Ramesh's family belongs to a caste that is today the major landowning group in its district. Family stories go back many generations. In earlier times, his ancestors tilled the same fields year after year, but the village was in the hands of the local raja, a high caste family that was also politically powerful. When the British took over the region, they did not send their own officials to deal with each cultivator; they dealt with the raja's household instead. Ramesh's grandfather remembers stories of years when families left the village and fields lay untilled.
Under British rule, what happened to landlords like the raja's household?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → They were given more control over land than they had before
Option (1) They were given more control over land than they had before — Correct. The raja's household is like the local kings or zamindars who controlled the land before colonial rule. The British ruled through such zamindars, granted them property rights and gave them more control over land than they had before.
Option (2) They lost their superior rights over the land to the cultivators — Incorrect. This reverses what happened. The zamindars gained rights under the British, and the cultivators stayed under them, handing over produce or money.
Option (3) They kept their land but lost their political power — Incorrect. Their political power did not fade. The British ruled through these local zamindars, so their hold over the village grew stronger.
Option (4) Their land passed to the dominant cultivating castes — Incorrect. Ramesh's caste owns the land today, but that change came later, after independence. Under British rule, control of land stayed with the zamindars and grew.
NCERT (2026-27): “The Colonial Period … |