Meera lists the ways in which laws introduced by the state affected p…

Meera, a research student in Kolkata, is preparing a project on what the rule of the English East India Company meant for rural India. She plans to begin with powerful landholders in one eastern province. Next she will study two hill communities of eastern India, and then move to a farming region further west. She also wants to know how ordinary people reacted when new rules were imposed by the state, and what kinds of written material she can rely on. Her guide asks her to be careful with every document she reads.

Meera lists the ways in which laws introduced by the state affected people in the countryside. Which of the following is NOT among the consequences of such laws stated in the chapter?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 4

The correct answer is Option (4) → Which crops peasants must grow each season

Option (1) Who grows richer and who poorer — Incorrect. A stated consequence. Laws decide, to an extent, who grows richer and who poorer.

Option (2) Who acquires new land and who loses land — Incorrect. A stated consequence. Laws also decide who gains new land and who loses the land they lived on.

Option (3) Where peasants go when they need money — Incorrect. A stated consequence. Laws shape where peasants go for money, for example to moneylenders.

Option (4) Which crops peasants must grow each season — Correct. Not a stated consequence. The chapter speaks of wealth, land and credit; a law fixing which crops to grow each season is not among them.

NCERT (2026-27): “Colonialism and the THEME Countryside NINE Exploring Official Archiv …
Laws introduced by the state have consequences for people: they determine to an extent who grows richer and who poorer, who acquires new land and who loses the land they have lived on, where peasants go when they need money. As you will see, however, people were not only subject to the working of laws, they also resisted the law by acting according to what they believed to be just. In doing so people defined the way in which laws operated, thereby modifying their consequences.”