The Indian Farmers and Opium Production


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

The Indian Farmers and Opium Production

The Indian Farmers and Opium Production:

  • British rule was gradually, established in India after the battle of Plassey (1757). over the period of colonial rule, the rural landscape was radically transformed. The British saw land revenue as a major source of government income.To build the resources of the state,efforts were made to impose a regular system of land revenue , increase revenue rates , and expand the area under cultivation.
  • As cultivation expanded , the area under forests and pastures declined. All this created many problems for peasants and pastoralists. They found their access to forests and grazing lands increasingly restricted by rules and regulations.And they struggled to meet the pressures of government revenue demand.
  • In the colonial period, rural India also came to produce a range of crops for the world market. In the early nineteenth century, indigo and opium were two of the major commercial crops. By the end of the century, peasants were producing sugarcane, cotton, jute, wheat and several other crops for export, to feed the population of urban Europe and to supply the mills Lancashire and Manchaster in England.
  • Opium Cultivation in India: When the Britisher conquered Bengal, they made a determined effort to produce opium in the lands under their control. As the market for opium expanded in China, larger volumes of opium flowed out of Bengal ports. Before 1767, no more than 500 chests (of two mounds each). There being exported from India. Supplies had to be increased to feed this booming export trade. By 1870, the government was exporting about 50000 chests annually from Bengal to China.

    There are some reason why Indian farmers were reluctant to grow opium:

  • The crop had to be grown on the best on the best land,on the field that lay near the villages and were well manured. on this farmers usually produced pulses. If they planted opium on this land, then pulses could not be grown on inferior land where harvests were poorer and uncertain.
  • Many cultivators owned no land. To cultivate opium they had to pay rent and lease land from landlords and the rent charged on the good lands near the villages was very high.
  • The cultivation of opium was a difficult process. The plant was delicate and cultivators had to spend long hours, in nurturing it. This meant that they did not have enough time to care for others crops.
  • The price which the government paid to the cultivators for the opium they produced was very low.It was unprofitable for the cultivators  to grow opium at that price.
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