Read the passage and answer the question:
An excerpt from Bernier's description of the peasantry in the countryside:
Of the vast tracts of country constituting the empire of Hindustan, many are little more than sand, or barren mountains, badly cultivated and thinly populated. Even a considerable portion of the good land remains untilled for want of labourers; many of whom perish in consequence of the bad treatment they experience from Governors. The poor people, when they become incapable of discharging the demands of their rapacious lords, are not only often deprived of the means of subsistence, but are also made to lose their children, who are carried away as slaves. Thus, it happens that the peasantry, driven to despair by so excessive a tyranny, abandon the country.
According to Bernier, the crown ownership of land leads to:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The destruction and disastrous consequences for the society and economy.
Option (1) The destruction and disastrous consequences for the society and economy. — Correct. Bernier thought that the emperor owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles, and that this had disastrous consequences for the economy and society. It led to the uniform ruination of agriculture, excessive oppression of the peasantry and a continuous decline in the living standards of all except the ruling aristocracy.
Option (2) The advancement of the agricultural condition. — Incorrect. Bernier argued the opposite: crown ownership led to the ruination of agriculture, because landholders could not pass their land on to their children and so avoided long-term investment in production.
Option (3) Maintenance or improvement of land. — Incorrect. According to Bernier, the absence of private property had prevented the rise of “improving” landlords, who in Western Europe cared to maintain or improve the land.
Option (4) Improvement of the living standards of peasants. — Incorrect. He saw excessive oppression of the peasantry and a continuous decline in living standards, not any improvement.
NCERT (2026-27): “6.1 The question of landownership … He thought that in the Mughal Empire the emperor owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles, and that this had disastrous consequences for the economy and society. This perception was not unique to Bernier, but is found in most travellers’ accounts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Owing to crown ownership of land, argued Bernier, landholders could not pass on their land to their children. So they were averse to any long-term investment in the sustenance and expansion of production. The absence of private property in land had, therefore, prevented the emergence of the class of ‘improving’ landlords (as in Western Europe) with a concern to maintain or improve the land. It had led to the uniform ruination of agriculture, excessive oppression of the peasantry and a continuous decline in the living standards of all sections of society, except the ruling aristocracy.…” |