Who were referred to as 'Khud-Kashta' and 'Pahi-Kashta':
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Peasants
Sources of the seventeenth century refer to two kinds of peasants: the khud-kashta, residents of the village in which they held their lands, and the pahi-kashta, non-resident cultivators who cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.2 Peasants and their lands … The term which Indo-Persian sources of the Mughal period most frequently used to denote a peasant was raiyat (plural, riaya) or muzarian. In addition, we also encounter the terms kisan or asami. Sources of the seventeenth century refer to two kinds of peasants – khud-kashta and pahi-kashta. The former …were residents of the village in which they held their lands. The latter were non-resident cultivators who belonged to some other village, but cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis. People became pahi-kashta either out of choice – for example, when terms of revenue in a distant village were more favourable – or out of compulsion – for example, forced by economic distress after a famine.…” |