Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : Some of the peasant rebellions in pre-1857 India were participated exclusively by the tribal population whose political autonomy and control over local resources were threatened by the policies of the British rule. Reason (R) : In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the revenue reform of the company’s government had fundamentally affected and altered the Indian rural society. In the context of these statements which of the following is correct ?

Option 2 : Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

The first statement talks about the peasant and tribal resistance which was a characteristic feature pre – 1857 was mainly because the British policies had entirely eroded the traditional rights of the people inhabiting an area. The emphasis on profit maximization angered the peasants and tribals alike as the new laws completely disregarded their livelihood practices.

The Sanyasi and the Chuar Uprising in the Bengal and Bihar regions which started in the 1760s marked the beginning of such resistances which continued year after year, while resistances were a regular feature, they cannot be linked to each other, but the common feature to all of these was a struggle for their traditional rights and practices.

The peasant and the tribal community lived in close proximity to each other in a village or town, and the impact of the colonial policies was felt by both groups but in a slightly different way. Thus therefore we see numerous peasant as well as tribal revolts during this time and sometimes the identities of the peasant and tribal may have overlapped but we also know of long drawn tribal resistance which specifically focused on the issue of the tribal land and forest rights such as the Santhal Rebellion, Bhil Uprising, Kol, Uprising as well as the Mappila Resistance.

The second statement is in respect to the changes brought about by the land revenue systems of the British colonial government, which although gave land rights to the zamindars. It also made them very susceptible to losing all their lands if they failed to pay revenue to the state. Thus the zamindar’s position was also precarious as they focused on extracting maximum revenue from the peasant. This system greatly impoverished the agricultural system which could not be diversified and the condition of the peasant deteriorated due to heavy taxation and no security to livelihood. The rural society saw turmoil and great hardships as the faulty policies of the colonial state did not take into account its impact on the socio-economic structure of an agrarian economy.

Thus while both the statements are correct, they do not explain each other. Hence Option 2 is the correct answer.