Bombay Deccan
Topic: Colonial Economy: Land Revenue, Drain, Deindustrialisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
The Bombay Deccan was the dry plateau region of the Bombay Presidency. It included districts such as Poona and Ahmednagar. Here the British brought in the ryotwari settlement, which collected revenue directly from the ryot, the peasant cultivator. The first settlement came in 1818. The demand was not fixed forever. Lands were resurveyed every 30 years, and the rates were raised. Heavy demands pushed peasants into debt to moneylenders.
Example
In the 1820s, the first settlement asked for so much revenue that peasants ran away from their villages. In the famine of 1832–34, one-third of the cattle died and half the people perished. Growing debt, the Limitation Law of 1859 and the cotton boom and bust of the 1860s led to the Deccan Riots of 1875.
Don't confuse with
- Permanent Settlement in Bengal (1793): made with zamindars, with the demand fixed forever. In the Bombay Deccan, revenue was settled directly with the ryot and revised every 30 years.
Related concepts
- David Ricardo
- Ricardian theory of rent
- Rentier
- Thomas Munro
- Ryotwari system
- Temporary settlement
- Mahalwari system
- Malguzar
- Deccan famine of 1832-34
- Peasant indebtedness