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Peasants, Zamindars And The State
Explain the role of village artisans in the 16th and 17th centuries.
A large number of sculptors lived in the villages in the 16th and 17th centuries. From the Marathi documents and the British surveys, it is clear that in many villages, the sculptors amounted to 25% of the total population of the village.
Sometimes it was difficult to distinguish between the sculptors and the farmers. It was so because there were many groups which performed both the functions. The farmers also did many other jobs like designing of cloth, pottery and repair and making of agricultural instruments. Besides potters, iron-smiths, weavers and barbers also rendered their service to the village. They got either a piece of land or a part of crop for the service rendered by them. In the 18th century, the zamindars, the iron-smiths, the weaters and the gold-smiths of Bengal used to get daily allowance for food in respect of their services. It was called the Jajmani System.
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To what extent do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society?
How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Examine the role played by zamindars in Mughal India.
Discuss the ways in which panchayats and village headmen regulated rural society.
On an outline map of the world, mark the areas which had economic links with the Mughal Empire, and trace out possible routes of communication.
Visit a neighbouring village. Find out how many people live there, which crops are grown, which animals are raised, which artisanal groups reside
there, whether women own land, how the local panchayat functions. Compare this information with what you have learnt about the sixteenth-
seventeenth centuries, noting similarities and differences. Explain both the changes and the continuities that you find.
How were the village artisans compensated by the villagers for their services? Write about any one.
How did the zamindars derive their power during the Mughal period? Mention any two ways.
What was Jati Panchayat? State any two of its functions.
Why had an artificial system of irrigation to be devised in India during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ? Mention one such system.
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