Consider the following statements:

Assertion: The frontiers of settled agriculture were aggressively extended in eastern India towards the beginning of the 18th century.

Reason: The Britishers encouraged the extension of settled agriculture in Eastern India to enlarge the sources of land revenue and to establish the basis of a settled, ordered society.

The Assertion is incorrect but the Reason is correct.

The correct answer is Option 3 - The Assertion is incorrect but the Reason is correct.

Assertion: The frontiers of settled agriculture were aggressively extended in eastern India towards the beginning of the 18th century. (Incorrect)

Reason: The Britishers encouraged the extension of settled agriculture in Eastern India to enlarge the sources of land revenue and to establish the basis of a settled, ordered society. (Correct)

Correction in Assertion: The frontiers of settled agriculture were aggressively extended in eastern India in the LAST DECADES of the 18th century.

With their base in the hills, the Paharias regularly raided the plains where settled agriculturists lived. These raids were necessary for survival, particularly in years of scarcity; they were a way of asserting power over settled communities; and they were a means of negotiating political relations with outsiders. The zamindars on the plains had to often purchase peace by paying a regular tribute to the hill chiefs. Traders similarly gave a small amount to the hill folk for permission to use the passes controlled by them. Once the toll was paid, the Paharia chiefs protected the traders, ensuring that their goods were not plundered by anyone. This negotiated peace was somewhat fragile. It broke down in the last decades of the eighteenth century when the frontiers of settled agriculture were being aggressively extended in eastern India. The British encouraged forest clearance, and zamindars and jotedars turned uncultivated lands into rice fields. To the British, extension of settled agriculture was necessary to enlarge the sources of land revenue, produce crops for export, and establish the basis of a settled, ordered society. They also associated forests with wildness, and saw forest people as savage, unruly, primitive, and difficult to govern. So they felt that forests had to be cleared, settled agriculture established, and forest people tamed, civilised and persuaded to give up hunting and take to plough agriculture.