Bits and Pieces

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

History's role in today's Bihar
Q | ...as part of the earliest areas conquered by the British, it was placed under the Permanent Settlement (of 1793). This meant the land was not held by the farmers but by zamindars, who had the right to collect revenue and pay a percentage of that to the British.

The zamindars began to exploit the farmers for more and more and also, they themselves did nothing to develop the land's productivity. In fact, zamindari lifestyle meant doing nothing. Any kind of physical activity was looked down upon, and this can still be seen in Bengal.

The rest of India had the ryotwari system where the land belonged to the farmers, who paid taxes to the state directly and were therefore interested in keeping the productivity high | Q

posted by pradeep | Permalink | (4)

4 Comments:

Solns: "reduce social inequity, land reforms, sub-nationalism". While those happen, as Dr Shaibal Gupta mentions, the rest of the country and the Central Govt should pay attention to the state's problem and reach out.

Anand has read quite a bit about Bihar's issues. He could enlighten us.

By pradeep, at 11:39 PM

if ADMK and DMK continue to rule TN, one day we will also become like Bihar.

By saranyan r, at 12:10 AM

Saranyan
There is a fundamental difference between TN and Bihar:the literacy rate. As long as there are educated people, any government can effect only a certain amount of activity or inactivity. In Bihar, education is the biggest problem. Combined with poverty, the state is in shambles and no one bothered to make it right. From a political perspective, it is convenient to sway a bunch of idiots than literate masses. All you need is to lift a gun or milk a cow in your house.

Very sad state of affairs.

By The Last Blogger, at 9:55 AM

Thoughts.

Hope we get to do something out there, pretty soon.

By pradeep, at 6:37 AM