Arrange the following in their order of hierarchy.
(A) Jotedar
(B) Zamindar
(C) Company
(D) Ryot
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (C), (B), (A), (D)
(C) Company — the East India Company stood at the top. Under the Permanent Settlement it fixed the total revenue demand over each zamindar’s estate, which the zamindar contracted to pay.
(B) Zamindar — the zamindar, who had several villages under him, collected rent from the different villages, paid the revenue to the Company and kept the difference as his income.
(A) Jotedar — the jotedars were rich peasants who held vast areas of land within the villages and delayed payments of revenue to the zamindar.
(D) Ryot — the ryots were the ordinary cultivators; many poorer ryots depended on the jotedars, who exercised immense power over them.
Note: The question is not properly framed. The book does not set out such a hierarchy. In the line of revenue payment the zamindar stood above the jotedar, but within the villages the power of the jotedars was more effective than that of the zamindars: they resisted the zamindars, delayed their revenue and often bought their auctioned estates. Since every option puts the Company first and the ryot last, Option (2), which follows the line of revenue payment, is the most appropriate answer, as per the NTA answer key.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.2 The problem of unpaid revenue … Zamindars had several (sometimes as many as 400) villages under them. In Company calculations the villages within one zamindari formed one revenue estate. The Company fixed the total demand over the entire estate whose revenue the zamindar contracted to pay. The zamindar collected rent from the different villages, paid the revenue to the Company, and retained the difference as his income.… 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.…” |