‘Zamindars’ were not responsible for __________.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Gave out loans to other ryots
Under the Permanent Settlement the zamindar stood between the Company and the villages. He paid the revenue to the Company, distributed the revenue demand (jama) over his villages, and collected rent from the ryots of each village, keeping the difference as his income. So Options (1), (2) and (3) were all his duties.
Giving loans was not. In rural Bengal it was the jotedar, a rich ryot who was also a trader and moneylender, who gave out loans to other ryots and sold their produce. By the early nineteenth century the jotedars controlled local trade and moneylending in the villages, and their power was often greater than that of the zamindars.
NCERT (2025-26): “1.2 The problem of unpaid revenue … Zamindars had several (sometimes as many as 400) villages under them. In Company calculations the villages within one zamindari formed one revenue estate. The Company fixed the total demand over the entire estate whose revenue the zamindar contracted to pay. The zamindar collected rent from the different villages, paid the revenue to the Company, and retained the difference as his income. He was expected to pay the Company regularly, failing which his estate could be auctioned.… 1.4 The rise of the jotedars … By the early nineteenth century, jotedars had acquired vast areas of land – sometimes as much as several thousand acres. They controlled local trade as well as moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region.… Zamindars were responsible for: Each village ryot, big or small, paid rent to the zamindar. Jotedars gave out loans to other ryots and sold their produce. Ryots cultivated some land and gave out the rest to under-ryots on rent. Under-ryots paid rent to the ryots.”
Fig. 9.5 Power in rural Bengal |
