CHAPTER XIII
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF NORTHERN INDIA
(1808–1815)
THE Court of Directors recognised the value of Dr. Francis Buchanan’s economic inquiries in Southern India, and desired that similar inquiries should be made by the same eminent authority in Northern India. Dr. Buchanan was accordingly directed in 1807 to make a statistical survey of some of the districts of Bengal and Northern India. The inquiry was carefully conducted for seven years, at a cost of £30,000.
The valuable materials thus collected were forwarded by the Indian Government to England, but were left unused for a long time. Dr. Buchanan came in for a large property in Scotland, took the name of Hamilton on acquiring the estate, and died in retirement before his labours saw the light.
It was then that Montgomery Martin, historian of the British Colonies and a thoughtful and careful writer on Indian subjects, asked and obtained permission to examine the manuscripts left by Dr. Buchanan. A judicious selection from the information collected with so much labour was published in London, in three volumes, in 1838, and these volumes contain the best and most reliable account that we possess of the economic condition of Northern India in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. In pursuance of the scope and object of the present work we proceed to give a summary of the statistical portions of these volumes in the present chapter.
Patna City and Behar District. (Area, 5358 square miles; population, 3,364,420.)
Rice was the most important crop throughout the district. Rice in husk sold on the average at the price of one rupee per 70 seers, or about 70 lbs. for the shilling. Wheat and barley were the next important crops, and were sometimes sown intermixed. Flour was taken as cakes (Roti), or parched and ground (Chhatu). Marua was raised entirely as a summer crop; maize and Janar were grown mostly on the banks of the Ganges.
Khesari, Bhut, pease, lentils, Arhar, Mung and succulent vegetables were also grown for food, and Til and other plants for oil. Potatoes had been introduced from Europe. Cotton was grown on 8000 acres of land, three-fourths of which yielded no other crop, and sugar-cane was raised on 7000 acres. Poppy was cultivated in garden lands near villages, and tobacco on 160 acres. The betel-leaf of Behar was considered superior to all others, and was exported to Calcutta, Benares, and Lucknow. The cultivation of indigo was on the decline, the landlords being averse to it, but Kusum or safflower was extensively grown.
The rents paid by cultivators to landlords were usually one-half the crop after deducting the expense of harvesting ; but, on the other hand, the landlords paid all the expense of making and repairing canals and reservoirs required for irrigating lands 1.
Large reservoirs, a mile and upwards in length, cost about 500 rupees (£50) in excavating, but the smaller ones, which were more numerous, cost from 25 to 100 rupees. Many canals were several miles in length, and often conveyed more water than remained in the channel of the river in the dry season. The greater portion of winter crops, vegetables, and sugar-cane was irrigated from wells. Of pasture, there were 27 square miles of inundated land, 384 miles of woods or scattered bushes, 640 miles of plantations, 205 miles of high lands, and 417 miles of broken corners, banks, and barren lands. Except in the cities of Patna and Gaya, the cultivators paid nothing for the ground occupied by their houses; “No person who rents a farm pays for his house.” Artificers, traders, and labourers paid a ground rent, either in money or in work.¹
It will thus appear that the cultivator’s rent was half the produce after deducting the cost of harvesting, and this rent included the ground rent for his dwelling, the cost of irrigation, and free pasture. Nor was this half-produce rent very strictly levied. “The division is so troublesome that, instead of their respective shares, both master and tenant, when the crop is ripe, usually agree the one to take and the other to give a certain quantity of grain, or its value in money.” “The arrears due by the tenantry to their landlords are quite trifling except in one estate, where the owner has been in the habit of giving much money in advance. . . . The custom of advances (Takavi) from the landlord to the tenant, to enable him to cultivate, is not very common, although it exists to some extent.” ² A general change, which was taking place at the time of Dr. Buchanan’s inquiries, was the substitution of money rents for rents paid in kind.
A plough servant’s annual wages ranged from 16 rupees to 22 rupees a year, or between three and four shillings the month. Day labourers employed with the hoe, or in transplanting rice, or in watering winter-crops, were paid three or four paisas (twopence) a day; and women employed to weed and transplant rice received the same allowance as men, and assisted in the harvest.
Spinning and weaving were the great national industry of India next after agriculture. All the spinners were women, and Dr. Buchanan estimates their number in this district at 330,426. “By far the greater part of these spin only a few hours in the afternoon, and upon the average estimate the whole value of the thread that each spins in a year is worth nearly 7 rupees, 2 anas, 8 pies, giving for the total annual value Rs.2,367,277, and by a similar calculation the raw material at the retail price will amount to Rs.1,286,272, leaving a profit of Rs.1,081,005 for the spinners, or Rs.3¼ (6s. 6d. the year) for each. . . . As the demand, therefore, for fine goods has for some years been constantly diminishing, the women have suffered very much.“¹
Cotton weavers were numerous. The total number of looms employed in the manufacture of Chadars or tablecloths was 750, and the value of the annual manufacture was Rs.540,000, leaving a profit of Rs.81,400, deducting the value of thread. This gave a profit of Rs.108 for each loom worked by three persons, or in other words an income of Rs.36 (72s.) a year for each person. But the greater part of the cotton weavers made coarse cloth for country use to the value of Rs.2,438,621 annually, which left a profit of Rs.667,242 after deduction of cost of thread. This gave a profit of Rs.28 (56s.) for each loom.
The system pursued by the East India Company is thus described: “Each man, on becoming bound (Asami) to the Company, received two rupees, and engaged not to work for any person until he had made as much as the Company required, and no other advance has ever been made by the Commercial Residents.
The agent orders each man to make a certain number of pieces of such or such goods, and he is paid for each on its delivery, according to the price stated in the tables.” 1
Weavers who made cloth wholly or in part of Tasar silk lived mostly at Phatuha, Gaya, and Nawada. The total annual value of the produce was Rs. 421,710, leaving a profit ranging from 33 rupees to 90 rupees a year for each loom, requiring the services of a man and a woman.
Paper manufacture, leather work, perfumery, iron-work, gold and silver work, stone-cutting, pottery, bricklaying and lime manufacture, dyeing, blanket-weaving and the manufacture of gold and silver thread and cloth, were among the other important industries. Much of the internal trade of the district was carried on by Baldiya-Beparis, or traders possessing pack-bullocks. One ox and 5 rupees of capital enabled a Bepari to start his trade, he sold goods to the value of Rs. 50 a month, making a profit of 6 to 12 per cent., and thus securing an income of 32 rupees (64s.) a year. Goods were conveyed from Patna to Calcutta by boats, and the freight was 12 to 15 rupees (24s. to 30s.) for carrying 100 maunds (8000 lbs.) of grain. Cartmen conveyed goods over shorter distances, and the hire for a bullock-cart for carrying 12 to 15 maunds (960 to 1200 lbs.) from Patna to Gaya (72 miles) was 3 rupees or 6s.
In going over this list of the principal trades and professions of India, a hundred years ago, one sees how greatly these sources of income have been narrowed within this period. Weaving and spinning are practically dead, as most of the thread and cloth used by the people are supplied by Lancashire. Paper manufacture has also declined; skins are now sent to Europe for all the better kinds of leather work, the dyes of the country have been replaced by aniline dyes. The Beparis and their pack-bullocks have become things of the past, and the profits of the carrying trade are now earned, not by boatmen, but by railways owned by foreign capitalists. Agriculture has become virtually the sole means of subsistence for the people with the loss of their many trades and industries.
SHAHABAD DISTRICT.
(Area, 4087 square miles; population, 1,419,520.)
Rice was the greatest crop, but through the neglect of some landlords to repair the reservoirs on their estates, the cultivation of that grain had somewhat diminished. One-half of the district was under rice cultivation. With extended irrigation, Shahabad could be as productive as Patna and Behar, but the quality of the Shahabad rice was not as fine.
The lowest allowance given to the day labourer for mere reaping was nearly 3¾ per cent. of the gross produce, while the highest allowance was 8¾ per cent. On an average, 195 lbs. of grain were reaped by one man daily, for which, if he was a day labourer, he was allowed rather more than 6 per cent., and if a farm-servant, rather less than 7½ per cent. The grain intended for seed was preserved in vessels made of clay; the most common granaries were composed of a kind of basket made, like the bee-hives usual in Scotland, of a straw-rope coiled spirally. These granaries contained 29,360 lbs. of rice. The large ones stood in the farm-yard, and were covered with a terrace of clay. The smaller ones were placed at the end of the hut.
“By far the greater part of the proprietors of assessed estates in this District complain that the assessment [by the Company’s Government] is too heavy, so as to leave them little or no profit, and in many cases to exceed the value of the lands, and as a proof quote that many estates having been put up to sale, no bidder has offered, and the arrears having been lost to Government, the lands have been let at a reduced price; and they also allege that the revenue is so high as leaving nothing to the owners, these have been unable to defray the expense of keeping the reservoirs in repair, and, of course, that the country is growing daily less able to pay the revenue.”1 Exclusive of the high tableland, the Government land revenue amounted to Rs. 1,132,677 in Shahabad on an extent of 3151 square miles capable of being ploughed; while in Patna and Behar the land revenue was Rs. 1,412,269 on an extent of 5051 square miles capable of being ploughed.
Spinning and weaving were the great national industries of Shahabad. 159,500 women were employed in spinning, and produced thread to the value of Rs. 1,250,000 a year. Deducting the value of the cotton, each woman made only Rs. 1½ or 3s. a year. This was little enough, but this little was added to the income of the families to which the women belonged.
Weavers worked in cotton only, as there were few silk weavers in Shahabad. 7025 houses of weavers working in cotton in the District had 7950 looms. Each loom made an annual income of Rs. 20¾ or 41s. 6d. a year, and each loom required the labour of a man and his wife, as well as one boy or girl. But as a family could not be supported for less than Rs. 48 or £4, 16s. a year, Dr. Buchanan suspected that the income of each loom, given above, was understated.
Paper, perfumery, oils, salt, and spirituous liquors were manufactured in Shahabad. Rice was the great article both of import and export, barley was exported to Benares, and Arhar pulse to Murshedabad. Tobacco was imported from Chupra, sugar from Mirzapur, iron from Ramgarh, and zinc, copper, lead, and tin from Patna. Raw silk, cloth, salt, and fancy articles were exported to the Mahratta country of Ratanpur.
The weekly markets were fewer than in Behar, but most of the purchases and sales were made there. Bank notes had not entered into common currency, and “gold has almost totally disappeared, for the same reasons no doubt as in Behar.” The milled copper coinage of the Company was current only in the city of Arra; in the interior rude masses of Gorukpur copper coins and Madhusahi and Sherguji Paisas were in use, and Cowri shells were current in exchange for copper coins.
Boats were fewer than in Behar; the fare for 100 maunds of goods (8000 lbs.) from Bindhuliya to Benares, a distance of 140 miles, was Rs. 12 or 24s. Two great roads traversed the District, one the military road from Calcutta to Benares kept up by the public, and the other along the old bank of the Ganges kept up by a tax of 1 per cent. on the whole assessed land of the District. Both were impracticable in the rainy season.
The Raja of Bhojpur, Hardar Sing a Kayest, Abdul Nasur a Mahomedan landlord, Bibi Asmat a Mahomedan lady, Lala Rajrap and Lala Kananga, both Kayests, distinguished themselves among others by feeding all strangers and mendicants who came for help. This ancient rite of hospitality to the poor was known to the Hindoos as Sada-brata or ceaseless devotion to God.
BHAGALPUR DISTRICT.
(Area, 8225 square miles ; population, 2,019,900.)
Rice was the greatest crop, and 60 seers of the rough rice gave 37 1/2 seers of clean husked rice. Wheat was the next large crop, and barley was sown a great deal mixed with the field pea. Maize was grown on the higher lands, and the next culmiferous crop Marua. Kheri, Kodo, Cheena, Janera and Bajra were also cultivated.
Kalai, Arhar, and Khesari were important leguminous plants. Til and numerous other plants yielding oil were extensively grown, and ginger, vegetables, greens, and spices were raised for consumption in the District.
Cotton was cultivated on 4000 acres, besides a considerable quantity raised by hill tribes on their native hills. Sugarcane was chiefly grown near the banks of rivers where the fields could be irrigated by means of canals. The tobacco raised was not sufficient for the requirements of the District. One-half of the gross produce covered the cost of cultivation, and the rent paid to the landlords did not quite amount to one-half of the remainder.¹ Owing however to the system of advances being little known the people were not much involved in debt. The money rent was collected by instalments, rent in kind was taken when the crops were reaped. “Various deductions, before division, are made from the crop, specially the whole expense of harvest, and after these deductions the landlord in some places receives one-half, in others 22/40; but then the landlord, as I have said, is at all the expense of the canals, and generally at all that of the reservoir for irrigation, and the harvest, one of the heaviest deductions, is in favour of the tenant.“¹
Ploughmen in the northern tracts, who engaged themselves by the season, received an advance of Rs. 5 to Rs. 20, and laboured for their masters till this was worked off. In the southern tracts a curious division of the crops was made. The owner of the field first took double the quantity of the seed, and then two-thirds of the remainder; the labourer got the remaining third.
The hill tribes were less careful in cultivation, less industrious, and more addicted to drink, than the Hindu cultivators. Among these hill tribes the northern were more industrious and sober than the southern, though even among the former both men and women often get very drunk. The method of raising crops among the hill tribes was peculiar. Small holes, two or three fingers deep, were made in the interstices between the stones on the steepest declivities of hills, and in each hole were dropped ten or twelve seeds taken by chance from a promiscuous mixture, and the crops were reaped as they came month after month. Cotton was grown by the northern tribes, not by the southern.
All castes were permitted to spin. 160,000 women were supposed to spin, and each woman made an annual income of Rs. 4½ or 9s., after deducting the cost of the cotton. This was added to the family income.
Few weavers worked in silk alone. A great many near the town of Bhagalpur made Tasar fabrics of silk and cotton intermixed; 3275 looms were so employed. The Company’s Commercial Resident advanced Rs. 10,000 annually for the fabrics known as Baftas and Namunas. The annual profit of each weaver employed in the mixed silk and cotton industry was supposed to be Rs. 46, or 92s.—beside what his women made.
For the weaving of cotton cloths there were 7279 looms; each loom made an income of Rs. 20, or 40s., in the year. By another calculation the profits of a man and wife engaged in this industry appeared to be Rs. 32, or 64s., in the year. Cotton carpets, tapes, tent-ropes, chintz, and blankets were also made in this District.
Among the other important industries of the District may be mentioned bracelets of coarse glass, leather tanning, iron-work, and carpentry, pottery, stone-cutting, gold and silver works, and pewter works. Indigo was produced by European planters, and the nitre produced was bought by the Company.
The people were less addicted to markets than in Bengal, and dealt more with shopkeepers and traders. Gold had almost entirely disappeared; the Calcutta Kuldar Rupees were by far the most common currency, and copper coins of different kinds were much used. “In the south-west part of the District coin is seldom seen, and most commercial transactions are carried on by exchange of commodities.” 1
There was not much river traffic in this district. The freight of 100 maunds (8000 lbs.) from Monghyr to Calcutta (300 miles) was 10 to 14 rupees, or 20 to 28 shillings. The greater part of the internal trade of the country was carried on by bullock-carts or pack-bullocks. There was only one important road through the District, that passing from Calcutta to Patna and Benares, but during the rains it became impassable even for loaded bullocks. The Baldiya-Beparis, or traders with pack-bullocks, were numerous. Travelers generally journeyed on foot, and found shelter at night in the shops of Mudis, or sweet-sellers, for one or two pice (a penny) the night, including cooking; while the articles required for food were separately paid for. Mahomedan travellers paid double for room and cooking, because they required special cooking by Bhatiyaras.
DISTRICT GORAKHPUR.
(Area, 7423 square miles; population, 1,385,495.)
Although in some parts little rice was grown, yet on the whole rice was a most considerable crop, and was reared where no artificial irrigation was required. Wheat was a most important crop, and in many divisions of the District exceeded the quantity of rice. Wheat and barley intermixed were in pretty common use. Some wheat was sown intermixed with oil seeds, and some barley was sown intermixed with pease.
Among leguminous crops, Arhar, Chana, Mas, Masur, Bhringi, and peas were common. Various farinaceous herbs were grown, and Tisi, Til, and Rai were cultivated for oils. Cotton was cultivated to a small extent; the date palm and Mahua were grown for their saccharine juice, and sugar cane was cultivated on 1600 acres. Tobacco and the betel leaf was largely grown; poppy cultivation had been prohibited by the Company’s Government.
Fields were watered from rivers, canals, tanks, and marshes by means of baskets swung by ropes, and ten men could irrigate three to five thousand square feet daily. Some fields were watered from wells by means of leathern bags raised by cattle. The greater part of the rent was paid in money, although in some places it was paid by a division of the crop. Where the latter system prevailed, the landlord received one-fourth of the crop after deducting ploughing, sowing, reaping, and other charges.¹
Gorakhpur was one of those Districts which had formerly flourished under Suja-ud-Dowla, Nawab of Oudh, which had suffered from exactions, rebellion, and depopulation, when the rents were assigned to Colonel Hanny under Asof-ud-Dowla, and which had been ceded to the Company in 1801 under the arrangement made by the Marquis of Wellesley. We have narrated these facts in preceding chapters, and have also shown that Lord Wellesley gave his pledge in 1803 and 1805 to conclude a Permanent Settlement in the Ceded and Conquered Provinces-a pledge which was never redeemed. It is interesting to read Dr. Buchanan’s account of Gorakhpur, one of the Ceded Districts, and visited by him some ten years afrer the cession was made.
“It is indeed said, that during the government of Suja-ud-Dowla, the District was in a much better state than at present, and that the rents having been farmed to Colonel Hanny, that gentleman took such violent measures in the collection as to depopulate the country, and I certainly perceive many traces of cultivation where now there are wastes and woods….
“When the country was ceded to the English, Major Rudledge, appointed to the management, acted with great vigour and prudence. He instantly, while the known power of our discipline gave him authority, dismantled every stronghold, and thus established the uncontrollable authority of the law, which gave a protection to the lower orders before unknown, and brought settlers from all quarters. His claims at first were very moderate, and the principal error committed was in making the settlement for too short a period.
“On the whole I must say that the proprietors in this District appear to me to have been very hardly treated. Wherever the country is fully occupied, such as is the case on the right of the Ghagra, I would recommend a Perpetual Settlement on the footing of Bengal, Behar, and Benares.“¹
Here we have the old story told once again. Wherever the Company’s dominions extended, disturbances were succeeded by peace, and the reign of law replaced disorder. But the land was subjected to a heavy and increasing assessment, and the hand of the tax-gatherer was felt heavier in Northern India for many decades than the occasional outrages of invaders and freebooters in previous times.
One hundred and seventy-five thousand six hundred women found employment in spinning cotton, and made an annual income of Rs. 2½, or 5s. There were 5434 families of weavers, possessing 6114 looms, and each loom brought an annual income of Rs. 23½, or 47s. Dr. Buchanan thought this was too low an estimate, and believed that each loom brought an income of Rs. 36, or 72s., in the year. Chintz was made in Nawabganj, and blankets were woven for local consumption.
Carpenters worked in iron, or made doors, windows, carts, agricultural implements, palanquins, boxes, and sometimes boats. Between 200 and 400 boats were made every year. Braziers made vessels of bell-metal. Six men could turn out in three months articles to the value of Rs. 240, which left them a profit of Rs. 56. This meant a monthly earning of over Rs. 3, or 6s. for each man. Many brass ornaments were also made. Sugar and salt were manufactured in the district.
Grain was largely imported from the kingdom still left to the Nawab of Oudh, and also from the level country possessed by Nepal. Sugar and tobacco were imported from Saran District and elsewhere; elephants and copper vessels came from Nepal, and brass and bell-metal articles from Patna. The carrying trade was done either by settled traders, or by traders with pack-bullocks, or by farmers owning bullock-carts. Kapariya merchants imported cloth, Banjara merchants brought salt and Nuniha merchants retailed it, Baniyas retailed grains, cotton merchants imported cottons, and Mahajans lent money to cultivators to pay their rents, and to landlords to pay their Land Tax to the Government.
There were weekly markets as at Shahabad, Lucknow, and Benares. Rupees were in common use, and the Calcutta Rupee was seldom seen. The local coinage of copper had been stopped, Nepal copper coins were in common use, and Cowri shells were also used as money.
A religious mendicant of Gorakhpur had built some very fine bridges for the good of his fellow-townsmen. There were four Sada-bratas, or houses of charity, at Gorakhpur, two at Bhewapur, one at Lalganj, and one at Magahar.
DINAJPUR DISTRICT.
(Area, 5374 square miles ; population, 3,000,000.)
Rice was the most important crop of the District, and some lands produced two crops of rice, one reaped at the close of the summer and the other in winter. A third kind of rice called Boro was cultivated in small quantities and reaped in spring.
The higher lands which grew the summer rice received some manure, and grew winter crops such as mustard. The lower lands which grew the winter rice required no manuring, and produced only one crop. Women husked the rice by a wooden lever six feet long called Dhenki, and 40 seers of unhusked rice yielded a little over 28 seers of husked rice.
Wheat and barley were small crops in Dinajpur, and Marua was grown in poor lands. Among leguminous plants, Kalai, Khesari, and Masur were the most common, and field-pea was the most common pulse. Mustard, Rai, and linseed were grown for oils.
Nearly 37,000 acres were occupied by plantations—Mango, jackfruit, tamarind, &c., and 83,000 acres were for vegetables for the kitchen. Jute was grown on 13,000 acres, cotton on 8000 acres, flax on 5000 acres, and sugarcane on 8000 acres. Tobacco occupied 500 acres, and the betelleaf 200 acres.
Indigo and safflower were grown for dyes, and the former was grown on 5000 acres. The practice which Dr. Buchanan found prevailing is the same which prevails to this day in some parts of Bengal. Each cultivator was required by the European planter to grow indigo in a portion of his holding.
Thirteen hundred acres of fine lands, all within a mile of the Mahananda river, and amidst noble groves of Mango, Banyan, and Pepul, grew mulberry plants for the silkworm. The Company’s Commercial Resident made advances for a great part of the cocoons.
Irrigation of fields was in common use, though not so common as it ought to have been. The number of artificial lakes in the District was numerous, and most of them had springs, so that the supply of water was generally sufficient. Whenever rains failed, recourse was had to these lakes.
There were 480,000 ploughs in the District, which meant 960,000 plough bullocks and cows, besides 336,000 breeding cows. The pasture land consisted of 261 square miles of inundated lands which were overgrown with coarse grass in the dry season, 221 miles of woods and forests, about 300 miles of barren lands, and about 650 miles of lands occasionally cultivated, four-fifths of which was always untilled. No rent was demanded for the pasture of cattle, nor were they prevented from going on any field which was not producing some crop.¹
Holdings of 55 acres were considered very large ones, those of 15 to 20 acres were comfortable and easy, while the poorer cultivators who, with their families, formed the bulk of the population, had holdings of 5 to 10 acres. The cost of cultivation was not more than one-half the produce, and the rent did not exceed one-fourth the produce, and was always paid in money.² In most parts of the District leases were granted in perpetuity to the cultivators, and in some places they “pretend to a right of perpetual possession at the usual rate of rent, if they have occupied a farm for ten years.”
Cotton spinning, which was the principal manufacture, occupied the leisure hours “of all the women of higher rank, and of the greater part of the farmers’ wives.” Rs. 3, or 6s., the year was the usual income each woman made by spinning in her afternoons. The total value of raw cotton bought by spinners in the District was Rs. 250,000, the value of the yarn made was Rs. 1,165,000, and the profit of the women was therefore Rs. 915,000, or nearly £100,000.
The Maldai cloths, so called from their being manufactured at Malda, consisted of silk warp and cotton woof. Four thousand looms were employed on this work, and it was said that each loom made 20 rupees’ worth of cloth in a month, which Dr. Buchanan considered too high an estimate. About 800 looms were employed for the larger pieces in the form of Elachis, and received advances from the Company’s agents.
The manufacture of cloth made entirely of silk was confined to the vicinity of Malda and to some 500 houses of weavers, and the total manufacture was valued at Rs. 120,000, or £12,000.
The manufacture of pure cotton cloths was of more importance. The whole cotton cloth woven in the District was valued at Rs. 1,674,000, or £167,400.
The lower caste Hindus—the Koch, the Poleya, and the Rajbansi—wove Pat or jute into fabrics for their own wear. Most families had looms, and most women worked in the afternoons.
The flowering cotton cloth with the needle gave a good deal of occupation to the Mahomedan women of Malda. The flowers were either Kosida having running patterns, or Chikon having detached flowers or spots. Some Mahomedan women also made silk strings for tying trousers or necklaces or bracelets.
Connected with the weaving industry was the important trade of dyeing. Indigo, lac, safflower, and turmeric, Moski, Horitoki, Moujista, and various flowers were the ingredients for dyeing. Building, pottery, mats, bracelets, leather-works, carpentry, bricklaying, copper, tin, and iron-works, sugar manufacture, and indigo manufacture, were among the other important industries. The last industry had already given rise to complaints against the European planters, and the reasons assigned for their unpopularity are classed by Dr. Buchanan under eight heads. Firstly, the planter considered the growers “as his slaves, beats and confines them whenever he is dissatisfied”; secondly, that the growers were “cheated both in the measure of their land and in the measure of the weed”; thirdly, that the whole produce of the field did not exceed the rent; fourthly, that the planters were “insolent and violent”; fifthly, that they interfered with the collection of rents; sixthly, that they belonged to the “governing caste”; seventhly, that they prevented the landlords’ exactions; and eighthly, that they deterred cultivators from the work of cultivation.
Dr. Buchanan thought the complaints, though often exaggerated, were not unfounded, and held that “infinite advantage would arise from altogether refusing new licenses, and restricting Europeans, who are not responsible to the Company for their conduct, to a residence in the principal towns and seaports.“¹ The action which the Company’s Government took to prevent the growing evil will be narrated in the next chapter.
A great portion of the trade of the District had passed from the hands of native traders to that of the Company. There were no longer any Saudagars or great native merchants in the District. “One family, indeed, has acquired immense wealth in that line, and for nine generations the forefathers of Baidyanath Mandal carried on an extensive commerce with great reputation and propriety. The present head of the family has given up trade, has made large purchases of land, and is just as much despised as his forefathers were respected.“²
Smaller merchants, called Mahajans, with capitals from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 25,000, residing in the District, exported rice, sugar, molasses, oil, and tobacco; and imported salt, cotton, metals, and spices. The whole number of fixed shops in the District did not amount to 2000, but open markets were numerous. Petty traders were called Paikars. Gold had become scarce, the Kuldar Rupee of Calcutta was the usual currency, and Cowri shells were largely used
In the rainy season boats reached most villages, but there was little carrying trade then. In the dry months goods were conveyed by pack-bullocks, there being “few or no roads” for the conveyance of goods. Boats conveyed a hundred maunds (8000 lbs.) to Calcutta for Rs. 13, or 26s. Bullock-carts conveyed goods twelve miles for less than half a rupee.
PURNIYA DISTRICT.
(Area, 6340 square miles; population, 2,904,380.)
The spring rice, the summer rice, and the winter rice were the principal crops of the District. Seventy seers of rice in husk produced 40 seers of clean rice when husked without boiling. When the operation was performed by boiling, 65 seers of unhusked rice gave 40 seers of clean. The Dhenki, or wooden lever, was everywhere used by women in this operation.
Wheat was more used than at Dinajpur, and barley was sown on the banks of rivers without previous cultivation and much used by the poor. Marua was also greatly used, specially on the west side of the Kosi. Maize, Janera, and different kinds of millets were also raised.
Among leguminous plants, Mas-kalai, Khesari, Arhar, Bhut, Kulti, and Mung were largely used. Mustard and Rai, Tisi and castor plant were grown for oils. Twenty-eight thousand acres were cultivated for vegetables.
Pat or jute was grown for its fibre; the cultivation of cotton was very limited. The cultivation of the sugar-cane was chiefly confined to the banks of the Kan Kayi river. Half the tobacco grown in the District was cultivated near the capital town, and the betel-leaf was an important article, although much less in use than in Dinajpur.
There were seventeen indigo factories under the management of Mr. Ellerton in the south-east part of the District, while there were some fifty other factories in other parts of the District. Safflower or Kusum was an article of somewhat greater importance than in the more eastern Districts. The cultivation of mulberry for silkworms was entirely confined to the south-east corner of the District.
The pasture of the District consisted of 234 square miles of high fallow land, 482 miles of land not cultivated, and 186 miles of broken corners and roads. Besides this, there were some 389 miles of low lands covered with reeds and bushes. Finally in December and January, after the winter rice was reaped, the rice stubble was a great resource. Altogether the pasture lands would be inadequate for the cattle of the District but for the wilds of the Morang, belonging to the Nepal Government, where the owner of a herd of five or six hundred gave one male calf to the Gurkha officer as the pasture fee. “In some parts also of this District the Zemindars, although in other respects rigid Hindus, have had sense to take a rent for pasture.”
The rents varied according to various circumstances, but “allowing one-half [of the produce] for the fair expense of cultivation, and one-half of the remainder for the net profit of the tenant, we may judge somewhat of the extent of the fair demands which the Zemindar might make, and which probably very far exceeds what they receive.“¹
In other words, Dr. Buchanan considered one-fourth of the produce would be fair rent; but the Zemindars of Purniya and elsewhere in Bengal were taking much less as rent, at the very time when the Company’s Government was realising nearly half the produce from the cultivators of Madras as land tax.
No caste was considered disgraced by spinning, and a very large proportion of the women of the District did some spinning in their leisure hours. Dr. Buchanan found it very difficult to estimate their profits, but conjectured that the cotton used by them annually was worth Rs. 300,000, and the thread spun valued at Rs. 1,300,000, leaving a profit of Rs. 1,000,000, or £100,000.
Pure silk fabrics were woven by 200 looms, and the goods were worth Rs. 48,600, out of raw silk worth Rs. 34,200, leaving a profit of Rs. 14,400. This would bring an annual income of Rs. 72, or 144s. for each loom.
Weavers who made clothes of silk and cotton intermixed were nearly on the same footing as at Dinajpur.
Weavers of cotton were numerous, and were mostly employed in producing coarse goods for country use. Three thousand five hundred looms employed in finer work produced Rs. 506,000 worth of goods, and brought a net profit of Rs. 149,000, or about 86s. annually for each loom. Ten thousand looms employed on coarse goods produced cloths to the value of Rs. 1,089,500, and brought a net profit of Rs. 324,000, or about 65s. annually for each loom.
Weavers of cotton carpets (Satranjis) and tapes were confined to the capital. Coarse linen made of jute was largely produced, and a large proportion of the women in the eastern frontier used this for clothing. The blankets and woollen goods were coarse, but were of much use to the poor in the rains and winter.
Goldsmiths, carpenters, workers in the Bidri and other metals, blacksmiths, and dyers, were among the other industrious classes of Purniya. The manufacture of sugar was at a low ebb. Five hundred families made salt.
Cotton was imported from the west of India, and sugar from Dinajpur and Patna. There were seven houses of bankers at Purniya, and they granted bills of exchange for money paid to them, and also discounted bills of other houses. “If large exchanges of gold and silver are required, they can only be procured from these Kothi-walas (houses). Jagat Set’s house will draw at once for Rs. 100,000. The others will not exceed half that sum.” The old unmilled rupees were as commonly in use as the milled (Kuldar) rupees of Calcutta. “In a country so exceedingly poor, a gold coinage is highly distressing to the lower classes, and in my humble opinion ought to be entirely discontinued. Even a rupee in this country is a large sum…. The gold has fortunately almost vanished, and perhaps should never be allowed to return, by being no longer held a legal proffer of payment. In most parts of the District the currency consists entirely of silver and Cowries. Towards the western parts a few of the copper coins called Paysa, worth about 1/60 of a rupee, are current, but even these are too large for the small money of a country where two of them are equal to the comfortable daily board wages of a manservant.“¹
The District was well provided with the means of using water carriage, and there were more boats than in Dinajpur. The hire for carrying 100 maunds (8000 lbs.) from the District to Calcutta was Rs. 14, or 28s. A few roads had been made near the capital, and some indigo factories. Ponies were used for carrying loads, as well as oxen. Rich men provided accommodation and shelter to travellers, and the shops of Mudis or sweet-sellers were inns where they could find lodging and food.
SUMMARY.
The accounts given of the two remaining Districts, Rangpur and Assam, in Dr. Buchanan’s volumes are incomplete, and do not contain details about agriculture and rents, industries and trade. It is unnecessary, therefore, to refer to those Districts in the present chapter.
The six Districts of which an account has been given above contained a much larger area than what is included in the Districts now known under those names. They formed an area of 36,000 square miles, and had a population of fourteen millions; and the account of these vast and populous Districts gives us a fair idea of the East India Company’s entire possessions in Bengal and Northern India. The people were still miserably poor, but cultivation had revived since the time of Warren Hastings, and much waste land had been reclaimed since the Permanent Settlement of 1793.
The Zemindars, though willing enough to obtain as large a rental as they could, never exacted as much as the Company’s servants did in Madras, and by this reason they afforded some protection to the people. In exceptional cases they claimed one-half the net produce, after deducting the cost of harvesting, but in return they considered themselves bound to maintain the irrigation works at their own cost. But generally in Bengal they received less than one-fourth the produce as their rents. And as the Government revenue had been permanently fixed, and the rents too were in many places fixed by custom, there was some motive for improvements and the reclaiming of waste lands as the years went by.
What threatened, however, the sources of the income of the people was the declining state of their industries and manufactures. The hardship was already felt in many places visited by Dr. Buchanan, and grew more severe later on. To an account of the industries of the people we now turn.
Footnotes
¹ History of Eastern India, by Montgomery Martin (London, 1838), vol. i. p. 350.
¹ History of Eastern India, by Montgomery Martin (London, 1838), vol. ii, p. 220.
¹ History of Eastern India, by Montgomery Martin (London, 1898), vol. ii. p. 537.
¹ History of Eastern India, by Montgomery Martin (London, 1838), vol. ii. p. 996.
² Ibid., vol. ii. p. 1001.
¹ History of Eastern India, by Montgomery Martin (London, 1838), vol. iii. p. 290.