Social Conditions Of India In The 18th Century

India in the 18th century did not progress at a rate that would have saved the country from collapse economically, socially, or culturally. During the first half of the 18th century, the state's increasing revenue demands, the officials' oppression, the greed and rapacity of the nobles, revenue-farmers, and zamindars, the rival armies' marches and counter marches, and the depredations of the numerous adventurers roaming the land made the people's lives quite wretched.

 

•    India was also a land of contrasts back then. Extreme poverty coexisted with extreme wealth and opulence. On the one hand, there were the wealthy and powerful nobles who lived in luxury and comfort, and on the other, backward, oppressed, and impoverished peasants who lived on a meagre subsistence level and were subjected to a variety of injustices and inequities.

 

•    Nonetheless, life for the Indian masses was generally better at this time than it had been after more than a century of British rule at the end of the nineteenth century.

 

•    During the 18th century, Indian agriculture was technologically backward and stagnant. For centuries, production techniques had remained unchanged. The peasant tried to compensate for his lack of technical knowledge by working extremely hard. 

 

•    He did, in fact, perform production miracles, and he rarely ran out of land. However, he rarely reaped the benefits of his labour; despite the fact that it was his produce that supported the rest of society, his own reward was woefully inadequate. The state, the zamindars, the jagirdars, and the revenue-farmers all tried to get as much money out of him as possible. This was true of the Mughal state as well as the Maratha or Sikh chiefs or other Mughal successors.

 

•    Even though Indian villages were largely self-sufficient and imported little from outside, and communication was primitive, the Mughals conducted extensive trade within the country as well as between India and other Asian and European countries. 

 

•    India imported pearls, raw silk, wool, dates, dried fruits, and rose water from the Persian Gulf region; coffee, gold, drugs, and honey from Arabia; tea, sugar, porcelain, and silk from China; gold, musk, and woollen cloth from Tibet; tin from Singapore; spices, perfumes, arrack, and sugar from the Indonesian islands; and ivory and drugs from Africa. Cotton textiles, India's most important export, were famous all over the world for their quality and were in high demand everywhere. Raw silk and silk fabrics, hardware, indigo, saltpetre, opium, rice, wheat, sugar, pepper, and other spices, precious stones, and drugs were also exported from India.

 

•    India did not import many foreign goods because it was mostly self-sufficient in handicrafts and agricultural products. However, its industrial and agricultural products found a steady market abroad, so it exported more than it imported, and its trade was balanced by silver and gold imports. India was even known as a precious metals sink.

 

•    Throughout the 18th century, constant warfare and disruption of law and order in many areas harmed the country's internal trade while disrupting its foreign trade to some extent and in some directions. Many trading centres were looted by power rivals as well as foreign invaders.

 

•    Traders and their caravans were regularly looted along many of the trade routes, which were infested with organised bands of robbers. The marauders even made the road between the two imperial cities of Delhi and Agra dangerous. 

 

•    Furthermore, as autonomous provincial regimes and a plethora of local chiefs arose, the number of custom houses or chowkies exploded. 

 

•    Every ruler, no matter how small or powerful, tried to boost his revenue by levying high customs duties on goods entering or passing through his lands. All of these factors had a negative impact on trade, though it was much less than widely assumed. 

 

•    Internal trade was also harmed by the impoverishment of the nobles, who were the largest consumers of luxury goods in which trade was conducted.

 

•    Political factors that harmed trade also harmed urban industries. Many prosperous cities, which were centres of thriving industry, were sacked and destroyed. Nadir Shah plundered Delhi; Ahmad Shah Abdali plundered Lahore, Delhi, and Mathura; the Jats plundered Agra; the Maratha chiefs plundered Surat and other cities in Gujarat and the Deccan; the Sikhs plundered Sarhind, and so on.

 

•    Similarly, as the fortunes of their patrons declined, artisans catering to the needs of the feudal class and the court suffered. 

 

•    In some parts of the country, the decline of domestic and international trade also hit them hard. Nonetheless, some industries in other parts of the country benefited from increased trade with Europe as a result of European trading companies' activities.

 

•    Despite this, India remained a manufacturing powerhouse. The skill of Indian artisans was still renowned throughout the world. India continued to produce cotton and silk fabrics, sugar, jute, dyestuffs, mineral and metallic products such as arms, metal wares, saltpetre, and oils on a large scale.

 

•    Dacca and Murshidabad in Bengal, Patna in Bihar, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Broach in Gujarat, Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh, Burhanpur in Maharashtra, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Lucknow, and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Multan and Lahore in Punjab, Masulipatam, Aurangabad, Chicacole, and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore in Mys Kashmir was known for its woollen mills. 

 

•    Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Bengal all had thriving shipbuilding industries. “In shipbuilding, they probably taught the English far more than they learned from them,” an English observer wrote about the great skill of Indians in this regard.

 

•    Many Indian-built ships were purchased by European companies for their use. Indeed, at the turn of the century, India was one of the most important centres of global trade and industry, prompting Peter the Great of Russia to exclaim: “Bear in mind that the commerce of India is the commerce of the world and.., .he who can exclusively command it is the dictator of Europe.”

 

•    In 18th century India, education was not completely neglected, but it was largely inadequate. It was old-fashioned and out of touch with the fast-paced changes in the West. Its knowledge was limited to literature, law, religion, philosophy, and logic, with physical and natural sciences, technology, and geography being excluded. It was also unconcerned with a factual and rational examination of society. Original thought was discouraged in all fields, and ancient knowledge was emphasised.

 

•    Higher education centres were located throughout the country and were typically funded by nawabs, rajas, and wealthy zamindars. Higher education among Hindus was based on Sanskrit learning and was mostly limited to Brahmins. Persian education was equally popular among Hindus and Muslims because it was based on the official language of the time.

 

•    Elementary education was widely available. It was taught to Hindus in town and village schools, and to Muslims in maktabs in mosques, by Maulvis. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught to young students in those schools. Though higher castes such as Brahmins, Rajputs, and Vaishyas were more likely to receive elementary education, many people from lower castes also received it.

 

•    Surprisingly, literacy levels were not lower than they were later under the British. Although primary education was insufficient by today's standards, it sufficed for the limited purposes of the time. 

 

•    One of the most appealing aspects of education back then was that teachers held a high level of respect in the community. It had a negative aspect in that girls were rarely educated, though some upper-class women were exceptions.