NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science History Chapter 3: Ruling the Countryside

This chapter will discuss the aftermath of a territory's conquest by the East India Company. How did it use the territory to increase its riches? How it dealt with the farmers, traders, and the tribes of the conquered land. The points discussed further are a brief overview of the chapter:

• After the Battle of Buxar (1764), the company took the role of Chief Financial Administrator of the empire of Bengal.
• When the company obtained the rights of Diwani, the responsibility of administering the land and collecting its revenue also became the responsibility of the company.
• Artisans left Bengal as the company was forcing them to sell their products faster. Peasants were unable to pay the heavy taxes levied on them. Agriculture was collapsing.
• A big famine of 1770 hit Bengal. This killed about 10 million populations there, washing out about 1/3rd of the population of Bengal.
• As such incidents ruined the economy heavily, the company then felt the need to improve agriculture, which it did with various revenue collection policies such as the Permanent Settlement, Mahalwari system, Ryotwari system.
• The company forced farmers to grow indigo. Bengal was the largest provider of indigo to British.
• The peasants were forced to work in plantations, a large farm operated by a planter employing various forced labour forms. Plantations were involved in the production of coffee, sugarcane, tobacco, etc.
• Those led to discontent among the farmers and the tribal as well and led to many revolts.
• As Britain began to industrialise, the people of India and other colonial countries worsened, for Britishers turned them into vast territories of the British empire whose sole purpose became to produce raw materials for Britain's industries.