DISINTEGRATION OF VILLAGE ECONOMY & DETERIORATION AND COMMERCIALISATION OF AGRICULTURE

DISINTEGRATION OF VILLAGE ECONOMY Village economy was badly affected. The village panchayats were deprived of their rights. The introduction of the concept of private property in land turned land into a market com­modity. Changes came in social relationships. New social classes like the landlord, the trader, the money-lender, and the landed gentry shot into prominence. The class of rural proletariat, the poor peasant proprietor, the sub-tenant and the agricultural labourer multiplied in number. The climate of co-operation gradually gave place to the system of competition and individualism; the pre-requisites for the capitalist development of agriculture were created.

DETERIORATION AND COMMERCIALISATION OF AGRICULTURE Over-crowding in agriculture resulted in excessive land revenue demand, growth of landlordism, rising indebtedness, and growing poverty among the class of cultivators. Indian agriculture began to stagnate, result­ing in very low yields per acre at a time when agriculture
all over the world was being modernised. Hardly any modem inputs were used in India for agriculture. Agricultural education was also completely neglected. There was hardly any spread of primary education or even literacy in the rural areas.
So far agriculture had been a way of life rather than a business enterprise. But it now began to be influenced by commercial consid­erations, i.e. certain specialised crops began to be grown not for consumption but for sale in the national and the international markets. Now commercial crops like tobacco, jute, oilseeds, spices, etc. were grown in larger quantity. But the highest level of develop­ment was in the field of plantation industry, i.e. in tea, coffee, rubber, indigo etc. which were owned by the Europeans.