NCERT Solutions for Class 12 History Chapter 9: Colonialism and the Countryside

1. Why was the jotedar a powerful figure in many areas of rural Bengal?

Answer: Jotedars owned vast tracts of land and controlled local trade and moneylending. They exercised significant influence in villages, often mobilising peasants against zamindars, collecting rents, and resisting the authority of zamindars, thus emerging as powerful rural figures.

2. How did zamindars manage to retain control over their zamindaris?

Answer: Zamindars retained their zamindaris by manipulating auctions, using legal loopholes, transferring land to female family members (whose property could not be auctioned), and orchestrating fictitious sales. They also leveraged support from ryots and local lathiyals to resist outsiders.

3. How did the Paharias respond to the coming of outsiders?

Answer: The Paharias often retreated deeper into forests and hills upon the arrival of outsiders. They also occasionally raided plains, resisted new settlement, and tried to maintain their traditional ways in the face of colonial and agrarian expansion.

4. Why did the Santhals rebel against British rule?

Answer: The Santhals revolted due to oppression by zamindars and moneylenders, heavy taxation, land alienation, and exploitation under the British revenue system. They were forced to clear lands and lost control over resources, resulting in the Santhal Rebellion of 1855-56.

5. What explains the anger of the Deccan ryots against the moneylenders?

Answer: Excessive indebtedness, high interest rates, manipulation of legal bonds, and harsh recovery measures by moneylenders led to deep resentment among Deccan ryots, as many lost their land and faced exploitation and humiliation, igniting the Deccan Riots of 1875.

6. Why were many zamindaris auctioned after the Permanent Settlement?

Answer: The Permanent Settlement fixed land revenue permanently but at a high rate. Zamindars were required to pay the revenue punctually, failing which their estates could be auctioned. Many zamindars could not meet the rigid revenue demands due to agricultural uncertainties, frequent droughts, and falling prices. As a result, they accumulated arrears, and the British put up the estates for auction to realise revenue.

However, the process often became cyclical, with zamindars using fictitious sales or their agents to recover land at lower prices. This system benefited neither the zamindars nor the peasants and led to chronic instability in rural Bengal, as it was more focused on revenue extraction than sustainable agrarian development.

7. In what way was the livelihood of the Paharias different from that of the Santhals?

Answer: The Paharias were hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators inhabiting the Rajmahal hills. Their livelihood depended on forests, hunting, gathering, limited shifting agriculture, and collecting forest produce. In contrast, the Santhals practised settled agriculture, cleared land for cultivation on a large scale, and developed more permanent forms of farming.

While the Paharias were mobile and adapted to semi-nomadic life, the Santhals established villages, farmed systematically, and integrated more into the colonial agrarian economy, facing new forms of exploitation but gaining economic opportunities not available to the Paharias.

8. How did the American Civil War affect the lives of ryots in India?

Answer: The outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-65) disrupted cotton supply to Britain. As a result, British demand for Indian cotton soared, leading to booming cotton prices and a rush to cultivate more cotton. Indian ryots profited temporarily, but with the war’s end, American cotton returned to the market, prices crashed, and ryots faced enormous debts and financial ruin.

Many who had borrowed money hoping for continued high prices were unable to repay loans, leading to distress sales of land and increasing the grip of moneylenders over ryots.

9. What are the problems of using official sources in writing about the history of peasants?

Answer: Official sources, such as revenue records, commission reports, and administrative documents, often reflect colonial biases. They focus on taxation, law and order, and administration, overlooking the everyday lives and perspectives of peasants.

These records may be incomplete or inaccurate, and peasants’ voices are usually filtered through colonial officers’ interpretations. Thus, historians must read such sources critically, corroborate them with oral traditions, local accounts, and non-official documentation to construct a fuller, less biased picture of peasant history.

Map Work

10. On an outline map of the subcontinent, mark out the areas described in this chapter. Find out whether there were other areas where the Permanent Settlement and the ryotwari system were prevalent and plot these on the map as well.

Project (choose one)

11. Francis Buchanan published reports on several districts of eastern India. Read one report and collate the information available about rural society, focusing on the themes discussed in this chapter. Highlight the ways in which historians can use such texts.

12. In the region where you live, talk to the older people within a rural community and visit the fields they now cultivate. Find out what they produce, how they earn their livelihoods, what their parents did, what their sons and daughters do now, and how their lives have changed over the last 75 years. Write a report based on your findings. 

Key Concepts of Colonialism and the Countryside

Understanding the impact of Colonialism on the Indian countryside is essential for Class 12 History students. This chapter covers the changing lives of zamindars, jotedars, and ryots under the Permanent Settlement and other British revenue policies.

For better retention, focus on how economic and social structures shifted after colonial interventions. Reviewing important events like the Deccan Riots or Santhal rebellion can greatly clarify the chapter’s major historical developments.

Practice answering NCERT exercise-based questions regularly. This will improve your understanding of agrarian change and rural resistance, ensuring stronger performance in your 2025-26 History board exams.