Which of the following terms were NOT used for the jotedars?(A) Lathy…

Which of the following terms were NOT used for the jotedars?
(A) Lathyal
(B) Haoladars
(C) Gantidars
(D) Mandals
(E) Bargadars
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 4

The correct answer is Option (4) → A and E

(A) Lathyal — Correct. A lathyal was one who wielded the lathi, a strongman of the zamindar. So the term was not used for jotedars.

(B) Haoladars — Incorrect. Haoladars was a name used for the jotedars in some places of Bengal.

(C) Gantidars — Incorrect. Gantidars was another local name for the jotedars.

(D) Mandals — Incorrect. Mandals was also a name for the jotedars. In some places, rich peasants and village headmen were known as gantidars or mandals.

(E) Bargadars — Correct. Bargadars (also called adhiyars) were sharecroppers who worked the jotedars' land and gave them half the produce. So the term was not used for jotedars.

NCERT (2026-27): “1.4 The rise of the jotedars
While many zamindars were facing a crisis at the end of the eighteenth century, a group of rich peasants were consolidating their position in the villages. 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. A large part of their land was cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars) who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field, and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.”

“The jotedars were most powerful in North Bengal, although rich peasants and village headmen were emerging as commanding figures in the countryside in other parts of Bengal as well. In some places they were called haoladars, elsewhere they were known as gantidars or mandals. Their rise inevitably weakened zamindari authority.”

“Lathyal, literally one who wields the lathi or stick, functioned as a strongman of the zamindar.”