The Company needed Indian revenues to pay for its purchase of Indian handicrafts and other goods for export, meet the cost of the conquest of the whole of India and the consolidation of British rule pay for the employment of thousands of Englishmen in superior administrative and military positions at salaries that were fabulous by contemporary standards.

And to meet the costs of economic and administrative charges needed to enable colonialism to fully penetrate Indian villages and the far-flung areas.

This meant a steep rise in the burden of taxation on the India peasant. In fact, nearly all the major changes in the administration and judicial system till 1813 were geared to the collection of land revenues.

The main burden of providing money for the trade and profits of the Company, the cost of administration, and the wars of British expansion in India had to be borne by the Indian peasant or riot. In fact the British could not have conquered such a vast country as India if they had not taxed the peasant heavily.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The Indian state had since time immemorial taken a part of the agricultural produce as land revenue. It had done so either directly through its servants or indirectly through intermediaries, such as zamindars, revenue farmers, etc., who collected the land revenue from the cultivator and kept a part of it as their commission.

These intermediaries were primarily collectors of land revenue, although they did sometimes own some land in the area from which they collected revenue.