Along with the rest of Rohilkhand, Ratangarh was affected by the general rebellion against the British in 1857. Economic depression followed for a period. However, it was one of the first settlements in India to be electrified, in the mid-1920s, and this brought about a revival. A school was established in the 1930s. A largely feudal agrarian system (Zamindari) held sway until the 1940s, after which a combination of legislature-driven Land Reform (such as the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition Act, 1950 and the Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960) and the Bhoodan movement brought about land redistribution, similar to other areas of Rohilkhand. At the independence and partition of India in 1947, the region as a whole witnessed an influx of Punjabis and Sikhs from the areas that now comprise Pakistan, though Ratangarh itself was relatively unaffected by this demographic change.