question_answer

?There was more to rural India than the sedentary agriculture?. Explain the statement in the context of Mughal Period.

Or

?Inspite of the limitations, the Ain-i-Akbari remains an extraordinary document of its time?. Explain the statement.

Answer:

?There was more to rural India than the sedentary agriculture?. This statement can be explained on the basis of the following points.

(i) In the contemporary texts, forest dwellers were known as Jangli. However, it did not mean an absence of civilization.

(ii) The term Jangli was described for those whose livelihood came from the gathering or forest produce, hunting; and shifting agriculture.

(iii) These activities were mainly season specific. For example, among the Bhils, the spring season was reserved for gathering of forest produce.

(iv) Among the Bhils, spring was reserved for gathering forest produce, summer for fishing, the monsoon months for cultivation whereas, winter and autumn for hunting.

(v) The three factors that accounted for the continuous expansion of agriculture were (a) abundance of land (b) available labour (c) mobility of peasants.

(vi) Though monsoon always remained the backbone of Indian agriculture yet these were crops which required additional water. For this purpose, artificial systems of irrigation had to be devised.

(vii) Irrigation projects got state support. In northern India, digging of new canals and repairing of old ones was under taken by the state.

(viii) The Indo-Persian sources or the Mughal period frequently used the term 'raiyat5 to denote a peasant. Sources available in the 17 century AD refer to two types of peasants - (a) Khud-Kashta (b) Pahi-Kashta.

Or

Inspite of limitations Ain is an extra ordinary document of its time is very true as it provides fascinating glimpses into the structure and organisation of the Mughal Empire and gives us the quantitative information about its products and people. Abul Fazi achieved a major break-through in the tradition of medieval chronicles who wrote mostly about remarkable political events, wars conquests political machinations and dynastic turmoil.

The Ain recorded the information about the empire and the people of India and thus constitutes a bench mark for studying India at the turn of the 17th C.

The value of the Ain?s quantitative evidence is uncontested where the study of agrarian relation is concerned. The information on the people, their professions and trades and on the imperial establishment and the granders of the empire provided in Ain enables the historians to reconstruct the social fabric of India at that time.