Unwilling Cultivation Made to Produce Opium
Unwilling Cultivation Made to Produce Opium
Unwilling Cultivators Made to produce Opium: There are some variety of reason , the Indian cultivators were unwilling to grow opium.
• Firstly, the poppy plants from the juice of which the opium is made. required the best land which should be well manured. On these lands the cultivators used to grow pulses and earn much amount of money. But if they grew opium on their best lands, the pulses could not be grown there. it meant a great financial loss to them. hence they were reluctant to grow opium.
• Second, many cultivators did not have their owned lands. If they took land on lease or rent they had to pay high rents to the landlords for their best lands and that too near the villages.
• Third, the cultivation of opium plant (or the poppy plant) was a difficult process. The plant being delicate required long hours in nurturing it. they were left with no time to care for others crops.
• Finally, the price the government paid to the cultivators for the opium they produced was very low. It was unprofitable for cultivators to grow opium at that price.
Unwilling cultivators were made to produce opium through a system of advances. In the rural areas of Bengal and Bihar, there were a large number of poor peasants. They never had enough to survive. It was difficult for them to pay rent to the landlords or to buy food and clothing. From the 1780s, the peasants found their villages headman giving them money in advance to produce opium. when offered loan, the cultivators were tempted to accept , hoping to meet the immediate needs and pay back the loan at a later stage.
But the loan tied the peasants to the headman through him to the government. It was the government opium agent who were advancing the money to the headman, who in turn gave it to the cultivators. by taking the loan , the cultivators was forced to grow opium on a specified area of land and hand over the produce to the agents once the crop had been harvested . he had no option of planting the field with the crop of his choice or selling his produce to anyone but the government agent. And he had to accept the low price offered for the produce.
This difference between the buying and selling price was the government's opium revenue. The prices given to the peasants were so low that by the early eighteenth century angry peasants began agitating for higher prices and refused to take advance.In regions around Benaras , cultivators began giving opium cultivation. They produce sugar cane and potatoes instead. Many cultivators sold off their crop to travelling traders who offered higher prices.
Monopoly and Conflict Over Opium Trade: By 1773, the British government in Bengal had established a monopoly to trade in opium. No one else was legally permitted to trade in the product. By the 1820s the British government found to their horror that opium production in their territories was rapidaly declined , but its production outside the british territories was increasing. It was being produced in central india and rajasthan , within princely states that were not under control of british.
In these regions , local trades were offering much higher prices to peasants and exporting opium to China . In fact, armed bands of traders were found carrying on the trade in the 1820s. To British this trade was illegal; it was smuggling and it had to be stopped . government monopoly had to be retained. It therefore instructed its agents posted in the princely states to confiscate all opium and destroy the crops. this conflict between British government, peasants and local traders continued as long as opium production lasted.
Conclusion: All sections of rural people were not affected in the same way. Some gained and others lost. The history of modernization was not only a glorious story of growth and development. It was also a story of displacements and poverty, ecological crises and social rebellion, colonization and repression. We need to look at these variations and stands to understand the diverse ways in which peasants and farmers confronted the modern world.
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