Bihar's Economy Since Independence — Zamindari, Freight Equalisation and 2000

What Bihar Inherited in 1947

This is Prelims area 7 — *changes in Bihar's economy since Independence* — and it only makes sense if you know what was being changed.

In 1947 Bihar was agrarian, zamindari-bound, mineral-rich in the south, and thin on industry. The industrial pockets were sugar in north Bihar and Dalmianagar in Rohtas.

The root of the land problem was the Permanent Settlement of 1793, introduced by Lord Cornwallis and applied to Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. It fixed the revenue demand forever and made the zamindar the owner. Its legacy was:

• ›absentee landlordism — the owner lived in town, not on the land
• ›sub-infeudation — layer upon layer of intermediaries between owner and tiller
• ›no investment — a fixed demand gave the zamindar no reason to improve anything
• ›insecure tenancy — the man who actually farmed had no recorded right

Elsewhere India got ryotwari (Munro) and mahalwari (Holt Mackenzie). Bihar got the version that was hardest to undo.

1. Which policy is most often held responsible for neutralising Bihar's mineral advantage and holding back its industrialisation?

2. The Patna High Court struck down the Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950. Parliament's response was to:

3. The appointed day for the creation of Jharkhand, 15 November 2000, was chosen because it is the birth anniversary of:

4. Of the three states created in 2000, which was formed FIRST?

5. In Bihar, an unrecorded sharecropper is known as a:

6. Bihar was the first state in India to announce a dedicated policy for:

7. Barauni Refinery in Begusarai went on stream in 1964 with the technical collaboration of:

8. In a single year Bihar's growth is reported both as 14.9% and as 8.6%. The difference between the two figures is because: