PEASANT DIFFERENTIATION 33 106 W W Hunter, op cit. 107 Roy, op cit, p 59. 108 Hunter, op cit, Vol IV, p 306; Vol IX, p 116; Vol VII, p 398. 109 Ibid, Vol IV, p 306; Vol IX. pp 117, 398. 110 Ibid, Vol X,p306. 111 Ibid, Vol VII, p 82; Vol IV. p 306. 112 Ibid, Vol III, p 86. 113 Ibid, Vols III and IV. 114 Ibid, Vol IV, pp 65-66, 241, 343; Vol HI, p 347. 115 However "rural indebtedness was far from a casual phenomenon before British rule and rural indtbtc dness was perhaps far more widespread than has sometimes been assumed". (See Eenoy Bhusan Chaudhuri, "The Process of Depeasantization in Bengal and Bihar, 188'")-1947", The Indian Historical Review, Vol II, No 1, July, 1975. pp 105-165). 116 Abu Abdullah (op cit, p 90) also mentions 'demographic differentiation* in a pre-industrial society, following Theodore Shanin, The Awkward Class: Political Sociology of Peasantry in a Developing Society, Russia 1910-1925, London, 1972. But surh differentiation can work both ways—by increasing pressure on available land in a land scarce situation, and by increasing family labour power necessary for clearing forests, and occupying chars (alluvial tracts emerging with the change in the course of a river). 117 The consent of the village panchayat was necessary to sell land. See Nihar Ranjan Roy, Bangaseer Jtihas, quoted in Ramkrishna Mukherjee, The Dynamics of a Rural Society—a study of the economic structure—Bengal villages. Berlin, Akademic-Vcrlag, 1957, p 19. 118 See,Amal Kumar Chattopadhyay, Survey in the Bengal Presidency y 1772-1843, London, 1977, pp 14-15, where he argues that agrestic slavery became widespread only after the 1770 famine. 119 Ibid. 120 See W W Hunter, op cit, Vols I-XX. 121 Excepting for one famine in 1642-43 which was confined to Dacca and was caused by failure of the supply system, and the one in 1751. See Irfan Habib, op cit, 1963, pp 67 and 109. 122 The records of the Mughal period talk about enormous herds and extensive pasturage in Bengal, regular trade links with the rest of the country, and plenty of paddy, fish, vegetables and ghi (a milk product) to eat. See Irfan Habib, op cit, pp 51, 53. 64, 91, 97. 123 Radhakamal Makherjee, The Economic History of India, 1600-1800, Allahabad, 1967. pp 19-20. 124 Between 1 per cent and 2 per cent per month, which was considerably lower than the prevailing norm. See Sinha, op cit, Vol II, pp 86, 102, 108. 125 In the story told by poet Mukundram describing Burdwan in the sixteenth century, he talks about the assessment of his land by the settlement under Todarmall, how, during assessment, waste lands were measured as arable and a higher rent was imposed; three-fourths of a bigha was measured as one bigha, how poddars (official rent-rcceivers-cum-village moneylenders) gave about 2^ annas less for each rupee they gave and charged one pie per day for loan they advanced, and how the indebted subject trying to run away was harassed and put to prison. See J N Dasgupta. Bengal in the Sixteenth Century AD, Caluctta, 1941, pp 61-66. The defaulters were punished by putting them between two swords (ibid, pp 71-72). The officers were in league with the rich, w«-re oppressive and evil (p 79). The difference between the rich and the poor was more marked in areas which were agriculturally more prosperous or which c?.me under the impact of the towns and trade centres (p 67).