Which one of the following is NOT true about 1875 Deccan Revolt?

1. The movement began in Supa village in Poona.
2. The Ryots burnt 'bahi-khatas' and debt bonds of the Sahukars.
3. The Ryotwari Settlement was responsible for the revolt.
4. The zamindars excess revenue extraction was responsible for peasants' impoverishment.

4

The correct answer is Option  4 - 4

1. The movement began in Supa village in Poona.
2. The Ryots burnt 'bahi-khatas' and debt bonds of the Sahukars.
3. The Ryotwari Settlement was responsible for the revolt.
4. The zamindars excess revenue extraction was responsible for peasants' impoverishment. (ANSWER)

The Deccan Riots Commission, for instance, was specifically asked to judge whether the level of government revenue demand was the cause of the revolt. And after presenting all the evidence, the commission reported that the government demand was not the cause of peasant anger. It was the moneylenders who were to blame. This argument is found very frequently in colonial records.

The revenue system that was introduced in the Bombay Deccan came to be known as the ryotwari settlement. Unlike the Bengal system, the revenue was directly settled with the ryot. The average income from different types of soil was estimated, the revenue-paying capacity of the ryot was assessed and a proportion of it fixed as the share of the state. The lands were resurveyed every 30 years and the revenue rates increased. Therefore the revenue demand was no longer permanent.

Deccan Revolt of 1875: The movement began at Supa, a large village in Poona (present-day Pune) district. It was a market centre where many shopkeepers and moneylenders lived. On 12 May1875, ryots from surrounding rural areas gathered and attacked the shopkeepers, demanding their bahi khatas (account books) and debt bonds. They burnt the khatas, looted grain shops, and in some cases set fire to the houses of sahukars. From Poona the revolt spread to Ahmednagar. Then over the next two months it spread even further, over an area of 6,500 square km. More than thirty villages were affected.

Impact of the American Civil War:

As the American Civil War ended by 1865, cotton production in America revived and Indian cotton exports to Britain steadily declined. Export merchants and sahukars in Maharashtra were no longer keen on extending long-term credit. They could see the demand for Indian cotton fall and cotton prices slide downwards. So they decided to close down their operations, restrict their advances to peasants, and demand repayment of outstanding debts. While credit dried up, the revenue demand increased. The first revenue settlement, as we have seen, was in the 1820s and 1830s.

The refusal of moneylenders to extend loans enraged the ryots. What infuriated them was not simply that they had got deeper and deeper into debt, or that they were utterly dependent on the moneylender for survival, but that moneylenders were being insensitive to their plight. The moneylenders were violating the customary norms of the countryside. Moneylending was certainly widespread before colonial rule and moneylenders were often powerful figures. A variety of customary norms regulated the relationship between the moneylender and the ryot. One general norm was that the interest charged could not be more than the principal. This was meant to limit the moneylender’s exactions and defined what could be counted as “fair interest”. Under colonial rule this norm broke down. In one of the many cases investigated by the Deccan Riots Commission, the moneylender had charged over Rs 2,000 as interest on a loan of Rs 100. In petition after petition, ryots complained of the injustice of such exactions and the violation of custom. The ryots came to see the moneylender as devious and deceitful. They complained of moneylenders manipulating laws and forging accounts.

(As per the NTA answer sheet the correct answer is option 4)