ABSTRACT:
The British rule had pronounced and profound impact on India. There was hardly any section of society or corner of county which could escape the long arms of British colonialism. India being a country with predominance of agriculture, any impact of government on the people turned out to be essentially the impact of government on the village. With the initiation of British rule, the new land tenures, new land ownership concepts, tenancy changes and heavier state demand for land revenue triggered of far-reaching changes in rural economy and social relationship. Early British administrators of the East India Company considered India as a vast estate and acted on the principle that the company was entitled to the entire economic rent. Moreover, the impact of other administrative measures like railways, law and order machinery and judiciary was also felt in the remote villages of India. Though, the railways served to integrate India and brought the national consciousness, however, they actively served as the agent of colonialism to drain off the valuable resources from rural regions of India. A major impact of these British policies was the expression of intense poverty and frequent famines. These again found their most dire reflections in rural India. The tragedy also found manifestations in the stagnation and deterioration of agriculture and the transformation of India into an agricultural colony of Britain. Objectives of the Study: As the changing life in Indian Village marked best the impact of the British administration on the Indian people, this study has been made to characterize the Indian villages in British period. It narrates how the establishment of British rule altered the basic land relationships in the villages which were governed by traditional customs and usage. It logically interprets how the British tampered the basic stability of the villages through the introduction of the concept of mortgage, sale and transferability of land. Methodology: An elaborative research methodology was used to investigate and interpret the impact of British rule on Indian villages from the second half of eighteenth century. The researcher has relied both on primary sources as well as secondary sources for collection of data. Primary data has been gathered from archival records; whereas secondary data is based on analysis and discussions.
Cite this article:
Umashankar Ram. The British Rule and its effect upon Social, Cultural and Economic Status of Rural India. Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2020; 11(4):345-349. doi: 10.5958/2321-5828.2020.00054.6
Cite(Electronic):
Umashankar Ram. The British Rule and its effect upon Social, Cultural and Economic Status of Rural India. Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2020; 11(4):345-349. doi: 10.5958/2321-5828.2020.00054.6 Available on: https://rjhssonline.com/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2020-11-4-13
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