RAS question
The Pabna Agrarian Uprising (1873) was against:
Correct answer: (A) Zamindars who enhanced rents illegally.
The Pabna Agrarian Uprising of 1873 was directed against zamindars who illegally enhanced rents and used illegal means to evict tenants.
Explanation
The Pabna Agrarian Uprising arose in Bengal when zamindars tried to deprive ryots of occupancy rights granted under the Act of 1859. Zamindars used rent enhancement beyond legal limits through cesses, short-changing in measurement, costly legal affairs and forced eviction. In May 1873, peasants in Pabna formed an agrarian league to resist these unjust demands, raise funds for legal battles and organise non-payment of rent while keeping the resistance legal and peaceful. This is why the target was not British revenue officers in general, but the zamindari layer enforcing illegal rent demands. The Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 was partly a response to this unrest.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Indigo planters belong to a separate indigo-agitation context, while Pabna is described as resistance to zamindars' rent enhancement, cesses and eviction methods.
- (C) British revenue officers were not the direct target; the Pabna unrest specifically challenged zamindars who were denying occupancy rights and raising rents illegally.
- (D) Money-lenders are not identified as the specific target of the Pabna movement; the dispute centred on zamindars' unjust rent and eviction practices.
Concept
This tests peasant and agrarian movements in modern Indian history, especially anti-zamindari resistance under colonial land-tenure systems. It recurs in RAS because such movements connect social protest, tenancy rights and later legislative reform.