History · Ch 9 — Colonialism and the Countryside — Exploring Official Archives
The Deccan Riots Commission
The Deccan Riots Commission
The Deccan Riots Commission was set up not because the Bombay government wanted to understand the peasant revolt, but because the Government of India was still haunted by the memory of 1857. That fear forced action. The commission’s report, presented to the British Parliament in 1878, is now a key source for historians — but it is a source that must be read with caution.
The commission did thorough fieldwork. It held enquiries in the districts where the riots had spread, recorded statements from three groups: the peasants (ryots), the moneylenders (sahukars), and eyewitnesses. It also compiled statistical data on revenue rates, prices, and interest rates across different regions, and collected the reports that district collectors had already sent in. This makes the Deccan Riots Report a rich archive of official information.
But the report is not neutral. It was an official document, shaped by official concerns. The commission was specifically asked to judge one question: was the level of government revenue demand the cause of the revolt? After presenting all the evidence, the commission answered no. The government demand was not the cause of peasant anger. The blame, the report concluded, lay entirely with the moneylenders.
This pattern appears again and again in colonial records. The colonial government was persistently reluctant to admit that popular discontent ever arose from government action. Official reports are invaluable for reconstructing history, but they must always be read with care. They need to be juxtaposed with evidence from other kinds of sources: newspapers, unofficial accounts, legal records, and — wherever possible — oral sources.
A key caution for students …
Timeline.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1765 | English East India Company acquires the Diwani of Bengal |
| 1773 | Regulating Act passed by the British Parliament to regulate the Company |
| 1793 | Permanent Settlement in Bengal |
| 1800s | Santhals begin to come to the Rajmahal hills and settle there |
| 1818 | First revenue settlement in the Bombay Deccan |
| 1820s | Agricultural prices begin to fall |
| 1840s–50s | A slow process of agrarian expansion in the Bombay Deccan |
The painting by William Prinsep, dated 1820, shows a rural scene in colonial India. It is a landscape view, likely set in the Bengal countryside, where Prinsep worked as an artist and official. The scene includes a village with thatched huts, a water body such as a pond or river, and fields under cultivation. Peasants are shown engaged in everyday agricultural work — ploughing with bullocks, carrying loads, or tending cattle. A few trees, perhaps mango or palm, frame the background. There are no European figures or colonial buildings in the painting; the focus is entirely on Indian rural life.
The image closes the chapter’s gallery of visual sources on the colonial countryside. It serves as a contrast to the official documents and reports discussed in the text — like the Deccan Riots Report — which were produced by the colonial state to explain peasant unrest. While those records blamed moneylenders and avoided criticising government policy, Prinsep’s painting offers a romanticised, peaceful view of rural India. It shows the countryside as the British liked to imagine it: timeless, orderly, and untouched by the conflicts that the chapter actually analyses. …