Consider the following statements about the Bombay Deccan in the deca…

Consider the following statements about the Bombay Deccan in the decades after the first revenue settlement:

(A) Revenue could rarely be paid without a loan from a moneylender.
(B) By the 1820s, officials were finding alarming levels of peasant indebtedness everywhere.
(C) Peasants came to need loans even to buy their everyday needs and meet their production expenditure.
(D) One-third of the cattle of the Deccan were killed in the famine of 1832-34.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → A, C and D only

(A) Revenue could rarely be paid without a loan from a moneylender. — Correct. Revenue demand was very high, so the ryot usually had to borrow from a moneylender to pay it.

(B) By the 1820s, officials were finding alarming levels of peasant indebtedness everywhere. — Incorrect. The decade is changed. The first settlement came in the 1820s, but officials found alarming peasant indebtedness by the 1840s, after falling prices and famine.

(C) Peasants came to need loans even to buy their everyday needs and meet their production expenditure. — Correct. As loans stayed unpaid, dependence on moneylenders grew, and peasants borrowed even for everyday needs and production expenditure.

(D) One-third of the cattle of the Deccan were killed in the famine of 1832-34. — Correct. The famine of 1832-34 killed one-third of the cattle of the Deccan and half the human population, so survivors had no stocks left.

NCERT (2026-27): “3.3 Revenue demand and peasant debt …
By the 1830s the problem became more severe. Prices of agricultural products fell sharply after 1832 and did not recover for over a decade and a half. This meant a further decline in peasants’ income. At the same time the countryside was devastated by a famine that struck in the years 1832-34. One-third of the cattle of the Deccan were killed, and half the human population died. Those who survived had no agricultural stocks to see them through the crisis. Unpaid balances of revenue mounted.”

“Inevitably, they borrowed. Revenue could rarely be paid without a loan from a moneylender. But once a loan was taken, the ryot found it difficult to pay it back. As debt mounted, and loans remained unpaid, peasants’ dependence on moneylenders increased. They now needed loans even to buy their everyday needs and meet their production expenditure. By the 1840s, officials were finding evidence of alarming levels of peasant indebtedness everywhere.”