British impact on Indian Agriculture

Indian economy was mainly an agrarian economy before colonial period. Agriculture was the main occupation of the people and industries like textile, sugar, oil etc were also depended on it.Before the coming of English, Indian villages were self sufficient and used to practice agriculture and handicraft together. They used to pay portion of produce as land revenue and sell one portion in cities. 

British Land Revenue System : The land revenue system of Bengal started by Warner Hastings was based on the principle that all land belong to the crown. He started the system of auctioning of the rights of the land. This deprived old landlords of their lands.
At the time when Clive got Diwani of Bengal, a system of annual settlement was in practice, it was collected by two Diwans, Rheza Khan in Bengal and Shitab Rai in Bihar. (In 1772, the post of Nayab Diwan was abolished and land revenue came directly into the hands of governor and its council.)
Warren Hastings changed annual revenue system into 5 year system. The post of European collector was abolished in 1773 and was reintroduced in 1781 and Calcutta was made the centre of collection of revenue.

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