Which of the following term does NOT refer to the rich ryots?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Bargadars
Option (1) Jotedars — Rich ryots (Incorrect). The jotedars were the rich ryots and village headmen, a class of rich peasants who by the early nineteenth century had acquired vast areas of land.
Option (2) Mandals — Rich ryots (Incorrect). Mandals were the rich ryots and village headmen named together with the jotedars; in parts of Bengal the rich peasants were also known as gantidars or mandals.
Option (3) Haoladars — Rich ryots (Incorrect). In some places the rich peasants and village headmen emerging in the countryside were called haoladars.
Option (4) Bargadars — Sharecroppers, not rich ryots (Correct). The bargadars (or adhiyars) were the sharecroppers who cultivated a large part of the jotedars’ land, brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.3 Why zamindars defaulted on payments … Sometimes bad harvests and low prices made payment of dues difficult for the ryots. At other times ryots deliberately delayed payment. Rich ryots and village headmen – jotedars and mandals – were only too happy to see the zamindar in trouble.… 1.4 The rise of the jotedars … While many zamindars were facing a crisis at the end of the eighteenth century, a group of rich peasants were consolidating their position in the villages. In Francis Buchanan’s survey of the Dinajpur district in North Bengal we have a vivid description of this class of rich peasants known as 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. A large part of their land was cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars) who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field, and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.… 1.4 The rise of the jotedars … The jotedars were most powerful in North Bengal, although rich peasants and village headmen were emerging as commanding figures in the countryside in other parts of Bengal as well. In some places they were called haoladars, elsewhere they were known as gantidars or mandals. Their rise inevitably weakened zamindari authority.…” |