Read the passage and answer the question:

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  who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field, and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.

Which of the following terms was not used for the jotedars?

Lathyal

The correct answer is Option 1 - Lathyal

Lathyal, literally means- one who wields the lathi or stick. They functioned as a strongman of the zamindar.

The jotedars 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. Rich peasants in Bengal were referred to as Jotedars. They controlled local trade as well as moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region. Unlike zamindars who often lived in urban areas, jotedars were located in the villages and exercised direct control over a considerable section of poor villagers. They fiercely resisted efforts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties, mobilized ryots who were dependent on them, and deliberately delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar. In some places they were called haoladars, elsewhere they were known as gantidars or mandals.