A student is reading East India Company records from Bengal written around 1800. In one record, a peasant called Kalu holds about twenty bighas of land in a village of Burdwan. He tills a part of it himself with his family. The remaining fields he gives to two other villagers to till. They pay him a fixed sum of money each year for their use. Kalu in turn pays his own dues to the officer of the zamindar when he comes to the village.
In the British records of Bengal, the two villagers who till the fields they took from Kalu would be described as which group?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Under-ryots
Option (1) Mandals — Incorrect. Mandals were village headmen, men of standing in the village. These two villagers are ordinary tillers who hold a few fields on lease from Kalu.
Option (2) Jotedars — Incorrect. Jotedars were rich ryots who held large areas of land and also lent money and traded. They were powerful men of the village.
Option (3) Under-ryots — Correct. Kalu is a ryot, the British spelling of raiyat, a peasant. Ryots did not always till all their land; they leased part of it to under-ryots, who paid them rent, as these two villagers do.
Option (4) Adhiyars — Incorrect. Adhiyars (or bargadars) were sharecroppers on the lands of jotedars. They paid with half the harvest.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.3 Why zamindars defaulted on payments … |