A historian reading Bernier's excerpt on the peasantry notes that eve…

A historian reading Bernier's excerpt on the peasantry notes that even a good part of the fertile land lay untilled. Which reason does Bernier give for this?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 1

The correct answer is Option (1) → A shortage of labourers, many of whom perished from bad treatment by Governors

Option (1) A shortage of labourers, many of whom perished from bad treatment by Governors — Correct. In the excerpt, good land lay untilled for want of labourers, because many of them died from the bad treatment they got from Governors.

Option (2) Landholders could not pass on their land to their children — Incorrect. In Bernier's wider argument, this explains why landholders avoided long-term investment in the sustenance and expansion of production.

Option (3) Land revenue demands were often very high — Incorrect. High revenue demands explain why European travellers took land revenue for rent, a separate point in the same section.

Option (4) The emperor distributed all the land among his nobles — Incorrect. This is Bernier's belief about crown ownership of land, the base of his whole case against the Mughal system.

NCERT (2026-27): “6.1 The question of landownership …
An excerpt from Bernier’s description of the peasantry in the countryside: Of the vast tracts of country constituting the empire of Hindustan, many are little more than sand, or barren mountains, badly cultivated, and thinly populated. Even a considerable portion of the good land remains untilled for want of labourers; many of whom perish in consequence of the bad treatment they experience from Governors. The poor people, when they become incapable of discharging the demands of their rapacious lords, are not only often deprived of the means of subsistence, but are also made to lose their children, who are carried away as slaves. Thus, it happens that the peasantry, driven to despair by so excessive a tyranny, abandon the country.”