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. Cultivation was based on the principle of individual ownership. Peasant lands were bought and sold in the same way as the lands of other property owners. Monsoons remained the backbone of Indian agriculture, as they are even today. But there were crops which required additional water. Artificial systems of irrigation had to be devised for this.
The missing lines name two kinds of peasants in seventeenth-century sources. Who were the pahi-kashta?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Non-resident cultivators who tilled lands elsewhere on a contractual basis
Option (1) Cultivators who lived in the village in which they held their lands — Incorrect. These were the khud-kashta, the other kind. They were residents of the village where they held their lands.
Option (2) Non-resident cultivators who tilled lands elsewhere on a contractual basis — Correct. The pahi-kashta were non-resident cultivators. They belonged to another village but cultivated land elsewhere on a contractual basis, by choice or out of economic distress.
Option (3) Cultivators who held lands granted by the state in return for service — Incorrect. Land given for service is a different arrangement. The pahi-kashta tilled land under a contract.
Option (4) Labourers who worked the fields of rich peasants in return for wages — Incorrect. Wage labourers worked on another peasant's field. The pahi-kashta cultivated land themselves under a contract.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.2 Peasants and their lands |