| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The main objectives of the project are (1) to prepare a database for the study of regional structure of Bengal agrarian society under British colonial rule scanned from such official surveys as Final Reports on the Survey and Settlement Operations of several districts, Bengal Agricultural Statistics (1891-1945), Bengal Census(1872-1941), Risley Collection on Caste, etc., and (2) to make certain research on the basis of the database thus built-up. We selected three districts (Bakarganj, Faridpur and Dacca) out of 27 districts that constituted the Bengal Province for the present project.
Our analysis shows that (1) the selected districts had two to four inner sub-regions respectively in view of their ecological condition, (2) a sizeable portion of the district population were landless or land-poor and were often forced to cultivate the rented lands on share-cropping basis by landlords, and wealthy farmers, (3) the regional society of these districts underwent rapid changes towards the end of the 19^<th> century and thereafter as shown in the dynamic changes in population density, and rapid extension of education among the general residents, and (4) the driving forces of this historic social transformation include reclamation of dense forest and rapid extension of jute cultivation.
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