Agriculture is the major source of livelihood in the rural sector. Mahatma Gandhi once said that the real progress of India did not mean simply the growth and expansion of industrial urban centres but mainly the development of the villages.
This idea of village development being at the centre of the overall development of the nation is relevant even today.
It is because more than two-third of India's population depends on agriculture that is yet to become productive enough to provide for them; one-third of rural India still lives in abject poverty. That is the reason why we have to see a developed rural India if our nation has to realise real progress.
What is Rural Development?
Rural development is a comprehensive term. It essentially focuses on action for the development of areas that are lagging behind in the overall development of the village economy.
Some of the areas which are challenging and need fresh initiatives for development in rural India include:
Development of human resources including :
literacy, more specifically, female literacy, education and skill development.
health, addressing both sanitation and public health.
Land reforms.
Development of the productive resources of each locality.
Infrastructure development like electricity, irrigation, credit, marketing, transport facilities including construction of village roads and feeder roads to nearby highways, facilities for agriculture research and extension, and information dissemination.
Special measures for alleviation of poverty and bringing about significant improvement in the living conditions of the weaker sections of the population emphasising access to productive employment opportunities.
All this means that people engaged in farm and non-farm activities in rural areas have to be provided with various means that help them increase the productivity.
They also need to be given opportunities to diversify into various non-farm productive activities such as food
Enabling them better and more affordable access to healthcare, sanitation facilities at workplaces and homes and education for all would also need to be given top priority for rapid rural development.
It was observed in an earlier chapter that although the share of agriculture sector's contribution to GDP was on a decline, the population dependent on this sector did not show any significant change.
Further, after the initiation of reforms, the growth rate of agriculture sector decelerated to about 3 per cent per annum during the 1991-2012, which was lower than the earlier years.
Scholars identify decline in public investment since 1991 as the major reason for this.They also argue that inadequate infrastructure, lack of alternate employment opportunities in the industry or service sector, increasing casualisation of employment etc., further impede rural development.
The impact of this phenomenon can be seen from the growing distress more...
Population becomes human capital when there is investment made in the form of education, training and medical care. In fact, human capital is the stock of skill and productive knowledge embodied in them.
'People as Resource' is a way of referring to a country's working people in terms of their existing productive skills and abilities. Looking at the population from this productive aspect emphasises its ability to contribute to the creation of the Gross National Product.
Like other resources population also is a resource - a 'human resource1'. This is the positive side of a large population that is often overlooked when we look only at the negative side, considering only the problems of providing the population with food, education and access to health facilities.
When the existing 'human resource' is further developed by becoming more educated and healthy, we call it 'human capital formation' that adds to the productive power of the country just like 'physical capital formation'.
Investment in human capital (through education, training, medical care) yields a return just like investment in physical capital.
This can be seen directly in the form of higher incomes earned because of higher productivity of the more educated or the better trained persons, as well as the higher productivity of healthier people.
India's Green Revolution is a dramatic example of how the input of greater knowledge in the form of improved production technologies can rapidly increase the productivity of scarce land resources.
India's IT revolution is a striking instance of how the importance of human capital has come to acquire a higher position than that of material, plant and machinery.
Not only do the more educated and the healthier people gain through higher incomes, society also gains in other indirect ways because the advantages of a more educated or a healthier population spreads to those also who themselves were not directly educated or given health care.
In fact, human capital is in one way superior to other resources like land and physical capital: human resource can make use of land and capital. Land and capital cannot become useful on its own!
For many decades in India, a large population has been considered a liability rather than an asset.
But a large population need not be a liability. It can be turned into a productive asset by investment in human capital for example, by spending resources on education and health for all, training of industrial and agricultural workers in the use of modem technology, useful scientific researches and so on.
Investment in human resource (via education and medical care) can give high rates of return in the future. This investment on people is the same as investment in land and capital. One invests in shares and bonds expecting higher return in the future.
A child, too, with investments made on his/her education and health, can yield a high return in the future in the form of higher earnings and greater contribution more...
We know that the labour skill of an educated person is more than that of an uneducated person and hence the former is able to generate more income than the latter and his contribution to economic growth is, consequently, more.
Education is sought not only as it confers higher earning capacity on people but also for its other highly valued benefits : it gives one a better social standing and pride; it enables one to make better choices in life; it provides knowledge to understand the changes taking place in society; it also stimulates innovations.
Moreover, the availability of educated labour force facilitates adaptation of new technologies.
Economists have stressed the need for expanding educational opportunities in a nation as it accelerates the development process.
What is Human Capital?
Just as a country can turn physical resources like land into physical capital like factories, similarly, it can also turn human resources like students into human capital like engineers and doctors.
Societies need sufficient human capital in the first place-in the form of competent people who have themselves been educated and trained as professors and other professionals.
In other words, we need good human capital to produce other human capital (say, doctors, engineers...). This means that we need investment in human capital to produce more human capital out of human resources.
Sources of Human Capital
Investment in education is considered as one of the main source of human capital.
There are several other sources as well. Investments in health, on-the-job training, migration and information are the other sources of human capital formation.
Spending on education by individuals is similar to spending on capital goods by companies with the objective of increasing future profits over a period of time.
Likewise, individuals invest in education with the objective of increasing their future income.
Like education, health is also considered as an important input for the development of a nation as much as it is important for the development of an individual.
A sick labourer without access to medical facilities is compelled to abstain from work and there is loss of productivity. Hence, expenditure on health is an important source of human capital furcation.
Preventive medicine (vaccination), curative medicine (medical intervention during illness), social medicine (spread of health literacy) and provision of clean drinking water and good sanitation are the various forms of health expenditures.
Health expenditure directly increases the supply of healthy labour force and is, thus, a source of human capital formation.
Firms spend on giving on-the-job training to their workers. This may take different forms: one, the workers may be trained in the firm itself under the supervision of a skilled worker; two, the workers may be sent for off-campus training.
In both these cases firms incur some expenses. more...
We see poverty all around us. In fact, every fourth person in India is poor. This means, roughly 270 million (or 27 crore) people in India live in poverty 2011-12.
This also means that India has the largest single concentration of the poor in the world. This illustrates the seriousness of the challenge.
Poverty means hunger and lack of shelter. It also is a situation in which parents are not able to send their children to school or a situation where sick people cannot afford treatment.
Poverty also means lack of clean water and sanitation facilities. It also means lack of a regular job at a minimum decent level. Above all it means living with a sense of helplessness.
Poor people are in a situation in which they are ill-treated at almost every place, in farms, factories, government offices, hospitals, railway stations etc.
Obviously, nobody would like to live in poverty.
One of the biggest challenges of independent India has been to bring millions of its people out of abject poverty.
Mahatama Gandhi always insisted that India would be truly independent only when the poorest of its people become free of human suffering.
Poverty as seen by Social Scientists
Since poverty has many facets, social scientists look at it through a variety of indicators. Usually the indicators used relate to the levels of income and consumption.
But now poverty is looked through other social indicators like illiteracy level, lack of general resistance due to malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare, lack of job opportunities, lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation etc.
Analysis of poverty based on social exclusion and vulnerability is now becoming very common.
Social exclusion
According to this concept, poverty must be seen in terms of the poor having to live only in a poor surrounding with other poor people, excluded from enjoying social equality of better-off people in better surroundings.
Social exclusion can be both a cause as well as a consequence of poverty in the usual sense.
Broadly, it is a process through which individuals or groups are excluded from facilities, benefits and opportunities that others (their "betters") enjoy.
A typical example is the working of the caste system in India in which people belonging to certain castes are excluded from equal opportunities.
Social exclusion thus may lead to, but can cause more damage than, having a very low income.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability to poverty is a measure, which describes the greater probability of certain communities (say, members of a backward caste) or individuals (such as a widow or a physically handicapped person) of becoming, or remaining, poor in the coming years.
Vulnerability is determined by the options available to different communities for finding an alternative living in terms of assets, education, health and more...
During the Fifteenth century, Samarqand and Herat became the cultural centres of West Asia. The ruler of Samarqand had great prestige in the entire Islamic world.
In 1494, at the young age of 12, Babur succeeded to Farghana, a small state in Trans- Oxiana.
Babur says that from the time he obtained Kabul (1504) to his victory at Panipat. "I had never ceased to think of the conquest of Hindustan."
Like countless earlier invaders from Central Asia, Babur was drawn to India by the lure of its fabulous wealth. India was the land of gold and riches.
In 1518-19, Babur conquered the powerful fort of Bhira. He then sent letters and verbal messages to Daulat Khan and Ibrahim Lodi, asking for the cession of the areas which had belonged to the Turks.
Babur received an embassy from Daulat Khan Lodi, led by his son, Dilawar Khan.
They invited Babur to India, and suggested that he should displace Ibrahim Lodi since he was a tyrant and enjoyed no support from his nobles.
The Battle of Panipat (20 April, 1526)
Ibrahim Lodi met Babur at Panipat with a force estimated at 1,00,000 men and 1000 elephant.
Babur had also secured the services of two Ottoman master-gunners, Ustad Ali and Mustafa.
The use of gunpowder had been gradually developing in India.
Babur says that he used it for the first time in his attacks on the fortress of Bhira.
Ibrahim Lodi fought to the last, and was killed in the battle.
The battle of Panipat is regarded as one of the decisive battles of Indian history.
It broke the back of Lodi power, and brought under Babur’s control the entire area up to Delhi and Agra.
"Not for us the poverty of Kabul again" Babur records in his diary after Ac victory at Panipat.
The Battle of Khanwa
Babur accuses Rana Sanga of breach of agreement He says that Sanga had invited him to India, and promised to join him against Ibrahim Lodi, but made no move white he (Babur) conquered Delhi and Agra.
Many Afghans, including Mahmud Lodi, a younger brother of Ibrahim Lodi, rallied to Rana Sanga, in the hope of regaining the throne of Delhi in case Sanga won.
Hasan Khan Mewati, the ruler of Mewat, also cast in his lot with Sanga.
Almost all the Rajput rulers of note sent contingents to serve under Rana Sanga.
To rally them, Babur solemnly declared the war against Sanga to be a jihad.
The battle of Khanwa (1527) was fiercely contested.
Rana Sanga escaped and wanted to renew that conflict with Babur. But he was poisoned by his own nobles who considered such a course to be dangerous and suicidal.
The battle of Khanwa secured Babur "s position in the Delhi-Agra region.
When Humayun was retreating from Bikaner, he was gallantly offered shelter and help by the Rana of Amarkot.
It was at Amarkot, in 1542, that Akbar, the greatest of the Mughal rulers, was born.
When Humayun fled to Iran, young Akbar was captured by his uncle, Kamran. He treated the child well. Akbar was re-united with his parents after the capture of Qandhar.
When Humayun died, Akbar was at Kalanaur in the Punjab, commanding operations against the Afghan rebels here.
He was crowned at Kalanaur in 1556 at the young age of thirteen years.
Bairam Khan, the tutor of the prince and a loyal and favourite officer of Humayun, rose to the occasion. He became the wakil of the kingdom, with the title of Khan-i-Khanan, and rallied the Mughal forces.
The threat from the side of Hemu was considered the most serious.
Hemu, who had started life as a superintendent of the markets under Islam Shah, had rapidly risen under Adil Shah.
He had not lost a single one of the twenty-two battles in which he had fought.
Adil Shah had appointed him the wazir with the title ofVikramajit, and entrusted him with the task of expelling the Mughals.
The battle between the Mughals and the Afghan forces led by Hemu, took place once again at Panipat (5 November, 1556).
The leaderless Afghan army was defeated, Hemu was captured and executed.
Early Phase - Contest with the Nobility (1556-67)
Bairam Khan remained at the helm of affairs of the empire for almost four years.
Once Bairam Khan realised that Akbar wanted to take power in his own hands, he was prepared to submit, but his opponents were keen to ruin him. They heaped humiliation upon him till he was goaded to rebel.
Akbar received him cordially, and gave him the option of serving at the court or anywhere outside it, or retiring to Mecca.
Bairam Khan chose to go to Mecca. However, on his way, he was assassinated at Patan near Ahmedabad by an Afghan who bore him a personal grudge.
Bairam's wife and a young child were brought to Akbar at Agra. Akbar married Bairam Khan's widow who was his cousin, and brought up the child as his own son.
This child later became famous as Abdur Rahim Khan-I Khanan and held some of the most important offices and commands in the empire.
During Bairam Khan's rebellion, groups and individuals in the nobility had become politically active. They included Akbar's foster-mother, Maham Anaga, and her relations.
Though Maham Anaga soon withdrew from politics, her son, Adham Khan was an impetuous young man who assumed independent airs when sent to command an expedition against Malwa. Mirza Hakim was Akbar's half brother.
The Maratha troops had always been employed as loose auxiliaries or bargirs (usually called bargis) in the Bahmani kingdom.
Some of the old Maratha families which rose in the service of the Bahmani rulers and held mansabs and jagirs from them were the More, Nimbalkar, Ghatge, etc.
Ibrahim Adil Shah ofBijapur who ascended the throne in 1535 was the leading advocate of this policy. It is said that he entertained 30,000 Maratha auxiliaries (bargis) in his army, and showed great favour to the Marathas in the revenue system.
In 1576, a Mughal army invaded Khandesh, and compelled the rulers of Khandesh to submit.
Chand Bibi who was the sister of Burhan was the widow of the former ruler of Bijapur who was Ibrahim's uncle.
Akbar was also keen to secure the fort of Asirgarh in Khandesh which was reputed to be the strongest fort in the Deccan.
Malik Ambar was an Abyssinian, born in Ethiopia.
With the help of the Marathas, Ambar made it difficult for the Mughals to consolidate their position in Berar, Ahmadnagar and Balaghat.
After the surrender of Fateh Khan, Shah Jahan appointed Mahabat Khan as Mughal viceroy of the Deccan.
Mir Jumla was a the leading noble in Golconda,
Ali Adil Shah (d.1580) loved to hold discussion with Hindu and Muslim saints and was called a Sufi. He invited Catholic missionaries to his court, even before Akbar had.
He had an excellent library to which he appointed the well-known Sanskrit scholar, Waman Pandit. Patronage of Sanskrit and Marathi was continued by his successors.
The successor of Adi Adil Shah, Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1580-1627), ascended the throne at the age of nine. He was very solicitous of the poor, and had the title of "abia baba", or "Friend of the Poor".
He was deeply interested in music, and composed a book called Kitab-i-Nauras in which songs were set to various musical modes or ragas.
He built a new capital, Nauraspur, in which a large number of musicians were invited to settle.
Due to his broad approach he came to be called "Jagat Guru".
He accorded patronage to all, including Hindu saints and temples.
This included grants to Pandharpur, the centre of the worship of Vithoba, which became the centre of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra.
From 1672 till its absorption by the Mughals in 1687, the administrative and military affairs of the state were dominated by the brothers, Madanna and Akkanna.
Sultan Muhammad Quii Qutb Shah, a contemporary of Akbar, was very fond of literature and architecture.
Urdu was patronized at the Bijapur court also.
Char Minar was completed in 1591-92, it stood more...
Political and Administrative Developments in India
The first half of the seventeenth century in India was, on the whole, an era of progress and growth.
During the period, the Mughal empire was ruled by two capable rulers, Jahangir (1605- 27), and Shah Jahan (1628-1658).
Jahangir, the eldest son of Akbar, succeeded to the throne without any difficulty, his younger brother having died during the life-time of Akbar due to excessive drinking.
However, shortly after Jahangir's succession, his eldest son, Khusrau, broke out into rebellion. Jahangir defeated him at a battle near Lahore and soon afterwards he was captured and imprisoned.
In 1608, Jahangir posted to Bengal, Islam Khan, the grandson of Shaikh Salim Chishti, the famous Sufi saint who was the patron saint of the Mughals.
The leading Afghan noble under Jahangir was Khan-i-Jahan Lodi who rendered distinguished service in the Deccan.
By 1622, Jahangir had brought Malik Ambar to heel patched up the long drawn out tussle with Mewar, and pacified Bengal.
Nur Jahan
She was married to Jahangir in 1611.
Her family was a respectable one and her father, had been made joint diwan by Jahangir in the first year of his reign.
Having been tested in this office, and following Nur Jahan's marriage with Jahangir, he was raised to the office of the chief diwan.
Nur Jahan's brother, Asaf Khan, was also learned and able man.
He was appointed the khan-i-saman, a post reserved for nobles in whom the emperor had fall confidence.
He married his daughter to Khurram (Shah Jahan) who was his father's favourite following the rebellion and imprisonment of Khusrau.
Some modem historians are of Ac opinion that along with her father and brother, and in alliance with Khurram, Nur Jahan formed a group or "juiitsT which ''managed" Jahangir so that without its backing and support no one could advance in his career, and that this led to Ac division of the court into two factions - the Nur Jahan “junta" and its opponents.
Shah Jahan's Rebellion
The immediate cause of Ac rebellion was Shah Jahan's refusal to proceed to Qandhar wchich had been besieged by the Persians.
Shah Jahan was afraid that the campaign would be a long and difficult one and that intrigues would be hatched against him during his absence from the court. Hence, he put forward a number of demands.
However, in the battle near Delhi, Shah Jahan was defeated by the forces led by Mahabat Khan. He was saved from a complete defeat by the valiant stand of the Mewar contingent.
The term which Indo-Persian sources of the Mughal period most frequently used to denote a peasant was raiyat (plural, riaya) or muzarian. In addition, we also encounter the terms kisan or asami.
Sources of the seventeenth century refer to two kinds of peasants - khud-kashta and pahi-kashta. The former were residents of the village in which they held their lands.
Cultivation was based on the principle of individual ownership. Peasant lands were bought and sold in the same way as the lands of other property owners.
Irrigation and technology
Though agriculture was labour intensive, peasants did use technologies that often harnessed cattle energy. One example was the wooden plough, which was light and easily assembled with an iron tip or coulter.
It therefore did not make deep furrows, which preserved the moisture better during the intensely hot months. A drill, pulled by a pair of giant oxen, was used to plant seeds, but broadcasting of seed was the most prevalent method.
The spread of tobacco
Tobaco arrived first in the Deccan and then spread to northern India in the early years of the seventeenth century.
The Ain does not mention tobacco in the lists of crops in northern India.
Akbar and his nobles came across tobacco for the first time in 1604.
At this time smoking tobacco (in hookahs or chillums) seems to have caught on in a big way.
Jahangir was so concerned about its addiction that he banned it.
This was totally ineffective because by the end of the seventeenth century, tobacco had become a major article of consumption, cultivation and trade all over India.
Caste and the rural milieu
In a manual of seventeenth century in Marwar, Rajputs are mentioned as peasants, sharing the same space with Jats, who were accorded a lower status in the caste hierarchy.
The Gauravas, who cultivated land around Vrindavan (Uttar Pradesh), sought Rajput status in the seventeenth century.
Castes such as the Ahirs, Gujars and Malis rose in the hierarchy because of the profitability of cattle rearing and horticulture.
In the eastern regions, intermediate pastoral and fishing castes like the Sadgops and kaivartas acquired the status of peasants.
Village artisans
Marathi documents and village surveys made in the early years of British rule have revealed the existence of substantial numbers of artisans, sometimes as high as 25 per cent of the more...
Babur was struck by the scanty clothes worn by the ordinary people.
Ralph Fitch, who came to India towards the end of the 16th century, says that at Banaras "the people go naked save a little cloth bound about their middle."
The peasants who owned the land they tilled were called Khudkasht.
Thus during, the 17th century, two new crops were added - tobacco and maize.
The Mughal state provided incentives and loans (taccavi) to the peasants for expansion and improvement of cultivation.
Moreland, who wrote in the early part of the 20th century, observed that during the period there was little change in the real wages of workers - they had a more balanced diet but clothes, sugar, etc., were more expensive.
Q Indian Muslims who were called Shaikhzadas or Hindustani were also given service.
Mir Jumla, a leading nobleman during the reign of Aurangzeb, owned a fleet of ships which carried extensive commerce with Persia, Arabia and South-East Asia.
Land grants were called madadd-i-maash in Mughal terminology, or sasan in Rajasthan.
Gujarat was the entry point of foreign goods. It exported fine textiles and silks (patola) to north India, with Burhanpur and Agra as the two nodal points of trade.
The hundi was a letter of credit payable after a period of time at a discount.
Virji Vohra dominated the Surat trade for several decades. He owned a large fleet of ships and was reputed to be amongst the wealthiest men of his time.
Similarly, Malay Chetti of the Coromandal coast, Kashi viranna and Sunca Rama Chetti were reputed to be extremely wealthy, and had extensive commercial dealings in India and abroad.
Monserrate, the Jesuit priest who came to Akbar's court, says that Lahore was second to none of the cities in Europe or Asia.
Bemier says that “gold and silver, after circulating over every part of the world, is finally buried in India which is the sink of gold and silver."
The indigo found most suitable was that produced at Sarkhej in Gujarat and Bayana near Agra.
Soon the English developed the export of Indian textiles, called "calicoes", to Europe.
Another item which was developed was the export of saltpetre which supplemented the European sources for gun powder and which was also used as a ballast for ships going to Europe. The best quality saltpetre was found in Bihar.
