CBSE Class 11-commerce Answered

Causes of India’s agriculture stagnation during the colonial period:

1.     Land revenue system: The colonial government in India introduced various systems of land settlement. The zamindari system was one of the land settlement systems. Under the zamindari system, the zamindars were the owners of the land and used to collect rent from cultivators.  They were also required to pay a certain specified sum of revenue to the colonial government. Despite using agricultural land as a source of income, neither the colonial government nor the zamindars made any attempt to improve the condition of the land. They did not pay attention to developing the agricultural sector, hence; it remained underdeveloped during the colonial government.
2.   High dependency on monsoon: The Indian agricultural sector was deprived of irrigation facilities and technology advancement. As a result, the production of the agricultural sector was solely dependent on the monsoon. This created an adverse situation for the farmers and led to a low level of agricultural productivity.
3. Commercialisation of agriculture: To maintain the continuous cheap supply of raw materials from India, the colonial government forced Indian farmers to grow commercial crops such as indigo, tea and coffee instead of food crops. This resulted in the shortage of food grains and a dismal state of the agricultural sector.