Class 12 History, Ch-8 (Peasants, Zamindars & the State)
A) Short-Answer PYQs (≈3 marks each)
Q1) What did jati panchayats do in the 16th–17th centuries?
( Delhi 2008; All India 2011)
Answer (write 60–80 words):
- Arbitrated civil disputes (inheritance, land boundaries, compensation) and monitored marriage norms within the caste.
- Mediated contested claims on land and ritual precedence in village functions; could impose fines, social boycott, or penances.
- Worked alongside the village panchayat; except in criminal justice, state officials usually respected their decisions.
- Petitions in western India show people approached jati bodies against excess taxation and begar (unpaid labour).
Q2) Why were women considered an important resource in agrarian society?
(Delhi 2009; All India 2016 )
Answer:
- Agrarian economy was labour-intensive; women were vital in sowing, weeding, transplanting, harvesting.
- Key household/ artisanal tasks: spinning yarn, kneading clay for pottery, food processing, embroidery.
- Their labour underpinned both subsistence (family survival) and market-oriented production (textiles, crafts).
- Demographic point: child-bearing mattered in a system that prized larger working households.
Q3) Name a major crop of western India in the 17th century & how it reached India.
(All India 2010)
Answer:
- Maize emerged as a major crop in western India.
- It reached India via Africa → Iberian circuit (Spain/Portugal) → Indian Ocean routes, and by the 1600s appears routinely in regional crop lists.
Q4) How were subsistence and commercial production intertwined on peasant holdings?
( All India 2014)
Answer:
- Same plot/household produced foodgrains (subsistence) and cash crops (revenue).
- State policies pushed jins-i-kamil (perfect crops) like cotton & sugarcane; peasants mixed food + market crops.
- Spread of new world crops (maize, chillies, potatoes) diversified baskets; peasants tilted choices with prices/dues in mind.
- Outcome: a hybrid farm economy—grain for the pot, cotton/sugar for tax and trade.
Q5) Give three factors behind the expansion of agriculture (16th–17th c.).
( Delhi 2012, 2010)
Answer:
- Abundant land on the frontier—new clearings, settlement in riverine belts.
- Labour mobility (khud-kashta vs pahi-kashta) and migration into better-term villages.
- Irrigation works with state support—repairing old canals, digging new ones; plus local wells, tanks, embankments.
Q6) Sketch the condition of an average peasant in North India (17th c.).
(All India 2012)
Answer:
- Small holdings; often 1 pair of bullocks, 1–2 ploughs; 5–6 acres could be “affluent” in some regions.
- Two categories: khud-kashta (resident) and pahi-kashta (non-resident/seasonal).
- Faced price swings, famines, forced labour claims; yet land buying/selling occurred like other property.
- Obligations to state, zamindars, and village headmen made the margin of subsistence thin.
Q7) Why did jati panchayats gain authority? Mention their scope of power.
(All India 2011)
Answer:
- Grew from need to regulate caste norms and inter-caste disputes in expanding villages/markets.
- Scope: civil arbitration across castes, land claims, marital legitimacy, ritual precedence; could fine and boycott.
- The state often endorsed their awards—so their social sanctions had real bite.
Q8) Explain kankut and batai/nasab as methods of land-revenue assessment.
(All India 2017)
Answer:
- Kankut (chak): estimate based on grain-ear count (kan) or sample cutting (kut) on measured strips—then convert to dues.
- Batai/Share: a fixed share of actual produce after harvest (often one-third); nasab could mean customary rates.
- Used with zabt (measurement + schedule of rates) depending on crop, region, and transaction costs.
Q9) What were the results of India’s overseas trade under the Mughals?
(All India 2008)
Answer:
- Silver bullion inflows via Europe expanded money supply (rupiya circulation).
- Stable Asian empires (Ottoman–Safavid–Ming) enabled overland & maritime networks.
- Wider commodity spread (textiles, indigo, pepper, sugar) and geographic reach.
- Cash circulation helped tax collection in money and monetised rural transactions.
Q10) Why does the Ain-i Akbari remain an extraordinary document despite issues?
(Delhi 2008; Delhi 2016)
Answer:
- Systematic, quantitative listings: revenues, crops, prices (selectively), mansabs, jurisdictions.
- Reveals state–zamindar–peasant interfaces, regulation of agriculture, officials’ roles.
- Abu’l Fazl cross-checked oral/written reports; the five-book structure covers admin to culture.
- Yet read critically: imperial bias, calculation errors, skewed coverage.
Long Answer type questions Q1) “There was more to rural India than sedentary agriculture.” Substantiate.
( Delhi 2016)
Answer (write ~300–350 words):
- Landscape mosaic: alongside ploughed fields, large belts of forests/scrub (eastern/central India, Jharkhand, Western Ghats, Deccan).
- Forest livelihoods: jangli communities practised shifting cultivation, hunting, gathering, fishing, seasonally structured (e.g., Bhils—spring for collection, monsoon for cultivation, winter for hunting).
- State’s view & needs: forests seen as subversive refuges for rebels; also vital for war elephants and timber.
- Circulation & exchange: forest folk traded honey, wax, lac, medicinal herbs with qasbahs/banjaras; agrarian villages sourced fodder, fuelwood, pastures from commons (banjar/virgin lands).
- Cultural interfaces: Sufi lineages and agrarian expansion brought new cults, shrines, and norms into frontier zones; forest groups sometimes assimilated into peasant society as clearings advanced.
- Conclusion: Rural India = agrarian–pastoral–forest continuum, not just fixed fields; these sectors interlocked in labour, markets, and state extraction.
Q2) Even with limitations, the Ain-i Akbari is exceptional. Explain.
(Delhi 2016)
Answer:
- What it is: Part of the Akbarnama; five books—admin & fiscal systems, mansabdars, provinces, customs, and akhlaq (sayings).
- Why exceptional:
- Offers unusually granular data on crops, assessment units, officials, jagirs/khalisa, and the work of daftar/diwan.
- Shows how the state secured cultivation to ensure stable revenue, and how it regulated zamindars.
- Abu’l Fazl’s method: compilation + verification of reports; multiple revisions.
- Read with care:
- Imperial project to legitimise Akbar → harmonious order narrative.
- Arithmetical errors, sparse regional price/wage series, and skew towards fiscal-administrative sectors.
- Bottom line: When triangulated with farmans, revenue daftar, regional chronicles, archaeology, it becomes a cornerstone source for Mughal agrarian history.
Q3) Village panchayats regulated rural society. Discuss their structure & functions.
(Delhi 2016; All India 2016; Delhi 2013, 2014, 2015; Delhi 2011.)
Answer:
- Composition: Assembly of respected elders; headed by muqaddam/mandal; maintained a common fund (fines, contributions).
- Administrative tasks: Irrigation, path/embankment repairs, village accounts (with patwari), cleanliness, watch-and-ward.
- Social regulation: Upheld caste limits, policed marriage customs, ritual precedence; could fine, ostracise, or impose penance.
- Economic mediation: Resolved land boundary disputes, tenancy matters (khud-kashta vs pahi-kashta), remissions in bad seasons; negotiated begar demands.
- Interface with state: Often respected by officials; petitions from peasants (incl. women) show panchayats as first resort of justice.
- Why effective: Drew legitimacy from custom + village consensus; linked zamindar, headmen, and jati bodies into a layered order.
Q4) Roles of zamindars in Mughal India—power, obligations, contradictions.
(All India 2016, 2014, 2013; Delhi 2011)
Answer:
- Intermediary elites with hereditary claims to revenue collection & local authority; controlled waste, forests, pastures, sometimes large cultivable tracts.
- Functions: Mobilised revenue & labour, maintained order, hosted markets, supported roads/tanks/embankments; patronised mosques/temples and fairs.
- Power base: Customary dues (nazrana), armed retainers, kin networks; could convert rights into zamindari forts/havelis.
- Tensions: Extractive practices, illegal cesses, or forced labour provoked peasant resistance; yet in uprisings zamindars often led or sheltered raiyats—hence peasant support.
- State–zamindar bargain: Crown sought checks (measurement/zabt, transfers, jagir audits), but also needed zamindars’ local clout for stable cultivation.
Q5) Show how agriculture was organised around two seasonal cycles with examples.
(2012 )
Answer:
- Kharif (monsoon sowing): Jowar, bajra, rice, cotton—sown with rains; harvest in autumn.
- Rabi (winter sowing): Wheat, barley, gram, mustard—after monsoon retreat; harvest spring.
- Cropping choices: Varied by soils/irrigation/market; peasants mixed grains + jins-i-kamil (cotton/sugar) to meet both subsistence and cash needs.
- New crops: Maize, chillies, potatoes integrated where climate allowed.
- Administration tie-in: Revenue schedules and remissions recognised crop cycles and calamities; banjar tracts were brought under the plough season by season.
Q6) Trace how the lives of forest dwellers changed (16th–17th c.).
(All India 2008 , 2014,2015).
Answer:
- Seasonal rhythms—collection, fishing, shifting plots, hunting.
- Contact zones: Trade lac, honey, timber, and elephants to the state; frequent royal hunts doubled as grievance-hearing tours.
- Pressure from expansion: Clearance of forests, push of revenue frontier, and military policing narrowed free access to commons.
- Religious-cultural currents: Sufi networks & agrarian settlers fostered new shrines/rituals; some groups settled as peasants.
- Net effect: Gradual integration and control—more dues, less mobility; yet forest people remained critical to the rural economy.
Q7) Using the Ain-i Akbari, explain the administrative and army organisation under Akbar.
(All India 2012 )
Answer:
- Mansabdari system: Graded mansabs (zat/sawar) determined rank, pay, & cavalry quotas; periodic brand/chehra checks curbed fraud.
- Jagir–khalisa split: Jagirs assigned for mansabdar salary; khalisa remained crown lands for central treasury.
- Bureaucracy: Diwan (fiscal chief), bakhshi (military pay/roll), sadr (grants), qazi/mir-adls (justice), suba-sarkar-pargana tiers with qazis, amils, qanungos.
- Army: Emphasis on high-quality cavalry, artillery parks, elephants; forts and road/serai network for movement.
- Fiscal logic: Measurement (zabt), assessed rates, and cash-nexus underwrote army provisioning and pay.
Q8) “Zamindars often enjoyed peasant support in rural resistance.” Explain.
(Delhi 2015; Delhi 2014; All India 2013 )
Answer:
- Shared village world: Zamindars were local patrons—credit, protection, ritual leadership; peasants tied by kinship & custom.
- Grievance alignment: When state demand overshot capacity (bad harvests, war levies), zamindars themselves were squeezed—leading to joint resistance.
- Means: Control over retainers, fortified houses, and paths/forests enabled mobilisation and safe retreat.
- Outcomes: Some uprisings forced revenue remissions or office changes; others ended in punitive action and confiscations.
- Hence: Support reflected a political economy coalition, not mere “class harmony”.
Q9) Explain methods of revenue assessment & collection and their regional fit.
(All India 2017, Delhi/AI 2012 )
Answer:
- Zabt (measurement + assessed rates schedule) worked in core wheat–cotton belts with stable yields.
- Batai/Share (apportioned after harvest) suited riskier tracts; reduced assessment disputes but raised collection costs.
- Kankut/Chak (sample estimation) balanced speed and fairness when full measurement was costly.
- Local officials: Amil, qanungo, patwari implemented entries; remissions allowed for drought/flood/locusts.
- Why mix matters: Region, crop, irrigation, and transaction costs dictated the optimal method.
Q10) Write a note on pastures, tanks/canals & rural commons in village life.
(Delhi/All India 2016 )
Answer:
- Commons (banjar/grazing grounds) provided fodder, fuelwood, leaf-manure; panchayats regulated access & fines.
- Waterworks: Step-wells, tanks, canals underpinned rabi crops; villages and zamindars managed desilting/embankments.
- Risk-sharing: Access to commons buffered dearth/famines; shared labour in repairs built social obligation.
- Linkages: Pastures and tanks tied pastoralists, farmers, and artisans into a single ecology of work.
Q11) Caste, gender & law: how did patriarchy operate in Mughal rural society?
(Delhi 2016; Delhi 2013–15 )
Answer:
- Norm enforcement: Jati panchayats/village elders regulated marriage, sexuality, inheritance, and ritual status.
- Women’s petitions: Archival cases from Rajasthan/Gujarat/Maharashtra show women approaching panchayats against excess dues/begar or marital violations—suggesting agency within constraints.
- Sanctions: Fines, penance, excommunication—social penalties had material consequences (access to water, fields, credit).
- State stance: Except in criminal justice, state deferred to local bodies—so customary law effectively governed daily life.
