Peasants on the move

This was a feature of agrarian society which struck a keen observer like Babar, the first Mughal emperor, forcefully enough for him to write about it in the Babarnama, his memoirs: “In Hindustan hamlets and villages, towns indeed, are depopulated and set up in a moment! If the people of a large town, one inhabited for years even, flee from it, they do it in such a way that not a sign or trace of them remains in a day and a half. On the other hand, if they fix their eyes on a place to settle, they need not dig water courses because their crops are all rain-grown, and as the population of Hindustan is unlimited it swarms in. They make a tank or a well; they need not build houses or set up walls ... khas-grass abounds, wood is unlimited, huts are made, and straightaway there is a village or a town !”

Questions:

(i)    Give two aspects of agricultural life that Babar observed.

(ii)    Why did the settlers need not have to build houses?

(iii)    Explain the difference between the two types of peasants in the villages.

(iv)    Explain any two factors that led to constant expansion of agriculture.