Consider the following statements about rural change after Independence:
(A) Use of agricultural labour increased as cultivation became more intensive.
(B) Hereditary bonds between landowners and agricultural workers loosened.
(C) Jan Breman called the change in landlord-worker relations a shift from exploitation to patronage.
(D) This transformation of the rural economy in fact began in the Colonial period.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → A, B and D only
(A) Use of agricultural labour increased as cultivation became more intensive. — Correct. Intensive cultivation needed more hands, so the use of agricultural labour increased in the post-Independence period.
(B) Hereditary bonds between landowners and agricultural workers loosened. — Correct. Traditional or hereditary bonds between landowners and agricultural workers, known as bonded labour, loosened. Workers were paid in cash and became wage labourers.
(C) Jan Breman called the change in landlord-worker relations a shift from exploitation to patronage. — Incorrect. Jan Breman described the change as a shift from patronage to exploitation. The statement turns the order around, as if workers came to be protected.
(D) This transformation of the rural economy in fact began in the Colonial period. — Correct. The transformation of the rural economy began in the Colonial period, when cotton farmers in Maharashtra were linked to the world market. Its pace only grew after Independence.
NCERT (2026-27): “4.4 Transformations in Rural Society after Independence “an increase in the use of agricultural labour as cultivation became more intensive; a shift from payment in kind (grain) to payment in cash; a loosening of traditional bonds or hereditary relationships between farmers or landowners and agricultural workers (known as bonded labour) and the rise of a class of ‘free’ wage labourers. The change in the nature of the relationship between landlords (who usually belonged to the dominant castes) and agricultural workers (usually low caste), was described by the sociologist Jan Breman as a shift from ‘patronage to exploitation’ (Breman, 1974). Such changes took place in many areas where agriculture was becoming more commercialised, that is, where crops were being grown primarily for sale in the market. …” “… But we should remember that this process of transformation in the rural economy, in fact, began during the Colonial period. In many regions in the 19 century, large tracts of land in Maharashtra were given over to cotton cultivation, and cotton farmers became directly linked to the world market. …” |