Commercialisation of Agriculture and Famines

The British pushed Indian farmers to grow cash crops for export, which enriched traders and moneylenders but left peasants indebted and exposed to famines.

What commercialisation means

Farmers began to grow crops for sale in the market (and not only for their own food). The main commercial crops were cotton, jute, indigo, opium, tea, coffee, sugarcane, oilseeds and groundnut.

Causes

• Demand for raw materials in Britain's factories and for export.
• The American Civil War (1861 to 1865) cut off supplies of American cotton, causing a cotton boom in India.
• Railways and ports connected farms to world markets.
• Fixed money revenue forced peasants to sell their crops quickly.

Effects

• Peasants did not benefit. Moneylenders and traders took most of the profit. Peasants got into debt and often lost land.
• Food grain output fell per head, and dependence on markets created hunger when prices rose.
• Regions began to specialise (jute in Bengal, cotton in the Deccan, indigo in Bihar, tea in Assam). India became a supplier of raw material and a buyer of British goods.
• The indigo planters' forced "tinkathia" system led to the Indigo Revolt (1859 to 1860), a major event.

Famines under British rule