At the end of the 18th century, the zamindars faced a lot of crises. But at this time the jotedars (a group of rich peasantry) were improving their situation. Francis Buchanan made a survey in the Dinajpur district of North Bengal. In his report, he gives a good description of these jotedars. In different places they were called by different names like how ladar and mandal. Soon they became important people in the villages of Bengal.
By the start of the 19th century, jotedars became owners of extensive lands. Thousands of acres of land were occupied by them.
Local trade, giving money on interest, etc. were controlled by jotedars. Thus they were able to exercise control over the poor village peasants.
In the lands of jotedars, share cropping was the practice. Those who did the cultivation in these lands were called ‘adhiyar’ Jotedars often took more than half of the total harvest as their share.
