughal System 1575-1707 The Nawabi System 1707-1760 The Rise of the East India Company 1760-1790 The Structure of Zamindari on the Eve of the Decennial Settlement Chapter III The Evolution of Pre-modern Agrarian Society in Bengal: Jotedars The VIllage Oligarchies The VIllage Economy and the Role of the Jotedars Politics and External Affairs of the VIll-age Oligarchies Chapter IV The Permanent Settlement A Case of Mistaken Identity Abolition of the Principalities Haptam and Panjam
• Part II Case Studies
• Chapter V Burdwan 89
• Chapter VI Bishnupur 110
• Chapter VII Midnapur 131
• Chapter VIII Dinajpur and Rangpur 174
• Chapter IX Dacca Jalalpur 209
• Part III Conclusion
• Chapter X Continuity and Change in Bengal Agrarian Society 249
• Epilogue Bengal Rural History from the Permanent Settlement to the Abolition of Zamindari 284
• Bibliography 295
• Appendices 316
• Index 333
• Index to the Introduction 340