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Which of the following terms were used in the Indo-Persian sources of the Mughal period to denote a peasant?1. Raiyat2. Asami3. Muzarian4. MajurSelect the correct answer using the code given below:

A.
1 and 2 only
B.
2 and 3 only
C.
1, 2 and 3 only
D.
1, 3 and 4 only

Solution:

The correct answer is 1, 2, and 3 only.Peasants and their landsThe term which Indo-Persian sources of the Mughal period most frequently used to denote a peasant was raiyat (plural, riaya) or muzarian. In addition, we also encounter the terms Kisan or Asami. Hence, Option 3 is correct.Sources of the seventeenth century refer to two kinds of peasants ‚¬œ khud-kashta and pahi-kashta.The former were residents of the village in which they held their lands.The latter were non-resident cultivators who belonged to some other village but cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis.People became pahi-kashta either out of choice for example when terms of revenue in a distant village were more favourable ‚¬œ or out of compulsion ‚¬œ for example, forced by economic distress after a famine.Peasant lands were bought and sold in the same way as the lands of other property owners.This nineteenth-century description of peasant holdings in the Delhi-Agra region would apply equally to the seventeenth century.The cultivating peasants (asamis), who plough up the fields, mark the limits of each field, for identification and demarcation, with borders of (raised) earth, brick and thorn so that thousands of such fields may be counted in a village.Additional InformationMajurDeep inequities on the basis of caste and other castelike distinctions meant that the cultivators were a highly heterogeneous group.Among those who tilled the land, there was a sizeable number who worked as menials or agricultural labourers (majur).

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