In respect to Balutedars, which of the statements given below are correct? 1. They were village servants and artisans. 2. They were employed by individual peasant family. 3. They existed in the Medieval Deccan and Maharashtra. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — C, 1 and 3 only. The balutedars were the hereditary village servants and artisans of the Maharashtra countryside — the bara balutedar, the twelve trades, covering the carpenter, blacksmith, potter, cobbler, barber, washerman, oil-presser, rope-maker, priest, astrologer and the village watch. That settles statement 1, and statement 3 too, since the arrangement belongs to the medieval Deccan and continued in Maharashtra until it was abolished by statute in 1958. Statement 2 is where the item is decided. A balutedar did not work for one peasant family — he served the village as a whole and was remunerated by the village, taking a customary share of the harvest in sheaves of corn and measures of grain rather than a wage for a job. That collective employment is the defining feature of the system, and it is what makes it comparable to the jajmani arrangements of northern India.
- (a)1 and 2 only — Accepts the false claim about individual employment and drops the correct regional and chronological placing. The balutedar's obligation ran to the village, not to a household.
- (b)2 and 3 only — Keeps the one wrong statement while rejecting the plainest true one — that the balutedars were village servants and artisans.
- (d)1, 2 and 3 — The all-of-them trap. Only statement 2 fails, and it fails on the point that matters most: the balutedars were maintained collectively by the village community.
The bara balutedar system was a hereditary division of village service in Maharashtra, in which twelve specified occupations were attached to the village and paid in kind from the harvest. It ran on obligation rather than contract: the trade descended in the family, the service was owed to the village, and the return came as a customary share of grain. Similar arrangements existed across India under other names, the jajmani system of the north being the closest parallel.
Two of the three statements here are safe, so the item turns entirely on who the balutedar's employer was. The tempting reading is that a craftsman must be hired by whoever needs his work, which would make it a household arrangement — but that is a market relationship, and this is not one. The balutedar was part of the village establishment, drawing from the village's produce, which is precisely why the system is discussed as a form of social organisation rather than as employment. It is also worth knowing that the arrangement was formally ended by statute in 1958, so a stem that speaks of it in the past tense is describing something that survived well into the modern period rather than a purely medieval institution.
- Bara balutedar means the twelve hereditary village trades of Maharashtra.
- The occupations included the astrologer, priest, barber, washerman, potter, carpenter, blacksmith, oil-presser, cobbler, rope-maker, water-carrier and the village watch.
- Balutedars served the village community as a whole and were paid in kind — sheaves of corn and measures of grain — not by individual peasant families.
- The system is the Maharashtra counterpart of the jajmani arrangements of northern India.
- It was formally abolished by statute in 1958.
The whole item rests on the employer: a village establishment paid in grain, not a household hiring a craftsman.
- Assuming a craftsman must have been hired by the household that used his work.
- Treating the system as purely medieval; it was abolished only in 1958.
- Counting the twelve trades too rigidly — lists vary between sources and some name additional roles.
As a statements item on who the balutedars were and who maintained them, or as a match between a regional service system and its home region.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under the bara balutedar arrangement of Maharashtra, the village servants were remunerated chiefly by
- (a)a cash salary from the state treasury
- (b)a customary share of the harvest paid in grain
- (c)revenue-free land granted by the Peshwa
- (d)piece-rate payment from each household served
Answer(b) a customary share of the harvest paid in grain — the obligation ran to the village as a whole, which maintained the balutedar in kind.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The bara balutedar system of Maharashtra is closest in principle to which one of the following?
- (a)The jajmani system of northern India
- (b)The ryotwari settlement of Madras
- (c)The mansabdari system of the Mughals
- (d)The dadni system of Bengal
Answer(a) The jajmani system of northern India — both rest on hereditary service owed to the village and repaid from its produce.