As per Francis Buchanan's survey of the Dinajpur district in North Bengal, which among the following statement does not match with the description of Jotedars:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Jotedars helped the zamindar with land revenue collection.
Buchanan’s survey of Dinajpur describes the jotedars as rich peasants who held vast lands, controlled trade and money-lending, and had their land cultivated by sharecroppers. Far from helping the zamindar, they fiercely resisted him.
Option (1) Jotedars had acquired vast areas of land – sometimes as much as several thousand acres. — Correct statement. By the early nineteenth century jotedars held vast areas of land, sometimes several thousand acres.
Option (2) Jotedars helped the zamindar with land revenue collection. — Incorrect statement. Jotedars resisted efforts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari officials from doing their duties, and deliberately delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar. When zamindari estates were auctioned, jotedars were often among the buyers.
Option (3) Jotedars controlled local trade as well as money-lending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region. — Correct statement. This is Buchanan’s description of their power over the poorer cultivators.
Option (4) A large part of Jotedar’s land was cultivated by sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars). — Correct statement. The sharecroppers brought their own ploughs, worked the fields and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.
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. Within the villages, the power of jotedars was more effective than that of zamindars. Unlike zamindars who often lived in urban areas, jotedars were located in the villages and exercised direct control over a considerable section of poor villagers. They fiercely resisted efforts by zamindars to increase the jama of the village, prevented zamindari officials from executing their duties, mobilised ryots who were dependent on them, and deliberately delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar.…” |