RAS question
The Bijolia Peasant Movement was primarily directed against:
Correct answer: (A) Excessive land revenue cesses and begar (forced labour).
The Bijolia Peasant Movement was primarily directed against excessive land-revenue exactions, multiple cesses and begar imposed on peasants in the Bijolia jagir of Mewar.
Explanation
The Bijolia agitation arose from the peasants' burden under the jagirdari order in Mewar, not from a British zamindari settlement. The immediate burden included 84 different cesses and begar. Bijolia was a jagir of the former Mewar state, and the movement was against excessive land-revenue exactions, with land revenue and other taxes as the main issues. Later inquiry recommendations included abolition of some taxes and begar. Therefore, the best answer is the option that combines oppressive revenue cesses with forced labour, because that captures the actual target of the peasant protest.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) The movement was against the jagirdar's oppressive revenue system in the Mewar jagir, not a British-imposed zamindari system.
- (C) Commercialisation of agriculture is not identified as the grievance behind the Bijolia agitation.
- (D) The Permanent Settlement is not connected with the Bijolia movement; the issue here was revenue exactions, cesses and begar in a Mewar jagir.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan's peasant movements under princely-state feudal structures. It recurs in RAS because Bijolia is a standard example of agrarian protest against jagirdari exactions rather than a direct anti-British revenue settlement struggle.