India on the eve of British Conquest

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Socio-Economic Conditions

• Eighteenth century India failed to make progress economically, socially or culturally
• India became a land of contrasts because extreme poverty and extreme luxury existed side by side.

Agriculture

• Though agriculture was technically backward, it was worked by the hard labour of peasants
• They were forced to pay exorbitant amounts to the state, the zamindars, the jagirdars, and the revenue-farmers
• But this worsened under British rule

Trade and Industry

• On account of being self-sufficient in handicrafts and agricultural products, India did not import foreign goods on a large scale.

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Imports

• Persian Gulf Region – pearls, raw silk, wool, dates, dried fruits, and rose water
• Arabia – coffee, gold, drugs, and honey
• China – tea, sugar, porcelain, and silk
• Tibet – gold, musk, and woollen cloth
• Africa – ivory and drugs
• Europe – woollen cloth, copper, iron, lead and paper

Exports

• Cotton textiles, raw silk and silk fabrics, hardware, indigo, saltpetre, opium, rice, wheat, sugar, pepper and other spices, precious stones, and drugs

Important Centres of Textile Industry

• Dacca, Murshidabad, Patna, Surat, Ahmedabad
• Kashmir was a centre of woollen manufactures.

Ship-building Industry

• Maharashtra, Andhra region and Bengal were the leaders in ship building.
• Indian shipping also flourished on the Kerala coast at Calicut and Quilon.
• European companies bought many Indian-made ships for their use.

Status of Education

• knowledge was confined to literature, law, religion, philosophy, and logic
• It excluded the study of physical and natural sciences, technology and geography
• Hindu and Muslim elementary schools were called pathshalas and maktabs respectively
• Children from the lower caste sometimes attended the schools, but female presence was rare

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Societal Set-up

• Society of 18th century India was characterised by traditional outlook and stagnation
• People were divided by caste, religion, region, tribe and language.
• The family system was primarily patriarchal and caste was the central feature of the social life of the Hindus
• The sharif Muslims consisting of nobles, scholars, priests and army affairs often looked down upon the ajlaf Muslims or the lower class Muslims.

Position of Women

• upper class women remained at home, lower class women worked in fields and outside their homes supplementing the family income.
• Ppurdah, sati, child marriage, polygamy did exist which hindered the progress of women.
• Life of Hindu widow was usually miserable.
• Evil of dowry was especially widespread in Bengal and Rajputana

Menace of Slavery

• Higher classes of Rajputs, Khatris and Kayasthas kept women slave for domestic work.
• Status of slaves in India was better than that in Europe.
• Slaves, were usually treated as hereditary servants
• European trading companies purchased slaves from the markets of Bengal, Assam and Bihar and took them to the European and American market

Development in Art, Architecture and Culture

• At Lucknow, Asaf-ud-Daula built the bada Imambara in 1784.
• Sawai Jai Singh built the pink city of Jaipur and five astronomical observatives at Delhi, Jaipur, Benares,
• Mathura and Ujjain. He also prepared a set of time-tables called Jij Muhammad-shahi, to help the people in the study of astronomy.
• In the south, in Kerala, the Padmanabhapuram Palace, famous for its architecture and mural paintings.
• Kanchan Nambiar was a noted Malayalam poet.
• The Tamil language was enriched by sittar poetry.
• Tayumanavar (1706-44), one of the best exponents of  sittar poetry, protested against the abuses of temple-rule and the caste system.
• Heer Ranjha, the romantic epic in Punjabi literature, was composed by Warris Shah.
• In Sindhi literature, Shah Abdul Latif composed Risalo, a collection of poems.

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