question_answer

Analyse the role of Zamindars during the Mughal period.

Or

Examine how were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Answer:

Role of Zamindars during the Mughal period: The zamindars were holders of huge land properties. Most of them were related to the royal families. They were given the right to collect revenue from the ryot. They had to pay a fixed amount to the state. The remaining amount remained with them. The Mughal rulers were not very friendly with them but they allowed them to prosper. The Zamindars collected revenue from the peasants who were the owners of the land. The zamindars collected the revenue and sometimes gave wrong accounts to the administrators and amassed money. Like the feudal lords they also sometimes had their own private armies and held courts to decide the matters in their jurisdiction.

Or

The forest dwellers lived in harmony with the nature. They collected their needs from the forests in a balanced way. The states and urban dwellers had their eyes on the wealth of the forests. In the beginning they bartered with the forest dwellers like Bhil and Santhals. Later they invaded the forest lands for elephants, ivory and other things. Some forest dwellers opposed and they raised their armies to protest. By sixteenth century some of them became monarchs and that changed the lives of the forest people. There were tribal kingdoms. The city dwellers brought their culture into the forest. Forest products like honey, ivory and animal skins had export value which gave rise to greed. The Santhals had to revolt against the British to establish their rights.