the changes, which included the introduction of the ryotwari system and other attempts to maximise revenue, deprived village headmen and other higher-status people of their role as revenue collectors and position as landholders, while also impacting on lower-status cultivators by depleting their crops and leaving them impoverished. the population came to the view that the british were taking their wealth and that those who were dependent on the traditional system no longer had a means of making a living. as the old order collapsed into disarray, the once-authoritative polygars, including narasimha reddy, became the focus of attention from sufferers, whose pleas fell on deaf british ears. the polygars saw a chance to mobilize peasant opposition both for genuine social reasons.