‘Jotedars’ in Bengal were:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Rich Peasants
Francis Buchanan’s survey of Dinajpur describes the jotedars as a class of rich peasants who held vast areas of land and controlled local trade and moneylending in the villages of Bengal.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.4 The rise of the jotedars … In Francis Buchanan’s survey of the Dinajpur district in North Bengal we have a vivid description of this class of rich peasants known as jotedars. By the early nineteenth century, jotedars had acquired vast areas of land – sometimes as much as several thousand acres. They controlled local trade as well as moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region.…” |