India And The Contemporary World I Chapter 6 Peasants And Farmers

(i)A rich Farmer : In England, open fields and common lands had started changing from about the sixteenth century. The rich farmers wanted to expand wool production to earn profits. They were eager to improve their sheer breeds and ensure good food for them. So, they began dividing and enclosing common land and building hedges around their holdings to separate their property from that of others. They drove out villagers who had small cottages on the commons and they prevented the poor from entering the enclosed fields.

(ii)A Labour : As the fences came up, the enclosed land became the exclusive property of one landowner. Now poor could no longer collect their firewood from the forests, or graze their cattle on the common lands. They could not collect apples and berries, or hunt small animals for meat. Even they could not gather the stalks that lay on the fields after the crops were cut. Everything belonged to the landlords, everything had a price which the poor could not afford to pay.

As a result the poor were displaced from the land. They found their customary rights gradually disappearing. Deprived of their rights and driven off the land, they tramped in search of work. From the Midlands, they moved to the southern countries of England. This was a region that was most intensively cultivated and there was a great demand for agricultural labourers. But nowhere could the poor find secure jobs.

(iii)A Peasant Woman: The worst sufferer of the change in the land pattern were peasant women. In fact, the open field system was replaced by as Enclosure system. As a result, local people had to shed all their rights and privileges over common land. Now they could not collect forest produces as fuel woods, fruits and berries. Not only that it was difficult for them to pet herds. Because common land, grazing land and forest land were taken under the fence and it was protected to improve breeding and for commercial crops. Therefore, peasant woman had to face a lot of difficulties in making her life sustainable to the new circumstances.

The Enclosure system appeared in agricultural field in England in 16th century. The Enclosure movement was necessitated by the Industrial Revolution in Britain which obviated the need for the larger section of society to cultivate land as people shifted to towns.

(iii) During this period, Britain was industrialising very fast. There was a great exodus of people from rural areas to towns in search of jobs. As the urban population grew, the market of foodgrains expanded and the prices of foodgrains rocketed. Therefore, the peasants were encouraged to produce more and more, hence the Enclosure movement.

(iv) France was at war with England during the end of 18th century. This slowed down the import of foodgrains in England. This led to soaring up of prices of foodgrains in England. Thus the landowners were encouraged to enclose lands and enlarge the area under foodgrain cultivation.

(v)Enclosures were now seen as necessary to make long-term investments on land and plan crop rotations to improve the soil. Enclosures also allowed the richer landowners to expand the land under their control and produce more for the market.

Captain Swing was a mythic name used in letters addressed to landowners to break their threshing machines.
The landlords were alarmed because they were attacked by armed labourers at night and also because their farm houses were put on fire. Most of the landlords destroyed threshing machines.
Captain Swing’s name symbolised agrarian resistance and revolt by agricultural labourers against well-to-do farmers and landowners.

The westward expansion is a great event in the history of America. The expansion from east to west by white men was a slow and steady process, which ranged from late 18th century to the 20th century.

In decades after 1800, the US government followed the policy of westward movement, beyond the river Mississippi and further west. The local American-Indian tribes resisted and revolted. They were massacred and the villages were burnt. The local tribes initially won many wars ultimately, had to sign treaties and give up their lands. The settlers settled in waves between 1820 and 1850. They slashed and burnt forests, cleared large areas for cultivation and erected fences around their fields. In course of time, the great plain across the river Mississippi became major wheat producing areas of America.

Consequently, the westward march of white Americans led to agricultural prosperity and they were able to amass vast natural and mineral resources of that country.

Following lessons can be drawn from the conversion of the countryside in the USA from a bread basket to a dust bowl:

(i) We learn to appreciate the need for maintaining ecological balance. If we destroy the natural resources blindly, ultimately, all human existence will be in jeopardy. Man must respect the environment.
(ii) When wheat cultivation had expanded in the early nineteenth century, zealous farmers had recklessly uprooted all vegetation. They turned the soil cover and broken the soil into dust. The whole region had become a dust bowl. The American dream of a land of plenty had turned into a nightmare.
(iii) The settlers had thought that they could conquer the entire landscape, turn all and over to growing crops that could yield profits. After the 1930s, they realized that they had to respect the ecological conditions of each region.
We draw the lesson to conserve and protect the environment. We have to co-exist with nature.

Indian farmers were reluctant to grow opium due to the following factors:

(i) First, the crop had to be grown on the best available land, on fields that lay near villages and were well-manured. On this land, peasants usually produced pulses. If they planted opium on this land, then pulses could not be grown there, or they would have to be grown on inferior land where harvests were low and uncertain.

(ii) Second, many cultivators had no land. To cultivate, they had to pay rent and lease land from landlords. And the rent charged on good lands near villages was very high.

(iii) Third, the cultivation of opium was a difficult process. The plant was delicate and cultivators had to spend many hours nurturing it. So they did not have enough time to care for other crops.

(iv) Finally, the price the government paid to the cultivators for the opium was very low. It was unprofitable for the cultivator to grow opium at that price.

A.

Pieces of earth with grass

C.

Shifting Cultivation

A.

Jhumming Cultivation in Congo Basin

D.

20

A.

A mythic name used in letters addressed to land owners

D.

All of the above

D.

All of the above

B.

In the year of 1801

A.

Charles Townshend

B.

Sod

C.

40

D.

Bushel

A.

English

A.

Captain Swing

D.

All of these

B.

24 million square

D.

All of these.

C.

A mythical name for threatening the landowners

C.

Turnip and Cloves

Captain Swing was a mythic name used in the letters sent by peasant labourers to peasants and landlords to break their farmhouse machines.

When the price of wool went up in the world market in 16th century, rich farmers decided to increase production of wool. So, they began dividing and enclosing common land, building hedges around their fields to separate their property from that of others. Thus, the Enclosure movement started in England.

6 million acres of land were enclosed in England between 1750 and 1850.

The English population rose from 7 million in 1750 to 21 million in 1850 and 30 million in 1900. This meant an increased demand for foodgrains which resulted in enclosure of further lands to augment food production.

The increase in foodgrain production was made possible by bringing new lands under cultivation.
Landlords sliced up pastureland, carved up open fields, cut up forest commons, took over marshes and turned larger and larger areas into agriucultural fields.

U.S.A. President Woodrow Wilson called upon farmers to produce wheat during First World War (1914-18).

Cyrus Mc. Cormick invented the reaper in 1831.

Great plains across the river Mississippi is the wheat production area in U.S.A.

In the 1930s, terrifying duststorms began to blow over the southern plains of U.S.A. Black blizzards rolled in rising like monstrous waves of muddy water. 

(i) The skies darkened, and the dust swept in, people were blinded and choked.
(ii) Cattle were suffocated to death, their lungs caked with dust and mud.
(iii) Sand buried fences, covered fields, and coated the surfaces of rivers till the fish died.
(iv) Dead bodies of birds and animals were strewn all over the landscape.
(v) Tractors and machines that had ploughed the earth and harvested the wheat in the 1920s were now clogged with dust, damaged beyond repair

In 1785, about 15 million pounds of tea was being imported into England. By 1830, this figure had jumped over to 30 million pounds.

The Agricultural Revolution in Britain proved an epoch-making event in the economic history of Britain and the world.

(i) It brought much hardship to ordinary farming people.

(ii) A landed gentry was established as landlords with big estates.

(iii) It led to the industrial revolution in England.

(iv) It started the mercantile economy.

(v) It also promoted colonialism.