Q15
Read the following paragraph carefully and answer the questions that follow:
The Poor Peasant
An excerpt from Bernier’s description of the peasantry in the countryside :
Of the vast tracts of country constituting the empire of Hindustan, many are little more than sand, or barren mountains, badly cultivated, and thinly populated. Even a considerable portion of the good land. Even a remains untilled for want of laborers; many of whom perish in consequence of the bad treatment they experience from Governors. The poor people, when they become incapable of discharging the demands of their rapacious lords, are not only often deprived of the means of subsistence,. but are als
Solution
1. Francois Bernier’s book name was, ‘Travel in the Mughal Empire’.
2. (a). Bernier gave a subdued description on the condition of Indian peasantry during the Mughal Empire.
(b). The poor and resourceless peasants became incapable of discharging the demands of their greedy owners.
(c). Peasants were not only deprived of the means, of subsistence, but were also made to lose their children, who were carried away as slaves.
3(a). According to Bernier, one of the fundamental differences between Mughal India and Europe was the shortage of private property in land in Mughal India.
(b). Bernier was a staunch supporter of private property. He felt that in the Mughal Empire the emperor owned all the land and distributed the same among his nobles. However, it had disastrous results for the economy and society.
(c). Bernier opined that there was no middle state in India. On the other hand, none of the Mughal official documents suggest that the state was the only owner of land.
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