The Decline of the Bengal Zamindars

"This book examines the interaction between the landed aristocracy in nineteenth-century Bengal and colonial rule, with reference to Midnapore." "The author questions the standard argument in existing historiography that, as collaborators, zamindars prospered under colonial rule. He argues that they passed through a prolonged crisis in the period 1870-1920, with a gradual decline in their social power. A high revenue demand, arbitrarily imposed on them by the colonial state and forcibly extracted, a recalcitrant peasantry which did not allow zamindars to increase rents commensurate with the revenue demand, and the zamindars' failure to appropriate the colonial legal system - all these were factors that contributed to this decline." "This book will interest students of history, especially economic history and the history of colonial land relations."--BOOK JACKET.