Why did the British want to clear forests and expand settled cultivation? Enumerate any five reasons.
Because of the followint reasons, the British wanted to clear the forests and expand the settled cultivation of land:
(i) By adopting the settled cultivation of land, the colonial government wanted to enahance its revenue.
(ii) It could grow cash crops for export.
(iii) The British could establish an ordered and civilised society.
(iv) They associated forests with wildness. They considered the forest people as savage, unruly and primitive. They found these people difficult to govern. So they exhorted the Santhals to clear the forests. they encouraged settled agriculture.
(v) They wanted to tame, civilise and persuade the forests people to give up hunting and take up plough to cultivated the land.
