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Structural Change
Discuss differences between colonial and capitalist time rule of the British in India with the pre-British and pre-capitalist time rule in about 200-300 words.
(i) Introduction: India’s past has been marked by the entry of numerous groups of people at different times who have established their rule over different parts of what constitutes modern India today.
(ii) Differences:
(a) The impact of colonial rule is distinguished from all other earlier rules because the changes it brought in were far-reaching and deep. History is full of examples of the annexation of foreign territory and the domination of weaker by stronger powers. Nevertheless, there is a vital difference between the empire building of pre-capitalist times and that of capitalist times.
(b) Apart from outright pillage, the precapitalist conquerors benefited from their domination by exacting a continuous flow of tribute. On the whole they did not interfere with the economic base. They simply took the tribute that was skimmed off the economic surplus that was produced traditionally in the subjugated areas. (Alavi and Shanin, 1982).
(c) In contrast British colonialism which was based on a capitalist system directly interfered to ensure greatest profit and benefit to British capitalism. Every policy was geared towards the strengthening and expansion of British capitalism. For instance, it changed the very laws of the land. It changed not just land ownership laws but decided even what crops ought to be grown and what ought not to be. It meddled with the manufacturing sector.
(d) It altered the way production and distribution of goods took place.
(e) It entered into the forests. It cleared trees and started tea-plantations. It brought into the Forest Acts that changed the lives of pastoralists. They were prevented from entering many forests that had earlier provided valuable forage for their cattle.
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Discuss briefly that tea plantation industry in India was governed by colonial interest.
Mention two major factors kept in minds for the benefit of the British tea planters by the colonial administrators.
Why is there importance of change in human-life?
What is the importance of the study of social change in our country?
“The idea of continuity is implied in social change”, explain the statement in brief.
Give a brief account of the impact of colonial forest policy in North-East India.
What is meant by structural change?
Why do we say that nation state have become the important political form after the first decade of the twentieth century. Briefly explain your answer.
Read the following passage and answer the both questions given at its end. (Passage).
Tea industry began in India in 1851. Most of the tea gardens were situated in Assam. In 1903, the industry employed 4,79,000 permanent and 93,000 temporary employees. Since Assam was sparsely populated and the tea plantations were often located on uninhabited hillsides, bulk of the sorely needed labour had to be imported from other provinces. But to bring thousands of people every year from their far-off homes into strange lands, possessing an unhealthy climate and infected with strange fevers, required the provision of financial and other incentives, which the tea-planters of Assam were unwilling to offer. Instead, they had recourse to fraud and coercion; and they persuaded the government to aid and abet them in this unholy task by passing penal laws. ...The recruitment of labourers for tea gardens of Assam was carried on for years mostly by contractors under the provisions of the Transport of Native Labourers Act (No. Ill) of 1863 of Bengal as amended in 1865, 1870 and 1873.
The labour system in Assam was essentially that of indenture by which the labourers went to Assam under contract for a number of years. The government helped the tea-planters by providing for penal sanction in case of non-fulfilment of the contract by the labourers.
This view is explicitly made by T. Raleigh, Law (Committee) Member, when speaking on the Assam Labour and Emigration Bill of 1901: “The labour-contract authorised by this Bill is a transaction by which, to put it rather bluntly, a man is often committed to Assam before he knows what he is doing, and is thereupon held to his promise for four years, with a threat of arrest and imprisonment if he fails to perform it. Conditions like these have no place in the ordinary law of master and servant. We made them part of the law of British India at the instance and for the benefit of the tea-planters of Assam... The fact remains that the motive power in this legislation is the interest of the planter, not the interest of the coolie”.
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