A History of Agriculture in India v2.c85.s6.7

v2.c85.s6.7

The flight of peasants from the land intensified during the reign of Aurangzeb. With the decrease in the number of peasants, the income of the assignees, the jagirdars, was reduced. The jagirdars, to make good their loss, put increased pressure on the working peasants. Moreover, the practice developed of selling governments of provinces for immense sums in hard cash. Hence, it naturally became the principal object of the individual thus appointed Governor, to obtain repayment of the purchase-money, which he had borrowed at a ruinous rate of interest. This in turn resulted in more repression on the cultivators.