India's agricultural sector( on the eve of the independence) exhibited four principals characteristics. Together these characteristics pointed to backwardness of the Indians agricultural as well as  its stagnation.

(1) Low Level of Productivity:

Level of the productivity (output per hectare of the land) was extremely low . So low , that agriculture could be easily characterize as backward. Low productivity implied low level of the output , despite large area under cultivation. 

(2) High Degree of Vulnerability :

Agriculture showed a high degree of vulnerability . Because , it was excessively depends upon the rainfall. Good rain implied the good output of agriculture , while poor rainfall implied poor output of the agricultures. No efforts was ever made under the British rule to develop permanent means of irrigations (including wells and canals).

(3) A Wedge between Owners of the Soils and Tillers of the Soil:

Agriculture, during the British Raj was characterized by a wedge between owners of the soils on the hand and the tillers of the soil  on the others. The owners were seldom the actual tillers of the soil. While the owners shared the the cost of the outputs. Owners, as crop sharers(and not the cost sharers) , were never committed to prosperity of agriculture ; They were only interested in maximizing their rental income ( in terms of shares of the outputs), The tillers of the soil were given barely enough for subsistence . Backwardness and stagnation of the agriculture was the obvious consequences.

(4) Uneconomic and Fragmented Landholding:

On the eve of independence ,Indians farmless were fragmented and scattered in pieces. Accordingly , most landholdings were uneconomic, yielding low surplus.

FACTORS CAUSING BACKWARDNESS AND STGNATION OF INDIAN AGRICULTURES DURING THE BRITISH RULE

(1) Land Revenue System under the British raj :

the British government in in India invented a unique system of the land revenue ,by setting up a triangular relationship among the government , the owners of the soil and the tiller of the soil. This was popularly known as zamindari systems of LAND REVENUE . According to this system ,the zamindars were to pay a fixed sum to the government as land revenue , and zamindars were absolutely tp extract as much from tillers of the soil as they could. The direct implication of this of land revenue and, the zamindars were absolutely free to as much as they could, zamindars resorted to unlimited exploitations of the tillers of the soil. They frequently raised the land revenue and ejected the existing tillers in case they objected to the raise.