Answer:
(i) In the rural areas of Bengal and Bihar, there were large number of poor peasants. They were very given advance money to produce opium by their village headmen. (ii) When offered loan, the cultivators were tempted to accept it, hoping to meet their immediate need and pay back the loan later. (iii) But the loan tied the peasant to the headman and through him to the government. (iv) It were the government opium agents who were advancing money to headmen, who in turn gave it to the cultivator. (v) By taking the loan, the cultivator was forced to grow opium on a specific area of land and hand over the produce to the agents. (vi) He had no choice of planting the field with the crop of his choice or selling his produce to anyone else but the government agent. And he had to accept the low price offered for the produce.
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