To what extent is it possible to characterise agricultural production in the sixteenth- seventeeth centuries as subsistence agriculture? Give reasons for your answer.
(a) During Mughal, India was basically an agricultural country. In the Mughal state of India a different varieties of crops were produced. In Bengal two varieties of rices were produced. But the focus on the cultivation of basic crops does not mean that only subsistence agriculture existed in medieval India.
(b) The Mughal state encouraged peasants to cultivate varieties of crops which brought in revenue especially cotton and sugarcane.
(c) Cotton was mainly grown in vast area which was spread over central India and the deccan plateau, whereas in Bengal sugarcane was mainly produced.
{d) Many varieties of cash crops such as oilseeds including mustard and lentils.
(e) An average peasant of that time grew both commercial and subsistence crops.
To what extent is it possible to characterise agricultural production in the sixteenth- seventeeth centuries as subsistence agriculture? Give reasons for your answer.
To what extent to do you think caste was a factor in influencing social and economic relations in agrarian society?
How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?(or)
Describe the lives of forest-dwellers in the 16-17th centuries.
On an outline map of world, mark the areas which had economic links with the Mughal Empire, and trace out possible routes of communication.
Discuss, with examples, the significance of monetary transactions during the period under consideration.
What are the problems in using the Ain as a source for reconstructing agrarian history? How do historians deal with this situation?
Examine the evidence that suggests that land revenue was important for the Mughal fiscal system.
Discuss the ways in which panchayat and village headmen regulated rural society.(or)
Explain the role of Panchayats in the Mughal rural Indian society during 16th-17th centuries.