Short Essay on History of India
SHORT ESSAY ON HISTORY OF INDIA
India has frequently been subjected to horrors of famine. From 1858 to the end of the 19th century, more than twenty famines occurred in India.
A major characteristic of British rule in India, and the net result of British economic policies, was the prevalence of extreme poverty among its people. While historian disagree on the question whether India was getting poorer or not under British rule, there is no disagreement on the fact that throughout the period of British rule most Indians always lived on the verge of starvation.
British economic exploitation, the decay of indigenous industries, the failure of modern industries to replace them, high taxation, the drain of wealth to Britain and a backward agrarian structure leading to the stagnation of agriculture and the exploitation of the poor peasants by the zamindars, landlords, princes, moneylenders, merchants and the state gradually reduced the Indian people to extreme poverty and prevented them from progressing.
Indian economic backwardness and poverty were not due to the niggardliness of nature. They were manmade. The natural resources of India were abundant and capable of yielding if properly utilised, a high degree of prosperity to the people. But, as a result of foreign rule and exploitation, and of a backward agrarian and industrial economic structure in fact as the total outcome of its historical and social development, India presented the paradox of a poor living in a rich country.
In the early days of British administration, there was a tendency to push up land revenue demand to a high level. Moreover, the British collected the revenue with greater rigour than was customary in pre-British days. They also refused to reduce revenue as a concession to farmers in a bad season. This inflexibility of revenue policy was certainly a major cause of the famines.
English traders and their agent's activities might have contributed to the intensity of famines in some
India has frequently been subjected to horrors of famine. From 1858 to the end of the 19th century, more than twenty famines occurred in India.
A major characteristic of British rule in India, and the net result of British economic policies, was the prevalence of extreme poverty among its people. While historian disagree on the question whether India was getting poorer or not under British rule, there is no disagreement on the fact that throughout the period of British rule most Indians always lived on the verge of starvation.
British economic exploitation, the decay of indigenous industries, the failure of modern industries to replace them, high taxation, the drain of wealth to Britain and a backward agrarian structure leading to the stagnation of agriculture and the exploitation of the poor peasants by the zamindars, landlords, princes, moneylenders, merchants and the state gradually reduced the Indian people to extreme poverty and prevented them from progressing.
Indian economic backwardness and poverty were not due to the niggardliness of nature. They were manmade. The natural resources of India were abundant and capable of yielding if properly utilised, a high degree of prosperity to the people. But, as a result of foreign rule and exploitation, and of a backward agrarian and industrial economic structure in fact as the total outcome of its historical and social development, India presented the paradox of a poor living in a rich country.
In the early days of British administration, there was a tendency to push up land revenue demand to a high level. Moreover, the British collected the revenue with greater rigour than was customary in pre-British days. They also refused to reduce revenue as a concession to farmers in a bad season. This inflexibility of revenue policy was certainly a major cause of the famines.
English traders and their agent's activities might have contributed to the intensity of famines in some