Read carefully and answer the following excerpts the questions that follow:
A Ryot Petitions
This is an example of a petition from a ryot of the village of Mirajgaon, Taluka Karjat to the Collector, Ahmednagar, Deccan Riots Commission:
The sowkars (sahukars). have oflate begun to oppress us. As we cannot earn enough to defray our household expenses, we are actually forced to beg of them to provide us with money, clothes and grain, which we obtain from them not without great difficulty, nor without their compelling us to enter into hard conditions in the bond. Moreover the necessary clothes and grain are not sold to us at cash rates. The prices asked from us are generally twenty-five or fifty per cent more than demanded from customers making ready money payments .... The produce of our fields is also taken by the sowkars, who at the time of removing it assure us that it will be credited to our account, but they do not actually make any mention of it in the accounts. They also refuse to pass us any receipts for the produce so removed by them.
(i) What were the four grievances of the peasants?
(ii) Give one norm that regulated the relationship between the moneylender and the ryot.
(iii) What was the ‘Limitation Law’ ? How was it manipulated by the moneylender?(i) (a) The peasants when cannot earn enough to defray he forced to beg moneylenders again and again.
(b) Moneylenders provide them the necessary of cloth and grain but with signing a bond of hard conditions.
(c) The produce of peasants’ fields also taken by sowkars i.e., moneylenders by assuring that it will be credited to their account but will not.
(d) The sowkars when taken the produce, he refused to pass any receipt, etc.
(ii) The norm was that moneylender gives the money, clothes and grain to ryot by signing with a bond of hard conditions.
(iii) In 1859, the British passed a Limitation Law that stated the loan bonds signed between moneylenders and ryots would have validity for only three years. This law was meant to check the accumulation of interest over time. The moneylenders, however, turned the law around, forcing the ryot to sign a new bond every three years.
