In a district record room, a historian finds an old Company file from the 1790s. It reports a large public sale of several estates that belonged to a powerful landholder of western Bengal. He had fallen behind in his payments to the Company. The officer who arranged the sale later wrote a puzzled note about the buyers. The same bundle holds a list showing that many other estates in the province passed to new owners in these years. A loose sheet carries a newspaper sketch of village produce being taken to a market.
The list in the bundle shows a wider trend after the 1793 arrangement. What share of the zamindaris changed hands after the Permanent Settlement?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Over 75 per cent
Option (1) Over 25 per cent — Incorrect. Too low. The sales were far wider than a quarter of the zamindaris.
Option (2) Over 50 per cent — Incorrect. Still too low. The share that changed hands was much larger than half.
Option (3) Over 75 per cent — Correct. Over 75 per cent of the zamindaris changed hands after the Permanent Settlement, as zamindars failed to pay the fixed revenue.
Option (4) Over 95 per cent — Incorrect. Over 95 per cent is the share of the Burdwan auction that was fictitious. It describes one sale, the Burdwan auction.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.2 The problem of unpaid revenue “In introducing the Permanent Settlement, British officials hoped to resolve the problems they had been facing since the conquest of Bengal. By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis, with recurrent famines and declining agricultural output. …” |