Question

What was zabt?

Answer 1

Hint:
Source of income for the elites depended on the taxes collected by the zamindars from the peasants who worked hard day and night with super low or no wages.

Complete step by step solution:
Zabt was a revenue system which was introduced during the Mughal period. Most of the people in the medieval period depended on agriculture both for food and riches. Any kingdom’s prosperity depended on the riches of the ruler. These riches mainly came from the taxes collected from farmers for agriculture. So for a proper flow of collection of taxes, Mughals appointed zamindars for tax collections or revenue on land. This tax was known as Zabt.
Farmers paid taxes to their local chiefs or heads and those heads paid the same to their ruler workings as a link between the farmers and rulers. Each crop had a different revenue cost. This system also included taking careful surveys of crops and fields and prices cultivated for a 10 year period. On the basis of this, the prices of each crop were fixed beforehand. Provinces all over were divided into revenue circles having their own rates for different crops. This system helped to keep accounts. This system was applied in northern India, Malwa and some parts of Gujarat. This revenue system boosted rapid economic expansion. This is how moneylenders increasingly became active. Todarmal was the finance minister in the court of Akbar at that time and he kept a record of things.

Note:
As revenue was paid first to zamindars, they became very powerful and had authority over people. This power made them have power over the Mughals and if Mughals would have dared to exploit them, a rebellion would have taken place.