the ppesence of this Book
thej.m. kelly
has Been ma6e possiBle
thpouqh the qeneposity
Stephen B. Roman
From the Library of Daniel Binchy
LAND-SYSTEMS
OF
BRITISH INDIA
YOL. I.
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AMEN CORNER, E.G.
(JUw ?)orft
112 FOURTH AVENUE
THE
LAND-SYSTEMS
OF
BRITISH INDIA
BEING
A MANUAL OF THE LAND-TENURES AND OF THE
SYSTEMS OF LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION
PREVALENT IN THE SEVERAL PROVINCES
BY
B. H. BADEN-POWELL, C.I.E.
F.R.S.E., M.R.A.S.
LATE OF THE BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, AND ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE
CHIEF COURT OF THE PANJ^B
WITH MAPS
VOL. \
BOOK I: GENERAL. BOOK II: BENGAL
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1892
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
SIR DIETRICH BRANDIS, K.C.I. E., PH.D., F.R.S.
(LATE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF FORESTS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA)
I DEDICATE THESE VOLUMES
AS A TRIBUTE OF PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP
AND OF ADMIRATION FOR AN OFFICIAL CAREER
WHICH, MARKED THROUGHOUT BY DEVOTION TO THE PUBLIC GOOD
HAS BORNE FRUIT IN LASTING BENEFITS
TO THE INDIAN EMPIRE
NOTICE
IN 1882, the Government of India printed at Calcutta
a Manual of the Land -Tenures and Land-Revenue
Systems of British India, which was written by me under
the orders of Government. The edition was exhausted in
two or three years ; but as about that time great changes
in the law were under consideration, it was thought
desirable to await the passing of the Bengal Tenancy Act
(1885), the Oudh Rent Act (1886), and the Panjab Land-
Revenue and Tenancy Acts (1887) — to say nothing of
minor enactments — before preparing a new edition.
When (in 1888-9) things seemed ripe for a new issue
corrected and brought up to date, I found that so much
had to be altered and added, and that such improvements
might be made, especially in the chapters on Land-
Tenures, that it would be better to write a new book.
The present work is therefore independent of the original
volume, except as regards a very few pages. It has also
been illustrated by maps. In this form it is much larger,
and may be less adapted for the purposes of some officials
who have to pass an examination in Land-Revenue subjects :
on the other hand, it will have become, I hope, much better
suited to the needs of others ; and it is certainly more
Vlll NOTICE.
complete as a general handbook of the Land-Systems of
British India.
As regards Forest-Officers and others for whom the
present work is too detailed, or contains too much on
branches of Revenue work — such as Assessment — with
which they are not practically concerned, it will be easy
to meet their requirements by the subsequent issue of a
' Primer ' or Shorter Manual especially written for them.
B. H. B. P.
OXFORD :
March, 1892.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
L.R. = Land- Revenue. S. = Settlement.
VOL. I.— GENERAL, BENGAL.
BOOK L— GENERAL.
;HAP. PAGE.
I. — INTRODUCTORY . . . . . . 1-29
II. — OF THE PROVINCES UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF
INDIA, AND HOW THEY WERE CREATED . 30-75
III. — OF THE INDIAN LEGISLATURES, AND THE LAWS
BY WHICH INDIA is GOVERNED . . 76-93
IV. — A GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURES OF
BRITISH INDIA ..... 94-240
SECT. i. — Nature of the Subject ... 94
,, n. — The Village ..... 104
,, in. — Tenures arising out of L.-R. grants
and L.-R. farming . . . 179
„ iv. — Modification of tenures by super im-
position of new interests . . 191
„ v. — The relation of Landlord and Tenant . 206
,, vi. — The nature of property in land . . 216
V. — A GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND -REVENUE
SYSTEMS ...... 241-386
SECT. i. — Introductory . . . . . 241
„ ii. — Origin of the L.-R. .... 246
„ in. — Ancient authorities regarding the
'King's share' .... 264
X TABLE OP CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
SECT. iv. — The beginning of regular Assessment
under Native rule . . . 274
„ v. — The beginning of British Systems . 281
„ vi. — The main principles of the Bengal
Settlement and what has resulted
from them ..... 286
„ vn. — Eesults of the acquisition of other
Provinces . . . . . 291
„ vizi. — The machinery of British L.-K. Ad-
ministration. . . . . 323
„ ix. — Resum£ of the principles of L.-R.
Assessment . . . . . 328
„ x. — The modern question of a general
Permanent Settlement . . . 340
„ xi. — The Department of Agriculture and
Revenue ..... 349
„ xii. — Reform in Procedure for Re-Settle-
ments 355
,, xui. — Suspension and remission of Land-
Revenue ..... 369
„ xiv. — Conclusion . . . . . 373
Appendix. — (Extract from the Gazette of India of
3 ist March, 1888, being a review of the later L.-R.
Administration by the Finance Member of the Governor-
General's Council) . . . . . . . 376
BOOK II.— BENGAL.
I. — THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. . . . 389-442
II. — THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS . . . 443-500
SECT. i. — Introductory . . . . . 443
,, n. — The Temp. S. Law and Procedure . 450
,, m. — The Orissa Settlements . . . 473
„ iv. — The Waste Land Rules . . . 479
„ v. — The L.-R. System of Chittagong . 489
„ vi. — „ „ of the Chutiya Nag-
pur Districts . . . . . 493
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI
CHAP. PAGE
SECT. vii. — The L.-E. System of the Santal Per- 496
gunnahs ......
,, vin. — ,, „ of Jalpaiguri and
Darjiling ..... 498
III. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 501-597
SECT. i. — General remarks . . . . 501
„ ii. — The Zammdar Landlord . . . 504
,, in. — Other proprietary tenures . . 524
,, iv. — Eevenue-free Holdings . . . 527
„ v. — Proprietary tenures of modern origin . 532
,, vi. — ' Tenures ' (in a special sense) . . 533
,, vn. — Laud-tenures of Chittagong . . 554
„ vin. — „ „ . Orissa . . . 561
ix.— „ „ Chutiya Nagpur . 574
,, x. — ,, „ Santal Pergunnahs , 588
IV. — THE KELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT . 598-661
V. — THE LAND-EEVENUE OFFICERS . . . 662-680
VI. — LAND-KEVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE . 681-699
VOL. II.
BOOK IIL—THE SYSTEM OF VILLAGE OH
MAHAL SETTLEMENTS.
PART I.— THE NOETH-WESTEEN PEOVINCES
AND OUDH.
I.— THE L.-E, SETTLEMENT (N.-W. P.) . . 1-97
SECT. i. — Introductory ..... i
,, ii. — Early Eevenue History (1801-1833) . 11
„ in. — L.-R. Settlement Procedure . 27
,, iv. — Principles of Assessment ... 41
,, v. — Arrangements following the Assessment 81
„ vi. — Land Eecords prepared at S. . 84
Appendix. — Eules for Assessment framed under
Act XIX of 1873 . 92
Xll TABLE OP CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
II. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 98-194
SECT. i. — General Remarks .... 98
„ ii. — The Village-Tenures .... 108
,, in. — Revenue-free Holdings . . . 154
„ iv. — The Taluqdari or Double Tenure . 157
„ v. — Tenants ...... 167
III. — THE OUDH LAND-SYSTEM .... 195-267
PART i. — The Land-Tenures .... 196-255
„ ii. — The L.-R. Settlement . . . 255-267
IV. — LAND-EEVENUE OFFICERS, THEIR BUSINESS
AND PROCEDURE (N.-W. P. AND OUDH) . 268-305
V. — ON CERTAIN SPECIAL DISTRICTS IN THE N.-W. P. 306-3 18
SECT. i. — South Mirzapur .... 306
,, ii. — Kumaon and Garhwal . . . 308
,, in. — The Tarai 315
„ iv. — Jaonsar Bawar . . . . . 316
PART II.— AJMEE-MEEWAEA.
I. — HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE .... 319-326
II. — THE TENURE OF LAND ..... 327-330
III. — THE BRITISH LAND SYSTEM .... 331-341
IV. — ADMINISTRATIVE AND L.-E. SYSTEM . . 342—367
PART III.— THE CENTEAL PEOVINCES.
I. — THE OLD SETTLEMENTS ..... 368-405
II. — THE NEW SETTLEMENTS .... 406—439
III. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 440-499
IV. — THE L.-E. OFFICERS, THEIR BUSINESS AND
PROCEDURE ...... 500-531
PART IV.— THE PAN JAB.
I. — THE L.-E. SETTLEMENTS . . . . 532-608
II. — THE LAND TENURES ..... 609-726
SECT. i. — General Considerations . . . 609
„ ii.— The N.-W. Frontier Tract . . 633
I TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xlll
CHAP. PAGE
SECT. in. — The Southern River Tract . . 657
„ iv. — The Central Districts . . 665
„ v. — The Cis-Sutlej Districts . . 677
vi.— The S.-E. Frontier (Delhi Districts) . 684
„ vn. — The Hill Districts . . . . 692
„ viii. — The Double Tenure . . . 697
,, ix. — Revenue-free Holdings . . . 698
„ x. — Tenants ..... 703
,, xi. — The Special Law and Local features
of the Hazara District . . . . 722
III. — THE L.-R. OFFICIALS, THEIR BUSINESS AND
PROCEDURE 727-771
VOL. III.
BOOK IV.— THE EAIYATWAEl AND
ALLIED SYSTEMS.
PART I— MADRAS.
I. — THE EARLY SYSTEM OF L.-R. ADMINISTRATION 1-50
IT. — THE MODERN SETTLEMENT SYSTEM . . 51-83
III. — THE L.-R. OFFICIALS, THEIR BUSINESS AND
PROCEDURE ...... 84—107
IV. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 108-194
SECT. i. — History of the Madras Village . . 109
,, ii. — The Raiyatwari Tenure of the present day 128
„ in. — The Zamindari and other Landlord
Tenures ..... 130
,, iv. — The Tenures depending on L.-R. grant 139
,, v. — The Tenure of Waste Lands . . 141
„ vi. — Tenancies and Under-Tenancies . . 142
„ vn. — South Canara . . . . . 143
„ vin. — Malabar . . . . . . 151
„ ix. — The Nflgiri District . . . 184
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAP. PART II.— BOMBAY (AND SINDH). PAGE
I. — THE SURVEY SETTLEMENT .... 197-247
II. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 248-306
SECT. I. — Introductory ..... 248
„ ii. — Village Tenures . . . . 251
,, in. — Modern legal definition of the Village
Landholder's right . . . 269
„ iv. — Double Tenures . . . . 275
,, v. — ' Alienated ' Lands . . . . 298
,, vi. — Eights in Trees .... 304
III. — THE L.-E. OFFICERS, THEIR BUSINESS AND
PROCEDURE ...... 307-320
IV. — THE LAND-TENURES AND S. OF SINDH . . 321-344
PART III.— BEEAE.
I. — THE SETTLEMENT ...... 345-356
II. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 357-382
SECT. i. — Introductory . . . . . 357
„ n. — Village Tenures . . . . 358
,, ni. — Tenure by Office . . . . 372
,, iv. — Tenure by Grant . . . . 376
III. — THE L.-E. OFFICERS, THEIR BUSINESS AND
PROCEDURE ...... 383-391
PART IV.— ASSAM.
I. — INTRODUCTORY ...... 392-395
II. — THE ASSAM VALLEY OR ASSAM PROPER
(History, Land-Tenures, L.-E. Settlement) . 396-429
III. — THE SPECIAL DISTRICTS .... 430-457
SECT. i. — Goalpara ..... 430
n.— Cachar . • • 433
„ in.— Sylhet . 443
„ iv. — The Hill Districts . . . . 451
IV. — THE L.-E. OFFICERS, THEIR BUSINESS AND
PROCEDURE ...... 458-464
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
XV
CHAP. PART V.— COOEG. PAGE
I. — GENERAL HISTORY ..... 465-468
IT. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 469-479
TIT. — L.-K. ADMINISTRATION ..... 480-482
PART VI.-BUEMA.
I. — GENERAL FEATURES or THE PROVINCE . . 483-488
II. — THE LAND-TENURES ..... 489-508
III. — THE L.-E. SETTLEMENT .... 509-526
IV. — THE L.-E. OFFICERS, THEIR BUSINESS AND
PROCEDURE . . . . 527-533
V. — UPPER BURMA ...... 534—544
VI. — THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS . . 545-548
INDEX OF SUBJECTS (ENGLISH) . . . 549-587
INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND GLOSSAEY OF
TEEMS (VERNACULAR) .... 589-632
LIST OF MAPS, ETC.
VOL. I.
India, showing the sequence of Territorial acquisition
India, showing the different systems of Land-Revenue
Settlement
Table showing Surveyed and Assessed Area in 1886-87.
Sketch map of Bengal
VOL. II.
Sketch map of the North-West Provinces and Oudh
Soils classified by Settlement officers ....
Tract as further classified by Settlement officers for
purposes of assessment ......
Sketch map of Central Provinces showing distribution
of area .........
Panjab and surrounding countries ....
Sketch map showing distribution of tribes in the Gujrat
district .........
VOL.
Madras Presidency .
Bombay Presidency
Assam
Burma and adjacent countries
III.
in a pocket.
in a pocket.
to face page 375
» 389
to face page 3
78
368
532
671
to face page 3
» Z97
» 392
» 483
ERRATA
VOL. I
P. 15, 1. 26. Panjab also, dele also
P. 19, 1. 6. The closing bracket should be at the end of the sentence,
just before the full stop.
P. 103. 1. 6 from the bottom, for for read from
P. 104, 1. i, for has read have
P. no, 1. 9, for is read are
P. 118, 1. 3, for for instance read possible
P. 172, 1. 3, for and read or
P. 183, note (last line but one), for were read was
P. 197, 1. 20, for for read from
P. 232, 1. n, after Malleson says insert (2) note reference.
P. 301, 1. ii, for Sec. VII. read Sec. VI.
P. 323 (heading of section), for Sec. IX. read Sec. VIII. and so on, to the
end.
P. 407, § 8, shoidd be headed SECTION II. THE PROCEDURE OF THE
SETTLEMENT.
P. 412, 1. 29, for were read had been
P. 466, 1. i, for from read for
P. 552, 1. 1 8, for it at all read it all
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EMPLOYED TO INDICATE CERTAIN WORKS FREQUENTLY REFERRED TO.
FULL TITLE. REFEKRED TO AS
Fifth Eeport of the Select Committee of the
House of Commons on the Affairs of the
East India Company (1812). This was re-
printed at Madras in 1866 and 1883 (2 vols.) ' Fifth Eeport.'
Harington's Analysis of the Bengal Begula-
tions, 1821 (3 vols.). (I have used also a
Eeprint of the portion relating to the
Ee venue System, published at Calcutta,
Government Press, 1866) . . . 'Harington.'
A Memoir of Central India, including Malwa
and adjoining Provinces, &c., by Major-
General Sir John Malcolm, 1824. (Eeprint
from the 3rd Edition. 2 vols. Calcutta,
Thacker & Spink, 1880) .... « Malcolm.'
Annals and Antiquities of Eajast'han, or the
Central and Western Eajpoot States of India,
by Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod, 1829,
(Third Eeprint. 2 vols. Madras, Higgin-
botham, 1880) "Tod.'
The Present Land-Tax in India, &c. (Lt.-Col.)
John Briggs. (i vol. London, Longmans,
1830) 'Briggs.'
VOL. I. 1>
XV1U
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
FULL TITLE. EEFERBED TO AS
The Administration of the East India
Company. John William Kaye. (London,
R, Bentley, 1853) 'Kaye.'
The Land Tax of India, by Neil B. E. Baillie.
(London, Smith & Elder, 1873) . . . . 'Baillie.'
Lectures on Indian Law, by W. Markby,
M.A., one of the Judges of the High Court.
(Calcutta, 1873) 'Markby.'
The Law relating to the Land-Tenures of
Lower Bengal. Tagore Law Lectures,
1 874-7 5, by Arthur Phillips. (Calcutta,
1876) 'Phillips.'
Eeport on the Land-Kevenue System, Bengal,
Behar, and Orissa, 1882-83, submitted by
the Board to Government of Bengal, Octo-
ber 31 st, 1883. (Calcutta, Secretariat Press) 'Report, 1883.'
Landholding and the Relation of Land-
lord and Tenant in Various Countries, by
C. D. Field, LL.D. 2nd edition. (Calcutta,
Thacker and Spink, 1885) 'Field.'
The Bengal Tenancy Act, VIII of 1885 (as
amended by Act VIII of 1886), with notes
and rulings, &c., by R. F. Rampini and
M. Finucane. 2nd edition. (Calcutta, Thacker, ' R. and F. Ten-
Spink & Co., 1889) ancyAct.'
' Settlement Report ' (of various districts) . . 'S. R.'
BOOK L
GENERAL.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.
„ II. THE PROVINCES UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF
INDIA AND HOW THEY WERE CREATED.
„ III. THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE AND THE LAWS BY
WHICH INDIA is GOVERNED.
„ IV. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURES OF
INDIA.
„ V. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE SYS-
TEMS OF INDIA.
CHAPTER I.
INTEODUCTOEY.
THE student who approaches the subject of Indian Land-
tenures, and of the systems under which the State levies
a revenue from the land, has probably a vague idea that
he is about to enter on a terra incognita or to plunge into
some mysterious and unintelligible darkness. A few words
of encouragement at the outset seem therefore desirable.
I do not wish to pretend that the subject of land-tenure
is free from difficulty, still less that it is impossible to
be in doubt regarding many questions which have to be
decided on a comparison of more or less fragmentary
evidence, some of which is traditional and much of it
matter of direct or indirect inference. Holt Mackenzie, an
eminent authority on Revenue matters — he was Secretary
to the first Revenue Commission which originated the Board
of Revenue for the North- West Provinces — said that he
had been all his life studying land-tenures without under-
standing them ; and the older text-books abound with
remarks to the same general effect. But it should be
remembered that Holt Mackenzie lived and studied in the
early years of the present century, when village-tenures
were only just discovered, and when everybody's mind was
rilled with the one idea, that the only possible form of
land-holding was by a landlord who let his lands to tenants
at a stated rent. The early forms of property had not been
VOL. I. B
2 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
considered. No Haxthausen, Von Maurer, De Laveleye,
H. S. Maine, or Seebohm, had yet arisen to set men think-
ing and comparing and making use of the materials that
were to be found in different countries. Sanskrit and
Arabic literature and law were only beginning to be ex-
plored, and no one had found out anything about the his-
tory of the Aryan conquerors and colonizers of India *, still
less about the so-called Dravidian races which before the
Aryan inroad had formed organized States in Central
and Southern India, or about the Kolarian tribes whose
remnants are still found in that part of Western Bengal
called Chota (properly Chutiya) Nagpur, in the ' Santal
Parganas,' and in the Vindhyan Mountains which divide
Upper and Central India.
Our sources of information have immensely multiplied
since those days. Not only have we works whose chief
value is that they suggest the right use of materials — tell
us how to extract the pure metal from the crude ore of
tradition and semi-mythical literature, and to read the
meaning of ancient forms and customs, but we have for
nearly every district in India valuable materials in the form
of ' Manuals ' (for the Madras districts) and the volumes
known as ' Settlement Reports ' in other Provinces. I may
explain that when the Land Revenue Settlement operations
of a district (or part of a district) are concluded, when
rights have been recorded, and the interests of all classes
in the land set down in due form, and when the assessment
of the revenue on the field, the ' village ' or the estate (as
the case may be), has been determined, — the Settlement
officer gathers up the results of his work in a printed
volume (in English) which contains the history of the
district and all peculiarities of its locale, its people and their
land-tenures. In preparing this Manual I have studied
some dozens of such reports. They are not indeed always
easily obtained, nor are they light reading — especially to
1 I doubt whether Holt Macken- States of modern Rajputana, or
zie had known Col. Tod's Study of whether he knew of Col. Wilk's
the Aryan (Rajput) tribes whose Study of the Hindu State organiza-
last permanent home was in the tion as exemplified in Mysore.
CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 3
those who have not official knowledge and experience 1 — but
many of them are storehouses of valuable information. At
the beginning of the century no such aids were available,
for one of the many misfortunes attaching to our first Settle-
ments in Bengal and Madras (Permanent Settlements as
they are called) was that no information about tenures and
agricultural customs was recorded. The early writers
could find in the celebrated ' Fifth Report on the affairs of
the East Indies,' presented to the House of Commons (1812,
and since reprinted in Madras), a multitude of unarranged
and rather confused details about the landholders in
Bengal and North Madras called 'Zamindars,' but that is
all. And without enlarging on a su-bject which must be
unintelligible till we come to -our chapter on land-tenures,
I will only say that the tenure of the ' Zamindar ' of Bengal
represents a late — if not the latest — development in land-
interest, and was the localized outcome of a dying and
corrupt system of State management. The study of it threw
no light on the real customary tenures of the country.
It is true that I have found a single report of 1796
describing the real natural tenures of the Benares districts :
but I have rarely seen it quoted ; and all our early authorities,
who are responsible for the dissemination of the idea that
Indian land-tenures are unintelligible, appear only just
to have heard of ' village ' tenures, and to have started
with the idea, derived from Bengal, that all land must
have sortie landlord, with tenants under him.
In studying, then, the land-tenures of India, we must be
prepared for difficulties, and expect to find lacunce which
we cannot fill up or only supply conjecturally and pro-
visionally ; but it would be exaggeration to go on saying
that a fair amount of clear knowledge on the subject is
1 There are also volumes of re- equally valuable") Elliott's Report on
prints of special reports and papers Hoshangabad (Central Provinces),
known as ' Selections from the Ee- Benett's onGonda (Oudh), Ibbetsoix
cords' of the several Governments. on Karnal (Panjab\ Roe on Multan
Among the notable Settlement Re- (Panjab), Logan on Malabar ^ Ma-
ports I may instance as samples dras), and Pedder's Bombay Reports,
(but there are many others almost
B 2
4 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
unattainable1 with moderate study and a fair memory for
facts.
And as to the systems under which the Land-Revenue is
assessed and afterwards collected, there is no excuse for
regarding their study as of excessive difficulty, when there
is scarcely a province that has not its Land-Revenue and
Tenancy Acts and Regulations besides many hand-books
and volumes of circular orders, and special Reports.
In the aggregate, no doubt, these documents form an
extensive and even a forbidding literature ; and they are
often written so as to be puzzling to a beginner, or a non-
official reader. A guide to them is necessary, and it is the
express object of my present work to supply the need:
whether the object has been in any degree satisfactorily
attained, it will be for the reader to judge ; but I may ex-
plain, that I have endeavoured to give only the essential
features of the Acts and orders, confining myself to what
is really important and practical, while I have indicated in
footnotes the sources whence a more detailed knowledge
may be obtained.
May I be permitted also to add a word of general
explanation as to my method. It may be said that subjects
are treated in too positive or even dogmatic a manner.
But in the first place, space is limited, and room could
not be afforded for many qualifying and apologetic para-
graphs and for repeated drawbacks on the statements
made. Moreover, a continued hesitancy, a suggestion of
conflicting possibilities and an atmosphere of scepticism
and uncertainty, is apt to be puzzling to a beginner ; and it
is beginners and ' outsiders ' to the Revenue official circle
that have been kept in mind. I have endeavoured to give
my authorities, and to state as fact only what is fairly
receivable as such : if any one thinks the facts lead to other
1 If by ' understanding ' land- the more modest task of getting an
tenures we mean possessing a com- adequate knowledge of the facts as
plete theory of origin and growth, they are, or as they have become,
perhaps land-tenures will long re- then I see no reason for supposing
main ' not understood.' But if we that we are or need be in any such
mean that we cannot accomplish position of difficulty.
CHAP, i.] INTKODUCTOEY. 5
conclusions than those I have drawn, he will have no great
difficulty in working out another view. Possessed in the
first instance of a definite outline of the subject, even if it
is too strongly drawn in parts, the student who afterwards
goes into detail in Indian official life, will fast enough dis-
cover where he would prefer to draw the lines a little more
faintly or uncertainly, or where he would desire to give a
different colour to the phenomena of landholding customs.
The text will always afford a sufficient indication where
there is room for an interpretation other than that which
it adopts.
With these few prefatory explanations I may at once
proceed to the direct subject of the chapter. I have to dis-
cuss certain general topics which it will be useful to
explain by way of preparation for the study which we are
to enter on.
§ i. The term 'India.'
Sir John Strachey, in his admirable Lectures on India l —
a work which I advise every student to read — has already
spoken of the dangers attaching to the use of a general
term like 'India.' It is geographical only. In no other
sense is there any one country which can properly be called
'India.' Within the confines of the area so marked on
the map, we have a series of provinces inhabited by different
races, and often speaking different languages. The in-
habitants of the Panjab for example — even in the same
province — are so different, that a Peshawar tribesman in
the north could hardly make himself understood at Delhi
or Hisar in the south-east. Religious and other differences
divide the populations, and racial antipathies are not
unknown : Sikhs have no love for Hindustanis, and a
Bengali Babu 2 at Lahore is regarded as a foreigner almost
1 ' India/ by Sir John Strachey. family, then a native gentleman
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & in general. It is now commonly em-
Co. (1888). i vol. ployed to designate a pleader, at-
2 The term properly means a ca- torney, or office-clerk,
det or younger son of a noble
6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
as much as the Englishman is. The mere fact that one
portion of the general population is Hindu and the other
Muhammadan is in itself a permanent source of difference.
And there is little internal uniformity among those who are
called Hindus, and little more than a semblance of it among
the Muhammadan races, despite the fact of a common creed
and a common form of worship.
Those who have read Sir A. Lyall's Asiatic Studies
know how protean in form Hinduism is ; local deities and
deified personages are readily adopted, thus giving a
different complexion to the worship of each locality: in
fact there is nothing common to Hindus as a body, except
certain social ideals and rules. Otherwise the Hindu castes
in the several provinces, have very little connection. The
Sikh religion, again, is far removed from the Hindu ideal ;
and the great bulk of the peasant population of the Panjab
that is returned as ' Hindu,' is so only in the sense that the
people are not Sikhs and are not Muhammadan. They have
learned a certain respect for Hindu festivals and for Brah-
mans, because those ubiquitous caste-men travel everywhere
and skilfully introduce at least a portion of their ideas ; but
the Hindu law of the books and commentaries is unknown
to the Jat and Gujar and Rajput landholding peasantry.
Even among Muhammadans, to say nothing of hostile
sects of Shia and Sunni, great numbers are perfectly
ignorant converts, knowing nothing beyond the simple
formula of the faith. In the Panjab, for instance, these
people follow their local customs of inheritance ; and it is
perhaps chiefly the action of the law-courts that enforces a
certain respect for the regular law in matters of marriage,
divorce, minority and bastardy, otherwise it is not known
or respected in practice. In a word, the various castes and
races in the different provinces diverge from one another as
much (or more) as the people of Scotland do from those of
Naples, or the peasantry of Normandy from the moun-
taineers of the Tyrol.
Common influences there are, which have extended far
and wide. The Muhammadan conquest, for example, intro-
CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 7
duced the use of Persian or Arabic terms regarding land
all over India, and with the terms, many practices and
principles of Revenue management. And certain land-
customs and family customs derivable from early Dravidian
and Aryan traditions among Hindus, as well as official
titles derived from the Rajput State System, may be
traced in provinces widely separated. But while we shall
take note of such wide-spread influences, and make the
best use of the facts they disclose, we shall not be misled
into supposing that all Indian peoples are more or less
identical, or their ideas the same. Of the mistaken
supposition of unity throughout ' India ' we shall soon meet
with practical examples. I shall shortly have to explain
how the same conditions of life have brought about
everywhere the aggregation of the cultivating classes into
groups, which we call ' villages,' but they are not all in one
form. Yet we find the standard histories of India giving
general accounts of the ' Indian Village ' as if the form
described was prevalent everywhere and one general
description sufficed for all. Another instance of confusion
is perhaps more due to the use of a common name than to
any assumption of unity among the provinces. I allude
to the term ' Zamindar.' We first came in contact with a
certain class of landholder in Bengal known by this name,
and from the language of some of the earlier Regulations
and minutes, it would seem as if the same form of landholding
must exist everywhere. This of course is not the case.
But unfortunately the vernacular term (in itself) means
' holder ' of ' land,' and so it easily got used to designate
entirely different things. It is applied to particular forms of
landed interest, entirely special or local, it is also used in the
widest sense to signify the landholding class generally. If
you meet a peasant in Northern India, for example, and ask
him who he is, he will probably reply, ' I am a poor man —
a zamindar.' He does not mean that he is a great estate
holder.
8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. I.
§ 2. Some common geographical terms used in India.
While we are on the subject of India, it may be well to
explain some common terms used to denote different parts
of the country which have often distinctive features, though
they do not coincide with provinces or express divisions
recognized for Government purposes. In reading these re-
marks, the student should have a map of India before him.
Northern 'Northern India' is applied to the part of the country
which is north of the Vindhyan Mountains, and north-west
Southern of Benares or thereabout. ' Southern India' applies to the
province or Presidency of Madras, including part of the
Central State of Hyderabad. ' Central India ' will not be confused
with the ' Central Provinces'; the former is an area really
Central ' <*
Provinces, central, and consists mostly of Native States ; the latter is
a British province, having its capital in Nagpur, and lies
between the Tapti and Narbada rivers on the north-west,
and the Wardha and Godavari on the south-east.
The The ' Dakhan,' commonly written Dekkan or Deccan,
T) *i k h Rn
is a convenient term which is employed to signify the part
of India south of the Narbada river and inland of the
Ghats or range of hills that run down the western as well
as the eastern side of the Peninsula ; but it is not employed
to include the whole of the Peninsula, and may be said to
terminate southwards about the line of the Mysore State,
and to include Hyderabad. Its southern limit is however
The east rather indefinite. The eastern and western coasts of the
coasts and Peninsula are less commonly spoken of as the Coromandel
their hill an(j Malabar coasts respectively. Alone: each, at a greater
^
or less distance from the sea-shore, runs a line of hills
much more continuous on the west side than it is on the
east. On the west side also the country between the crest of
the hills (or ' Ghat ' as they are called) and the sea-shore is
more distinct in character than it is on the east. The sea-
board, for instance, below Bombay to the Kistna river, is
called the Konkan (Concan), and southward of that come
the interesting and specialized districts of Kannada (Canara
or Kanara) and Malabar.
CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 9
I may mention that ' Ghat,' besides meaning the hillrange Ghat,
itself, is the common Indian term for any pass, gorge or
passage leading into the hills, especially in Central, Eastern,
and Southern India. Thus the visitor who has taken the
beautiful drive up to Ootacamund — the favourite summer
resort of the Southern presidency — will remember that he
heard the people talk of ' going up the Ghat 1 ' : so in
all these countries the districts on the uplands are said to
be ' above Ghat ' or ' balaghat,' while those at the foot are
said to be ' below Ghat ' or ' payin-ghat.'
We shall hear much in the sequel of native chiefs whose
freehold land is spoken of as held on the ' Ghatwali '
tenure, because they held the land free of revenue or on
privileged terms, on condition of maintaining a force to
keep the passes into the hills clear of robbers and prevent
raids on to the low-lying lands.
' Hindustan ' is a term which is properly applied to that ' Hindus-
northern-central region that lies above the Vindhyan
Mountains and about the great plain or valley of the
Ganges river as far west as the Jamna.
The 'Panjab' — the land of the five (panj, P.) rivers or 'Pan jab.'
waters (ab,P.) properly means the area bounded on the north-
west by the Sindh Sagar or Indus river2 and contained
between the Rivers Jihlam, Chinab, Ravi, Bias and Sutlej
(Satlaj).
The tracts of land between these rivers are called ' Doabs ' • Doab.'
(between 'two-'' waters'), each distinguished by a special
addition : but ' the Doab ' par excellence is the great tract
in the North- Western Provinces between the Ganges and the
Jamn&r vers.
1 The word means ' Gate ' or hills, and doubtless elsewhere in-
' pass.' In the case of Ootacamund land where the people have never
there is a long natural cleft or gully seen the sea, it means the big river
in the hills along the side of which of the locality. Thus in the Simla
the carriage road zigzags upwards hills the people will tell you that
first on to one plateau and then on such and such a stream (nadi or
to the higher one. nala) runs into the ' Sagar,' or great
* The word S£gar is shown in River — Sutlej in those parts— at
the dictionaries as meaning such and such a point,
'ocean,' but in the Panjab and its
IO LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
& 3. Remarks about the Provinces.
3 \~f
In Chapter II a list is given of all the provinces or
administrative divisions of British India. A few remarks
may be here made as to the meaning of the names and
what territories they include.
The Commencing with the north, I have already explained
anja . ^e ^erm < panja}3 ' — but nave to add that the Panjab as a
province extends beyond the Indus to the north-west, and
includes also the country beyond the Sutlej up to the Jamna,
where the ' North- Western Provinces ' begin. Biluchistan,
coloured as British territory on modern maps, is a separate
political Chief Commissionership, and is not part either of
Sindh or of the Panjab.
North- The ' North- Western Provinces ' consist (i) of the tract
Western known as < Rohilkhand,' because it was the site where the
Provinces.
Rohillas or Rohelas, a tribe of adventurers from Afghanistan,
established a cruel and oppressive rule till they were dis-
lodged at the end of last century. (2) ' The Doab ' (as
already stated) comprises all the districts between the
Ganges and the Jamna ; (3) and the districts of Bandd,
Hamirpur, Jhdnsi, Lalitpur and Jalaun are in Bundelkhand
— the country which was formerly the site of the conquest of
an Aryan tribe called Bundela l. (4) There remain the dis-
tricts east of Oudh ; and the group of permanently settled
districts adjoining the Bengal frontier which, speaking
generally, form the old' Benares Province,' acquired in 1775.
The provinces as a whole are called ' North- Western,' be-
cause at first they formed part of the Bengal Presidency,
and were ' north-west ' of Bengal and Bihar.
Bengal. The term ' Bengal ' is now generally used to mean the
entire territory under the Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal.
It includes (i) 'Bihar,' i. e. the districts north of the hills
about Hazaribagh (the Rajmahal hills), as far east as the
Mahanadi River. (2) Chota (or Chutiya) Nagpur, between
Bihar and Orissa, occupying the western part of the pro-
vince. (3) Orissa along the south-east coast, from near the
1 Its name is still found in books pronounced like the English word
as ' Bundlecund,' apparently to be bundle !
CHAP. i.J INTRODUCTORY. 1 1
Subarnarekha River to the frontier of Madras 1. (4) The
' Santal parganas ' district (often written Sonthal, and also
called in some bcoks ' Santalia') is a hilly tract of frontier
country lying to the south-west of the Ganges and extend-
ing from the river to the Chutiya Nagpur boundary. (5)
' Bengal Proper ' is the rest of the Province. But it is
usual further to divide it into Bengal (or Central Bengal),
and Eastern Bengal ; for the latter country is in many ways
distinct: it includes the districts of Chittagong, Tipperah
(Tipra), Noacolly (Nawakhali), and as far north as Maim-
ansingh and Rangpur, while along the mouths of the Hughli
the country is known as the ' Sundarband/ and consists of
an extent of swampy ' Delta ' country, intersected by tidal
creeks, and covered with dense jungle and forest, except on
the higher lands where cultivation is possible.
'Assam' has been separated from Bengal since 1874, and 'Assam.'
though ' Assam Proper ' or the ' Valley districts ' refers to
the districts (beginning with Goalpara) which lie along the
valley of the Tista river, the province as a whole includes
the group of hills to the south of the river, viz. the Garos,
Khasia, Jaintiya, &c., and the districts of Sylhet and
Cachar.
The ' Central Provinces ' include the old ' Sagar and < Central
Narbada (Saugor and Nerbudda) territories in the north and rovinces-
north-west as well as the Nimar district, the Nagpur districts
(escheated, on the death without heirs of the Bhonsla king),
the ' Chhatisgarh plain,' and Sambalpur. These various
parts will at once be understood by a glance at the map,
and further details about their history will be found in
Chapter II and in the chapters of the sequel specially re-
lating to the Central Provinces.
None of the other presidencies or provinces call for any
general explanation. Purely local details will be mentioned
in introducing the special chapters relating to the various
provinces.
1 That is the present extent of of the coast between the Subar-
Orissa. The ' Orissa ' of 1765 — when narekha river and the Hughli (now
the E. I. Company received the nearly conterminous with the Mid-
grant of 'Bengal, Bihar and Orissa' napore district,
—referred only to the small portion
12
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
The
seasons.
Two
principal
harvests.
§ 4. Certain features connected with land. — Seasons and
harvests.
It may be convenient to remark that everywhere they
recognize three main divisions of the seasons — the cold
season, the hot season, and the ' rains.'
But of course there are great local differences. In some
parts, as in the south, the cold season is only marked by
a slight diminution of temperature, and that for a short
time. In the Panjab, on the other hand, the climate is tem-
perate from November to March, and quite cold in December
and January, often with sharp frosts ; while an intense heat
reigns from May to September or October.
On the southern part of the east coast, the N.E. monsoon
brings rain in November or later, but in other parts of India
there is no rain at this time ; what rain falls in the cool
season falls in December or January and is due to other
causes.
The general rainy season is due to the S.W. monsoon,
which brings rain from the end of May to September, vary-
ing of course in the direction of beginning earlier or later,
lasting a longer or shorter time, in different parts. In some
parts the rainy season is a matter of occasional downpours
between June and September ; in others there is a steady
wet season from the end of May often to half through
October. Again, there are almost rainless regions, where the
' rainy season ' does not mean much, and where cultivation
is only possible by the aid of river-overflow, or canals
taken shorter or longer distances inland and wells sunk
where the subsoil is still moist by percolation from the
river.
The general division of the year into a dry season (part
of it colder than the rest) and a rainy season, has commonly
resulted in the people of a large part of India recognizing
two main harvests, one called ' rabi' ' (A.) : or by Hindi
names as Hari, &c., and the other ' Kharif ' (Sawani, &c.).
CHAP, i.] INTEODUCTORY. 1 3
These terms will be remembered because they constantly
occur, and regulate many matters connected with land-
administration.
The ' rabi ?1 (or spring) harvest, in Northern and Northern-
Central India, consists mainly of wheat, barley, and a pulse
called by the English ' Gram ' (Cicer arietinum). It is
often the principal harvest, sown about October2 and
reaped in April to May. The Kharif (or autumn) harvest
(sown as soon as the rains set in) ripens in October and
November or earlier, according to the staple grown. Sugar-
cane, which is an important item of this harvest, does not
ripen till later, and is frequently cut gradually, and is not
off the ground all the winter.
' The Kharif ' is the time • when the millets and maize
grow, and also fodder for the cattle. In Bengal the great
rice harvest is the Kharif3.
All these dates and details vary from place to place, but
as a general indication they will be useful.
§ 5. The Agricultural and the ' Fasli ' Year.
When Akbar began his reign, he desired to adopt an
universal official year, which should correspond to the
harvest seasons better than the Hijri year (with its
changing lunar months) or the Hindu Samvat era. He
began with the loth Sept. 1555 (A.D.), and arbitrarily
called it ' Fasli 963,' being the Hijri year of his ascending
the throne. This era (which can be found by deducting
592, or 593 according to the month, from the year A.D.) was
used for all .Revenue accounts. The ' Fasli ' in use in the
1 Having once indicated the cor- general cultivation of rice is by no
rect spelling of ' rabi,' we will here- means widely extended, and is con-
after use 'rabi' (without accents) fined to Eastern and Central Bengal,
for simplicity of printing. to Lower Burma, and to the moister
2 The land having been ploughed parts of Madras and Bombay. Rice
and prepared towards the close of is locally cultivated elsewhere, of
the rains. course, but is regarded as a luxury
3 People have an idea that the In- rather than as a staple food.
dian populations live on rice. The
14 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
Dakhan was begun by Shah Jahan in A.D. 1636. and is
somewhat different.
The ' agricultural year,' which is defined in Tenant and
Land-Revenue Acts, is fixed for the convenience of date in
enhancing rents and putting an end to tenancies. The
year begins on some day between the i5th April and ist
July, as the provincial climate may render convenient. It
is not used as a date or era.
Canals.
' Inunda-
tion '
canals.
Private
canals.
§ 6. Irrigation.
Irrigation. The details of irrigation also affect many questions
regarding land-revenue management, and, as we shall see,
originate some customs of land-tenure.
Canal irrigation is of two kinds ; regular canals which
flow perennially, and those called 'inundation' canals,
which only flow when the rivers are in full flood, being
swelled by the rains of the ' Monsoon ' season, or by the
melting of snows in the Himalaya^ or both, as the case
may be.
Some canals are small cuts made by private enterprise
and managed according to local custom, as regards the dis-
tribution of water and the supply of labour, or the cost
of labour for keeping the channels clear of silt. These
are mostly inundation canals, and have no regularly con-
structed masonry head-works at the source.
In some places on the north-west frontier, and I dare-
say the same is true elsewhere, there are curious customs
depending on the use of water in streams descending
from the barren hills which only fill when a rainfall
occurs. The successive rights to take the water, and
the time during which it is to run on to each lot, as
well as the dams to be maintained and the height above
which they must not be piled up, are all regulated by
custom.
Irrigation from wells is a feature of Northern and
Northern-Central India.
Hill
torrents.
Wells.
CHAP. I.]
INTRODUCTORY.
In the Panjab, water is raised by the Persian wheel1
all over the plain country as far to the south-east as the
Sutlej, where (for what reason I cannot say) it gives way to
other methods of which two are found more or less all over
India. One consists in raising water in a large leather
bag which is pulled over a wheel by means of a long rope
drawn by bullocks : in the other the water is lifted in an
earthen pot or a leather bucket fixed at one end of a long
lever-pole, the other being weighted so as to let the empty
vessel descend readily.
Modifications of the 'well' are to be found in various
parts, as where a small reservoir is constructed by the side
of a river or channel, and some form of wheel or lift is em-
ployed to raise the water (' Dhenkudi ' of Bombay, and the
small wheel on canals, ' Jhalar' and 'raoti' of the Panjab
and Sindh).
In the Panjab we shall find that the area watered (or Customs
protected, for the whole is not watered at once) by a well, ^h60***
and the number of wells in a village, is often a matter ' wells.'
intimately connected with land customs and sharing among
co-proprietors. A person has a fraction of a well — a six-
teenth or half perhaps — or his land is otherwise estimated,
and he has a share in the water, represented by so many
' turns ' (varhi) at working the well in the course of a week
or other stated time.
In the Panjab also, and perhaps in other dry districts
also, the term 'kuh' or well is constantly used, not
merely of the actual water-shaft, but to mean the entire
area of land cultivated under or in connection with, the
well.
Tank irrigation2 is a great feature in Ajmer, in parts of Tank.
1 This is a skeleton wheel fixed
over the mouth of the well and
carrying a long belt or ladder of
rope to which a seriss of earthen
pots are attached. As they succes-
sively dip into the water they fill
and remain full till they come to
the top, when the movement of
the belt inverts them and turns
the contents into a wooden
trough. The wheel is fitted
with stout pegs or teeth which
work into one upright wheel or
drum moved round by oxen.
2 The Ajmer chapter contains
some rather curious details.
1 6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. I.
Bombay, and in Madras. A ' tank ' does not mean a rectan-
gular masonry-lined reservoir: — that sort of tank is no
doubt common, but mostly for bathing or in connection
with a sacred place or temple. The irrigation tank is
in fact a suitable soil-depression, storing up the rain and
drainage water, and varying in size from a pond filling
the upper part of a small valley, to a vast lake covering
hundreds of acres. The tank is closed in by an embank-
ment of earth and masonry, or both. In some cases
this is an enormous work, and the bursting of it is the cause
of great destruction to agriculture. The ' tank ' is always
so situated that the rain water reaches it by flowing down
all the water-courses, hill-sides, &c. of the neighbouring
hills — it is in fact the catchment area of the high land.
An escape is afforded in case the water threatens to over-
top the embankment. In some cases the tank represents
a lake which is never dry: in others, the whole of the
water is run off or dries up early in the season, and the
bed, enriched with slime, and moistened by the previous
soaking of the water, is ploughed up and cultivated.
§ 7. Orthography of Vernacular Names.
The mention of Indian provinces and some of their
general features has already led me to introduce local
terms, and this again suggests the question of the method
of writing the native names of places, and the words
indicating tenures, offices, and persons, and how far
tlie use of such terms untranslated is permissible. Two
methods of writing are possible — one is to endeavour to re-
present the word as pronounced, by writing it phonetically
or with such English letters and syllables as the writer thinks
will convey the desired sound. The other is to trans-
literate the real word into Roman letters. Unfortunately
for the first method, English vowels (at any rate) have no
uniform value or sound maintained under all circumstances :
hence it is impossible to be sure what sound is meant to be
represented. Especially in the case of ' out-of-the-way '
CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 1 7
words. It is only a limited number of words that can be
phonetically written with fair certainty. The method
therefore neither gives the true word, nor does it give the
real pronunciation, because hardly two people would read
the combination of letters in the same way. I have
adopted then, perforce, the other plan, wherever possible.
I give the vernacular word transliterated into the Roman
character1. At any rate this represents the true word,
though it does not indicate the pronunciation.
But this latter is of little consequence, because the value
of the vernacular vowels being fixed and uniform, the
student has only to master a very few rules or principles
in order to pronounce quite accurately enough to be
intelligible. And I wish at- once to give the necessary
instructions applicable to the reading of the vernacular
terms throughout the book. Speaking generally, the words
are read as if they were Italian — or with the ' continental '
sound to the vowels. The short vowels are printed plain,
the long (or broad sound) vowels have an accent. Thus :—
Uniformly sounded as
a — a = must — mast
i — i = pit — peat
u — u = pull — pool
Of the other vowels ' e ' is always like the French e in
' te'te,' so that the Hindi word ' pet ' ( = stomach) is pro-
nounced like the English word 'pate,' and not like the
word ' pet,' and an accent is not ordinarily required. In
a few instances, I have put an accent on the (6) so as
to remind the reader. And in Southern Indian names
I have always added the accent, because there they use
a short 8 sound as well as the long 6.
t O ' also needs no accent ; it is always long as in ' depot,'
not as in ' pot.' Thus we speak of Gond tribes — Goand, not
short as in ' pond.'
1 In order to indicate the origin is Persian ; Pj. means Punjabi ; A
of the terms, a capital letter is often Arabic, S. Sanskrit, and H. a Hindi
added: thus P. means the word dialect.
VOL. I. C
1 8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
Of the diphthongs, ' ai ' is always pronounced like the
English ' eye ' (not like 'jay '). ' Au ' is as in ' bough ' (not
as in ' awe ').
As regards the accented and plain vowels, short ' a '
has the sound of ' a ' in ' organ,' never of ' a ' in ' pan.'
As this vowel naturally inheres in every Sanskrit or Hindi
consonant, it is constantly occurring, and attention to
this one rule will almost secure a tolerable enunciation of
words. ' Parasu-Rama/ e.g., must be read like the English
syllables purr-us-soo-Rama, and not as if it were the
English ' parasol ' or ' rammer.'
The accented ' a ' is always broad. ' Allahabad' has all
the ' a's,' except the first, as in the French ' gateau ' or
Italian ' lago/
The ' i ' is as in the English ' pit,' and the accented ' i '
as our ' ee,' or 'ea ' in ' cheat' ; thus, Pitika(Pity-kah),Pilibhft
(Pee-lee-bheet).
The ' u ' is always as in ' push' or 'put,' never as in 'jug,'
' pug' (which latter sounds would be supplied by short ' a,'
without any accent, as above described).
The accented ' u ' is always as our ' oo ' and never the
' you ' sound peculiar to English. Thus read ' Telugu ' as
Teloogoo, not as ' Tell-you-gou,' and ' puram 'as in ' poor,'
not 'pure.'
Of consonants little need be said. The ordinary reader
need not attempt the niceties of sound ; but I may mention
a general distinction in t's and d's (which are very common
letters), viz. that some are dental (pronounced with a touch
of the tongue against the teeth), and others palatal (touch
against the palate). The latter are distinguished by a dot
under the letter.
These dots will however not concern the ordinary
student, and are retained for the use of those who are going
to learn the vernacular dialects regularly.
' Th ' is not sounded in any Indian dialect as a sibilant
(i.e. like ' thin ' or ' that '). It is simply a hard ' t ' with a
slight aspirate after it.
The gutturals 'kh' and 'gh ' of Arabic and Persian words
CHAP. I.]
INTRODUCTORY.
are indicated by drawing a line under the two letters, thus —
'kh' and 'gh' (pronounced like ' loch' in Scotch).
The Arabic consonant 'ain is a sound the student need
not trouble himself to try and pronounce ; it is hardly
noticed except in writing, and is represented by the
apostrophe (or by a') at the end of a word. Thus 'jama' '
= a total sum; ra'iyat=a subject, a cultivating tenant,
' mu'af ' = pardoned.
As there are two letters 'k' in the Perso- Arabic alphabet,
one distinguished by the long ' tail ' and the other by two
diacritical points, in the native character, — I use ' k ' for
the former, and ' q ' (without any conventional ' u ' added)
for the latter.
The letter ' y ' is always a consonant, and is never used
as a vowel in transliterating.
When an ' n ' is intended to be merely a nasal inton-
ation, not a distinct letter, it is written with a dot ' n '
and then it is hardly sounded : e. g. ganw = a village, which
is pronounced like ' gow ' with a nasal intonation.
' G ' is ahvays hard, never as in ' gin,' which would be the
' j ' sound. I have only to add that these instructions suffice
for all words in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Hindustani,
Bengali, Marathi, &c., i.e. for Northern, Eastern, Western
and Central India, and to a great extent in Madras also.
But in this latter Presidency there are several separate
languages — Tamil, Telugu, Canarese and Malayalam ; there
are also many names which are virtually Anglicized, and
I have not knowledge enough — if any change were de-
sirable— to restore a strict transliteration. In Burma also
the language is wholly different, with a variety of
additional vowel-sounds, and a transliteration system has
not yet been fixed. In writing about that province I
could, therefore, only adopt the common spelling ; but the
native words I have used are very few, and by giving
accented vowels the value above assigned, no great error
will be perceptible.
C 2
2O LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
§ 8. Retention of Anglicized Names.
Where a name of a river or place has become thoroughly
English, I have retained the familiar form, indicating (if it
is known) the real vernacular word in brackets. It would
be affectation to ignore the common ' Calcutta ' (Kalkatta
or Kalighat ?), ' Cawnpore ' (Kahanpur *), Oudh (Awadh 2),
Lucknow (Lakhnau), Sutlej River (Satlaj), Sylhet (Srihatta
or Silhatt), Chittagong (Ch^ttagraon) Lahore (Ldhaur), &c.
The names of Burmese towns — Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein,
Mandalay, again, are virtually English words ; — they have
hardly any recognizable connection with the local ver-
nacular names, and I have retained them as they are.
In conclusion, I may say that if the student will only
remember to give the 'continental' sound to his vowels,
giving the accented vowels their broad or full sound, he will
be able before he has finished a chapter, to read all the
Indian names without hesitation, and quite correctly enough
to be intelligible. Indian students will, on the other hand,
have the real words, so that they can look them up in
dictionaries and glossaries 3.
§ 9. Employment of Vernacular terms.
A few remarks have also to be made about the use of
vernacular terms — other than the names of places. A great
number of vernacular revenue terms have not only come
into use in the common speech of the people, but
have been adopted into official language — many of them
1 The name is derived from Kahn has been the endeavour to trace the
or Kahan, one of the names of the real form of vernacular words fanci-
god Krishna (city of Kahn), and fully spelt (and rendered absolutely
not the Persian Khan, as sometimes unintelligible) by the writers of Ke-
said. ports and text-books, especially the
2 But the word should be pro- earlier ones. I have had to conjec-
nounced ' Owd,' not ' Ood,' as I ture of half-a-dozen possible sounds
have heard done (i.e. as in proud — which was right, and search and
not prude}. search again in dictionaries till I
3 I can assure the reader that not found it. Even so, I fear there
the least part of the very great may be several mistakes.
labour of getting up these volumes
CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTOEY. 2 1
being Persian terms, survivals from the Revenue System of
the Muhammadan Empire. How far may we use the
original words in a book of this kind, and how far should
we use translations? No doubt the plain rule is, when
writing English, to use English words. But in matters of
land-revenue and land-tenure there are necessarily many
of the local and general terms which have no exact English
equivalent; they represent institutions, offices, customs
and forms of proceeding which do not belong to anything
English or in England. Sooner or later the reader will find
it necessary to know familiarly a few of the common land-
terms, and when he has mastered the not very onerous
task, he will find the vernacular words both shorter and
more expressive than any attempted English substitutes.
I cannot pretend to any system in determining when to
use an English and when an Indian term ; I can only trust
to the method adopted proving practically convenient.
I have everywhere used the English word ' village ' as Tillage,
the commonly accepted equivalent for the group of lands
which is called in Revenue or official language ' Mauza ' or
'Dm' (P.), or in Hindi dialects ganw, grama, gaum, &c.
But the reader will at once understand that by ' village '
we do not mean a small collection of houses with a green,
a few shops, and a church-spire rising above the ' imme-
morial elms ' ; we mean always a group of landholdings
aggregated in one place ; there is generally one, or more
than one, group of dwellings situated somewhere in the area,
and the ' village ' has a common tank, graveyard and cattle-
stand, and probably an area of scrub jungle and grazing
ground attached to it.
Again, I may well use the English term Headman to 'Head-
indicate the person who in some forms of village tenure is man>
an essential part of the community, — an hereditary officer
of some consideration. Even where such a person is not
essential to the social constitution of the village, the
Government has generally appointed or recognized a
headman in some form or other, because it is more con-
venient to deal with one man and make him the medium
22 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. I.
of communication and the representative. At the same
time, while the English does well enough to replace the
great variety of local names that exist1, it does
not distinguish between one form and another, as the
' Lambar- vernacular does. The term ' lambardar,' for example, for
the headman, in the North Indian and Central Provinces
villages, at once indicates that we are speaking of a village
of the joint type of which we shall afterwards hear, while
'Patel.' -'Mandal' or ' Patel' at once suggests the other type of
village prevailing in Bengal and in Southern India.
' Patwari.' Another very common Indian revenue term is Patwdri,
meaning the person who keeps the village accounts, and,
above all, looks after the maps and records of rights, and
registers changes in land proprietorship and in tenancies.
Some books call him ' village accountant,' others ' village
registrar,' but neither term is satisfactory. Synonymous
with Pativdri (in Northern India and the Central Pro-
'Karnam.' vinces) is the name 'Karnam' in the South, and ' Kul-
' Kul- karni ' in the West.
I am tempted to illustrate my point by one or two more
examples, because they will serve at the outset to explain
the most frequently used terms, which will occur at every
page almost of our reading.
' Raiyat.' The word ' ryot/ as it is incorrectly written, is familiar as
a word to English readers, and they mostly suppose it to
mean 'tenant.' So it does to a certain extent; but it
marks also that it is 'tenant' of a sort which does not
necessarily arise out of any contract between a landlord and
a cultivator.
I write it ' raiyat ' to save trouble, though in strict
accuracy it is ' ra'iyat ' (A.), meaning ' subject, protected,' &c.
In Bengal it has always been the custom to call the .
village cultivators under the persons constituted landlords
1 The village headman was 'Patel' headman is not a natural part of
all over Central and Western India, the system. He is only one among
' Mandal ' in Bengal, and in the the heads of families selected to re-
North ' Muqaddam ' ; but there are present them with the Government,
many other local names. In the and primarily to pay in the revenue
joint-villages of Northern India the due by the body.
CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 23
in 1793, as 'raiyats'; and we shall see the term continued
in the latest Tenancy law of Bengal. Some of these are
modern contract-tenants, but a great many are really the
descendants of the original clearers and settlers, who would
have been regarded as owners of their holdings, but for
subsequent historical circumstances and changes.
But perhaps the commonest use of the term is to signify
the landholder who does not claim — or at any rate has long
lost any tangible right to — the ownership of anything be-
yond his own field or fields. Such landowners exist all
over Bombay, Madras, and indeed in other parts, where-
ever what we shall presently describe as the 'landlord
village' has not come into sight, owing to the growth of
a landlord class. Technically, the position of such a land-
holder may be differently defined in different parts. The
Bombay Revenue Code calls him 'occupant,' and defines
his rights. There is no Code in Madras and no definition,
but judicial decisions have recognized the occupant who
pays revenue as de facto proprietor of his holding. Hence
it is very convenient to have a term like ' raiyat ' to indi-
cate the members of village communities of a certain type ;
and especially because in its compound form we can talk of
a Raiyat-w&ri village, and of the Settlement being Raiyat- 'Raiyat
war — meaning that each occupant is separately assessed ^ivat-
for his own field without responsibility for anything else, war.'
as opposed to the Bengal ' Zamindari ' system, where one
landlord engages for the revenue of a considerable — some-
times a very large — area, including many villages ; or to the
1 village ' system where a smaller estate — very often a single
village — is settled for, and assessed at a lump sum, the body
of co-sharers of the village or estate being in theory jointly
and severally liable for the whole, and arranging among
themselves, according to their own custom and constitution,
how much of the total each has to contribute.
Another convenient term is 'jama',' and its derivative 'Jama.'
'jamabandi.'
'Jama' is Arabic for 'total,' and means the entire revenue-
assessment (exclusive of certain road, education and other
24 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. r.
cesses separately levied under special laws). To say that
the 'jama' of village A. is Rs. 300 ' means that the Govern-
ment Land Revenue demand on the village as a whole, is
Rs. 300 each year. Or in a ' raiyatwdri ' settlement it would
be — the 'jama ' of the single field or survey number, 'No. 703
is 1 6 Rs. 8 as.'
' Jama- ' Jamabandi ' is the account ' fixing ' or definitely record-
bandi.' jng fiandi) the Revenue demand (Jama). In rwiyatwdri
provinces it has this meaning quite intact. Every year
an account is made out showing what fields each raiyat
has held, and what revenue (jama') he has accordingly
become liable for. Under other systems the term has
naturally become modified in meaning. In the North- West
and Central Provinces, for example, it has come to mean the
list of the tenants and their rents. In the Panjab it has
come to mean a complete record of right, a list showing con-
cisely every holder of land, whether co-sharing proprietor
or tenant cultivating (under a co-sharer or under the whole
body jointly), and the payment, whether revenue or rent,
due from each.
I do not think that terms like these gain anything by
attempted translations or equivalents, and I have described
the meaning at some length, with the double object of
justifying my retaining the original words, and also, at
the same time, familiarizing the reader with the words. If
he will make himself at home with the terms (headman)
' lambardar ' and ' patel ' ; with ' raiyat,' ' jama' ' and ' jama-
bandi,' he will have taken a useful step forward.
10. Connection of the Land-Revenue Administration
^vith other branches.
One other topic demands perhaps a few words of ex-
planation : why is it that the systems of Land-Revenue
Administration are of so much importance in India, that
everybody who aims at understanding the Administration
generally, must understand this first 1
The present book had its origin in a desire to bring a class
CHAP. I.]
INTRODUCTORY.
of public officers — those who have the care of the State
Forests in India — into closer contact with the civil admin-
istration ; and it was felt that to let them understand the
land system was the best way to begin.
But for every other class of public officer, and for the
economist who interests himself in the welfare of India, the
comprehension of the broad features of land-revenue ad-
ministration is hardly less necessary, if the reasons are less
direct or less easily stated 1.
The State derives its principal revenue from the land : it
has done so at all times, and the people are accustomed to pay
it : it is with them the very nature of things. The collection,
when once the assessment is arranged for a term of years,
is effected without inquisitorial proceedings and without
trouble or extortion. The population is so largely agricul-
tural, and the different classes so wedded to custom, that
the speculative administrator who should conceive the idea
of getting rid of the land-revenue would soon find himself
in a position of difficulty which language could hardly do
justice to. The ' land-tax ' in England is only one item, and
not a very large one, among a host of other taxes ; it falls
on a small class. In India the land-revenue is a totally
different thing. With the necessity for fairly adjusting the
amount of revenue which each class of land has to pay,
comes the necessity of thoroughly understanding the
agricultural conditions of the country, the caste of the
people as it affects their cultivating capacity, the modes of
holding land, the interests each class has in the land, and
1 There are, indeed, in the case
of forest officers, special reasons for
requiring the study. Besides re-
garding a ' forest ' as an organic
whole — an arrangement of nature
destined to fulfil certain objects —
a forest may be looked on as a piece
of property of a particular kind ;
and when it is so regarded we find
it subject to peculiar requirements
for its protection. Eights of various
kinds are claimed and exercised in
a manner which does not happen
in other properties, and hence the
delimitation of forest boundaries
and the definition of vague rights
and interests are matters of peculiar
importance. In attempting either,
the forest officer is sure to be brought
into contact with Land Revenue
maps, records and officials of the
neighbouring lands, and he must
understand them all — at least in a
general way — to deal with them
efficiently.
26 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
on what classes, and to what extent on each respectively,
the revenue burden is to fall. Considering what a large
portion of the total population gets its living wholly or in
part from the land, it is obvious that the determination of
landed rights and the record of everything which concerns
the agricultural and social habits of the people is an
immense business ; consequently a knowledge of the
land administration and of the records it requires and the
procedure it employs, is, in fact, a knowledge of the largest
class of the population and of the conditions under which
it lives.
And as the collection of the land-revenue, and the
management of all the affairs that are connected with
the maintenance of the land-holders in prosperity, demand
a subdivision of the entire country into districts and minor
official charges, this subdivision and the hierarchy of officers
which it entails, naturally becomes the basis of the entire
administrative system. Considerations connected with
it find their way into every department, the Post-office,
the Irrigation department, the Public Works and many
others. Nor is the territory organized and officers ap-
pointed to the charge of each local area, merely with a
view to collecting fixed sums of revenue at fixed dates.
The administration has to take a sort of paternal or
'lord of the manor' interest in the whole range of
agricultural conditions. It is on this account that the
Government is sometimes represented as the ' universal
landlord.' The term, it is true, is used with some reference
to the fact that the Government has the right over all
waste and unoccupied land (as will be explained in the
sequel), and that to secure its revenue it holds in a sort of
hypothecation the ultimate right over every acre. But
there is more than that. In order that the revenue may
not be reduced below what a prosperous country should
yield, the State officers — among whom the District officer
or Collector vested with magisterial powers, is the most
prominent — have continually to watch the state of the
country. They have to take note of the approach of famine,
CHAP, i.] INTRODUCTORY. 27
and by suspending or even remitting the revenue in due
time, prevent any undue strain being laid on the people ;
they have to watch the state of the crops, the failure of rain,
the occurrence of floods, locusts and blight, the spread of
cattle-disease, all of which may affect the revenue-paying
capacity of the land. They have to repress crime and other
sources of social disturbance, which demoralize and tend
to pauperize the people; to consider how estates may
• be improved and protected against famine, by studying
the requirements of the district in respect of communica-
tions which improve the market, of canals which render
the waste cultivable, of drainage and embankment works
and other improvements. Local Acts empower the Col-
lector to distribute advances from the Treasury to enable
the agriculturist to buy stock and to sink wells and
undertake individual and local improvements ; and this
duty requires intimate knowledge of the land.
Even education is not unconnected with the land system.
Village schools and the dissemination of agricultural know-
ledge are matters which indirectly — or perhaps I should
say directly — affect the welfare of the villages, and thus
affect their power to bear up against calamity and pay with
ease instead of with pressure the demands of the State.
Every officer of every department will in some way or
at some time be brought into communication with the
Collector, his records and his subordinate officials.
The Police-officer has to deal with the village headmen
and rural notables, who, as land-holders, have by law
certain duties laid on them in connection with the re-
pression and discovery of crime. The details of offences,
and especially cattle thefts, demand a knowledge of local
land customs and agricultural habits to make them intel-
ligible. The Canal Officer can neither assess water-rates nor
distribute the water without some acquaintance with the
land system. Even the Commandant of a regiment is
thrown into contact with the local Revenue officer, the
rural deputy of the Collector, for the supplies and the carts
and camels he needs on the march. In fact, I cannot think
28 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. i.
of any public servant who will not be the better for a
general idea of the Land System, while for many such
knowledge is absolutely indispensable.
And it also follows, almost without saying, that any one
who aims at understanding India, its people and its require-
ments, and who would gauge at their real value the outcry
of half-educated newspaper writers and students of our col-
leges at the great capitals, and who would understand where
there is really a reform to be wisely introduced, and where
there is mere clamour and the expression of a natural dis-
content and aspiration that does not know really what it
wants, or what is best for it, — it follows that for him, at least
a general idea of the land-system and of the land-tenures
cannot fail to be of primary value and importance.
I think I have now discussed all the purely preliminary
questions that arise ; so, after devoting a chapter to a brief
history of the Provinces into which British India is divided
— describing how they came to be, and on what legal basis
they are constituted — we may proceed to a general account
of the land-tenures and landholdiug customs of the
several provinces, especially noting the factors which went
to their making and shaping : after this will follow an
equally general account of the different systems under
which the Land-Kevenue is assessed and collected, and the
administration carried on.
These chapters are especially designed for the home reader
and the non-official student, while I hope they will serve
as a useful and introductory study to all classes.
I only add that, as in the course of our study we re-
peatedly mention ' Acts ' of the Legislature of India and of
the Local Government's ' Eegulations,' and Acts of Parlia-
ment relating to India, I have thought that it would tend
to completeness to interpolate a short chapter on the
Indian Legislatures and their powers. Thus the first
or ' General ' volume, looks at the subject as a whole,
and is intended to prepare the way for the volumes
which follow and which deal in more detail with the
separate provinces seriatim. It will be observed that
CHAP, i.] 1NTEODUCTOEY. 29
each provincial account is divided into chapters, the first
being introductory and calling attention to any special
historical or local features that affect the administration ;
the next describes the process of ' Settlement/ i.e. assess-
ing the Land Eevenue ; the next deals with land-tenures
and customs ; and the last with the classes of re venue- officers
and the powers they exercise, and with the principal heads
of business which they daily transact in camp or in the
Collector's office1 connected with the collection of the
revenue, the realization of arrears, the hearing of petitions
and cases relating to revenue business, and to the affairs
of the estates generally as far as those are of public
concern.
1 In India a public office in the erry,' an Anglicized form of the
provinces is always called ' Kutch- Hindi ' Kachhahri.'
CHAPTEE II.
OE THE PEOVINCES UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA,
AND HOW THEY WERE CREATED.
§ i. Introductory.
BKITISH INDIA is divided into Provinces, each under a
separate local government, and each having its own special
laws relating to Land-Revenue. It will be well, therefore,
to understand how these provinces came into separate
existence for the purposes of administrative government.
The limits of my work, however, preclude me from entering
on anything like a historical sketch of the progress of
those great and unforeseen events which led to so vast
a territory being brought under British rule: for such
information the standard Histories of India must be con-
sulted. I must plunge at once in medias res, only pausing
briefly to remind the reader that the history of the British
rule in India is the history of a trading Company, which
in the course of events was entrusted with the government
of the country until 1858, when its delegated powers being
resumed, the Crown undertook the direct administration
by its own officers.
§ 2. The Presidencies.
So long as the East India Company1 was, as a body,
chiefly concerned with trade, the charters granted to it
1 The title ' East India Company ' (A.D. 1833). Section in says that
originated with the Act of Parlia- the Company may be described as
ment 3 and 4 Wm. IV, cap. 85 the ' East India Company.' At first
CHAP. IF.]
ORIGIN OF THE PEOVINCES.
by the Crown (from the first memorable grant of December
3ist, A.D. 1600, onwards) related, as might be expected,
chiefly to trading interests.
The first settlements — at Surat (A.D. 1613), on the
Coromandel Coast, at Fort St. George (A.D. 1640), and at
Fort William in Bengal (A.D. 1698) — were mere 'factories'
for trading purposes l. These factories then became ' settle-
ments,' which were governed internally each by a ' President
and Board.' In the course of time, out-stations or dependent
factories grew up under the shelter of the parent, and then
the original factory was spoken of as the ' Presidency town,'
or centre of the territory where the President resided. In
this way, what we now call 'the three Presidencies2,'
Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, came into existence.
In 1773 the government of the Presidency of Fort
William was entrusted to a Governor and Council of four
members. The style of the ' Governor ' was changed to
' Governor-General,' and as such he had a certain control
over the other two Presidencies, particularly as regards
the declaration of war and concluding peace. This was
provided by the Act (13 Geo. Ill, cap. 63) known as the
'Regulating Act.' It was not till twenty years after
(33 Geo. Ill, cap. 52) that the government of Bombay and
Madras, respectively, was formally vested in a Governor
with three Councillors3.
the Company was called 'the Go-
vernor and Company of Merchants
trading to the East Indies.' Then a
rival Company was formed, called
c the English Company trading to
the East Indies.' These two Com-
panies were afterwards united, and,
by the Act of Queen Anne (6 Anne,
cap. 17, Sec. 13), the style became
' the United Company of Merchants
of England trading to the East
Indies.' Last of all, the Act of
William IV, first quoted, legalized
the formal use of the designation
ever since in use. It is, however,
frequently used in the titles of
Statutes prior to this, e. g. 9 Anne,
cap. 7 ; 10 Geo. Ill, cap. 47 ; 13
Geo. Ill, cap. 63.
1 And, indeed, they were not
' possessions,' but the traders were
the tenants of the Mughal Emperor.
The first actual possession was the
Island of Bombay, ceded by Portu-
gal, in 1661, to Charles II, as part
of the marriage dowry of the Infanta.
This island was granted to the Com-
pany in 1669.
2 The use of this term has never,
even in Acts of Parliament, been
precise : sometimes it is meant to
signify the form of government,
sometimes the place which was the
seat of that government ; at other
times it meant the territories under
such government.
3 The term ' Governor or President,'
however, begins to appear before
32 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
These territorial divisions of India, called Presidencies,
could not be authoritatively defined from the first; they
gradually grew up under the effect of circumstances.
Territories that were conquered or ceded to the Company
were, naturally enough, in the first instance attached to
the Presidency whose forces had subdued them, or whose
Government had negotiated their cession. Thus, for
instance, Bengal, Bihar, and (old) Orissa, granted in 1765,
went to Fort William; the territory acquired from the
Nawab of the Carnatic (1801), the Ceded districts (1800)
and the acquisitions from Mysore (Maisur) 1792-99, went
to Fort St. George ; and the Bombay territories, taken in
1803-1818 from the Maratha King or Peshwa, to Bombay ;
and so on.
No one could foresee what course events would take ;
and when it is recollected under what very different cir-
cumstances, at what different dates, and under what
unexpected conditions, province after province was added
to the government of the Company, it is not surprising
that the Legislature should not, ab initio, have hit upon
a convenient and uniform procedure, which would enable
all acquisitions of territory to be added on to one or other
of the existing centres of Government in a systematic
that ; e. g. in Section'sg of the Eegu- pany was never sovereign, its power
lating Act itself; and in 26 Geo. Ill, was always derivative. In 1813
cap. 57. (50 Geo. Ill, c. 155) an express re-
It would be beyond the scope of serration is made of the 'undoubted
this work to go into any detail about sovereignty of the Crown over the
the powers of the E. I. C. : it may be territorial acquisitions of the Corn-
useful to state so much, that the Act pany ' ; and the Statutes from 1833
of 1773 was the first in which the onwards speak of the Company as
new position of the Company as trustee for the Crown as regards its
territorial potentate seems to have possessions, its rights and its powers,
been fully realized. After this, See also Field, § 348, p. 632, where
further statutes were usually passed the learned author discusses the
about every twenty years, when the question at what time the Company
charters came up for reconsider- can be held to have begun to act as
ation, with the general result, as a Government (by delegation for
Mr. J. S. Cotton puts it, 'of tighten- the Crown). For a long time the
ing the authority of Parliament and Company, even after it had acquired
of transforming the Company itself territory, neither desired nor exer-
from a trading corporation into an cised sovereign rights. But the
administrative machine' (Statement treaties of 1801, 1803, and 1805
of Moral and Material Progress, Parl. clearly show that by that time such
Blue-Book, 1882-3, P- 3)- The Com- rights were exercised.
CHAP. II.] OEIGIN OF THE PEOVINOES. 33
manner. The student will not therefore be surprised to
find that the legislative provisions for the formation and
government of the provinces of India are not contained
in one law, but were developed gradually by successive
Acts, each of which corrected the errors, or enlarged the
provisions, of the former ones.
§ 3. Method of dealing with new Territories.
Until quite a late date (as will be seen hereafter) no
Statute gave any power to provide for any new territory,
otherwise than by attaching it to one or other of the three
historical Presidencies. But as a matter of fact, large
areas of country, when conquered or ceded to the British
by treaty, were not definitely attached to any Presidency ;
at any rate, it was doubtful whether they were intended
to be so or not. This was especially the case with the
Bengal Presidency ; it became in fact difficult to say with
precision what were the exact limits of that Presidency,
or whether such and such a district was in it or not ; and
this afterwards gave rise to questions as to whether par-
ticular laws were in force or not.
The Act 39 and 40 Geo. Ill, cap. 79 (A.D. 1800), was
the first distinctly to empower * the Court of Directors in
England, to determine what places should be subject to
either Presidency, and set the example by declaring the
districts forming the province of Benares (ceded in 1775) to
be formally ' annexed ' to the Bengal Presidency.
§ 4. List of Provinces.
At this point, and before describing the further legis-
lative enactments relating to the constitution of provinces,
it will be well to give a list of the existing provinces in
British India, and to describe how they were constituted :
then we shall be in a better position to understand the
legal enactments which settle their territorial constitution
and government.
1 There are Acts of 1773 and 1793 but the Act of 1800 is the first which
which make allusion to the subject, directly deals with it.
VOL. I. D
34
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
Calcutta
(Fort
William).
•^
Madras
(Fort St.
George}.
Bombay
(Bombay
Castle).
N.W. Pro-
vinces.
Allahabad,
Lahore.
Nagpur.
Ajmer.
Shillong.
Bangalore
(local
capital
Merkara).
Rangoon.
Port Blair.
The Resi-
dency, Hy-
derdbad.
The student will clearly understand —
I. That originally there were certain centres of trade
managed by a President and Council, and that in the first
instance such territories as were acquired, were attached
to one or other of these three centres called ' Presidencies.'
And it appears to have been supposed that they would
embrace all the British territories in India. But this after-
wards proved impossible.
II. That the Presidencies of Bengal, of Madras and
Bombay, do not cover the whole of British India, and that
the following list summarizes the whole. The capitals or
head-quarters are noted in the margin.
(1) Presidency of Bengal. (Lieutenant-Governor and
Council.) This at first included ' Benares province ' (1775-
1800) and the 'North-Western Provinces' (1801-3).
(2) Presidency of Madras. (Governor and Council.)
(3) Presidency of Bombay. (Governor and Council.)
(Aden belongs to this Presidency.)
(4) The North-Western Provinces and Oudh. The former
was separated from Bengal in 1 834. Oudh was annexed in
1856, and placed under a Chief Commissioner. In 1877 the
Provinces were amalgamated, so that the official title of
the head of the administration is ' Lieutenant-Governor
and Chief Commissioner.' A Legislative Council was
formed in 1886.
(5) The Panjab. (Lieutenant-Governor, no Council.)
(6) The Central Provinces. (Chief Commissioner.)
(7) Ajmer and Merwara. (Chief Commissioner.)
(8) Assam. (Chief Commissioner ; separated from Bengal
in 1874.)
(9) Coorg. (Chief Commissioner.)
(10) Burma. (Chief Commissioner. Lower Burma ac-
quired 1824-1852, Upper Burma, 1885.)
(n) The Andaman Islands. (Chief Commissioner.)
(12) The Hyderabad (Haidarabad) assigned districts or
Berar, governed by the Viceroy (through the Resident of
Hyderabad). This constitutes a special territory as will be
explained.
CHAP, ii.] ORIGIN OF THE PEOYINCES. 35
§ 5. Notice of their Acquisition.
Taking these provinces in the order stated, we will now
give the essential particulars regarding each, seriatim.
And this seems the place to introduce and explain a
general map of India, which shows at a glance when the
various territories were acquired. The States which are
still more or less independent — that is, managing their own
affairs under a native administration, but acknowledging
the suzerainty of the British Crown — are left uncoloured in
the map.
I will only explain that the number of colours being
limited, I could only adopt one for each period of years,
not one for every separate war or treaty by which territory
was acquired. Thus in Madras in 1800-1 territory was
acquired by assignments which had nothing whatever to
do with the acquisition of the ' Ceded Districts ' of the
North- West Provinces (1801), though the colour is the
same. On the other hand, in 1 803, the Maratha treaty gave
us territory in various parts of India — viz. near Delhi, in
Bombay, and in Orissa L.
§ 6. Bengal and the North-West Provinces.
The Presidency of Bengal was the one which first necessi-
tated legal steps with a view to providing for the distribu-
tion of territory. Madras never received any territory that
was not naturally and conveniently attached to it. Bom-
bay was also compact, and though Sindh (annexed by war
in 1843) was added to it as an outlying province, it was a
natural addition, as in 1843 the Panjab was foreign terri-
1 It is curious to observe from thought to secure the sea-board and
this map, first, that territory was to prevent the hostile action of cer-
not eagerly — but most reluctantly tain States. I do not mean to de-
— acquired. Certain powers that fend every acquisition of territory
continued to resist, e. g. Mysore, were in detail, but a study of such a map
not deprived of their provinces at will certainly exculpate the rulers
once — but at first of only such dis- of past days from many vague
tricts as were absolutely needed for charges of wantonness. A large
security. It will also be seen that area, it will be observed, has come
the annexations were not hap- to us by escheat on failure of heirs,
hazard, but arranged with fore-
D 2,
36 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. II.
tory and Sindh was nearer to Bombay than to any other
centre1.
It was otherwise with Bengal. The addition of Benares
in 1775 by itself would not have been a difficulty, and even
the annexation of the modern Orissa (Cuttack (Katak)
Balasur and Puri) in 1803 was not inconvenient from an
administrative point of view. But the first Burmese war,
in 1824, gave Assam, Arrakan, and Tennasserim ; and the
additions in 1801-3 to the North- West2, would have ex-
tended the Presidency beyond all reasonable limits.
The subject of territorial division was accordingly again
3 and 4 dealt with in the year 1833 (3 and 4 Will. IV, cap. 85).
cap. 85, ' This Act proposed to divide the Presidency into two parts,
sec. 38. ^0 be called ' the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal,'
and the ' Presidency of Agra V
It was to be determined locally what territories should
be allotted to each.
§ 7. The first Lieutenant-Governorship (North-West
Provinces}.
Though a ' Governor of Agra' was actually appointed4,
the scheme was early abandoned, and instead of forming a
new Presidency, the ' North-West Provinces ' were separated
from the rest of Bengal and placed under a Lieutenant-
Governor. This was ordered in 1836, and was legalized by
the 5 and 6 Will. IV, cap. 52 (1835), which suspended the
1 Aden, the military station at the Maratha War (which began in
the entrance to the Red Sea, was 1803) : these were Etawa, Main-
placed under the Governor of Bom- puri, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Meerut
bay for the same reason. (Mirath) , Muzaffarnagar, Saharan-
2 These large additions in the pur, Agra, Muttra (Mathura), and
north-west (besides the Benares Delhi (the latter including the dis-
territory above alluded to) con- tricts on the right bank of the
sisted of the districts ceded in 1801 Jamn&, now in the Panjab) ; also
by the Nawab of Oudh, and com- Banda and parts of Bundelkhand.
prised the country now known as 3 This attempt to attach the his-
the districts of Allahabad, Fatih- toric reminiscences involved in the
pur, Cawnpore (Kahnpur), part of term 'Presidency' to Agra, which
'Azimgarh, Gorakhpur, Bareli, Mu- had never known the system of
radabad, Bijnaur, Badaon, and ' President and Board,' is curious.
Shahjahanpur. Soon after, a subor- * See Notification (in the Politi-
dinate of the Nawab's ceded Fa- cal Department) of the 1 4th Novem-
rukhabad ; and not long after ber, 1834.
followed the districts conquered in
CHAP, ii.] ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES. 37
previous enactment ordering the creation of two presiden-
cies, and rendered valid the appointment of the Lieutenant-
Governor. Bengal was thus partly relieved and reduced
to more reasonable dimensions.
§ 8. The Government of Bengal.
But still there was another difficulty. There was no
separate Governor or Lieutenant-Go vernor for Bengal.
The Governor-General of India was ex-offi-cio Governor of
Bengal ; that is to say, he had to do the work of a local
Governor in addition to his functions as Go vernor- General
with supreme control over all Governments. It is true
that the Governor-General was empowered to appoint a
Deputy-Governor of Bengal, but that did not relieve him of
the direct responsibility. Accordingly, the Statute 16 and
17 Viet., cap. 95 (1853), authorized the appointment of a
separate Governor of Bengal, or (until such an officer should
be appointed) a Lieutenant-Governor. This Act also looks
back on the arrangements made for the North- West Pro-
vinces (just described), and again confirms them, going on
to say that the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal was to
consist of such part of the territories of the Presidency as
for the time being was not under the new Lieutenant-
Governorship of the North- West Provinces.
A Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal was accordingly ap-
pointed under this Act1.
& o. Unattached Provinces.
0 -/
With this relief, the management of Assam, though the
province was early exempted from the Regulation Law of
Bengal, presented no difficulty; and even the Burma dis-
tricts did not call for any special measures till several
years later.
1 See Resolution, Home Depart- Governor of Bengal extends to all
ment, No. 415, dated 28th April, matters relating to civil adminis-
1854. And by order of the Govern- tration heretofore under the author-
ment of India, a6th January, 1855, ity of the Governor of Bengal.'
' the authority of the Lieutenant-
38 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IT.
So far then as the territory actually attached to the
Bengal Presidency is concerned, the matter was settled.
But before long other territories also were acquired, and
they were so large and important, that some further pro-
vision for their government was needed; for on annexa-
tion they were not formally attached to either of the
existing Presidencies. Such were the 'Saugor and Ner-
budda' (Sagar and Narbada) territories (ceded after the
Maratha War of 1817-18), Coorg (Kodagu) 1834, Nagpur
(1854), the Panjab (1849), and Pegu (1852). How were
these to be provided for1 ?
It is probable that at first the case was not thoroughly
understood ; at all events, the only additional provision
made by the law of 1853, was a general power to create
one other Presidency besides those existing, and if it was
not desired to make a ' Presidency ' then to appoint a
Lieutenant-Governor of the territories to be provided for.
But a glance at the list of provinces or districts just
given as 'unattached,' and a thought as to their geo-
graphical position, will show that this provision was not
sufficient ; the ' unattached ' provinces were too far apart
to make it possible to provide for them by uniting them
under one new ' Presidency.'
What are now called 'The Central Provinces ' were mainly
formed by the cession of the ' Saugor and Nerbudda '
(Sagar and Narbada) territories in 1817-18 and by the
escheat of the territory of the Bhonsla family (one of the
members of the Maratha Confederacy) in 1 854 ; and they
were far removed from the older territories. The second
Burmese war added the rest of Lower Burma, across the
Bay of Bengal. The important acquisition of the Panjab
was in the extreme north-west of India.
None of these provinces — either from their geographical
position or owing to the requirements of their administra-
tion, or both — could be attached to either of the Presiden-
cies ; nor would the Lieutenant-Governorship of the North-
1 Sindh, annexed in 1843, nad was n°t annexed till afterwards
been attached to Bombay. Oudh (1856).
CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OF THE PEOVINCES.
39
West Provinces bear extension so as to include any of
them.
The Act of 1853, above alluded to, by which the Lieu-
tenant-Governorship of Bengal was constituted, had em-
powered the Government to create one other ' Presidency '
besides those existing, or, if that was not desired, then to
appoint a Lieutenant- Governor for the territories in question.
This provision was held to authorize the appointment of
a Lieutenant-Governor for the Panjab, but it was insuffi-
cient to meet the other cases.
In the year 1854 the deficiency was supplied. By the
17 and 18 Viet., cap. 77, provision was made for the
government of such territories or parts of territories as
' it might not be advisable to include in any Presidency
or Lieutenant -Governorship.' Section 3 empowers the
Governor-General by proclamation (under Home sanction)
to take such territories under his ' immediate authority
and management,' or otherwise to provide for the adminis-
tration of them. Under this Act the ' Local Administra-
tions ' under Chief Commissioners, as they now exist, were
constituted. As they are under the ' direct orders ' of the
Governor-General, the Government of India is itself the
Local Government1, and the Chief Commissioner consti-
tutes a ' Local Administration ' as administering the orders
of the Local Government.
It would of course be inconvenient if the Governor-
General had to exercise directly, in every one of these
provinces, all the powers of a Local Government ; and there-
fore, in 1867, an Indian Act (XXXII) was passed to enable
him to relieve himself of such detailed work, by delegating
certain of his powers as the ' Local Government ' to the
Chief Commissioners then existing, which were those of
Oudh, the Central Provinces, and Pritish Burma. Since
then, this process has been further simplified by inserting
in Section 2, clause 10 of Act I of 1868 ('The General
1 The provinces under Lieuten-
ant-Governors are called ' Local
Governments,' because such pro-
vinces, though subordinate to the
Government of India, are not im-
mediately under the orders of the
Governor-General.
4O LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. 11.
Clauses Act '), a definition of the term ' Local Government.'
In all Acts passed after 1868, when anything is provided
to be done by a Local Government, that includes the Chief
Commissioner of any province ; in fact, the delegation of
the Governor-General's power as a Local Government is in
all such cases implied by, or contained in, the legal mean-
ing of the term Local Government 1. Of course the term
has this wider meaning only when the context, or some
express provision, does not control or limit it.
The powers of the Governor-General were further en-
larged by the 46th section of the 24 and 25 Viet., cap, 67
(' The Indian Councils Act, 1861 '). which gives him power
to constitute new provinces and to appoint Lieutenant-
Go vernors for them. The Act also makes provision for
fixing the limits of every ' Presidency division, province or
territory in India ' for the purposes of the Act ; and for
altering those limits.
In 1865 the 28th Viet., cap. 17, provided the power to
apportion or re-apportion the different territories among
the existing Governorships and Lieutenant-Governorships.
There are also provisions of the Indian Legislature
regarding minor divisions of territory, i. e. creating new
districts and altering the existing boundaries of districts,
of which it is not here necessary to speak.
§ 10. Notes on the Provinces — Bengal — Madras.
I may now add a few particulars regarding the different
provinces as constituted under the laws above enumerated.
The growth of Bengal has been already indicated. Madras
calls for no explanation ; the table at the end of the chapter
gives the facts.
1 The 'General Clauses Act' of shall include a Chief Commissioner. '
1868 defines the term 'Local Govern- In Assam, where it was not con-
ment ' to mean, ' the person author- venient that this should take effect,
ized by law to administer executive Acts VIII and XII of 1874 were
government in the part of British specially enacted to regulate the
India in which the Act containing powers of the Chief Commissioner,
such expression shall operate, and
CHAP. II.] OEIGIN OF THE PROVINCES. 41
§ ii. Bombay.
The earliest acquisitions, leaving aside Bombay itself,
were Surat, Bharoch, and Kaira, which were acquired partly
from the Nawab of Surat in 1 800, partly from the Gaikwar
of Baroda (one of the Marath^, confederacy) between 1 802—
1805. Ahmadabad was also acquired from the Gaikwar
between 1802 and 1817.
The Maratha war of 1803 was the cause of some of these
cessions. The rest of the districts were variously acquired,
but the bulk of them were annexed after the last war in
1818. In 1822 a treaty with the Nizam of Haidarabad
resulted in several exchanges and cessions with a view to
simplifying boundaries and jurisdictions. The Bombay
presidency still remains much interspersed with native
states, and, as might be expected, occasional lapses for
want of heirs, and some confiscations, have occurred. Thus
the Satara district was acquired on the deposition of the
Raja in 1837 ; and the part of Belgam that was not ceded
in 1818 was acquired from the Raj£ of Kolapur in 1827.
A treaty with Sindhia of December 12th, 1860 (also for
the purpose of adjusting boundaries), resulted in several
exchanges of small tracts in Poona and elsewhere.
In 1 862, the North Kanara district, which was previously
under Madras, was transferred to Bombay.
§ 12. The North -West Provinces and Oudh.
I have already been obliged to include much of what has
to be said of this province in my account of Bengal. It
will only be necessary here to repeat that the province
consists of the Benares districts which came under the
Permanent Settlement — viz. Benares (Banaras), Ballia,
Jaunpur, Ghdzipur, and part of Mirzapur ; the ' Ceded
districts' of 1801, already enumerated in a footnote; and
certain districts called the ' Conquered territories,' acquired
by treaty from the Marathas in 1803. These were Agra,
Muttra (Mathura), Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Meerut (Mirath),
Muzaffarnagar, and Saharanpur, as well as the Bundelkhand
42 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IT.
districts of Banda and Hamirpur. The remaining districts
of this last local group, viz. Jhansi, Jalaun, and Lalitpur,
were acquired by lapse, forfeiture, and treaty after 1840.
The Maratha treaty of 1 803 also ceded certain territory
on the right bank of the Jamnd river known as ' the Delhi
territory.' In 1858 it was transferred to the Panjab,
because at the time the mutiny at Delhi made it impossible
to communicate with it from the North- West Provinces.
Further particulars will be given in the next paragraph.
The only other addition to the North- West Provinces
was the hill and sub-montane tract taken after the Nepal
war of 1815 (Dehra-dun, Jaunsar-Bawar, Kumaon and
British Garhwal.)
The North-West Provinces, as already explained, are under
a Lieutenant-Governor, whose capital was moved to Allah-
abad shortly after 1860. The Province is under a High
Court and a Board of Revenue.
OUDH was annexed in 1856, and placed under a Chief
Commissioner. In 1877 it was amalgamated with the
North- West Provinces, so far, that the Lieutenant-Governor
became also the Chief Commissioner, and is the chief con-
trolling Revenue authority l. The Board of Revenue does
not control Oudh, nor has the High Court jurisdiction : the
Judicial Commissioner is still the highest local Court.
§ 13. The Panjdb.
The first acquisition of territory, which now forms part
of the Panjab, resulted from Lord Lake's Maratha campaign
and the treaty of Sarji-Anjangam (Dec. 30, 1803). This
was the country on the right bank of the Jamna, and is
comprised in the present districts of Delhi (Dihli), Gurgaon,
Rohtak, Karnal, Hisar, and the Sirsa tahsil of Firozpur.
1 The official particulars are to be the Lieutenant-Governor would ex-
found in the Resolution, Home De- ercise as such. The assimilation
partment (Government of India) is chiefly effected by repealing some
No. 45, Jan. 17, 1877. In order to of the provisions (in various Acts)
facilitate the action of Government, which require the Governor-Gene-
Act XIV of 1878 was passed to as- ral's sanction to the Chief Com-
similatethepowers of the Chief Com- missioner's proceedings,
missioner of Oudh to those which
CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES.
43
The country was at first under the general political con-
trol of the North-West Provinces. It was then our policy
to make the Jamnd the frontier, and to provide for the
districts beyond by granting them to great chiefs who
were to receive the revenue, and be responsible for the
administration. The plan failed ; and after some years
under the North -West Provinces government, the events of
the Mutiny (as already stated) compelled the transfer of
the districts (1858) to the Panjab1.
The next important occurrence was the Protection treaty
of 1809 with the chiefs on this side (i. e. the side nearest
the British capital) of the Sutlej. The chiefs became
alarmed by the incursions of Ranjit Singh, who indeed in
1806 advanced as far as the British cantonment at Karnal.
The greater chiefs have since been confirmed as feudatory
princes (Faridkot, Patiala, Jind, Nabha, and the minor
states of Maldr-Kotla and Kalsia), the others became
1 One of the above-named districts
— Karnal — as it now is, does not
wholly consist of territory taken in
1803 ; other neighbouring lands
lapsed to the Government, and there
were several changes. First, there
were two districts, Karnal and
Thanesar, and then, on the abolition
of the latter, there was a remodel-
ling of the district of Karnal.
The districts named in the text are
commonly called the ' Delhi terri-
tory,' and were equally commonly,
but erroneously, supposed to be the
territory spoken of in the Regula-
tions of 1803-5 which provided for the
administration of the ' Conquered
districts.' The territory therein de-
clared exempt from the Regulations
was only the country round the city of
Delhi, including the 'taiyul' villages
— lands the income of which went
to the privy purse of the titular
king of Delhi, and certain other
tracts, the revenues of which were assigned
for the expenses of the Court. Certainly
Karnal as it then was, and Hisar,
Rohtak, &c., though called the Delhi
territory, were never assigned for the
support of the king of Delhi. The
fact is that the Regulations ignored
the country on the right bank of
the Jamna. Reg. VIII of 1805 pro-
fesses to provide for the whole of the
conquered territories : but by the
direction to form them into districts,
and then specifying the law applic-
able to those districts, the country we
are speaking of is virtually excluded,
because geographically it never was
or could be included in any of the five
districts prescribed by the Regula-
tion. Legally then the Regulation
law generally applied, but practically
there was no one to administer it,
as most of the territory had been
granted to native chiefs under poli-
tical control only. Karnal was (for
example) granted to the Mandal
family, who still hold the pargana
of Karnal. As a whole, the plan
failed, and some of the chiefs re-
signed their grants. Gradually
these districts came under British
Government, and the grantees
(such of them as remained) became
great private estate holders under
the Government. In 1832, Reg. V
was passed to declare the laws in
force, and British officers made the
Revenue Settlements. This Regula-
tion was repealed in 1858 (Act
XXXVIII), and since then the dis-
tricts have been under the Panjab,
and of course subject to the ordinary
Panjab law.
44 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IT.
'jagirdars' or smaller chiefs to whom the revenue of the
territory was granted. Some of the states have since lapsed
from failure of heirs, e.g. part of Jind in 1834, Kaithal
(now part of Karnal district) in 1843, and Thanesar in
I85O1. In 1845 the Ladwa state was forfeited for
rebellion, and now forms part of Karnal district.
In this part of the country there have naturally been
minor exchanges of villages and adjustments of boundary
which it is not necessary to detail.
Things so remained till Ranjit Singh's death, and some
years afterwards, when the Darbar (or Sikh Court) was
foolishly moved to interfere on the other side of the Sutlej ;
this led to the first Sikh war, and the annexation of the
cis-Sutlej districts, Firozpur, Ludiana, Ambdla2, as well
as (for security) the districts of Jalandhar, Hushyarpur,
and Kangra, which were trans-Sutlej, or between the Sutlej
and the Bias Rivers. A British Resident was appointed to
aid the Darbar in administering the Panjab to the north-
west of the Bias River; but a second Sikh war broke
out, and, in 1 849, Lord Dalhousie (very reluctantly) annexed
the whole.
The province was not attached to any presidency,
but simply annexed to the British dominion ; hence
1 Thanesar was at first formed or great over-lord of the whole,
into a separate district, but was 2 Ambala was only partly an-
afterwards divided between Am- nexed : most of it is made up of
bala and Karnal districts. territory which lapsed to Govern-
The history of the Sikhs is a very ment by failure of heirs. A cer-
interesting one, but I cannot, of tain number of the cis-Sutlej chiefs
course, go into it. By the Treaty of intrigued with the Sikhs before the
1809, the states cis-Sutlej were pro- war. Ladwa was confiscated on
tected from being swallowed up by this account, and on the conclusion
the power of Ranjit Singh. At first, of the war. safety was secured by
the reader will remember, a number acknowledging sovereign powers
of Sikh chiefs, with their followers, only to the greater (and thoroughly
each conquering and holding what loyal i chiefs, Patiala, Jind, and
territory he could (as his taluqa or Nabha. of the Phulkian misl, while
state), formed a number of groups sovereign powers were withdrawn
called ' misl,' confederated together, from the petty territories. It was
till Raja Mahan Singh of the Sukr- obviously impossible long to tolerate,
chakya misl began to take the lead among the British districts, a series
and reduce the others to subjection. of semi-independent kingdoms, each
The plan was consummated by the the size of half a county, and at bitter
force and genius of his son Ranjit enmity one with the other.
Singh, who became the ' Maharaja '
CHAP, ii.] ORIGIN OF THE PEOVINCES. 45
the Regulations did not apply. A despatch (dated 3ist
March, 1849) from the Governor-General, gave direc-
tions as to the form and method of administration, and
appointed a ' Board of Administration ' consisting of three
members. By the Government of India, Notif. No. 660,
dated 4th February, 1853, a single Chief Commissioner was
substituted. (Differences of opinion arose in the Board,
and, as might be expected, it was found that the responsible
executive functions in a province must be in a single hand.)
The Chief Commissioner was assisted by a Financial Com-
missioner and a Judicial Commissioner as the chief Revenue
and Judicial authorities under Government. Lastly, by
Notification No. i, dated ist January, 1 859 (under the 16 and
17 Viet., cap. 95) the Governor-General 'proclaimed that a
separate Lieutenant-Governorship for the territories on the
extreme northern frontier of Her Majesty's Indian Empire
shall be established, and that the Panjab and the tracts
commonly called the trans-Sutlej States, the cis-Sutlej
States, and the Delhi territory, shall be the jurisdiction of
the Lieutenant-Governor.' These limits are maintained to
the present day. As they include more than the Panjab
proper, the official style is 'Lieutenant-Governor of the
Panjab and its dependencies/ The Chief Court (virtually
a High Court, but not by Royal Charter) has become the chief
judicial controlling authority (Act IV of 1866), and there
are now two Financial Commissioners for Revenue control.
§ 14. The Central Provinces.
It will be observed that there are certain groups which
will facilitate the remembrance of the main parts — (i)
Nimdr; (2) the districts adjoining the Tapti and Narbada
rivers in the North ; (3) the Central districts ; (4) Sambalpur ;
and (5) the small tract in the south on the Godavari
river.
(i) The first portions of Nimar were acquired after the
Maratha war from Sindhia in 1818. But the rest of the
district was made over to our management, the northern
46 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
part in 1820-25, the southern (adjoining the Tapti) in
1844. The sovereignty of both was ceded in 1860.
(2) Of the Northern districts, Baitul, Seoni, Jabalpur1,
and Mandla were ceded after the war, in 1818, so was most
of Narsinghpur, and Hoshangabad. A few parganas of
Narsinghpur north of the Tapti were first made over to
British management (1820-5) and ceded in 1860, and the
southern part of Hoshangabad (Harda-Handia) was made
over in 1844, and ceded in 1860. The two northern
districts, Sagar and Damoh, were acquired piecemeal ; por-
tions of both were acquired in 1818 from the Bhonsla
Marathas of Nagpur, and from the Peshwa ; and the rest,
having been made over for management in 1820-5, was
ceded in [86o2. One pargana (Shahgarh) in Sagar was
forfeited for rebellion in 1 857.
(3) The central districts, escheated for want of heirs in
1854. The same was the case with Sambalpur (4) in 1849.
Lastly, the tract now called the Sironcha tahsil of the
Chanda district, along the Godavari, was ceded by the
Nizam (in exchange for other lands) in 1860.
By Resolution (Foreign Department, No. 9 of 2nd No-
vember, 1861) the Chief Commissionership of the Central
Provinces was constituted. The notification contains a
long history of the administration of these provinces. It
recites that Nagpur had been under a Commissioner as
Agent for the Governor-General. The Sagar and Narbada
districts had at various times been transferred from one
Government to another. They were originally under the
Supreme Government ; subsequently they were placed
under the Lieutenant-Governor of the North- West Pro-
vinces. Again, in 1842, the general control of them was
vested in a Commissioner and Governor-General's Agent,
in direct communication with the Supreme Government,
while the supervision of fiscal and judicial affairs re-
1 The north-east pargana of were further altered by some
Jabalpur formed a separate state transfers from British territory in
(Bijragogarh), which was forfeited Bundelkhand, but that was an ad-
for mutiny in 1857. ministrative transfer not a territo-
2 Both Sagar and Damoh districts rial acquisition.
CHAP, ii.] OEIGIN OF THE PEOVINCES. 47
inained with the Sudder Board and Sudder Court
of the North-West Provinces respectively. After this,
the general jurisdiction was again transferred to the
Lieutenant-Governor of the North- West Provinces, and
so remained till the notification issued in 1861. Nimar
had been managed chiefly as an ' assigned district ' till its
cession as a whole in 1860. Sambalpur was added to the
Central Provinces in 1862, Nimar in 1864, and a small
estate called Bijragogarh in 1865. The fact that some
tracts in Nagpur were ceded in 1817 does not place Nagpur
first in the list of acquisitions. The province as a whole
had been managed since the defeatrof Appa Sahib in 1817,
on behalf of the minor Bhonsla Raja (Raghuji III). He
succeeded to the estates in 1830, but died without heirs in
1853, and the province lapsed to the British Government.
§ 15. Ajmer and Merwdra.
Ajmer was ceded by treaty in 1818 and Merwara also,
but the latter district was in so disturbed a state that it
had to be restored to order by military occupation. Such
details as are necessary will best find a place in the chapter
specially devoted to an account of this province. The whole
was constituted a Chief Commissionership under the autho-
rity of the 17 and 18 Viet., cap. 77, sec. 3 J. The Governor-
General's Agent for the Rajputana States is ex officio Chief
Commissioner.
Previously the province had been under the North-
West Provinces Government, and it was owing to that
fact that the first regular settlement was made on the
system of village settlements prevalent in those provinces.
§ 1 6. Assam.
This province was separated from Bengal and placed
under a Chief Commissioner under the provisions of the
Act of 1854 (17 and 18 Viet., cap. 77). As it was not de-
sirable to give the Chief Commissioner, as such, all the
1 Notification (Foreign Department), No. 1007, dated 26th May, 1871.
48 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA [CHAP. H.
powers which had been exercised by the Government of
Bengal, special acts were passed dealing with the subject of
powers. The detail of this will be more appropriately given
in the chapter devoted to Assam.
Assam includes the Assam valley districts, acquired in
1824, the Hill districts (Garo Hills, Khasi and Jaintya Hills,
&c.), and the older districts of Goalpard, Sylhet (properly
Silhatt or Srihatta), and Kachar l.
§ 17. Coorg.
The little province of Coorg (Kodagu) was annexed in
1834 owing to the continued misgovernment of its Raja2.
It is a hill country along the top of the Western Ghat
range ; only a tract to the north and a strip to the east is
' below Ghat.' Its people and its tenures were peculiar, so
that its administration was provided for separately. The
Resident of Mysore is the Chief Commissioner.
It is a scheduled district under Act XIV of 1874, and is
governed by such of the General Acts as have been declared
in force, and by Regulations under the 33 Viet., cap. 3.
§ 1 8. Burma.
British Burma was constituted a Chief Commissionership
on its present footing in i8623. As in the case of the
Central Provinces, the Resolution gives a history of the
previous administration. It recites that there had been
three separate Commissioners of Arracan, Pegu, and Tenas-
serim respectively : the first had been under the Government
of Bengal (annexation after the war of 1824) ; Pegu (second
Burmese war, 1852) had been directly under the Govern-
ment of India.
After the third Burmese war (1885-6) the provinces of
Upper Burma and the Shan States were annexed, and formed
into seventeen districts, the States being under political con-
1 Notification, No. 379, dated 7th 3 Resolution, Foreign Depart-
February, 1874 (Gazette of India, Part ment (General), No. 212, dated 3ist
II, p. 53). January, 1862.
8 Proclamation issued May, 1834.
CHAP, ii.] ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES. 49
trol only1. The Chief Commissioner has jurisdiction over
the whole, but the Upper Burma territories are governed by-
several separate Regulations under the 33 Viet., cap. 3.
§ 19. The Andaman Islands.
The small settlement at Port Blair has importance chiefly
as a penal settlement for convicts ; the government is by
a Chief Commissioner at Port Blair.
§ 20. Berdr.
Berar (the Hyderabad Assigned Districts) is governed by
British officers in virtue of the treaties of 1853 and i86o2.
By the first treaty Berar and some other territories were
assigned for the payment of interest on the debt due to the
East India Company for the support of the Hyderabad
Contingent force, and for some other purposes. The assign-
ment was subject to an annual account of receipts and
expenses. By the treaty of 1860 the debt was declared
cancelled ; certain of the territories assigned under the first
treaty were restored, and Berar alone retained (within the
general limits it now occupies, but including certain taluqas
inside the boundaries which were before exempt from man-
agement). No account is now rendered to the Nizdm, but
the British Government pays to him any surplus it may
have in hand after meeting the cost of administration, the
cost of the troops of the Contingent, and certain allowances
and pensions specified in the treaty.
No laws are in force as such ; but the Governor-General
makes rules on certain subjects and also directs such Acts
as are suitable, to be followed. They are then ' in force,'
1 Proclamation, 3rd March, 1886 ' to the exclusive management of
(British Surma Gazette, 6th March, the British Resident for the time
1886, Part I, p. 89). being at Hyderabad and to such
2 Article 6 of the treaty of 1853 officers acting under his orders, as
and article 6 of the treaty of 26th may from time to time be appointed
December, 1860 (Aitchison's Treaties, by the Government of India to the
vol. v. pp. 214-224"). By the treaty charge of those districts.'
of 1853 the districts are assigned
VOL. I. E
5O THE LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
not as Acts of the Legislature, but as expressions of the will
of the Governor-General l.
§ 21. The term 'Non-Regulation' Province.
There remains one more topic of the administrative sys-
tem to be noticed. We still hear of ' Regulation ' Provinces
and ' N on- Regulation ' Provinces ; and these terms should be
explained, if it is only for the sake of history, as it must be
admitted that the terms, having lost their former force, are
going out of use.
Starting with the idea of the ' Presidencies ' as the centres
of government, we have already seen that each Presidency
under its Governor and Council was empowered to enact
a code of ' Regulations ' for its government, in the days
before 1 834, when a General Legislative Council was formed.
When therefore any territory was added by conquest or
treaty to a presidency — as it was first supposed would be
the ordinary course — such territory or province came under
the existing ' Regulations ' ; and further, the course of its
official appointments was governed by an Act of Parlia-
ment. But when, as we have seen, provinces were acquired
which were not, and could not be, annexed to any of the
three Presidencies, their official staff could be provided as
the Governor- General pleased, and was not governed by
any Statute ; and what was perhaps of greater importance
still, the existing Regulations of the Bengal, Madras, or
Bombay Codes did not apply proprio vigore. Such
provinces were then called ' Non-Regulation Provinces.'
Besides the whole provinces never ' regulationized,' there
1 There have been proposals from especially when the term of settle-
time to time to restore the territory ment expired. It should also be
to the rule of the Nizam. But it is fairly borne in mind that the Nizam
believed that these have now re- is not the indigenous or natural
ceived their final quietus. It would ruler any more than the British
certainly be extremely hard on the crown. The country was conquered
population, which has grown well by the Mughal emperors, and the
to do if not rich and contented, Nizam, who was originally their local
under British rule, for nearly half deputy, established his independ-
a century, if a change was now ence in the last days of the collapse
made. Treaty obligations to respect of the empire, and owes his con-
the moderation of our Revenue tinuance in his existing territory
Settlement might be made on paper, entirely to the moderation of the
but they could not be enforced, British rulers of the time.
CHAP. II.] ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES. 51
were also parts of the older presidencies "which it was
desirable to exempt from the ordinary law. The ' Non-
Regulation Provinces,' in fact, soon came to comprise the
larger portion of the total number of districts in British
India 1.
Of the two features which distinguished the Non-Regula-
tion districts, one relating to the difference of the laws in
force cannot be fully explained till we have further studied
the legislative powers of the Indian Government in the next
chapter. I must therefore defer my remarks for the present,
only saying that the difference in law has now almost dis-
appeared as regards the bulk of the districts ; but as regards
a few which are really backward, or exceptional tracts of
country requiring a simpler and more ' paternal ' form of
government, the old distinction has given way to a new
and real one.
The second feature of the original distinction survives
still, but only in the titles and salaries of certain officials,
and also in the fact that in Regulation Provinces certain
posts are, by law, reserved to be held by members of the
Covenanted Civil Services 2. Under the Act of 33 Geo. III.
(1793), it was provided that offices under Government
should be filled by Covenanted Civil Servants of the Presi-
dency to which the vacant office belonged. Consequently
districts not attached to any Presidency were not bound by
this rule, and the Governor- General could provide for their
administration as he pleased.
1 Colonel Chesney (Indian Polity, began in 1834), applied equally to
and edition, p. 193) gives a list these territories, provided the pro-
showing that there are in Non- vince formed part of British India
Regulation to 97 Regulation dis- when the Act was passed. Thus,
tricts. Readers must beware of any general Act passed after 1849
certain inaccuracies in this other- would apply to the Punjab, and one
wise excellent book, as regards the passed after 1856 to Oudh.
legal position of the Non-Regulation 2 The question what appoint-
Provinces. The author is mistaken ments in India, generally, must be
in supposing that the Non-Regu- held by Covenanted Civil Servants
lation Provinces were excluded from and what must be so held in the
the operation of Legislative enactments Judicial and Revenue Branches in
till 1861. They were exempt from Regulation Provinces, is now deter-
the Regulations, but all Acts applying mined by the Act of Parliament,
generally to British India, passed 24 and 25 Viet., cap. 54.
by the Legislative Council (which
5 2 THE LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
It was both natural and advisable in such cases that
military and political officers (who had been, in many cases,
engaged in the affairs of a province before its annexation)
should be appointed to the task of first organizing and con-
ducting the new administration. Besides this, as time went
on, an increasing staff of native and European and Eurasian
' uncovenanted ' officers came into existence. It consisted
of qualified persons appointed in India or otherwise, but
who had not signed a covenant under the old forms with the
Court of Directors, or passed through Haileybury College, or
been selected by competitive examination under the later
rules (since 1856).
Such officers could of course be also employed. At the
same time there was nothing to prevent civilians of the
Covenanted Services being also appointed as their services
became available: consequently the Commission in those
provinces is always a mixed one l.
In the ' Non-Regulation ' districts also the district officer
(called ' Deputy Commissioner ' ?) originally had civil as
well as criminal and revenue powers, and this is still main-
tained in a few cases, though the later tendency has been to
confine the district officer to his revenue and executive
duty ; he however has in all provinces criminal powers as
magistrate, because that is necessary, though of course he
does not take any large share in the disposal of ordinary
Criminal Court cases. As magistrate he hears appeals and
superintends the administration, and in some provinces is
invested with special powers enabling him to deal directly
with heavy cases (all offences not punishable with death)
without committing them for trial to the Sessions Court.
1 And local rules exist as to what 2 This special title of the district
appointments should ordinarily officer is about the most tangible
be open to or be held by each class, 'outward and visible sign' that a
— Military in Civil employ, Civilian district is ' Non-Regulation ' that
and Uncovenanted — with a view to I am aware of.
giving a fair proportion to each.
CHAP, ii.] ORIGIN OF THE PEOVINCES. 53
§ 22. List of Districts in India.
The following provincial lists will prove useful to the
student, who will in the course of this book find continual
reference to the ' Districts ' and ' Divisions ' (aggregates of
three or more districts under a Commissioner).
The table shows the form of government, whether a
' local government ' (i. e. under a Governor or Lieutenant-
Governor), or a ' local administration ' (under a Chief Com-
missioner) l, and also the groups of districts under ' Divi-
sions ' — a plan which, as we shall see, interposes a certain
intermediate superintendence and control over the districts
before coming to the chief revenue and executive control
vested in the Financial Commissioners or Boards of Revenue,
and in the head of the Government. I have also given the
chief facts regarding the acquisition of the districts, and
the date of their passing under British rule 2. The date of
the Land-Revenue Settlements is also given as far as
possible.
1 See pp. 39-40. quired by treaty, exchange and
8 This is stated generally : in other arrangement for simplifying
some cases the district was acquired boundaries, which it is impossible
piecemeal, and small portions ac- to include in a general table.
54 THE LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
< .
O o TJ
s 1 a
3 133-U
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Xouapisajj
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03 fl
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Name of P
vince, with
of Governm
and chie
Revenue Co
M 8-B
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CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OY THE PROVINCES.
55
The ' Nodbad ' estates are
temporarily settled : set-
tlement expires in 1892.
These two districts together
formed the old Tirhut dis-
trict.
The Daman-i-Koh exempt
from the Regulations (and
Permanent Settlement)
since 1780 and forms a
Government estate settled
under Act XXXVII of
1855, and now under Reg.
Ill of 1872.
:
^ ^
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•UOISIAI(J
be jo
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56 THE LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
of 2 o
o
$ 5 •£ T3
1
J5 S 05 3
O o * S
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ills
IM
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Date of
Land Reve
Settlemen
!*
g il 1
M P< m a:
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O o
n 03 >3 ^5
« ^ ^5 ^
o S S .S §
CTj-e-2
g<i S-s
'UOISIAT(J
BSSIJQ
Acquisition,
er territorial
nation.
Date
and f
d
I §0 1 I
CHAP. II.]
OEIGIJST OF THE PROVINCES.
57
These were the five ' Sir-
kars ' or districts. Gantur
did not immediately pass
with the others but fell in
in 1788. The others were
all managed politically
under tribute till 1823.
In these districts the Per-
manent Settlement chiefly
took effect.
The ' Settlement ' dates of
course refer to the tracts
under Raiyatw&ri Settle-
•9J
fe ^
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fl of
M
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TO [> ^^ "^ H^ — rvl _rt ™ ^-* O Q> Cj ^
tricts of ' Rajamundry,'
' Masulipatam,' and 'Gun-
toor.' The change was
1
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Board of
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58 THE LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
GJ ' ' ® rt O O
X
«
_£§~'3>,§<Dqj"8
S
.^ fl _ f^ ^2 p C( .li ^^
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a
Taluk, Per-
gana, or other
sub-division
of District.
f2 ' >y •
"S'li ^ ^Isi 1 11- lls'S
p,^ § ."§-;« & ^^ >_• § ^s r3 '5 o S d £<
'^2'3Ei2>>>§'3^-^i:« '5'3T3'3^^!'§)M
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<S OJ 'C3 CO —H
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Date of Acquisition,
and former territorial
designation.
gS 1||gS °3||| |_|||
^1* illi?l?Lllilf
l^l !'?u«|r«H|
?^.S 1iliJfsl*|l' -S'-i
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1858-9.
i^fl i
•SfS^l
5§ ^
«g« S^§o
§1
C ? £,3 «
1 g-ll 1
X|o 1
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CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES.
59
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1/5 VO «
j-g ^| ,
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ipet and
her taluks.
taluks.
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ur.
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natic in parts, in
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The ' Carnatic dis-
tricts,' ceded by the
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The Dindigal part of
this district (Palni,
Dindigal and Pe-
riyakulam taluks)
was acquired 1792.
60 THE LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. 11.
«H O
o.o i^j
-§:|S S
Taluk, Pe
na, or oth
ub-divisio
of District
*ljjj
li^ll
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CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OP THE PROVINCE S.
61
8 A $H
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§ S •" o
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62
THE LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. ir.
.S-gS®
a
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- -
CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OF THE PEOVINOES.
NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES.
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64 THE LAND SYSTEMS OE BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
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Acquisition,
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CHAP. II ]
OEIGIN OF THE PEOVINCES.
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VOL. I.
66
LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
>>
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CHAP. II.] ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES.
.
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68
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
i|
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CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES.
69
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70
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
REMARKS.
S
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1888.
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CHAP. II.]
ORIGIN OF THE PROVINCES.
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72
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA.
[CHAP. n.
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CHAP. II.]
OEIGFN OP THE PEOVINCES.
73
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74
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. n.
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CHAP. II.]
OEIQIN OF THE PROVINCES.
75
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*F.I.
CHAPTER III.
OP THE INDIAN LEGISLATURES, AND THE LAWS BY
WHICH INDIA IS GOVEENED.
§ i. Reason for describing them.
As I have already alluded to ' Acts ' and ' Regulations ' of
the Indian Legislature, and shall have occasion continually
to refer to such Acts and Regulations in the sequel, it will
be desirable to give a brief account of the legislative powers
under which laws have been, and are, enacted for the Indian
Empire.
Just as in the last chapter we learned that the organiza-
tion of the several provinces for administrative purposes
was only accomplished gradually and by a series of Acts of
Parliament, so the Indian Legislature has gradually grown
into its present form after several statutes for organizing it
have been made, amended, and repealed. The tentative
and changeful nature of the arrangements provided are due
to the same causes in both instances.
At first it was only necessary to provide for the internal
affairs of the Company's factories, to determine what laws
the settlers were to be deemed to carry with them, and were
to be bound by, in their new home, and what courts were to
administer justice among them. Soon, however, the sphere
widened ; whole provinces were acquired and added on to
the original settlements ; and then came the necessity of
controlling, not only the European settlers, but of providing
for the government of the country at large.
CHAP, in.] THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE. 77
Trading charters had then to be supplemented by Acts of
Parliament, providing for the direction and control of the
East India Company (now that it was a governing body),
regulating the appointment of high functionaries and sub-
ordinate agents in India, determining the constitution of
Courts of Justice, and giving powers of local legislation.
The first Act, as already intimated, passed for this purpose
was the ' Regulating ' Act of 1772-3 (13 Geo. Ill, cap 63).
This had to be amended on the subject of framing 'Regu-
lations' in 1780-1, and further in 1784 and 1786 (26 Geo.
Ill, cap. 1 6). The subsequent Acts were passed at intervals
of twenty years (when the charters were renewed), thus : —
1792-3 (33 Geo- HI, cap. 52).
1812-3 (53 Geo- IH, cap.' 155).
1833 (3 and 4 Will. IV, cap. 85).
1853 (16 and 17 Viet., cap. 95).
§ 2. Home Government of the present day.
It would serve no useful purpose, even if I had space
available, to describe the early history of the Government
which, in former days, as at present, was, from the necessity
of the case, carried on partly in England and partly in
India.
The 'Court of Directors' of the Company, afterwards
supervised by the ' Board of Control ' (which acted as a
check on the part of the Crown) 1, passed away in 1 858.
The Home Government is now provided for by the Act 21
and 22 Viet., cap. 106 (A.D. 1858), known as the ' Act for the
better government of India,' amended in 1869 (32 and 33
Viet., cap. 97). This Statute received the Royal assent on
the 2nd August, 1858, and came into force thirty days later.
In the proclamation that was issued throughout India, the
Governor-General is for the first time styled 'Viceroy.'
This Act transferred the government of the Company's
possessions to the Crown, and provides that all the rights of
the Company are to be exercised by the Crown, and all
1 This was constituted by ' Pitt's Act' of 1784 (24 Geo. Ill, cap. 25).
78 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. in.
revenues to be received for and in the name of the Queen,
and to be applied for the purposes of the government of
India alone, subject to the provisions of the Act l.
One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State is to
exercise all the control that the Court of Directors of the old
Company did, whether alone or under the Board of Control.
A Council of fifteen members, styled the ' Council of
India2,' is also established. The number has been since
reduced to ten (1889), by enabling the Secretary of State
not to fill up five vacancies out of the fifteen. The Act
fixes the salary of the members (payable out of the Indian
revenue) and prohibits them from sitting or voting in Par-
liament. The Council is under the direction of the Secre-
tary of State, and its duty under the Act, is to ' conduct
the business transacted in the United Kingdom in relation
to the government of India and the correspondence with
India.'
It may be, and is, divided into Committees for different
departments of business. If the Council differs from the
Secretary of State, the opinion of the Secretary is final, ex-
cept in some matters, for the decision of which the law
declares a majority of votes necessary 3.
§ 3. Legislative power in England.
The Parliament has full power to legislate for India
whenever it thinks fit. Not only has Parliament this
general power, but the local Indian Legislature is expressly
barred from dealing with certain subjects which it was
thought wiser to reserve for the Imperial Parliament.
I may here mention that it is a settled rule of inter-
pretation that Acts of Parliament applicable to 'British
1 In 1876 (39 Viet., cap. 10) the native princes and chiefs at Delhi
authority of the Queen was further on ist January, 1877.
recognized and Her Majesty was 2 See the Act, sects. 7 and 19.
authorized to adopt the style and 3 The most important of such
title of Empress of India which she cases is provided by section 41 of
did by Proclamation, a8th April, the Act itself. No grant or appro-
1876. The assumption of the title priation of Indian revenue or public
' Empress of India ' (Kaisar-i-Hind) property can be made without such
was celebrated with great pomp majority,
before an immense assemblage of
CHAP, in.] THE INDIAN LEGISLATDEE. 79
India ' give the law to the whole of those territories, not
only as they happen to be at the time, but however they
may be constituted thereafter. No matter how many pro-
vinces may be added to British India in future, Acts of
Parliament now in force and applying to ' British India '
would equally apply to the new provinces added1. The
meaning of the terms ' British India ' and ' India ' (includ-
ing territories which are under native princes, but under
' the suzerainty of Her Majesty ') is more formally defined in
the ' Interpretation Act,' 53 and 53 Viet., cap. 63 (1889), but
sect. 1 8 makes this apply only to Acts passed after the
Interpretation Act.
I shall not here notice the Acts of Parliament applicable
to India, as that would be beyond the direct scope of my
work 2.
Such being the powers of the Secretary of State for India
and his Council, and of the Imperial Parliament, we may
now consider the powers and constitution of the Government
of India.
§ 4. The Government of India.
There is a Viceroy3 and Governor-General with the
supreme power of control and supervision over all the
Governors and Lieutenant-Governors (who are the 'Local
Governments '). The Governors of Madras and Bombay
retain some special powers (such as that of direct cor-
respondence with the Home Government) not enjoyed by
other Local Governments, and which in some respects
affect their relation to the Government of India ; but this it
is not necessary to enter upon.
1 See Sir H. (then Mr.) Maine's because it was not till 1849 that
remarks in the Abstract of the Pro- the Panjab formed part of the
ceedings of the Legislative Council territories of the East India Com-
of sand March, 1867 (Calcutta Gazette, pany.
3oth March, 1867). Not so with 2 An excellent collection of ' Sta-
Indian Acts : — if applicable to the tutes relating to India' (up to 1881,
' whole of the territories of the East and Supplement) is published at
India Company,' that means the the Government Central Printing
territories as they existed at the Office, Calcutta, by the Legislative
time. For example, an Act passed Department.
in 1 848 would not (unless afterwards 3 So first styled in the Queen's
extended) apply to the Panjab, Proclamation of 1858.
8o LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. nr.
The Governor-General may also himself become the Local
Government of certain provinces by taking them under his
direct management (under the Act 17 and 18 Viet., cap. 77)
in the manner described in the last chapter 1. The Central
Provinces, Oudh, Assam, and Burma, are examples of this.
In such cases there is a Chief Commissioner who constitutes
the ' Local Administration.'
The Governor- General is now assisted by a Council of
five Ordinary Members 2. This is the Executive Council.
§ 5. The first form of Indian Legislature.
The first Act which directly provided for the form of
government in India is the 13 Geo. Ill, cap. 63 (passed in
1773), known as 'The Regulating Act.' It provided that
the Government of Bengal should consist of a Governor-
General and Council (four Councillors), and this was to be
the Supreme Government, subject, however, to control of
the Home authorities 3.
Legislative powers were given under this Statute to the
Governor-General for the ' Settlement of Fort William '
and other factories and places subordinate thereto.
Madras and Bombay had not yet any power of making
Regulations. To the former of these Presidencies powers
were given by an Act of Parliament in 1800 (which ex-
tended powers similar to those which an Act of 1781,
presently to be mentioned, had given to Bengal).
In 1807 Bombay was provided for, and the powers of
Madras were at the same time improved and placed on the
same footing.
The chief feature of the Regulating Act as it affected
legislation, was, that all laws required to be registered in
the Supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta, in order to
give them validity. This plan did not answer ; and it was
amended by an Act of 1781 4.
1 See Chapter II, p. 8. 4 The causes of the change were
2 24 and 25 Viet. , cap. 67 (Indian the antagonism which sprang up
Councils Act), sect. 3. between the Supreme Court and
3 Vide the Act, sees. 7, 8, and 9, the Council. All such matters
and Tagore Lectures for 1872, p. 44. must necessarily be here omitted.
CHAP, in.] THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE. 8 1
§ 6. The Regulations.
Under this amending Act of 1781, a large body of Regu-
lations was passed1. The Marquis of Cornwallis revised
and codified the Regulations in 1793, and on the ist of
May, 1793, forty-eight Regulations, so revised, were passed,
of which the forty -first declares the purpose of forming into
a regular Code, all Regulations that might be enacted for
the internal government of the British territories in Bengal.
That these Regulations did not exactly comply with the
terms of the Act of 1773, while they exceeded the limits of
the powers given by the Act of 1781, there can be no doubt.
However, Parliament in 1797 (37 Geo. Ill, cap. 142) recog-
nized them as in fact valid, approved of the formation of a
Code of such Regulations, and only added that they should
be registered in the 'Judicial Department,' and that the
reasons for each Regulation should be prefixed to it 2. The
Code thus issued in 1793 an<^ added to down to 1833,
forms what is called the ' Code of Bengal Regulations 3.'
There are local Codes of Regulations also for Madras and
Bombay.
§ 7. No provision for Provinces not annexed formally
to the Bengal Presidency.
It was noted in the last chapter that the force of the
Regulations was in 1800 (39 and 40 Geo. Ill, cap. 79)
extended to the province of Benares and 'all other fac-
tories, districts, and places which now are, or hereafter shall
be, subordinate, and to all such provinces and districts as
may at any time hereafter be annexed to the Presidency of
Fort William in Bengal.'
The student who desires to pursue these preambles being, in fact, ' ex-
the subject, may refer to the Tagore planatory memoranda ' of the object
Lectures, 1872 (Lecture III), and and purpose of the law.
the standard Histories. 3 Part of this is still in force. The
1 Tagore Law Lectures, 1872, p. 80. various repealing Acts have done
" This is the reason why long, away with all obsolete Regulations ;
and sometimes very instructive, others, of course, have been specially
preambles are to be found prefixed repealed in the course of legisla-
te some of the earlier Regulations, tion.
VOL. I. G
82 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. in.
In the course of the preceding chapter I have noticed the
importance of this provision, and also the fact that various
new acquisitions of territory, though annexed in general
terms to the British dominions, were not specifically made
subordinate, or annexed to, the Presidency of Bengal. Con-
sequently, no Regulations applied to such provinces, nor
was there any direct power of making laws for them till
1834; nor was all difficulty connected with the subject
completely removed till 1861.
§ 8. The second Indian Legislature.
The 28th August, 1833 — on which day the 3 and 4 Will.
IV, cap. 85, was passed — brought to a close the era of the
Regulations. By the 43rd section, the ' Governor- General
in Council ' was to make Laws and Regulations for all
persons, for all courts of justice, and for all places and
things within British territory and regarding servants of
the Company in allied Native States.
The Act provided also certain limits to the power of the
Indian Legislature with regard to certain subjects of
legislation.
In the former period, the legislative power had been to
make ' Rules, Regulations, and Ordinances ; ' the term
' Regulation ' was consequently adopted as most properly
describing the enactments issued. Under the 3 and 4
Will. IV, cap. 85, the power was given to make laws as
well as Regulations ; and it thenceforward became the
custom to call the enactments of the Governor- General
in Council ' Acts.'
There is but little specific difference in the nature of a
Regulation and an Act, except that the former were less
concisely and technically drafted, and were usually pre-
ceded by the detailed expositions of the motives and pur-
pose of the enactments previously alluded to. This, in
' Acts,' has been replaced, by the brief ' preamble 1.'
1 There are also some differences on such details. The introduction
in the manner of interpretation ; to ' Field's Chronological Index ex-
but it is not here necessary to enter plains the subject clearly. The
CHAP, in.] THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE. 83
From 1793 to 1833, therefore, we have 'Regulations,'
and from 1834 down to the present day we have ' Acts/
These Acts are numbered consecutively through the
year, and follow the calendar, not the official, year. This
plan has ever since been adhered to, notwithstanding the
modifications which have affected the constitution of the
Legislature down to the present time.
By the Act of 1833, the Governments of Madras and
Bombay were deprived of the power of legislation, and did
not regain this power till 1861.
The Act gave the Governor- General a Council of four
members, of whom one was to be conversant with legal
subjects. He was not a member of the Executive Council,
and only sat when legislation was in question. Even then
he was not necessarily present ; nor need he concur when
an Act was passed l. Under this Act, however, Commis-
sioners were appointed in India to consider and propose
drafts of laws a.
§ 9. The Indian Legislature in its third stage.
Our present system is nothing more than a development
of the Legislature of the 3 and 4 Will. IV, cap. 85. The
first important change was made by the Act of 1853 (16 and
17 Viet., cap. 15). It will be interesting to follow, in a very
general manner, the changes made 3.
' Statement of Objects and Reasons,' appointed to advise the Crown, on
which is always published with the the recommendations of the Law
proposed law while it is yet in the Commissioners in India,
stage of a ' Bill,' does away with 3 Acts passed under the constitu-
the necessity for any lengthy pre- tion of 1834 are technically styled
amble to the Act itself when passed. Acts of the Governor-General of India in
It is, however, itself probably a relic Council; those under the system of
of the old exposition prefixed to the 1853 are Acts of the Legislative Council
Regulations. of India ; those made since the
1 For an excellent comparison of Indian Councils' Act of 1861 are
the various Legislatures in more Acts of the Council of the Governor-
detail, see Tagore Law Lectures, 1872, General of India assembled for the pur-
page 105 et seq. pose of making Laws and Regulations.
3 It was under these provisions At the present day the drafts of
that Lord Macaulay came out, the proposed Acts are published in the
result of the Commissioners' labours Gazette of India, for the purpose of
being the Indian Penal Code, now giving notice of the proposed law
so famous. By the Act of 1853 a and of invoking criticism, and in
Law Commissioner in England was that stage the draft is spoken of as
G '2,
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. in.
By this Act some purely legislative members were added
to the Council. These were appointed, one by each Governor
of a presidency or Lieutenant-Governor of a province.
The Chief Justice of Bengal and one of the Judges, were
also made members.
While, however, the Council was thus improved in two
important features — (a) local representation of provinces,
and (6) special adaptation for legislative functions — it did
not satisfy the ideas of many who could make their opinions
heard. In those days the plan of a local legislature for each
province was strongly advocated, and in 1 859 Lord Canning
sent home a despatch, in which not only this subject was
dealt with, but the practice of the existing Council was
criticised. Lord Canning advocated a separate legislature
for Bombay, Madras, Bengal, the North-West Provinces,
and the Panjab. He also desired that natives of the
country should be consulted, and that they should be able
to give their opinions in their own language.
a ' Bill.' When the Acts are passed
by the Council and have received
the assent of the Governor-General,
they are also published in the
Gazette.
The Superintendent of Govern-
ment Printing (at his office, No. 8,
Hastings Street, Calcutta) publishes
authorized copies of all Acts, which
can be bought by the public at a
small price, varying according to
the length of the Act. The Legisla-
tive Department is also issuing a
collected series of the Acts, grouped
in volumes of ' General Acts,' and
in ' Codes,' i. e. the Acts referring
specially or solely to each province.
In these editions, which are of great
value, tables are published showing
how all the Acts and Regulations
are disposed of — by repeal, &c. Only
unrepealed enactments are printed,
with the alterations introduced by
later Acts (if passed in time for the
printing). The provincial volumes,
or 'Codes,' of Bengal, Madras, and
Bombay, give all the Regulations
and Acts of the Local Legislatures,
as well as the Acts of the Supreme
Legislature ; and all the provincial
volumes contain the ' Regulations '
issued for certain districts under
the Act 33 Viet., cap. 3. They do
not, however, give the ' rules made
pursuant to various Acts,' which
are now so conspicuous a feature in
recent Acts. These must be looked
for in local Gazettes or reprints.
Such ' rules' are, however, of great
convenience, enabling a multitude
of details to be locally provided for
which could not be entered in the
Act itself without swelling its bulk
enormously, since the ' rules ' are
as various as are the conditions of
the provinces. The Forest Officer
will remember how important a
place ' rules ' have in the Forest
Acts of 1878 and 1881.
CHAP, in.] THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE. 85
§10. The Indian Legislature as it is at present (under
the Indian Councils Act).
In 1861 was passed the 24 and 35 Viet., cap. 67, the
' Indian Councils' Act,' which (as amended in some particu-
lars by later Statutes) is the law under which our present
legislature subsists 1.
The nucleus of the Council is the Executive Council of
the Governor-General. This now consists of five Ordinary
Members (with the Commander-in-Chief as an Extraordinary
Member, if so appointed by the Secretary of State). The
Governor of Madras or Bombay becomes also another
Extraordinary Member when the Council sits in his Presi-
dency.
Of the five Ordinary Members, three are officials, Civil
or Military (of ten years' standing at least), and of the
remaining two, one must be a Barrister (or Scotch Advo-
cate) of not less than five years' standing. The Barrister
Member is generally spoken of as the ' Legal Member ' and
the other as the ' Financial Member.' When the Council
sits for legislative purposes, it has to be supplemented by
a number of ' Additional ' Members 2, for the purpose of
making Laws and Regulations only. These Additional
Members have no power of voting except at legislative
meetings. In number they must be not less than six nor
more than twelve ; one-half the number so nominated must
(by section 10) be non-official persons.
Provision is made for the Council meeting in the absence
of the Governor-General; and for the Governor-General,
when visiting any part of India, exercising his power with-
out his Council.
1 All the recent Acts of Parlia- Department.
ment, viz. from 1855, can be found 2 When the Council sits in any
in the Collection of Statutes issued province, the Lieutenant-Governor
by Mr. Whitley Stokes in continua- (and by the 33 Viet., cap. 3, sect.
tion of the 'Law relating to India 3, a Chief Commissioner also) be-
and the East India Company ' ; the comes ex-officio a Member for legisla-
former can easily be obtained, the Urn purposes only. The ex-officio
latter is now out of print and scarce. Members may be in excess of the
But an edition of all the Statutes maximum of twelve Additional
is being printed in the Legislative Members.
86 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. in.
But this power does not extend to legislation. The
Governor-General can never legislate apart from his Council;
but the Council may sit notwithstanding the absence of the
Governor-General. In such cases a ' President in Council '
is appointed according to the Act.
The Governor- General (alone) has, however, a special l
power to issue ordinances for the peace and good govern-
ment of the country in cases of emergency.
Power is reserved to the Crown (through the Secretary
of State in Council) to disallow any law or Regulation
passed in India ; and the powers of the Council are restricted
by section 22 in respect of certain subjects of legislation.
The Indian Councils Act was amended by the 32-33
Viet., cap. 98 (1869), and by 37-38 Viet., cap. 91 (1874),
and by the 39 Viet., cap. 7 (1876).
§ ii. Powers of Local Legislatures.
The Act gives legislative powers to the Madras and
Bombay Governments ; consequently, the Local Codes which
show a blank after 1833, begin to have Local Acts from
1862 onwards. For the other provinces the matter is
differently stated. The provisions of the Act are to be
extended to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, and
may be extended to the North -West Provinces2 and the
Panjab as soon as the Governor-General deems it expedient.
1 See section 23. This remains in ting as legislative bodies (pages 122-
force for a limited period only, and 23) : —
is subject to a ' veto ' from the Home ' The character of these Legisla-
Grovernment (Secretary of State). tive Councils is simply this, that
2 Under these provisions the Ben- they are Committees for the pur-
gal Council was constituted by pro- pose of making laws, Committees by
clamation on the i7th January, means of which the Executive Go-
1862. A Local Council of nine vernment obtains advice and assist-
Members for the North- West Pro- ance in their legislation, and the
vinces and Oudh was created by public derive the benefit of full
Notification, No. 1704, dated Cal- publicity being ensured at every
cutta, 26th November, 1886, with stage of the law-making process,
effect from the ist December, 1886. Although the Government enacts
No local legislature for the Panjab the laws through its Council, private
has yet been constituted. legislation being unknown, yet the
The following passage from the public has a right to make itself
Tagore Lectures for 1872 may be heard, and the Executive is bound
here quoted as well describing the to defend its legislation,
functions of the Councils when sit- ' And when the laws are once
CHAP. III.]
THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE.
The local Governor is bound to transmit an authenticated
copy of any Law or Eegulation to which he has assented,
to the Governor-General l. No such local law has any
validity till the Governor- General has assented thereto, and
such assent shall have been signified by him to and pub-
lished by the Governor. If the assent is withheld, the
Governor-General must signify his reasons in writing for so
doing.
made, the Executive is as much
bound by them as the public, and
the duty of enforcing them belongs
to the Courts of Justice. Such laws
are in reality the orders of Govern-
ment, but they are made in a manner
which ensures publicity and dis-
cussion, are enforced by the Courts
and not by the Executive, cannot be
changed but by the same deliberate
and public process as that by which
they were made, and can be enforced
against the Executive or in favour
of individuals whenever occasion
requires. The Councils are not de-
liberative bodies with respect to any
subject but that of the immediate
legislation before them. They can-
not enquire into grievances, call for
information, or examine the con-
duct of the Executive. The acts of
administration cannot be impugned,
nor can they be properly defended
in such assemblies, except with re-
ference to the particular measure
under discussion.'
1 And if the Bill contains penal
clauses, it is ordered (as a matter of
administrative regulation) by a de-
spatch of the Secretary of State of
ist December, 1862, that it should
be submitted to the Governor-
General before it is locally passed
into an Act.
88
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. in.
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CHAP, in.] THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE. 89
§ 12. Law of 'Non-Regulation' Provinces.
One section (25) of the Indian Councils Act I have
reserved for notice till the conclusion of this chapter.
I have already spoken of 'Non-Regulation Provinces,'
and so far explained how they came into existence. We
have seen that, unless expressly made subordinate to the
presidency, a province did not come within the operation of
the Regulations. Consequently, up to 1833, no provision
existed by which anything in the nature of a legislative
power existed for such places.
The Act 3 and 4 Will. IV, cap. 85, afforded only a partial
remedy. It gave, it is true, power to legislate for all
British territory, so that provinces which were already
British territory at the time were provided for; but
nothing was said about the application of such Acts, if
general in their character, to provinces not at the time
British provinces, but added afterwards 1. It soon became
doubtful how far such Acts were practically in force. But
the chief difficulty was, that in the newer provinces a num-
ber of matters had been provided for by local rules, circular
orders, and official instructions, which emanated from the
executive, but not from any legislative, authority. Busi-
ness could not have been carried on without such rules,
yet there was no legal basis for them, only the sanction of
practice.
The Indian Councils Act of 1861 removed the difficulty,
and by section 25 provides that ' no rule, law, or regulation
which, prior to the passing of this Act, shall have been
made by'
the Governor-General,
the Governor-General in Council,
the Governor,
the Governor in Council,
the Lieutenant-Governor,
1 Vide note, p. 79 ; the remarks able to all British territory, was not
there quoted were made in the legally in force, e. g. in the Panjab,
Council with reference to the Act because in 1835 the Panjab was not
XI of 1835, which, though applic- British territory.
9O LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. HI.
for and in respect of any such non-regulation province (i. e.
territory known from time to time as a non-regulation pro-
vince) shall be deemed invalid, ' only by reason of the same
not having been made in conformity ' with the provisions of
Acts regarding the powers and constitution of Councils and
other authorities 1.
§ 13. Local Laws Acts.
In order to remove any possible doubt on the subject, the
Indian Legislature has since expressly enacted ' Local Laws
Acts,' which state what Rules and Acts and Regulations are
to be deemed to be in force in the chief non-regulation pro-
vinces. In the Panjab we have Act IV of 1872 (amended
by XII of 1878); for Oudh, Act XVIII of 1876; for the
Central Provinces, Act XX of 1875.
In 1874, also, an Act was passed (No. XV of 1874) which
is called the ' Laws Local Extent Act,' and this, in a series
of schedules, gives a list of previous Acts and Regula-
tions which extend to the whole of India, or to the particular
province (as the case may be), and the applicability of which
was, or might be, previously doubtful.
§ 14. Scheduled Districts.
As regards the extent and nature of the law in force, the
old distinction of ' Regulation ' and ' Non-Regulation ' has
entirely lost its meaning. Many of the old Regulations
have been repealed or superseded, and some of those that
remain have been expressly declared to apply to the Non-
Regulation Provinces. Not only so, but all the more
important branches of legislation — Civil and Criminal
Procedure, Land Revenue, Stamps, Excise, Irrigation, the
1 When rules and orders were Governor-General. In this way the
made by ' Boards of Administration ' Panjab Forest Rules of 1855 had
or 'Chief Commissioners,' they validity, owing to their confirmation
would not have validity under the by the Governor-General in Council.
Indian Councils Act, unless they This validity has since been affirmed
had been confirmed by the Governor- by the insertion of the rules in the
General, in which case they vir- schedule of the Panjab Laws Act.
tually became rules made by the
CHAP. III.]
THE INDIAN LEGISLATIVE.
Law of Contract, the Criminal Law — have been provided
for either by general Acts which apply to all the provinces
at large, or by special Acts containing local details, but
resembling each other in principle. But there is still a
practical distinction of another kind to be mentioned, which
is of importance and likely long to be maintained.
There apportions of the older Eegulation Provinces, and
also portions of the newer Non-Regulation Provinces them-
selves, which are ' Extra Regulation ' in a perfectly valid and
current sense. These are now spoken of as the ' Scheduled dis-
tricts,' under the Act (XIV of 1874) passed to place them on
an intelligible basis as regards the laws in force in them l.
The districts are called ' Scheduled ' because they are
noted in the ' Schedules ' of Act XIV of 1874.
None of the Acts of a general character passed before
1874, the local application of which is settled by Act XV of
1 The list may be summarised as
follows : —
Scheduled Districts, Bengal
I. — The Jalpaigiiri and Darjil-
ing Divisions.
II.— The Hill Tracts of Chitta-
gong.
III.— The Santal Parganas.
IV.— The Chutlya Nagpur Divi-
sion.
North-Western Provinces.
I. — The Jhansi Division, com-
prising the districts of
Jhansi, Jalaun, and La-
litpur.
II. — The Province of Kumaon
and Garhwal.
III. — The Tarai Parganas, com-
prising Bazpur, Kashi-
pur, Jaspur, Rudarpur,
Gadarpur, Kilpuri,
Nanak-Mattha, and Bil-
heri.
IV. — In the Mirzapur District —
(1) The tappas of Agori
Khas and South Kon in
the pargana of Agori.
(2) The tappa of British
Singrauli in the pargana
of Singrauli.
(3) The tappas of Phulwa,
Dudhi, and Barha in the
pargana of Bichipar.
(4) The portion lying to
the south of the Kaimxir
range.
V. — The Family Domains of the
Maharaja of Benares.
VI. — The tract of country known
as Jaunsar-Bawar in the
Dehra-Dun district.
Punjab.
The districts of Hazara, Peshawar,
Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan,
Dera Ghazi Khan, Lahaul, and
Spiti.
Central Provinces.
No part of the Central Provinces
is now ' scheduled.'
The Chief Commissionership of Ajmer
and Merwdra.
The Chief Commissionership of Assam.
British Burma.
The Hill Tracts of Arracan.
Madras.
Certain estates in Ganjam, Viza-
gapatam, and Godavari districts
^besides the Laccadive Islands).
Bombay.
Sindh ,the Panch Mahals (attached
to the Kaira Collectorate), Aden,
and certain villages of Mehwasi
Chiefs.
Coorg.
The whole province (Chief Com-
missionership).
92 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. HI.
this same year, apply directly to the Scheduled districts ; it
is left to the Local Government to define by notification in
each case, —
(a) what laws are not in force (so as to remove doubts
in case it might be supposed that some law
was in force) ;
(6) what laws are in force ;
(c) and to extend Acts or parts of Acts to the dis-
trict in question.
Of course all Acts passed since 1874 themselves define to
what territories they extend, so that there can be no further
doubt on the matter.
§ 15. Regulations under 33 Viet., cap. 3.
In order to provide a still more elastic and adaptable
method of making rules which have legal validity, for pro-
vinces in an elementary stage of progress, the Act 33 Viet.,
cap. 3 (1870), provides that certain territories may at any
time be declared by the Secretary of State to be territories
for which it is desirable that special Regulations (other than
the Acts of the Legislature) should be made. The districts
so declared (if not already under Act XIV) become ' Sche-
duled ' whenever such declaration is made, so that there is
in fact a power of creating new scheduled districts in addi-
tion to those in that Act. The Regulations regarding Hazara
in the Panjab, the Santal Parganas in Bengal, regarding
Assam, Ajmer, and the Hill Tracts of Arracan, &c., are all
under this law. They are at once known from the old
'Regulations'" (of 1793-1833) by their bearing date since
1870.
§ 1 6. Re'sume".
In order to aid the student in remembering the principal
stages in the growth of the Legislature, I present the follow-
ing skeleton or abstract : —
(i) Originally each presidency had its own President
and Council : no formal legislature being needed
for settlers who bring their own law with them
to the ' factory ' in which they settle.
CHAP. III.]
THE INDIAN LEGISLATURE.
93
(2) Territories acquired and formal govern-,
A. D. ment begins ; Courts have to
1773
I78i! deal with natives of the country ;
1797. Legislative power necessary:
given by the ' Regulating Act ' of
1773, subject to supervision of Supreme
Court. This does not work, and is
amended in 1781, but incompletely.
(3) A number of ' Regulations ' made ; codified
in 1793 ; recognised as valid by Act of
Parliament, 1797. This, with subse-
quent additions up to 1833, forms the
Code of ' Bengal Regulations.'
(4) Legislature of 1834 (3 and 4 Will. IV,
A- D- cap. 85) for British India.
1833.
The ' Acts ' begin 1 834 and onwards.
(5) Improved in 1853 by adding local
A. D. members from provinces and
some judicial authorities.
tt*
ill!
a S
1853.
(6) Finally improved by Indian Councils'
Act, 1 86 1.
a $
o "O
A. D.
1861.
Bfi.S O
IfjiJ*
(7) Special power given to Secretary of State to declare
A. D. certain territories amenable to the 33
1870. Viet., cap. 3. Thereon the head of the
Local Government or Administration may pro-
pose to the Governor-General in Council a Regu-
lation, which, on being approved by him, becomes
law.
CHAPTEE IV.
A GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURES OF
BRITISH INDIA.
SECTION I — THE LINES OF STUDY.
§ i. Object of the Chapter.
THE heading of this chapter is perhaps a somewhat
startling one. I ma}7 therefore express a hope that it will
not be misunderstood or taken as indicating an attempt to
propound a general theory of origin for all the varieties of
land-tenure that are to be found in India. It may well be
doubted whether any such theory is, at present at any rate,
possible ; certainly I have no pretensions to be competent
to suggest one. And, even if such a theory were possible,
it might be further questionable whether it would be of use
to the student of practical land-administration.
At the same time there may be great advantage to be
derived from bringing together in one chapter various
leading facts about Indian land-tenures. It would be
strange if the comparative method, which has been found
fruitful in other branches of study bearing on the language
and progress of mankind, should be infructuous here. I am
not aware of any treatise in which facts regarding various
provincial and local forms of land-holding in India have
been brought together for the purpose of comparative treat-
ment. The attempt made in this chapter will not then be
going over old ground.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 95
§ 2. Value of the Comparative Method.
A comparative study of land-tenures will bring out
one thing : there are certain common factors which have,
at least within wide geographical or ethnical limits,
always been at work in the production of the tenures
we actually see around us in the several provinces. Had
these been always observed, we should have been
spared some strange mistakes. I may instance the
case of that curious district on the west coast of India
known as Malabar. From the tenure point of view Mala-
ba"r presents in its limited area quite a number of instruc-
tive and, in one sense, unique facts. It is like one of those
little glens sometimes found by botanists, in which a group
of plant-treasures — not to be found over many square miles
outside — all at once reward his search. Malabar was long
a source of puzzled remarks from reporters on land affairs.
It was supposed, for instance, that here ' private property '
in land had existed, while it could not be found anywhere
else. It was also asserted that here, exceptionally, no land-
revenue had been levied on the ' proprietor ' before the
Mysore conquest. Both remarks, though often repeated,
are quite without foundation. A study of the early Dra-
vidian-Hindu organization, and a comparison of the history
of the military chiefs of the country with that observable
in Oudh and other parts, would have enabled a more correct
interpretation to be put on the facts. The strong proprie-
tary holdings of Malabar in all probability grew up in
exactly the same way as similar rights did in Northern
India. And as to land-revenue, wherever chiefs of a con-
quering or military caste are known to have held estates on
a sort of feudal system, they will be found never to have
paid land-revenue to the Raja or over- lord. But when in
the ups and downs of fortune the rule was lost, and the
chiefs' estates became dismembered, and the descendants
(as often happens in such cases) managed to regain the land
in a new capacity, it was not to be supposed that they could
escape the natural responsibilities of the changed position ;
96 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
in other words, it was not in the nature of things to be
supposed — in Malabar any more than elsewhere — that the
next ruling power should abstain from levying a land-
revenue on such lands. However, this is all by way of
anticipation : I must not go into details ; what has been
said is only with a view to illustrate the uses of comparison
in the study of land-tenures. It cannot be a matter of
chance, nor a case in which we must abstain from drawing
inferences, that a claim to strong ' birth-right ' tenures is,
all over India, found to arise among the descendants of
military chieftains who had been colonizers or conquerors
and who have undergone the usual changes. And if so, the
origin of Malabar claims, and their relative value, is ex-
plained.
Whatever may be thought, however, of the benefits
to be derived from a comparison of local tenures, it can
hardly be doubted that by a preliminary study of this
kind, we can gain a certain familiarity with common
forms and with terms of constant occurrence in revenue
literature, which will greatly simplify our after study, and
will enable the separate provincial chapters in the sequel
to be written without the necessity for explaining over
and over again terms and facts which must recur in
each.
And, fortunately, there are certain features in the circum-
stances of our Indian provinces which indicate the lines on
which a general study may be pursued.
§ 3. Land grouped in ' Villages.'
We can hardly help beginning with the general fact that
all the races of India whose history we are to any extent
acquainted with, have, when they passed the nomadic or
pastoral stage, and took to settled agriculture, formed
certain groups of land-holdings, more or less connected
together, and which we call ' VILLAGES.' At least that is
true for all the districts in the plain country where there
are no exceptional features.
I have already explained, in an introductory chapter, that
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 97
the term 'village,' as we use it, means a group of land-
holdings, with (usually) a central aggregate of residences,
the inhabitants of which have certain relations, and some
kind of union or bond of common government l. In the
course of time modifications arise in the ownership and
constitution of village societies ; but once given a local
name, the ' village ' remains a feature on the district map
in spite of all. Family partitions, for instance, and transfers,
may cause one village to be divided between several
estates, or may unite twenty villages under one owner, but
as a local feature the ' village ' always remains.
The village, its various forms and the modifications it
undergoes, will then form a. natural starting-point for our
study of tenures.
§ 4. Effects of Land-Revenue Administration and
Revenue-farming.
Then again, the greater Oriental governments which
preceded ours, have always, in one form or another, de-
rived the bulk of their State-revenues and Royal property
from the land. In one system known to us, ' Royal lands '
were allotted in the principal villages, and this fact may
have suggested to the Mughals their plan of allotting
special farms and villages to furnish the privy purse, and
has had other survivals. Eut, speaking generally, the
universal plan of taking revenue was by taking a share of
the actual grain heap on the threshing-floor from each
holding. Afterwards this was commuted for a money
payment levied on each estate or each field as the case
1 In revenue language, I may which had features in common
repeat, the village is the ' mauza ' with some forms of Indian village.
or 'din' (P.). In the Hindi dia- The 'village' group varies in size,
lects it is variously ganw, gramam, In the Panjab it averages goo acres,
graon, gaum, or some similar form. in the Central Provinces 1300 acres,
In Elphinstone's History of India in the North-West Provinces, where
and many other works, the 'village' population is denser, and land
is called a ' township.' I am not highly cultivated and much sub-
aware of any advantage possessed divided, it is 600 acres (Stack's Memo-
by this term, except that it is randum on Temporary Settlements, 1880,
equivalent to the Saxon 'fill' p. 8).
VOL. I. H
98 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
might be. The nature and consequence of this system as
it affects our modern land-revenue, will be dealt with in
detail in the next chapter. Here I only state the fact.
To collect this revenue, the ruler appointed or recognized
not only a headman and accountant in each village, but
also a hierarchy of graded officials in districts and minor
divisions of territory formed for administrative purposes.
These officers were often remunerated by holdings of land,
and a class of land-tenures will be found in some parts of
India owing its origin to these hereditary official holdings.
Not only so, but during the decline which Oriental
governments have usually undergone, the Revenue officials
have been commonly found to merge in, or be superseded
by, revenue-farmers — persons who contracted for a certain
sum of revenue to be paid into the Treasury from a given
area, as representing the State dues exigible from the land-
holdings within that area. Such revenue-farmers, or
officials, whatever their origin, have always tended to
absorb the interests of the land-holders 1 and to become in
time the virtual landlords over them.
Nor is it only that landlord tenures arise in this way.
No sooner does the superior right take shape than we find
many curious new tenures created by the landlord or
arising out of his attempts to conciliate or provide for
certain eminent claims in the grade below him.
§ 5. Effects of Assignment or Remission of Land-Revenue.
Yet another class of tenures arises in connection with the
State Revenue-administration ; and that is when the ruler
either excuses an existing land-holder from paying his re-
venue, either wholly or in part ; or ' alienates ' or assigns
the revenue of a certain estate or tract of country in favour
of some chief, or other person of importance, or to provide
funds for some special objects, or to serve as a recompense
for services to be rendered.
1 See Maine, Early History of Institutions, p. 150.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 99
At first such grants are carefully regulated, are for life
only, and strictly kept to their purpose, and to the amount
fixed. But as matters go on, and the ruler is a bad or
unscrupulous one, his treasury is empty, and he makes
such grants to avoid the difficulty of finding a cash salary.
The grants become permanent and hereditary ; they are also
issued by officials who have no right to make them ; and
not only do they then result in landlord tenures and
other curious rights, but are a burden to after times,
and have furnished a most troublesome legacy to our
own Government when it found the revenues eaten up by
grantees whose titles were invalid, and whose pretensions,
though grown old in times of disorder, were inadmissible.
Such grants may have begun with no title to the land
but only a right to the revenue, but want of supervision
and control has resulted in the grantee seizing the landed
right also. Here we have another ' common factor ' which
has everywhere been at work — the influence of State
organization and revenue systems on landholding.
§ 6. Superimposition of Landed Rights.
The mention of tenures arising out of official relations
with the land and revenue-farming, reminds us that these
tenures do not always, or even generally, arise over un-
occupied lands, or where there are no pre-existing interests.
They strike, in fact, the key-note of ' superimposition '
and 'modification'; one set of tenures supervening on
another and producing changes.
This will not be understood as leading the reader to
suppose that the great historic conquests with their new
systems of government produced any radical or wholesale
disruption of the previous state of things, as the Roman
conquest did in Europe. The changes were gradual and
often insensible ; the modified tenures were not the result of
any defined purpose to change, or any distinct principle
which was enforced. They represented an indefinite sort of
compromise between old facts and new conditions: still
H 2
IOO LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
there was modification. For example ; a man represents
the family of the leader of a party of colonizers who founded
'a Bengal village generations ago. As such he is the vir-
tual, though not legally defined, proprietor of the best
lands in the village formed by the groups of colonists.
But time goes on, and a State ' Zamindar ' arises to con-
tract for the revenues, and gradually destroys the rights
under him ; but the man we have spoken of is strong
enough or respected enough to influence even the ' Zamin-
dar,' who thereon gives him a writing acknowledging or
granting to him a perpetual tenure at a fixed and unalter-
able rent. Practically the man is as well off as he was
before — perhaps better ; but it is impossible to deny that
the colour of his tenure is changed.
Or again, let us go back to an early cultivating settle-
ment, perhaps in the days of the Gond or other ancient
kingdoms. Even this represents a somewhat advanced
stage, for before the ideas of the people had got to appre-
ciate a definite right to clear and cultivate permanently
a given area, there must have been a previous stage of
nomadic and shifting cultivation in the forest. But let
that pass. The village may remain for centuries in this
stage. The different members all claim their own cleared
holdings, and perhaps one or two leading men hold a here-
ditary headship with certain customary powers and privi-
leges. The time however comes when it is conquered by
a marauding Rajput clan, or interfered with by some of the
indigenous princes converted to Hinduism and adopting
Aryan ideas of government ; or the Raja or chief makes'
a grant of the village to some member of his family. In
short, a landlord is found for the village. The lord dies and
is succeeded by sons and grandsons. A change in the village
constitution thus occurs. The family form a ' community '
jointly claiming to own the whole. They have themselves
cleared and cultivated the surrounding waste ; they have
bought up some of the older cultivated lands, and got rid of
the holders of others, and the relics of the original village
body that remain are now the 'tenants' of the superior
CHAP, vi.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. IOI
family. This landlord family, or 'proprietary body,' is at
first closely united ; all have equal rights, and they do not
divide. But in time quarrels arise, and a desire for sepa-
rate enjoyment grows. The ' community ' then divide the
land into major and minor shares or lots, but still hold
together and have certain common rights and the waste in
common. This state of things is, however, in its turn
affected by the Muhammadan conquest and by the or-
ganized system which the Mughal Empire introduced. Not
so much at first: they are ruthlessly assessed to a full
revenue, and this a little damps their pretensions ; they
are more and more evidently graded as peasant- proprietors,
that is all. But in time the proprietary body find their
rights ignored ; a revenue-farmer first acts as their landlord,
and ends by calling himself so, till his descendants are
found, after a generation or two, talking about their ' an-
cient rights ' under the ' law and constitution of the coun-
try ! ' The old village rights have disappeared altogether.
Then come Maratha plunderers, Rohilla adventurers, or
an advance of Sikh clans. All fasten on the land, and all
devise some scheme of making a profit out of it, which in
the end affects the land-tenures.
§ 7. Effect of Modern Laws.
Lastly, the British rule comes upon the confusion and
ruin caused by centuries of such changes. Able adminis-
trators, often actuated by the highest motives, but necessarily
guided by the ideas which are natural to their age and
antecedents, endeavour to settle landed rights and the
revenues of the State on some equitable system. They
perceive that the result of all that has gone before has been
not merely to efface old tenures, and substitute new
interests in their places, but rather to leave traces of several
different rights, and to impose, as it were, layer upon layer
of interests, each revealing itself in varying degrees of
strength or preservation.
In dealing with such a state of things many mistakes are
102 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
made. Tenures are not understood, or are misunderstood ;
faulty systems of revenue-assessment and collection are
adopted, and great distress and much injustice result. In
the end matters slowly right themselves ; and then it is
desired to fix by law, in a definite manner, the principles
on which rights are to be enjoyed and the form in which
they are to be secured and recorded. The task is one of
great difficulty : as its accomplishment progresses, diverg-
ence of authorities occurs, evidence is found conflicting, and
public opinion changes. With the best intention of avoid-
ing special theories, Western terms and the principles of
Western jurisprudence make their influence felt, and the
last stage in modification of the old order is only reached
when the British legislation, earnestly desiring to do
practical justice to all classes of rights, establishes, confers
and consolidates rights, defining and classifying them as
best it may, calling this man a landlord and that a tenant,
and shading off the intermediate claims into defined grades
of ' inferior-proprietor,' ' tenure-holder,' ' occupancy-tenant,'
and what not ; trying always to provide equitably, but not
always succeeding in doing so, in order that no really sur-
viving rights may be ignored.
§ 8. Effects of Economic Conditions.
Nor must we attribute all modification to historical events
and legislative efforts. All the time economic conditions
are silently bearing their part in modifying ideas and cus-
toms of land-holding. Originally the foundation of every
one's interest in land, whether it is the king's, or the landlord-
family's, or the cultivator's, is the grain heap, the natural
produce, divided by some process or another, in kind.
But as cultivation occupies more and more of the area,
and waste for new tillage diminishes, population increases,
and farms become more and more subdivided. No doubt
subdivision means increased care and effort bestowed on
the land, the increase of works of irrigation and the use of
manure, and thus the produce is largely increased ; but this
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 1 03
cannot go on for ever, and the time comes when the shares
of the produce for the different parties cannot all be taken.
For the share which meets the expense of cultivation and
feeds and clothes the ploughman, remains a constant, at any
rate a not diminishing quantity, and the surplus from each
diminished holding becomes less. Meanwhile coined money
comes into common use, and the king or the chief, instead
of facing the inevitable and reducing his grain share to a
lower fraction, seizes on the fact that he can take coin
instead of grain. Grain shares are given up, and money
payments adjusted in the rough, and without attempting
a valuation of the actual produce, still less of appraising
the acres according to their different productive capacities.
This changes the relations of cultivator and over-lord, and
modifies the whole basis of agricultural society. 'Rent,'
' enhancement,' ' competition,' or their equivalent phrases
begin to be talked of. When population increases also,
land ceases to be over-abundant, the race to secure land
for cultivation begins, and not as before to coax cultivators
to the land. Waste is increasingly broken up and new
forms of tenure depending on arrangements for utilizing
the waste land multiply. Here again is a new field for
settled law and orderly administration to define, to regu-
late, and to protect.
§ 9. Resume.
Let us now gather up these various heads of study, and
we may arrange our subjects for a ' general view ' in the
following order : —
(1) The village and its modifications.
(2) Tenures arising from official position, State grants,
and assignment or remission of State revenue,
as well as for the conversion of revenue-farmers
or collecting agencies into proprietors and pro-
prietary bodies.
(3) The grades of land-right resulting from the super-
position, by conquest or otherwise, of new layers
of interest in the soil.
IO4 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
(4) The growth and present position of what has be-
come ' cultivating tenancies ' under the newly
recognized landlords.
(5) To these I shall add a section containing some
general ideas regarding ' property ' in land as it
is understood in India. This is a sort of epi-
sode or collateral subject, the consideration of
which is rendered necessary by every remark
we make on land-tenures.
SECTION II. — THE VILLAGE.
§ i. Existing accounts of the Village.
Considering the very great interest which attaches to the
VILLAGF, as it is found under its varied conditions and
with its different origins, in different parts of India, it is
surprising to find that it is practically impossible to put
one's hand on a single book that has collected and reduced
to shape the information which exists in Settlement Reports
and local and special papers and minutes, official and
other *.
The only detailed attempt to account for the village
constitution I have met, is in Mr. Phillips' Tagore Lectures
for 1874-5. The author has set about, with his usual skill
and industry, to collect facts from different sources; but
unfortunately he has been dominated with the idea that
villages are always ' Hindu,' and that there is one kind of
1 In Dr. Field's valuable work a valuable paper by Sir G. Camp-
on Landholding in various countries, bell, but it is too brief and general-
very little is said about the villages ; ized to be altogether satisfactory.
— the perfect communities of the There are, of course, the valuable
Panjab are hardly alluded to, and conclusions as to early forms of
those of the North- West Provinces property, which Sir H. Maine has
described only in extracts from made us familiar with in his Village
some official Minutes, which, what- Communities and other works ; but
ever may have been the ability of these do not, and do not profess to,
their authors, still were written specially analyze the Indian village
when the settlement enquiries under or give any details as to the actual
the new system of 1822 had hardly facts of origin, constitution, and
commenced, and when knowledge history, of the different types of
on the subject was most elementary. village in the various countries of
The Cobden Club Essays contain India.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUEE. 1 05
village only ; the consequence is that he tries to explain
everything by the ideas of the much later Hindu law-
books ; he pieces together various items of information
gathered from totally different provinces ; and thereout
evolves a picture of a single form of village constitution,
which thus represents nothing that really exists, or ever
did exist, as far as evidence goes. ' The village referred to
in Manu1' (he writes) ' was, we can hardly doubt, the well-
known village community, the constitution and position of
which are so important in the Hindu land system ; the
village is, in fact, the key to that system.' ' From the
slight reference to it in Manu,' he continues, ' we have to
pass by a long stride of centuries, to what has been observed
in such recent times as the period since British rule. It is
from such observations, with the aid of analogies from
similar institutions existing in modern times in other
countries, that we have to construct the idea of the village
community of Hindu times.'
§ 2. Remarks on the Quotation. — Origin of Villages.
But in order to get a notion how the village system
arose and grew in early times, and how it has since been
modified, it is necessary to throw away all theories and
to observe and collate the facts as far as they can be
established by evidence, carefully distinguishing different
localities, and only generalizing when we have a safe basis.
The first point to be noted is that there is no such
thing- as one form of the 'well- known village community' ;
and that the village-system should not be referred to
Hindu law influences without a great deal of considera-
tion— at any rate, if by ' Hindu law ' we mean the later
embodiment of modified custom in the now well-known
commentaries and text-books.
In the first place, as I have already remarked, there can
1 Manava-dharma-sastra, or the version, that by Biihler, forming vol.
Institutes of Manu, with the gloss xxv. of Triibner's series of Sacred
of Kulluka Bhatta. I always refer Books of the East. See Phillips, Lect.
to the best and most recent English I, p. 6.
IO6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
hardly be any doubt that the formation of village groups —
that is the aggregation of land-holdings in one place, and
with a certain degree of union among the cultivators — is not
peculiar to Hindu races, either original or converted. It
is found in India, among the great races which were cer-
tainly antecedent to the Hindus, and which still survive
(with their institutions) in widely distant parts of the
country. The village — apart from questions of particular
forms — is not so much the result of any system as it is of
a natural instinct. We find it everywhere, especially in
the plain country, where circumstances invited it ; at the
same time, we do not find it in other places — on the Hima-
layan hill-sides, on the west coast (Kanara and Malabar)
and in the dry regions of the Southern Panjab. In these
latter situations we find individuals, or a few con-
nected families with individual holdings ; the residences
are separately located within the holdings, or perhaps (as
on the west coast) a few family houses are arranged
in a group ; and we find that on the west coast there is
no word for ' village,' but the term for a family group of
houses with its dependencies is some word such as 'tara/
meaning a ' street.' It is true that for Government pur-
poses these holdings are artificially grouped into circles
of some kind, and that some sort of headman, or chief over
the circle, is recognized, partly as a matter of social con-
venience, partly as a matter of State management with a
view to the collection of revenue or taxes.
But over the greater part of India aggregates of cultiva-
tors forming regular villages are the rule, the other cases
are the exception.
§ 3. Two types of Village distinguished.
And then, there is not one type of village community,
but two very distinct types, one of which, again, has
marked and curious forms or varieties. And, without an-
ticipating details, which must come later, I may say at once
that these two types are distinct in origin.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 107
In the one type the aggregates of cultivators have no
claim as a joint-body to the whole estate, dividing it
among themselves on their own principles ; nor will they
acknowledge themselves in any degree jointly liable for
burdens imposed by the State. Each man owns his own
holding, which he has inherited, or bought, or cleared from
the original jungle. The waste surrounding the village is
used for grazing and wood-cutting, but no one in the
village claims it as his, to appropriate and cultivate without
leave ; still less do the whole group claim it jointly, to
partition when they please.
In the other type — owing to causes which we shall
presently investigate — a strong joint-body, probably de-
scended (in many cases) from a single head, or single
family, has pretensions to be of higher caste and supe-
rior title to the ' tenants ' who live on the estate. The
site on which the village habitations, the tank, the grave-
yard, and the cat tie -stand are, is claimed by them ; and
the others live in and use it only by permission — per-
haps on payment of small dues to the proprietary body.
The same body claim jointly (whether or not they have
separate enjoyment of portions) the entire area of the
village l, both the cultivated land and the waste. If this
waste is kept as such, they alone will receive and distribute
any profits from grazing, sale of grass or jungle fruits or
fisheries ; if it is rented to tenants, they will divide the
rents ; if it is partitioned and broken up for tillage, each
sharer will get his due portion. There are other differences,
but these suffice for our immediate purpose.
As a matter of fact, the first type of village is the
one most closely connected with Hindu government and
Hindu ideas. And the second type is found strongly
developed among the Panjab frontier tribes who were con-
verted to Muhammadanism : it is also universal among
Jat, Gujar. and other tribes in the Central Panjab, as well
1 There may be two or more such take the case of a simple village as
bodies, each claiming a certain better expressing my point,
known section of a village ; but I
IO8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
as among conquering Aryan tribes and descendants of
chiefs and nobles in other parts.
So much then for there being one general type of village
to be described, and for that type being due to Hindu
influences. In making the latter remark, I wish, however,
to qualify it by adding that it is perfectly true that the
second type of village does arise largely from those deep-
seated archaic notions of family property and of the joint
and equal inheritance of the members which have formed
the basis of the later Hindu law, as much as they do that
of the custom which governs the Panjab tribes.
§ 4. Sources of information regarding Villages.
Let us now proceed to examine our sources of information
as to the two types of village I have indicated, and see
how such villages grew up and how they have been modified.
§ 5. Causes of Village grouping.
It has been said that the idea of aggregating men in
village groups for the purposes of agriculture is a matter of
natural instinct ; so it is to a great extent1. Not only is it
true that ' union is strength,' but the situation of villages
in most parts of India was such as specially to call for
some kind of union. In the first place, the early villages
would be situated in the midst of often dense jungle ; and
the depredations of deer and pig on the crops, and of the
danger to human life from the larger beasts of the forest,
are such as an English farmer could hardly realize. Then,
too, there were adventurous armies on the move, hill-
tribesmen and local robbers to be dreaded, to say nothing
of the need of presenting an united front against forces
employed by iniquitous revenue-farmers in the later days
of misrule.
1 And we shall hereafter find recent associations of enterprising
evidence from several provinces settlers — perfectly voluntary and
that many villages owe their exist- quite unconnected with any tribal
ence to more or less ancient or notions or dynastic changes.
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. IOQ
Nor were neighbouring villages always friendly to one
another. It would often happen that a group of settle-
ments on one side of a boundary would be at feud with
those on the other, and union for defence became a normal
condition on either side.
It is not wonderful, therefore, that ' village grouping '
should have been adopted, where local circumstances suited
it, by all races in India.
And then there was another influence which tended to
fix the institution, as well as to determine the size and
composition of the groups. Some land-owning castes in
parts of India still retain a distinct tribal organization.
What happened in this respect with the earlier races we only
know partially. But we 'have the example of tribes who
settled in parts of the Panjab at a comparatively late date
— long after the Aryans — and we find them not only
forming villages, the holders of which have a strong joint-
claim to the whole, but forming them on the plainly evident
basis of tribal divisions and sub-divisions. First, we find
an allotment of certain larger areas to whole tribes or
clans, and then sub- divisions forming villages, the elders
carrying out the scheme down to making a specific allot-
ment for their several family holdings. Some villages are
then clearly due to tribal instincts. And even among the
Aryan tribes who had Rajas and chiefs over them, and among
whom we cannot trace a detailed tribal allotment, we shall
occasionally find certain clans or branches among whom no
family was sufficiently predominant to furnish a Raja ; and
among these we shall find villages divided up and allotted
from the first on a tribal and family basis.
In fact, we can follow out three conditions of the existence
of villages. The first is where, as withDravidian and Aryan
tribes, there is a central government and a series of terri-
torial officers, but where the villages are aggregates of
cultivators, and no principle of allotting the original
village areas — if there ever was any — is now traceable, and
where the village grouping appears to depend partly on
the natural necessities of the population, partly on the
IIO LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV,
State jurisdiction of headmen. The second is where we
can trace the village back to the settlement of a clan or
tribe, and have evidence of the formation of village groups
and the allotment of lands on tribal principles from the
first. The third is where a landlord-body, having acquired
predominance in an existing village, or having founded a
new one themselves, and being now represented by a more
numerous body of descendants, the existing grouping and
distribution of holdings is the result of joint-inheritance
and partition.
§ 6. Villages how far 'joint.' — The stages of property.
It may not unnaturally be asked why are the two dis-
tinct types of village spoken of not always recognized and
kept apart by Revenue writers 1 I think it is due to the
fact that they have been too often regarded as if one was
only some kind of modification of the other. Even if it
were so, it would not justify us in overlooking the distinc-
tion that certainly now exists ; but the existence of such
an opinion gives me an opportunity of introducing some
remarks that ought to be made at an early stage, regarding
ideas of 'joint property' and 'communities/ as these terms
are applied to villages.
It is commonly said that property in land passes through
three stages. First, it is held by the tribe or clan, and is
regarded as the common property of the whole body.
Holdings indeed are allotted or recognized, because without
that agricultural labour could not be performed ; but pe-
riodically the holdings are exchanged or redistributed,
showing (it is said) that no one regards any particular
field as his private property. The next stage is reached
when redistribution is abandoned, because each several
holding — that of the man with his sons, has become improved,
and each family desires to retain permanently its own. But
still the paterfamilias is not the individual owner : he cannot
sell or will away the holding. He must share it equally
with his sons if he makes a partition, and on his death it
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. I I I
will go to all sons equally, or to all other heirs if there
are no surviving sons.
That is said to be the stage when property vests in the
family. This stage evidently subsists to a great extent in
most parts of India. The Hindu law and local custom (as I
have mentioned) recognize a joint succession, and provide
some other rules which I need not here allude to, for keep-
ing the property in one family.
But gradually the desire to profit by one's own skill and
labour individualizes property. A number of things con-
duce to this end. Family quarrels are an unfortunate but
very common factor. Differences of taste and agricultural
capability also have their sphere. Coined money comes into
use, and men begin to buy and sell land. Finally, families
break up, and individual ownership, such as we see it in
Europe, with or without the last restraints and survivals of
the preceding stage, is the third or final condition.
These stages must certainly be borne in mind in any
attempt to account for Indian villages. At the same time
it must be clearly stated that we have no actual evidence
of the first stage — evidence, I mean, showing that univer-
sally at one time, there was no such thing as individual
or even a family right, but that the whole tribe or clan
regarded the land as really ' common ' in a communistic
or socialist sense.
It is true that we have ample evidence of a primal
custom of re-distributing the holdings in particular tribes ;
but it always followed a distinct allotment of lands, and an
allotment which showed that there was a desire to equalize
the holdings, and not give all the best to some and the
inferior to others. It is, therefore, open to us to inter-
pret the distribution, not so much as indicating a com-
munistic idea of property as indicating a desire to equalize.
For after all devices (and very inconvenient devices we
shall find them to have been) adopted by the tribesmen for
classifying lands, and giving families a bit of this and a bit
of that, instead of one compact lot in one place, still
inequality was not completely remedied, and therefore a
112 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
periodic interchange may have been intended rather to give
each his turn at the best and inferior holdings x.
If we look to the earliest villages found under the Aryans,
or before that, we have no evidence (other than that of the
re-distribution, which I do not regard as conclusive) of
a tribal stage; and even among the later Panjab tribes,
where tribal occupation and allotment are clearly discern-
ible, any previous stage of the joint holding by the tribe
collectively, hardly seems deducible from the known facts.
But we certainly must recognize that, as regards most
villages, property is still in the 'family' stage. The principle
of joint succession when the head of the family deceases, is
clearly an indication of ' family ' property, and so are the
devices of excluding females (who marry, and so would take
the land into another family), the restrictions on alienation
by sonless male proprietors, and the right of pre-emption
by which strangers can be kept out.
And it may be argued that this idea of the family own-
ing is necessarily the sequel of an earlier idea of a common
holding by the tribe or clan. Those who think so point to
certain large areas in the Panjab, now forming separate
villages, which were once believed to have formed units of
tribal holdings divided into shares 2. I do not then wish to
deny the possibility of some early stage of joint tribal hold-
ing, but to point out that it is a theory, and not a matter
that can be asserted with any approach to certainty.
1 We have no evidence of any such qu'on puisse proceder a un nouveau
stage as mentioned by M. de Lave- partage,' &c. Still less have we
leye, pp. 4, 5, 17) : ' Peu a peu une any trace of Virgil's 'Golden Age'
partie de la terre est momentane- (Georg. i. 125 > :
ment mise en culture, et la regime 'AnteJovemnullisubigebantarva
agricole s'etablit : mais la territoire coloni ;
que le clan ou la tribu occupe de- Nee signare quidein aut partiri
meure sa propriete indivise. La limite campum
terre arable, le paturage et le foret Fas erat: in medio quaerebant ;
sont exploites en commun. Plus ipsaque tellus
tard, la terre cultivee est divisee Omnia liberius, nullo poscente,
en lots, repartis entre les families ferebat.'
par voie du sort : 1'usage temporaire 2 See some curious instances given
est seul attribue ainsi a 1'individu. in Tupper's Customary Laic (Panjab
Le fonds continue a rester la pro- Government, 5 vols.) regarding the
priete collective du clan a qu'il fait Jihlam district,
retour de temps ^en temps, afin
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 113
§ 7. Meaning of the term ' Community.'
And this leads me to remark that though we talk about
' village communities,' we ought not to give that term any
meaning of such a kind as to indicate anything like a
communistic or socialistic right or interest. As regards
a large proportion of villages there is no evidence what-
ever of their being held actually in common in that sense.
Villages held for a time in common are always so held by
the joint descendants of a conqueror or chief who in some
way acquired the estate. The descendants are jealously
disposed to insist on equal privileges and position, and so
remain joint as long as circumstances render it possible.
I have come across a few instances where a tribe (in the
Panjab) has from the first held a part of the land in com-
mon, but there it is due to local circumstances, and the
produce is always divided out according to certain shares.
The term ' community ' might, if not explained, be apt
to mislead. It can be correctly used only with reference to
the fact that in many villages families live together under
a system which makes them joint owners ; while in others
the people merely live under similar conditions and under
a sense of tribal or caste connection, and with a common
system of local government. It cannot be used as suggest-
ing any idea of having the land or anything else 'in
common.'
§ 8. Kinds of right actually found to be asserted.
But whatever the truth may be in this matter, we are
introduced at a very early stage to the existence of an idea
of an individual (or rather family) right to the land in
favour of the person who cleared and reclaimed it from the
jungle. In such a situation as the forest-clad, or again the
very dry, portions of India, it is hardly surprising that this
feeling should have arisen at a very early stage and rapidly
gained ground. There are of course places where the soil
is soft and the labour of preparing it for its first ploughing
VOL. I. I
114 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. I v.
is comparatively light. But in large areas the most severe
and protracted labour has to be undergone in getting the
dense forest and jungle cleared, and in digging out masses of
stumps and roots, with no aid beyond manual labour, and
very rude if not inefficient tools. And this labour has to be
unremittingly continued or the jungle again encroaches.
In other parts, agriculture is impossible without embanking
and terracing fields on the hill side, and making water
courses to divert the streams of hill torrents. In all
these cases the man (or family) whose hands and funds have
effected the change, is sure, at an early stage, to regard
himself, and be regarded by others, as peculiarly entitled.
In the concluding section on property we shall find that at
least 500 years B.C. the Institutes of Manu had acknow-
ledged this principle, and it is highly improbable that it
was then a new idea inscribed in the text for the first time.
I have said that right resides in the family, — though
the sentiment is slowly disappearing. The principle just
spoken of does not militate against this. For it is the man
and his relations together, who ' cleared ' the fields ; and to
this day in the most purely raiyativdri villages, — where
nothing but the most ancient several holding is traceable,
the sons or other heirs succeed jointly to the holding. And
as for the cases where (as in the Panjab) we see the tribes
allotting land to families who hold separately, but in village
groups ; or where (as in villages acquired in landlord right
by families) there is at first a joint holding by all the mem-
bers collectively, we are obviously in the ' family ' stage.
Eut while we see especially the influence of the ' right of
the first clearer ' in one type of village where the individual
or family holdings are all separate, and never were (as far
as we know) anything else ; we also see an idea of right by
conquest which is not so called, but is distinguished as
the l birthright ' or claim by inheritance. It prevails in
villages of the second type where, between the ruling
power and the cultivating families, there is a landlord, or
a family claiming superior rights as owners. How these
landlords came to have such rights we shall presently see.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 115
Here the object of these remarks is to disabuse the reader's
mind of the idea that in some way a 'joint ' village is
necessarily the earliest or original type, and that it is a
process of decay and flux of time, whereby joint rights are
forgotten, and the other type (which I have suggested to be
really the oldest) arises. That cases of decay, by which one
form passes into the other, have occurred, I do not doubt ;
but it is not the general rule. We shall also see the joint
villages partitioned, splitting up, and becoming individual
properties, but that again is quite a different and easily
recognizable condition.
§ 9. Successive immigrations into India.
It is well known that India has been the scene of a series
of tribal immigrations — a phenomenon which stretches
back into the remote past. Antiquarians will long con-
tinue to explore such authorities as the Brdhmanas for
evidence as to the successive races, — some coming from the
north, others by sea from the west. But in a work of this
kind, I must avoid the path of antiquarian speculation,
however tempting, and leave the real detail to others.
For our present purpose we shall find it sufficient to take
note of three great races, — those whose effect on the land-
tenures is evident. One of the early races, which still sur-
vives, is the Kolarian (or, as some write it, Kolharian).
Tribes belonging to this race are still to be found in South-
western Bengal, and in Central India along the Vindhyan
mountains. Their origin I cannot discuss, but they were
followed by Dravidian tribes, whose rule they often
accepted. The Kol races are still represented by the Ho
and Munda tribes in the Chutiya Nagpur division of
Bengal, by some primitive tribes called Korwa in the same
country, and by the Hors of Singhbhum. The Bhumij and
the Santal people, who settled in what are known as the
' Santal Parganas ' of Bengal, belong to the same race.
Along the Vindhyan hills these races are traced in the
Kols of Gujarat, the Bhils of Malwa. the Kuars of Ellichpur
I 2
1 1 6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
(in Berar), and the Kurku tribe of Hushangabad in the
Northern-Central Provinces. To the present day they
represent various stages of tribal progress.
The Kolarian races hardly interest us from the tenure-
point of view so much as the Dravidians — except in this
respect that, while some of these tribes mixed with the
Dravidians and submitted to their government, others
remained distinct, and still remain, to show us all grada-
tions of tribal progress. Some are still nomadic, living
only in the forest by hunting and collecting forest produce,
and if they practise cultivation, it is by that method of
shifting or temporary cultivation which is common in
many parts of India.
§ 10. Shifting Cultivation in the Hill Forests.
As this shifting cultivation marks the first stage in pro-
gress from the pastoral and hunting stage, I may briefly
describe the method adopted. The tribes who practise it,
commence by selecting a suitable site on not too steep a
slope, and cutting down all the smaller tree and shrub
vegetation, which is heaped on the ground to dry during
the hot season. The larger trees are killed by ringing ; the
rest is burned. As soon as the rains fall, the ashes mixed
with seed — usually hill-rice, pulses, and (in places) cotton —
are dibbled into the ground. One crop is taken, perhaps
followed by a second, on the same place, and then the tribe
moves to a new locality. They return to the first only
after a period sufficient for the vegetation to grow up
again. If space is ample and the tribes not numerous,
it may be twenty, thirty, or forty years before the same place
is cut again. But where the population is denser, and
space limited, the rotation is reduced to ten or even seven
years, and less.
In Burma we shall see an instance of this form of culti-
vation becoming organized, and evidently on the way to
change into settled land-holding1.
1 Shifting cultivation is practised under the name of 'jum' (and
largely in Assam and Eastern Bengal many other tribal names). It is
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OP THE LAND-TENURE. I I J
§ ii. The Kol Institutions.
The Kol tribes do not appear to have had any central
government. Their village settlements — when they were of
a permanent character — were united in tribal areas, as were
those of the Dravidians, and known as ' parha ' in that part
of India where they still survive. A chief or ' manki ' pre-
sided over the parha. In each village, a hereditary head-
man called ' munda ' was acknowledged. The final reference
was to the mdnki, or to the mankis in council united with
the mundds and chief land-holders. This resembles the
Dravidian form, so clearly traceable in South India, where
the village or other family groups were aggregated into
unions called 'nad' or ' nadu," with some kind of chief, acting
alone as regards the nad, or in council with the other chiefs
in affairs affecting the whole country. Nothing under this
system indicates that the village land-holder claimed any
other right than to hold his own clearing. The munda,
Mr. Hewitt informs us, disposed of lapsed or abandoned
holdings ; and probably no theory as to general right in
unoccupied land existed, except possibly that it belonged
to the ; parha ' — representing the original territory allotted
to a tribal section. In time each village expanded by new
cultivation ; hamlets, offshoots of existing villages, spread-
ing into the waste.
No regular system of revenue can be traced, but the
munda and the manki held lands in their respective villages,
and gifts of grain — the early forerunner of the regular grain
share — were received.
§ 12. The Dravidian Races.
These tribes are said to have come from the west, and
undoubtedly spread over a great part of India. They
a great feature in the forests of taken place is ' punzo '). In South
Burma where forest officers have India it is Kumri or Kumeri (Cana-
carefully to deal with the custom, rese) or podu in Telugu. In the
and arrange grounds for its prac- Central Provinces it is ' dahya ' or
tice. In Burma it is called ' toung- ' bewar.' It was formerly known
ya ' (and the tangled jungle that in the Simla hills,
springs up where a cutting has
Il8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
established great kingdoms in South and Central India,
and it is difficult to say how far their influence extended.
It appears, for instance, that the Takshakas, a race which
occupied the northern-central regions of the Panjab, and
were snake worshippers, were Dravidians. The Central
Provinces and Berar were peopled by Gonds or Khonds,
who were Dravidians — and the Central Provinces ' Zamin-
dari estates ' are the surviving traces of the chiefships held
by Gond nobles. These people left more than others a
strong mark, because they had a central government — a
king whose territories were in the centre, and chiefs holding
the outer circle of estates — like the Aryans. It is fairly
certain that the Dravidians were partly conquered and
partly peaceably mingled with the Aryan races who came
afterwards. They had the habit of educating their children ;
hence Brahmans of the literary Aryan stock were welcomed,
and thus it was that while the Sanskrit language adopted
those peculiar letters, which are found in none of the
Europaeo-Aryan tongues, in time the Dravidian princes
took Brahman counsellors, adopted Hinduism, and often
took Hindu names and called themselves Rajputs, with
fanciful genealogies derived from the heroes of the Mahd-
bhdrata l. Dravidian tenures and institutions still survive
in Chutiya Nagpur side by side with the Kolarian. The
Uraoas, who conquered and gave their name to Orissa, were
also Dravidians.
Some interesting details will be found in the chapters in
the Bengal section devoted to Orissa and Chutiyd Nagpur 2.
As already stated, the Dravidians had a central govern-
ment of a king or Raja — the original title has perished —
and chiefs. They occupied (as far as the Kol countries are
concerned) lands already cultivated. What is interesting
1 The Dravidians are also repre- 2 The vernacular terms given in
sented by the Bhars who had im- the text in connection with these
portant kingdoms in Oudh, and re- institutions are those which now
present the ' Bharata ' tribes of the obtain in the South-west of Bengal,
Brdhmanas. It is curious also to where the institutions are still
note the Burman institutions which most clearly in evidence. Simi-
show a Dravidian origin. Dra- lar institutions survive elsewhere,
vidian institutions have also been and of course the names are dif-
observed in Sumatra. ferent.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. I 1 9
about them, besides the system of Rajas and chiefs, which
is thus a pre- Aryan organization, is, that at first the chiefs
raised their principal revenue by holding special lands in
each village throughout the country ; the whole produce
being taken by the ruler. The villages were divided into
lots called ' Khunt.' One of these was the ' majhas ' land
or royal farm spoken of ; another went to the headman, and
another to the ' pahan ' or priest ; this being subdivided
into shares for the worship of the great goddess, the district
god, and the village deity respectively. After a time the
kings, not feeling satisfied with the ' majhas ' produce,
took a grain-share also, from all lands except the priest's,
and the headman's ; and then it was that some further
changes took place. The king first introduced a State
headman or accountant called ' Mahto,' who speedily
reduced to a shadow the position of the old ' Munda ' or
natural headman. Of course the ' Mahto ' got his allot-
ment of land : and the lands held by the ' bhuinhar ' families
— those of the original settlers who furnished the headman
and other chief men including the Mahto, were exempt
from revenue. In this stage, the king also, to provide for
the cultivation of the royal farm or 'majhhas' land, made
an allotment (betkhe'ta) to certain cultivators, which was
exempt from revenue, on condition that they should work
the ' majhhas ' lands. Then it was that, excepting the lands
of the bhuinhar officials and the ' betkhe'ta,' all other land
paid a share to the king or chief, and so was called ' Raj has '
land.
§ 13. How far the Aryans copied the Dravidian
System.
It is certainly a remarkable fact, that while we know
the Aryan races to have been originally a pastoral race,
but including a strong military caste, the institution of
the Raja and his chiefs forming a sort of feudal govern-
ment, as well as taking a grain-share by way of revenue,
were apparently in existence before the Aryans came.
I2O LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
This fact has led Mr. J. F. Hewitt to study the whole
question. This author has had exceptional facilities for
examining the evidence on the spot, having long resided in
the Central Provinces, and also been Commissioner of the
Chutiya JMagpur division of Bengal l.
Seeing the undoubted influence that the Dravidian and
Aryan races had on one another, and that something must
have brought about the change in the Aryans from a con-
quering and pastoral people to a settled ruling race, with an
orderly government and village cultivation and a regular
hierarchy of officials over the land ; it is at least a probable
explanation to suggest that they simply copied the Dra-
vidian institutions which they found ready to hand. On
the other side, it may be urged that the plan of forming
villages is a natural one, and that taking a grain-share is
also natural. We see it among the Arabians. (The early
Muhammadan plan was that of the tithe, or 'ashr, paid by
the faithful, and the ' khiraj,' or tribute taken from the
conquered, and both probably in kind.) 2 But I must leave
the question an open one. At any rate, we have a very
perfect coincidence, amply justifying a prominent notice
in this place. We must admit that, whether or no the
Aryans could have had the 'grain-share' idea of revenue by
nature, they certainly found it practised when they came.
I must also add that the Dravidian institution of the
' Majhhas ' lands explains the prevalence of ' Koyal ' lands
or farms in Burma, and in many parts of India, where, for
instance in Coorg, we also find it, the land being worked by
slaves. It seems to have been at one time adopted in Mala-
bar, and perhaps affords one (alternative) explanation
1 See on the subject of the of the one-fifth produce taken by the
tribes,0unningham,^4wciew< Geography Pharaohs is familiar. Having ac-
(Triibner, 1871) pp. 505 7. and Mr. quired the land in exchange for
Hewitt's paper in the Journal of the food during the protracted famine,
Society of Arts for May 6, 1887 (vol. the ruler could not of course dis-
xxxv. p. 613) and subsequent pense with the original cultivators ;
papers in the Journal of the Royal so he left them in possession, stipu-
Asiatic Society, April 1890. lating for an annual fifth of the
2 And so in the remote times of produce (Gen. xlvii. 20-24).
the Old Testament. The instance
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUEE. 121
of the fact that the king did not take a general land-
revenue. There is also no doubt, to my mind, that the
' watan,' or land held ex officio by village headmen — of
which we shall presently hear — is a distinct Dravidian
survival.
In short, when our books speak of the pre-Muhammadan
government and land organization as ' ancient Hindu,' it is
really a fusion of Aryan and Dravidian ideas which they
refer to ; a system the original elements of which can hardly
be separated.
§ 14. The Aryan Immigration.
Notwithstanding the question of origin alluded to, I
shall speak of the Aryan or Hindu system when
referring to the revenue-system which preceded the Mu-
hammadan conquest, chiefly because the Aryan and Dravi-
dian races merged into one another, and also because the
system is more perfectly preserved to us through Aryan
writings, and is most clearly exhibited to us in the Aryan
(Rajput) states, where it has found an enthusiastic historian
in Colonel Tod, whose well-known Rajasthdn — fortunately
reprinted— is a mine of information on the subject.
So that the Aryan immigration is really, for our special
purpose, the most important. To this we will now turn.
At some remote period one of the great waves of im-
migration brought a race from the North-west, which was
originally pastoral ; it is believed that their taking to
settled agriculture was a later development, and may
perhaps be traced to the time when they began to leave
the hill kingdoms which they first occupied — where culti-
vation was limited to narrow valleys or terraced fields
on the mountain-side — and descend to the wider spaces of
the alluvial plains of Upper India. It is certain that
such a change did take place. There can be no reasonable
doubt that the Aryan tribesmen at first established them-
selves, with their chiefs, along the Himalayan slopes — in
Kashmir, in the hills now forming the Chamba State, and
1 2 2 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
in the hills near Simla. In the Kangra district (Panjab
Himalaya) we find a distinct tradition that the present
Rajput chiefs and landholders were only the successors of
a much earlier race of Hindu settlers and conquerors, they
themselves having occupied land in those hills at a period
no earlier than the beginning of the Muhammadan con-
quest, when they fled from oppression. In Chamba and in
Kashmir there are stone temples marking colonies of great
antiquity. In the latter valley many ruins — like those cele-
brated ones of Martand — are Buddhist ; but in Chamba the
old conical stone temples, with their finials resembling a
grooved or fluted and flattened sphere (called by Fergusson
the ' Amlika '), may go back to a really ancient establish-
ment of the princes and people who afterwards conquered
India, and fought in the battles which have been half
mythically, half historically, described in the epic of the
Mahabharata. It is common to find in books, statements
to the effect that after a long sojourn — perhaps of centuries
— in the hills, they descended on to the 'plains of the
Panjab.' But the Aryans at first did not descend far, if at
all, into the Panjab plains1 properly so called. The
Rajput bodies now found there are all, by tradition, later
settlements ; princes, with their followers, or individual
adventurers (whose descendants have since multiplied into
clans) returned from kingdoms established further on into
1 We have no old Hindu remains races, but that was later. I do not
in the Panjab plains ; but the Greek venture here to discuss what was
writers tell us of a number of the origin or date of the Jat tribes
(Aryan) kingdoms to the north (near and many others who form so large
the hills), and beside them we a portion of the Panjab village
have traces of tribes of non- Aryan population, but they certainly were
origin, viz. the Malli, Cathoei and much later than the Aryan immi-
other tribes (of the Greek authors) gration, and they were not Aryans in
to the south and east, and the that sense. Dr. Muir (Sanskrit Texts,
Takshakas or Takkas who had their ii. 482, &c.) cites passages from the
capital at Takashila i^Taxiles of the Mahabharata which confirm this.
Greeks) not far from Rawalpindi. The people 'who dwell between the
Presumably Poms (Purusha) was five rivers which are associated
an Aryan prince, but his conflict with the Sindhu (Indus' as a sixth'
with Alexander was on the Jihlam are ' those impure Bahikas who are
river, and that is not far from outcast from righteousness.' ' Let
the hills which the Rajputs cer- no Aryan dwell there even for two
tainly occupied. In time, too, Aryan days. There dwell degraded Brah-
families allied themselves with the mans. . . . They have no Veda nor
Panjab tribes and formed mixed Vedic ceremony nor any sacrifice.'
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 123
Hindustan. But the site of the first Aryan settlement in
the plains of India was to the north-west of Delhi, in the
vicinity of the Jamna river, where they established king-
doms— of which Hastinapura is a historic example — and
thence they spread over the North -West Provinces and
Oudh (properly Awadh — the ancient Ayodhya). The ad-
vance could not stop here. Although the old writers
attempted to describe ' the country where the antelope was
found' as the proper abode of the Aryans — and this phrase
points to the open plains about the Jamna and Ganges —
the tribes or clans gradually advanced over Bengal and
Bihdr *, and conquering portions of them, at any rate ob-
tained a kingdom in Orissa z ; others went to Central, and
perhaps to Southern India ; others conquered Guzarat in
Northern Bombay, where their remains are found to the
present day. The group of states now known as Rajpu-
tana and Kathiawar, represent the last refuge of these clans
at a time when the Muhammadan conquest began to disturb
them. It is impossible to state in what order these con-
quests and settlements occurred, except that they were after
the primal settlement in the region of the Jamna.
Pure Aryan settlements were,however,not the only feature
of the immigration ; it is certain that many alliances — both
political and social — early took place 3. Dravidian and
Aryan rapidly mingled, both as to race, language, and
forms of government ; and the influence of their religious,
social, and political system spread in other ways. Brah-
mans travelled to the remotest parts, and soon, as I have
said, converted the Dravidian chiefs to Hindu ideas and
made them ' Rajputs.' In reading accounts of the southern
kingdoms — the CheVa, Chola, and Pandyan dynasties, in
the Madras territories, or the states on the west coast, now
1 A distinct legend describes how 2 vols.
the ancestor of the Videhas of Bihar 3 Mr. Hewitt has endeavoured to
set out bearing the sacred fire with trace many of these movements
him towards Bihar. and alliances in his interesting
1 As set forth by Stirling in the papers on the Early History of Northern
Asiatic Researches, an authority ren- India. Journal R. A. S., vol. xx.
dered more accessible to us in the July 1888, and vol. xxi. April 1889.
graphic pages of Hunter's Orissa,
1 24 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
called Kanara and Malabar — it is impossible to feel certain
whether we are to read through the records of Brahmanical
authors, that the princes and chiefs were actually Rajput
immigrants, or were (as is more probable) local Dravidian
princes who had adopted the Hindu system. It is quite
certain that the Gond kingdoms of Central India, and the
Assam dynasty in the north-east, were ' Hinduized ' in this
way, and we shall see the same thing in south-west
Bengal.
Then, again, in spite of caste prohibitions and a great
strictness in marriage rules observed by the purest families,
it is quite certain that the Aryans mixed freely with other
tribes, their predecessors, and that tribes of half-blood
multiplied rapidly; some of them, at least, would be
Hindu and claim to be Rajput. Among the Jats of the
Panjab, for example, while some of the clans assert a
separate tribal immigration from beyond what is now
Afghanistan, others declare they are Rajputs who lost
caste by adopting irregular marriage customs. There are
castes in the North-west Himalaya who are known to be of
this mixed origin, and very sturdy races they are. The
Bihar people are probably a mixture of the antecedent
' Magadhas ' and Aryans ; and the important agricultural
caste of Kurmis, or Kunbis, are said to be a mixed race
from the Kaurava or Kuru clan. Tribes of this kind, and
Rajputs of purer origin also, spread (as I have already
remarked) over the Panjab and other places, by what I may
call a reflex movement — settling as individuals or groups,
who returned upon their steps, after the original tribes had
advanced to the country of the Jamna and beyond it. The
once extensive settlement of 'Chib' Rajputs in the Gujrat
district of the Panjab, may with tolerable certainty be
ascribed to this origin1.
1 Many settlements now forming or Mew&r, or wherever else they
groups of Rajput villages, in the had settled in Hindustan returned,
Panjab were due to single ad- founded villages, and gradually
venturers, cadets and members of multiplied into clans. The Rajput
families who, dissatisfied with their race is everywhere noted as ex-
position and prospects in Bikanir tremely prolific.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 125
§ 15. Importance of the Hindu system.
The land-system of the Aryans — whether really Dravi-
dian or not — is the one that has come down to us in the
greatest perfection. It survives to this day in Rajputana
and in the Hindu states of the Himalayan mountains. We
can see its identity, at least in all main features, with the
system of the Aryan tribes as it was in Manu's time. We
have also evidence of what it was in the small Hindu states
that once spread over Oudh ; we trace it in Orissa ; we
can follow the same organization as it was adopted by the
Marathas and by the Sikhs. We can gather similar inform-
ation also about the Hindu states in South India. Every-
where we have the same broad outlines of State and social
organization in their relation to land-holding.
The Rajas of one place may regard those of other parts
as having lost caste, and they may refuse intermarriage ;
they may regard themselves as the representatives of the
pure stock, and other princes as nobodies ; but all that
has nothing to do with the fact that they all adopt,
and have adopted from time immemorial, a system of
organization and land-administration which is the same
in all essentials.
What is more strange, the Muhammadan conquest did
little directly to modify the old system of Hindu land-
holding ; though indirectly, as we shall see, it caused a new
race of landlords to arise, who ignored and gradually
caused the decay of, the special features of village or-
ganization. But it is not to the Muhammadan conquest,
speaking of the country as a whole, that we owe any irre-
coverable loss of evidence as to what the old forms of land-
holding were.
§ 1 6. The Hindu Land-system.
Although in the chapter (which follows this) on the Land-
Revenue Systems, I have fully described the method of
State organization which marks the Hindu Raj or kingdom,
126 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
and all others which assimilated to it, I had better give
a similar outline here, and the repetition will be forgiven.
No doubt the different clans or sections of the Aryan tribe
occupied denned territories which they conquered. There
is everywhere evidence that the tendency was to form a
number of comparatively small States or territories, and
the Rajas, or head chiefs, and minor chiefs, called Thakur,
Rana, Babu, &c., of each, divided the land amongst them-
selves. Sometimes particular clans had no Rajas, and they
then made an equal division into villages and family estates.
There was also a marked tendency for a number of these
States to be united in a sort of confederacy under some
greater emperor. Such was the case in the days of the
great kings of Kanauj, and with the empire of Chandragupta
and Asoka l. The Chinese pilgrim in the seventh century
A.D., notes that he saw the State barge of the Maharaja, or
great king of Kanauj. being drawn along on some ceremo-
nial occasion, by eighteen minor Rajas.
We are, however, only concerned with the individual
States. The Raja, as the chief power of the clan, received
the largest and best group of lands 2 (usually in the centre
of the country) as his royal demesne, and this was in after
times called his ' Khalsa,' the Persian term of course indi-
cating its later introduction. Smaller estates were assigned
to the other tribal or clan chieftains (Thakur, Rana, &c.),
and they governed these estates without interference from
the Raja. They were only bound to feudal service, to
appear at the Raja's court from time to time, to receive
investiture, and to pay a succession fee on the occasion of
a succession by inheritance.
§ 17. Manu's idea of land-holding.
Unfortunately we have no information as to how indivi-
dual families and members of the clans received holdings of
1 Just as there was an overlord , p. 220) says : ' The domains reserved
a Rex gentis Anglorum, in the days of for the crown constituted, if not the
the heptarchy in England. largest, at least the most valuable
1 Stirling, in his remarks on and productive share of the whole
Orissa, (Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. territory.'
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OP THE LAND-TENURE. 127
land. By the time which Harm's Institutes represent, the
tribes had settled down, and agriculture was well esta-
blished. Manu has nothing to tell us of how individual
(family) holdings were apportioned. In the times repre-
sented by his Code, there were already separate villages, a
headman over each village, and other officials over groups of
villages, and over larger areas (des), which probably still
survive under the more familiar revenue name of ' pargana,'
a term introduced at a later period by the Mughals. who
simply followed the old Hindu organization of territory
under new names.
It is not easy to explain why Manu tells us nothing of
the original possession of cultivating holdings. He is,
however, chiefly concerned with the Raja of high or mili-
tary caste and his learned Brahman counsellors, and how
these allotted the country for rule and overlordship. It is
probable that the cultivators, who were called Vaisyas and
Sudras by caste, were some of them, dependents or followers
of particular chiefs, who settled on the territories of their
respective heads ; but they must also have represented
the mixed race formed by the union of Hindus and Dravi-
dians. They cultivated each man (or family) according to his
ability. The higher military caste, when not of rank to
hold estates as chiefs, or become headmen and district officers,
either lived apart as soldiers, or fell into the humbler posi-
tion of cultivators. In a great many instances the land
occupied must have been waste and covered with jungle,
and its reclamation may have been without any formal
division other than the allotment (of ultimate holdings)
under the direction of headmen, such as we see in so many
parts in later times 1. However this may be, all that Manu
notices is the right possessed by the 'first clearer' of the jungle.
He has the right, just as the hunter who first wounded the
deer in the chase.
In the concluding section on property we shall give
1 I refer to the process of village devoted to the tenures of those
founding in the Central Provinces, provinces,
described more fully in the chapter
128 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
some further details about Manu, and the state of things in
his time. Here I am only concerned to note that it is
doubtful if there is any suggestion of a landlord between
the cultivators and the Raja, and certainly nothing like a
tribal or a joint ownership on the part of the body of culti-
vators or holders of land in the ' Gramam ' or village 1.
Indeed, if there had originally been a joint ownership,
I do not see how any such ownership could have grown up
afterwards, not universally, but in particular cases, as it
certainly did. The process of such growth is clearly trace-
able in the Hindu states of Oudh, and is well described
in Mr. Bennett's excellent Settlement Report on the Gonda
District (1878). It is also clearly traceable in Guzarat
(Bombay Presidency), not to mention numerous other
instances.
§ 1 8. The Right to the Waste.
The conclusion that the earliest villages consisted of ag-
gregates of individual holders, with only the Raja or chief
over them as ruler not landlord, depends to some extent on
what was held regarding the ownership of the uncultivated
and unoccupied lands. Where there is a true joint village,
as we shall presently see, we find some person (or body)
claiming the entire area in a ring fence, uncultivated as
well as cultivated. But in the ordinary village of Manu,
the individual cultivators, each strongly attached to his own
holding, make use of the adjacent waste for grazing and
wood-cutting, but do not claim it as theirs. Certainly the
Raja or the chief exercised the right of making grants and
locating settlers on this waste, and the village headman was
applied to to authorize the breaking up of fresh waste. In
some parts of Oudh, where there was valuable timber on
1 It is quite certain that no to imply the contrary. I have
phrase in Manu gives the slightest carefully re-examined Biihler's
hint of any joint-body owning in translation, and find nothing ap-
common a certain group of territory preaching an indication of anything
in a ring-fence. Mr. Phillips in beyond a group of cultivators
his first lecture, and M. de Lave- (under a common headman) whose
leye, if I rightly understand his individual right depends on the first
use of the term ' communaute ' clearing of the jungle.
(Proprietd Primitive,}). 66\ would seem
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OP THE LAND-TENURE. 1 29
the land, we find the Raja levying (as one of his State
rights) an ' axe-tax ' on the felling of timber, from all out-
siders. This is, again, quite inconsistent with the idea of a
communal group or body owning the waste. As a matter
of practice, the rulers and the headmen of the villages (on
their behalf) would allow any one to extend his tillage
to the neighbouring waste, because the king's share of the
produce at once became due, and so the total was augmented.
Naturally, as long as waste was abundant and land had no
great value, the authorities were only too glad to see culti-
vation extended and a title acquired by first clearing the
land, and did not think of asking questions, or raising
objection to its occupation.
§ 19. Conclusion as to the oldest known form of
Village.
Thus we must conclude that the first (and, as far as we
know, the oldest) form of village is where the cultivators
— practically owners of their several family holdings —
live under a common headman, with certain common
officers and artisans who serve them, of which presently;
and there is no landlord (class or individual) over the whole.
The Rajas now (where they survive, as in the Himalayan
States) claim to be themselves landlords or owners of all
the soil, and only recognize landholders as tenants, here-
ditary indeed, after holding for some generations ; but then
they are conquerors, or rather descended from conquerors
or adventurers who gained the superior position, in one way
or another, only a few centuries ago. No such claim on the
part of a Raja (as we shall presently see) is traceable in
Manu. The Raja had his own private lands ; but as ruler of
the whole country, his right is represented, not by a claim
to general soil-ownership, but by the ruler's right to the
revenue, taxes, cesses, and the power of making grants of
the waste. For this reason I have called the first of the
two types of village above spoken of the RAIYATWAB! or
NON-LANDLORD VILLAGE.
VOL. i. K
130
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
(«) Land-
lord rights
have
grown up
over the
village of
the first
type.
(fc) Land-
lord rights
were (as
far as we
know)
claimed
from the
first allot-
ment
or found-
ation.
§ 20. Modes in which the second type arises.
Let us now enquire how the second class of village which
I have stated to exist, comes to light or has grown up. It is
distinguished by the fact, which the reader will have already
surmised, that there is a landlord, or a body of landlords,
claiming right over an entire village, intermediate between
the Raja or chief, and the humbler body of resident cul-
tivators and dependants. It will be found to be (a) a
growth among and over the villages of the first type ; and
(6) to be the form resulting from the original conquest and
occupation of land — as far as we know — previously un-
occupied, by certain tribes and leaders of colonists who
settled in the Panjab and elsewhere. I shall first enu-
merate the different origins of which we have distinct
evidence, and then I shall offer explanatory remarks on
each head seriatim.
Every one of these heads is derived from an observation
of the recorded facts in Oudh, the North- West Provinces,
Madras, Bombay, and the Panjab.
The village of the second type arises : —
(1) Out of the dismemberment of the old Rajd's or
chief's estate, and the division or partition of
larger estates.
(2) Out of grants made by the Raja to courtiers, fa-
vourites, minor members of the Royal family,
&c.
\ (3) By the later growth and usurpation of Government
Revenue officials.
(4) In quite recent times by the growth of Revenue
farmers and purchasers, when the village has
been sold under the first laws for the recovery
i of arrears of revenue.
(5) From the original establishment of special clans
and families by conquest or occupation, and by
the settlement of associated bands of village
families and colonists in comparatively late
times. (This applies specially to the Panjab.)
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 131
§ 21. (i.) The dismemberment of the Edj.
The Raja's position was distinctly that of an overlord ;
the title and its appanages descended by primogeniture to
one son only, so that as long as affairs went prosperously,
there was no tendency to any alteration. But cases oc-
curred, where, from family dissensions, or misfortune of war,
or both, the Raja's principality broke up ; and then indi-
vidual members of the family seized upon, or managed to
retain in their hands, certain portions, and of that they
became in process of time the practical owners — landlords
in something of the modern sense.
Still more easily would this follow with the smaller
chief's estates that were not, like the 'Raj,' indivisible.
Primogeniture is there the exception, not the rule ; and I can-
not state any definite rule as to the particular grade of rank
at which there ceases to be a ' coronet ' or a ' throne ' right
which only goes to the eldest. Among the chiefs who held
estates in the ancient Oudh kingdoms, some families divided
the estates, and some did not. When such an estate
divided, it was almost certain to be the case that one
member got one village, another two or three, and so
on, till it came to pass that each family endeavoured to
reproduce in the small area of one or two villages, the rights
of the chief to the grain-share and other dues ; and of course
seized on the waste as an important means of increasing its
wealth. In time these claims have always developed into
a landlord right over the village. And when the original
acquirer of such rights dies, and a body of joint heirs suc-
ceeds, we soon find a number of co-sharers, all equally
entitled, claiming the whole estate, and (whether remaining
joint or partitioning the fields) forming what is called a
( joint village-community.'
§ 22. (2.) The Rdjas Grants.
In Oudh we have instances where the Raja has made
grants to younger members of his family, or to courtiers,
K 2
132 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
or where some family in the village of higher caste or more
energy than the rest, has asked for and obtained the king's
favour. The grant is called ' birt,' or, in the Sanskrit form,
1 vritti.'
As long as the old Hindu kingdoms remained in their
pristine state, such grants were only made for life to mem-
bers of the king's family for their subsistence (jewan birt),
or were grants of the waste — in revenue language jangal-
tarashi — to clear the forest and found new villages. But
when the Rajas came into conflict with the Muhammadan
power, and were dispossessed or reduced to subordinate
positions, we find cases where they raised money by
selling ' birts.' This can be clearly traced in Oudh, where
we have a full account of the ancient States within what
is now the Gonda district1. The Utraula State is one
that exhibits examples of the sale of birts. In all these
cases we find that the management of a village, the whole
or a part of the Raja's grain-share, and the manorial rights
(tolls., ferries, local taxes) were made over to the grantee, the
aggregate of such rights being called the ' zamindarf/ and
the birt being called a ' zamindari birt V
Exactly the same thing happened when powerful families
settled in the villages, raised their position, either with the
Raja's tacit consent, or merely by usurpation.
In Ajmer, among the Rajputs, we shall find certain hold-
ings called ' bhumiya,' which were in fact landlord holdings,
created apparently for smaller chiefs and others who had
fallen out of the ruling rank ; and thus holding the land
more directly than the chief in his greater estate, they be-
came in every sense the landlord over the cultivators.
In all these cases it might be asked what became of the
1 Benett's Settlement Report of Gondd, jal' (water), 'sakat' (forest rights),
1878. Mr. Benett remarks that such • sa-path ' (right over roads, ferries,
grants were made chiefly when the &c.) In Utraula, besides the Raja's
Raja was in a precarious position or grants, the Muhammadan power
out of possession altogether. The settled its own soldiers in some
taking money was sub rosd, as be- villages, granting them the Revenue
neath the dignity of the prince. as petty ' jagird&rs.' In time their
* The grant disposed of the Rajd's families became landlords of the
right over the waste, to tolls, fishing granted villages,
rights, &c.t with the formula ' sa-
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 133
rights of the original villagers whose title by clearing the
waste had already been acknowledged? But in Oriental
affairs we must not look for definiteness and for consist-
ency : doubtless in practice the old holders went on exactly
as before, and had an hereditary right, which, though un-
defined, was practically respected by all decent grantees
and landlords.
§ 23. Illustration of the effect of dismemberment of a
<Rdj' or Chiefs Estate.
It is exceedingly important to remember how easily in
the course of a few generations a single family multiplies —
and the Rajput race is extraordinarily prolific — so that
when we now see a whole group of villages in one locality
having the same origin, we might almost suspect the settle-
ment of a whole tribe ; whereas really it is a case of
multiplication of descendants and the separation of in-
terests, consequent on the dismemberment of one single
family estate. I cannot help alluding to the remarkable
illustration of this afforded by the clan of Tilok Chand
Bais in the Rai Bareli district of Oudh1. This locality
once formed the centre of an extensive kingdom or over-
lordship, established by Raja Tilok Chand. After his
death — spite of the usual rule of primogeniture which
applies to the ruling family as regards the chiefship,
though not otherwise — the family broke up into a number
of petty estates ; i. e. the heads claimed the landlordship
over numerous villages and founded other new ones. After
some time the family agreed to divide no further. The result
has been a large number of small (village) estates, and a
certain number of larger estates of many villages — 537 of
the former and 60 of the latter — all, of course, of the land-
lord or joint type. Out of 1735 villages in the district, no
less than 1719 are owned by descendants of this one Raja's
family — in fact, the ' Tilok Chand Bais ' have become a
1 See Gazetteer of Oudh, s. v. Ifcii Bareli, vol. iii., and Mr. Benett's
Clans of Rdi Bareli.
134 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
numerous clan, forming a section of some great branch of
the Rajput race.
Many other instances, perhaps not on quite such a large
scale, could be quoted from Oudh, the North- West Pro-
vinces, and from the Panjab.
§ 24. Special features noticed in connection with these
first heads.
The discussion of the two first named among the modes
of origin assignable to the present joint villages, leads me
to invite attention to the fact that the claim to be landlord
is due to the same feeling of superior caste, with its senti-
ment of graded rank and obedience to the ruler, as produced
the organization of Raja and subordinate chiefs1. It is
also worth noticing that it is this kind of claim to the soil
which is the subject of discussion when we find 'property
in land ' brought into question in books and reports. The
humbler but strongly-felt right of cultivators not claiming
' birthright,' under the name of ' janmi ' or ' mirasi ' right, or
other similar title — in other words, the right of the ' first
clearer ' of the soil, is not so much asserted and talked
about. But what I desire especially to press on the atten-
tion of the reader is how, as long as the superior caste is
represented by a Rajd, or a chief holding a great estate as
ruler, the original title of the soil-occupants is not, either
in theory or practice, interfered with. The chief remains
apart, receiving revenue, levying tolls and taxes, administer-
ing justice, with perhaps some vague claim as conqueror to
be lord of all, but not claiming any actual concern with the
occupied land in the villages. But no sooner is this domain
1 As a matter of fact, in a majority to any other principle. They are
of cases, landlord villages which usually high caste, or military caste,
derive their origin from some dis- Of course some are due to strong
tant but still remembered ancestor and able families not originally of
who was of the Raja's family, or high caste, and these will derive
was a royal grantee, or simply a their origin from Revenue farming
man of superior energy and talent arrangements, not being under the
who pushed his way, will be found head we are at present confining
to be held, or once to have been our attention to.
held, on ancestral shares in preference
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 135
dismembered owing to war or family feuds, and the mem-
bers of the family retain or seize upon separate villages ;
no sooner is there a succession and a partition of the family
estate, than the sense of lordship, focussed as it were on
the more limited area, becomes fixed on the land itself, and
developes into a claim to be owner of the actual acres of
the village area.
But there is the same feeling of superiority that the Raja
or the chief had in his domain when it was in its original
state and dignity, the same sense that the family, even
though it now is a peasant family engaged in agriculture l,
is far above the plough-drivers and humbler occupants of
the fields. In the case of the great estate, the feeling is
expressed by holding the ruler's seat and taking the reve-
nue ; in the petty estate, it is expressed by the claim to be
owner of everything within the boundaries of the village —
which is now called the ' birthright ' of the family or joint
body.
This claim invariably results in the ultimate overshadow-
ing of all preceding rights. In time these would have
become ignored altogether, were it not for the existence of
provinces in which those rights have never been overborne
by any landlord class arising over them, and were it not for
the policy of some of our revenue-systems which were de-
vised when the Bengal landlord settlement had been found
to be fraught with troubles, and when a great desire to
protect, if not to push forward, the humbler classes, began
to be felt.
The phenomenon described — the change from rulership
to landlordship — of which instances so often occur in Oudh
and the North- West Provinces, is by no means peculiar to
them. Many cases are traceable in the Panjab. To this
cause also must be ascribed the direct origin of the land-
lord tenures of Malabar so often alluded to. The military
caste, called Nayar in that district, at one time furnished the
1 Necessity has forced Rajputs themselves to certain parts of the
and others to take to agriculture ; process of tillage, avoiding, for ex-
but some still compromise with ample, the actual handling of a
their old dignity by confining plough.
136 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
ruling chiefs and filled the higher official positions over the
land. But the historical fortunes of the country were
strange ; the rulership was lost, but still the Nayars main-
tained their claims (supposed to be quite an exceptional
instance of ' private property ' in land !) as landlords of the
soil, including both cultivated land and forest waste, and
then began to talk about their 'janmam' or birthright,
as is the usual course.
In Bombay the joint or landlord villages of the Guzarat
country, which are well marked exceptions to the (there)
usual raiyatwdri type of village, are clearly traced to the
decay or dismemberment of former Rajput chiefships.
The descendants have retained a village here and a
village there, or even small groups of villages, and all
the families are more or less connected by community
of descent. The sharers in these villages will all regard
themselves as superior to the cultivators, and will prob-
ably be addressed by some honorific title or appellation,
and are sure to speak of their ' birthright ' in the soil.
We may now proceed to consider the remainder of the
five suggested origins of landlord or joint villages.
§ 25. (3.) Usurpation of Land-officers.
We come to the third head, the growth (and often the
usurpation) of Government officials.
As long as the Muhammadan Government was strong,
it maintained, under changed names, but without real
alteration, the Aryan or Hindu system of territorial revenue
administration. But it was under this Government, in the
days of its decline, that the local officers were gradually
left with less and less control, to manage the revenues ;
ultimately they (and also non-official persons who had in-
fluence or capital) were recognized as contractors for fixed
sums of revenue over defined or undefined areas. This
brought them into closer managing contact with the land,
and enabled them to become landlords, a process which
they effected by clearing fresh waste lands, buying up
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUKE. 137
others, and ousting the old cultivators. Sometimes this
process extended over large areas, and resulted in the form-
ation of great estates (known as those of ' Zamindars ' and
' Taluqdars ') ; but often also the contractor became landlord
of one or more villages, and his multiplied descendants, in
the course of a generation or two, formed landlord bodies
or ' village communities.'
§ 2,6. (4.) Effects of Revenue-systems.
The fourth head is really the same thing, only in a more
modern form. It is exemplified chiefly in the North- West
Provinces. There, at the beginning of the century, the
real condition of the village bodies was unknown, the single-
landlord idea was the only one familiar to the minds of the
Collectors, and the revenue management of villages was
leased to one man ; he might be a leading land-owner or
headman, or he might be a capitalist or speculator. In time
this person, whose name might have been recorded by some
device and without any just title, had opportunities of put-
ting himself forward and getting a Settlement which con-
firmed his position. In those days, too, revenue sales were
common ; directly any arrear of revenue occurred, the estate
was put up to auction, very often at the instance of a
designing purchaser, who had contrived the default by
unknown but nefarious means. The auction purchaser of
course became landlord, and his descendants now form the
regular proprietary community, either holding the village
jointly, or having divided it up into shares J.
1 In Holt Mackenzie's great sized estates were doubtless fairly
Minute on the North- West System, created, by the successive purchase
there are many allusions to this of individual villages from their ori-
subject. He complains of the ten- ginal owners, or by the extension of
dency there was to refer merely to cultivation by means of contract-
records and see whose name was cultivators, in districts having a
down as the nominal holder of a large proportion of desert waste.
village, and consider him as the But the origin of others was of a
owner irrespective of facts (§ 414). more questionable character. . . .
And, speaking of the Revenue far- He appears to have engaged in a
mers, and other persons who claimed constant struggle for the extension
to be owners, some of several vil- of his " zamindari " property ; and
lages, others of single villages, he as he generally had the hand of
says (§ 406), 'Some of the moderate- power and a preponderating in-
138 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
Under this head I ought to mention the Central Province
villages. As they came under our rule they were certainly
raiyatwdri villages, but it was, in pursuance of the North-
West System, desired to treat them as if they were joint
landlord villages, and make a village Settlement for one
sum of revenue. This, as we shall learn more in detail in
the chapters on the Central Provinces, could not be carried
out; and the Government determined to confer on the
pdtels or headmen, or the revenue-farmers (called 'mal-
guzar ' under the Marathd rule) the proprietary title. Since
those days the original grantee-proprietor has often given
place to a body of descendants who now form a landlord
community. Only that in this case Government repented,
if I may so say, of what had been done, and therefore early
took steps to secure the rights of the original village culti-
vators, on whom, speaking generally, it conferred the
privilege of an occupancy tenure with rents fixed by the
Settlement Officer for the term of Settlement, leaving to
the landlords the free control only of such lands as were in
their own direct cultivation (called in revenue language
their ' sir ' lands). The Central Provinces thus exhibit the
somewhat curious spectacle of villages held by artificially
created landlord bodies, but with a ' tenantry ' whose land
is for the most part held quite independent of any contract
with the landlords and beyond the reach of their inter-
ference.
§ 26. (5.) Colonization and conquest. — Individual and
tribal Settlements.
The fifth head is one which is of great importance, as
under it several varieties of origin may be collected.
The matter may be stated thus : the result of the Aryan
immigration all over India was the fusion of the Aryan
and Dravidian races, and the general establishment of
fluence with the " 'Amil " (local too frequently converted by force or
Revenue officer), the various vil- fraud into one Zaminddri estate.'
lages of the farm or taluq were
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 139
smaller and larger rulerships or States, whose component
units were village groups. These villages were owned, not
by joint bodies, but by aggregates of separate families of
landholders. In the course of time, as the rulerships broke
up, and new conquering chiefs established themselves, the
villages fell under the power of new families who soon
formed joint-communities claiming the whole village — either
single villages or groups. This did not take place over the
whole country, but sporadically or occasionally, leaving
large areas with the villages in their former condition. But
in the Panjab (more especially) we find that there were
tracts of country where, at a later date, other tribes estab-
lished themselves, and where small bodies of adventurers
found a home : and these, from the first, formed joint bodies
claiming the entire area of their settlements. This state
of things is markedly illustrated by the Panjab frontier
districts.
All over the North-West frontier we shall find the dis-
tricts occupied by comparatively small tribal and family
groups who conquered or took possession of the land at a
late date, not before the twelfth and as late as the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, before which time the history of
the land is a blank. It is known that in these cases the
land was at once allotted into villages, sections, and family
holdings, so that, as far as we know, the groups always
regarded the whole area as theirs, and thus formed virtually
a proprietary body over each village. It is possible indeed
that their own theory may have been different ; but as our
revenue system, borrowed from the North- West Provinces,
at once assumed these village bodies to be joint and entitled
to all the land inside their local village area, and as the
feelings of the people evidently fell in with this position,
it is impossible to suggest any antecedent condition and
any subsequent growth of a landlord class, or gradual
development of landlord claims. Most of the tribes brought
with them camp followers, dependants and inferiors of
various sorts, who became tenants — however privileged in
some cases — and there never was any doubt about the
140 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
superiority and landlord spirit of the conquering tribes-
men, whatever levelling effects later misrule may have
had, and whatever equitable claims the other castes may
have been able to urge. On the frontier this is ex-
tremely marked, and the evidence is clear and beyond
dispute.
The same is hardly less true of the Central Panjab, though
the origin of the villages is often more remote and there-
fore more obscure. Indeed, for the Panjab generally, I am
unable to suggest that the joint or landlord village arose
over an antecedent type in the way it did in the North-
West Provinces and Oudh.
§ 27. Panjdb Tribes.
The Panjab exhibits quite a peculiarity in this respect ; •
we know that originally the Aryans did not occupy the
plains ; their kingdoms were only along the Himalayan
range. And where we now find 'Aryan' Rajputs, it is
probable that they always represent later settlements, the
result of what I may call a reflex immigration of single
adventurers or small bodies. But it is also certain that
the Gujars and Jats were tribes who entered the country
independently, and established villages which, as I have
said, were, owing to tribal sentiment, always landlord or
joint villages. In Campbell's Modern India (p. 8) it
is said ' we are not without a historical glimpse of the
facts. We have very good and accurate accounts of
Northern India as it was in Alexander's time, and we find
that in addition to the Hindu kingdoms ... he found
settled or encamped in the Panjab, great tribes of a purely
republican constitution, far more warlike than any others
which he encountered. The best account of this is to be
found in Heeren, in the volume on the Persians (p. 310).
Heeren represents their constitution as aristocratic or under
the government of their optimates.' And when Alexander
treated with 300 deputies of such tribes, the author goes on
to say (what is doubtless true), that these were the ' pan-
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OP THE LAND-TENURE. 141
chayats' or councils of the elders of the villages l. I cannot
help concluding, then, that while in other parts of India
joint villages arose in the various ways described, a number
of joint villages in the Panjab are due to the special cus-
toms of the particular tribes which — distinct from the
Aryan race that overspread India — settled there. That is
unquestionably the case with the later tribes in the districts
on the North-West frontier, and it is probably the case
with some of the Gujar and Jat tribes of earlier origin, and
some of the less familiarly known castes also. The Jats
and the Gujars I distinguish because they went beyond the
Panjab and formed settlements in Hindustan also, and are
therefore better known 2. The name ' Jat ' becomes ' Jat '
in Hindustan.
1 The allusion is to Historical Re<-
searches into the Politics, <fcc., of the
principal nations of Antiquity, by A. H.
Heeren (.translated from the Ger-
man), vol. i. The Persians. Ox-
ford : Talboys, 1833, p. 310. The
author's account is very note-
worthy. He distinctly shows that
there were states under the Rajas
in the North Panjab — i. e. near
the hills, where the Aryans (Raj-
puts) settled ; and mentions that
one of them, called Porus (perhaps
this word is ' Purusha ' and is only
a title (confer. Dow's Hindostan, i.
24), was at enmity with the Takka
or people of Taxila — who, as I re-
marked, were still earlier Dravidian
settlers. There were also kingdoms
along the Indus ^which exactly
corresponds to what we know of
the early history of Sindh). 'When,'
he says, ' Alexander crossed the
Chinab (Acesines). he fell in with
other nations not living under the
rule of princes, but possessing a re-
publican constitution. These Indian
republics occurred in the country
between the Acesines and Hyphasis
(Chinab and Bias, i. e. Central
Panjab), or on the east of the pro-
vince of Lahore.' He mentions the
Cathcei, Adriaticae, and (in the
Souths the Malli and Oxydraceae of
the Greek writers. Heeren's at-
tempt to identify these tribes is less
happy ; for in his time nothing was
known about the Panjab tribes. No
doubt many of the races — who really
were our Jats, Gujars and other
tribes — became afterwards Sikhs,
but they cannot be identified with
either Rajputs or Marathas. It is
true that among them, some clans,
for whatever reason, never had
Rajas, but lived under their elders
in groups of equal right. And it was
clans who did this that originated
the form called' bhaiachara,' village,
as distinct from the ancestral-share
or ' pattidari ' villages. But this
fact does not identify them.
2 I cannot discuss the origin of
Jats, but it is remarkable that Panj-
ab Jats are distinct from the Jats
of other provinces, and in South-
east Panjab we have both Jat and
Jat tribes physically unlike each
other. I can only conjecture, fol-
lowing local tradition, that some
were really Rajputs who lost caste
by making mixed marriages, &c.,
others are a distinct race. A
great number of the Panjab
tribes, Awans, Khokhars, Arams,
&c., may be mixed races, formed by
the union of the original Takka and
other tribes with Rajputs, or with
later tribes colonizing from beyond
the North- West frontier.
142 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 38. Colonies 'multiplied from individuals or
small groups.
But in any case a large number of joint villages are due
to the multiplication of villages from single centres. There
are numerous local traditions of scions of Rajput and other
'noble' families who, dissatisfied with their prospects at
home (the parent stock had then found a home in Hindu-
stan, Bikanir, &c.) turned on their steps and obtained land
in the Panjab, where doubtless it was abundant. Single
adventurers or small parties thus established themselves,
and spreading and multiplying founded village after village,
over which of course the descendants are regarded as the
landlord communities. Traditions to the effect are too
numerous, coherent, and intrinsically probable, to be set
aside. We may often distinguish villages of this class by
their adhering to ancestral fractional shares in holding the
land. Such shares show descent from a common ancestor,
the colonizing founder or conquering chief.
There are no doubt a large number of villages where the co-
sharers now hold on the basis of actual separate possession.
Many of these are true landlord villages, only the accidents
and the fortunes of the times have destroyed the ancestral
shares. Others may have originally been of the raiyatwdri
type. But if so, the example of numerous landlord or joint
villages round them, and the fact that when our Revenue
Settlement began, they were treated as joint and the waste
adjoining made over to them, — either of these may have
induced them to accept the lump assessment and the (nomi-
nal) joint responsibility without demur. We know this to
have been the case with the Kangra district villages, and
how far it may have been the case with others it is impos-
sible to say. In fact it is now hopeless to argue what the
original constitution may have been \
1 I have spoken before of the locally, owing to the force of ex-
failure of the attempt in Bombay ample, or to the value of the joint-
and elsewhere to force the joint waste conferred when the village
constitution on raiyatwari villages ; was settled by the Kevenue officers,
but it might always happen that, or from other causes, the joint con-
CHAP, iv.j GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 143
In the south-east Panjab we shall also find villages,
which have accepted the joint constitution, whose origin is
clearly traceable to voluntary associations of different
individuals and families, who applied to a local ruler for
permission to settle, and thereon founded villages, only
within the present century.
And the mention of this form of co-operative colonization
leads me to speak of the survival of joint or landlord
villages in Madras.
The Presidency of Madras affords another instance of the
occurrence of landlord villages only in some places, or
sporadically, as it were, among villages of the raiyatwdri
type. In most cases it is a mere trace of such villages that
now survives. The details "will be given in the chapters
devoted to Madras ; but I may here give a brief outline of the
events which led to the discovery of such traces, and notice
how they illustrate the subject we are now considering.
When the failure of the first attempted Settlements in
Madras caused an enquiry to be made (about 1814) as to
the constitution of villages, with a view to determining
what form of revenue-settlement could best be adopted, it
was discovered that a number of villages existed, in which
a class of landholders, generally known by the Perso-Arabic
name 1 ' mirasdar ' — holders of the ' miras ' or inheritance
right — was found. A selection from the rather voluminous
evidence on the subject has been reprinted in an official
collection of papers issued in 1862. The conclusion to be
drawn is, that the villages with a mirdsddr, or .landlord
class, where they existed, were survivals of some high caste
families who by conquest or grant had obtained the over-
lordship. But in the neighbourhood of Chingleput the
villages of this class were more continuous, and evidence was
stitution would be accepted without practical non-enforcement of any
question. It is quite certain that real joint revenue- liability, made
in the Kangra district (a hill and the people accept the system with-
partly submontane district) ' land- out demur.
lord' villages, or indeed villages of l The people had their own
any kind, did not exist, and so in names ; for instance, ' Kani-atchi '
the dry tracts in the South Panjab ; expresses birthright or inheritance,
yet the grant of the waste and the
144 LANI) SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
forthcoming to show that they were due to the fact that
there had been a great colonizing party sent out by one of
the Dravidian kingdoms of Southern India; they had
advanced into what was then an unpeopled forest country,
and having cleared the land and established villages, the
different leaders of the colonist groups became the landlords.
In time the original founder or founders were succeeded by
a numerous body of descendants who divided up the land
into shares. This body, deriving their rights from a special
emigration and colony planting, naturally regarded them-
selves as entitled to a superior kind of right ; all others were
their tenants, namely the low-caste cultivators and others
who were either admitted at a later period, or represented the
descendants of dependants and followers who were called in
to aid at the original founding, which was a work of great
labour requiring as many hands as possible. And I may
here remark that at the present day we hear less of claims
by ' conquest,' than of those derived from the ' founding ' of
the village, though in many cases the latter may be a
euphemism for conquest or usurpation.
Especially in the Panjab I have noticed the landlord
class always claiming superiority as the descendants of the
' original founders ' (banian-ganw).
§ 29. Conclusion regarding two types of Village.
This brief sketch will now, I hope, have made it clear
that we are to distinguish two distinct types of village: one
is where the landholders are disconnected aggregates of
families each claiming nothing but its own holding — the
RAIYATWARI or NON-LANDLORD TYPE ; the other is where
a class in the village, or it may be the entire body, claim
to be a superior order, descendants of former rulers, or
colonizing-founders, or conquerors, or grantees, or, later
on, of revenue-farmers and auction purchasers, who claim
jointly the entire estate ; and this is the JOIST or LANDLORD-
VILLAGE type 1. The former type prevails over the whole of
1 In the first edition of this work types as the ' non-united ' and the
I essayed to distinguish the two 'united' type respectively. The
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 145
Madras, Bombay, and Central India. The Central Provinces
villages were, and would still have been, of this type, but for
the action of our own Government in conferring the pro-
prietary right, so that these villages have now passed into
the landlord class. On the other hand, the landlord or
joint village now prevails in the North- West Provinces
and Oudh, and in the Panjab. Probably, in the North-
West Provinces and Oudh this type was originally only
occasional, as elsewhere ; there must have been many
groups of old cultivators who had never been interfered
with, and whose system of holding land is, and always was,
according to actual possession only. But the revenue-
system, from the first, treated all villages alike, and
whether it was the descendants of a superior family or a
group of cultivators who had no joint-claims, all became,
by the grant of the waste and the (nominal) joint and
several responsibility for the land-revenue of the entire
village, equally compacted into bodies, the joint-owners, in
name, of the whole area. It is certainly also the case that
in more than one locality the present joint-villages are the
creation of our own system, circumstances permitting the
change to be accepted or not practically felt.
§ 30. Importance of the distinction as regards the
Revenue system.
The existence of two types of village is a fact of primary
importance to the Revenue student, apart from its interest
terms are not, however, satisfactory ; advantages : the landlord class have
they do not indicate the fact that in certainly a strong feeling of su-
one type there is a superior, land- periority. But there are many vil-
lord, class, and in the other there is lages where the truly landlord
not ; while there may be a certain class acknowledge no chiefs, and,
union in villages where no superior as among themselves, are ' demo-
chief claims the whole. The cratic/ but this does not put them
people, though each claims only his on an equality with the non-
own holding or field, may very well proprietary residents and cultiva-
be ' united ' in another sense, under tors. On the whole, I think that
a common headman and with a the terms, landlord or joint village
common staff of artisans. Sir for the one type, and non- landlord
George Campbell, in his essay in or raiyatwdri for the other type, are,
the Cobden Club Papers, has distin- though not neat or compact terms,
guished the types as ' aristocratic ' still expressive of the main differ-
and 'democratic.' This has some ence.
VOL. I. L
146 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
as a matter of history and of the development of land-
tenures. Wherever the villages consist of the loose
aggregates of separate cultivators, it has been found ad-
visable to adopt what we shall presently describe as the
' Raiyatwari ' method of Revenue management, under
which each field or holding is separately assessed, and no
holder is responsible for anything else but his own revenue,
nor has he any common right in an allotted area of waste l.
He is, of course, provided with certain privileges of grazing
and wood-cutting, but the waste or unoccupied lands are
at the disposal of Government, and given to whoever first
applies offering to pay the assessment, when they are not
reserved for any other special purpose. Where there are
landlord villages, the ' North- Western ' or ' Village ' system
of Settlement is followed ; the waste is given over to the
village; the entire estate so made up (waste and arable
together) is assessed to one sum of revenue, for which the
landlord, or landlord body, are jointly and severally liable,
and which (in case of several co-sharers) they apportion
among themselves to pay according to their customary
method of sharing — i. e. according to the constitution of the
body.
§ 31. Question as to whether one type is not a decayed
form of the other.
Seeing then that joint villages exist all over the Panjab,
and largely in other parts, while in Central and Southern
1 The adoption of this system was of each otherwise than according to
not accomplished without some local custom fail. There were joint
struggle. The attempt was made villages in the once Hindu island of
in Madras and Bombay to form Java. When this island was under
village settlements with the joint British rule (before its cession to
responsibility for a lump sum. But the Dutch), M. de Laveleye men-
the plan failed, because nature and tions that the Governor (Sir Stam-
the social system were against it. ford Raffles, 1811-1816) attempted
Conversely, where circumstances to individualize holdings by making
are favourable, the joint system separate assessments : but the
alone succeeds, and is accepted people immediately clubbed the
even where the villages are really sums together and redistributed the
raiyatwdri. Where there is a strong total, according to their own no-
landlord body, attempts to indi- tions of responsibility and family
vidualize property and fix the shares custom.
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUEE. 147
India they appear only sporadically among the raiyatwdri
villages, it is not surprising that the question should have
been raised — May it not have been the case that all villages
were once joint, and that those which are now not so
represent a decayed form of the other? I have already
admitted that there are certainly cases where a joint vil-
lage has decayed. For example, the ruler of the time
imposes a very heavy revenue burden on a village : this
necessitates an effort on the part of the co-sharers, and
results in the richer ones taking more than their ancestral
family share of the payment, and demanding to hold more
land to make up. Thus the proper shares are upset ; then
the co-sharers fall into poverty, sales take place, strangers
are introduced, and in the end each holder regards him-
self as a separate unit, and the memory of the original
status is lost. Or, what is often the case, the leading
families have fallen into decay, the more energetic but
inferior caste cultivators come to the front, bear the revenue
burden, and in the end cannot be ousted with anything
like justice from at any rate the several but full proprietor-
ship of their lands. But all experience shows that such
is the tenacity with which the superior classes remember
their rights, that the loss is rarely complete ; and it is
hardly possible to believe that the whole districts where
nothing but raiyatwdri villages now exist, could have owed
their present state to a wholesale loss of rights. Nor is it
easy to see how in such a case some villages exhibit traces
of ' mirasi ' claims and others not.
§ 32. Illustrations of decay of Landlord claims.
I should like here to allude more specially to the cases
where landlord claims existed and were lost, to show at
any rate that I do not leave them out of account. It is
certainly the case that in Madras the ' mirasi ' claims had
often become very faint, but it is equally certain that the
' mirasi ' or landlord right was not a uniform feature of all
villages.
L 2
148 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
There is an interesting paper on tenures in the Bombay
Dakhan, by Col. Sykes l, in which it is clearly shown that,
after the overthrow of the great kingdoms which had
adopted the Buddhist faith, and to which the well-known
cave temples of Alura (Ellora) and Karli are due, the
races, which afterwards rose to power as the Marathas, con-
quered the country. And Col. Sykes finds many traces of
their allotting the land on landlord-shares. The shares of
families were called by the now forgotten Hindi term
' thai ' (perhaps the same as the tula or tola). But fortune
had not favoured them ; and most of the holdings, at the time
when Col. Sykes wrote were found in a decayed state,
described as 'gat-kul,' i.e. the 'family' (kula) is 'lost'
(gata). Where the landlord families had survived, the
Muhammadans called them ' mirasdars,' and there were
also successors who had purchased the ' miras ' right. But
it was evident that these cases represented estates appro-
priated here and there, by conquering families ; and very
likely were the result of the break-up of larger overlord
estates of early Marathd rajas or chiefs. This case does
not lead to the conclusion that the landlord type was once
universal and that the raiyatwari type is merely, as a
general rule, the decay of it.
In Bengal again, all village rights have been generally
obliterated. This is due to the arrangements made in the
decline of the Mughal rule for the management of the
State Kevenues. This we shall describe presently. Here
I am only concerned to remark that the destructive
influence did not change one kind of village into another
but destroyed all alike.
§ 33. Resume of the position.
In short, when we consider the evidence we have that the
earlier races, and the lower castes, among the Aryans, all
1 Published in 1835, Journal of the 'thalwai,' and the ancient lists of
Royal Asiatic Society, vol. ii. p. 206. shares, which survived, were ' thal-
The holder of the ' thai ' was called jara.'
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 149
held land separately, by right of first clearance1, and that
we can in so many cases trace distinctly the growth of
landlord rights in villages over an older race of cultivators
who always had certain tangible rights in the soil ; when
we can prove that landlord villages (as we see them) are
due (in the Panjab) to special movements of colonizing
bodies, who occupied virgin soil independently ; and in the
North- West Provinces and Oudh, to the dismemberment of
kingdoms and ruling families, and also largely to later
acquisitions of title by revenue-farmers and purchasers ; we
must come to the conclusion that the two types of village
are due to original independent causes ; and though in
individual cases, a joint village may decay into a raiyat-
wdri, or a village of the latter type may be formed, by
revenue administrative measures, into a joint village, such
a transformation is local and occasional: it is not the
general and everywhere operative cause of there being
two types of village.
§ 34. Differences and common features of the two types
of Village. — The Village artisans.
Let us now glance at the characteristic differences be-
tween the ' raiyatwari ' and the ' landlord ' village.
Certain features, however, both have in common. In
both there is an area of cultivated land and an area (very
often) for grazing and wood-cutting 2, though the title, and
the method of using that, are of course markedly different.
In both there will probably (but not always) be a central
residence site, and surrounding it, an open space for a
1 And be it always remembered, as the humbler cultivating classes.
the leading members of the higher 2 It is most unfortunate that in
castes would not themselves touch these days, when such an area has
a plough. Hence they who fur- been given over absolutely to the
nished the landlord class were (landlord) village they have been
always rulers, military chiefs, tempted to break it up for cultiva-
or state officials in some grade. tion, and now are hard pressed for
Humbler members of high caste, fuel and grazing, unless there are
whpm necessity compelled to take Government forests or fuel reserves
the plough and spade, fell to the and grazing grounds in which they
lower level, and contented them- can find a supply,
selves with the same sort of tenure
150 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
pond, grove, cattle-stand, &c. &c. In both there will be the
arable fields with their boundary marks, and their little
subdivisions of earth ridges made for retaining the rain or
other irrigation-water. Under both forms, the people
require the aid of certain functionaries, artisans and traders.
They need a village messenger and night-watch, as well
as some one to guard the crops : if it is an irrigated village
probably some one will be required to distribute the water,
to stop this channel and open that, when, according
to the village custom of sharing the water, the different
parties have had their due share. A potter will be
required to furnish the simple household utensils or to
make waterpots where the Persian wheel is used in wells.
A seller of brass or copper pots will also be found in larger
villages. A cobbler will make the village shoes and the
plough harness or gear. A carpenter will fashion the
agricultural implements and help in the housebuilding.
A money broker will be needed, and some one to sell
tobacco, drugs, salt, flour, spices, oil and other necessaries
of life. Sometimes a dancing girl is attached to the
village ; always a barber, who is the agent for carrying
marriage proposals, besides his functions as barber and
also surgeon. Sometimes there is an ' astrologer' and
even a ' witch-finder/
The staff varies in different places according to locality.
In Central India we find this staff, theoretically twelve in
number, called the ' bara bulauti.'
In England such artisans in a village would casually
settle where the prospects of trade invited, and would in-
differently accept work from any comer, being paid by the
job. But in India, — and this applies equally to both forms
of village, — the village community invites or attracts to
itself the requisite bands of artisans, finds them almost
exclusive employment, and does not pay by the job for
services rendered, but establishes a regular income or
customary mode of annual payment, on receipt of which,
every village resident is entitled to have his work done
without further (individual) payment. In Central India,
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 151
where the system of remuneration by 'watan' or official
holdings of land found most favour, we find not only the
headman or patel and the accountant (kulkarni) with
their official holdings of land, but also petty holdings rent-
free for the potter, the sweeper, the water-carrier, &c. In
other places the more common method was to allow the
artisans certain definite shares when the grain was divided
at the harvest; besides which they received periodically
certain perquisites, in the shape of blankets, shoes, tobacco,
or sugar-cane juice. It is not necessary for me to quote
any detailed account of the village servants. Elphinstone
has taken his we]l-known account from Central Southern
India, Malcolm has given the detail from Central India.
The numbers and names of -the artisans of course vary in
different parts 1.
1 See Elphinstone (Cowell's 6th
edition1', page 69 and notes, and
Malcolm (the reprint of 1880),
vol. ii. p. 16, Phillips, p. 23. The
following is a list of village servants
as recorded for the Gujranwala dis-
trict of the Panjab. This will serve
as a fair general sample of how
these people are paid. Their occu-
pation, as well as the right to serve
the village, is often hereditary. The
villages here spoken of are landlord
villages.
1. The blacksmith (lohar^. His
dues are one bhari or wheat-sheaf in
each harvest, one pai in money on
each plough, two seers of molasses
(gur), and also one jar of sugarcane
juice daily, while the press (belna)
is working ; and he is allowed to
have one day's picking at the cotton-
field at the end of the season.
2. The carpenter (tarkhan). He
makes the well woodwork, handles
for tools, beds (charpai), stools, &c.
His dues are much the same as the
lohar's.
3. The kumhar or potter, who
makes household utensils and also
pots.
4. The ' rera' or grass-rope maker ;
the ropes are necessary to form the
bands over the well-wheel which
carry the water-pots. He gets one
' bhari ' and four topas of grain per
well.
5. The ' chuhra ' or sweeper. He
cleans the corn, cleans the cattle-
sheds, and makes the manure into
cakes for fuel : a place for drying
these cakes is often a recognized
common allotment outside the vil-
lage site.
6. The ' mochi ' or cobbler and
chamar, who also has a right to
appropriate the skins of the cattle
that die.
7. The 'hajjam ' or ' nai.' He is
the barber, but also carries messages
and proposals connected with mar-
riages and betrothals, and serves
also at funerals.
8. The ' dhobi ' or washerman.
9. The 'jhewar' (this is a local
term), equivalent to ' bihisti ' or
water-carrier.
Besides there may be the village
astrologer and musician (mirasi)
and various religious office-holders
• — the purohit, or brahman, a faqir
who keeps' the takya or village
place of assembly ; the ' maulvi '
for the mosque service, a ' bhai ' at
a temple called dharmsala, a ' sadh '
at a thakurdwara, a pujari at a
shivala (^temple of Siva), and a ma-
hant of a ' devidwara ' (other
temple).
152 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 35. The Headman.
Having noticed what the villages have in common, we
may proceed to describe the points in which they differ.
If I had to select a characteristic difference between the
two types of village, I should find it in the ' headman.'
When the village consists of a number of loosely aggre-
gated cultivating occupants, it is very natural that they
should choose or recognize some one of their number to
be their headman. Possibly this man is, or represents, the
leader of the original settlers, or is in some other way
marked out as a trusty and privileged person. He is
referred to to decide local disputes, to allot lands when
cultivation extends, and so forth. And when the village
comes under a definite State organization and pays a
revenue to the ruler, most naturally that ruler looks to the
headman for the punctual realization of his rights. His
importance and dignity are then enhanced because he
becomes vested with a certain measure of State authority,
and is probably remunerated by the State. His office is
hereditary, or becomes so, and the State does not interfere,
except in some case of manifest personal incompetence,
and then probably another member of the family is se-
lected, at any rate to the practical functions of the office l.
Where the headman is (as in Central India) allowed an
official holding of land — his watan, as it is called — the
office becomes still more desirable. In these parts it will
generally be found that the 'patel' owns the best land;
he is also the owner of the central site in the village,
frequently an enclosed space of some size, fortified perhaps
by mud walls ; and within this only members of the family,
all of whom will be addressed as 'patel,' reside, when
other houses are situated around and below. We shall
1 Some trouble must have been exercised the functions in a sort of
felt in former days when (in Central rotation, one member for one year
India) the patel's family multiplied. (or whatever it might be), and then
They seem to have regarded the the next,
headman's office as jointly held, and
CHAP. IV.] GENBEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUEE. 153
afterwards hear of great princes being anxious to hold the
' patelship ' of villages and the ( watan ' l land pertaining to
it, because of the permanence and stability of this form
of right.
Now in the landlord village, naturally the headman as
such, did not exist. The proprietary families were too
jealous of their equal rights to allow of any great degree
of authority residing in one head. Their system was to
manage village affairs by a council of the heads of families
called ' panchayat.'
It is true that in landlord villages, either one headman,
or one headman for each division is now to be found ; but
that is an appointment of the State, and for administrative
purposes. In former days such a single headman selected
to answer for the revenue and deal generally on behalf of
the villages with the State officers, was called ' muqaddam2/
In our own times, such a headman has received the name
of ' lambardar ' (the representative whose name bears a
separate 'number' in the Collector's register of persons
primarily responsible for the revenue), and this modern
term at once marks that, in the landlord village, the head-
man is no part of the original social system. The State
now usually recognizes his right to office as hereditary,
and desires to make it to some extent elective also. But
this is with a view of popularizing the institution. It is
essentially an administrative addition to the village.
Where a landlord village is united, it still keeps up its
panchayat, and where the institution is falling into dis-
credit and the patwari or some energetic ' lambardar '
begins to dominate, we may be sure that poverty and
decay are affecting the body.
1 See remarks on the watan in the the latter the direct duty of paying
next section. in the revenue. This is because
2 In the Central Provinces they under the particular circumstances
still keep the name ' muqaddam ' of these provinces, it is possible that
(or in the Hindi form Mukadam) as the functions of office may be
well as lambardar, the former ex- divided between two persons,
pressing the executive functions,
154 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 36. Other Village officials.
Just as an artisan staff is found (necessarily) under
either form of village, so the accountant ('patwari' in
Upper India, ' karnam ' in the South, ' kulkarni ' in the
West) is found. Originally in non-landlord villages, he
was a State officer, and in the others more the servant
of the proprietary body. But now, of necessity, he is a
Government servant pure and simple, paid, controlled and
appointed by the State, and subject to certain tests of
efficiency. To popularize the institution, the office is
allowed to be hereditary, supposing a next heir is fit, and
is sent to school to qualify himself.
The village 'watchman' is also an important officer in
both, as he is utilized and often controlled by Government
as a sort of village policeman.
§ 37. General statement of differences.
I may perhaps best show at a glance the differences
between the villages by arranging in parallel columns
a list of characteristic features.
KAIYATWARI OK NON-LANDLORD JOINT OR LANDLORD VILLAGE
VILLAGE (Punjab, Nort h- West Provinces,
(Bombay, Madras). Oudh, and Central Provinces).
1. The revenue is assessed i. The -revenue is assessed
on each field or holding. No on the village as a whole, and
responsibility of one man for the burden is distributed by
another's default. the co-proprietors themselves.
Village co-sharers are jointly
and severally liable for the
whole.
2. The village site is not 2. The village site is owned
owned by any one landlord, by the proprietary body, who
except as far as each occupant allow residences to —
householder is owner of his (i) the ' kamin,' the artisan
site. The patel has often a class, farm labourers, and
large central residence. menials.
(2) The tenantry.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUEE. 155
(3) The traders. money
lenders, &c.
These probably pay some
small dues, according to cus-
tom ; and if they leave the
village may have no right to
dispose of the site, and only in
some cases to remove the roof
timbers and other materials.
3. The waste outside for 3. The waste is allotted to
grave-yard, cattle-shed, pond, the village, forms part of the
grove, &c., &c., is Government estate, and if wanted for culti-
land, the area of which is vation, is partitioned among
allowed to the villages for the share-holders.
these purposes, and this land
cannot be diverted from such
purposes.
No waste area is granted
jointly to the village. Prob-
ably the use of some available
land for grazing, &c., is allowed ;
and if there are waste numbers
which may be cultivated, they
must be applied for (and reve-
nue paid thereon) to the land
authorities.
4. The headman is an im- 4. The village government
portant functionary and part is by the panchayat or group
of the original constitution. of heads of families. The
headman is called ' lambar-
dar,' and is (as the name in-
dicates) a later addition, and
exists chiefly for revenue and
administrative purposes.
5. The accountant (patwari, &c.), watchman, messenger,
artisan, and labourer staff are common to both forms.
§ 38. Constitution of the Raiyativdri or Non-landlord
Village.
Naturally there is little to be said about the consti-
tution of the non-landlord village.
156 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
There is no room for any variety in tenure; for each
man is master and manager of his own holding. Modern
law defines his tenure as ' occupant,' or leaves it undefined
as the case may be, and there is no question of sharing on
this principle or that. Nor have I heard of anything like
a common account of expenses chargeable to the whole
village and which is rateably levied on the members.
All that we could have to say about the village would
be to describe the routine of cultivation, of how the head-
man acts if his intervention is called for, and how once in
the year there is the settling up (jamabandi) with the
State officer as to what revenue is chargeable, what fields
have been held, what taken up, and what, if any, relin-
quished, and what remissions are claimable (if the particular
system allows this). But such a description would be one
of social life or of revenue administration, rather than of
land-tenure, and I shall dismiss the subject by quoting
a pleasant account of the raiyatwari village (as found in
Southern India), which I read in the Goddvari District
Manual : —
' Each village 1 constituted in itself a perfect whole. Un-
heeding the changes which may have taken place in the
Government above them, the cultivators of the ground quietly
continued their daily avocations. They yoked their bullocks
to the plough, and followed them in their uneven course. They
drew the scanty supply of water from the neighbouring stream
or tank, and wrangled over the precious liquid. They cast
their seed into the saturated soil, and transplanted the tender
sprouts of the growing paddy. They gathered in the harvest,
and tended their bullocks as they trod out the grain. The
simple household routine went on as quietly and swiftly then
as now. The women met at the village well and joined in the
petty gossip of the day. The only excitement occurred on the
1 Godavari District Manual, p. 247. are the staples. Eice villages are
This is a ' wet ' or irrigated village mostly found in South and West
chiefly cultivating rice. Rice is Bombay, in East Bengal, in Madras,
not the staple food of India, as and in a few other localities on a
is sometimes supposed. Through- smaller scale. It is the food of
out the North and North-Central only a very limited portion of the
India wheat, barley, and millets population.
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 157
occasion of some feast in their own or a neighbouring village,
or of a journey to the festival at some sacred shrine. The
village shopkeeper sat cross-legged behind his store and offered
loans at an extravagant rate of interest. The village scribe
and accountant were employed in writing the accounts on
palm-leaves, or drawing up the simple bonds and documents
executed by the ryots, and in assisting the village magistrate
in his rude administration of justice under the spreading
branches of the village tree, where all trials were held and
business transacted.'
§ 39. Constitution of the Joint or Landlord Village.
There is much more to be said about the landlord village,
because it is in the nature of things that there should be
changes in its course of existence. Suppose, for example,
that the village is gained by a single grantee as landlord ;
before long his sole tenure — whatever its limits — will be
replaced by the joint tenure of a body of heirs1. Suppose,
again, that the village has from the first been founded by
several ' landlords ' jointly ; it is improbable that they will
long remain joint ; they will divide the land wholly or par-
tially, and then the shares will, from some cause or another,
become altered or lost sight of. Moreover, as we have
seen, there are joint or landlord villages where from the
first, the principle of sharing is not that of the inheritance
law, but some other.
Evidently then there are many points to be dealt with
before we have done with the joint or landlord tenure of
villages. The Revenue books have adopted, for the North-
West Provinces, some terms which describe the various
conditions of jointness, or division (or partial division) in
which the landlord village may be found. They are
unfortunate terms ; and we shall presently see, from a
1 I take it for granted that the followed by agriculturists. Primo-
reader is aware that by the Hindu geniture only applies to succession
law, and by custom also, the sue- to royal or ruling chief's titles and
cession of heirs is joint Even by their appanages. This subject is
the Muhammadan law also it is, enlarged upon in the concluding
though the strict law is not largely section.
158 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
quotation which I shall make, how they mislead people ;
but it is necessary that they should be understood.
Where there was a landlord claim over the village,
such as that of a revenue farmer who had become pro-
prietor, or of some chief or other high caste personage who
had, many generations ago, acquired the superior title, they
expressed the right by the term ' zamindari.' I suppose it
was meant that the landlord in his small estate had that
sort of not very definite ' holding of land ' which is indicated
by the native term, and which was also applied to the much
larger estate-holder called ' Zamindar ' in Bengal.
§ 40. Meaning of Zaminddri Village.
If the landlord were a single person, the term indicating
the tenure was ' zamindari khalis '= simple or sole landlord
tenure. When however the original grantee or acquirer of
the village had died and was represented by a family who
as yet remained joint, they called it ' zamindari mushtarka '
— the joint or co-sharing landlord tenure. It ought to be
needless to remark that the term zaminddri by itself
conveys no suggestion of jointness or common-holding in
any way whatever. But whether it was that the full
phrase ' zamindari mushtarka,' was too long, or whether it
was that so few villages had a single landlord, and so
many a co-sharing body, I cannot say ; but in practice,
writers came commonly to use the word ' zamindari village
tenure,' as if it meant the tenure of a still undivided
joint-body.
In joint tenures, as long as the body could agree together,
they would remain undivided. In such cases the land was
generally leased out to tenants ; or only certain fields culti-
vated by one or more of the landlord body, for which rent
was credited to the community. One of the family would
act as ' manager,' and keep an account of the rents received
and any other profits, and would charge against this the
Government revenue and cesses, and the charges debitable
to the village as a whole — cost of alms, of entertainment
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 159
of strangers, &c. — and finally would distribute the surplus
according to shares.
§ 41. The Pattiddri Village.
But very often — in quite the majority of cases indeed—
the family agreed to divide ; so that many joint villages
are found in a state of division or severalty as regards the
cultivation and enjoyment of the land. This may have
existed only since a few years, or it may have been so
from 'time immemorial.' Ordinarily, when the family is
descended from some single village 'founder/ the shares
will be mainly those of the ancestral ' tree,' and follow the
law of inheritance. A sharer here and there may be holding
a few (or many) acres more or less than his share ; but
the general scheme is easily traced and is acknowledged
by the co-sharers. When this is the case the village is
said to be ' pattidari,' because the primary division, repre-
senting the main branches of the family are called ' patti.'
It will be borne in mind that ' pattidari ' properly means
not only a village held in severalty, but also held in shares
which are wholly (or at least in part) ancestral, i.e. those of
law of inheritance. Some villages will be found where the
primary division is into ' tarf,' and the tarf is divided into
pattis ; but where that is the case it may imply some
ancient union of two or more distinct bodies who settled
together or some other cause operating later in the history
of the village. I know of villages where one ' tarf ' con-
sists wholly of Hindus and the other of Muhammadan
converts, or where one is of one caste and the other of
another. This is obviously a special or exceptional state
of things. So that in the typical village body descended
from a common ancestor, the ' Patti ' is the main-branch
division. The ' patti ' is sub-divided into ' thula ' or ' tola '
or 'thok' (three various names), and then into 'beriV
1 I am not sure of this word. I 'bheri,' and even 'bhari.' Wilson's
find it variously written 'behri,' Glossary does not give it, nor Elliott's.
1 60 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
Below the ' beri ' come the ' khata,' or individual holdings.
This will be clearer from a diagram (which I have adapted
from that in the Selections from the Records of Government,
North-West Provinces (Revenue] for 181 8-1822). It will be
observed that the fraction held by each is here represented
by the bisiva, or twentieth of the ' bigha/ which (in the
North-West Provinces) is the usual land-measure. But
sometimes it is expressed in ' annas ' and ' pai ' — fractions
of a rupee regarded as the unit or whole.
In order to count up to the smallest of the sub-divisions,
custom has established, in various parts, minute fractions
far below the ' biswa ' or the ' anna.' Instances will be
found detailed in the chapter on North-West Provinces
tenures. Thus we have the anna, not only divided into pai,
but the pai into kauri, and the kauri into gandd, &c.
In the present case, the whole estate consists of 2000
bighas of land ; accordingly this area represents the whole,
or 'bigha.' Then, a man who owns a four-biswa share, owns
four-twentieths (one-fifth) of 2000, or 400 bighas, and pays
one-fifth of the revenue ; so, if the revenue is Rs.iooo, he will
hold 400 bighas, and pay (one-fifth of Rs. 1000 = ) Rs. 200*.
In the example it is evident that the ' pattis,' which are
here the primary shares, represent a state of the property
when the family consisted of two brothers (A and B) in one
branch, and three brothers (C, D, E) in another branch, in
parity of descent. The fathers of these two branches were
equal ; for A and B have half (4 + 6 biswas) between
them, and C, D, E (5 + 3 + 2 biswas) the other half, between
them. Observe that A and B ought to have five biswas
each ; but, owing to some inequality of value — some sale
or other accidental circumstance — one has four, and the
other six. So, too, the shares of A's sons have become
unequal. Under each share I have marked the area (in
1 If we were counting by fractions counted by fractions of a rupee the
of the rupee, a man who held 400 shares would be in even numbers,
bighas out of 2000 and paid Rs.aoo as i anna, 2 anna or | anna, £, &c.
out of Rs. 1000 revenue, would be Such a fraction as 3* annas would
said to hold a '3^ anna share' of only occur if the share had become
the estate. Probably in an estate varied by sale, &c.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 1 6 1
bighas and biswas), and the share of the revenue paid in
money.
VILLAGE X
Area 2000 bighas.
Land-Revenue assessed Rs. 1000.
(might form a 'tarf'). (might form a ' tarf').
Patti A. Patti B. Patti C. Patti D. Patti E. total.
Share. 6 'biswas' ( 4 bis. ( 5 bis. ( 3 bis. ( 2 bis. ( = 20
Holding. 600 B. ) 400 B. j 500 B. j 300 B. | 200 B. < = 2000
Paying. 300 Rupees ( 200 R. ( 250 R. ( 150 R. ( 100 R. ( = 1000
Y
[These may all be subdivided in the
same way : or in one or other branch
all the descendants but one or two
may be dead, and the whole patti be
held by the survivors. ]
Thok I.
3^ biswa share.
350 B.
175 R.
Thok 'II.
2| biswa share.
2506.
125 R.
1
1 1
Beri i. Beri 2. Beri 3. Beri 4.
(Each) 1 of a biswa. &c. &c. &c.
87 B. 10 b. ^ — -Y- -^
R. 43 as 12. Remain undivided
perhaps.
Divided into (say)
4 equal ' Khata '
or individual holdings.
1 i
Beri 5. Beri 6.
i£ biswa. &c.
125 B.
R. 62 as 8.
There may, or may not, be the last division (khata).
Possibly the ' beri ' may be enjoyed by some sons or grand-
sons jointly. But the sharers will be on the list, with
their fractional interest recorded. So that the individual
proprietors are called, in Revenue language, the ' khatedars.'
There are many villages in which, as far as we can tell,
a separation of 'pattis,' and perhaps some minor sub-
divisions, have existed from the first colonization, found-
ation, or acquisition of the village.
§ 42. The fihdidchdrd Village.
But one of the curiosities of tribal history in India is
that, owing to whatever cause, all tribes, clans, or families
did not adopt the same system — indeed, I believe it is the
VOL. I. M
1 62 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
case that different sections of the same tribe adopted dif-
ferent methods. Some tribes had no Rajas or greater chiefs,
and all the families were exactly equal under their seve-
ral heads or elders ; and on settling in a new place they
adopted a different method of allotting the land. One of
the first forms of joint village to be discovered (in Benares)
was a form of village called ' bhaiachara ' — i.e. held by the
custom (achara) of the brotherhood (bhai). There is no
sort of question that these villages were of the joint type,
i. e. they were held by castemen of the higher orders, and that
they formed close communities, regarding themselves as
landlords and superior to all other people on the estate ; but
still they did not adopt any system of sharing based on the
place in the ancestral 'tree,' but started (when the village
first was founded) with an equal division of land, often
adopting curious area-measures or standards for dividing,
which were not the ordinary land measures or ' bighas,' but
were ' bhaiachara bighas,' measures of a larger size, and
arranged so as to consist of several plots of the different
qualities of land ; or to be small in the best soil and larger in
the inferior. The other distinguishing feature of this tenure
was that the holders did not merely undertake the share of
the revenue burden which corresponded to their fractional
interest in the estate1, but they distributed so that the pay-
ment should always correspond to the holding ; and in many
of the villages (notably in the Bundelkhand districts) there
was a system of equalization known as ' bhejbarar 2,' which
consisted sometimes in exchange of holdings, but more
especially in a redistribution of the payments, according to
the actual holdings ; so that if one sharer in the course of
time found his holding diminished or its productive power
fall off, he could — or rather, when things were ripe for it, the
1 In a regular pattiddri or fractional pay one-fourth of the revenue, al-
estate two men hold one-fourth each, though this was out of all pro-
let us say : each pays one-fourth portion to the real value of the
of the revenue of the whole. But land.
one man's one-fourth may become 2 The papers are collected in Se-
extraordinarily profitable by irri- lections from the Records of Government,
gation, &c. and the other one-fourth North-West Provinces, Part VIII, No.
might remain as it was and even 34 (Report by H. Rose, Collector of
deteriorate. Still each would only Banda).
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 163
community could — procure a readjustment of the burdens
according to the actual state of each holding and the rela-
tive value of them.
§ 43. Extended use of the term Bhdidchdrd.
But the term ' bhaiachara ' soon got to be used not only
for a special class of tenures, but for all tenures of co-
sharers when there was no ancestral system of fractional
shares, but when some other principle of distribution had
always been followed, or where, if a fractional system had
once been followed, it had fallen into disuse.
In many cases where the village was due to a body who
joined forces to colonize and settle, they divided the area of
which they became the landlords, not by family-shares, but
by the number of ploughs each brought ; or simply, land
being abundant, each man took as much land as he wanted
or could manage, and that became the measure of his
interest in the entire estate ; or a certain number of wells
were sunk and a certain area was commanded by each well,
and then shares in the irrigation became the measure of
interest ; — either shares by inheritance from one original
well-sinker, or shares depending on the capital expended by
several who joined in the sinking.
And it is to be remembered that a great number of old
villages over which no landlord claims had ever arisen
(or had disappeared), and in which the really individual
holders had no system of sharing, exist in Oudh and the
North -West Provinces, and probably in the Panjab. Such
villages would have remained raiyatwdri in form but for
the revenue-system. In them the holder speaks of his
field as his ' dadillahi,' — the Divine gift, and has no idea
of shares.
All these forms, owing to the absence of any fractional
ancestral share scheme, became equally confused under the
common name of ' bhaiachara.'
The same thing happened with villages where ancestral
shares once existed, but had been lost or allowed to fall
M 2
164 LAND SYSTEMS OF BKITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
into abeyance. A long course of oppressive assessments,
the results of efforts to meet the burden (the proprietors
earnestly striving not to lose their land), long absence of
some co-sharers 1, poverty of others, the necessity for sales,
and the voluntary surrender of unprofitable lands, — all
these accidents might cause the old shares to be forgotten
or given up, and to substitute a new scale of possession out
of harmony with the rules of descent. In some cases, while
the shares were lost as regards the land, they were adhered
to in dividing minor profits of the estate, or in dividing out
the waste. Where this is the case, it is proof positive that
the village was once an ancestrally shared estate. Such
cases are equally called ' bhaiachara ' in reports.
The subdivision of all kinds of bhaiachara estates is into
' patti/ ' thok,' ' ben',' &c., as in the other form ; and the
major division into 'tarf is commoner.
The student will pardon my repeating once more that
the term ' bhaiachara ' now includes : —
(i) Villages where some special form of division or
occupation at founding was adopted.
Real landlord \ (2) Villages once ancestrally shared, but where the
villages
shares have been (wholly or partly) lost or
upset.
Properly raiyat- (
wari villages j (3) Villages never shared at all — each man's posses-
sion is the measure of his right.
become joint un-
der the Revenue
system.
§ 44. Partition of joint Waste under £hdidchdrd method.
Where there is no real system of sharing, or where shares
have been completely lost, and the partition of the waste
included in the estate by the North- West Revenue System
is called for, it will be distributed in the same proportion
as the original holding bears to the whole.
1 ' Absentee rules' were well allow it unconditionally, others
known in our early Settlements, would fix a term of years, or im-
and the records constantly specified pose conditions. Often too a man
the village custom as to what was would get back, but only to a small
to be done if an absentee returned portion of his share,
and claimed his share. Some would
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 165
For instance, a man's actual possession is 50 acres out
of a village of 2500 acres, all told. In fact, he is owner of
one-fiftieth ; so that on dividing the waste, he will get
one-fiftieth of the area whatever it is.
Or, if the acres of the principal or original holding are
valuable, and so pay a higher proportion of the revenue-
assessment, it may be that the waste will be allotted accord-
ing to the proportion of the total revenue paid ; and then
if the man pays (say) not one-fiftieth, but one-twentieth of
the revenue, he will get one-twentieth of the waste area1.
§ 45. ' Perfect ' and ' imperfect ' forms of Shared Village.
It is usual in the Revenue reports and returns to find
a further classification heading — ' imperfect pattidari ' or
' imperfect bhaiachara. ' These terms, however, merely call
attention to a feature which is of no importance whatever
from the tenure point of view. They mean nothing more
than that when the estate was divided, whether according
to ancestral-fractional shares (pattidari), or according to
some other method (bhaiachara), the co-sharers did not care
to divide up the whole, but left a part still joint. This might
(and commonly did) happen, as there was an obvious con-
venience in it.
Suppose, for instance, that a considerable part of the
village is held by or let out to tenants, or perhaps held by
irremoveable, privileged tenants. It may be that the rents
they pay suffice, wholly or partially, to pay the revenue. I
have known many villages where this is the case, especially
in sugar-cane growing villages, which command a high
rental. In that case there is no object in dividing ; the
part that is separately enjoyed is held then by each sharer
virtually revenue free. If the rental of the undivided
portion does not happen to cover the revenue, then the
1 This form of partition is then in the 'Khewat' — a list of share-
said, in revenue language, to be holders and their payments made
' hasb rasad khewat,' or in pro- out for every estate,
portion to the actual interest shown
1 66 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
deficit is made up by a rateable charge on the co-sharers
according to their constitution. There may be other rea-
sons for not dividing the whole estate, but the example is
intelligible, and represents an extremely common case.
This may be realized by looking at their statistics in the
chapters on the North- West Provinces and Panjab.
§ 46. A better principle of classification required.
It is unfortunate that these old terms are still made use
of in the Imperial returns : they were useful enough in
their day as office distinctions when village tenures were
just beginning to be understood. But they are as ineffi-
cient now as the Linnsean system is to the modern botanist.
They distinguish matters that are of no importance, and
confuse together things that it is essential to keep separate.
A more suitable classification could be easil}'- adopted,
and I have ventured to suggest one which will be found in
the chapter on the North -West Province tenures, and which
is based on the distinction of cases where (i) the ancestral
shares are followed wholly, or (2) partly, or (3) are theoreti-
cally allowed and recorded, but not acted on in practice, or
(4) where some other plan of sharing is recognized, and (5)
it might distinguish cases in which individual possession
is the only measure of right, and where there is no plan
of sharing at all, and never was.
§ 47. The Proprietor's ' Sir' Land.
Before leaving the subject of the joint village, I should
like to explain the term ' sir.' It constantly occurs in such
phrases as ' the proprietor enjoys his sir land practically
without payment,' or ' the proprietor is never ousted from
the occupation of his sir, except,' &c.
It refers to the home-farm or land which the landlord or
co-sharer holds directly in his own management, either
cultivating it himself, or by his farm-servants or personal
tenants.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 167
The distinction arose out of the fact that the landlord's
right was so often superimposed on older rights. A modus
Vivendi had to be found ; it was so, partly in the method of
sharing produce, but chiefly in this, that while the landlords
had certain rents from the whole estate, they left the actual
management of a great part to the old ' tenants ' of the
village, who naturally held on somewhat easy terms ; and
each proprietor took for his own direct farming and profit
such area of — usually the best — land as his share and other
circumstances entitled him to. That was called his 'sir' =
his ' own ' !. Even if there should be no ancient rights on
the estate, still the owners may be non-agriculturists and
be obliged to lease out the greater part to tenants, retaining
only special lands, the entire produce of which (or rather
a larger share of it) goes to themselves.
Legally speaking, the term has become of importance,
because under all Revenue systems based on the North -West
Provinces model, there are certain privileges connected
with the fsir.' For instance, if by default in payment of
revenue, or on refusal to engage, a co- sharer is put out of
possession, he still retains his sir on a tenant-right. And
a tenant who proves that he has fallen to that grade, being
an ' ex-proprietor,' has always a privileged occupancy
tenure of his former ' sir.' So also (in the Central Pro-
vinces) occupancy rights conferred by law on certain classes
of tenants do not apply to ' sir ' lands, and it becomes of
importance to define in the tenant law exactly what is to
be regarded as ' sir ' and what is not 2.
In raiyatwdri, or non-landlord villages, there is, of course,
no room for any such distinction. The ' watan ' lands of
the p£tel (where such a system prevails) are the analogue
of the ' sir ' in the landlord village. Though we are here
concerned only with villages, I may nevertheless take the
1 In the Panjab, where the pro- culty had arisen from the definition
prietors are so very often them- of 'sir' that was in force, and one
selves of the agricultural class, we of the amendments of the law in
hear much less frequently this term 1889 was directed to correct the
1 sir ' land. definition.
2 In the Central Provinces diffi-
1 68 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
opportunity of remarking that in any form of landlord
estate, the landlord will, or may, hold 'sir' land. Thus
with the greater landlords called ' Zamindar ' in Bengal,
or Taluqdar in Oudh, they had ' sir ' lands which were
sometimes exempt from paying revenue under the name of
' nankar,' and were also exempt from all those privileges of
occupancy to tenants which accrued on the ordinary lands
of the estate1.
§48. Present state of the Joint -Villages.
In the North -West Provinces the sentiment of joint-land-
lordship seems to be decaying. Some of the villages were,
as I said, never really joint at all ; they became so under
our system ; hence a strong principle of coherence is hardly
to be looked for. Of those that are really joint, many are
owned by families descended from an ancestor who was
once ruler, conqueror, or grantee ; and a great many from
revenue-farmers and auction-purchasers. None of these had
any attachment to land as land, since they did not belong
to castes who themselves cultivate the soil. I believe I am
right in saying that the individualization of land and the
loss of the joint interest is proceeding apace. The pan-
cTidyats and lambardars have little influence : the landholders
apply for leave to pay their own revenue direct to the local
treasury instead of through the headman of their ' patti ' or
their village, as the case may be, ' Perfect ' partition, which
not only divides the land, but also completely severs the
revenue responsibility, is allowed. The result is the growth
of independent petty proprietors, but still more of capitalist
landlords, who buy up first one field and then (availing
themselves of the right of pre-emption) another. They
are not men of the agricultural class, but must employ
1 Supposing a ' Zamindar ' has as is absolutely under his landlord's
leased his land to an indigo planter. control, i. e. on the Zamindar's
The tenants hate growing indigo, ' sir ' land. Hence the importance
and the lessee can therefore only of distinguishing the 'sir.'
compel its growth on such land
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 169
tenants ; these naturally are found in the old land-owning
classes, whose status is thus slowly changing.
In the Panjab the conditions are more favourable to the
joint-village : there is a total absence of communities
deriving their origin from the revenue-farmer or auction-
purchaser1. The villages are almost everywhere due to
foundation by colonists or tribes of superior strength and
character, most of whom are agriculturists ; and they seem
to have retained more than elsewhere the sense of union
and the power of maintaining their original status. Go-
verned still by custom, they have hardly emerged — at least
in many districts — from the stage when the feeling that
land belongs as much to the family as to the individual is
predominant. The law does not allow of perfect partition,
i.e. dissolving the joint responsibility, except at Settlement
and under special conditions. There is a rather strong law
of pre-emption which generally enables any one in the
village body to prevent an outsider purchasing land. The
customary law still restricts widows to a life tenure, and
prevents them alienating ; while in many tribes a childless
male proprietor cannot alienate to the prejudice of his next
heirs without their consent. There is also in many parts
a strong ' clannish ' feeling which keeps villages together.
Nevertheless, the power of free sale and mortgage is pro-
ducing its results : non-agricultural capitalists are buying
up land, and estates slowly undergo a change. Strangers
are introduced ; the village site enlarges, and the non-
proprietary classes successfully resist the payment of dues
to a proprietary body, and claim the right to sell their
houses and sites ; and gradually the old landlord body sink
into oblivion. If large estates accumulate in the hands of
individuals, they will again become joint if the heirs are
numerous, and then, as the property will be not in one vil-
lage, the estate will more and more cease to be synonymous
with the village.
1 The Panjab was not annexed till after the days of revenue farming
and harsh sale laws.
I/O LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 49. The Mahal and Village.
Indeed I ought to explain that, though for convenience
I often speak of the Revenue Settlement of villages, and
the assessment of villages, strictly speaking this is not
correct. The lump assessment is on what is called
in revenue language the 'Mahal,' or lot of lands held
under one title. This may, and does very often, coincide
with a ' village ' ; but partitions and sales will always tend
to make it less so. Supposing, for example, three villages
come to be owned by a community of eight sharers, and
they completely partition their estate : eight estates or
' Mahals ' may then arise. Sometimes a part of one village
is a separate estate. And there are also peculiar customs
of allotment of shares, by which the sharers in a large
estate of several villages may get their land, not in com-
pact lots, but some fields here and some there in different
villages. In time these may form separately assessed
' Mahals.'
When the partition of an estate results in compact lots,
the estate is said, in revenue language, to be ' pattibat,'
and when by scattered areas ' khetbat.' There are other
local terms, but these are the common ones.
§ 50. Some further quotations regarding Villages.
We are now in a position to appreciate some of the
standard descriptions of the 'village community' which
have been usually copied from book to book without any
question.
Here is one, which has become almost classical l : —
' The village communities are little republics, having nearly
everything they want within themselves, and almost inde-
pendent of any foreign relations. They seem to last when
1 Sir C. T., afterwards Lord port of Select Committee of H. C.
Metcalfe. In a minute of 7th Nov. '^1832), cited in Elphinstone's History
1830, No. 84, in the App. to the Re- of India, sth ed. p. 68.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 171
nothing else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down ;
revolution succeeds to revolution ; Hindu, Pathan, Mughal,
Maratha, Sikh, English, all are masters in turn ; but the village
communities remain the same. In times of trouble they arm
and fortify themselves. An hostile army passes through the
country; the village communities collect their cattle within
their walls and let the enemy pass unprovoked. If plunder
and devastation be directed against themselves, and the force
employed be irresistible, they flee to friendly villages at a dis-
tance ; but when the storm has passed over they return and
resume their occupations. If a country remain for a series of
years the scene of continued pillage and massacre so that the
villages cannot be inhabited, the scattered villagers nevertheless
return whenever the power of peaceable possession revives. A
generation may pass away, but the succeeding generation will
return. The sons will take the places of their fathers ; the
same site for the village, the same positions for their houses,
the same lands will be re-occupied by the descendants of those
who were driven out when the village was depopulated : and
it is not a trifling matter that will drive them out, for they will
often maintain their post through times of disturbance and
convulsion, and acquire strength sufficient to resist pillage and
oppression with success. This union of the village communities,
each one forming a little state in itself, has, I conceive, contri-
buted more than any other cause to the preservation of the
people of India, through all the revolutions and changes which
they have suffered, and is in a high degree conducive to their
happiness and to the enjoyment of a great portion of freedom
and independence.'
This passage does not define, or even describe what the
village is: it states certain characteristics, and there is, of
course, a considerable amount of truth in it. But it should
be remembered that there is quite another side to the same
picture, or rather it should be said that the delineation is
only true under certain conditions. The circumstances
of the country necessitate the aggregation of cultivation
in groups, and often encourage the fixing of a central and
even defensible site for residence. But as to 'little re-
publics,'— in a large number of villages, in most provinces,
and at one time or another, individual headmen and farmers
172 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
of the revenue have ruled with almost undisputed power l.
As to the villages being unchangeable, their constitution
and form has shown a progressive tendency to decay, and
if it had not been for modern land-revenue systems trying
to keep it together, it may well be doubted whether it
would have survived at all. No doubt there are cases
in which villages have been re-established by the de-
scendants of a former body driven out by disaster ; cases
have been recorded, for instance, in Central India, where
certain families who have held particular lands in virtue
of hereditary office, and being strongly attached to the
dignities therewith associated, have had a strong motive
to return, as well as, in the sentiment of the people, a
strong claim to do so ; but the invitation of the ruler
has much to do with the return : he desires to re-establish
deserted estates for the sake of his revenue ; and old land-
holders are the best ; while an old headman family has an
obvious capacity for inducing cultivators to restore the
village 2. When villages are refounded, it is however j ust
as often by totally different people.
And let us take another feature in the account quoted.
Mughals and Sikhs, we are told, are masters in turn, but the
village remains the same. Does it 1 The village changes
as much as, in the nature of things, a group of lands or
an aggregate of houses, can change. Let us picture to
ourselves an easily recognizable case. At first the village
was a settlement founded in the virgin waste. Here a
leader or headman started and directed the cultivation ; each
cultivator brought his own plough and oxen, and felt that
the plot he cleared would be his own ; he had no connection
with other holdings save that he obeyed the common
headman, availed himself of the village artisan's services,
and had to share his grain-heap with them and with
1 See for example Mr. (now Sir which broke up the village, the de-
C.) Crosthwaite's remarks on certain struction was not complete, but a
villages in the Settlement Report of the nucleus was left behind. John Law-
Etdwd district (chapter on North- rence, when Collector of the Sirsa
West Provinces Tenures). district, noted villages there as ex-
2 And it is sometimes the case hibiting this characteristic,
that when the disaster occurred
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TEXURE. 173
the Raja, and had to unite with his fellows whenever
common defence was necessary. Then let us suppose the
Raja's cousin receives a grant of the village and becomes
landlord, taking most of the waste to himself; as his
family multiplies, they form a joint body and soon get
the lion's share of the land, the old 'clearers' becoming
tenants. Next, the landlord family quarrel, or otherwise
determine to divide the land ; in this state the village will
be called in the revenue books a pattiddri village. Next,
the proprietors get into debt, and sell their shares.
Strangers thus get in, and a new order of things com-
mences ; for the purchasers are very likely of a non-
agricultural caste and must employ tenants : some perhaps
prefer the old landowners, others take new men who offer
better terms. The remnants of both the older family groups
run a good chance of going to the wall altogether. Lastly,
the body comes under early English revenue-management,
before it had become adapted to the true requirements of
the case ; the village once more changes hands. It is now
sold for arrears of revenue, and passes with a clear title
into the hands of an auction-purchaser, or falls under the
tender mercies of a revenue-farmer who drives half the
already heterogeneous population out, to make room for
good Kurmi, or Saini, or Arain cultivators (according to
the province we are thinking of), in order that he may
clear off the balance and fulfil his object of making a profit
for himself. And this is the village that never changes
while dynasties tumble down, &c. !
Of course there is a true side to the picture ; for all
these changes do not alter the facts of situation: the
methods of cultivation are the same, the fields remain-
ed superest ager ; the customs of ploughing and of resting,
the dealings with the money-lender, the daily gossip of the
women drawing water at the well, or sitting over their
cotton spinning ; these and all other features of village life
remote from the rumours of the world, will continue, no
matter who is managing the estate. But we must not
attempt to make a general picture of the ' Indian village '
I 74 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
\yy either taking a partial and one-sided view of things,
or by throwing together a variety of dissimilar facts till we
get a sort of undistinguishable mixture of them all. Still
less must we make a hasty generalization from a few im-
perfectly understood facts, and complacently adapt them to
the latest theory (however admissible in itself) of ancient
institutions or the development of ideas of property.
There are distinct varieties of villages in the different
countries of India, and they are none of them (that I know
of) at all like the Russian mir, or the Sclavonian house-
community or the Swiss allmend or common holding, in
the concrete. They have, or had, some features l which
can be traced back, in all probability, to those elements in
early tribal life which are common to all races. But the
identity of some forms of Indian village with the ' Mark ' or
the tribal holdings in Ireland, is only 'identity' in the
sense in which the German, Greek, Lithuanian and Latin
tongues could be called ' identical ' with Sanskrit or Zand.
§ 51. Features of the Joint Village misapplied.
One more instance must be given of the ' generalized '
method of disposing of the features of Indian villages.
This will now be intelligible, because I have explained
the revenue terms applied to the landlord village of
Northern India and the Panjab — indicating that the village
is enjoyed jointly, or has been wholly or partially divided
for separate enjoyment. It is an extract from a valuable
1 And I desire not to underrate Mr. F. Seebohm's English Village Com-
these facts. In the frontier districts munity (London, 1884, 3rd ed. ).
of the Panjab, when the conquering Some of the village customs of
tribes allotted the country into measuring and dividing land, the
' ilaqas,' and then into villages, ' bulks,' the ' shots,' the ' lynches,'
Kandis, &c. , we have many features the holdings made up of scattered
which recall the ' mark ' or the strips (though the reason is not
Anglo-Saxon 'vill': and the reader the same), pp. 7, 113, the 'loenland'-
of Mr. Joshua Williams' Lectures on as compared with the Raja's or
Rights of Common (London, 1880), chiefs grant (p. 169), — these and
especially lectures 4, 5, and 6, might many others suggest interesting
think he was reading a North Panj- points of comparison,
ab Settlement Report ; and so with
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 175
standard text- book known to all Indian lawyers as Mayne's
Hindu Law and Usage.
Thus Mr. Mayne writes l : —
' The village system . . . presents three marked phases, which
exactly correspond to the changes in an undivided family.
The closest form of union is that which is known as the
" Communal Zaminddri village." Under this system " the land
is so held that all the village co-sharers have each their propor-
tionate share in it as common property without any possession
of or title to distinct portions of it ; and the measure of each
proprietor's interest is his share as fixed by the customary law
of inheritance. The rents paid by the cultivators are thrown
into a common stock with all other profits from the village
lands, and after deduction of the expenses, the balance is
divided among the proprietors according to their shares."
(Quoted from Boulnois and Kattigan's Punjab Customs, 1876.)
This corresponds to the undivided family in its purest state.
The second stage is called the pattiddri village. In it the
holdings are all in severalty, and each sharer manages his own
portion of land. But the extent of the share is determined by
ancestral right, and is capable of being modified from time to
time upon this principle.'
The third and final stage is known as the bhdidchdrd village.
It agrees with the pattiddri form inasmuch as each owner holds
his share in severalty. But it differs from it inasmuch as the
extent of the holding is strictly defined [not at all strictly, very
often there is a strong trace of the ancestral scheme besides] by
the amount actually held in possession.'
This again reads convincingly ; but if we hold the writer
to the strict sense of the vernacular terms used, it would
not be far wrong if we were to say that the real process of
change or development is almost exactly the reverse of that
described. If we look to the order of village development
1 Hindu Law and Usage (Higgin- lord and from him a joint- body of
botham, Madras) 4th ed. § 200. descendants, is found, and if allow-
Of course the whole extract would ance is made for a very inaccurate
lose some of its general inapplica- (but perhaps popularized) use of
bility if by ' the village system ' we the terms pattiddri and bhdidchdrd ;
understand, the particular form of but the author suggests no such
village in which first a single land- restriction.
1 76 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
on the basis of such evidence as actually exists, we find a
large number in which an allotment (liable, in certain
places, to be periodically revised) was made from the very
first ; not necessarily on the principle of ancestral shares, but
sometimes on this plan, sometimes on one totally distinct,
according to tribal sentiment. We also find other villages
over which we may suppose one chief or head of a family
originally ruled, and his family at some very remote period
divided it on ancestral shares.
It is quite an unnecessary abuse of terms to represent
the ' bhaiachara ' as a stage beyond ' pattidari.' As far as
' bhaidchdra ' is (incorrectly) used to indicate villages
where the shares have been lost, it is a matter of taste
whether we call it a ' stage ' of any process whatever. To
my mind the pattidari is just as complete an individual-
ization of holding as that which is maintained when the
theory which governed the extent of the separate lot is
forgotten. But, considering that ' bhaiachara ' (and that
correctly) also indicates a special plan or method of division
existing alongside of the pattidari l, it is positively incorrect
to say that it is a stage beyond pattidari in a process of
change or development. Once more ; if ' bhaiachard ' is
given its widest sense, it includes many villages in which, as
far as we know, there never was any joint holding at all. In
fact, if we put aside the special case of the Panjab frontier
and other immigrant tribal family settlements, it would be
quite as correct (for a general paragraph) to say, that the
first stage is when a number of colonists settle together,
each working at his own holding and claiming it in severalty,
the only bond of union being that of locality and a common
government ; that in the next stage a landlord arises — not
merely a distant ruler, but — a claimant to the actual vil-
lage acres, and that he is succeeded by a body of descendants
who jointly enjoy the estate for a time ; that they then
divide almost always on ancestral shares ; and that, lastly,
the strict shares are lost or modified by circumstances.
1 And the co-existence of these value and interest, and one not to
diverse methods of allotment arid be obscured or left out of count,
several enjoyment, is of exceeding
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 177
And it would be proper to add, that in many cases
villages are known where, though the feeling of joint right
to an entire area was strongly recognized, some special
method of equal allotment was always and from the first
practised, while a portion of the area might or might not
remain undivided, either for common grazing, or to support
a tenantry, or from some other motive.
§ 52. Forms of Village in the different Provinces.
It will probably be of use to the student if I now give
a list of the provinces treated of in this book, and state
briefly and in abstract, what sort of ' village ' is (chiefly)
to be found in each.
BENGAL. In what is called ' Bengal proper,' the village
tenure is of comparatively little importance : it has become
overshadowed by the tenure of great landlords. In the
Bihar districts, however, there are clearer traces of villages
— of the landlord type — and the headmen have often be-
come petty ' Zamlndars.' In East Bengal there are peculiar
tenures, the result of settlements in the jungle ; and there
are special survivals of peculiar villages in the Santal
parganas, Chutiya Nagpur, &c. Shifting cultivation in
the hill tracts is also common.
ASSAM. In the Sylhet and Cachar districts there are
some peculiar tenures. In the Assam valley the villages
are peculiar and not of the landlord type, but practically
raiyativdri. There is much ' Jum ' or shifting cultivation
in the hills of Central, Northern, and Southern Assam.
NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. Mostly joint villages ; many
formed by families of revenue-farmers, &c., who acquired
the landlord right at the beginning of the century. Many
were really raiyatwdri villages, but have become ' bhai-
achara ' under our system.
OUDH. Many villages of the old (raiyativdri] type ; in
many, landlord claims have grown up by the grant of
Rajas, or by the dismemberment of old estates of chiefs, &c.
VOL. i. N
1 78 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
But over all, the Taluqdar landlords have grown up : and
they have reduced the villages to a subordinate position.
THE PANJAB. In the Frontier districts strong landlord
villages of immigrant conquering tribes. In the Central
districts, landlord villages, some of immigrant tribes, some
of associated bodies of settlers, some resulting from the
multiplication of families of single or associated adventurers.
In the hill districts real villages do not exist, and so in
the Southern River districts ; the now recognized village
forms are there the result of Settlement arrangements.
AJMER. Joint villages, the result of our Settlement.
Originally the old Hindu organization was complete.
THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. The villages would be, as
a rule, of the raiyatwdri type, but Government conferred a
landlord right on heads of villages, so that their descendants
form landlord communities, but with rights much limited
by legal reservation of rights to the old cultivators.
A considerable area is held by larger estate holders,
who are the surviving representatives of the old Gond
chiefs of the Dravidian-Hindu era.
BOMBAY. Mostly raiyatwdri villages : — a few survivals
of landlord (shared) villages in Guzarat. In the coast
(Konkan) districts a peculiar landlord tenure of ' Khots '
over groups of villages, will be found.
MADRAS. Mostly raiyatwdri villages. Traces of land-
lord villages (mirasi), now only surviving in a few special
privileges or adaptations under the Raiyatwarf Settlement
system. In Malabar and South Kanara no villages properly
so called, and special tenures. So in the Wainad division
of Malabar, and in the Nilgin hills.
COOEG. No villages properly so called, special tenures.
BURMA. Villages raiyatwdri in principle, but of a
special type.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUKE. I 79
SECTION III. LAND-TENURES ARISING OUT OF OFFICIAL
POSITIONS OR LAND-REVENUE ARRANGEMENTS AND
STATE GRANTS OF THE REVENUE.
§ i . Early organization of territory for Revenue purposes.
When the earliest regular kingdoms that we have any
evidence of, were established — whether Dravidian, or Aryan,
or of other immigrant tribes — there was always some organ-
ization of the territory, which was especially adopted with
a view to ensuring the realization of the revenue. And
under every form of government with which we are ac-
quainted, a revenue from land was the chief thing.
The village grouping of cultivators or colonizers, which
we have just considered in detail, being the feature of the
agricultural constitution of society, naturally we find a
State-recognized headman in each village aided by an
accountant ; not unnaturally too, we find the village go-
vernment repeated in form but over a wider area, till we
come to the governor or chief-regnant himself. First above
the headman of a single village, we find an officer over a
small group of villages, called a naik or nayak : this prob-
ably descended to the Muhammadan government as the
' tappa.' A larger group (Col. Sykes speaks of its contain-
ing eighty-four villages J) was the charge of a ' desmukh.'
This also was adopted by the Muhammadans, and the
territorial division is still well known under the familiar
revenue name of ' pargana ' (pergunnah) 2, or taluka. Over
1 In his paper above quoted. cording to their size) of tribes. A
Traces of ' Chaurassis,' or groups long account of Chaurassis will be
of eighty-four villages are found in found in Beanies' Elliott's Glossary,
various parts, also of ' bealisi ' and s. v. Chaurassi.
' chaubisi ' ( forty-two and twenty- 2 The pargana is in Upper India
one, the half and quarter charge re- almost everywhere preserved. It
spectively). These may have been is too small for our administrative
the extent of major and minor system and has therefore given
chiefs' estates, or the jurisdiction way to the ' tahsil ' — a subdivision
of officers. I have seen sug- of a district. The ta'lluqa (or in
gestions however that they may Hindi form Taluka) division is still
represent the areas conquered or in use in Bombay and Madras,
occupied by clans and sections (ac-
N 2
1 80 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
this area there was necessarily also an accountant called ' deV
pandya.' The still larger, or what we should call ' district'
charge, was not so permanent, nor has it survived so well.
Our predecessors do not seem to have very much cared for
a charge intermediate between the small pargana and the
province of the Governor. But in some places, and at some
time or other, there certainly existed such charges ; and the
title ' Sirdesmukh ' implies a supervision of several des-
muJchs or pargana officers. This administrative organization
is more fully described in the next chapter ; I only state
here what is necessary with a view to our immediate
purpose.
§ 2. The ' Watan ' lands.
One of the most ancient tenures, directly arising out of
this series of official grades, is the service-tenure, called
' Watan ' in Central India. From the fact of its localization
in the very home of the old Dravidian (Gond, &c.) king-
doms, I am inclined to suggest that it is a direct survival
of that system, and is therefore of great interest.
The Dravidian scheme of revenue seems to have in-
cluded (if it did not originally confine itself to) the plan of
making allotments of land as royal farms, for the payment of
officers, and even for the more petty remuneration of village
artisans, and for the priests. The produce of these lands
went wholly to the king or the official as the case might
be ; while special arrangements were often made for their
cultivation. I am not aware that any local name for this
tenure has survived, a fact which points to a remote
antiquity, and perhaps to some degree of localization. The
name ' watan,' now applied to it, is Arabic, and is trace-
able to the Muhammadan kings of the Dakhan, before their
overthrow by the Mughal empire of Delhi. We know that
these kings were wisely careful of indigenous institutions,
and they evidently preserved the ' ex-officio ' holding and
gave it a name. It comprised not only the holding
of lands, but also a right to the ' man pan,' i. e. various
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE.
ISI
dignities, and precedence 1 on official or public occasions.
In Central India, where this institution has long survived,
the dignity of Patel (headman), or of Pandya (accountant)
with the 'watan' attached, is such, or perhaps the security
of the tenure is regarded as so complete, that rights in the
form of ' watan ' are eagerly sought after, and what is more,
the pettiest ' watan ' originally attached to some menial
office is bought up and held by great men 2.
The watan, besides being heritable, is also saleable;
moreover, as the whole family of the hereditary officer
succeeds jointly, all hold it and may afterwards divide it.
We may find traces of the ' watan/ or something analo-
gous to it, elsewhere ; but I must not give more space to a
tenure which is now extremely localized in Nimar, Central
India and parts of Bombay 3.
1 Such as the Patel being entitled
to walk first on certain ceremonial
occasions ; being the first to throw
the sacred cake into the fire at the
Huli festival ; having the right to
have his cow's horns first gilded on
a certain festival, and so forth.
Col. Sykes gives a most curious
account of these as they appeared
on the occasion of a settlement (by
a ' panch ' or arbitrator) of a dis-
pute regarding a Bombay ' patelgi '
or headmanship, in which certain
shares had been sold, so that not
only the land of the watan had to
be divided between the claimants,
but also the different ' precedences '
and dignities. It was settled by
allowing one claimant to be first
in a certain number of ceremonial
occasions, and the other at a number
of others; the 'panch' trying to
make the list of ' occasions ' as de-
sirable to each as possible, so that
the rank might be equal. I have
unfortunately mislaid my reference.
The paper I allude to is in the
Asiatic Soc. Journal, but later than
vol. ii.
a In the Berdr Gazetteer Mr.
(now Sir A.) Lyall notices how in
Western Central India the ' watan '
is more prized than anything else.
Berar is a purely Dravidian country
— part of the ancient Gondwana.
Speaking of the Sindkher chief (in
the south-west corner of Berar), he
tells us that the family had held
large jagir estates in the sixteenth
century. In Upper India he would
on this basis have developed to a
great ' zamindar ' or ' taluqdar ' ; but
in the Dakhan he was content to
be the 'de?-mukh' of a dozen par-
ganas, the ' patel ' of fifty villages,
and in his own town of Sindkher the
pluralist holder of all the grants
attached to menial services —wash-
ing, shaving, sweeping. &c. The
family had let go its jagirs, yet had
seized every sort of ' watan ' on
which it could lay hands (p. 101 ).
Sir J. Malcolm (ii. p. 16) writes :
' The rights of the native heredi-
tary officers of a village are much
respected in Central India ; and
never did a country afford such
proofs of the imperishable nature
of this admirable institution. After
the Pindari war every encourage-
ment was held out for the inhabit-
ants to return. ... In several dis-
tricts, particularly those near the
Narbada, many of the villages had
been waste for more than thirty
years. . . . Infant Potails (Patel i
the second and third in descent
from the emigrator, were in many
cases carried at the head of their
parties.'
3 In the Central Provinces we do
not find it till we come to Nimar,
1 82 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 3. General tendency of Hindu system.
I am not aware that we can fairly attribute any other
existing tenures to the Hindu State organization, or to the
development of the position of its land officers, so long as
the system remained in its pristine vigour. Indeed, in
some parts, as in the Native States of Rajputana and in
the Hill States of the Himalaya, the old organization sur-
vives to this day, and though the present Rajas and subor-
dinate chiefs, called Rana, Thakur, &c., claim to be the
owners of the soil, this is a much later claim, which all
the more recent Oriental governments put forward. Even
this is perhaps more a theoretical than a practical claim ;
except in so far as it results in the State owning (and
drawing profit from) all waste land not held or cultivated
by any one, and securing a certain fee on the rare occasions
of a transfer of land. Otherwise there has been no great
tendency to modify the tenures. The traveller in the hills
can still see the villagers paying revenue in an actual grain-
share, and notice in the larger villages the Raja's ' kothi,' a
great square building which forms a local head -quarters.
Here the grain from the neighbourhood is stored, and here
too (when needed) the ' kardar ' or other local official holds
a rude kind of court for disposal of public business.
The introduction of Hindu officials when they came as
foreigners, in some of the Chutiya Nagpur States and in
Orissa, produced some confusion, and originated landlord
tenures in the end ; but it would be hardly correct to refer
to these cases as directly illustrating tenures arising out
of revenue administrative arrangements.
§ 4. The Muhammadan Empire. — At first changes are
slight.
The first influence on tenures caused by the accession to
power of the Mughals, was by their reducing or conquering
which had been under the Mu- that the Marathas destroyed it in
hammadan rule. May it have been Nagpur ?
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 183
the Rajas of the small states which then were the great
feature of the country. As we shall state presently, the
treatment of these States was a noteworthy feature in the
Mughal rule. They conquered the Rajas, but only took
from them the land-revenue, leaving the local taxes, and
customs duties, and the administration of justice, as they
were before — these latter being the very attributes of
sovereignty which a modern government would have
thought it its first duty to undertake and regulate.
But in fact the Mughals closely conformed to the old
Hindu system. Their own ideas of right over conquered
peoples, and of taking ' Khiraj ' or tribute and capitation
tax from them, were modified, or perhaps naturally fell
in with the system of the land- re venue payment already
in force 1. Names were changed, but the administrative
divisions of the country, and the official charges, were vir-
tually retained.
§ 5. Changes begin with the decay of the Empire.
Except then for the change that was inaugurated (and
that without intention or foreseeing the result) by reducing
the Rajas, the influence of the Muhammadan rule on tenures,
may be said to have been chiefly felt in the changes that
occurred in revenue-management, when the empire fell into
decay. Perhaps I ought not to say this without remem-
bering also the influence of the change made when a money-
revenue was substituted for a grain-share ; and that was not
in the decline of Empire, but when it was at its best. During
the latter half of the sixteenth century, the Emperor Akbar
made a revenue-settlement, under which (at first optionally)
a money-payment was substituted for the grain-share. No
doubt this was the beginning of a great change ; still it was
one which only indirectly affected land-tenures. It pre-
1 The 'Khiraj' (vide chapter on or other of the Mughal emperors
the Land-Revenue System) naturally in a fit of zeal, attempted to impose
became the land-revenue. As to the it on the Hindus, and were much
' jaziya ' or capitation tax, we only hated in consequence,
occasionally hear of it, when one
1 84 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
pared the way for what followed, and for gradual changes
in the relation of landlord and tenant, and many other
modern features of land-tenure. The land-tenures were really
directly affected when the Mughal government began to
decline. Then it was that viceroys like those of Oudh,
Bengal, and the Dakhan (Hyderabad) threw off their alle-
giance and became independent kings. Then too it was that
the extravagant claims of the ruler to be universal owner
of land were first heard.
The independent kingdoms did not have a very prosperous
course. Before long, decay and corruption began to invade
every department of the State. Under such a state of
things honesty was hardly to be looked for in the local
revenue collectors ; and the land-revenue fell off. No doubt
the Central government — as from time to time it fell into
the hands of a more vigorous ruler — made desperate efforts
to reassert a proper control over the district collectors, but
in vain. The device, to save trouble and secure at least
a certain revenue, was to employ local agents over greater
or less areas of country, and to contract for the revenues of
those areas. At first such agents were carefully appointed,
and with much form ; lists were made out of the villages in
their charge ; and they were bound to account for all they
collected ; except that they were allowed certain lands
revenue-free, certain items might be deducted for special
charges (as office expenses, alms, and police), and a certain
share, usually one-tenth of the total revenue, as their own
remuneration — denominated nankar, that whereby they
made (kar) their bread (nan).
But as time went on, these agents were less and less con-
trolled ; and they soon became mere contractors for fixed
total sums ; and the local officers had no power whatever
over them, and finally disappeared before them. No one
in fact knew (or cared) what was actually wrung out of the
villages, so long as the contract sum was paid into the
treasury. Nor was this sum a fixed one. Whether or not
the strict ideal of Hindu or Muhammadan law was that the
Revenue Settlement, once made, ought to be unalterable, it
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 185
is quite certain that in practice it never was so ; but instead
of a careful re-survey of extended cultivation and a re-
valuation of lands, the rough expedient was adopted of
adding ' cesses ' (abwab) to the sum demanded from the
agents, and so raising the total. These cesses were called by
various names indicating the pretext under which they
were levied l. The agents of course had in their turn, to
make good the additional demand from the villages, and
took the opportunity of adding a number of further cesses
for their private benefit, on the strength of the example
thus set them.
It should not be supposed, however, that this system of
farming the land-revenue was altogether, or in all cases,
due to the decay of the Government system. There is
one important fact to be considered. The Muhammadan
government succeeded by conquest to a number of Hindu
states, such as I have described, where Rajas and minor
chiefs already were receiving the revenue (grain-share)
and governing the country. These Rajas in some cases
had been slain in battle ; in others had fled to the hills
and there established new estates in the comparative
safety of the distant and unoccupied country. In other
cases their domains broke up, and the members of the
ruling families seized on particular villages and became
landlords, submitting to pay revenue to the Muhammadan
treasury. But a number of the old chiefs, in certain
provinces at any rate, though not able to hold their
own, were quite strong enough to give trouble, and to
reappear and head a rebellion on the appearance of the least
opportunity. Hence it was matter of policy to conciliate
them by giving titles, &c., and still more by leaving them
in all their dignity, and with the power of administering
justice locally, provided they would consent to pass on a
large share of the land-revenue they collected, to the Imperial
treasury. Such local magnates were well acquainted with
the resources of the country, and had often a strong quasi-
feudal hold on the people. True they would not like
1 For details the chapter on Bengal tenures must be referred to.
1 86 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
parting with so much revenue ; but provided the Imperial
treasury only demanded a fixed sum, they could soon find
means to make the villages pay more — in the process, be it
observed, drawing nearer to the land, and becoming more
and more like real landlords, more in actual managing
contact with the villages.
The change from revenue-manager to landlord was ac-
complished in about a century or rather more ; and it soon
came to be as noticeable in the case of the former officials,
and speculators who were allowed in many cases to con-
tract for the revenue, as it was in the case of the old Rajas
or chiefs.
§ 6. Extent of the Revenue-farming system.
The system we are speaking of was rampant in Bengal,
and was adopted in the northern districts of Madras ; it also
extended to Oudh, which had been what I may call a strong-
hold of the Hindu State organization ; it was very common
in the North -West Provinces, though subsequent historical
circumstances prevented its final development in these dis-
tricts. It never extended to South or Central Madras
(where the Muhammadan rule was never fairly established),
nor to the Dakhan and Bombay, because there the Muham-
madan kings never adopted it ; and though their rule was
overthrown in the end, by the Delhi emperors, the latter
were in turn overthrown by the Marathas before their influ-
ence was much felt. As to the Marathas themselves, their
revenue ideal never encouraged farming at all, if it could be
helped ; and only ex necessitate the governors farmed single
villages or small groups of land, as in the Nagpur State.
It never extended to the Panjab, because the Mughal rule
passed away from that province before its ultimate decline ;
and local circumstances never would have favoured the
system.
§ 7. The Zaminddr in Bengal.
It is perhaps an important coincidence that the system
of revenue-contracting by Rajas or others, who alike
CHAP, iv.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 187
received the name of ' Zamfndar Y should have been speci-
ally developed in Bengal, the very province where our own
revenue experience was to be gained, and where our first
lessons had to be learned.
In Bengal the farm-system seems to have been like a
plant which, originally introduced for some special purpose,
has taken root, and can never afterwards be got rid of, —
overrunning everything else. By the year 1765 the
system had so far borne fruit that the Zamindars had
really become very like landlords. It is to be remembered
that Lord Cornwallis, no less than the preceding adminis-
trators of the first twenty years of British rule, had come
to India with no other id^a of land-holding but that of
' landlord and tenant,' as they had known it at home. Even
if the Zamindars had been less like landlords than they
really were, it was almost inevitable that a system should
have shaped itself in the minds of our legislators, by
which some one person would be recognized as landlord.
So strong was the effect of prevalent ideas, that years
afterwards, when the tenures of village bodies in the
North -West Provinces, and their peculiar constitution,
were discovered, our public officers could with difficulty
realize this state of things ; and they kept on writing as
if some one person in the village must be the proprietor.
It is easy for us, who have now been made familiar with
early tenures, primitive institutions and ideas of property,
and the like, to form hasty judgments of Lord Cornwallis's
measures. But such knowledge did not exist in his days ;
and if it had, I must repeat that the Zaminddrs1 groivth
had in the course of events, and in fact, gone too far to
1 The term ' Zamindar ' means or symmetry. Hence the word
simply ' holder ' (dar) of ' land ' has got to apply to a number of
(zamin), and in its primary and different things. No doubt a large
generalized meaning indicates any- number of the local meanings in-
one who holds land — a member of elude some idea of a managing or
the cultivating or landowning class landlord control over land ; but
at large. But as applied officially that is all that can be said. I
by the Muhammadan rulers, it was have endeavoured to simplify mat-
essentially a vague term and prob- ters a little, by always writing the
ably was meant to be so. Oriental capital Z when I refer to a ' Zamin-
governments rarely define rights, dar ' in the Bengal sense,
and care nothing for consistency
1 88 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
make any plan which ignored their rights, feasible. For,
on various grounds, the Zamfndars had been distrusted,
and repeated efforts had been made to get rid of them, and
such efforts invariably failed. Exactly the same thing
happened in Oudh. The king had made many of the old
Rajas (and some others) into revenue-agents, under the
local name of ' Taluqdar.' When (more than sixty years
after the Bengal Settlement) our administrators tried to
deal with the villages direct, and ignore the Taluqdars,
they found it could not be done1. The events of the
Mutiny compelled the acknowledgment of the Taluqdars
as owners.
Thus the Mughal revenue-system is the direct cause of
the (unforeseen) growth of the Zamindar landlord of
Bengal and the Taluqdar landlord of Oudh. Indirectly,
also, it has resulted in all those special tenures under the
landlords, which have been recognized in both provinces,
with a view of doing justice to all parties. And this is not
the only result ; for all the long controversy about land-
lords' rights and tenants' rights, which have so long
engaged attention in Bengal and elsewhere, have really
originated in the same causes 2.
1 These facts should be borne in instantaneous change ; it merely
mind when reading such general fixed and defined a change which
criticisms as those of M. de Lave- had been gradually brought about
leye, where he says (p. 117) ' L'here- during more than a century. What
dite de la terre fut etablie en faveur it did do was suddenly to render
des Zamindars et des Taluqdars par possible all sorts of difficult ques-
les Anglais : et cet article de loi opera tioiis about tenant right under the
ainsi instantanement une trans- Zamindar, which could only come
formation dans 1'ordre social que to notice when rights received a
ne s'est accomplie en Europe que sharp legal definition,
par une evolution lente de plusieurs 2 In the North- West Provinces
siecles.' Without being hyper- when persons were found in the
critical, it may be pointed out that position of Zamindars or Taluq-
the law by which the Zamindar dars over a number of villages,
was recognized in the legal position they were, if their claims could not
of landlord, was made in 1793, and be got over, settled with but subject
that by which the Taluqdars were to the temporary settlement and
recognized was some sixty-five years tenant laws. But the policy was to
later ( 1 858 "> , under a totally different set them aside wherever possible and
state of things — at a time when deal direct with the village bodies,
the Government policy was dead Many Taluqdari claims were got
against landlords, — and was forced rid of (some writers maintain, with
on them by the stern logic of facts. considerable injustice) by granting
The law in either case effected no a cash allowance of ten per cent, on
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 189
§ 8. Revenue-free Grants and Assignments.
Whether the Muhammadan government consciously
imitated the Hindu system of appointing certain chiefs
to manage special territories — especially frontier and
mountain- tracts — I cannot determine ; but at a very early
stage they adopted the plan of granting to court-favourites,
to ministers of state, and to military officers, the right
to collect the revenue of a certain area of country, and
to take the amount collected, either to support their
state and dignity, or — in the case of military chiefs — to
equip a body of troops, to be available for the royal
service.
The Mughal empire recognized a definite portion of its
dominions as that which was directly managed by the
emperor's officers, and another area as that available for the
assignment of the revenue spoken of. And when certain
offices or titles were conferred, a fixed grant went with them
as an appanage. Such grants were called 'jagir1.' They
were at first always for life, and resumable with the office.
Nearly all later governments have adopted the 'jagir,' but
chiefly to support troops, or to reward a service of some
kind. They are still granted by our own Government, but
as a reward for services in the past, and not with the
obligation of military service. In time it was thought
below the dignity of the ruler to resume, and so the grant
became permanent and hereditary. Possibly this stage
was hastened by the fact that the governments — both
Hindu and Muhammadan — had always been accustomed
to grant smaller holdings of land, free of revenue, to pious
the revenue. No doubt the policy the districts of the North- West
of the day had much to do with Provinces (Benares Division) had
making Settlement officers keen to been permanently settled under
detect the survival of right in the Bengal law : and here there
the village bodies ; but apart from are Zamindari estates, but with
that, the villages were universally rights of the lower grades fully
stronger and better preserved than recorded and protected by the Tenant
those of Bengal : and consequently law.
Zamindars and Taluqdars were ' Contracted from ' jiii-gir ' = place
much less firmly rooted. Some of holding.
1 90 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
persons, to support temples, mosques, schools, or bridges
and tanks, and these were called ' 'mam/ or ' mua'fi,' and
were usually hereditary and permanent (as long as the
object was fulfilled). As the 'inam was permanent, so the
jdgir grew to be in many cases. Possibly, also, it was the
decline of power which caused jagirs to be irregularly
granted, and thus to become permanent. When a dis-
organized government desires to reward a worthy servant
(or an unworthy), it generally has its treasury empty, and
the easiest plan (though true policy would suggest a cash
pension for life or lives) would be to give a man a grant by
way of assignment, and allow him to collect what revenue
he could off the area.
A great number of assignments of revenue in this way
grew into landlord-tenures, very much as the 'Zammddri'
estates did. This was much facilitated by the fact that the
grantee was allowed, and indeed expected, in many cases,
to conduct the revenue-administration in his own way,
and of course he had (or assumed) the full right to all
unoccupied or waste land in the jdgir, and had many oppor-
tunities of ousting refractory land-holders — buying up
their lands, taking them as security for arrears of revenue,
and so forth. ' Jagirs ' were sometimes granted with the
express object of the grantee settling the waste ; and then,
naturally, he would be looked on as the landlord of the
whole.
§ 9. Ghdtwdl.
I can hardly exclude from notice here, the tenures
which arise in some parts of India, where officers or chiefs
were granted the revenues of certain hill-districts com-
manding the passes into the plains, on condition of
' keeping the marches,' repressing robbers, &c. The ghat-
wali tenures, arising from arrangements of this kind, will
be found described under the head of Bengal tenures.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 1 9 1
§ 10. G'irdsiya (Gmssiah).
I should also mention under this head, a curious tenure1
of Central India, which arose on the overthrow and disper-
sion of the Rajput local chiefs by the Muhammadan and
by the Maratha powers. Deprived of their regular estates,
these persons prowled about with small bands of followers
and harassed the villagers. In time, the village bodies or
the Government officers were glad to purchase immunity
from attack, by agreeing to pay over to the chiefs a certain
fraction of the revenue, called ' giras ' (lit. a mouthful),
which was regularly entered in the revenue accounts. In
some cases this was commuted for a small grant of land ;
and we find ' grassia ' tenures recognized in some places,
and still surviving. It is analogous to the ' chaharam '
right acquired by the Sikh adventurers in the Ambala
district of the Panjab.
SECTION IV. THE MODIFICATION OF TENURES BY THE
SUPEEIMPOSITION OF NEW INTERESTS IN THE SOIL BY
CONQUEST, &C.
§ i. View of the Subject.
It is a noteworthy feature of most Indian provinces that
they have been the theatre of repeated tribal immigrations,
and of military conquests in later times; besides undergoing
a great many minor changes in the case of petty states
breaking up, and changing hands, and particular indivi-
duals rising to local power. The course of history is like
a continually shifting panorama or procession. First, the
Aryan races overcome, or enter into relations with, Dravi-
dians and Kols that were before them. Then Scythian and
other immigrants gain the mastery, and great kingdoms
professing the Buddhist faith, for a long time prevail over
1 See Malcolm, Memoir of Central India, vol. i. p. 508 (original edition of
1824).
1 92 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. I v,
a great part of the country. The Brahmanic Hindus again
assert themselves, and the Buddhist states disappear. Then
come the Muhammadan conquests; and when a strong
Muhammadan rule was established — a system of adminis-
tration based on the old Hindu ideal — it lasted for a century,
and then began to fall into decline, after many local wars
and disruptions of territorial rule. The Marathas of West
India then rise to power, and introduce many ideas of their
own. In the north, the Sikh confederacies overthrow the
rule of Pathans from the frontier, and finally are united
under a central government, once more of the old Hindu
type, but with many of the features, and much of the
nomenclature, of the Mughal revenue-system retained.
Lastly, the British power supervenes ; and while its
appearance arrests in one direction the further change
of landed interests, and the loss of rights of all classes,
in another direction it inaugurates a new change, by its
own policy of recognizing rights in a certain category
and then more or less logically deducing consequences from
this recognition. By calling some men landlords and
others tenants, and then enacting laws on this basis, the
position and prospects of more than one class have been
affected. No one can doubt that the change by which a local
Raja became, first, an estate-agent or revenue-farmer, and
then a landlord of many acres, was great ; but it was hardly
greater than the changes which followed logically from
the simple definition by legislative enactment, of the title
of the ' Zamindar,' although the definition was undertaken
not with any intention to produce a change, but rather
with the idea of preserving rights in statu quo.
§ 2. Nature of the changes. — The Muhammadan rule.
I have already remarked on the comparatively small
ostensible changes that resulted from the Mughal empire.
It was wholly a case of creating fresh interests in the land
over the heads of the pre-existing ones. The ' Zamindar '
in Bengal and the ' Taluqdar ' in Oudh have been so much
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 193
discussed, that the consequences of their growth have
come to appear greater, and the change made by the
Muhammadan system more sweeping, than, relatively, it
really was.
§ 3. The Mardthd Conquest.
The Maratha power arose with Sivaji in the latter half
of the seventeenth century. These rulers were thrifty :
they did not make many State grants of land, but
allowed existing revenue-free lands or 'watan' holdings,
sometimes imposing a 'jodi' or quit-rent on them, which
was heavy enough. When their power was well esta-
blished, they recognized the advantage of dealing direct
with the villagers through their hereditary headmen, and
rarely employed middlemen and farmers, who, they knew,
would always manage to intercept a good part of the
receipts. No doubt, individual cultivators were ejected
and changed, but the general customs of land-holding were,
perhaps, less affected by Mardtha domination than by any
other. The truth of this is proved by the exceptions ; for
there were districts where the Marathd, rule was never
more than that of a temporary plunderer, and where it
was perpetually in contest with powerful neighbours. In
such districts it was necessary to farm the revenues of
certain villages, and then the ' malguzar ' (or the ' khot ' of
the Konkan), as is always the case, grew or worked
himself into the position of proprietor of the village,
crushing down the rights of the original landholders. There
are districts in Bombay where the ' khoti ' (landlord) tenure
is to this day a regularly recognized one, being really
nothing but a sort of managing right over certain areas,
which has now become fixed in the families of khots or
persons originally put in to farm the revenues.
Throughout the Central Provinces, where village revenue-
farmers were employed, their families grew into the pro-
prietary position, and were, whether rightly or otherwise,
ultimately recognized as proprietors of the villages at our
Revenue Settlement.
VOL. i. o
1 94 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 4. The Sikh Conquest.
The Sikh Government cared nothing for the land-tenure,
and only for its revenues. Where the village community,
so universal in the Panjab, was strong, it paid up the
demand, and its customs were intrinsicallj7 unchanged.
Nothing is commoner in Settlement Reports than to find
allusions to the confusion introduced by the grinding Sikh
rule into the land-tenures. This is true, however, rather
of the holders of the land than of tenures. No doubt, in
many districts and throughout the village estates, one man
was ousted and another put in, without any regard to
title, and only for the sake of getting the revenue, in the
most arbitrary way. Afterwards, perhaps, the old ousted
proprietors would come back, and get on to their land
again as privileged tenants, or would be allowed some
small rental or malikana in recognition of their lost
position : and thus many cases of ' sub-proprietary rights '
under a superimposed new proprietary layer, arose; but
I am not aware that any new form of land-tenure owes its
origin to the Sikh dominion — anything like the growth
of the Zamindari or Taluqdari tenure under the Mughal
system.
When the Sikh rule became centralised under Ranjit
Singh, all the smaller chiefs, as a rule, were absorbed,
and became the proprietary holders of villages merely,
or were regarded as 'jdgirdars ' (for the Sikh system
recognized the 'jagir'). Some few States survived under
the suzerainty of the Maharaja. This does not apply
to the cis-Sutlej States, where the smaller Rajas retained
their independence under British protection. At first a
number of these exercised almost sovereign powers,
but they were afterwards reduced to the condition of
jagirdars.
In the cis-Sutlej territory (Ambala district) a curious
survival from the early Sikh incursions is noticeable. A
number of the marauding clans passed over the dis-
trict, and would have succeeded in establishing either a
CHAP, iv.j GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 195
general rule or a landlord right over individual villages.
But the communities were strong ; and they often suc-
ceeded in making a bargain, giving one-fourth of the
share of the ruler to the marauders. Sometimes two or
more chiefs would contend together for a village and
obtain the ' fourth ' share between them. When the district
became British, the growth of these overlord rights, which
might in time have become proprietary, was arrested. But
the right of ' Chaharam,' or the fourth, was so well esta-
blished, that the Government recognized the families as
'jagirdars' entitled to one-fourth the revenue. The prin-
ciple of joint succession affected these tenures in the usual
way. The revenue fourth became divided among a number
of shareholders ; and Government had to make rules as
to when the share should pass to collateral heirs and
when lapse. And, apart from the joint succession, the
revenue was often shared among the members of the clan
according to their grade. Thus the original 'jagirdar' was
the leader or chief of the ' misl ' or fighting corporation ;
and every member of the misl (misldar) was entitled to
some share in the profits. In jagirdari villages, a ' sirkarda '
collects the rents or dues of the jagirdar, and distributes
them among the graduated ranks of the body, first to
the chief, and next to the ' zaildars/ or subordinate chiefs,
whose families form so many ' pattis ' receiving each the
proper fractional part of the zail share ; below them, the
' rank and file ' (the taba'dar) are entitled to some still
smaller fraction of the revenue.
§ 5. Smaller Conquests.
I have taken notice, it will be observed, only of the
main conquests marked in the history of India. Smaller
local incursions, like those of the Pindaris in Central India,
and the Rohelas (or Rohillas) in Rohilkhand. produced only
local effects, and they were chiefly destructive, either de-
populating villages or changing the owners. No doubt
as a consequence of these disasters, many villages fell into
02
196 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
the hands of capitalists and revenue-managers, who became
in time the landlords ; but such changes affected rather
the individual than the form of tenure.
§ 6. Result of the changes.
It will now, I think, be apparent, that while the customs
of village landholding were originally simple, the effect of
the different forms of rule has been partly to obliterate old
tenures and create new ones, and partly to introduce
confusion among the persons entitled to the tenure right,
by successively displacing the older proprietary bodies
and allowing later and more powerful successors to lord
it over them. In either case the result has been to leave
a series of proprietary strata, in which the upper ones
have become, de facto^ the proprietors, but the lower ones
each in his turn, have certain claims, which ought not
to be ignored. When all the facts are taken into con-
sideration, it will appear that the attempt to provide
legally for the proper position of these various shades
of proprietary right in our modern Indian law, is no
easy task.
In some cases no overlord has grown up, and we have
only the direct occupant to deal with, and the interest
he has in his own field or holding is defined by law without
much difficulty. It has been practically and simply laid
down by the Revenue Code, in Bombay ; and in British
Burma it has also received definition, though a somewhat
complicated and technical one.
It is in countries (like Bengal, Oudh, and the Central
Provinces) where we have to deal with a series of con-
current interests, that the greatest difficulty arises. And
it is easy to see that the different parties may have
preserved very different degrees of right. In some cases
the now dominant proprietor may have clearly distanced
all rivals ; the people under him have sunk, past revival,
into being tenants. But in others, the claims of the present
and former proprietor may be very evenly balanced, and
CHAP, iv.j GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUEE. 197
it may not be easy to say who is really best entitled ;
or again, granted a clear predominance of one, there still
may be so much to be said for the other, that some practical
form of recognition is equitably a necessity, though under
what name, may be doubtful.
§ 7. How the concurrent interests subsist.
It will be observed that this concurrent existence of
several interests in the soil, is rendered possible by the
fact that property or interest in land is more concerned
with the produce and with dividing it, than anything
else. Suppose, for instance, an old group of village culti-
vators with several rights : each takes the produce of
his own fields, after allowing the village menials and
officers their customary share, and after the State officer
has taken the king's share. Suppose now a chief obtains
a grant of the village or annexes it. He simply takes the
Raja's share and whatever else he can impose. His family
after him do the same. Next, the Sikh Government (let
us say) succeeds and imposes its revenue, taking a share
alike for the landlord family and the old cultivators. In
process of time the Sikh governor grants an interest
in the village to a capitalist who proposes to spend money
in irrigating the village. He takes his share theoretically
out of the State share, but as the produce is now largely
increased by the water, the actual amount taken by the
grantee is an extra. Lastly, some pious person establishes
a shrine, and the governor grants him a ' mu'af i ' of
some fractional share of the State Revenue. He then goes
to the villagers and all concerned, and arranges with them
how his share is to be collected. In the course of time
the ' mu'afidar,' if not checked, will begin to claim and
to cultivate the waste, to oust indigent or lazy villagers,
and to grow into landlord of the whole. The case just
given is a real one, observed in the neighbourhood of the
Jihlam River in the Panjab.
198 LAND SYSTEMS OF BE1TISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 8. Grades of interest in the soil under British law. —
State-Landlord tenure.
When British rule began, it was recognized alike by the
authorities on the spot and by the Home Government,
that to grant or recognize a secure title in land was the
best way to protect rights and at the same time to secure
the Government revenue. It was in pursuance of this policy
that the Bengal ' Zamindars,' of whom I have so often
spoken, were recognized as proprietors or landlords. There
was no doubt about their being distinctly in the uppermost
grade of interest ; and in the Regulations but little was
said as to what was to be the name and nature of the
rights below them,
A certain number of these rights indeed provided for
themselves. Some of the stronger holders had managed
to get from the State officers certain titles (locally known
as taluqs) which entitled them to separate themselves from
the Zamindari and become proprietors themselves : and
in our early Bengal Settlement proceedings, a considerable
number of persons succeeded in getting the Collector to
record them as 'independent' of the 'Zamindars.' But
nothing definite was settled about any other class.
§ 9. Taluqddri or Double Tenure.
In other provinces it was in many cases found to be
more questionable who (among several possible claimants)
should be deemed the ' actual proprietor,' to be recognized
as such by law, and to be responsible for the land-revenue
payment. When once the village constitution prevalent
in the North -West Provinces was understood, the policy
of Government set strongly in the direction of recognizing
the village co-sharers. As already mentioned in a note,
when some overlord appeared, if the claim was so strong
as to amount to the proprietorship, it was recognized ;
but in many cases the overlordship was held to be
CHAP, iv.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 199
sufficiently provided for by a cash allowance, and the
villagers were treated as owners, and with them the
Settlement was made. These cases are the ' double ' or
'taluqdari' tenures of the North -West Provinces reports.
The term implies that both parties have retained something
of the landlord character, and that the proprietary benefit
is divided between them. Most commonly the one gets
a cash percentage on the revenue, and the other the
management and other profits of the land. This tenure
is confined to Upper India. It must not be confused with
the tenure of the Taluqdari landlords in Oudh l. These
latter are sole landlord tenures, and the rights under them
may be, some of them, ' sub -proprietary,' as the phrase
is, or else in the form of tenant rights. The landlord is
the person with whom the Revenue Settlement is made,
and in cases where the others are protected, it is by a ' sub-
settlement ' or by record of their rights.
The Oudh Taluqdar, in fact, is a landlord very much
like the Bengal Zamindar, only that the extent of his
interest and the amount of his profits vary in different
estates, according to the greater or less degree in which the
rights of the villagers (or others) have been preserved or
have grown up ; and it might be the case that most of
the villages had strong rights, or it might be that the
villages were much broken down and had no claims to
any higher position than that of tenant, perhaps having,
occupancy rights claimable in one plot or another. In one
case the Taluqdar would be little more than the holder
of a rent charge on the estate ; in the other he would
be a nearly unfettered proprietor. As a matter of fact,
the ' sub- settlement ' villages are not numerous, but other
(lesser) rights are ; and the Taluqdar's position is something
between the two extremes.
1 Of course as regards any par- qua that village — an instance of the
ticular village which had retained taluqdari or double tenure. But I
strong rights under a Taluqdar, so am speaking of the Taluqdar's title
that the latter's interest was a mere in the abstract,
rent-charge, the tenure would be
2OO LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
§ 10. Instances from the Panjdb — The 'aid mdlik.
In the Panjab again, where the overlord's right was found
to be weak, or very ill-founded in origin, it was invariably
set aside by the grant of a percentage on the revenue, while
the villages ' hold the Settlement ' with Government direct,
only paying a somewhat higher rate to provide for the
superior's allowance. But in not a few cases— in villages
near the frontier and in the south for example— there is an
individual or a family having the superior right over the
village, which has not extinguished the right of the body
below. In such cases the one party is called the ' 'ala
malik,' and the other ' adna malik,' in revenue language.
According to circumstances, the former may have little but
a rent-charge or a share in the produce, while the other
body have the water rights, and the management, and the
waste, &c. ; or else the ' 'ala malik ' body may have the
right to the waste besides other privileges.
Again, in some villages, where the present proprietary
bodies are sufficiently well established to be the sole
holders of the Settlement, certain ancient cultivators, or
persons themselves once, in bygone times, the superiors,
may nevertheless have such claims that a tenant-right is
hardly enough for them. In that case they are called
' malik maqbuza,' i. e. sub-proprietor or ' proprietor of the
holding ' ; implying that while this class does not manage
the estate as a whole, or share in the waste or the profits,
still, as regards their individual fields or holdings, they are
proprietors ; they pay nothing but the State revenue, and of
course possess a heritable and alienable right over which the
proprietary body (of the village) have no control whatever.
In this instance we do not treat the case as one of double
tenure, though obviously it is a sort of transition between
the double tenure and the mere landlord and tenant tenure.
§ n. Meaning of 'Settlement' and 'Sub-settlement.'
The person who is the 'actual proprietor,' whether he has
or has not under him some subordinate proprietors of one
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 2OI
kind or another, is the person whom Government looks to
as responsible for the land-revenue assessed on the estate ;
because he is the person who enjoys the bulk of the profits
which remain after it is paid. So that when there was
more than one interested party, and it became a question
for decision who is the ' actual proprietor,' the decision of
that also disposed of the question, with whom shall the
Settlement be made — who shall ' hold the Settlement ' (as
the revenue phrase is).
When it was determined that a given individual or body
was to hold the Settlement and be the actual or principal
proprietor, it might be necessary to protect the rights of a
grade below, by making what is called a ' sub-settlement,'
or in the older books a ' mofussil (mufassal) settlement.'
This proceeding not only established the inferior's rights
by record, but fixed the amount he was to pay to the
superior, so that there was no question of the latter treating
him as tenant and trying to enhance the rent or eject
him.
§ 12. Grades of Proprietary Right.
We see then that, as evolved from the train of historical
circumstances, the ' right of the proprietor ' is only in some
cases a simple thing. There are in fact grades of proprietary
right, a series of persons, each with some of the character-
istics of landowner, as Western nations understand the
term. And consequent on this superposition of proprietary
interest, all proprietary tenures can be brought under one
of four classes : —
I. The Government itself may be the direct owner : as of
waste land which it does not sell out-and-out ; of a village
which has been forfeited for crime, or has lapsed for want
of heirs, &c., or has been sold for arrears of revenue and
bought in l — here the cultivators become tenants properly
so called. This latter class of estates is mostly found in
Bengal, and but rarely in Upper India, the system there
1 Land so held is said in revenue language to be held 'khas' or ' kham,'
or to be a ' khas estate.'
202 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
being unfavourable to the retention of such estates as
a rule.
Of course all public forests, large areas of available waste,
and other public property, may be brought under this class ;
but I ain speaking of cultivated and appropriated lands,
which would otherwise be in the hands of some other
owner.
II. The Government recognizes no proprietary right
between itself and the actual holder of the land (i.e. it
creates or allows no proprietary right in a village or other
larger area over the heads of the actual landholders). This
is the simple form of raiyatwari holding under the Bombay
and Madras systems, and in Burma, Assam, &c.
III. Government recognizes one grade of proprietor
between itself and the actual landholder. It settles for its
revenue with this proprietor and secures the rights of the
others.
IV. Government recognizes two grades of ' proprietor '
between the landholders and itself. This is the taluqdari
tenure1. In the Panjab and North -Western Provinces the
Settlements get rid of this where possible by dealing direct
with the villages, and granting to the person possessing the
taluqdari, or superior right, a cash allowance ; but the
tenure exists in Upper India.
§ 13. Remarks on these Classes.
The full understanding of these forms of tenure cannot
be attained till progress has been made in the study of the
local development of the system in each province ; but I
hope that what is here said will serve to introduce, as it
were, the terms which will be constantly in use in the
sequel.
The first of these proprietary tenures is only occasional,
and presents no difficulty in understanding it.
The second we shall meet with in Madras and Bombay,
where it is the natural tenure resulting from the old or non-
1 There may possibly be more cases the analogy is exactly the
than two grades : but in such (rare) same.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OP THE LAND-TENURE. 2O3
landlord village, the constitution pf which had never been
seriously interfered with by the Maratha and other con-
querors, except in some special cases, where a landlord
having grown up, a single or double proprietary tenure
arose in consequence1.
The third of the classes finds its most perfect exemplifica-
tion in the Zamindar of the Bengal permanent Settlement2,
and in the malguzar or village proprietor of the Central
Provinces, in both of which cases we find a new proprietor
— the result of the revenue system, recognized over the
original village-holding. The village communities of the
North -West Provinces and the Panjab are brought under
this class, perhaps more theoretically than practically.
Each landholder who has his share secured to him by record,
or actually divided out to him in severalty (as is so often
the case in these communities), is really owner of the share
and pays the revenue on it, as independently as does the
'registered occupant' of a separately numbered lot or holding
under the Bombay system ; but the form is not the same :
the Government does not settle with the individual sharer
for any revenue, but agrees with the whole body through
its representative, for a lump sum, and regards the whole
body jointly as proprietor. The several holders are only
bound to pay the share which custom or personal law
directs ; but that is a matter of internal concern to the
village, not to the Government. As regards Government,
and the liability for revenue, the village body is the (ideal)
proprietor intermediate between the individual landholders
or sharers and the State.
1 Wherever there is only one always instinctively think of some
class of separate field or farm one who has gained or been granted,
holders paying revenue to Govern- or has conquered or usurped the
ment direct, they are never called right over some earlier body of cul-
' landlords ' of their fields. They tivators. A ' Jumma raiyat ' of
are always spoken of as ' occupants ' Coorg would hardly be called ' land-
— or something similar — probably lord' of his fields, although his
owing to the lingering idea of Go- tenure is a favoured one, and, as
vernment being in some sense the its name implies, is his ' birth-
superior lord, and they the ' tenants' right.'
in a sense ; but probably, owing to the * And in the Zamindari portions
natural associations which cling to of Madras,
the word ' landlord ' in India ; we
204
LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
The fourth form is found in cases where the overlord's
right has not developed so far as to make him sole landlord
and all others mere tenants. In that case we have to count
both the superior and the secondary interest as terms in
the scale, so that we get (i) the taluqdar, (2) the village
proprietary body or the individual landholder ; or, in cases
where there is an ' 'ala malik,' over the village body (adna
malik), we should count up (i) the ala malik, (2) the inferior
proprietary body (as a body], (3) the individual co-sharers.
§ 14. Diagram of Proprietorship.
It will perhaps aid in fixing these facts in the memory
if I give a diagram showing the series of proprietary interests
at one glance.
Government
Between
the only
Government
One Grade.
Two Grades.
owner.
and the soil 0.
Government
No one over
One landlord over
T. An overlord — Taluq-
is itself
the actual
the soil cultiva-
dar or Raja, whose
the direct
occupant,
tor or ' tenant '
right may be repre-
owner.
who may or
occupant.
sented by a mere rent
may not be
Examples. —
charge, or may be more
Examples : —
called 'pro-
Bengal Zamindar.
considerable
Waste lands
prietor ' eo
Oudh Taluqdar
2. The landlord, indivi-
(not leased,
nomine.
(in some cases).
dual, or joint body of
&c.)
Joint body own-
village sharers.
Khas es-
Example : —
ing a village (as
3. The actual occupant
tates.
All Raiyat-
represented by their
or co-sharer in the
Escheats.
wari vil-
' lambardar').
body.
Forfeitures.
lages in
An auction pur-
Example — Taluqdari te-
/
Madras,
chaser at a sale
nures in N. W. P. and
Bombay,
for arrears of re-
Panjab only consisting
and in
venue.
in aioper cent, interest.
Burma,
All persons once
Taluqdari in Oudh,
Assam, &c.
grantees, revenue
where there is— (i'. a
farmers who have
Taluqdar ; (2) a vil-
become de facto
lage birtiya or grantee
owners and are
landlord, subordinate,
so recognized at
but protected by sub-
Settlement.
settlement ; the actual
village soil occupants.
The 'Khas'
or tenure
The Raiyat-
The'zamindari' or
The Taluqdari or double
by Govern-
wari tenure.
landlord tenure.
tenure.
ment.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 205
§ 15. Grades other than Proprietary. — Difficulty of
classing them.
I have hitherto dealt with cases where an incoming
conqueror, usurping grantee, or revenue agent, has become
the superior landlord, and where the people, who but for
him would themselves have been in the landlord or first
rank, have been reduced but still have retained rights which
in their nature are considered to be ' proprietary.'
But it is in the nature of things that the process of growth
of what I may now call the upper layer, has been more
or less complete, and may have reduced the rights below to
something so indefinite, that it is matter of great doubt how
to class or define them.
In Bengal the rights that remained after all proprietary
rights were made independent of the Zamindar, were not
recognised as sub-proprietary or by any similar term. At
the same time it is not easy to call them ' tenant-rights.'
They have been called ' tenures ' for convenience. No
attempt has been made to define what is a ' tenant ' right
and what a ' tenure ' right, though the modern tenant law
draws the distinction and allows very important privileges
to the 'tenure' over and above what it allows to the
' raiyat ' or tenant.
In other provinces, after such rights have been allowed
as are fairly called ' sub-proprietary,' or those of ' inferior
proprietor,' all others are frankly treated as tenant-right in
some grade or degree, and are protected under the law of
landlord and tenant.
Every provincial law will be found to have its own
series of tenants as defined for the purposes of the law ; each
series has certain greater and lesser privileges, as we go to
the top of the scale (where the occupancy-tenant is hardly
inferior to an owner) or to the bottom, where he is almost
(or quite) a tenant dependent on contract with a landowner,
or is a tenant of a tenant, which again is a mere matter
of contract.
206 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
We must, in short, in India, everywhere be prepared to
find ' tenants ' so called in one place who are undistinguish-
able from those recorded as ' inferior proprietors ' in another.
The want of theoretic uniformity is however of no conse-
quence, as long as practical security of enjoyment is given.
So also we must be prepared to find ' tenants ' whose posi-
tion owes absolutely nothing to any contract with the land-
lord, or owes it to such contract, solely in its present shape.
Hence the law has taken large powers to limit the landlord's
power over the tenancy.
It should also be borne in mind that, in nearly every case
(in some cases more markedly so than others), the landlord
owes his position to the grant or to the recognition and adop-
tion of the British Government. The Government in fact
virtually limited its own demands and interests, and thus
created valuable estates in land with a permanence and
security that never really existed before. Being in that
position, the Government had every right to say, ' we shall
not give all the benefit to one party ; we shall distribute
the interest in the land so that some of its value shall go
to the landlord class and some to the soil-holders, whom, for
want of a better name, we call tenants.'
The reader who is tempted to regard as very great the
privileges allowed under such law as the Central Provinces
Tenant Act (for example) should always, as a corrective,
recall to mind the fact just stated.
SECTION V. THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT.
Let us now devote a brief attention to the classes of right
which have been provided for as tenant rights or interests.
And let me once more repeat that the continual changes
that the succession of conquests and governments, and the
successive grants, usurpations, and other acquisitions of
interest they have given rise to, have left different classes of
rights in different stages of decay or preservation. The
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 207
first result is that, as already remarked, not a few of these
' tenancies ' are totally independent of any contract or grant
of the present overlord or landlord.
§ i. Cases of Natural Tenant Right.
And the commonest instances of a ' natural ' tenant right
of this kind are the following : — (i) We may be certain that
once the 'resident tenants,' whose home has been in the
village for generations, were once individual soil-owners,
perhaps first-clearers,' with the right which we have so
often alluded to as asserted by Manu. Perhaps even they
are members of a family that once flourished as village
landlords, but have fallen into poverty and decay, and been
obliged to handle the plough and accept the tenant position.
But (2) there may be resident tenants who were always
inferiors in the village, humble dependants (e.g.) of the
original founders, who were privileged as helping in the
first work of colonization ; or they may have, for many years,
been made to pay exactly as if they were owners, by the
governor of the province. In the Panjab, under Sikh
government, it was almost universally the case that the
tenants were made to bear just the same burdens as the
landlords; the governor in fact drew no distinction.
§ 2. Tenants in Bengal.
There can be no doubt that when the Zamindars were
legally recognized, and such persons as could show a right
to hold independently of the Zamindar were acknowledged,
all the other cultivators became raiyats or tenants ; and in-
evitably, in the minds of English officers, and in the law-
courts, this suggested a right to enhance the payments of
the tenants and to eject them if they would not pay.
No doubt the intention was to protect tenants, but the
framers of the law did not know how to do it: it was
thought that to prohibit the levy of extra cesses was an
effective mode of protection ; and it was supposed that, by
making it legally binding on the landlords to grant pattas
208 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
or written leases, there would be an end to uncertainty and
extortion. No doubt a few influential persons, who could
secure a fixed rent and permanent tenure, possessed such
documents : but the common tenantry refused to take leases ;
in some cases, doubtless, because they feared that, by such
acceptance, they might be held to admit an inferior position ;
but chiefly because they would bind themselves absolutely
to pay without a chance of throwing up the land in a bad
year, or to pay an amount which they knew the landlord
would enter in his own terms — and these they could neither
read nor understand. No other protection was provided:
the law was silent as to any rule or limit of enhancement ;
it defined a small class of persons whose tenure was already
known by Persian names implying fixity of possession
and a permanent rate of rent, and that was all.
But in Bengal, as elsewhere, if we regard the entire scale
of rights below the landlord, we shall find, at one end of
the series, the small class just alluded to, and at the
other end of the series, the real tenants, people who were
cultivating the landlord's private lands, or who had been
located by him on his own waste. It might be rea-
sonably said that no special protection was needed for
these : land was then abundant, and owners were only too
anxious to get and to keep tenants, at any rate those who
paid full rents l. Had any serious oppression been attempted,
tenants of this class would have resisted and gone off to
the next estate, where the owner would probably have
welcomed them. But between these first and last members
of the scale, there is the large class of permanent resident
cultivators to whom it is no light matter to break up home,
leave the acres they have held for generations and move on
to another estate. They are distinguished in our earlier
revenue books by the (Persian) term ' khud-kasht.' That
all were equal in point of right is not to be supposed, though
very many of them must have been, or have represented,
the original soil-owners — that is a matter of detail : one thing
1 It is said that, at the date of the two-thirds of Bengal was uncul-
Permanent Settlement, one-half to tivated.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 2OQ
was quite clear, — they were in possession absolutely indepen-
dently of any contract with the Zaminddr. The law could
not, however, lay down that they never were to have their
rates enhanced, though phrases verging on that may be
quoted from official opinions and minutes ; for it is to be
remembered that, even if they had remained as proprietors,
the State could, and would, have periodically revised their
payments, and therefore it could not be supposed that the
Zamindar was denied a similar power when the cultivator's
payments were handed over to him. But some rule of
enhancement was clearly needed ; and unfortunately no
definite idea was entertained as to what should be done.
Meanwhile, the necessities of punctual revenue-collection
and the inevitable result of the introduction of the Euro-
pean idea of ' landlord ' and l tenant,' both worked directly
against the old ' khud-kasht ' tenant, though of course not
designedly.
§ 3. Effect of Revenue-realization Laivs.
The Government had always said that if the Zammdars
did not or could not pay up the revenue, it must look
to the estate to do so, and that the estate would be
sold at once, if any arrears accumulated. And, as will
appear fully in the sequel regarding Bengal history,
circumstances brought about a vast number of sales
for arrears of revenue during the first ten years *.
These sales, of course, necessitated the purchaser being
given the estate free of ' incumbrances ' created by the
defaulter ; if it were not so, all sorts of fraud would have
been perpetrated ; a careless man would have raised all the
cash he could on his estate, and then defaulted and let it
go. But not only definite incumbrances such as mortgages
1 The revenue at first is admitted ter's Annals of Rural Bengal. As
by good judges to have been heavy, time went on, matters rapidly im-
with reference to the circumstances, proved, and sales became less and
and especially -with reference to a less frequent. The revenue is now,
recent famine (1772), of which such as I have stated before, extra-
a graphic accoiint is given in Hun- ordinarily light.
VOL. I. P
2IO LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
had to be avoided, but also existing contracts about the
rental ; and little by little the position of the old resident
cultivators was forgotten, and the right of the purchaser to
enhance even their rents came to be acknowledged.
§ 4. And of Laws to facilitate Rent-collection.
At the same time also the Zamindars complained of diffi-
culties in realizing their rents ; and Regulations (notably
those of 1799 and 1812), which have become locally famous,
were framed to help the landlord, fairly as it was thought,
and without injuring the tenant ; but as they threw on the
tenant the burden of proving that the rent demanded by
the landlord was not the proper rent, the effect was, as has
been said, to commence proceedings with a ' knock-down '
blow to the tenant.
§ 5. The Zamindars begin to farm their Estates.
Then, too, arose further complications — the Zamindars
took to creating renting-interests over fractional parts of
their estates : in other words, as soon as they became well
enough off, they divested themselves of the trouble of
directly managing and collecting their own rents, by accept-
ing a proportion of the rent-total, and living on that,
leaving to a farmer or lessee the duty of collecting the
whole and running up the rent-roll to what he could for
his own benefit. The rental of an estate was, say, Rs. 50,000
at a certain date, that being the total the Zamindar had
himself fixed. The Zamindar then created a tenure called
a ' patni,' and in effect said to the holder of the patni, ' Pay
me Rs. 30,000 and realise the balance (and whatever else you
can raise) for yourself.' This directly stimulated the fur-
ther raising of rents 1, till at last the position of the tenants
1 And when the contractor or proving lands) that he again could
patnidar had so run up the rental afford to retire, he would sub-let his
(partly, be it observed, by bona fide farm to another man (and he in
and large extensions of cultivation turn to another in succession).
of the abounding waste, or by im-
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 2 I I
grew so bad that, after long discussions, the drafting of
a tenant law was seriously taken in hand in 1859. ^ne sub-
ject has thenceforth continuously been kept in view, till
the Act of 1885 has furnished a (perhaps not final but)
greatly improved modus vivendi.
Thus, under the one head we have so far been attending
to, arose a fine crop of troubles and legislative anxieties
out of that benevolent blunder, the Permanent Settlement.
This sketch of the history of the tenant troubles in Bengal
was worth giving at such length, because it illustrates
throughout the ways in which indirectly, and in some
degree insensibly, complications of tenure arise out of mea-
sures that in themselves seem necessary or unobjectionable.
Let us now turn to the provinces later acquired.
§ 6. Other Provinces — Definition of Tenant right.
In all provinces, according to the varying circumstances
of each, the law has found it necessary to classify tenants
according to the facts of their origin and position. The
mistake made in Bengal was not repeated. Each class, as
defined, is respectively secured in certain privileges, which
are naturally greater according as the class is higher (more
nearly approaching to a proprietary interest), or lower
(approaching more nearly to a contract-tenancy). The first
and most important thing is to define the circumstances
which make a tenant of this class or that. Usually, when
the proof of the facts would involve going back to a remote
date, but it is found that certain conditions have been
maintained for a long time — say twenty years — the law (as
now in Bengal) will aid the tenant by raising a presump-
tion that what has subsisted for twenty years is the
ancient status, and will accordingly throw the burden of
proving the contrary, on the landlord. It is then possible
to define the circumstances which give rise to each class of
occupancy right. In the Panjdb all the privileged classes
of tenants are thus defined with reference to certain easily
understood facts of tenure.
P 2
212 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ 7. Where definition is more difficult.
But in Bengal and the North -West Provinces, the history
of the resident tenants was so obscure, that it was impos-
sible to say definitely what were the facts of the tenure, so
as to place any tenant in this class or in that. The Gor-
dian knot was therefore cut rather than untied, and pro-
vision was made that any tenant who has continuously
occupied land in the village for twelve years, is an occu-
pancy-tenant1. This well-known ' twelve years' rule ' was
invented in 1859, and certainly under such conditions as
those prevailing in Bengal, it was a fair rule ; for while it
secured all persons justly entitled, it could only occasionally
have benefitted persons not entitled ; and if it did so, it was
hardly to be regretted, when we reflect what a long period
of suffering tenants had gone through before the question of
their rights was understood. But the rule was not invented
in Bengal ; it was proposed for the North- West Provinces,
and was originally a compromise between the opponents of
tenant right and those who wished to give an occupancy
right to all resident village cultivators, and who further
would have called all tenants settled for three years
' resident.'
§ 8. Nature of the Privilege.
The ' occupancy-right ' has, of course, various forms and
conditions in the different laws ; but, speaking generally,
all laws give a protection against enhancement without order
of a Court — on specific grounds ; and protection against eject-
ment without a decree. Either provision would be useless
without the other. It would be of no use to say a tenant
cannot be ejected, if at the same time his rent could be so
raised as to make his position unprofiable ; it would be of
1 At first certain restrictions were tenant from one holding to another,
placed on the rule: the tenant without incurring the odium of eject-
must have held the same fields for ing him altogether. Some of the
twelve years, and this is still the laws have abandoned this distinc-
law in the North-West Provinces. tion, and made it suffice to hold any
The fear is that the landlord might land in the village,
defeat the law, by shifting the
CHAP, iv.] GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 2 1 3
no use to limit enhancement, if the landlord could give the
tenant notice to quit. And all tenant laws further regulate
such matters as distraint for arrears of rent ; date for pay-
ing rents ; the division of payments into seasonable instal-
ments ; and the grant of receipts for rent paid. Provision
is also made for the division of the crop, in provinces where
rents are still paid largely in kind (e. g. the Panjd,b).
A very important matter also is the subject of improve-
ments— what they are, and who is to make them, and what
compensation, if any, is to be paid on ejectment of a tenant
who has ' an improvement ' to his credit.
§ 9. Controversy as to the general Twelve-years' Rule.
Notwithstanding the necessity for some protection to
tenants in the shape of occupancy rights, the question,
especially the general application of a twelve years' rule,
evoked a sharp controversy. It raged in Bengal, and
was renewed when it was found that the ordinary twelve
years' rule was not sufficient ; it raged in the Panjab in con-
sequence of the adoption of North- West Province forms in
recording rights, the record of tenants of twelve years'
standing as ' maurusi ' or hereditary tenants \ and the
attempts later made, to modify this record.
The tenant rights controversy in the Central Provinces
was on somewhat different matters.
& 10. The Case stated on both sides.
a
There have been able officials ranged on either side ;
since on either, a plausible argument may be advanced,
both as to the facts and as to the policy. Those who
favoured the landlords' view would urge that it was unfair
to the Zamindars and other proprietors now saddled with the
responsibility, strict and unbending, for the revenue that
1 The occupancy-tenant is com- ' muzar'a mustaqil ' (fixed or per-
monly spoken of as ' maurusi kasht- manent cultivator),
kar ' : but in legal parlance he is
214 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
was to be paid in good years and bad alike, to tie their
hands, and to refuse them the full benefit of their lands
by creating an artificial right in their tenantry ; such
a rule would be to virtually deprive the landlord of the
best share of his proprietary rights. If it was wise of
Government to recognize the proprietary right at all, it
must be wise also to recognize the full legal and logical
consequences of that right. True it might be, that in old
days tenants were never turned out, but that was the result
of circumstances, not of right ; and if the circumstances
have changed, why not let the practice of dealing with
tenants alter too? The proprietors are the people we
designed to secure, in order to make them the fathers of
their people, to whom we looked for the improvement of
the country at large, and for the consequent increase of the
general wealth. Why should we doubt that they will act
fairly in their new position? Let any tenant who can
prove definitely a certain claim, have it by all means ; but
do not give rights en masse, in the hope of including all
real cases, while also granting them to many not at all
equitably entitled.
On the other side the advocate of the tenant would reply :
The new landlords confessedly owe their position to the gift
of Government ; why should they get all ? why should not
the benefits conferred be equally divided between the
raiyats on the soil and the ' proprietors ' ? The raiyats are
the real bread-winners and revenue-makers, more quiet and
peaceable, less liable to political emotions, and more inter-
ested in the stability of things as they are. Many of the
tenants we know to have been reduced to that condition
from an originally superior status. And if it is not so, the
landlord ought to be able to show definitely that he origin-
ated the tenancy, and had not let it run unquestioned for a
long period — twelve years — which in the case of ' adverse
possession,' under the Law of Limitation, was the term which
would give a title. And even if the tenant had no such
original position, as far as his history can be traced, still
the custom of the country is all in favour of a fixed holding.
CHAP, iv.] GENEKAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUEE. 215
In old days, if a powerful man ousted a cultivator, it was by
his mere power, not by any inherent right, or that the public
opinion supported him in so doing. But as a matter of
fact no cultivator ever was ousted ; he was too valuable.
In the rare cases in which he was ejected, it was either
because he failed to pay or to cultivate properly (which is
still allowed as a ground for ejection), or else it was to
make room for some favoured individual, which of course
was an act of pure oppression : why should not the law
still protect the tenant from such evictions ?
The question is in truth not one which can be theoreti-
cally determined, because the idea of landlord and tenant,
as we conceive the terms, and the consequences which flow
from it, have no natural counterpart in Indian custom.
We have a double difficulty to deal with : — the vast
number of ' tenants,' who have a valid claim to be con-
sidered, because their position (however difficult to define
and formally prove), does not depend on contract, and
also the case of tenants whose origin is not doubtful,
but whose position has been seriously affected by the new
order of things — a competition for land instead of a com-
petition to get tenants and keep them. All we can do is to
make the best practical rules for securing a fair protection
to all parties.
The principle of the twelve years' rule was adopted,
reasonably enough as regards the Zamindari estates that
were settled under the old Bengal system, and probably
equally so as regards the North -Western Provinces, where
village communities of landlord families had grown up.
In the Central Provinces Act X1 was put in force, under
certain special conditions, but is now replaced by a special
law. In the Panjab and in Oudh it was never adopted.
There, it was sufficient to provide for the special case of
those tenants who had a ' natural ' or customary right to be
considered permanent.
1 This Act is now generally re- the twelve years' rule has been re-
pealed, and only remains in force tained in the Acts which super-
in a few districts of Bengal ; but seded it in the different provinces.
2l6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
§ ii. Tenancies in Raiyatwdri Provinces.
In the provinces where the Government deals directly
with the occupants of the land, tenant right has given no
trouble. But of course tenancies exist. A man may con-
tract to cultivate land as a tenant-at-will or he may have
something of a hereditary claim to till the land, as much
under a raiyatwari system as any other. But the question
of subordinate rights never becomes as difficult of solution
in such countries, as it does in those where the recognized
proprietor is a middleman between the cultivator and the
State.
SECTION VI. THE NATURE OF ' PROPERTY IN LAND.'
§ i. Introductory.
When the tenures of land in India first began to be
studied, it was not so much because of their great historic
and social interest, but because of the more prosaic but
practical reason, that without understanding the way in
which the people held land (and felt it ought to be held), it
was impossible to determine who should be responsible for
the payment of the Government land-revenue, and con-
sequently should, as ' proprietor,' benefit by the remainder
— and a large and valuable remainder it would become —
when once the Government demand was properly limited.
It is hardly surprising therefore, that at the commencement
of the enquiries, a large part of the early reports and
minutes was occupied with two questions, which were con-
nected together, or rather, one of which arose out of the
other. The first question was, whether Government was or
had become, in the course of historical changes, the actual
owner or universal landlord of all land, or whether there
was, in India, any real private properly in the land. The
second was whether Government took its land-revenue as
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 2 1 7
a rent for the use and occupation of land, or as a sort of
tax which represented a share in the produce converted
into money.
There can be no doubt that in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, when British administration began, the
different native rulers who preceded us, had asserted
rights as the universal landowners. That being the case,
our Government succeeded, legally, to the same claim and
title.
If it were determined that Government might be justly
regarded as owner of the land, then of course what it took
from the actual cultivator might be regarded as rent; and
Government was further entitled to take the whole of the
remaining produce of land, after allowing the cultivator
the costs of cultivation and the profits of his capital. If
not, it was rather a question of words whether the Govern-
ment revenue was a rent or a tax.
It will, then, be proper for us to consider (i) What,
according to the ancient authorities, Hindu and Muham-
madan, were the established ideas regarding the right to
land as vested in the State and the private individual
respectively. (2) What the actual custom and practice
were. (3) What practical solution was adopted by the
British Government. (4) And what is the consequent true
view of the modern land-revenue ?
§ 2. 'Proprietary Right.'
The first thing that will strike the student is the use of
the term ' proprietary right ' in these pages and in Indian
Revenue books generally. It does not occur in text-books
on English law or jurisprudence. I presume that the use
of such a phrase is due to the feeling that we rarely
acknowledge anything like a complete unfettered right
vested in any one person. The interest in the soil has
come to be virtually shared between two or even more
grades, the cause of which we just now discussed. It is
true that, in many cases, only one person is called ' land-
2l8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
lord ' or ' actual proprietor,' but his right is limited l ; the
rest of the right, so to speak, is in the hands of the other
grades, even though they are called ' tenants,' or by some
vague title such as ' tenure-holders.' In many cases, as
we have seen, this division of right is accentuated by
the use of terms like ' sub-proprietor ' or ' proprietor of his
holding.' ' The proprietary right ' seems then a natural
expression for the interest held by a landlord, when that
interest is not the entire ' bundle of rights ' (which in the
aggregate make up an absolute or complete estate) but
only some of them, the remainder being enjoyed by other
persons.
§ 3. Existence of Property in Land in India.
The older writers often raised a discussion on this sub-
ject ; some maintaining that the law and custom of the
various countries of India always acknowledged a real
ownership in land vested in private persons ; others main-
taining the contrary.
But such a discussion, except for the information that is
elicited in the course of it, cannot be a fruitful one, because
there is no natural or universal standard of what ' property
in land ' is.
In English law, for example, there is no such thing as an
absolute ownership of the soil vested in any private person.
Dr. Field remarks 2, ' As a matter of fact no one ever did
or can own land in any country, i.e. in the sense of absolute
ownership — such ownership as a man may have in move-
able property, as e.g. in a cow or a sheep which may be
stolen, killed and eaten, or in a table or a chair which may
be broken up and burned at the pleasure of its owner.'
And the author refers to Williams (On the Law of Real
1 For instance, in the case of the in the great Rent Case of 1865,
Bengal Zamindar, whose origin we ' The Regulations teem with pro-
have sketched (and shall discuss visions quite incompatible with
more in detail in the chapters on any notion of the Zamindar being
Bengal), he is called 'landlord'; absolute proprietor.'
but, as one of the High Court a Field, p. 509.
Judges remarked in his judgment
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENTJKE. 2 19
Property, pp. i, 20), 'who after remarking on the erroneous
notions too generally entertained .... on the subject of
property in land, goes on to say — " The thing that the
student has to do is to get rid of the idea of absolute
ownership. Such an idea is quite unknown to the English
law : no man is, in law, absolute owner of lands ; he can
only hold an estate in them." '
Estate properly means the interest owned by an indi-
vidual (as ' estate for life,' ' estate in fee simple,' &c.). But
in popular phrase ' estate' is applied to the land itself, and
it is so used in the Regulations (XLVIII of 1793, XIX of
1795, &c.).
Sir George Campbell (Essay on 'Indian Land Tenures,
Cobden Club Papers), well'sums up the subject as follows :—
' The long-disputed question, whether private property in
land existed in India before the British rule, is one which can
never be satisfactorily settled, because it is, like many disputed
matters, principally a question of the meaning to be applied to
words. Those who deny the existence of property mean pro-
perty in one sense ; those who affirm its existence mean pro-
perty in another sense. We are too apt to forget that property
in land as a transferable marketable commodity, absolutely
owned and passing from hand to hand like any chattel, is not
an ancient institution, but a modern development, reached only
in a few very advanced countries. In the greater part of the
world the right of cultivating particular portions of the earth
is rather a privilege than a property, — a privilege first of the
whole people, then of a particular tribe or a particular village
community, and finally of particular individuals of the com-
munity.
' In this last stage land is partitioned off to these individuals
as a matter of mutual convenience, but not as unconditional
property ; it long remains subject to certain conditions and to
reversionary interests of the community, which prevent its un-
controlled alienation, and attach to it certain common rights
and common burdens.'
220 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
§ 4. Absence of any standard idea of 'Property.'
If the old Indian writers, and any universal opinion of
the people, had formulated private rights in land in any
particular way, it would be easy to determine the fact and
definitely state the principle, by examining the prevailing
practice, the declarations of the books, or the forms of
ancient title-deeds. But an examination of those sources of
information does not enable us to gather any generally
accepted theory of property in land. Even the Muham-
madan law-books, which are of a comparatively late date,
and written after the Roman law was known, do not define
— they speak of ' ownership ' (MilMyat, and the owner
Mdlik), but do not say what constitutes ownership.
In Elphinstone's History of India it is remarked 1, { Pro-
perty in land seems to consist in the exclusive use and
absolute disposal of the powers of the soil in perpetuity ;
together with the right to alter or destroy the soil when
such an operation is possible. These privileges combined
form an abstract idea of property which does not represent
any substance distinct from these elements. Where they
are found united there is property, and nowhere else.'
It must be remarked that this is really the Roman ideal
— the usus, usufruct-us, abusus et vindicatio — rather than an
Eastern formula ; and it may certainly be denied that any
such abstract ideas ever prevailed in India. But at the
same time we must be prepared to find particular claims to
land expressed with great force. In the chapter on Malabar
(Madras Tenures in vol. iii), I shall notice an ancient deed
which seems to sell or grant every kind of right from the
centre of the earth to the sky above : but it is doubtful how
far this is oriental verbiage, or what is really meant by it,
for in that country we find the produce shared, as else-
where.
1 Cowell's ed. p. 79-80. Baillie in the land which is owing to the
(Muhammadan Law of tlie, Land-Tax, productive power of the soil, with-
p. 20) says that the holder of land out which the cultivator would not
who pays to the ruler the ' khiraj be able to meet his liability (to the
muwazifa ' or tribute in the form of tribute). See also Phillips, p. 47.
a share in the produce, has a right
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 221
§ 5. Two principal ideas of landed right.
All we can assert as undeniable is, that both Hindu and
Muhammadan authorities have always recognized a strong
right in land of some kind.
(1) From very early times a right was asserted in favour
of the person who first cleared the land — had undertaken
the great work of removing the dense jungle and contending
against tropical nature, till the land was won for the
plough.
Probably also the fact that land so long as it is covered
with jungle, in some cases, or without water in other cases,
is valueless, caused the productive power of the soil — or
the produce of soil — to be regarded as the real subject of
ownership. This is illustrated by the minute attention
everywhere paid to sharing the produce; and also by the
great importance, in special districts, of rights in water.
No one cared how much land a man chose to plough up ;
but let him try, contrary to established custom, to seize
a share in the water of a tank, or a mountain torrent, to
water the field, and he would be instantly resisted. I
have already noticed how the possibility of the land bear-
ing a series of concurrent interests, depends on the fact
that the several parties only determine how the produce
is to be divided, and leave every other question in abeyance.
I make these remarks in connection with the ' right of
the first clearer,' because it seems that this right
ultimately depends on the fact that this man has made the
land productive (and he has therefore a special interest):
he has converted land from being worthless to being a
' property,' in the sense that produce can now be enjoyed.
(2) I have already alluded to the strong claims put for-
ward by the high-caste families and descendants of
conquering or colonizing chiefs. But here again we
are left to put our own interpretation on the terms as
suggesting any theory of ownership.
The nearest approach to a soil-claim that I know, is
quoted by Colonel Tod in regard of the conquering Rajput
222 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
owners of Mewar (Udaipur State in Rajputana)1. The
author indeed connects this with the principle of the ' first
clearer ' when he says : ' He has nature and Manu in sup-
port of his claim, and can quote the text . . . that cultivated
land is the property of him who cut away the wood, or who
cleared and tilled it. ... In accordance with this principle *
(the italics are mine) ' is the ancient adage, not of Mewar
only, but of all Rajputana : —
"Bhogra dhani Kajhu
Bhiimra dhani majhhu "
' (The share (revenue share of the grain) is the wealth of the
Kaja, the soil (bhum) is my wealth.) '
But the author also tells us that in this case the soil-right
is that of the conqueror and the superior family, and is
spoken of as Being his 'bapota' or patrimonial inherit-
ance. I therefore doubt whether the Rajputs (as landlords)
laid so much stress upon the first clearing, as upon another
equally widespread idea, that land conquered and inherited
by the next generation, is a very firm possession.
§ 6. Prevalence of certain terms for inherited Land.
And I have once more to call prominent attention to
the fact that all over India we find the same thing. The
conqueror's descendants, whose title is might — ' the portion
won by my sword and rny bow ' — is spoken of by some
term implying ' inheritance ' or ' birthright.' For some
reason, which I cannot explain, the convenient Arabic terms
for ' heir,' or ' inheritance,' have been frequently adopted even
by Hindu castes. Thus we have already had occasion to
notice that in Madras the vague rights of the superior
(landlord) classes or villages are called ' mirasi ' rights, and
the claimants ' mirasdar.' a The Muhammadan Government
in Western India called the claims of the old Maratha con-
1 Tod, vol. i. p. 424. warisi, the right of an heir ; wirasat,
2 Miras is obviously, even to a the inheritance or ' estate,' &c. In
reader ignorant of Arabic, derived Madras there were native terms, as
from the root ' wirs,' inheritance, ' Kani-atchi,' for birthright, &c.
from which come also waris (heir) ;
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 223
quering families ' mirasi ' claims. In the Simla states the
leading families call these holdings ' wirasat ' (not mUkfyat,
the Muhammadan law term, for ownership). And in the
Kangra district the landholders call their land their ' warisi.'
The old chiefs of Malabar (the military caste) in the re-
mote past seized on estates of limited size, of which they
are now recognized as owners, and they call these estates
their ' Janmam,' a term perhaps (but doubtfully) implying
birthright. So the Coorg or superior caste landowners call
their land 'jamma' lands, which is the same word in a
localized form.
I notice that the strong village communities of the Panj-
ab proper have not familiarized themselves with the word
' wirasat ' for landed estates, but most commonly speak of
their ' mal ' and ' milkiyat ' — their idea is, however, j ust the
same.
In Ajmer we shall find ' allodial ' holdings called ' bhii-
miyd ' tenures. Here once more we have a term referring
to the soil ; but all its features are just like those of the
Rajput ' patrimony.' Princes are said to be glad to acquire
' bhiimiya ' rights, because they are so safe. The prince
may be deposed from his throne, and his State rights may
disappear, and he be driven into exile and into private life.
If afterwards he reappears in his former kingdom, he will
not attempt so hopeless a task as to reclaim his State rights,
but as holder of a bhumiya plot of ground, public sentiment
will probably restore it to him at once J.
The Rajput landholder, says Colonel Tod, ' compares his
right to the " akhai dhuba " — the ineradicable dhub grass
which no vicissitudes can destroy.'
§ 7. These two principles alone form the basis of property.
I have examined a great number of authorities, and with
some confidence it may be stated that the outcome of all is
that, whatever may have been the ideas entertained regard-
ing the nature of property — and it is most probable that
1 Tod, vol. i. p. 426.
224 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
no speculation was ever entered into on the subject —
two grounds or bases of claim to hold land and enjoy its
produce, and generally to alienate it, certainly to inherit it,
were universal: (i) The right — held by any class — con-
sequent on first clearing and reclaiming the waste ; (2) the
right claimed by the military and superior caste or ruling
races, in virtue of birthright or inheritance, which really
meant that the land had been obtained by conquest, grant,
or some form of superior might, and that the descendants
who inherited it regarded it as their ' birthright.'
§ 8. Further details.
There are other matters, however, to be considered in
connection with ' property.' I have already had occasion
to say something about the stages of property in the history
of human development, and here we must notice, in more
detail, the idea that property resides in the family rather
than the individual.
§ 9. The joint succession. — Primogeniture.
Though Manu speaks of an ' owner ' in the abstract, he
elsewhere fully recognizes the principle of family right and
joint succession. Indeed the Muhammadan law, though it
determines different fractions for different classes of heirs,
is in principle a law of joint-succession. And in India it
will be found that many agricultural tribes, who are Mu-
hammadan by faith, follow a customary succession which is
just the same as in the (nominally or really) Hindu tribes.
While we are on the subject of succession, it may be men-
tioned that the law and custom of primogeniture only apply
to certain things. In a Raja's domain the right to the
' gaddi,' or royal seat, and the appanages of authority, are
indivisible, and go to the eldest only. But in ordinary
families all property is divided, and only in some instances
do we trace an idea of primogeniture in the local custom of
'jethansi,' by which the eldest son gets a slightly larger
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 225
share, or some extra articles at a division of the family
goods. Indeed, in families which are not noble, but yet
are above the common rank, it is often difficult to say
whether primogeniture obtains. It is a matter of family
custom. We shall see cases where families have divided
and then have agreed to divide no further.
It is obvious that this joint-succession is the cause of
many peculiarities in land custom. Nor is it without
effect in the case of individual or raiyatwdri holdings ;
for when a raiyat dies, his sons jointly succeed; only that
if the estate or holding is small, it commonly happens
that some of the sons of their own choice, go away and
seek service or other means of livelihood. In many cases
Nature herself puts a limit to subdivision 1.
The question, whether primogeniture and indivisibility is
or is not accepted, often has an important effect on the land-
tenants. For instance, suppose an indivisible Kajaship.
If the family is dispersed and the Raja slain in battle, the
overlordship may simply disappear, and the village tenures
below remain unaffected. But where the chief's estate is
divided, then the several members seize on one or two or
more villages each, and are sure to become landlords,
obliterating the rights below, and founding landlord com-
munities. We have seen how many joint villages owe their
origin to this circumstance, and a brief allusion will here
suffice.
§ 10. Female succession.
In agricultural castes, daughters and other females do
not usually get a share in land, or sometimes only till
marriage. This is a sure mark that property is in the
1 family ' stage : it means that the daughter on marriage
goes into another family, and that if she got a share, she
1 And if a village body or a family into debt and sell their land. Many
persists in subdividing beyond of them then become mere tenants
rational limits, the body is sure to under the purchaser, who by virtue
fall into hopeless poverty and decay, of his sale-title reaggregates the
when in all probability they get various shares he has bought up.
VOL. I. Q
226 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
would take it away with her. Widows are allowed a
life-tenure, but cannot devise the land or alienate it with-
out ' necessity.' What constitutes ' necessity ' is a question
for each case as it arises l. In the Panjab so strong is the
feeling that land belongs to the family, that a childless male
proprietor is, in many tribes, not allowed to alienate any
ancestral land without necessity, nor can he will it away ;
his power to disappoint natural heirs by adopting a son, is,
in some tribes, limited by custom 2.
§ ii. Authorities on the subject of property in land.
We may now proceed to consider the statements of
ancient writers on the subject of property in land.
It will be interesting to quote both from Hindu and
Muhammadan authors. But it will be found that, in spite of
the weight of law-books and commentaries, we shall end, in
India, with finding that, as already stated, the King or the
State claimed to be the only owner or landlord of all land.
At least that certainly had come to pass by the end of
the eighteenth century.
§ 12. Hindu authorities.
If we date the Institutes of Manu about the fifth century
B.C.3, and also assume that what is said about landed
interests is hardly a new idea of the author, enunciated
for the first time, but more or less represents accepted
ideas on the subject, it will be obvious that a right (of
whatever nature) in the land is a very ancient idea. It
is also represented as attaching to the individual, or rather
to the family, of which the individual was only the head,
the manager, or the representative.
' And there are of course many adoption is very different from the
judicial rulings or precedents as to law of the Hindu text-books,
what is ' necessity ' and what is 3 Burnell would have placed it
not. later. See Hunter's India, pp. 113,
2 In the Panjab the custom of 114.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 227
In Manu we read 1 : — ' The sages declare a field to belong
to him who first cleared away the timber [Kulluka Bhatta's
gloss on this is, ' who cleared and tilled it '], and a deer to
him who first wounded it.' This right, as before remarked,
is still constantly asserted. In the Panjab, tenants who
never heard of Manu or any other Hindu law-book, and
who admit that they have no direct landlord claim, will
urge a right to occupy on the ground of ' buta shigafi ' —
having broken up the land and cleared away the jungle.
It is, however, curious to note that Manu's standpoint is
that of a very settled state of things. He knows abso-
lutely nothing2 about a landlord or a joint body claiming
the whole of a village lands in a ring-fence, as their
'inheritance.' His standpoint is a settled government
under a Raja, who takes his revenue share from every
village. Villages are known groups of land. Each has
its headman. This officer is allowed a certain remunera-
tion ; several villages are united into a superior charge, and
a number of these again into a larger charge or district 3.
In Chap. VIII (v. 237) we read of the case of one man
sowing seed in a field ' which is owned by another.' In
the same (v. 239) we hear of the 'owner of a field' en-
closing it with a thorny hedge, over which a ' camel could
not look/ and 'through which a dog or a boar may
not thrust his nose.' Again (v. 245-63) we have detailed
rules for settling and laying out the boundaries of estates
or holdings ; and in v. 264 a punishment is provided for
taking wrongful possession of a field or a garden. There is
also reference to the formalities of sale (among them the
sale by pouring out water, which is noticeable among the
ancient deeds collected in Logan's Manual of Malabdr).
1 Chap. ix.,v. 44 etsq., and confer who from first to last discharge
De Laveleye, p. 53. their duties' (Manu, viii. 35^ Re-
a I have elsewhere alluded to this garding the last officials and their
subject, and to M. de Laveleye's remuneration, see vii. 115-119. I
suggestions thereon. have spoken in Chapter III of the
3 The king is no conquering lord, king's revenue share (vii. 129, 130).
driving the ' aborigines ' into the The king is to draw moderate taxes
hills or making serfs of them. ' He from his realm, ' as the calf and
is created as the protector of all the bee take their food, little by
those classes and orders of men little.'
Q a
228 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
The reader can draw his own conclusions as to the state
of feeling on the subject of interests in land involved in
these references.
The king is, no doubt, invited to fine the cultivator
who neglects to sow the field ; but that is because the
O *
revenue is endangered ; it need not detract from the
notion of right in the soil. Colonel Wilks also argues
that this text refers to the cultivator or tenant, not to the
owner 1.
It seems to me extremely probable that in Manu's time
the conquering race of Aryans had been long established.
The ruling tribes were in possession as Rajas, chiefs, and
' lords of ten villages, twenty villages, and a hundred vil-
lages,' and content with their overlordship and the revenue ;
while the actual settlers were either the ' rank and file '
of the immigrant race, their lower caste (Vaisyas), or mixed
castes (Sudras). Possibly all original cultivators who were
not peaceably let alone, had been driven out, or reduced to
' serfdom.' In the Southern kingdoms we have ample
evidence of lands cultivated for the nobles by slaves, and it
is quite possible that this may have been generally the case.
But the field-owners contemplated by Manu are clearly
either Aryans or others established in possession as freemen.
§ 13. Muhamniadan Authorities.
The original theory of the Muslim was that conquered
races were to be offered the option between adopting ' the
creed,' or death, or slavery. But, as has been j ustly remarked,
this theory very soon gave way to the more practicable
one, that conquered races, if they submitted and agreed to
pay tribute (khiraj), were to be let alone. ' Respect tribu-
taries,' said the prophet ; ' for they are entitled to the
1 See Wilks' History of Mysore when he wrote, 'It is a nice question
(reprint), p. 79, 80. Sterling, in his whether under the old Hindu
account of Orissa (Asiatic Researches, system the actual occupants of the
vol. xv) , must have been thinking of soil were considered to possess any
the state of things produced by sue- subordinate title of ownership' (i. e.
cessive conquests in that country to the Kajas, chiefs, &c.).
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 229
same rights and subject to the same laws as the
Moslems1.'
The author of the Hiddyd (a text-book of Muhammadan
law) lays it down that if a prince conquers a country, he is
at liberty either to divide the land among his soldiers, or
to leave it in the possession of the inhabitants, on their
agreeing to pay capitation (jaziya) and land-taxes ; in the
latter case, the right of property remains with the in-
habitants.
Colonel Briggs2 quotes Abul Hassan Ahmad bin Muham-
mad— a Hanifi doctor of the fourth century of the Hijra —
who states the same doctrine ; and he quotes from the
Sirdj-ul-Wahdj to the effect that, if the ruler allows the
land to remain with the conquered people, on their paying
tribute, ' the land is the property of the inhabitants ; and,
since it is their property, it is lawful for them to sell it or
dispose of it as they choose/ Other authorities to the same
effect might be quoted 3. The author of the Hiddyd also
has adopted the same rule as the law of Manu asserts, viz.
that land is the property of him who first clears it ; and
Colonel Vans Kennedy says that ' all Muhammadan
jurists agree that the person who first appropriates and
cultivates waste land becomes ipso facto the lord of the
soil4.'
There is no doubt, however, that the prince remained
entitled to the unoccupied land ; and the only difference
among the doctors seems to be as to whether an intending
cultivator need ask leave to begin his work. The prince
1 See Col. Vans Kennedy on the conquest does not interfere with
Muhammadan Law, Journal Asiatic private rights, is quite a modern
Society, vol. ii. p. 105. The infidels development (see Broom, Consiitu-
who submitted and paid tribute tional Law (ed. i866\ p. 21, and
were called ' Zimmi,' in distinction Campbell v. Hale, State Trials, vol. xx,
to the ' harbi," those who were in 322. Col. Briggs has collected, at
arms. p. 128, other authorities, showing
2 Briggs, p. 109. that by Muhammadan law, khiraj-
s It is noteworthy that while this paying land is the property of the
reasonable doctrine is that of the person who pays the tax, even
earlier authorities, all the later though he is conquered. See also
kings and nawabs of the country Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, p. 339.
claimed larger rights, as we shall 4 Paper quoted above, p. 108, and
presently see. The doctrine of Briggs, p. 112.
European international law, that
230 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
can, however, certainly make a gift (or grant) of the
waste 1.
§ 14. Later Claims of the Ruling Power.
Though the early doctrine — both Hindu and Muham-
rnadan — is beyond doubt, it is quite certain that, as time
went on, the local princes and governments with whom we
came in contact, or who had immediately preceded us, had
come to claim, not only the waste, but a right of ownership
in all land whatever, and treated the 'raiyats' as their
tenants, except in the case of such claims as those of holders
of watan, or other special cases2. In the first place, it
should be remembered that most of the later governments
were either powers which had recently thrown off al-
legiance to the Mughal government, or other chiefs, like the
Peshwa of the Marathds and the Maharaja of the Sikhs,
who were recent conquerors, and therefore had extravagant
claims. Moreover, history shows that the native rulers
in later times all adopted more or less oppressive revenue
assessments, and this tended to make land a burden, so that
private rights were hardly asserted.
Then, too, the right of the State to waste or unoccupied
land was never doubted, and this would be an element in
forwarding a general claim to the soil.
It is noteworthy that in 1668 (A.D.) the Emperor Aurang-
zeb's orders show that a private right was then recognized.
And as late as 1715, when the Company applied for a grant
of the ' taluqdari' of thirty- eight villages near their Bengal
factory, they were told they would have to purchase the
rights of the owners 3. And, when Mr. Shore put rather a
leading question to Ghulam Hassan, the historian (author
of the Sayyar fniuta,dkhir'i'n), assuming the right of the
ruler, and asking whether, therefore, he ought to pay for
1 Idem. The Institutes of Timur- acknowledged : and special grants
lane, as quoted by Col. Briggs, are to under title-deeds which it would be
the same effect. beneath the dignity of a ruler to
2 As for instance grants to pious ignore or to revoke,
persons and religious uses, in which 3 Briggs, pp. 128, 134.
a permanent right was everywhere
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 23!
land he required to take possession of, the author replied,
' The emperor is proprietor of the revenue ; he is not pro-
prietor of the soil.'
I cannot acquit our own authorities of some exaggeration
at the time of the Permanent Settlement. For instance,
Mr. James Grant, who had resided at the court of the
Nizam, in 1785, wrote: 'It would be a most dangerous
innovation (diametrically opposite to the letter and spirit
of all Oriental legislation, ancient and modern, devised by
conquerors) to admit, either in theory or in practice, the
doctrine of private individual landed property by inherit-
ance,— free or feudal tenures extending beyond one life.'
The ancient authorities do not support Mr. Grant at all.
And so in the preamble- to Madras Kegulation XXXI of
1802 (since repealed), it is said that the property in land
belonged to the Government by ' ancient usage.'
Certainly, however, the governments of that time did,
and the native governments of the present day do, make a
claim to be -landlords of all land — but they should rather
base such a claim on conquest and the disorders of later
times, than on any of these ancient authorities. Putting
aside the obvious mistake about 'ancient usage,' it is
hardly possible that Mr. James Grant, and Colonel Munro,
and many others, could have been mistaken about the fact
that in their time all governments did claim to be land-
owners ; and, as I said, it is quite certain that the Nizam
and other rulers make the same claim now.
Regulation XXV, of 1802, of the Madras Code — which did
not commit itself to any theory — correctly stated that the
Government had the ' implied right and the actual exercise
of the proprietary possession of all land whatever.' And
with reference to Regulation XXXI of 1802 (above quoted),
it should be noted that the legislature only professed to
assert this general right as a locus standi, from which it
proceeded to confer a title on the Zamindars.
Colonel Briggs, who is very averse to admitting the
growth of the rulers' claims, is unable to make out anything
in the Nizam's dominions, except that watan lands were
232 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. IV.
saleable (i.e. were private property)1, and that the weight
of taxation on ordinary lands prevented ' the existence of
real property' in them.
Mr. Elphinstone (Governor of Bombay) thought that all
land belonged to the Maratha government, when it did not
belong to ' mirasdars,' or to government grantees (and the
mirasdars were either scions of Maratha families or suc-
cessors to their rights) ; and he noted that ' Baji Rao (the
Peshwa), when he had occasion for Mirdsi land, paid the
price for it.'
Colonel Malleson says: 'It has been stated, and, I
believe, truly, that throughout Holkar's dominions no
private individual possesses permanent heritable or alien-
able rights in land ; every cultivator is a tenant at will of
the Maharaja.'
This is, perhaps, rather strongly worded ; but certainly
a similar claim is made by the semi- dependent Rajas of
Chamba, Kashmir, and those of the Simla Hill States.
They respect occupancy-rights of old cultivators, and cer-
tainly admit the heritable nature of the right ; but they do
not allow of alienation, without permission and payment of
a fee, or ' nazarana,' to the chief 3.
1 Briggs, p. 75. And the rulers The following were the Kana of
very often respected special rights Baghat's rights : —
of this kind. (i) His revenue or grain-share.
a Native States of India, p. 197 note. (2) Offerings on a marriage in the
8 By the courtesy of Mr. W. Cold- chiefs family.
stream, C. S. Superintendent of the (3) An 'offering' of 100-200
Hill States, I have seen a number butas or cobs of Indian corn, when
of interesting papers bearing on the the harvest is ready,
rights of the State of Baghat near (4) "When the landholder has a
Simla, from the records of the Super- marriage in his family he gives the
intendent's office. In a letter (No. chief a goat, and the chief returns a
219, 28 Feb. 1866) I find it stated sword (talwar) as a present to the
that ' the chiefs are the only pro- bridegroom.
prietors,' the occupiers of land are (5) Certain days of 'begar' or
only cultivators but mostly heredi- unpaid labour on State buildings or
tary. The chiefs have certain lands roads, but the chief gives flour for
of their own which they call ' land,' the day's bread,
and cultivate by their own farm (6) A ' nazar ' or fee from every
servants. raiyat who asks for waste to cultivate.
CHAP, iv.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 233
§ 15. Causes of the later State Claims.
While, however, it is conceded that the real ' ancient f
usage, or theory, of both the Hindus and Muhammadans,
expressly discouraged the idea that the ruler was absolute
owner, or owner at all, of all land, and certainly acknow-
ledged private rights, there were in the books the germs
of principles which easily recrudesced into new claims ;
and there was always the feeling of the conqueror, the suc-
cessful adventurer, and the ruler who has asserted and
gained independence, that his will is the only law, that
he has conquered, and everything is his, to dispose of as
he will.
The doctrine, for instance, that the Muslim conqueror
only took tribute as an act of favour, and might have
destroyed the conquered, or have dealt with the land in
any way he pleased, and actually did so deal with all
waste land, was very apt to make conquerors forget the
dicta which should have moderated their pretensions. The
very idea that the tribute, or khiraj was a mild substitute for
slavery or death — however it may have been softened by
the comments of jurists — was only too likely to recur to the
mind of a conqueror disposed, for his own profit, to exag-
gerate his claims.
The author of the Hiddyd (Book ix. chap. 7), speaking of
the limit of the khiraj being one half the produce, says :
' But the taking of one half is no more than strict justice,
and is not tyrannical, because, as it is lawful to take the
whole of the persons and property of infidels, and to dis-
tribute them among the faithful, it follows that taking one
half their income is lawful d fortiori! The later ruler, in
the chronic emptiness of his treasury, was apt to act on this
reflection, and arbitrarily increase the demand on the land
to such an extent that no valuable property in it remained.
Indeed it is not easy to dispose of the reasoning. If the
law is that a king acquires everything by conquest, surely
he may claim the land, allowing only a liberal user — even a
hereditary user of it — to the people ; and the amount of his
234 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP, iv,
demand for revenue is a matter for his will and con-
science only.
That such a claim was made by all the later sovereigns,
is perhaps natural : and under the circumstances, we cannot
wonder that the British authorities on succeeding to their
place, were not perfectly consistent in their declarations,
nor very well satisfied as to what they ought to do. In
strict right, they succeeded to the position of the out-
going ruler ; and if they found that this position — logical
indeed, but morally ill-advised — had been taken up contrary
to the earlier legal authorities, it was certainly a nice ques-
tion, what was the proper claim for the British Govern-
ment to assert.
§ 1 6. Claims how far adopted by the British Government.
I think, on the whole, what was meant by the various
declarations in the Regulations and elsewhere, was this ;
that the Government claimed to succeed to the de facto
position of the preceding ruler, only so far as to use the
position (not to its full logical extent but) as a locus standi,
for re-distributing, conferring, and recognizing rights on
a new basis.
And the outcome of the action taken by the Government
was this — that it at once recognized certain rights in private
individuals, and only retained such rights for itself as were
necessary.
The power to make this distribution was no doubt based
on the de facto power of the Government to dispose of all
land.
I may exhibit the main features of the disposition of
landed rights made by Government under five heads.
(1) Government used its own eminent claim as a starting
point from which to recognize or confer definite titles
in the land, in favour of persons or communities that
it deemed entitled.
(2) It retained the unquestionable right of the State to
all waste lands ; exhibiting however the greatest
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENUKE. 235
tenderness to all possible rights either of property
or of user, that might exist in such lands when pro-
posed to be sold or granted away. This right it
exercised for the public benefit, either leasing or
selling land to cultivators or to capitalists for special
treatment ; thus encouraging the introduction of tea,
coffee, cinchona, and other valuable staples. Or it
used the right as the basis for constituting State
Forests for the public benefit, or for establishing
Government buildings, farms, grazing-grounds, and
the like.
(3) It retained useful subsidiary rights — such as minerals.
or the right to water in lakes and streams. In some
cases it has granted these away, but all later laws
reserve such rights.
(4) It retained the right of escheat ; and of course to
dispose of estates forfeited for crime, rebellion, &c.
(5) It reserved the right necessary for the security of
its income (a right which was never theoretically
doubtful from the earliest times), of regarding all
land as in a manner hypothecated as security for
the land-revenue. This hypothecation necessarily
implies or includes a right of sale in case the revenue
is in arrears.
§ 17. Remarks on these Heads. — Head I.
Each of these five heads requires a few words of com-
ment.
The first is exemplified by the declaration made in confer-
ring the proprietary title on the Zamindars in Bengal, and
on other classes declared entitled, in the several Regula-
tions and Acts of the Legislature, which we shall study as we
come to each of the provincial systems in turn.
The Government conferred no absolute or unlimited
estate on any one person or community : the landlord or
the proprietor was the person or community that had the
first or superior position and the major part of the rights.
236 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
But others might share it ; either expressly as when they were
called ' sub-proprietors ' ; or practically, where, as ' tenure-
holders ' or ' occupancy-tenants ' their interests were secured
by special provisions.
§ 1 8. Right in the Waste. — Head II.
There never has been any doubt that in theory, the
' waste ' — that is, land not occupied by any owner or
allotted to anyone — was at the disposal of the ruler to do
what he liked with ; in short, was the property of the
State.
In ancient times, such as those referred to in Manu, the
king certainly granted such lands to the cultivators. No
doubt it is contemplated that the villagers should have a
right to use the grazing, and to practise wood-cutting in the
waste adjoining their cultivated holdings ; and probably no
king would think of making grants of land in such a way
as to put any village to real inconvenience in this respect.
In the old kingdoms of Oudh we find the king levying
his tolls on wood-cutting, at least on outsiders, and grant-
ing clearing-leases.
The Muhammadan law authorities (already quoted) de-
clared the waste to belong to the ruler, and the right has
always been exercised by making grants *.
Land is not 'waste,' if it has been occupied, even
though left uncultivated. When, for example, a noble
family acquired the ' zamindari ' right in a village in Oudh,
or a family founded a village in the Panjab, they understood
themselves as entitled to a certain area within certain
boundaries (however defined), whether the area was under
the plough or not. When the British Government con-
1 In early days, when waste was subject of the right to waste is dis-
very abundant, the rulers were cussed in the ' Kanara Forest Case '
far too anxious to see it cultivated, (Indian Law Reports : Bombay series,
and so increase their revenue, to vol. iii, p. 583), especially in Mr.
make any objection to its being Justice West's elaborate judgment,
broken up, or to make any regula- The subject is also gone into in
tions about asking leave to take it. detail in my Manual of Forest Juris-
But that proves nothing. The whole prudence.
CHAP. IV.] GENEEAL VIEW OP THE LAND-TENURE. 237
ferred estates on Zamindars or any other sort of proprietor,
it of course contemplated that an area of waste for expan-
sion should (wherever nature permitted it) form part of the
estate ; because by such means the estate would grow in
value, and the revenue burden become lighter and lighter.
For this reason, the waste that adjoined the villages in the
North -West Provinces, was fairly adjudged to belong to the
estate 1, while excess waste not occupied, was always treated
as belonging to Government. In Regulation III of 1828
the right of the State is expressly declared2. In after
times, in Bengal, attempts were made to recover or
' resume ' excess waste ; but as there were no surveys show-
ing boundaries of estates, the resumption was often a diffi-
cult task, and was only successful in certain localities.
In the Panjab and the Central Provinces, where there were
large areas of waste, a certain proportion was included in
the villages at the survey which preceded Settlement, and
the rest marked off for Government.
In Malabar, unfortunately, the claims of the 'janmam'
holders had so long been allowed, that it is to be feared all
the forest land has, by prescription, become the estate-
holder's, and is not now likely to be recovered 3.
In raiyatwdri villages, while certain provision is made
for user, i.e. grazing rights and wood-cutting, the waste
' numbers ' are all recorded as belonging to Government,
and may be available for cultivation, to applicants, or may
be retained, according to circumstances.
Whenever Government desires to allot waste, or convert
it to any use, there is an Act (XXIII of 1863) which enables
a notice to be given, and claims to any right to be settled.
This Act clearly proceeds on the principle of the State
right ; so do the Forest Acts, which contemplate ' waste '
1 Except, of course, large tracts of sive tracts of country being
forests and waste in the Hills or in still waste belong to the State.'
the Jhansi district, which were left s In North Kanara, where similar
as Government waste. claims on the part of the estate
a The preamble speaks of Com- holders were attempted, the Go vern-
missioners appointed ' to maintain ment successfully resisted them in
and enforce the public rights in the case already alluded to in a
different districts in which exten- previous note.
238 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
lands being taken up for forest purposes subject to a ' forest
Settlement,' i. e. a determination and separation of the rights
of private persons and those of the State 1.
§ 19. Waste Land Rules.
In all provinces ' Rules for the lease of waste lands ' are
in force. The policy has from time to time varied, and the
rules have been amended. At one time the idea was to sell
the land out and out, with no revenue claims; then the
policy changed ; and seeing the great and rapid growth in
the value of land, it began to be felt that to sacrifice the
State rights so readily was a mistake. The policy now is
rather to lease the land for a term of years, and only to allow
the conversion of the title to one of ownership (and that
subject to paying land-revenue) when the lessee has shown
that he is in earnest and has really made proper use of the
grant.
The rules sometimes draw a distinction between the lease
of small areas for the purposes of ordinary cultivation, and
the grant of larger areas to capitalists, for the purposes of
commercial cultivation of tea, coffee, chinchona, or other
staples on the large scale.
The chapter on Bengal Tenures will afford some illustra-
tions of this subject.
§ 20. Subsidiary Rights. — Head III.
The reservation of a right to mines, minerals, and earth-
oil, hardly concerns us in this manual ; nor does the right to
water in lakes and rivers. It is enough to mention that the
latter is the basis of the Canal Acts, regulating the construc-
tion of canals and the distribution of the water.
1 The ownership of the unoccupied rights of user can amount to owner-
waste may reside in the State, ship. Unless a claim be decided
though certain servitudes or rights of on its merits, to be one of pro-
user may be claimable by other prietary occupation and title, not to
persons, which latter have to be a mere user, it does not destroy,
provided for or compensated, before however much it may hamper, the
the State can exercise any complete State ownership. The distinction
control. But no amount of mere is important.
CHAP. IV.] GENERAL VIEW OF THE LAND-TENURE. 239
§ 21. Right to lapsed Lands, &c,. — Head IV.
It has happened that estates were forfeited for rebellion
after 1857, or may be forfeited for crime under the Criminal
Law. Such lands then became State property. The law of
escheat of lands that had no heirs, was known to the old
Hindus under the name of 'gayari.' The Muhammadan
law term ' nazul ' is also applied to escheated lands. But it
is very commonly applied to lands or houses that were
owned by the former government, and therefore became the
direct property of the succeeding government.
§22. Hypothecation of the Land. — Head V.
This is really almost the only vestige of any ' universal '
State claim to land. It is obviously necessary to the security
of the land-revenue. The revenue is, in fact, an absolute
first charge on all land, and must be satisfied before any
other claim ; and the land can be sold, by the Bengal law, at
once, and by other laws in the last resort, to recover arrears.
When Government sells land, and no one buys it, the land
remains (as in Bengal) on the hands of Government, as what
is called in revenue language, a Government estate, or a
'khas mahal.' Should a proprietor decline the terms of
Settlement, he may be excluded from the management for
a time ; but the estate, even though farmed or managed
direct by the Collector (' held khas ' as the phrase is) for
a time, does not become the property of Government.
§ 23. Government the ' universal Landlord.'
After Government has so distinctly conferred proprietary
rights in land, any later use of the term ' universal land-
lord,' as applied to Government, can only be in the nature
of a metaphor, or with reference to the ultimate claim of
Government alluded to in the last paragraph, or that which
arises in case of a failure of heirs.
240 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. iv.
The only function of a landlord that a Government ex-
ercises, is the general care for the progress of the estates ;
making advances to enable the cultivators to sink wells or
effect other improvements ; advancing money for general
agricultural purposes (under special Acts) ; suspending or
remitting the demand for revenue owing to famine or
calamity of season.
§ 24. Land-Revenue ivhether a Tax or Rent.
The land-revenue cannot then be considered as a rent,
not even in raiyatwdri lands, where the law (as in Bombay)
happens to call the holder of land an ' occupant,5 not a
proprietor. The reason for adopting this term will be
noticed in the chapter on Bombay tenures. Here it is
enough to say that the special definition does not entitle
Government to a true rent. Nowhere and under no revenue
system, does government claim to take the ' unearned in-
crement,' or the whole of what remains after the wages of
labour, or cost of cultivation and profits of capital, have
been accounted for.
If we cannot be content to speak of 'land-revenue,'
and must further define, I should be inclined to regard the
charge as more in the nature of a tax on agricultural
incomes.
CHAPTER V.
A GENEEAL VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE SYSTEMS
OF BRITISH INDIA.
SECTION I.— INTRODUCTORY.
THIS chapter, in which I have endeavoured to present
an outline of the various LAND-REVENUE SYSTEMS OP
BRITISH INDIA, and to show how they originated and how
they are connected together, will contain much that is
already familiar to every Indian official ; and readers in India
may therefore regard as unnecessary many of the state-
ments and explanations offered. It seemed, however, de-
sirable to deal with the subject from the point of view of
the general reader, and accordingly to avoid assuming that
he possesses a fund of knowledge to start with. It is neces-
sary, then, to begin from the beginning, and not plunge in
medias res, or at once make use of terms of revenue-law,
familiar enough to officials, but certain, until duly ex-
plained, to appear mysterious, if not repulsive, to others.
I may, however, assume, to start with, a single item of
knowledge, which, indeed, has been to some extent ex-
plained in the last chapter. The rulers, Rajas, and emperors
of the successive governments in all parts of India, have at
all times raised the greater part of their State income, by
levying a charge on the land. Whether this was an Aryan
institution, or was learned from the Dravidians, or was a
natural method, adopted independently, I leave the reader
to form the opinion which best satisfies him. But, as a
matter of fact, it came to be an universally-acknowledged
principle, that the king, Raja, or chief of a territory, had
VOL. I. R
242 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
a right to a SHARE IN THE PBODUCE OF ALL CULTIVATED
LAND. In time, as might be expected, this revenue came
to be no longer taken in kind, but in the form of a
money payment, made at certain seasons when the harvests
had been realized.
I have to remark on this generally, that the early
authorities are naturally concerned only with discussing
whether the king's share shall be a sixth, a fourth, &c.
Nothing else was needed. It was early recognized that the
share might be increased in time of war or special necessity,
but that is all. As a matter of fact, while the early Rajas
are supposed to have taken no more than the sixth, it is
quite certain that all or many of the later ones demanded
the half. So tenaciously is old custom clung to in India,
that in many native states the ruler still takes his revenue
in kind. On the whole, he is not a loser ; for there has been
a steady rise in the value of grain ; and this, perhaps, com-
pensates him to some extent for the want of any regular
system of periodical revision of assessment.
But when the time came for the Government (it hap-
pened under the Mughal, rule) to change the grain-revenue
into cash, the first idea was to roughly estimate the standard
share as yielding so many 'maunds' of grain1 for each crop
on each kind of soil, and then to value it at an average
price. The early methods of fixing the grain- value were,
however, so rough, that practically it was but an arbitrary
process, effected with moderation, and with reference to the
ability of the cultivators to pay easily. The change from
a grain-revenue to a cash-payment had one important con-
sequence : from that time forward it has been recognized as
a general rule — certainly it was so by the Muhammadan
governments — that the money-payment needed to be revised
from time to time, i.e. after the lapse of a suitable term of
1 The 'Maund' (man) is the usual sir into sixteen chhatank (chittack)
weight for reckoning solids. It of five tolas each. The toM is the
varies in different places ; but the weight of the current silver rupee ;
general standard is 80 Ibs. = i maund. approximately two and a half of
The maund is divided into forty them go to the ounce avoirdupois.
seers (sir) of two Ibs. each, and the
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 243
years. In the days of the later Mughal rule, the revenue
was revised, not by any regular process of re-valuation,
but by the expedient of adding on ' cesses ' to the existing
totals. These cesses were called by various names, which
indicated either the name of the governor who imposed
them, or the pretence under which they were levied. In
the Bengal chapters we shall hear a great deal about
' cesses.'
But under our own Government such a device was not
likely to be followed — at least, not as a means of enhancing
the land-revenue l. It became necessary, then, to devise
some plan of fairly assessing the land-revenue.
The process by which the Government officials determine
the amount of land-revenue payable, is called a SETTLE-
MENT (of land-revenue) ; and the person or the body whom
Government recognizes as entitled to be proprietor, subject
to the revenue-payment, is said to be ' settled with,' or to
' hold the Settlement.' Who the ' proprietors ' were and are,
we have discussed in general terms in the last chapter.
Our first experiment was made in the province which
first came under our rule — viz. the 'Bengal, Bihar, and
Orissa,' of A. D. 1765. Here the plan was to find out
what lump-sums the several local revenue contractors had
been paying, or were, in the accounts, shown as bound to
pay. Such corrections and adjustments as were possible
were then made in the totals, and the persons responsible
were told to pay that amount ; and by law it was declared
that they should never have it enhanced.
So in Bengal, the process of fixing the revenue-payment
having been gone through once for all, under pledge that
no future increase would be demanded, it was called the
'PEKMANENT SETTLEMENT.' We shall, of course, have
much more to say about this hereafter.
1 I shall afterwards explain that and Government levies a rate to
by law the Government levies cer- enable it better to meet the expense
tain 'local rates or cesses' for special of periodical famines — a rate which
purposes, distinct from the land gives rise to very mistaken notions
revenue, which is Imperial or about what people are pleased to
general. The district roads and call a ' Famine Insurance Fund.'
district schools are so provided for ;
li 2
244 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
But when we began to administer other provinces — like
the North- Western Provinces, or the districts of Madras
(with exception of the northern part) l — it was found, as we
have seen, that the land-tenures were wholly different, and
that there were no ' Zamindars ' to hold the Settlement.
Moreover the inconvenience, and injustice to the public, of
fixing the revenue for all time, regardless of changes in the
value of produce, or the rise and fall of agricultural in-
comes, were soon recognized. Therefore different plans of
making a Settlement were devised and worked out for the
different provinces, according to the requirements and local
conditions of each.
These plans have been gradually modified and improved
up to the present day. They retain certain general dis-
tinctive features, but all have a certain common basis.
Speaking generally, all the methods commence with a care-
ful survey, and with a classification of the soil ; and then
begins the Settlement-Officer's difficult task, viz. to find
out money-rates per acre which Government can fairly
charge, as its cash revenue, on the ' proprietors ' for each
kind or class of soil.
According to the system in force, the Revenue is either
assessed in a lump sum on a whole estate — which may be
a considerable area, or a whole group of villages, or a single
village (or parts of villages), or it is assessed on single fields
or holdings surveyed, numbered, and marked out on the
ground. When the estate is in the hands of a great land-
lord, like the Zamindar of Bengal or North Madras, we call
it a ZAMINDARI SETTLEMENT ; and in these two instances
it is also a PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
In Oudh we have a TALUQDARf SETTLEMENT, with great
Taluqdar landlords, but under peculiar conditions, and not
' permanent.'
When it is a single village (or some part or pails of
villages) settled with a landlord body or community, we
1 The Northern part was in some made for it with Zamindars very
respects conditioned like Bengal, much on the Bengal lines,
and a Permanent Settlement was
CHAP. V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 245
call it a VILLAGE (or rather a ' Mahalwar') SETTLEMENT1.
And as this system is prevalent in North- Western India
(and the Central Provinces) it is frequently spoken of as
the ' North-West System ' — for it was devised in the North-
Western Provinces.
In the Central Provinces, we have seen that in each
village, Government conferred the proprietary right on a
person called the ' Malguzar ' ; this Settlement is therefore
often spoken of as theMALGuzARi SETTLEMENT of the Central
Provinces, though in all essentials it is a Settlement on the
North- West model.
Wherever the system assesses each field separately (as in
Bombay and Madras, and parts of the Central Provinces,
and in Berar) we have a RAIYATWARI SETTLEMENT.
That is the very briefest outline of what we are now
going to look into a little more in detail. But let me add
one thing more of this general character.
The theory of the land-revenue being, that it is a share
in the produce, that share to be fixed by the State itself,
it might be supposed that all modern systems of assessment
would aim at finding out the average weight or quantity
yielded by the share (of each principal crop on each class
of soil), whatever the share might be, — one-half, one-third,
or two-thirds, and then valuing it in money at a price
which would (naturally) be the average harvest price of a
series of years. In fact, in our very first Settlements (putting
aside the case of the Bengal Zamindars), something like this
was actually attempted. But it was too difficult and un-
certain ; and they next tried to make a calculation of the
' assets ' of the estate. They counted up the total produce
in gross, and tried to find out the costs of cultivation, wages
of labour, profits of stock, &c., and, deducting the latter from
the former, they took a fraction of the balance as the
revenue or share of the ' assets.' But this also proved im-
practicable, and so they gradually perfected other methods
1 See remarks on this in Chap. IV. one sum of revenue, is, in revenue
p. 170. The village is very often language, the 'Mahal' for assess-
the unit, but the group of land ment purposes.
held under one title, assessed to
246 LAXD SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
which it will be my object to make plain in the sequel ;
but here I wish only to make it understood that modern
assessment methods have departed further and further from
the plan of valuing in money an actual share in produce.
Certain systems, however, still retain some vestiges of the
idea: some more than others.
SECTION II. — THE ORIGIN OF THE LAND-REVENUE.
§ i. The 'Law and Constitution' of India.
In introducing the subject of ancient revenue systems,
and quoting authorities as to what was the king's proper
share, I must remind the reader that all this was matter of
custom — that curious and often undefinable feeling that
things ought to be in a certain way because they always
have been so. The custom, however, has always to give
way before the necessities of the ruler ; and that is why, in
spite of all that can be quoted from law-books, we find
that, in modern times, all Native States claimed, and still
claim, to be de facto owners of every acre of soil in their
States, and have taken as much land-revenue as they could
get without seriously starving the people. Yet, in spite of
the facts, we find writers — especially the early ones — talk-
ing about the ' law and constitution of India'; and at least
one book (Colonel Galloway's) has been published under
that title. As a matter of fact, there never has been any-
thing resembling a ' law and constitution ' for any one of
the diverse countries included in the geographical term
' India' (let alone for the whole), in the sense in which an
English reader would ordinarily understand the term.
Possibly, in Colonel Galloway's time, Indian history was
not accessible to the same comprehensive or panoramic
view of it that, thanks to the labours of Sir W. Hunter and
others, is now open to us. How it was likely that a series
of loosely-connected States, always at war with one another,
overrun from age to age by Dravidians, Greeks, Northern
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 247
Buddhists, Rajputs, Jats, Gujars, Afghans, Mughals, and
the rest, could ever have possessed any general and authori-
tative law entitled to be called the ' law and constitution of
India,' it is not easy to understand.
I do not, however, ignore the fact that, under all this
series of dynasties, there were some indications of uniform
ideas and principles. In the absence of any other force,
CUSTOM has had a potent influence on the rulers and con-
querors no less than on the people. All that were in any
way Hindu, or Hinduized, had certain common feelings ;
and the Muhammadan conquerors of later days, over whom
the law-texts of Arabia or of Baghdad never had any
great hold, knew that their only chance of success was to
conform as much as possible to the custom of their Hindu
subjects.
The early Hindus never had anything that could be
called a code of practical law. It is absurd to suppose that
Manu, or any other author's collection of legal maxims,
(especially in matters of government) was ' in force ' as
statute law is in England or France. The Muhammadan
law-books were, perhaps, somewhat more generally referred
to in matters of criminal and civil law between subject and
subject; but as regards Government and its rights, they
were only quoted (when convenient) with a certain respect ;
their phraseology was also adopted, especially by the more
religious of the Emperors ; but in reality the legal ' 'ashr,'
and ' khiraj,' and all the rest of it, according to the Musal-
man theory of conquest and taxation, had nothing more
than a nominal or theoretic relation to the land-revenue as
actually levied in India.
In this is one of the great contrasts between Oriental and
European rule. The moment a modern Englishman gets
into a district, his law-abiding soul looks for some Act or
rule, or some ' Circular ' by which he may be guided.
Doubtless the ' paternal ' District Officer dislikes the ' sec-
tion 10, sub-section 3,' that prevents him making the order
that he thinks needed for the particular case before him,
and he abhors the pleader, with his niceties and technical
248 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
difficulties ; but, all the same, he desires a substratum of
plain and solid authority on which to rely. He will have
some kind of standard and keep to it ; he will be content
with nothing less, and he will sternly prevent any one from
exacting more. His revenue-demand shall be assessed
according to law, under the supervision of Commissioners
and Boards, with the one idea of making it equal, just,
and easily borne : but once fixed, it must be paid in full,
regularly and to the day.
The Oriental administrator, on the contrary, avoids rigid
rules, and rarely attempts definition. That is why every
Indian institution connected with landed rights or propri-
etary interests, often presents seemingly contradictory and
irreconcileable features ; a man is what we call a landlord
in one aspect, and something quite different in another
aspect. This is distraction to the European ruler. To the
Oriental mind it is highly satisfactory; — to the ruler,
because it enables him to do what he pleases ; to the ruled,
because it discovers a way of escape: neither can be caught
between the bars of a rule and made to feel — ' You cannot
do this because it is illegal,' or (on the other hand) 'You
must be bound to submit to so and so, because your legal
position as a " proprietor " or a " tenant " (or whatever it is)
necessarily involves such and such a condition.' He can
turn one face or the other to the outside, and act on this
presentment of the case or on that, as it suits him, caring
nothing for legal consistency or definiteness of principle.
As soon as circumstances compelled the ruler to ex-
change his grain-share for a money payment, the earliest
methods were quite hap-hazard. Great rulers like Akbar,
and wise ministers like Todar Mai or Malik 'Arnbar (in
the Dakhan) no doubt endeavoured to propound a fixed,
equitable rule for assessing land ; but they could not bind
their successors.
We consequently find the later rulers enhanced the land-
revenue from time to time as they pleased; and it is
absolutely absurd to say that by 'ancient law and con-
stitution ' — or what not — they could not do so. We are no
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-KEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 249
doubt credibly informed that in early days the Rajas
contented themselves with their ' sixth ' ; and no doubt,
as long as there was peace, and cultivation went
on prosperously, there was little or no temptation to take
more. But in more recent times it has always been
the fact that the native rulers have taken to the full
as much as they could get. But how ? — by an arbitrary,
elastic, method of alternate squeezing and loosing. Native
rulers have always been ready to take the whole in good
years, but have rarely shown themselves wanting in a
perfectly unsystematic but practically-working sense of
adaptation which does not let the pressure be overdone
in a bad year1. Any definition or straightness of 'law'
would have militated directly against this most obvious and
characteristic feature of native rule.
And in all cases the restraint of ' custom ' was felt by all
classes, both ruler and ruled. The 'Amil or other collector
knew exactly how far the golden eggs could be multiplied
without killing the goose that laid them.
When, therefore, we refer to Manu for Hindu ideas, or to
the Hiddyd and other Muhammadan text-books, it is not
because these have, or ever had, any authority as practical
statute-books — at any rate in the realm of public or consti-
tutional law — but because the books of a time must more
or less reflect the ideas of the people, and because, of course,
a pious Hindu or a religious Muhammadan prince would
always, to some extent, allow the value, as guides, of books
written by sages or doctors of his semi-sacred law.
We may, therefore, quote the books, but remember that
the only general ' law and constitution ' of India was, that
the people did what was the custom, and the king did
what he chose., at least within the limits of the possible —
limits which the elastic Oriental mind has ordinarily well
known how to keep.
1 I speak of course of the average everything and left depopulated
fair-dealing ruler. There have been villages and ruined provinces ; but
tyrants here and there, who seized these were exceptional.
250 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ i. The Hindu State organization.
Now let us turn backward, and place ourselves, in
imagination, in the days when a regularly established
Hindu State was in working order, in very much the
condition which is indicated rather than described in
MANU'S Institutes.
The whole country occupied by the tribe or clan who
selected and conquered the locality, was first divided out
into large territories or divisions, and the central and
largest (or at any rate the best) one was assigned to the
head chief called ' Raja V
Bound about him, other estates, graduated in size, were
occupied by lesser chiefs, heads of tribal groups or sections.
These would be represented by such titles as 'Thakur,'
' Rana,' 'Rao,' or 'Babu2.' Every one of these held his estate
on certain terms of service to the Raja, which I will pass
over without more detail than to say that a fine was paid
on succession ; that homage was done ; that, on summons,
the chief had to attend with his force; that he was ex-
pected to aid with such contributions as were, in times of
difficulty, required. In some parts the most distant of the
' estates ' were in hilly country ; and here the chief was
more independent than the rest, and was expected to keep
the passes, and prevent the descent of neighbouring hostile
tribes and robbers to harass the dominions of the Raja and
his chiefs.
Inside the Raja's domain or ' khalsa,' as the later Rajputs
and also the Sikhs called it, the greater portion of the land
was directly under the control of the king's officers — a
graded series of district and village authorities — and a
certain portion of it was held or managed under royal
1 See Sterling's account of Orissa territory.'
kingdoms in Asiatic Researches, vol. 2 This term, now commonly em-
xv. p. 220. ' In every part of India, ployed to designate a clerk in office,
it would seem that under the really applies to a native gentleman
Hindus, the domains reserved for of wealth and position, and pri-
the Crown constituted, if not the marily (in some places) indicates
largest, at least the most valuable the sons, nephews, &c., of the Raja
and productive shares of the whole or other chief.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 25 I
grant or assignment, by courtiers, ministers of State, chief
judges, and military officers, as well as by the younger sons
and dependants of the royal house.
The Raja enjoyed two main sources of revenue: —
I. — The first was the throne-right (spoken of as the 'gaddi'
or state cushion) with a right to certain tolls and taxes, transit
duties on trade, excise, rights in the forests (if there were
any) 1, and taxes from the artisan and trading classes.
It is possible that if the other chiefs were not powerful,
these royal rights might extend over their domains as well.
This group of rights was indivisible, or went to the
successor of the Raja, — always the eldest son or next heir-
male.
II. — The second source of revenue was the share in the
grain produce of every bigha of cultivated land, already
spoken of.
It will be observed that just as the Raja took this share
for his own ' khalsa ' or demesne lands, so did the separate
chiefs in their estates : the Raja took no grain-share in
them2. Exactly in the same way, where the Raja made a
grant (or in later days a sale) of a part of his own demesne
lands to a courtier or a general, &c., the grantee took the
share (and perhaps some of the other taxes and tolls) which
would otherwise have gone to the king.
This fact is at the bottom of a great deal connected both
with land-tenures, and the land-revenue. And we have
already seen how, from the Raja's grants and from the
break-up of the territories, village landlord communities
have arisen.
Of course the fate of the ancient Hindu States has been
very various. The smaller ones have often fallen out of
rank; the 'Royal' family has quarrelled; the estate has
split up like those just mentioned, and dissolved into a
1 See Chap. IV. p. 128. Coorg, Malabar, &c., the fact being
a The reader will bear this in that the mistake arose from looking
mind, because forgetfulness of it has at lands which formed chiefs' es-
been the source of a great deal of tates, from which the Raja as tribal
nonsense written in former days chief never did take a royalty,
about there never having been any whether in Malabar or in any other
Royal revenue-share levied, as iu country where Rajas existed.
252 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
number of village-landlord families, only known from the
rest of the village cultivators by their higher caste and
memories of a more dignified origin in the remote past.
In other cases the old Hindu kingdoms were either sub-
dued or destroyed before the conquest,— whether of the
Afghan, the Mughal, the Maratha, the Sikh, or the armies
of Olive or Wellesley or Lake.
In this case, the Raja's grain-share passed on to the con-
queror, or succeeding power. If the Raja had been killed
in battle, or had fled, there was no one to share or diminish
it ; it was simply collected by the State machinery of the
conquering king or emperor ; if the Raja survived under
the conqueror as a subordinate noble, he was probably in-
stalled by royal grant as a ' Zamindar' or ' Taluqdar'; and
continued to collect the grain-share as before, but had now
to pass on a portion — perhaps the greater portion1 — to the
treasury of the conqueror ; and he made his own wealth by
other privileges which in the end left him richer than
before ; he was allowed to cultivate the waste, and take the
profits for himself; he was gradually allowed to bargain
with the State for a fixed revenue payment and keep the
difference between that contract sum and what he could
collect from the ' raiyats.' Then it was that the idea of the
right of reassessing the revenue-share from time to time,
ill-defined as that practice was, inevitably occurred to
him ; and when, under our own rule, the title in the land
was secured to the Zamindars, the power of raising the
assessment soon developed into the ' landlord,' and his right
of ' enhancing ' the ' rents,' which proved such a source of
burning discussion for after years.
But this is to anticipate ; we must first consider how the
Hindu Revenue Administration was conducted, and how the
system fell in with Muhammadan ideas, and was adopted
by the Mughal conquerors, and has come down, in a modi-
fied form, to the British Government.
1 When, in later days, in Bengal, local revenue, the theory was (and
the emperor's deputy allowed the at first the practice) that nine-
surviving Rajas (as well as modern tenths of the whole collections were
officials and farmers) to collect the passed on to the State treasury.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 253
6 3. The Internal Administration.
« t '
Taking what was probably the most regularly governed
territory, we may look within the Raja's demesne to see
how it was managed. The initial grouping of lands is of
course the ' village,' and to this unit attention was mostly
paid, because if the grain collection went wrong there,
nothing else would go right. In the last chapter we have
fully gone into the question of the origin of villages, and
shown how cultivation could only be done by aggregates
of men who were united in some sort of bond for mutual
society and protection. Whether the villages were actually
primaeval settlements of tribes, allotting the lands accord-
ing to custom, or whether they were later foundations by
colonists and settlers, it was natural that some one man
should take the lead as the representative of the village ;
and as the collection of the king's share at the threshing-
floor required watching, that headman was naturally drawn
more and more into connection with the State, and became
in fact a State officer. No wonder, then, that the office
soon assumed an hereditary character, and that, what with
the importance his State connection gave him, and the
emoluments which he was allowed to enjoy, the headman
became an institution so useful, that he survived where
many other institutions gradually disappeared. The fact
that every village from which the king drew a share, had
a headman — alluded to in the early books as the ' grdmad-
hikar,' and later on by a multitude of names ('patel,'
'mandal/ 'pradhan,' and later still, 'muqaddam' and
' lambardar ') — became a recognized universal fact of village
organization.
But the headman required the assistance of a person who
could write and do sums and keep the accounts of the col-
lection, and register facts regarding the land and its culti-
vators ; so that a village ' patwari ' — the ' gramalekhak '
(village-writer) of ancient days — became equally a neces-
sary part of the system.
The natural land-unit of the revenue system being the
254 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
village, its administration furnished the pattern for all the
rest. The village official personnel was, for Government
purposes, simply repeated in wider and wider circles, first
over a smaller area, and then again, over a still larger area
such as we now call a district.
As regards the ' district,' there are allusions in Manu to
' a lord over 1000 villages ' ; and we have traces, in parts of
India, both of the ancient districts and of the officers who
presided over them, still remembered in later Hindu dia-
lects as ' sirdesmukh ' (chief head of a ' des ') ; with him an
accountant of the district was also recognized. But the
most generally used and best known division was that
which was smaller than a ' district' and comprised the charge
of eighty-four villages or some similar group. It is better
known to us by the later (Muhammadan) name of 'par-
gana.' It was always adopted by the Mughal system, and
the parganas into which the country was then divided,
are almost everywhere known to this day. In Maratha
countries, and by the Sikhs, the same division was
known by the name ' talukaV
The pargana or taluka official staff just repeated that of
the village, only in the larger jurisdiction. There was the
' desmukh ' or pargana headman, and the ' des-pandya,' or
desai, who kept the pargana accounts. The former, as we
shall see, became the ' chaudhari ' of later times, and the
latter the ' qanungo.' Directly under these were the villages ;
unless indeed for certain purposes, a circle of villages was
locally recognized and called a 'tappa,' — intermediate
between the pargana and the single village.
It seems that from very early times these officials were
paid (wholly or partly) by holding land revenue-free in
virtue of their office, which is exactly the ' watan ' it after-
wards came to be called in Central India and Bombay2.
' Let the lord of ten villages,' says Manu, ' enjoy the produce
of two plough lands (or as much ground as can be tilled
1 This was the Arabic word write it so.
' ta'alluqa,' but as it was adopted as 2 See Chapter IV, on Land Ten-
a Hindi word in the form taluka, I ures, p. 180.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 255
with two ploughs), the lord of twenty that of ten ploughs,
the lord of 100 that of a village, the lord of 1000 that of
a large village.' Traces of this holding of service-lands (ser-
vice I here use of official service as distinct from laud held
for military service) we shall meet with all over India ; it
extended not only to the village, subdivision, and district
headmen and account-keepers, but to the watchmen, priests,
and even artisans of the villages. The reason why the
official holdings, as a direct origin of a peculiar land-tenure,
survived so in Central and Western India, and to a lesser
extent in the South, and disappeared in the North, is that
in the former countries the Muhammadan kings were even
more respectful to local institutions than the Mughals ; and
though the Mughal Empire at last extended over the Dakhan,
its duration was brief and its hold imperfect. The Maratha
rulers, who followed the Mughals, were Hindu, and there-
fore imbued with the spirit of the universal Hindu system.
Averse to revenue-free holdings as they were, they did not
dare to interfere with such a deeply-rooted institution as
the Hindu official's hereditary land-holding.
§ 4. The Mughal Revenue-organization.
How very generally the Mughals preserved the Hindu
system, only with some attempt at definition and with the
adoption of Perso-Arabic official terms for everything —
terms that have come down to our own officers — is well
known through the description given by Ab-ul-Fazl (Akbar's
minister) in his Ayin-i-Akbari, and through other his-
torians.
The great provinces, like Bengal, Oudh (in later times),
the Dakhan, Allahabad, &c., were the grand divisions, and
were designated ' SiibaV Each Siiba was primarily divided
1 Before the Mughal times, some (officially called Subadar) threw off
of them, as Bengal and Jaunpur, their allegiance and set up as sepa-
had been independent Afghan rate States. Oudh, and the State of
kingdoms, and became Miighal the Nizam of Hyderabad in the
Siibas. Again in the days of de- Dakhan, are familiar examples,
cline, the Nawabs or other governors
256 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
into districts (but larger than our present districts) called
' SirkarV
The Sirkar was divided into parganas (sometimes called
mahals), and these, for sojne purposes, were aggregated into
contiguous groups called ' dastiir ' 2 (or dastur-ul-'aml) — a
grouping which does not appear long to have survived, or
to have had any great importance.
In the reign of Shah Jahan, another subdivision was
recognized, that of ' chakla ' : it was a division of the Suba.
Thus, in Bengal, in the time of Ja'far Khan, the Suba was
divided into thirty-two Sirkars or into thirteen chaklas3.
We read of the Company being granted, in 1 760, the ' chakla '
of Bardwan in Bengal.
In Akbar's time the important revenue officer was the
''amil' (or 'amlguzar), who supervised the village collections
of his district, and adjusted the assessments on the prin-
ciples of the Settlement made during this reign. The 'amil's
jurisdiction was not determined by area, but according to
the amount of revenue under his control. Thus it would
happen that the charge would be small where the land was
well populated and highly cultivated, and larger in a poor
and barren country. The 'amil was in after times called
' Karori ' — the officer who collected a ' crore ' (ten million =
Karor) of ' dams ' (i. e. R. 2,50,000) 4. Still later, the Ka-
rori's duty was restricted to revenue-collection, the assess-
ments being made by another officer (amin-faujdar), in
subordination to whom the Karori acted.
1 Incorrectly written ' Circar.' known in Oudh, not in the North-
Thus we read of the Northern Cir- Western Provinces. In Bengal cer-
cars of Madras. It was suggested tainly the Chakla was not part of
that each Suba should consist of a Sirkar, but a larger district, as
twenty-two Sirkars, and each Sirkar the numbers in the text show. The
of twenty-two parganas, but this ' Chakladar' was the District Officer,
was only an idea never realised in and the '£mil was under him for one
practice. or more ' parganas ' : the 'amil
2 Beames' Elliott's Glossary, vol. ii. might be alone, or there might also
p. 20 et seq. be a revenue-farmer at the same
* Fifth Report, vol. i. 19, 389. time. (North-Western Provinces Gazette,
Beames' Elliott's Glossary speaks of vii. 107 note.)
the ' Chakla ' as a division of a * The ' dam ' was a small copper
' Sirkar,' somewhat larger than coin, of somewhat doubtful value ;
a modern ' district ' but less than in Akbar's time, it is said, forty
a Commissioner's division. It was went to the rupee.
CHAP.v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 257
For each pargana there was a district accountant-
registrar, called ' Kanungo ' (Qamingo = one who declares
the rule or standard). He was the Hindu ' Des-pandya.'
The executive officer of the pargana was called Chaudhari,
the old Hindu ' des-mukh.'
§ 5. The Jdgir System.
One other feature of the Mughal system should be men-
tioned. Just as the Hindus divided the whole country
into the royal domains and chiefs domains, so the Mughals
apportioned their territory into 'khalsa ' and 'jagir' lands.
The former was divided into charges, and managed by
'amils and State officials, as just described. The rest was
divided out into blocks, or estates, which were made over
for life (the grants became hereditary at a later stage) to
certain military commanders, ministers, and courtiers, who
took the revenues for their own support, or that of a mili-
tary force which they were bound to maintain. Probably
the idea was copied from the Hindu system. Sometimes
waste tracts were granted in 'jagir,' and sometimes out-
lying and troublesome districts. The jagirdar managed
the whole, increased the cultivation, and applied the re-
venue to his own support, and to the expenses of the
administration and the pay of troops. While a strict
control lasted, the jagirdar was bound to take no more
than the sum assigned ; and if more came into his hands,
he had rigidly to account for the surplus to the State
treasury 1. The system of assigning the revenues of a
tract as a reward for good service, or the support of troops,
is a regular Oriental method, and has been continued in
our own times in a modified form.
1 The system of Jaglrs, which has chapter, is more fully explained in
also been touched on in the last the chapter on Bengal Tenures.
VOL. I.
258 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 6. Farming or Contracting Systems.
The last phase in the administration was that which
marked the later days of the Empire after the death of
Aurangzeb.
I have already explained T how important it was for the
Mughal rulers to conciliate, and if possible make use of, the
old Rajas, who, though yielding submission to the conqueror,
were only too likely to give trouble directly a chance of
revolt occurred. This circumstance led to the appointment
of Rajas to collect, or rather to contract for, certain defined
sums of revenue required from their territories. I have also
explained how, in days of disorder and feeble rule, such a
plan of contracting for a fixed sum of revenue saved all the
trouble of local control, and so was generally adopted ; and
then, not only old territorial chiefs, but speculators, courtiers,
and quondam officials, were allowed to become revenue-
farmers, either of parganas or of larger or smaller areas,
according to their means and spheres of influence. Their
territories were spoken of as the ' ihtimdm,' or charge. A
Raja, a chaudhari, or a speculator with no title at all, thus
appointed to manage the tract under his influence, would
be equally designated as the ' landholder ' or ' Zamindar '
of his territory, and would be so called in the ' sanad,' or
official warrant of his appointment. A person allowed a
somewhat less important tract on the same terms (and some-
times made subordinate to a ' Zamindar ') would be called
' Taluqdar.' In Oudh, the title of ' Taluqddr ' was applied,
with no suggestion of inferior rank, to holders of estates of
the first class2.
At first, the duty of such a ' landholder ' was strictly to
gather the revenues of the villages, and retain only his own
recognized share of the total, which was usually one-tenth,
1 See Chap. IV. p. 185. mindar ' had acquired a special
2 Possibly it was that the Oudh meaning in Oudh, and was applied
Taluqs were not so large as the dis- to grantees or others who had the
tricts of Bengal Zamindars : but I management of single villages,
think it likely that the term ' za-
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 259
besides making certain other deductions, all exactly speci-
fied and accounted for. But in time the strictness was
relaxed, and the ' Zamindars ' were simply required to make
good a lump-sum, raised from time to time, and partaking
more and more of the nature of a bargain. Under such a
system, oppression of the country people was sure to follow.
All regular assessments, and authorized revisions of land-
revenues, were further and further abandoned 1. The
Treasury authorities of the province merely increased
their demands on the ' Zamindar ' by adding extra cesses,
giving them this name or that, according to the par-
ticular necessity or fancy that originated them. These
amounts had, of course, to be got out of the villages —
with a good deal more besides. In the days of decline,
as we shall see, both in Oudh and Bengal, an occasional
vigorous governor would make a desperate grasp at the
reins of revenue-control ; for a time the revenue-farming, or
Zamindari management, would be set aside, and an attempt
made to return to village collections through the pargana
officials ; but always without lasting result. Exactly
the same thing happened in the first days of British rule.
Zamindars were set aside, and other local collectors tried ;
but in vain. The Zamindari system had become the only
one by which the revenues could be secured ; at least,
without aji entirely new system, which would have in-
volved a survey of the lands, and other steps, which were
not possible at the time, even if anyone had thought of
them.
1 Farming the revenues (a bad (home-farm) at privileged rates.'
example which was often copied in The farmer, however, was bound
our first essays at management) was to let the tenant's rates alone for
always the resource either of go- the period of his lease. The Ro-
vernments in their decline or of hillas certainly succeeded from a
mere marauders like the Rohillas. financial point of view. They raised
The Marathas adopted it also when from Bareilly a sum nearly equal to
their position was not secure. The sixteen lakhs of our currency in
Rohillas made farming the corner- 1754, which is not far short of the
stone of their financial system, and assessment 120 years later. But
it is still in force in the small after twenty- five years of the Nawab
Roh ilia State of Rampur. '"Pro- Wazir's;0udh^ rule, the revenue had
prietors " were not recognized ; the fallen to half that amount. — (Review
only favour conceded to landholders of Bareilly Settlement Report, p. 5. )
was permission to hold their " sir"
8 2
260 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
How this contract system spread all over Bengal, and
over the upper part of Madras ; how, in a modified form,
it was adopted in Oudh, and to a much less extent and in
a different form, it prevailed in Northern India ; how it
was only allowed by the Maratha"s to a limited extent, and
for individual villages ; and how, wherever adopted, it
produced various effects on the land-tenures, I have already
given some idea in the last chapter. Here I must return
to the revenue-administration, and pass on to notice the
changes that followed from the example set by the Mughal
Empire, in later Hindu States — Rajput, Maratha, and Sikh.
Indeed, they were very slight. When we look to the
organization of Rajput States, as we find them after the
time of Akbar — whose policy had been to encourage and
gain the support of the Rajput princes — we find a number
of Persian revenue terms gradually introduced, but the
administration essentially the same as that of the early
kingdoms.
Exactly the same thing happened when Maratha States
rose on the ruins of the Muhammadan and Pathan king-
doms, and when the Sikh States took the place of the
Afghan governor in the Panjab.
§ 7. Post-Mughal Hindu Administration.
The Hindus always held to the system I have already
described, — the allotment of the whole territory into tracts
governed by the Raja or overlord, and tracts governed by
his ' feudal ' chiefs ; and I have before alluded to their
recognition of estates called bhumiya — holdings which were
virtually proprietary estates but of inferior rank, because
the holders were proprietors, not governors. The direct
management was by heads of districts, practically the same
as the Muhammadan 'pargana,' and called taluka; under
these were subdivisions called ' tappa,' and then came the
villages.
The only remarkable fact is this, that the later Hindu
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EE VENUE ADMINISTRATION. 261
States adopted many Perso-Arabic terms derived from the
Muhammadan system1.
§ 8. Mardthd Revenue System.
For central government each Maratha State had a Divvan
or Minister. Under him was the Fard-navis, a sort of
Financial Minister, and with him the Mazum- (or Majmu'a)
-dar, or Registrar. There was also a Chitta-navfs (letter-
writer or Secretary), a ' Sikka-navis,' who kept the Prince's
seal, and a ' Pot-navis,' or Treasury Officer. This group
formed the ' Secretariat ' or State Department.
In the districts, a considerable territory was in charge of
a ' kamavisdar,' who had deputies in each subdivision. The
deputy, again, in each patta, subdivision, or tappa, was aided
by a 'karkun' or agent. The minor subdivisions varied
according to convenience. The Marathas sometimes con-
tinued the use of the Muhammadan ' sirkar ' and ' pargana,'
and sometimes spoke of the ' taluka.' The ' tappa ' used
by them was larger than a pargana, and was subdi-
vided into 'zilas2.' But each district was not left to
the kamavisdar alone : his authority was shared by an
officer called the 'zamindar.' Here we have another mean-
ing for this Protean term. The zamindar was, in fact, the
old ' desrnukh ' with a new name ; he was the executive
head collector ; and the kamavisdar was really put in as
a spy or check on him to prevent his absorbing the revenue.
Of course the kanungo or district accountant was main-
tained, and he ranked next below the ' zamindar.'
§ 9. Later Rajput States.
The later Rajput States had, and still have, an exactly
similar system, only with different names : thus the diwan
1 Just as the Sikhs adopted Per- from the use later acquired, where
sian for the official or Court ' zila' ' was adopted in the Regula-
language. tions, for the district embracing
8 Malcolm, vol. ii. p. 4. The term several parganas.
'zila',' as here locally used,is different
262 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
was called ' kamdar ' = charge d'affaires ; the fard-navis was
called ' daftari,' and so forth.
It should be remembered that certain tracts were
either held by renters or farmers, or by 'jagirdars,'
military and other assignees of the revenue of certain
areas ; and in these tracts the official collectors did not
interfere.
The Marathas, and the better Rajput chiefs, were careful
of their territories. 'All ground,' says Sir J. Malcolm1, 'be
it ever so waste or hilly, is included in the divisions (par-
gana, tappa, taluka, &c.) which are marked by natural or
artificial boundaries, such as rivers, water-courses, ranges
of hills, trees, rocks, ridges, or lines between any two re-
markable objects. The lands were measured, including the
space occupied by banks, walls, houses, &c., in the time of
the Mughal Government ; and this record of measurement
was lodged in the office of every zaminddr of a district as
well as in the fard-navis' (State Secretary's) office. Several
of these records have been saved ; but where they are not,
the ease with which the memory of the respective limits
was preserved by the hereditary officers of the district and
village to whom this duty belongs, is very extraordinary.'
§ 10. -Sikh System in the Punjab.
When the Sikh Government succeeded to the Muslim
dominions in the Panj&b, they followed the same system.
I may pass over the first short period when the confederate
and equal chiefs (grouped in what were called 'misl')
divided the country into a multitude of ' taluqas2.' Soon
the genius of Ranjit Singh prevailed, and he became King
(or Maharaja) and made the other chiefs ' feudal ' lords and
governors of districts under him. These governors he called
' Jagirdar, or ' Diwan,' or ' Nazim,' as the case might be.
Under these, again, were districts of manageable size (talu-
1 Vol. ii. p. 5. course quarrelled, and very soon
2 The Sikh dominion commenced they were reduced under one head,
with a sort of confederacy of a See Hunter's India (Gaz, vol. vi.
number of equal chiefs. They of p. 410, and edition.)
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 263
qas), and ' Kardars ' were the presiding officers, who assessed
and collected the revenues.
§ n. Resume of Native Systems.
In short, the student will bear in mind that the Mughal
system, as introduced by Akbar and his successors (before
that organization was virtually replaced by the system of
revenue-farming}, was, in fact, the old Hindu model.
The Hindu States always kept it up, only that they
preferred several of the Persian names that the Mughal
Empire had introduced. The fact was, that while the
early Hindu system had been one without any survey
or measurement, and without any records to speak of,
the Mughal rulers crystallized it into more business-like
permanence, by measuring and recording villages, parganas,
and 'sirkars' with their revenue assessment. Once fixed,
the local hereditary officers became the depositaries of the
measures, rules, and facts (qamingo means the officer who
' declares ' the ' rule,' measure, or law in revenue matters).
All later Governments were glad to avail themselves of
these records; and the old formal assessment of Akbar's
date formed a sort of basis or fundamental assessment,
remembered with almost superstitious reverence, though
of course it was altered and increased according to circum-
stances, and no one really expected to be assessed according
to it, unless he conceived a right to hold at fixed rates, which
was thus expressed. Briefly, the essential features of all
historic revenue-management, whether Rajput, Mughal,
Maratha, or Sikh, have been the following, under whatever
variety of names : —
(1) the village, with its headman and accountant ;
(2) very frequently there was an intermediate grouping
of villages forming a 'tappa,' under a minor civil
officer and staff; this is not always found ;
(3) a larger district forming a pargana or taluka, under a
district headman (kardar, 'amil, chaudhari, karorf,
&c.), and aided by an accountant (kanungo) ;
264 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
(4) Several parganas united into a sirkar (or locally a
chakla) under a Diwan, Nazim, &c.
Wherever revenue-farming arrangements were introduced
in the late Mughal days, it was on a large scale ; and the
local magnate who became contractor, first atrophied and
then obliterated the local revenue staff; whereas, when the
Marathas and Sikhs adopted farming it was chiefly by
single villages or small taluqas.
SECTION III. — ANCIENT AUTHORITIES REGARDING THE
'KING'S SHARE.'
§ i. The Hindu Theory.
I have called attention to the fact that the earlier races
who preceded the Aryans — or, as I call them, Rajputs,
according to their later and surviving name — did not origin-
ally accord their king a share in the grain-heap of every
village in his dominion, but allotted him the entire produce
of certain lands. In Chutiya Nagpur, for instance, among
the Dravidian races, and among the Gonds and others of
Central and South India, we find distinct traces of the
allotment of areas for the king, ministers, and so on, down
to the village heads1. But even there the practice gradu-
ally grew up of taking a grain-share from the other lands
also. And this practice became universal. The Hindu
States always took a grain-share for the king in his
territories, and for the chiefs in theirs.
The idea of a ' share ' for the king seems to have been a
very early one : thus Sir John Malcolm quotes the Mahd-
bhdrata as alluding to the origin of kings : ' Mankind '
(says the author) ' were continually opposing each other,
and they at last went to Brahma to ask him to appoint a
king over them. Manu was directed to be their king. He
replied, " I fear a sinful action : government is arduous,
especially among ever-lying men." They said, " Fear not ;
1 See also the section on Chutiya' Nagpur Tenures (Bengal).
CHAP.v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 265
you will receive a recompense : — of beasts a fiftieth part,
and also of gold, and we will give you a tenth of the corn,
increasing your store,"' &C.1 Manu (chap. vii. 127-130)
says : ' Of cattle, of gems, of gold and silver, added each
year to the capital stock [the king's share is] a fiftieth
part2, of grain an eighth part, or a sixth or a twelfth,
according to the difference of the soil and the labour neces-
sary to cultivate it.' In Chap, x, v. 118, it is admitted
that the share may be raised to one-fourth of the crops at
a time of urgent necessity, as in war or invasion ; and so
the tax on the mercantile classes may be raised. It was
noticed that in Alexander's time the cultivators were
already contributing one-fourth of the grain3. In the great
southern Hindu kingdom -of Bijanagar or Vijayanagar
(which lasted till the seventeenth century), the Minister
Vidyaranya declared that a king who took more than one-
sixth ' shall be deemed impious in this world, and shall be
cast into hell-flames in the next4.'
Colonel Wilks, in his History of Mysore, has given other
instances of the southern kingdoms taking one-sixth5.
Harihar Hai, who was one of the early kings of Bijanagar
(A.D. 1334-47), is said to have divided the grain thus : half,
including the straw, to the cultivator ; and the remaining
half was made into three shares, one of which went to the
king, one to the overlord or ' proprietor ' of the village, and
one-third to priests and the religious classes ; but the latter
the king also took, on the plea that he supported the
priests 6.
From the many allusions in books, it seems probable
that, as long as the old kingdoms were at peace, the tradi-
1 Malcolm, vol. i. p. 231, note. Wilks tells us of a Pandyan king
2 Briggs notices that in the time invading Kanara in the thirteenth
of Tavernier the king took two per century, who made the people give
cent, of the gems found at Gol- him the sixth of husked rice, thus
khanda (the celebrated diamond adding ten per cent, to the con-
mines, then worked). tribution at one stroke.
3 Strabo, lib. xv. 1030 ; and Dio- 6 See this more fully described,
dorus Siculus, ii. 53, quoted by and the curious method of calculating
Briggs. the produce by a certain multiple
4 Briggs, p. 62. of the seed sown, described in Sir
5 But it seerns that the sixth was T. Munro's Minute on Kanara, given
enlarged very easily. Thus, Colonel in Arbuthnot, p. 61 of vol. i.
266 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
tional sixth was adhered to1. The king had no expanding
administrations nor demands like those on a modern
government ; and as long as the revenue-share came in
regularly, and as it was moderately increased by increase of
cultivation and by the other tolls and dues which the king
levied, he had no great temptation to raise the share, at any
rate formally and openly. But there always comes a time
when invasion and war and other difficulties disturb affairs ;
and in later days we shall find Hindu kingdoms, no less
than others, raising the revenue freely.
In other places, the share of two-fifths was commonly
levied, and the ' panchdo ' is still a traditionally common
proportion of grain-produce, now paid to a ' proprietor ' who
has intervened between the cultivator and the king.
The ' Fifth Report ' gives many more details as to the
extent of shares taken at different times 2. What the Sikh
demand was, will appear fully in the chapter on the Panjab
Revenue System.
It is unnecessary, however, to go into further detail,
because, whatever was the early practice, and whatever its
causes and its duration, it is quite certain, as Campbell
remarks, that in later times the practice in all States — a
practice that can be traced back before the end of the
seventeenth century, at any rate — was to take a half of the
grain in some cases, and in places where money assess-
ments were levied, as much as could be got without driving
1 Indeed, Abul Fazl, in the Ayin- for the royal ' privy purse.' No
i-Akbari, says the Hindu custom public works, no army, and no
was to take one-sixth (of the gross police had to be maintained out of
produce). And see M. Williams' it. The army was supported by the
translation of the Sakuntald, Act II. estates on the feudal system, and so
p. 49. with the police as far as there was
"Vol. ii. pp. 411, 462, 472-3; any distinct from the military force,
see also Hunter's Orissa, vol. i. p. And when the great tanks, bathing
32-5 ; Campbell (Cobden Club Papers), places, and other works which are
p. 155. See also Sir T. Munro's now looked on with just admiration
opinion in a Minute at page 92 of as showing the wealth, power, and
Arbuthnot, vol. i. See also note in wisdom of the old kings, were made,
Phillips, p. 227, showing that there it was chiefly by unpaid labour,
was no real limit on the share. It or at least by labour fed with food
should be remembered with refer- taken from the neighbourhood. All
ence to the supposed moderation of this cannot be ignored in comparing
the ' one-sixth,' that it really re- the modern system with the
presented little more than a charge ancient.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 267
the raiyats to abscond into the jungle, and by the carefully
elastic mode of exaction which the old rulers were so
clever in applying.
§ 2. Muhammadan theory of Land-Revenue.
I will now briefly allude to the Muhammadan law theory
of the revenue — not, as I have already said, because the
Mughals really understood it or carried it out, but because
it was sometimes convenient for the orthodox to refer to it ;
and because, occasionally, fanatical rulers did impose some
of the taxes eo nomine on the Hindus.
The theory was that the inhabitants of a country might
be regarded as ' milli,' or peaceful ; ' zinimi' or subdued
infidels ; and ' harbl' those in arms against the Muslim ;
and the treatment of a conquered country may be briefly
described in the words of an author quoted in Colonel
Galloway's Law and Constitution of India l : — ' When the
Imam (leader of the faithful) conquers the country by force
of arms, if he permits the inhabitants to remain, he imposes
the khirdj on their lands and the jaziya (correctly jiziyat]
on their heads ' ; and he adds that the land then remains
the property of the conquered 2.
Some authors considered khirdj to be of different kinds
— the term in itself meant the whole of the surplus pro-
duce after deducting the cost of production 3.
But there was also the more lenient form of ' khirdj
mukdsima,' or division of produce, by which the sovereign
1 P. 32 : the work is called Siraj- tribute as they can bear, may be
ul-wahaj. imposed, instead of death, on in-
2 With the poll-tax or ' jaziya ' fidels ; and it is commanded that
we have no concern ; but the reader the jaziya and khirdj be exacted to
will find some curious facts about it the uttermost farthing, in order
in Beames' Elliott's Glossary, vol. ii. that the punishment may approach
sub voc. jaziya. Thus 'Al£-ud-din as near as possible to death.' ' You
Khilji is described as conversing may perceive,' replied the king,
with a learned Qazi — ' From what ' that without reading learned
description of Hindus is it lawful books, I am in the habit of putting
to exact obedience and tribute ? ' in practice that which has been en-
The Qazi replies : ' Imam Hanif joined by the Prophet.'
says that the jaziya, or as heavy a 3 Quoted in Briggs, p. 115.
268 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
took one-fifth or so. This was, of course, the exact counter-
part of the old Hindu grain-share.
The tax converted into money was called ' khirdj-mu'wa-
zifa' or simply ' wazifa,' and this was (originally) 'regulated
by the ability of the cultivator to pay.'
On such general principles, it is not surprising that the
Muhamniadan rulers exercised considerable latitude in
assessing their revenue ; and that no particle of evidence can
be adduced for the proposition that by ' law and constitu-
tion ' of India, Akbar's Settlement, or any other, constituted
a standard to which every one could appeal, and beyond
which he could not lawfully be enhanced. As a matter of
fact, in the best days of Mughal rule, moderation and con-
trol over collecting officers were duly observed ; but no
ruler ever dreamt that he might not from time to time (as
he chose — there was no other principle) revise the assess-
ment. Good rulers did so by a formal measurement and
moderate additions. Indifferent rulers did so by the easier
expedient of merely adding on ' cesses ' (known in revenue
language as ' hubub' and 'abwdb'). Bad rulers simply
bargained with farmers for fixed sums, thus both compelling
and encouraging the farmer to raise the assessment on the
cultivators, or, in other words, delegating to the farmer the
proper functions of the State officer in revising assess-
ments.
How the revenue-farmer exercised this power we shall
see in the history of Bengal ; it was the origin, of course, of
his right of enhancing (what became) the rent. When the
raiyats ceased to be dealt with direct by the State officers,
they were, in effect, handed over to the Zamindar, who in
time became ' the landlord/ and they his ' tenants.'
Before the Mughal times, we find 'Ala-ud-din (A.D. 1294-
1315) imposing a half produce tax, or khirdj 1. But the
1 See Briggs* FerisMa, vol. i. 347. grant of Government, pays no land-
The reader will notice that this revenue, or of which the revenues
term, though not now used for are assigned to a grantee. The
the land-revenue, has entered into ' land-revenue ' as an amount as-
common use in the official term sessed is jama' = total ; as a pay-
' lakhiraj,' i. e. land which, by the ment it is spoken of as ' mdl,' or in
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 269
practically useful history of land-revenue begins with the
reign of Akbar.
Before, however, I speak of the Akbarian Settlement, of
which the central feature was the commutation of the grain-
share into a money payment, let me introduce to the reader
the method of grain-division as it used to be employed, and
as it is still locally employed, either between the native
Baja and his subjects, or between landlord and tenant, as
in Bihar, the Panjab, and other localities.
§ 3. Practice of Grain-division.
The earliest form of grain-division is the deposit of the
grain in heaps on the threshing-floors and measuring it
out with certain measures, which varied with the custom
of the place. How complicated such a measurement can
be made, and what varied forms of fraud can be practised
on either side, it is not easy to realize. In the chapter on
SINDH, I have made allusion to the elaborate practice
followed in former days in some of the districts there ; and
in various other provincial sections I have given accounts
of the curious local practices of division. Here I only give
a general idea of the commonest forms, which were — (i)
actual division ; (2) estimating the standing crop and de-
claring a certain number of ' maunds ' to be the king's
share.
In order to save the trouble of dividing, sometimes — and
this was perhaps a step towards dissolution of the system —
a method of estimation would be allowed ; a practised eye
looked at a field, and judged, ' The reaping of such a field
will give so many maunds of grain, of which so many go
to the king ' ; and the officers took that amount of grain,
whether more or less than was actually harvested.
I will ask the student to remember the vernacular terms :
' bhaoli ' (or ' batai ') by itself or in compound, is applied to
some provinces 'mu'amla.' (In the versal and the only one under-
Panjab this use of the term is uni- stood.)
270 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
actual grain-division : ' kankut ' (or kan) is applied to the
estimate.
§ 4. In Rdjput States.
Colonel Tod thus speaks of the grain-share collection in
Rajput States1: —
'There are two methods of levying the revenues of the
Crown on every description of corn — "kankut " and "batai" :
— for, on sugarcane, poppy, hemp, tobacco, cotton2, indigo, and
garden produce, a money payment is fixed, varying from rupees
two to six per bighd. The kankut is a conjectural estimate of the
standing crop by the united judgment of the officers of Govern-
ment— the patel (village headman\ pattvdri — and the owner of
the field. The accuracy with which an accustomed eye will
determine the quantity of grain on a given surface is surprising,
and should the owner deem the estimate overrated, he can
insist on batai or division of the corn after it is threshed. . . .
In the batai system the share of the Government is from one-
third to two-fifths of the spring harvest3, as wheat and barley ;
and sometimes even half, which is the invariable proportion of
the autumnal crops. The " kankiit" is the most liable to cor-
ruption. The cultivator bribes the collector, who will under-
rate the crop ; and when he betrays his duty the " watchman"
(one of the village establishment) is not likely to be honest :
and as Indian corn, the grand autumnal crop of Mewar (Udaipur
State), is eaten green, the Crown may be defrauded of half its
dues. . . . There was a "barar" or tax introduced to make up
the deficiency, which was in no proportion to the quantity
cultivated, and its amount was at the mercy of the officers.'
§ 5. A Modern Native State.
The following is another picture of ' batai ' from one of
the ' tappas ' or groups of villages called Khairoda. in the
Mewar (Udaipur) State 4 : — ' Of the first crop, consisting of
1 Tod, i. 431. 3 There are in most parts two
2 Cotton in some places was harvests (see Chap. i. pp. 12-13).
shared in kind. In Chittagong The spring crop is in Mewar called
certain of the remoter hill estates ' unalu,' and the autumn crop ' si-
used to pay their revenue in cotton, yalu ' ; ' un ' = heat, ' si ' = cold ; re-
and gave rise to the ' Kapas mahal,' ferring to summer and winter
or estate in the accounts, which paid harvest time.
in cotton. 4 Tod, vol. ii. 547.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTEATION. 2 7 I
wheat, barley, and gram, the produce is formed into heaps
of one hundred maunds each ; these are subdivided into
four parts of twenty-five maunds each. The first operation
is to provide from one of these the " sirano " or seer on each
maund, to each individual of the village establishment, viz.
the pdtel, or headman ; the pativdri, or accountant ; the
shdna, or watchman (guardian of crops) ; the buldi, or
messenger and general herdsman ; the hdtM (alias satar),
or carpenter ; the I6hdr, or blacksmith ; the kumhdr, or
potter ; the dhobi, or washerman ; the chamdr, who is
shoemaker, currier, and scavenger ; and the ndi, or barber-
surgeon. These ten "siranos," being one seer on each heap
or two and a-half maunds to each individual, swallow up
one of the subdivisions. Of the three remaining parts, one
share (twenty-five maunds) go to the Raj or State, two to
the cultivator, after deducting a "sirano" for the heir-
apparent, which is termed "Kunwar-mutka" (the prince's
pot).' An innovation of late years has been practised on
the portion (two heaps) belonging to the village, by which
no less than three maunds are deducted nominally for the
prince, the Raja's chief groom, and his grain- steward ; so
that the Government share in total becomes three-tenths
instead of one-fourth. The autumn crop is also divided by
heaps : out of every one hundred maunds, forty go to the
Government and sixty to the village 1.
1 I cannot forbear making one skilful makers can be found, is the
other extract describing batdi in one most simple and expeditious method,
of the old Sikh estates. I found but requiring great Fidelity, Ex-
among the records of the Ambala perience, and Judgment in the
Commissioner's office a report on a "kunneea" or appraiser, who should
lapsed estate of Sirdarni Daya Kuii- be chosen from among the oldest
war, dated 23rd May, 1824. It con- Zumeendars, and over whom the
tains the following curious passage Tuhseeldar should keep a vigilant
(which I transcribe exactly — capi- and circumspect Eye. In the case
tals and all) : — of a cultivator being dissatisfied
' The Native system of making with the appraisement of his field
the collections may be termed three- by the kunneea, an instant recourse
fold ; — the kun (kan) [also called should be had to the Practice of
"kankut" and "tip"], bataee ^atail beating out a Beega or a Biswa of
and tushkhees (tashkhis), all of the grain on the disputed Field,
which had at different periods been and thereby ascertain the exact
adopted by the officers of the late quantity to the satisfaction of both
Sirdarnee. The kun or appraise- parties. It is obvious that a con-
ment [of crop before cutting], if stant appeal to this principle ought
272 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 6. Mardthd System.
In the Mar&tha States the financiers had already replaced
batdi by money-rates. Sir J. Malcolm l writes : — ' The
mode of realizing the revenue varied little as far as it
related to the collections of the cultivators. Batdi or pay-
ment in kind is very unusual ; except with the Rajput
principalities, almost all the subjects in the Maratha States
pay in money. The basis on which Settlements were gene-
rally founded was a measurement of the kharif or first
crop 2 when it is cut down, and the rabi or second crop,
when it is about half a foot high, and is renewed every
third year. This measurement3 is made with a coarse
rope divided into yards.' In a note the author mentions
that in Nimar no measurement had taken place since the
Muhammadan rule, and that the people regarded re-mea-
surement as an innovation, desiring to be held to what was
in the kanungo's books.
A village Settlement had to be made for each harvest
with the headman, unless the village was farmed or rented.
The regular assessment was said to be moderate, and was
intended to amount to the money equivalent of twenty-five
to forty per cent, of the produce after deduction of seed
to be avoided as tedious and vex- Zumeendars, who are tempted to
atious, and it is seldom that the remove portions of grain during the
cultivator calls for its application, night season. Could these and
still less does the kunneea like to similar Difficulties be surmounted,
put his judgment to the Test. no mode offers such a show of jus-
' The butaee or division of grain tice to the Government and its sub-
on the spot seemed to present many jects as dividing the Gifts of nature
objections. Three Heaps are made : on the spot.
one for the Sarkar (the Govern- ' The tushkees, or farm of an es-
ment), one for the Ryot, and the tate to the highest bidder, distresses
third for the Khurch, or village ex- the cultivator, however pleasing
penses ; so that the Government the lucrative receipts may appear
receives only about one-third of the for the first few years of the
produce, which has led to the lease '
phrase " bataee lootaee " or Division 1 Vol. ii. p. 24.
is plunder. The grain has to re- a I. e. counting the year as begin-
main in the field for a length of ning before the rains, which is the
time, exposed to the Elements, ere plan of the fasli or agricultural year,
it can be trodden out and winnowed, 3 In Central India they used the
added to the expense of persons to Akbari measure of one bigha = a
watch the khulwara (khalwara) or square of 60 gaz or yards, which
stacks from the spoliation of the will be explained further on.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 273
and costs 1. The moderation, however, was deprived of its
advantage by the additional charge of ' tafrik ' or contin-
gencies.
The system of management adopted by the Marathas was
not, however, uniform ; in outlying tracts they farmed
their revenues and did it cruelly ; in other places they
made no arrangement at all, but levied a 'chauth,' or
fourth, as tribute. The Maratha 'chauth' in Bengal be-
came historic.
In the Settlement report of the large Dholka taluka, or
local division of the Ahmadabad Collectorate of Bombay,
I find the most curious account of the old assessments.
Whether this was altogether due to the Marathas or to the
chiefs (called taluqdars), remains of the Muhammadan
kingdoms in the Guzarat province, I do not know ; but the
assessment consisted sometimes of a grain-division (bhag-
watai), and sometimes of a cash assessment by area (always
called bighoti — rate on the bigha). This varied with each
crop, and was levied on all sugar-cane, garden produce,
and vegetables. Then, besides that, there was a whole
series of ' babti,' which is merely an old friend, — the Bengal
' cess ' (abwab) under a new name. Yet most of the assess-
ment was levied on the basis or foundation of the moderate
and recorded rates of the Settlement effected by the Mu-
hammadan kings. The latter was called the 'ain (the
'thing itself) ; and when the Marathas had levelled up the
village 'ain to what they considered as much as could be
got, they called it the ' kamal ' or ' perfect ' assessment.
§ 7. Certain Crops always paid in Cash. — Zabti.
In concluding this notice, I ought to allude to a fact
which perhaps suggested, certainly facilitated, the change
from a grain to a money -p&ymeni. When vegetables,
sugar-cane, spices, and similar crops, not forgetting cotton,
are largely cultivated, it is very difficult to divide them in
1 Irrigated land for opium and high ; the black soil was assessed
sugar-cane was rented at R. 5 to zoa at R. i to 1-8.
bigha, and garden land nearly as
VOL. I. T
274 LANI) SYSTEMS OE BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
kind ; the process takes too long and the produce is spoiled,
or the determination of a yield, when the whole crop is not
taken off the soil at once, becomes impossible. At a very
early date such crops paid at customary rates in cash ; and
when in later times all crops paid in cash, these — more
valuable — kinds of produce were charged at a higher rate.
In revenue language they were called ' zabti ' crops, and
paid at ' zabti ' rates l.
SECTION IV. — THE BEGINNING OF REGULAR ASSESSMENT
UNDER NATIVE RULE.
The first beginning of the change from a mere levy of
a share of the grain to a regularly-assessed land-revenue,
may fairly be traced to the Emperor Akbar's Settlement,
begun in 1571 A.D. There had been some earlier attempts,
but they were not systematic, nor have the details come
down to us. There was another great Settlement at a later
date carried out by the Muhammadan kings of the Dakhan,
but that was almost wholly a copy of Akbar's Settlement.
The astute emperor employed a distinguished Hindu Raja,
Todar Mai2, to do the work conjointly with a Muham-
madan official. It should be remarked that this Settlement
did not at once enforce the method of cash payment ; it left
it optional with the raiyat to pay the old grain-share if he
objected to the commutation price. Abul Fazl, in the
Ayin-i-Akbari, describes the methods of grain-division as
above detailed, showing that the methods have never varied
in principle. He mentions the ' kankut/ or estimate of
crops while standing ; the ' bhaoli ' or ' batai ' being the
actual division of the grain on the threshing-floors. And
he adds another method called 'khetbatai/ or taking a
certain measured area of the standing crop of each field, the
1 Zabt (A.) means ' sequestered,' in Todar being the palatal, it is
set aside ; hence special or excep- sounded something like r ; hence
tional. the name appears as Torun Mall,
2 This name is found variously Toren Mull, Tooral Mai, and Tury-
tortured in the older books : the d mal (in the Fifth Report).
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EE VENUE ADMINISTEATION. 275
yield of which is assumed to represent the share of the
whole holding ; and one called ' lang-batai,' whereby the
cultivator piles the grain into as many heaps as there are
shares, and the Government officer takes the heap that
pleases him.
§ i. Akbar's Settlement under Rdjd Todar Mai.
In 1571 A.D. the survey was commenced ; a standard, the
' ilahi ' gaz, or yard-rod, was fixed, and a ' tanab ' or chain 1.
The Settlement extended to Bengal in 1582. The classi-
fication of land adopted was into ( i ) ' pulaj ' 2 (or ' pulej '),
which was land that was continually cultivated and did not
require fallow; (2) 'phirawati,' or rotation land that re-
quired a periodical fallow ; (3) ' chichar,' that lay fallow for
three or four years, or rather that, being inundated or
otherwise bad, could only be occasionally depended on for
a crop ; and (4) ' banjar,' waste that had not been cultivated
for five or more years. The first three kinds were again
classed into ' best,' ' middling,' and ' worst.'
The share of Government was one-third of the produce ;
and to ascertain an average, a bigha of each kind was taken
as a sample, and one-third of the aggregate produce was con-
sidered to be the average bigha produce. One-third of this
gave the Government share. Tables are to be found in the
Ayin-i-Akbari showing the averge yield for various crops
grown at each harvest3. Garden crops and pan (the aromatic
betel-leaf used for chewing) were charged at certain money -
1 The gaz was 41 fingers or 33 saries. I suspect it is a corruption
inches long; a square of 60 such of the Persian 'palez' — garden-land,
yards (a ' jarib ' each way) gives one land that grows melons, &c.
bigha. The standard bigha of the 3 See Briggs, p. 126 ; and Field,
Upper Provinces is then 3,025 Eiig- p. 433. The names of the crops in
lish square yards (five-eighths of an both are so misspelt as to be un-
acre). In Bengal it is i, 600 square recognizable; e.g. adess = 'adas, the
yards, or about one-third of an Arabic for masur or lentils ; shaly
acre. In other places it is various. mushkeen is the Persian Sltdl-i-mush-
We have still some means of testing kin, or scented rice, one of the best
the figures by the mindr or 'mile kinds (bansmatti) ; motmg = mung is
posts,' which are still standing — a pulse (Phaseolus mungo) ; lubyeh is,
few of them — a long the old imperial perhaps ' lobiya ' (beans). What
road from Delhi. ' tyndus' ' kelet,' ' berty,' and 'kawdcy'
2 This word is not in the glos- are, I cannot even guess.
T 2
276 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
rates. For grain crops, the prices of nineteen years (from the
sixth to the twenty -fourth of Akbar's reign), were collected
by inquiry. This period was selected because nineteen
years being a cycle of the moon, the seasons were supposed
in this time to undergo a complete revolution, and so to
exhibit all varieties of quantity. Mr. Elphinstone observes
that the Ayin-i-Akbari gives no information as to how the
comparative fertility of fields was ascertained, though it is
probable that the three classes formed for each of the better
soils were applied in consultation with the cultivators.
There must, however, have been great inequality : for in-
stance, if a man's holding were all of the ' worst ' kind of
pulaj, in that case the average rate ascertained as above
described, would be too high.
The revenue on phirdwati land was calculated in the
same way, but it was not charged in fallow years. Chichar
was allowed to be paid for in grain or kind according to its
yield; probably the actual crop was looked to. Banjar
was distinguished by progressive rates. In itself, waste or
long-fallowed land might be of any class, and when brought
under cultivation, it was allowed to pay only a sir or two 1
in kind for the first year, four sirs for the second, and so on
till the full rate of the land, according to quality, was attained.
It was Mr. Elphinstone's opinion that the commutation
rates above spoken of were maximum rates ; and indeed
this is probable, for they would have been both high and
unequal ; and there are other indications that besides the
option the cultivator had of tendering grain, there was also
the practice of allowing him to offer the money value of the
grain at the time.
§ 2. Akbars Revised Settlement.
But however this may be, some practical difficulty cer-
tainly arose, for after this, a new ten years' money Settle-
ment was made 2.
1 See note at p. 242, explaining * See the passage from the Ayin-i-
the man, or ' maund ' and its sub- Aklari quoted in Field, p. 437.
divisions.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 277
The rates of actual collection from the fifteenth year of
the reign to the twenty-fourth (inclusive) were written
down, and a tenth part of the total was accepted as the
revenue for the next ten years.
§ 3. Akbar's Settlement not permanent. — The Native
Custom always contemplated variation.
It is true that such was the fame of this last assessment,
that the rates of it were often appealed to as a sort of
standard ; but in view of the frequent references in Au-
rangzeb's and other reigns, to other rates of collection, and
to orders restraining the collectors from taking more than
one-half the produce, it is clear that it can never have been
regarded by the authorities as unalterable.
Besides this, it is a matter of fact that reassessments
were made from time to time. Mr. James Grant expressly
insists that when the ' standard ' assessment was referred
to (called 'Asl tumar jama' — i. e. the land-revenue proper,
without cesses or imposts) it was not Akbar's that was
meant, but the last authoritative recorded assessment 1. As
I have already remarked, it is impossible to assert that,
either by law or custom, the king or emperor was prohibited
from reassessing or raising his revenue periodically2. The
old law-books do not deal with the subject, because they
belong to a stage when a share in the produce was taken.
1 In his 'Analysis of the Finances or as circumstances suggested,
of Bengal,' one of the appendices to When, therefore, Government
the Fifth Report. See (for instance) ceased to deal with the cultivators
p. 236, vol. i. of the Madras Reprint. and made a fixed contract with
2 I repeat this, because on the 'Zamindars' over them, it did not
fact depends a great deal of the follow that the people had any claim
controversy about rent under that their payments should never be
the permanent Settlement. The reassessed : Government might have
'tenants' of the 'landlords' were made such a declaration, but it
the people who had been the cul- never did. The grievous defect was
tivators or de facto proprietors of the this, that the Government never
holdings on which Akbar's assess- devised any rule by which the re-
ment was fixed. Had no proprietors vision and enhancement of what
been created by law over them, they had now become rent, could be regu-
would have submitted to reassess- lated, as it would have been, sup-
ment, say after ten or fifteen or posing it had remained as revenue
thirty years, according to the will under the direct orders of a good
of the governor, as prices altered. and considerate ruler.
f VOL. I.
278 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
Even the share varied according to State necessities ; but
putting that aside, it is in itself an increasing quantity,
(i) because values rise; and (2) as more and more land is
under the plough, the total of the king's share becomes
larger.
§ 4. Disadvantages of the Grain-division.
The disadvantages of a grain-assessment are manifold.
In the long run they outweigh the convenience which causes
such methods to be still adopted in some places. They may
be admitted to have some virtue in their application to
precarious soils and climates, where it is impossible to cal-
culate what the produce or its equivalent will be for even
a short term of years. A payment in kind may here avoid
the technical difficulties of a fluctuating cash-assessment.
But in fairly well developed districts, where irrigation
secures the crops to a considerable extent, a grain collection
becomes intolerable, and there is nothing to recommend
it. It is a source of never-ending dispute : it is extremely
troublesome for the State officer to manage. It affords
the maximum of opportunity to the cultivator to pilfer and
conceal on the one side, and to the officials and their satel-
lites to peculate and extort, on the other. Moreover, when
grain markets are well established, and values rise, the one
party or the other suffers ; a very slight accident may,
in reality, double the assessment. The actual history of
districts has shown that gradually, by the action of the
people themselves, grain rates invariably, if slowly, give
way to cash rates.
§ 5. Causes of a change to Cash-payments.
The change took place gradually, and was some-
times concealed by a fiction ; as e. g. in the case of
the 'Khot' villages on the West Coast, where the
assessment was nominally in grain but was levied in
cash by means of an artificial valuation. But in general
the change forced itself on the notice of atlministra-
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EE VENUE ADMINISTRATION. 279
tors directly the increase of population and the subdivision
of farms made it impossible for the full grain-share of the
State to be collected. Supposing that a farm of eighteen
acres yields ten maunds of grain per acre. Let us as-
sume that the cultivator needs one-third of this for his
subsistence, that the king takes one-third, and that the
remaining third covers the costs of cultivation and profits
of stock. The king thus gets sixty maunds. But in time
the farm is subdivided among an increased number of
heirs of the original holder. The individual holding now
becomes (say) six acres. The subdivision will doubtless
promote increased care in tillage, and probably im-
proved irrigation. Suppose these improvements double the
produce. The total produce of the holding is still only
one hundred and twenty maunds, and the king's share is
forty maunds : possibly the proportions can be maintained,
as prices will have risen, and the shares, though diminished
in amount, will have become of greater money value. But
there is a limit to this ; for the rate of production will not
go on increasing in the same proportion as the holdings
diminish by subdivision. As the share required for the
subsistence of the cultivator will not materially lessen, the
king's share cannot be paid at the same rate. But the
king does not like to diminish his share ostensibly, and the
expedient which conceals the fact, is to take a sum of
money instead. This will probably be calculated at some
rate per plough, or so much for each holding on an average
of what has been paid for a given period of years. The
idea of acreage valuation, according to different relative
productiveness, or the idea of competition rents, are alike
unfamiliar, and among the people themselves are still im-
perfectly understood in many districts.
When at last a settled Government, with ideas of law
and order, begins, it becomes necessary to devise some
means of passing from arbitrary and unequal rates to an
assessment that shall be — on some definite principle — just
to the land-holder, while giving a full revenue to the State.
280 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 6. Need of periodical Revision.
But the moment money assessments are established, then,
as soon as there is a change in the value of produce, or in
the value of money itself, as coined money becomes more
plentiful, or, owing to improved communications, or to other
causes, the assessments become locally so unequal that
revision is called for on this ground alone. Again ; every
government — not excluding the best Oriental governments
— regards the development of districts as one of its first
duties ; and the moment canals, railways, tanks, wells,
agricultural-loans and the like, come under consideration,
it is obvious that Government is entitled both to raise the
means of expending capital on such works, and to reap its
share of the largely increased amount and value of the
produce obtained.
§ 7. Reflections on the state of the Revenue-System to
which the British Government succeeded.
When, in 1765, British government began in Bengal, a
land-revenue assessed in money was, and long had been,
the principal source of the State's wealth.
It is quite immaterial to discuss whether such a system
is good or bad in theory, because any such discussion would
be based on European, not on Oriental ideas.
In the same way, in the last chapter (see Sec. vi, on Pro-
perty) I deprecated the argument as to whether we should
call our land-revenue a ' land-tax ' or not. I know of no idler
and less interesting war of words than such an argument,
at least under existing conditions, when rights in land have
been well established.
An Oriental institution is what it has grown to be, by
the effect of custom and the wear and tear of historical
events. To take it up, turn it round, and force it into the
mould of any European definition or theory of taxation, is
impossible1. The land-revenue is everywhere acquiesced
1 Kaye, p. 141, has some excellent English taxation and Indian. In
remarks on the difference between England we are always being taxed
CHAP.v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 281
in by the people, and paid without demur; it has the
advantage of an immemorial prescription, which in the East
is a matter of first-rate importance ; and it is quite certain
that no other means of raising an equal revenue could be
devised, which would work with equally little trouble and
interference with the people. The whole land-revenue ma-
chinery works as smoothly as possible — even the difficulties
of such districts as Chittagong or Sylhet, in Eastern Bengal
and Assam, are mere local problems which are approaching
solution. Almost the only grave objection that could be
raised to the system is the cost of, as well as the harass-
ment of the people involved in. the work of a ' Settlement,'
with its survey and record of the rights of landholders
and tenants. But this our modern systems have tended
greatly to reduce ; and it is probable that before another
thirty years have passed, the operation of revising the
revenue will be a matter which will be carried out with
hardly a perceptible ruffle of the quiet course of district
and agricultural business.
SECTION V. — THE BEGINNING OF BRITISH LAND-REVENUE
SYSTEMS.
We have now seen how a system of a land-revenue paid
in money was ready made to the hands of our first ad-
ministrators. Our laws have always avoided any theory
on the subject of the origin of the right of the State, and
the earliest Regulations of 1793 contented themselves with
asserting just so much (and no more) as would serve as a
sufficient basis for the system when reduced to shape, —
namely, that ' by ancient law (custom would have been
and untaxed. The Minister of Fi- tical economical theories, but ac-
nance has his budget proposals, and cording as the people take kindly to
the reduction of one tax or the im- it and it can be realized without
position of a new one is a perpetual inquisition, without pressing hardly
subject for discussion all over the and unequally on certain classes.
country. As a result of it, ministers It is found better to trust to what
may fall. But in India everything people have long been accustomed
goes by custom ; a tax is good or to, than to devise new plans how-
bad, not so much according to poli- ever theoretically perfect.
282 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. V.
better) the Government was entitled to a share in the pro-
duce of every bigha of land, that share to be fixed by
itself1.' As a necessary corollary, it has always held
that the revenue is a first charge on the estate, to which
all other charges must give way ; and that, in effect, the
land is hypothecated for the revenue assessment on it.
I have already explained that Government makes no
claim to be the immediate or exclusive proprietor2 of all
lands ; but it reserves to itself the ultimate ownership in
default of any other owner, — as, for instance, in unoccupied
waste lands, as in the case of escheat or forfeiture for
crime. To secure its own revenue, which (as just stated)
is a first charge on all land, it holds all land as hypothe-
cated to itself for the amount of the revenue, and conse-
quently it reserves the right to sell the land (under
whatever conditions it may enact by law) if the revenue
falls into arrear.
In order to protect its subjects, it also reserves the power
to declare and to adjust the rights of all classes of rights
and interests in the soil, and in some cases to divide
the benefits of landed right, equitably between different
classes.
It was the misfortune of our early administrators that
they succeeded to Akbar's revenue system, not developed
as it might have been by the practical wisdom of Oriental
financiers, but as one which represented only a state of
misrule and corruption. A thoroughly-developed native
system might have been difficult to define or explain in
a statute, but it would have been easily workable.
As it was, the administration had fallen into confusion
beyond hope of remedy. Some theory or practice of
revising the assessments, some customary period for such
revisions, might have been expected, but none such was
left us. We know that in Bengal reassessment had taken
1 See preamble to Bengal Eegula- see the Bombay Revenue Code, (B.)
tions XIX and XXXVII of 1793. Act V of 1879, Section 45.
The same phrase has been adopted 2 Chap. IV. Sec. vi. p. 239.
in the modern Acts ; for instance,
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 283
place from time to time T. But the only principle that
had settled down into continuance, was the hateful expe-
dient of adding cesses or 'abwab' to what was called
the ' 'asl tumar ' or standard sum still borne on the books
as representing the last measurement and assessment.
And the practice fell to a lower depth still ; the State
gave up all control, and merely bargained with local and
influential men in certain tracts of country, for the largest
sum they could reasonably expect to realize, and left them
to get out of the people what they could. In such a state
of things, our first officers did not well know what to
do. They were not able to make a survey before Settle-
ment : general inquiries had been carried out, but the
machinery was too sparse and imperfect to enable the
right sort of information to be gained. The reason of this
remains to be stated.
The Zamindars, who had gradually, since the beginning
of the eighteenth century, been allowed to contract for the
revenue of large areas of country, were the only really well
established revenue machinery which remained in exist-
ence. A century's growth had given them such a hold,
that they had not only become virtually landlords, so
that to ignore them would have been unjust from the
point of view of private interest in the estate, but from the
revenue point of view, their aid was indispensable. For, if
they were not to be trusted to for the revenue, who was ?
The reader will be inclined to answer — ' Why, the village
cultivators, through their own headmen — people who were
the real bread-winners and proprietors of the soil on which
they had resided for generations, and which their fore-
fathers had either conquered or colonized out of the track-
less jungle.' This is very easy, and even obvious, to say
now, with reference to modern conditions ; it was not so in
1789. There was no local machinery to do such a work.
Even if a complete district staff, with well-trained native
subordinates, in subdivisions and parganas, had existed,
even they could have only succeeded by making out
1 For some details, soo Fii-M, p. 441.
284 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
village records afresh. For it must never be forgotten
that the direct consequence of the growth of the Zaminddr
was twofold. One consequence was the existence of a
certain interest in the estates which demanded a special
treatment at the hands of our administrators ; but a still
more important consequence was the gradual annihilation
of the district control, and the atrophy of the official
charges, which has above been described. The Zamindar
not only relieved the kamingos and patwaris of all re-
sponsibility to the State, making them therefore careless
about keeping up their records and accounts ; but, more
than that, when the Zamindar was only liable, as in later
times, to answer for his contract sum, and not for the
details of his village and pargana collections, it became
positively distasteful to him to have details of authorized
rents and rights of raiyats entered in village records : the
kanungo, then, got no information ; and the village pat-
waris were made merely to keep just such accounts as the
Zamindar wanted for his own purposes. In a word, the
kanungo became an official shadow, and the patwaris the
bond-slaves of the Zamindars.
The few ' Collectors' 0^1789, and their supervising
Committees of Revenue, therefore, could not have thought
of going to the villages as we now should.
§ i. Attempt at farming the Revenues.
They did indeed try for several years an experiment which
proved a failure. They had heard of the oppression of the
' Zamindars,' and they thought that, if they made indepen-
dent contracts with special farmers, these would be more
amenable to restraint. The process was tried with ever-
increasing trouble and disappointment from 1770 up till
the date when Lord Cornwallis came out in 1786. And
then a system was adopted which restored the Zaminda'rs,
but gave them a new position, which it was expected
would remedy all defects.
In the chapter on Bengal I shall fully explain that the
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 285
system which Lord Cornwallis introduced as the celebrated
' Permanent Settlement,' was emphatically not any new
idea of his own. It was elaborated by Mr. Shore1 and the
ablest Civil servants, in communication with the Court of
Directors at home, as the documents in the celebrated
Fifth Report on the Affairs of the East India Company to
the House of Commons will abundantly testify.
§ 2. Outline of Lord Cornwallis s System.
In effect that system recognized that the revenues must
be collected by means of local men of influence and
wealth, who took charge of considerable estates, larger
or smaller, according to circumstances ; and that, in order
to give these persons confidence, they must be endowed
formally with such an interest as made them legally and
in name, what most of them were de facto, — ' proprietors '
or ' landlords.' The king's subjects, or ' raiyats,' then be-
came the tenants of the new landlords. It was well
understood that they were not ordinary tenants, in the
sense that they were persons located by the Zamindar on
contract or lease. Some of them, of course, would be so —
as, for example, when the landlord began to break up the
waste and to form new colonies of cultivators ; but others
— the majority — would be the original and hereditary
possessors of the village soil. It was intended to protect
their rights, as we shall see ; but unfortunately the inten-
tion was not practically carried out. The benefit to the
landlord was secured ; that intended for the tenant was
not. As far as the revenue is concerned, the main feature
of the system was the plan of fixing in perpetuity the sum
to be paid annually for each estate. The details of that
proposal I shall describe in the chapter devoted to Bengal;
here it is enough to say that our first revenue system
in Bengal involved (i) the acknowledgment, as landlords,
1 Mr. Shore did not advocate, but he agreed with the others in se-
strongly opposed, the particular curing the position of the Zamin-
feature of the Settlement which dars.
caused it to be ' permanent.' But
286 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
of persons found in actual charge of large areas of land,
and (2) an assessment of such reasonable sum as could be
discovered by comparing the accounts of actual payments
in previous years; the sum so fixed being declared un-
alterable for ever.
SECTION VI. — THE MAIN PEINCIPLES OF THE BENGAL
SETTLEMENT AND WHAT HAS RESULTED FROM THEM.
§ i. Special features of the Settlement.
About this PERMANENT (Zamindari) Settlement, there are
three things to be observed.
I. The system involved the presumption that for every
local estate or group of lands there must be some person
with whom Government should settle, or (in official phrase)
who should ' hold the Settlement ' ; and further, that this
person, or middleman between the raiyat and the State,
should be vested with a proprietary interest in the land.
The benefits and obligations in such an arrangement or
contract were to be reciprocal. The Government was to
have some one who was to be looked to as responsible, in
person and estate, for punctual payment ; the person was
to be given the means of discharging his responsibility by
having a secure title to the land for which he engaged. He
was to be irremoveable (otherwise than temporarily, in
the event of his not agreeing to the terms offered). He
was to be at liberty to raise money on the credit of the
land, to sell or gift it, or pass it on to his children by
inheritance or bequest, as the case might be. In other
words, he was to be declared and legally installed as pro-
prietor or landlord.
This principle has always been followed, either in set
terms or in some equivalent shape, in all Settlement
systems.
In all systems which deal with a landlord, the middle-
man may be an actual person or an ideal person — a body
or a community considered as one legal person, by means
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EE VENUE ADMINISTEATION. 287
of a representative (as in the North- Western Settlements).
In other systems, where there is no middleman, actual or
ideal, the cultivator is directly settled with. In the former
case, under whatever necessary limitations, the Zamindar,
the Taluqdar, or joint body of village co-sharers, is ' owner'
or ' proprietor.' To say that a man is ' proprietor,' and
that he is the ' malguzar ' or revenue-payer, are, in our
official literature, practically synonymous ; to say that
a man pays four annas of the revenue, means also that
he is owner of one-fourth of the estate, fractions being
commonly stated in so many ' annas \ (sixteenths) of the
'rupee' (taken as the total). And even in Madras and
Bombay, where (as explained in Chapter IV) no landlord
body had grown up over the village cultivators, so that
they could not be regarded as a jointly responsible pro-
prietary of the whole, the individual occupants were
nevertheless vested by law with a definite, transferable,
and heritable right, subject to the revenue demand : and
this, for most practical purposes, is undistinguishable from
a proprietary title 1.
II. Another thing to be observed in the Bengal Settle-
ment is, that the amount of revenue to be paid by the
Zamindar being once ascertained, that amount was fixed
for ever under the law of 1793. Hence this first experi-
ment in Settlements is called the PEEMANENT SETTLEMENT.
III. The amount was determined, not with reference to
any area-survey, any consideration, that is, of the number,
various fertility, or productive power, of the acres held in
each case, or of the influence of proximity to market and
facility of communication, on the value of produce. Local
scrutiny, as we shall see, was directly forbidden to the
Collectors ; they were directed to make the best estimate
they could, of a fair lump sum for the whole estate, on a
consideration of what sums had been paid in the past, and
of the general prosperity of the owners.
1 For remarks on the occupancy tenure defined by statute, but is
rights in Bombay, see the chapter practically settled by judicial de-
on Land-Tenures in Bombay. The cision to be proprietor of his holding.
Madras raiyat has not had his
288 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 2. Remarks on the three features.
These features demand some further remark, as having
given rise to various and important results.
The first feature in itself needs no comment, especially in
view of our immediate subject. But indirectly, the ques-
tion of 'proprietor' and his 'title' have given rise to all
those difficult questions about grades of proprietary interest
and privileges of tenant-right, which have been such a
source of controversy in India. An outline of the subject
was presented in Chap. IV. Sec. iv. p. 196.
§ 3. The second feature.
This feature — the permanency of the assessment — has
had a great influence. For a long time, and under other
methods of Settlement, which we shall have to discuss,
people thought that as soon as a fairly good method was
elaborated, the resulting assessment might be declared
fixed and unalterable. After the first Settlements of the
North -West Provinces, for example, a great discussion
arose, and was continued for some years ; indeed, the
question of a Permanent Settlement for all districts
lingered on, till it received its quietus in a despatch of
the Secretary of State in 1882. The history of this ques-
tion is important, but will not be understood till some
description of the other Settlement systems has been given.
I therefore defer its further mention for the present.
§ 4. Effects of Laws for the Realization of Revenue.
But connected with this subject, though, perhaps, in-
directly, is the law enacted for the realization of the
revenue.
While the Government had conferred valuable rights
on the Zamindars, it required of them (what they had been
little in the habit of rendering) a prompt and punctual
payment of the fixed revenue amount. From the first it
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 289
was notified that if the instalments ('kist,' or properly
' qist ') were not paid at due date, the estate would be sold.
Government would not imprison the person of the land-
lord, nor take his private goods and chattels l ; that would
be an indignity. As will appear more fully in the sequel,
circumstances brought about a vast number of sales for
arrears of revenue 2 during the first ten years. And as
these sales introduced a purchaser who necessarily had
a clear title, another bouleversement of the tenant relations
resulted. This last is a question of tenures, and does not
now concern us; but the subject of 'sale-law' is here
mentioned, as it is a distinctive feature of the old Bengal
revenue-administration.
§ 5. Remarks on the third feature.
The fact that the Permanent Settlement was made
without any survey, and without any record of landed
rights and interests, has proved more fraught with
evil consequences than perhaps any other feature of the
Settlement. It is difficult now to say what Lord Cornwall! s
really thought when he prohibited any detailed scrutiny of
the estates ; but his first object was to be liberal to the
Zamindar, and to make him feel secure as to the intentions
of the Government ; and to do this it seemed important
to prohibit all minute inquisition into his affairs or rents,
and to fix a lump assessment on general considerations.
For the same reasons, it was impossible to harass him with
conditions about his subordinate tenants and with vexa-
1 The law is spoken of as the especially under the circumstances
'Sunset law' The Deputy-Collector of the terrible famine of 1772, of
would sit in his Treasury office on which such a graphic account is
' Kist-day'— the latest date for pay- given in Hunter's Annals of Rural
ment of the revenue instalment — Bengal. The country had not re-
till he saw the sun go down. Then covered from it in 1789. But as
he closed the doors. The man who cultivation extended, peace bore its
rushed up with his bag of money fruits, and prices rose, the assess-
after the door was shut, would be ment became lighter and lighter ;
too late. and sales of course became less
1 The revenue, though per- frequent. At the present day it is
manently fixed, was not at first extremely light, probably not more
very light : it is admitted by good than one-third or even one-fourth
judges to have been the reverse, of what it ought to be.
VOL. I. U
2QO LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
tious interference in his dealings with them. It was
supposed that the newly-acknowledged landlord would
extend cultivation, and thereby enlarge his own receipts ;
that he would improve the class of crops grown ; and, as
differential rates were always acknowledged for richer and
poorer crops, it was vaguely supposed that rentals would
rise in this way. Whatever the process, the landlord
would certainly become rich ; on the other hand, he would
employ and liberally pay, more and more labour ; every-
where he would be known as the benevolent landlord of a
contented tenantry ; he would abstain, under the strict
orders of Government, from levying ' cesses ' in addition to
the rents, which latter, it was supposed, would settle
themselves by the good understanding of both parties ; he
would always grant a ' patta ' (pottah) to his tenants, and
so have it definitely on record what land they held, and
what rent they were to pay. Lastly, as both classes grew
rich, though the land-revenue would not alter, other
revenues would increase ; for wealthy people demand more
and more in the way of foreign imports and articles of
luxury, and the custom-house would reap the benefit in
the shape of duty. All these expectations have been
rudely disappointed, with some rare exceptions ; the Za-
mindars, as a class, did nothing for the tenants but rack-
rent them, or hand them over to 'patnidars' or rent-farmers,
who did so still more. They made no improvements ; and
their wealth did not augment the general revenues by
income from other sources of indirect taxation. All the
while, the want of a survey (for revenue purposes) has been
seriously felt. Agricultural statistics, which are available
for other provinces, are wanting in Bengal. But even to
enumerate the inconveniences, the difficulties under the
tenant-law, and the endless litigation, that the absence of
an authoritative record of subordinate rights may cause,
would occupy more space than I can here give. In short,
some day a district cadastral survey and a record of
rights and rents must come; and the sooner it is com-
menced, the better it will be for the province.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-BE VENUE ADMINISTRATION. 291
SECTION VII. — EESULTS OF THE ACQUISITION OF OTHER
PROVINCES.
§ i. Different conditions occur.
But, whatever may have been thought of the 'method of
assessing the revenue in Bengal, the continuance of that
method in other provinces which came under British rule
was rendered practically impossible by the totally different
circumstances of those provinces. I would here invite the
reader to refer to the coloured map, in which, by means of
tints, each referring to a certain year or group of years, I
have shown how the different districts and provinces gradu-
ally were added to the East India Company's dominions.
§ 2. Madras.
The first grant was that of the districts in the north
of MADRAS, called the ' Northern Sirkars V In these
districts there were local chiefs who had the management
of the revenues, and were, in fact, Zamindars, like those in
Bengal. But in other districts of Madras that fell to our
lot as the result of escheats, and the wars with Mysore in
1791 and 1799, there were no Zaminddrs. In some dis-
tricts there were, indeed, chiefs called ' polygars ' (pale-
gara). In origin, they were frontier chiefs — relics of that
Hindu organization which I have described. Under
favourable circumstances, they would all have been recog-
nized as Zamindars and landlords, and, indeed, some few of
them were so recognized ; but the majority of them chose
to resist and to rebel, and the ' polygar wars,' as the
books call the military campaigns necessary to put them
down, have added not a few stirring pages to the military
history of Madras.
1 Sirkar (or Circar as the popu- madan system already described,
lar form is) was the Revenue p. 256.
division or district of the Muham-
U 2
LAND SYSTEMS OF BKITISH INDIA. [CHAP. V.
§ 3. Permanent Settlement ordered. — Its failure.
By the time the Madras territories were fairly con-
solidated, Lord Cornwallis's principles were in full force ;
a Permanent Settlement was ordered and carried out
(though with some improvements as to the 'tenant's'
position) in North Madras, and in the case of certain peace-
able ' polygars.' But how was it to be effected for Chingle-
put, Salem, and Tanjore, and the ' Ceded Districts,' where
there were no Zamindars ? The unhappy idea that occurred
to the authorities was to create landlords, by making the
villages into large groups or parcels, called inuttha (mootah
of the old reports), and selling the Settlement rights to the
highest bidder ! The real Zamindar, in his natural growth
of a century and a half, was bad enough ; but what could
be said for an auction-room landlord? Of course the
system failed miserably.
§ 4. Commencement of a neiu method.
Meanwhile, the Madras authorities were making a new
departure. They had not civil servants enough to under-
take all the district Settlements, and they determined to
employ some of the ablest of their military servants, who
had gained familiarity with the languages, localities, and
people, in the course of their military duty. New men
have new ideas ; and if these are only based on a real
acquaintance with the people in their village homes, they
are likely to be valuable. It is enough to name CAPTAIN
MUNBO (afterwards Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of
Madras) as among the ablest of these Settlement officers.
In the Madras chapters I give all details, but here I may
shortly mention that MUNEO developed, if he did not origin-
ate, the idea of surveying the districts and dealing direct
with the village landholders.
To advocate and to defend this system, he wrote many
able minutes, and conferred with the Court of Directors
at home in 1807: the result was the authoritative adop-
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 2Q3
tion of the system known as the ' RAIYATWARI ' Set-
tlement.
§ 5. Circumstances which led to the neiv system.
The villages of the Madras districts were, as we have
seen, mostly of the non-landlord, or raiyatwdri type. And
even where high-caste families or colonizing adventurers
had once established themselves as landlord communities,
the results of later Hindu conquests, and of the Muham-
madan rule, where it had extended, had been to destroy
such rights, and to reduce the village cultivators to a
common level. There were, here and there, more or less
vague recollections that some of the villagers held a supe-
rior position ; they claimed mirdsi rights (rights by ancient
inheritance), and so forth ; but this was exceptional :
speaking generally, the villages were only aggregates of
separate cultivators, held together under a common head-
man, each man regarding himself as only responsible for,
and connected with, his own land. On the whole, it
was clear that a system of dealing with the individual
occupants of the land would be best. The system now
proposed, was to commence with a survey of fields, to
classify these according to soil, and then, by various
means, to determine a sum of money to which each should
be separately assessed. Claims to the waste, or other
vestiges of privilege belonging to a once superior class,
would be practically adjusted, within the lines of the
system.
§ 6. Features of the Raiyatwdri system.
The effect of former misrule in many of the districts had
been to inspire a great dread of a fixed revenue responsi-
bility. But few of the cultivators cared to be bound down
(so to speak) to their farm or holding ; if they could not
make it pay, they would give it up rather than owe the
revenue — so thoroughly, in a large number of instances, had
private property in land been broken down. It was there-
294 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
fore a principle of the new system that each man was free
to hold his land, subject to payment of the assessment, or
to give notice and relinquish it if he pleased.
The waste (and abandoned) fields were not given over to
villages, except a limited area for pasture. The waste
' numbers ' were retained in the hands of the State, as a
means of extending cultivation and increasing the revenue,
when better times came, and land was more in demand.
Any man (with a certain preference in favour of old culti-
vators) was at liberty to apply for a vacant or waste
number, on agreeing to pay the revenue which would
become due on it according to its class.
In order, therefore, to know what land every cultivator
had actually held in each year, what he was to pay, and
what to receive remission for, an annual account was
made out, under a simple system ; this process, known as
the ' annual jamabandi,' is characteristic of the system of
Madras and of Bombay also.
§ 7. The Mode of Assessment.
It was long before any definite mode of assessment was
adopted. The first Settlements endeavoured to find out
rates for the different classes and kinds of soils adopted for
assessment purposes ; and in doing so, regard was had to
existing rates ; perhaps I ought to say great reliance was
placed on them. It was known that under the late rulers,
certain sums were paid for certain fields, and were shown
in the accounts. But these rates were probably very high,
and moreover had to be adjusted and equalized, to give
soil-rates. Then too, there was free recourse to consultation
with the people and comparing one village with another.
Rates, in short, were founded partly on old accounts, and
partly on estimates based on general considerations and
the local officers' sense of fitness.
The local officers, I suspect, were much inclined to lower
the rates ; but the necessities of the Government in those
days rendered reduction an unpalatable proposal, and hence
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 295
they did not venture to be as liberal as they would
have wished. Whether this is so or not, the fault of the
early Settlements certainly was, that the rates were
pitched too high. They worked so badly (in that respect)
that the history of our revenue-administration, as found
in the District Manuals, is chiefly an account of revisions
and remissions, and of devices for mitigating over-heavy
assessments x.
It was also a common practice in the earlier Settlements,
to discover the produce of an acre of each class of soil, to
value that produce — of course a low average quantity — at
an average price deduced from a number of yearly price-
tables, and then to calculate out the costs of cultivation
and profits of stock, and take a fraction — never exceeding
fifty per cent. — of the balance. This method is still recog-
nized in Madras, to some extent at least, and especially as
a test for checking rates arrived at in other ways.
As a method pure and simple, it is an impossible one;
the ' average produce ' never can be ascertained ; the cir-
cumstances of localities — even those near together — are too
unaccountably various ; and the costs of cultivation may
be calculated by the most experienced officers at widely
different figures for the same areas.
The modern system of Madras assessment has developed
more in the direction of making simple and accurate the
classification of soils, and applying a comparatively simple
scale of rates to the soils, than in any novel method for
fixing the rates themselves.
The soil classification is both simple and neat ; and it
answers every purpose. A different classification and
grouping are adopted in ' dry lands,' i. e. those cultivated by
rain, or by wells, and those — chiefly rice-lands — which are
' wet,' or habitually irrigated by tanks. First of all, there
is the usual grouping of villages according to position; for
it is obvious that, given a certain kind of soil, the same
1 The accounts too, bristle with ology, which gives the Revenue his-
technicalities and the most heart- tory an air of mystery and difficulty
rending local vernacular phrase- which does not really belong to it.
296 LA.ND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
rate may be too high if the village is in a remote inacces-
sible group, and too low if it is in command of a good
market and close to an important line of communication.
Soils are naturally divided into certain series — ' black
soil,' ' red soil,' &c., &c. But each series will have several
classes, according to the proportion of the mineral material
which gives the character to the soil. This is technically
called ' clay.' Every series may show a soil (I) nearly all
' clay,' (II) half clay and half sand, (III) mostly sand. These
are the classes of the series. And once more, each class of
each series may differ within itself ; there may be a ' good '
sort, or ' best,' 'ordinary,' or ' worst,' &c., of the same class.
As the I, II, III classes belong to the first series, and the IV,
V, VI to the second, and so on, the Koman numeral used
for the classes suffices also to include the series. The sort
is indicated by an Arabic numeral. Thus, having a
standard table in use, there is no occasion to write out at
length, series, class, and sort, but only the two numerals.
Thus ' IV. 5 ' by the table, indicates ' Regar ' series of the
mixed or loamy class, and of the ' worst ' sort.
It is not necessary to have a separate rate of assessment
for each separate class and sort, because it is obvious that
the same rate which suits one kind in one group of villages
will suit other kinds in other groups.
Hence lists of rates are made out, called ' taram.' In all,
let us suppose, that twelve rates will cover XIV classes,
with their sorts. Then the first, or highest, taram will
apply (in dry soils) to the best land in the first group ; the
second taram of the first group will be the first, or highest,
of the second group ; the third will be the highest of the
third group, and so on ; the lowest, or twelfth, taram
will probably not be used in the first group, and only in
the second and lower groups.
The actual taram -rates per acre are ultimately based
on a calculation of an average produce of one or two
' standard ' grains, valued at a low average price.
The grains selected as the ' standard ' are always food-
grains, and are ascertained by referring to the statistics of
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-SEVERE ADMINISTEATION. 297
a taluka, and seeing what food-grains are most largely
cultivated.
The costs of production are calculated and deducted, and
fifty per cent, of the balance — not more — is taken as the
Government revenue per acre.
There are special charges and allowances made where
the land bears two crops in the year; but for such details
the chapter on Madras must be consulted.
But though this calculation of average produce duly
valued, and the deduction of costs, and the taking a fraction
of the balance, represents the theory1, as a matter of fact
existing rates (as these have been in the course of years
modified till they work well) are much looked to, and they
can be altered on general considerations, and without a
lengthy re-calculation, when necessary.
Thus, when a calculation on the produce-basis has once
been made, and prices have steadily risen since ; the rate
can be raised, at a revision, by a simple percentage addi-
tion. And so with the calculation of costs made to get
the net balance. It is rarely that a new investigation has
to be made ; figures are taken from neighbouring districts,
or other talukas similarly situated, and the use of these is
justified in various ways.
It is also a feature of this system that certain remissions
for loss of crop are regularly allowed at the annual jama-
bandi ; this is not found in any other system.
1 Here is an example given briefly
and in abstract : — Suppose a taluka
has 13 per cent, of ' Ragi ' cultiva-
tion, and 13 of ' Varagu/ and these
are the highest of the food-grains.
Other grains approximate in value,
so that we can treat them prac-
tically as if they were Ragi and
Varagu, respectively. Thus we may
let the whole produce be fairly
represented by 48 per cent. ' Ragi '
and 52 per cent. ' Varagu,' or
roughly, half and half. Then,
taking a class and sort of soil (say
IV. 2) in the first or best group of
villages, the outturn of grain is
found to be 320 Madras measures
of Ragi and 440 Varagu. Roughly
each acre has 50 per cent, of each,
or 1 60 + 220, and the value by the
price table is R. 7.1.7 + 6.1.11 = 13.3.6.
Suppose the costs of cultivation to
be R. 6.3.6 ; then the net produce is
7.0.0. 50 per cent, of this is R. 3.8.0,
which is the taram (or revenue rate)
applicable.
298 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 8. Rates not permanent.
In the early days expressions may be found in many of
the official minutes, to show that it was then thought
possible to fix rates once for all ; so that though the
revenue would rise by new lands being brought under
cultivation, the rates would not alter. But the Settle-
ments, as I have said, made before the modern system
was developed, worked so badly, that the rates had to be
again and again revised ; doubtless this had its effect in
showing how unwise it is to talk about a permanent Settle-
ment, while information as to rates is not perfect, or while
conditions are in any degree undeveloped.
The tendency, in revision Settlements, not to alter rates
found to work well, is distinctly visible in Madras. Indeed
it is laid down as a principle, that at revision, no change
is to be made, except on the ground of a general rise in
prices.
§ 9. 'Ceded' and 'Conquered' Districts in Upper India.
While the Madras Raiyatwdri system was being worked
out and discussed in letters from home (which I quote in
the Madras chapters), there had been important ADDITIONS
to BENGAL. Passing over the Benares province, which was
permanently settled in I795-961, we come to the year 1801,
when a number of districts were ' ceded ' by the Oudh
Government, in order that the revenue might pay for
troops to defend the King of Oudh from his many enemies.
And two years later (1803) the result of Lord Lake's cam-
paigns had been to wrest from the Marathas a number of dis-
tricts adjoining the former (and extending into what is now
the Panjab Province) known as the 'conquered' districts.
The same campaign also added to Lower Bengal the districts
1 The ordinary law and practice rights recorded, and management
were followed ; but the tenures carried on exactly as in the rest of
were somewhat different. Moreover, the province, with the one special
being soon annexed to the other feature that the assessment is un-
North-West Provinces, the Benares alterable,
districts were in time surveyed, all
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 299
of Orissa. The student will remember that when the Em-
peror granted, in 1 7 65, the civil government of Bengal to the
Company, it was, in form, the grant of ' Bengal, Bihar, and
Orissa.' The ' Orissa ' of those days meant the district of
Midnapore (Mednipur), exclusive of the Pataspur pargana
beyond the Subarnrekha river. The ' Orissa ' conquered
in 1803 was described in the Regulations passed for the
Settlement, as the pargana of Pataspur and the Cuttack
(Katak) province (now Puri, Balasore, and Cuttack).
In all these districts, both of the North- West and of
Orissa, there were but few Zaniindars. I may pass by
Orissa, as it did not present any such features as led to
a special theory of Settlement : the law ultimately passed
for the Settlement of these new territories, was, in reality,
framed chiefly with reference to the North -West Provinces.
§ 10. Absence of Zaminddrs- — Strong Village
Communities.
In the North- West Provinces the feature that brought
about a revolution in Settlement ideas, was the fact that,
though here and there there were native Rajas who had
become revenue ' Zamindars ' and Taluqdars of great estates,
their growth was not in all cases equal1 ; and whether
there were overlords or not, the village-bodies had (except
in parts devastated by the Rohillas) preserved a vitality
which soon attracted attention. There were, in many of
them, bodies claiming descent from a chief or other notable
who had founded the village or obtained it on grant.
They were now numerous and frequently had divided the
village into shares called ' patti ' ; but they had a strong
claim over the whole area, including the site on which
the village dwelling-places clustered, and a certain extent
of waste and pasture-ground beyond. They had never been
ground ddwn to being ( tenants ' under any Zamindar, or if
the process had begun, it was not difficult to arrest it.
I do not mean, of course, that all villages were like this ;
1 They had not, in fact, grown into the very nature of things as
they had in Bengal.
3OO LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
but this was a salient feature among them. There were, no
doubt, many villages which were only of recent growth.
Throughout Rohilkhand, for example, the Rohillas had
destroyed all rights, and such villages as had revived, now
mostly contained groups of ruined tenants ; and a ' pro-
prietor ' had arisen in the person who had come forward to
pay the revenue, ancl re-establish the cultivation1. Other
villages had really passed under the power of Taluqdars
and Rajas, and formed part of their estates. This brief
resume will, I think, be quite sufficient after what has been
said in the last chapter.
§ ii. Early Regulations did not comprehend the position.
At first, however, the Settlement Regulations still sug-
gested by their language that the Bengal system would
apply. They appear to suppose that there must be a
landlord over every estate to be settled with ; and the
permanency of the Settlement was contemplated. As a
preliminary measure, contracts were made with farmers
who undertook one, or a few, or many villages ; and this
was productive of great mischief. The Regulations directed
that a Settlement should be made for a term of five
years and then renewed, and then renewed again for a
short term ; and that when the fourth Settlement was
complete, it should be PERMANENT (if sanctioned by the
home authorities). This, it was thought, was a cautious
plan, allowing ample time for collecting information, and
for testing by practice the effect of the Settlements — five
years was long enough to reveal errors, and not long
enough to stereotype them. But the design was only
partly carried out.
Two things followed : first, the authorities at home were
by this time thoroughly aware of the danger of fixing a
permanent assessment on imperfect data, and for districts
not yet developed; they therefore prohibited the per-
1 In the course of a few genera- body (as the case might be) of pro-
tions the descendants of such a prietary co-sharers.
person became a joint or a divided
GHAP. v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 30!
manency of the Settlement ; and a new Regulation had to
be passed announcing that the assent spoken of in the first
Regulations was withheld. Second, the inquiries gradually
made, showed that the true titles of those who held
interests in villages had been greatly overlooked, and that
rights had been destroyed by the farming system, and that
all sorts of frauds in selling villages for arrears of revenue
had taken place ; this was an additional reason for not
hastening a permanent Settlement which would have
necessitated the irrevocable determination of who was the
proprietor. (See Sec. VII. § i.)
§ 12. The Result of Settlement Inquiries.
When the time for the Fourth Settlement came round, a
very capable Commission was appointed to make it with
all care and circumspection.
This Commission, with its Secretary, was so useful that
it was afterwards made permanent, and developed into the
Board of Revenue or chief controlling authority in revenue
matters, over the north-western districts of Bengal. The
districts themselves were, as I have explained, separated
from Bengal in 1834-6, and formed into a distinct province
under a Lieutenant- Governor.
The labours of the Commission were concluded by a
report to Government on which Mr. Holt Mackenzie wrote
a long and most valuable minute dated ist July,
§ 13. Holt Mackenzie's Minute. — Regulation VII of 1822.
This minute strongly protested against all artificial
creation of landlords, forcing farmers of revenue and
headmen, who were mere representatives of the body,
into the position of landlord ; and finally urged the survey
of the districts and the complete record of all rights and
shares and interests in the village lands.
1 This invaluable paper, which is in the Revenue Selections, North-
to the ' village Settlement ' system Western Provinces, 1818-20. Cal-
what Mr. Shore's minutes were to cutta, 1866.
the Bengal Settlements, is reprinted
302
LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. V.
The result was the passing of the celebrated Regulation
VII of 1822, which long remained the central law of the
TEMPORARY SETTLEMENT system 1.
Under this system, certain principles soon developed.
The aim was to restore, and even perhaps unduly re-
store, the rights of the village owners ; recognizing their
landlord character, they were settled with, not indivi-
dually, but as a joint body. That body was jointly and
severally liable for the revenue, and was entitled to the
whole area determined by the survey as appropriated
to the village, whether cultivated or waste. There were
some cases where villages were clearly owned by Rajas
or others ; and here while the Raja (as Zamindar) held
the Settlement and was 'proprietor' par excellence, the
villagers became 'subordinate proprietors,' in which case
their rights were protected by a sort of secondary Settle-
ment, called (formerly) a ' mufassal Settlement 2 ' : this
determined, for the whole period, what they were to pay to
the overlord, just as the main Settlement determined what
he was to pay to the Government.
§ 14. Policy of setting aside the Overlords.
But a policy soon developed itself, of setting aside the
overlord with a ' taluqdari ' money allowance, and settling
direct with the villagers. This resulted from the law which
prescribed that where there were several parties with
interests in the land, the Settlement Officer should
determine, under the orders of superior authority, with
1 The term ' temporary ' has
been always used to indicate Settle-
ments that are not permanent. It
is not a very happy choice, as it
suggests the idea of something that
is a make-shift or to be replaced by
something else. That is not the
meaning. All that is denoted is
that the assessment is fixed for a
period, usually thirty years (some-
times less), after which the rates
may be revised, and the records of
rights also, if they need it.
" I may repeat an explanation of
the term. The Arabic mufassal
means ' separate ' or distinct.
Hence the ' mufassal jama ' is the
subordinate revenue payable to the
overlord as distinct from that which
the latter pays to the Government.
The term ' mufassal ' (or commonly
mofussil) is applied also to the dis-
tricts as distinct from the capital or
' sadr.'
CHAP, v.] VIEW OP THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 303
which party the Settlement was to be made, and how
the interests of the others were to be recognized.
§ 15. New principle of Assessment.
The next principle was that the assessment was to be on
a different plan from that pursued in Bengal. The Gover-
nor-General ordered : —
' It seems necessary to enter on the task of fixing in detail
the rates of rent [revenue] and modes of payment current in
each village, and applicable to each field : and anything short
of this must be regarded as a very imperfect Settlement.'
The revenue was, in shor^ to depend upon inquiry into
the actual produce of all varieties and classes of land.
From the gross produce was to be deducted the calculated
amount of the cost of cultivation, the wages of labour, &c. ;
and the net result, added to any profits derived from
the produce of grazing and waste lands (and the pro-
spective value of waste when brought under the plough),
was spoken of as the 'assets' of each village or other
estate. The Government revenue consisted of a fraction,
at first ordered to be two-thirds, and afterwards about one-
half, of this sum of ' assets V
§ 1 6. Duration of the Temporary Settlement.
As the law said nothing about the duration of the
Settlements, the Government fixed from time to time, from
motives of policy and convenience, such term as was
thought fair. The object was, to give the village body or
other proprietor the benefit of a solid property, encourage
improvements by securing to him the benefit of all in-
crease during the term of Settlement ; avoiding, also, the
trouble and expense of a too frequent repetition of the
elaborate process of assessment. The term of thirty years
1 In the Bengal chapters I have of the fraction of the estate assets
discussed at some length the origin taken by Government.
304 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
was fixed, not by law, but by executive order, for the first
'Regular Settlement.' And this term has become very
general for Temporary Settlements. In some cases, a period
of twenty or even ten years, has been preferred. The
special considerations bearing on the subject in each case,
must be reserved to the detailed chapters.
§ 17. Explanation of 'Regular' and 'Summary'
Settlement.
I may mention that when it is necessary in a new
province, to fix a preliminary amount of revenue, pending
a more exact adjustment, and pending arrangements for
a survey and record of rights, such a Settlement is called
a c summary' Settlement. When the full operations required
by law have been gone through, it is a 'first Regular
Settlement ' ; and subsequent Settlements are called ' Re-
settlements,' or ' Revision ' Settlements.
§ 1 8. ' Temporary' Settlements are also, in the North-West
Provinces, village or mahdl Settlements.
The Regulation VII Settlements are spoken of as Settle-
ments under the TEMPORARY system, and also as under the
VILLAGE, or, more correctly, the MAHAL, system, because, in
the bulk of cases, the village is the estate or unit. But this
is not always the case, for it may be that part of a village
or parts of several villages are held under one title, and
therefore form the unit of assessment, or, in Revenue
language, the MAHAL. Sometimes the Settlement is said
to be ' zamindari,' not because there is any great landlord
or ' Zamindar ' as in Bengal, but because the principle is
maintained that the Government deals with a landlord, not
with the individual raiyat ; only that in this case the land-
lord is not (or not usually) a single individual but an ideal
body, — the village community jointly liable for the revenue,
and regarded as a corporate unit represented by its ' lam-
bardar,' as the headman is called in the North-West
Provinces. (See Chap. IV, pp. 152-3.)
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTEATION. 305
§ 19. Failure of the first method of Assessment. — Modifica-
tion of the Regulation VII system.
For the first eleven years but slow progress was made
with the North -West system, as I may shortly call it. The
machinery was insufficient for the purposes of such an
inquiry into produce as I have indicated. The Government
repeatedly complained of want of progress ; and the Board
were compelled to admit that they could record little or
none. The fact is, the villages in the North -West Pro-
vinces, as a rule, are not ' raiyatwari ' ; there are landlord
classes in the villages, even where there are not great
landlords, and they did not .facilitate such inquiries. The
result was (as we shall see in more detail in studying
the North -Western Provinces) that a Committee was assem-
bled, over which the Governor- General presided in person ;
and Regulation IX of 1833 was passed, which improved the
official machinery and abolished the minute inquiry into
the produce of fields and the costs of production.
§ 20. Tenants and Cash Rents.
By this time the use of coined money was so general,
that in the older districts, land was not only largely held
by tenants (the co-sharers not themselves cultivating), but
the rents were commonly paid in cash, not in grain ; and
thus it became possible to adopt the system of Settlement
which has been gradually perfected into the modern plan.
I should defeat my present object by going into detail
(which is given elsewhere), but I may say generally, that
the beginning of the new system was first to ascertain
a general lump sum which each estate could afford to pay ;
and this lump sum was tested by seeing how it would
fall as an acreage rate on the lands, and how such rates
would compare with what the Settlement Officer calculated
were fair and proper rates for the different sorts of land.
Later on in revenue history, the fixing lump sums was
discarded, and attention was given to classifying soils
VOL. I. X
306 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
carefully and determining acreage rent-rates independently
for each.
The village system being strong, either the original body,
or one of later origin (the descendants of a grantee, village-
founder or revenue-farmer) had usually maintained their
lands and their privileges ; and, as a natural consequence,
village institutions — the headman and the patwari (with
their records and accounts) — had not suffered the decay
that marked them under the different historical conditions
that had arisen in Bengal.
Hence it was possible to ascertain from the village records
(as compiled and formulated in the Settlement operations)
what rates of revenue, and to some extent of rent, were
proper. But at first the system demanded a great deal
more reliance on what ought to be, and would be, than
what actually was. And it must be admitted that village
accounts were often purposely framed to represent the rents
as lower than they really were ; and the Settlement officials
had to 'correct' them by bringing them up to what (by
inquiry and the application of various test calculations)
they supposed them really to be and likely to become.
Moreover, much land was held by the proprietors them-
selves, and, of course, paid no rent or only a nominal sum
for village account purposes. This land had, therefore,
to have its full rental ascertained and recorded ; so too
there were lands, held rent-free in charity or for religious
purposes, which the land-owners granted, not the Govern-
ment, and these had also to be valued. By thus ascertain-
ing an ideal or corrected rent for every acre in the village,
a new total 'assets' sheet was made out. It will be
remembered that at first, owing to the difficulty of finding
out the real, actual, rents, the plan adopted was to make
allowance for what it was believed, on general consider-
ations, the rates would be raised to in the years imme-
diately succeeding the Settlement.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 307
§ 21. Proportion of the total rental Assets taken by
Government.
The early rule was to take two-thirds of what were
roughly calculated to be the ' assets ' of each estate. But
after twenty years of gradual growth in the methods of
Settlement, this proportion was reduced. When, under rude
methods, we take the assets at a very low figure, it is
morally certain that in reality they are very much greater ;
and if we take as much as two-thirds of such lowly-
calculated assets, we are really taking a moderate share.
But the more our system approaches to ascertaining the
full income of an estate, the more moderate must we be in
the proportion.
In 1855 it was determined that the Government share
should be reduced to about fifty per cent, of the assets.
§ 22. Principle of the later North-Went Assessments.
The later systems of assessment in the North -Western
Provinces are really successive attempts to perfect the
methods of calculating the rental assets ; and they have
twice been modified. The first modification consisted in
a simpler and better soil-classification and in attending
more (but still not entirely) to actual rents. The latest
modification may be briefly described as attending only
to actual rents. — refusing all speculative additions, though
of course carefully correcting the village records, by addi-
tions to supply manifest under-statements, or to fix rental
rates for lands for which either privileged rates, or no rents
at all are paid, and which are not entitled to escape assess-
ment. Then we speak of the ' corrected assets.'
§ 23. The Proprietor's 'Sir.'
I have already explained (Chap. IV. sec. ii, § 47) the term
' sir,' and I must ask the student to familiarize himself
X 2
308 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. V.
with it. When the bulk of lands in any estate1, whether
in Bengal or the North -West Provinces, is rented out,
certain lands, often the best, are kept in the hands of the
co-sharers (or the sole proprietor as the case may be), and
are cultivated as the home-farm, by hired labour, or even
by the family itself. Such land is called ' sir.' It some-
times happens, if the revenue is light, that the landlords
are able to pay the whole out of the proceeds of the
rented lands, supplemented by grazing fees from common
lands and other miscellaneous sources of income : and then
each enjoys his ' sir ' for his sole personal benefit ; or, if the
income is not sufficient to meet the Government demand,
the proprietor (or each co-sharer) may have to make up
by a rate or rent on his ' sir,' what is deficient. The im-
portance of the sir land in estimating the ' assets ' of the
estate is very great. The revenue being a fraction of the
' rental assets ' as estimated, it is obvious that, in order to
get at a fair rental value for the entire estate, rent-rates
must be assumed for all •' sir ' lands, because these are not
actually rented, and do not appear in the rent-roll of the
village (or if they do, it is at nominal or privileged rates).
If, therefore, the ' sir ' be valued at full rental rates, the
revenue of the whole estate will be much higher than if
some lower rates were fixed. And as a matter of fact, the
holder of ' sir ' was greatly benefited by the successive
changes in the assessment rules. But this is a point of
detail which I must reserve for the special chapters de-
voted to the North -West Provinces. I will here only men-
tion that the last modification allowed the sir to be valued
at twenty-five per cent, below the full rates as calculated for
tenants. In future revisions, however, this allowance,
which is certainly over liberal, will be reduced to between
ten and fifteen per cent.
There are also certain other privileges attached to ' sir '
1 Any estate, that is, where It is are mostly of non-agricultural castes,
not a mere farm or holding worked and the bulk of their land is held
by an (agriculturist) landlord, as in by tenants who represent the old
the Panjab. In the provinces cultivators before the ' landlord '
named in the text, the landlords came.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 309
land. For example, it may happen that the estate is sold for
arrears of revenue ; the proprietor will not be turned out
of his ' sir,' but be allowed to remain in possession as an
' exproprietary tenant' : and the same thing would happen
if the proprietor declined the terms of Settlement and
Government gave the estate, for a time, to some one else.
When the tenant-law grants occupancy-right, with its
attendant rental limits, on ordinary land, it always ex-
empts the proprietor's sir from such burdens. It thus
becomes a matter of importance to see that, under colour
of any legal definition of ' sir,' a proprietor is not enabled
to get the best part of the village lands into his own hands
and so defeat one of the most important rights of the village
tenantry. It was (among "other things) to prevent an
incipient danger of this kind, that the Central Provinces
Land-Revenue Act was amended in 1889.
This general sketch (and it is not exhaustive) will at
once suggest the importance of the term ' sir ' which crops
up again and again in revenue literature ; and it should be
remembered accordingly.
§ 34. The Panjab Territory and its Settlement.
The history of our territorial acquisitions already given,
will have informed the student that (exclusively of the
Delhi districts) the Panjab was acquired partly in 1846,
and as a whole in 1849. ^ne Delhi districts in the region
of the Jamna, and forming part of the ' Conquered districts '
of the year 1803, were at first under the North -West Pro-
vinces, and afterwards (1858) were added to the Panjab
owing to the events of the Mutiny.
The Panjab Settlements were made entirely on the North-
West model, which was easily copied because the villages
were of the landlord or joint type and in a still more
perfect state than in the North- West Provinces. From
causes which I cannot here examine, no Rajas and Taluq-
dars had, as a rule, survived, over the communities of Jats,
Rajputs, Arains, and others. The Sikh rule had placed
310 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
jagirdars over many of them, these being in fact the chiefs
of territories holding estates in 'feudal' subordination to
the Maharaja on the usual Hindu model. It was rarely,
however, that such overlords had grown into ' actual pro-
prietors.' The ' superior ' claims were almost all disposed
of by grant of cash allowances ; and in the overwhelming
majority of cases, the village joint-body was the imme-
diate or actual landlord. The landlord families were
mostly of the agricultural castes, and consequently the land
was largely cultivated by the co-sharers themselves, and
only held by tenants to a limited extent : these tenants
pay grain-rents in most cases. Moreover, there had been
no farmers and revenue sales to speak of, so that new pro-
prietary bodies (descendants of the farmers and purchasers)
— and nearly always persons who do not themselves culti-
vate— had not grown up over the villages.
These features at once necessitated a different mode of
ascertaining the assets of estates for revenue purposes. As
cash rents paid by tenants were the rare exception, the
re7ifaZ-asset plan above described could not be adopted.
At the same time the method of working out produce rates,
and calculating costs of production, was hardly more feasible
in the Panjab than it was in the North- Western Provinces.
The method actually adopted was that also at first used
in the North -West Provinces (and especially for districts
where grain-rents were common), namely, the calculation of
lump sums of revenue to be distributed over the holdings,
and called the ' aggregate to detail ' method. It consisted
in looking to former revenue-payments, and then, with the
aid of local knowledge of the growth and prosperity of a
pargana or other circle (adopted with reference to similarity
of market advantages, soil, irrigation, and other conditions),
determining a lump sum for the whole area, which it was sup-
posed would be fair. This was tested by distributing it over
the villages ; and once more, by dividing the village totals
over the holdings, it could be seen whether these were fair.
Produce- estimates were often made use of, and by turning
into money a sixth, a fifth, and so on, of the gross produce
CHAP, v.] VIEW OP THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 3 1 1
it was seen how the rates would compare with those first
assumed. Then, perhaps, some lands did pay money-rents,
and these could be made use of for comparison ; and so
also could plough-rates, when the people made use of cer-
tain rates for each ' plough ' possessed by the village-body.
Fair rates being thus got out and submitted for sanction, a
total was again made out for each village, and the total
would be finally modified with reference to the class of
cultivators, to prospects of utilising the waste, or to profits
from grass. A village jama' would thus be arrived at ; and
this would be distributed over the holdings in consultation
with the co-sharers. These latter always well understood
such an operation (called making the ' bachh ') ; and then
the whole business was concluded. It is of no use for my
present purpose to describe the latest rules for assessment :
they prescribe a more exact but simple method of soil
classification and the direct calculation of revenue-rates
per acre, which rates are one-half the rental rates as ascer-
tained on a basis of actually observed facts of payment, in
specimen, or standard, areas. These rules will be noticed
in detail in the chapters on the Panjab.
§ 25. The Central Provinces System.
In order to complete the series of developments of the
' village or mahal system,' I will pass over what ought, in
point of time, to have been mentioned before — the Bombay
system — and so proceed to notice another development of
the North-West system. The Northern districts (Sagar,
Damon, and Jabalpur) of what is now called the ' Central
Provinces ' were early settled on the North-West plan, not
without some considerable difficulties, the record of which
must be reserved. But when the rest of the province was
added, and the whole formed into a Local Administration
(under a Chief Commissioner) in 1863, there was some dis-
cussion as to what sort of general Settlement should be
made. The villages, except a few in the North, were not
of the landlord or joint type, but represented aggregates of
cultivators, each claiming his own holding and nothing
3 1 2 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
more, like the villages of Bombay and Madras. There is
no doubt that a raiyatwdri Settlement, as in Madras or
Bombay, would not only have been possible, but highly
advantageous. However, the North- West Provinces prin-
ciples were in the ascendant, and a village Settlement was
ordered. But the jointly responsible body was rarely to
be found; and the Maratha system, which had long pre-
vailed, had also produced its natural results. That system
was one of keen financing ; it was as opposite as possible
to the lax system of the later Muhammadan rule ; a
Maratha governor rarely (in such of his territories as were
firmly in hand) farmed out the revenues of large tracts or
made reckless revenue-free grants. He went straight to
the villages, caring nothing for individual rights, and made
the pdtel or headman responsible for the village total
assessment. Where the local hereditary pdtel was ineffi-
cient, or some interested person could get the preference
over him, he was superseded, and the person who obtained
the farm of the village was spoken of as the mdlguzdr or
' revenue-payer.' The persons thus employed and trusted
must have had large and undefined powers ; and they con-
sequently grew in influence and gradually acquired a
g'wasi-proprietary position. It is no doubt a matter of
opinion to what extent these headmen and farmers (whom
we now generically call ' malguzars ') had really become
proprietors. The progress made in that direction varied
in different districts and under different local conditions.
§ 2,6. Mdlgtizdrs recognized as Village proprietors.
However that may be, it was determined to make these
' revenue-payers ' ' proprietors,' and the Settlement was
made with them. There might be one ' malguzar,' or there
might be several descendants of one ; but the individual or
the body jointly was recognized as proprietor ; and this
fact gave the peculiar character to the Central Provinces
Settlement which has caused it to be popularly called the
i ' Settlement ; and it has had curious results.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 313
§ 27. Features of the Settlement.
As regards the first assessments, there is nothing par-
ticular to record. They followed the ' aggregate to detail '
method ; and the interesting system of soil rent-rates
elaborated for the present Settlement (since 1881) must be
reserved for description at a later stage.
A number of estates have been left in the hands of Gond
and other chiefs with the usual designation of Zamindarl ;
but the noticeable peculiarity of the more or less artificial
position of 'malguzar' proprietors is, that Government
never abandoned the village-holders as it did in Bengal.
Nor did it acknowledge the ' malguzars ' everywhere. In
the Central Provinces we have some tracts which are
frankly raiyatwdrC 1 (where there is no over-proprietor or
landlord) ; and in the malguzari villages there are a consider-
able body of sub-proprietors and a large number of original
tenants, over whom the landlord has no power as to evic-
tion and enhancement; their rents are all fixed by the
Settlement Officer for the term of Settlement.
§ 38. Oudh Taluqddri System,.
There is one other form of Settlement with a middleman
landlord ; — I refer to the Oudh Settlement. The province was
annexed in 1856. The neglect of the local native adminis-
tration had resulted in the abandonment of all real control
over the revenue, and in the adoption of a system of
settling different tracts of country by bargain with local
magnates for a fixed (but from time to time enhanceable)
sum total of revenue. The moment such a tract, called a
' taluq,' came on to the State-books, all note of the villages
composing it was dropped, and only the taluq and its
annual total recorded.
This course was certainly facilitated, if not initiated, by
the earlier history of Oudh. The province had been the
1 Ajid so recognized by the Revenue law as amended in 1889.
314 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
very centre of the old Aryan dominions. To this day the
limits of a number of petty kingdoms — Gonda, Atraula,
and many others — can be traced ; and Mr. Benett has told
us, in more than one excellent Settlement Report, how
these kingdoms were organized and managed, and how
village communities grew up out of their dismemberment
and decay. The petty kings were probably once united in
a confederation under some great Maharaja ; but at the
Muhammadan conquest they were not strong enough to
resist the Great Mughal, though still able to give him
much trouble, if not conciliated and made use of. Na-
turally enough, they were allowed to contract for a revenue-
payment for their old dominions (or such part of them
as remained), and then were called ' Taluqdars.'
The plan being profitable, it was extended. Other
persons, namely Court favourites, bankers, and speculators,
occasionally obtained similar grants of 'taluqs' and be-
came ' Taluqdars'; but the marks of origin long survived in
the ominous distinction of ' pure ' and ' impure ' Taluqdars.
How far in the century between 1750 and 1856 the
Taluqdars had by purchase, by violence, or by founding
new villages, really worked themselves into a proprietary
position, I cannot here examine. Opinions still vary on the
subject ; and it is obvious that the process, which undoubt-
edly did go on, must have reached very various stages in
different places, and under different conditions, especially
with reference to the character and caste of the village
bodies.
§ 29. Circumstances necessitated the recognition of
Taluqdars.
Here I need only note that, under the North-West
policy of ignoring the overlords and settling direct with the
villagers as proprietary bodies, the first plan of 1856 was
to settle with the villagers under the North- West Provinces
law. though it must be admitted that, even under that
plan, Taluqdars were much more recognized as de facto
owners, than is sometimes supposed.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 3 I 5
Scarcely, however, had the Settlement begun, when the
Mutiny broke out, and the Taluqdars, with a few exceptions,
revolted. What had been done towards Settlement, in the
matter of records, perished. The people voluntarily re-
turned to the Taluqdars and paid their revenue to them.
When the pacification of 1858 ensued, views had
changed; the great body of the Taluqdars were am-
nestied, and a Settlement was made with them. This
necessitated an elaborate series of provisions as to the
protection to be afforded to villages in the taluqs. Some
had so far preserved their integrity that they were en-
titled to a ' sub-settlement ' ; others had not, but various
degrees of occupancy-right and rent-limitation were
acknowledged ; all these measures have been the subject
of much criticism. Besides that, the general question of
tenant-right left a long legacy of trouble which has only
found its end (for the present at any rate) in the tenant-
law of 1886.
There is nothing to call for remark as to the method of
Settlement which was based on the earlier North -West
Provinces system. This Settlement is distinctively spoken
of as the TALUQDARf Settlement.
§ 30. The Bombay System.
Such has been the development and the variation of
Temporary Settlement systems originating in Regulation
VII of 1822 and Regulation IX of 1833.
We must now retrace our steps to look to Western India.
The Bombay territories (speaking generally) were acquired
between 1 803-1 8 1 8, as the result of the defeat of the Maratha
power. For a long time no progress was made in the re-
venue-administration. A system of farming the revenues,
on the basis of the Maratha or other preceding assessments,
was pursued, and with very unsatisfactory results.
There never was any appearance of great ' Zamindars,'
so that the Bengal system could not have been thought of.
The bulk of the villages in the Dakhan districts were of the
3 1 6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
raiyatwdrt type, though in certain parts there were a few
' narwa,' ' bhagdari,' and other estates jointly held by com-
munities connected by a tie of descent. In Guzarat, also,
the immigration of martial tribes of the Rajput type, and
the government by chiefs, had left traces of an ' overlord ' or
taluqdari tenure over the villages ; while in the Konkan,
'khots,' or revenue-farmers of the Maratha rule, had ac-
quired rights over the villages, of a somewhat peculiar
character.
A portion of these territories had originally been settled
by Malik 'Ambar, the best representative of the power of the
Muhammadan kings of the South in their palmy days1. This
minister had been at much pains to secure and acknowledge
a proprietary right, and this tended to preserve the ances-
tral communities, where they existed ; since ancestral hold-
ing is, in all Eastern countries, the strongest form of
connection with the soil. In his time, village assessments
in the lump, were apparently the rule ; and although the
Maratha system had superseded that of Malik 'Ambar,
and was essentially a raiyatwari system, it had not obli-
terated the traces of the former system. It is therefore
not wonderful that the opinion should have been advocated
that, in Bombay, the existing status of the raiyatwdri
villages was in many cases, if not universally, due to the
decay of an earlier landlord or joint constitution, rather
than inherent in the nature of the groups themselves2.
At first, indeed, the matter did not come prominently to
notice, because, during the early years of our rule, the terri-
tories were provided for by the usual tentative arrange-
ments for farming the revenues on short leases. A twenty
years' experience, however, during which grievous hardships
were inflicted on the districts, sufficed to make us at once,
and for ever, discard the farmers, and set about finding
a better plan.
1 He also settled most of Berar. Vol. III. (Bombay chapters). At
a Details about the faint survival best, the Dakhan mirds right was
of ' mirasi ' claims will be found in too shadowy for practical revival.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 317
§ 31. Attempt to introduce a system of Settlement ivith
Villages jointly.
The raiyatwari system was then much in vogue, conse-
quent on Sir Thomas Munro's action in Madras. But Mr.
Elphinstone, the then Governor of Bombay, took the view
above alluded to, about the joint system, and was anxious
not only to maintain it wherever it could be found, but even
to create it in the case of those communities where no land-
lord claims survived ; securing, indeed, the rights of each
cultivator by record, but establishing a joint responsibility,
and settling with the original ' patels ' or headmen of the
village as representatives of the body.
It is no easy thing, however, to create a joint responsi-
bility where it does not in fact exist. Although long years
of custom may have taught the cultivator to submit to an
annual adjustment of his individual burdens and liabilities
by the headman, it has never laid him under any responsi-
bility in case one of his neighbours failed *.
1 The account of the Bombay
system in Campbell's Modern India
(1858), though giving a good de-
scription of Mr. Elphinstone's
views, is now too much out of date
to be otherwise useful ; for the
Bombay system has since been
altered and perfected in a way that
has completely outgrown a descrip-
tion penned more than thirty years
ago. The account is also to some
extent marred by the author's ap-
parent prejudice in favour of the
joint responsibility and village
settlement with which he was fa-
miliar. His objections to the Bom-
bay system (notably the costliness
of the village officials and the re-
cognition of rights to rent-free hold-
ings) affect mere accidents of the
place, they do not touch the prin-
ciples of the system. As a matter
of fact, many of these evils have
been removed or greatly mitigated.
He also speaks of the joint respon-
sibility as if it was an easy thing to
introduce. But in fact it is not so.
To establish it artificially over whole
districts, and tell the people ' the
system is convenient to your rulers,
and when you are wiser you will
see that it is also calculated to pro-
mote your own interest,' is beset
with such difficulties as to make it
impracticable. The people posi-
tively decline to undertake that the
solvent members shall be respon-
sible for the defaulting ones. What
becomes of your system then ? I
need hardly point out the futility
of comparing revenue systems in
point of inherent merit, because
every system may be good or the
reverse according as it fits the facts.
But even admitting the superior
facilities which the joint-village
system offers to revenue-manage-
ment, the originators of the Bombay
system claim for it certain counter-
balancing advantages. By breaking
up the land into small holdings,
and allowing every occupant to
keep as many of his ' numbers,' or
give up as many, as he thinks de-
sirable, the small farmer is enabled
to contract his operations or enlarge
them according to the capital and
stock at his disposal. The revenue
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
The plan of settling for a lump sum with the village as
a body used to be advocated because it was said to facilitate
revenue-management ; it enabled Government to deal with
fewer units. The Bombay officers do not, however, admit
that there is any difficulty in dealing with thousands of
separate cultivators 1. The difficulty only seems great to those
accustomed to deal with one or with a few revenue-payers.
At any rate, if there is difficulty, it is obviated by a perfect
survey, a clear and complete record of each lot or field and
the revenue assessed on it, and by a thorough control over the
being fixed for a long term, of years,
the farmer gets all the benefit of a
long lease without its disadvantages.
Nor does the Government really
lose ; because taking its revenue,
not from one estate, but from the
whole country, that revenue must,
under any system, fluctuate with
the circumstances of the country at
large. With farmers of large capital,
the long fixed lease may answer
best ; but with those of small
means, the risk and responsibility
which have to be set off against the
security of profits, are more to be
considered, and such risks are
avoided by giving the villager the
right of holding his land from year
to year only, if he pleases.
In the North-West Provinces
every village is allowed an area of
waste, which it can bring under
cultivation without the total assess-
ment of the village being increased.
Under a raiyatwAri system, any
uncultivated number that is taken
up has to be paid for ; but in prac-
tice this does not interfere with the
extension of cultivation ; and as a
matter of fact, though the North-
West assessment does not increase
when the waste of the village is
made to yield crops, still that as-
sessment is originally fixed after
taking into consideration the capa-
bilities of the estate, and the prob-
able average yield of the whole, for
the entire term.
It is also urged that the village
officers collect the revenue from
each separate holder just as easily
as they do from a joint body, who,
though together responsible, still
ultimately pay separately according
to known shares ; and as under the
Bombay system every occupant is
furnished with a receipt book, which
the patw&ri (paiidyS or kulkarni)
is bound to write up, there is no
room for fraud. To any one who
wishes further to study the^wos and
cons of both systems, and the im-
provements which the Bombay
authorities made on the Madras
system to remove objections, I can-
not do better than recommend the
perusal of the able ' Appendix I ' to
the Official Correspondence on the Bom-
bay Settlements (reprint of 1877 :
Bombay Government Press).
1 In the Bombay and Madras
Presidencies the number of raiyats
and average size of holdings are as
follows (Govt. Ind. Statistics, 1886-7) : —
Presidency.
Number of
raiyats.
Average size of holding.
Madras
3, OSS, 788
Bombay
1,284,238
! Northern division 8 acres )
Central „ 32 „ [ 21-5 „
Southern „ 23 ,, )
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 3 1 9
village accountants and revenue-officers of small local sub-
divisions of districts.
It was no doubt this inherent difficulty of creating a joint
responsibility where it did not, naturally or in fact, exist,
that led to the abandonment of the design to make village-
Settlements, and to the adoption of the separate field or
'raiyatwari' system. As a matter of fact, a sort of joint
responsibility is kept up in certain villages where the
rights of co-sharers have survived to this day.
§32. Progress of the system in Bombay.
The defects of the survey- Settlement, as at first worked
(up to 1 835), acted as a warning to the authorities ; and
a new departure was then made. An experimental re-
survey of the Indapur taluk having proved successful,
the same method was followed elsewhere. In 1847
three of the ablest Settlement Superintendents met and
were able to formulate the results of practical experience,
in the shape of a complete scheme for the survey and
assessment of village lands. It was not till 1865 that a
local Act was passed specifically legalising the system.
This Act has in its turn been repealed ; and the whole
law has now been completely revised in the Land-Revenue
Code (Bombay Act V of 1879). There is but little mention
of a Settlement (although the term does occur in the Code) ;
there is really a survey and assessment only. There is no
procedure like that of Upper India, — proposing a certain
sum as the assessment on the whole village, discussing
the matter with the village proprietary body, and perhaps
making a reduction and coming to terms with the re-
presentatives, who then sign an agreement to be respon-
sible. Under the Bombay system, every acre is assessed
at rates fixed on almost scientific principles, and then
the occupant must pay that assessment or relinquish the
land.
32O LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 33. OutliTie of the Bombay System.
The system will be described more in detail in the sequel,
but here I may generally indicate the outlines of the pro-
cedure.
A certain convenient unit of division is selected to form
the ' survey number ' or ' field.'
Every field or lot is surveyed, and then the work of
classification begins. The soil-classes are noted, and
each field is examined and a sort of diagram of it made,
which shows not only its soil, but any defects which re-
duce its value. It is thus ascertained for every field
what is its relative value ; in other words, — taking the
maximum rate for the class as one whole or sixteen annas
(on the Indian method of reckoning), — whether the field
can be assessed at the maximum or at something less, — at
fourteen annas, at twelve annas, and so on, down to a
minimum. The department charged with this work be-
comes highly experienced in the process, so that it can be
performed with the greatest accuracy and fairness. Culti-
vation is usually classed into wet and dry : the process just
described treats land only on its dry aspect ; if there is irriga-
tion, then an additional rate may be charged, which will be
higher or lower according to the goodness and value of
the source of irrigation ; the rate is only applied to such
land as is really capable of irrigation from the source in
question 1.
Next, the Settlement Officer begins his work as assessor
of actual rates ; he has before him the facts of soil classi-
fication on its unirrigated aspect, and the details of the
means of irrigation where they exist ; he has to fix what
are to be the full or maximum rates for dry soil, and what
are to be the additional rates for irrigation. These rates he
1 Wet cultivation is rice land, or directly, but a certain addition may
land that is always flooded for cul- be made to the rate, on account of
tivation. A ' dry ' field may have a an easy supply of subsoil water re-
well or other means of partial water- garded as one of the qualities of the
ing, that does not make it ' wet ' soil,
land. Wells are not now charged for
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADHINISTKATION. 321
calculates with the aid of all the data he can collect, regard-
ing former history, the general situation, climate, proximity
to market, &c. Having thus arrived at the absolute or full
rates, the field diagrams, which show the relative values, at
once enable the rates to be applied. A sixteen anna field
pays the full ; an eight anna field the half, and so on.
In Bombay (just as in Madras) the occupant of such a
survey number holds it on the simple terms of paying the
revenue ; if he admits that he is (or is proved by a decree
of Court to be) holding on behalf of some one else, as a
tenant, or in an inferior position, then the 'superior
holder's ' name is entered in the register, not his : he
becomes the ' inferior holder,' and it is the superior who is
entered in the register as the ' occupant ' responsible for the
assessed sum. Any one who is recorded as the responsible
holder can simply resign (if he does not like to pay the
assessment) any field in his holding. The assessment is
fixed for a period of thirty years, so that a man who elects
to hold continuously, knows for certain that, during that
long period, all the profit he can make will go to him.
At the beginning of each year, he can signify to the
mamlatdar (or local revenue officer of a taluka subdivision)
what fields he wishes to hold and what he wishes to give
up : as long as he does this in proper time, he is free to do
as he pleases. If he relinquishes, the fields are available
for any one else ; if no one applies for them, they are
usually auctioned as fallow (for the right of grazing) for
the year, and so on, till some one offers to take them up for
cultivation. Nothing whatever is said in the Revenue
Code about the person in possession (on his own account)
being ' owner ' in the Western sense. He is simply called
the ' occupant,' and the Code says what he can do and what
he cannot 1. The occupant may do anything he pleases to
improve the land, but may not without permission do any-
1 The ' right of occupancy ' — the saying that the occupant is the pro-
right to be an occupant — is itself de- prietor of the soil. In the official
clared to be a transferable and herit- language of the Presidency, the
able property (Code, section 73) ; but occupant is said to hold on ' the
that is quite a different thing from survey tenure.'
VOL. I. Y
322 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
thing which diverts the holding from agricultural purposes.
He has no right to mines or minerals.
These are the facts of the tenure ; you may theorize on
them as you please ; you may say this amounts to pro-
prietorship, or this is a 'dominium minus plenum'; or
anything else.
The question of tenancy is just as simply dealt with. I
have stated that if it appears that the occupant is in posses-
sion in behalf of some one else, that some one else is recorded
as the 'superior holder,' and he becomes the 'inferior
holder.' What sort of ' inferior ' — whether a tenant or on
some other terms — is a simple question of fact and of the
agreement or the custom by which he holds 1.
If an occupant dies, one (the eldest or managing) heir
must be entered as the succeeding occupant who has to pay
the revenue ; for there can only be one registered revenue-
payer for each field or recognized share of a field with
a separate survey number ; though of course there may be
several sharers (joint-heirs of the deceased owner, for in-
stance) in it. Which of them is so entered depends on the
agreement of the members of the family, or on the result
of a Court decree, if there is a dispute. Sharers can always
get their shares partitioned, recorded, and severally assessed,
as long as there is no dispute as to what the shares are.
I should here add that BERAK was settled on the Bombay
system.
§ 34. The Revenue-Systems of other Provinces.
The retrospect just brought to a close embraces all the
older, and most of the larger, provinces of India. The
others that have special systems really need but little pre-
1 There is also no artificial tenant there may be a superior holder
right. In Bombay, as in all other drawing a revenue from the estate :
provinces, there are jagir and other there the actual occupants are sub-
' mam' holdings which are revenue- occupants, not tenants, as they do
free, or only lightly assessed, and not hold in consequence of any con-
occasionally other tenures in which tract with the superior.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 323
fatory comment. ASSAM, of which a small portion only had
been permanently settled, when it formed part of Bengal ;
the little province of COORG, and the great and growing
province of BUEMA, are all of them managed under local
systems of Land-Revenue Settlement which have this great
advantage; — they are free of all theories and artificial
creations, with all that has elsewhere necessarily followed
from such creations. They are (in this manual), therefore,
classed as varieties of the RAIYATWARI system.
But they have little or nothing in common with the sys-
tems of Bombay and Madras, except this one thing, that
there is no middleman — landlord, or overlord, or ideal cor-
porate body — between the actual soil-occupant and the
State.
In the map, which indicates by different colours the area
which each Settlement system I have been reviewing occu-
pies, I have ventured to give the same tint to Madras and
Bombay and Berar, because the systems differ only in de-
tail ; but I have given a different tint to Assam and Burma,
though I have endeavoured to indicate their connection
with the raiyatwari system by making it a different shade
or tint of the same colour.
SECTION IX. — THE MACHINERY OF BRITISH LAND-
REVENUE ADMINISTRATION.
§ i. Modern organization of Territory.
Perhaps I ought next to devote some space to describing
how the various British revenue systems are worked ; how
the records are preserved ; how the land-revenue is col-
lected ; how questions of revenue-law and matters of
executive management are disposed of under each system,
and in each province. But, as a matter of fact, each
province must, in the sequel, have a separate chapter on
this subject, and it would be of little use to present a series
of provincial abstracts in this place. Some of the most
Y 2
324 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
essential matters of management must also be further
discussed in another connection in the remaining sections
of this chapter. I will therefore here offer only a brief
outline of what, with some slight modifications, is the
general framework or basis of constitution COMMON TO ALL
PEOVINCES, as regards their land-revenue administration.
In all provinces the district is the starting-point. The
Magistrate and Collector, as he is called in the Regulation
Districts, and Deputy Commissioner, as he is called in the
rest, is the head of the district : and he is supported by
Assistants and Deputies, who are either general assistants
or are in charge of subdivisions of the district, in which
such assistants are practically chiefs, only acting under the
general control of the district head.
Of the multifarious duties of the District Officers I am
not here going to speak ; they are described elsewhere 1.
In all provinces but Madras2, a varying number of
districts forms a division, which is presided over by a
' Commissioner.' The duties of this officer are those of
inspection and general control in the districts ; to hear
appeals in any case from district orders ; and to be the
channel of communication between the district and the
higher revenue authorities and the Government.
At the head of the revenue-administration in Bengal,
Madras, and the North- West Provinces, is a Board of
Revenue ; in the Panjab there are two Financial Com-
missioners with Secretaries, who in fact, though not in
name, form a Board. In Burma there is a Financial
Commissioner instead of a Board. In the Central Provinces,
Oudh and Assam, the Chief Commissioner is himself the
chief revenue authority.
Under the district there are now, in all provinces, small
local subdivisons, which are to our administration, what
1 See, for instance, the Bengal directly with the Board of Revenue,
chapter on Revenue Officers ; and which (as reorganized in 1886) con-
especially see Sir John Strachey's sists of ' Commissioners ' for several
India, Lect. X, and p. 263 et seq. departments of duty who are aggre-
2 In Madras, the Collectorates or gated in the Board instead of pre-
Districts are larger and are sub- siding over local areas of territory,
divided ; the Collector corresponds
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EE VENUE ADMINISTRATION. 325
the pargana was to the Mughal system. But they are, for
convenience, usually made larger than the old pargana
or taluka, and sometimes consist of several such areas
combined.
In Bengal for a long time, as there were only a certain
number of district Zamindars to deal with, local centres
of revenue-management and collection were not thought
of; but of late years, as the estates subdivided, Govern-
ment estates became more numerous and business generally
increased, a system of subdivisions of districts has been
adopted, and these subdivisions are usually under Sub-
Deputy Collectors, and are, in fact, very much like
the tahsil subdivisions of . other provinces to be next
mentioned.
In all Northern and Central India, the district (which,
if large, may have one or more primary subdivisions) is
always subdivided into 'tahsils/ which are groups usually
consisting of several parganas of the older system. The
head (native) official who receives revenue at his local
or tahsil treasury, is called a Tahsildar. This term is in
use in certain districts of Assam, all over the North- West
Provinces, Oudh, the Central Provinces, the Panjab, and
in Madras. In Bengal, the Tahsildar is only known as
a minor official in certain special cases, as in Government
estates, or where there are numerous small holdings.
The Tahsildar is usually assisted by a Naib or Deputy
Tahsildar.
In Burma there is a somewhat similar system, of course
under Burmese nomenclature.
In Bombay the same system obtains, except that the
local areas are called ' talukas,' retained, I believe, without
aggregation from the older system. The officers in charge
are called 'mamlatdar' aided by subordinates called
' karkun.' In Madras, the Mughal administration was not
sufficiently generally established to make its divisions well
known. The district subdivision is the ' taluk/ and the
native officer is (as stated) the Tahsildar.
The object of this universal local subdivision, in its
326 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
slightly varying forms, is the same. The local officer —
vested with small criminal, and sometimes with civil-court
powers — has to receive the revenues of the local area, to
keep a close watch over the agricultural and social con-
dition of the sub-district, and to see the village officials
are doing their duty. For this purpose the Tahsildar
(or whatever he may be called) has not only an office and
treasury establishment, but also a stafi of kanungos (or
Revenue Inspectors), one of whom usually remains at the
tahsil headquarters to compile statistics and see to the
despatch of the proper returns to the district headquarters,
while the others constantly move about, check the work of
the village patwaris, and see that they do their duty in
keeping a record of all changes in the maps, and in the
proprietary interests as they occur by inheritance, gift
and sale (and to some extent by mortgage), as well as in
keeping the statistics of crops sown, and other matters
which local rules require.
The Agriculture and Land Record Department aids the
district officer, especially in seeing that this important duty
is carefully and punctually fulfilled, as it is on the proper
performance of it that several important features of district
administration depend.
Some of these duties of the local establishments are of
modern introduction ; they may be reckoned as among
the results of the Famine Commission of 1879, but success
is already beginning to be attained. And in the North -
West Provinces, where the system has been longest in
operation, the improvement in the records and statistics
has already been very considerable. Indeed, though we
have not yet arrived at the wished-for ideal of revisions
of Settlement being carried out by the district staff abso-
lutely without extraneous aid, a step in that direction
has been taken. The cost of the latest revisions will
hardly be one-third of what it used to be ; and both the
labour involved and the duration of the work will be
greatly curtailed.
As far as the general working of the system is concerned,
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTEATION. 327
— the collection of the revenue, and other branches of
general duty, — it is a matter of fact, for years past, that
these local agencies have worked well. Sales of estates
for revenue-arrears are now rare, and coercive processes
seriously carried out are also rare. In most cases the issue
of notices (' dastak ') or very temporary detentions at the
tahsil, are quite sufficient.
§ 2. Other branches of the Revenue Officer's duty.
I have purposely avoided mentioning other branches of
work for the district staff; many, such as Excise, Stamps,
and Registration of Assurances, are foreign altogether to
my purpose. But even those directly and indirectly con-
nected with land-revenue can only be enumerated. These
are first, the disposal of matters connected with the collec-
tion, recovery of arrears, and the suspension and remission
of land-revenue ; next, questions of boundary, and those
matters of land-revenue law which require to be dealt with
by revenue-officers. In some provinces cases between land-
lord and tenant as to enhancement, ejectment, improve-
ments, and the like, are heard by Revenue Courts. In
all provinces, the registration of transfers of proprietary
interests ; the making of partitions of estates ; the manage-
ment of estates of which Settlement has been declined,
or which are under direct management by reason of
default in revenue payments ; the management of estates
of minors and others under the Court of Wards ; the special
Settlement of alluvial areas, or measures taken for re-
duction by reason of diluvion ; assessment of revenue-free
areas when the estate lapses, or the assignment for life
or lives falls in ; acquisition of land for public purposes ;
making loans for agricultural improvements, and to aid
cultivators for general agricultural purposes ; — these are all
matters of a Land-Revenue officer's duty. There may be also
work in connection with the law under which certain cesses
are levied for roads and schools and to meet the costs of
famine relief, and in Bengal in connection with embank-
328 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
ments a and special surveys. The Land-Revenue Administra-
tion has also to watch the effect of the Settlements, whether
the assessments work well or bear hardly, and to take
note of the condition of the people, as evidenced by the
frequency of mortgages and sales of land, and to study the
general question of indebtedness of the agricultural
classes. Irrigation questions and appeals regarding rights
of water, and right of taking water- channels across land,
also occupy no little time in canal districts ; while (in the
Panjab, for example) schemes for the construction of canals
in districts where the soil is good, but the rainfall is so
scanty that canal irrigation is the only condition under
which husbandry is possible, have led, of late years, to
questions of colonization on an extensive scale, and of the
location of villages under appropriate rules. Lastly, in
certain districts, the results of local mistakes in Settle-
ments of past years, or of the improvidence of certain
classes, or both combined, may have also left us a legacy
of duty in securing relief from hopeless debt, in the shape
of several ' Encumbered Estates Acts,' or 'Raiyats' Relief
Acts.
The mere enumeration of these matters will show how
the land-revenue administration of an Indian district is in
fact the central part of Government, and how it comes into
contact with almost every other branch of administration
which can be named.
SECTION X. — RESUME OF THE PRINCIPLES OP LAND-
REVENUE ASSESSMENTS.
§ i. Objects of Settlement.
The duty of making or revising assessments of land-
revenue is a separate branch ; it may be undertaken by the
Collector, and will be more frequently so in the future ; but
1 Embankments, i.e. by which local authorities from ancient times,
floods are kept out of culturable is of great importance in many
lands. This work, always laid on parts of Bengal proper.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 329
hitherto, a special Settlement officer (or Settlement Col-
lector) aided by a special staff, has been employed. The
object of a Settlement, I may repeat, is, — (i) to assess the
Land-Revenue ; (2) to furnish the officer responsible for its
collection with a correct list of the persons by whom it is
payable ; (3) to give those persons a secure title, and at the
same time to secure the rights of those who hold on shares
with them, or those who hold under them.
At the risk of some repetition, I shall here briefly resume
the general principles of assessment as they are developed
in the several provinces.
It will be observed that, while the modern land-revenue
assessments trace back their origin to the old principle of
the Raja's share in the produce, and derive their authority
from that ancient custom, the actual levy of a share, or
anything representing it, has long since been abandoned ;
the old theory and the actual practice have been sundered
widely apart by the changing circumstances, both of
different provinces and different eras of history.
If all land-tenures had remained unaltered, or had pre-
sented uniformly the features, say, of an ordinary Madras
village, where each cultivator deals direct with the State
officers, responsible for no one but himself and for the crop
his own labour has raised, then no doubt the revenue
might long have remained, in true theory, a share of the
produce valued in money. And, indeed, in Madras the
land -re venue is still professedly in theory, and to some
extent in practice, based on the value of a share in the net
produce of land. (See Sect. vii. p. 296.)
In Bombay, though in principle the same direct dealing
with the cultivator is adopted, the plan has been, ever since
1847, frankly to abandon the practice of produce-calculation.
At the same time, the conditions of land-holding do not
afford any possibility of finding out a rental value. In
Bombay there is the usual preliminary division of villages
into similarly situated groups. For each group certain
maximum, or full, or standard, cash rates per acre of certain
determinate kinds of soil, are worked out. The rates are
330 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
based on a number of practical and general considerations,
reference being had to what has been paid in the past,
to the present increase in cultivation, general prosperity
and rise in prices of produce: such full rates being made
to vary in each group with reference to the relative
advantages of each. But, before applying these full or
standard rates (for each group), every field is classified by a
skilful and practised staff, and valued relatively, according to
its kind, and according to various circumstances which add
to or diminish its value individually. The result is that the
value of each field is nicely graduated on a scale extending
from a minimum up to the full rate : the scale is expressed
in ' annas ' or fractions according to the common practice.
Supposing, then, the 'full rate,' applicable to the group,
is, for a given soil, as above, R-3 : then a field belonging
to such order of soil, and of such depth, and so free from
accidental defects that it ranks as ' 16 annas,' its rate will be
R. 3 ; but should the soil be of less depth, or of an inferior
grade, and subject to defects, then it may only rank as
' 4 annas,' and therefore pay only one-fourth of the R. 3.
That is the plan of valuing land as land watered only
by the rain of heaven. If in such land there is irrigation
from a tank or by 'lift' from a river, or by well, such
irrigation-advantages may be taken into account by rates
charged in excess of the ' dry -rate ' ; if it is ' garden ' land, —
i.e. brought by long culture, manure, and watering, up to
a high standard, — it will pay rates of its own; and so
if it is permanent ' wet ' or rice land.
In the Temporarily Settled provinces, where the whole
village is dealt with as the unit, the assessment is in one
sum, which is, however, distributed among the co- sharers
according to their constitution ; so that the separate pay-
ments are just as well known as under the raiyatwari
system.
The first Settlements date from a time when the ' aggregate
to detail' method of assessment in use in the North -West
Provinces, and advocated in Thomason s well-known Direc-
tions to Settlement Officers was the common one. In practice,
CHAP, v.] VIEW OP THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 331
a lump sum was estimated for the ' pargana,' or a circle of
similarly-situated villages (assessment-circle), and then this
sum was divided so as to give the amount for each village.
There were three real grounds for fixing this sum — -first, the
knowledge of what sums had been paid in the past (with the
additional fact that they had been paid with ease or the
reverse) ; secondly, the rise in general prices, population,
increase of advantages in the matter of wells, roads to
market, &c. These considerations suggested that the total
might be increased, or maintained as it was, or possibly
diminished. Thirdly, there was the general sense of a locally
experienced officer that such a sum would be fair, the esti-
mate having been arrived at after careful inspection, inquiry
among the people, and consultation with experienced native
subordinates. These grounds, however, had to be more
elaborately justified in the Assessment Reports, in which
various rate calculations were set out, tending to check
and to illustrate or justify the general totals proposed.
The proposed village totals would then be worked back-
wards into the form of rates on the acre of each different
kind of soil (according to a fixed classification), and the
rates would be justified by comparing them with rates
got out by estimating produce, and valuing one-sixth1
of the gross produce at average prices, by calculating
a fair rate on the number of ploughs in the village, and
so forth. Under this method, the revenue was not abso-
lutely divorced from the old idea of a share of the produce,
and it is confidently believed (in the Panjab, for example)
that our land-revenue can be stated to represent not more
than the traditional sixth at the outside, probably in many
cases not more than a tenth or twelfth, of the gross
produce.
1 One-sixth, because it was roughly lord's share : so that the Govern-
estimated, that of the total produce ment revenue share was fifty per
two-thirds represented the cul- cent, or one-half of the latter,
tivator's and one-third the land-
332 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 2. Later Methods of Assessment.
But in the North -West Provinces, Oudh, and the Central
Provinces, a totally new element had gradually been
introduced. In these provinces the landlord classes were
largely non-agriculturist, and in consequence the land
was mostly cultivated by tenants, and the rents thus
realized from the land came to be more and more com-
monly paid in cash. At the present day the cases where
grain-rents are paid are insignificant (and the means
of ascertaining a cash-rate by comparison are easy) ; so
that the system is not altered by such exceptional cases.
The growth of tenant-cultivation and the use of cash-
rents were very important changes in the constitution of
agricultural society. And gradually they affected assess-
ment principles. In fact we may reckon four stages of
assessment rule development. The first was marked by
the attempt to value produce, which I have alluded to
as characteristic of the early working of Regulation VII of
1822 ; it was, in fact, a clinging to the idea of finding out
a proper share of the produce and valuing it in money. The
year 1833 marks the second period, when the produce
idea was given up, and an attempt was made to obtain
a direct cash valuation of the estates, with more or less
reference to the rental value. This was the old ' aggregate
to detail ' method, and consisted in roughly calculating out
a gross rental of the estate, and taking two-thirds of it as
the revenue.
The third period is marked by a great improve-
ment in the method of classifying soils, and in an
attempt to fix more scientifically the rent-paying capacity
of each class. This I may call the stage of scientifically
estimating what rent ought to be, and taking a share
— reduced to fifty per cent. — of the ideal ' rental.' *
1 I quote the following from an paid were, in theory at least, dis-
able article in the Pioneer (June ai, regarded. The main feature of the
1884). Speaking of the ' ideal ' rent Settlement . . . was that the process
system, the author says : — employed in the preceding Settle-
' The individual rents actually ment was exactly reversed. Rent
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 333
The fourth and last stage I shall speak of when I come
to mention the latest policy of the Imperial Government
regarding future revisions of Settlement, — viz. those now in
progress, or, speaking generally, since 1881. It will be
sufficient here to state briefly that it abandoned the ideal
rent for the natural or actual rent.
The abandonment of the elaborate method which is
associated with the honoured names of C. A. Elliott and
other eminent Settlement Officers of the last North -West
Provinces Settlement, does not imply any disparagement
of the skill and ability of its authors,
' It is owing ' (writes Mr. Fuller, himself the author of an
improved method of assessment in the Central Provinces) ' to
their (the Settlement officers') labours and to their ability that
assessments were made which were an immense improvement
on what preceded, and under which the country has generally
prospered. But the circumstances on which the value of land
depends are so numerous, so diverse, and often so occult, that,
however great be the talents or energy of the Settlement officer,
it is impossible that he should not occasionally slip into error :
and a single error on a point of detail may vitiate a whole
assessment. It is notorious that past assessments have from
the outset pressed unequally on the people. No sooner has
a Settlement been completed than it has become a matter of
common report that such and such a village has fared badly,
whilst others have got off very lightly — the all-sufficient ex-
planation to native minds lying in the temper of the Settlement
officer (MMm ki mimj}-"
rates were based on the actual rents the atrophied relics of a disused
found to be paid by cultivators in theory. Each then of these three
the neighbourhood, and were then Settlements rested on a different
applied to the lands of each village, basis, — the first on the produce
which had been minutely classified, and its value ; the second on gross
so as to correspond with the various rents assumed for large areas ; the
rates of rent which were, or were last on special rents paid for indi-
supposed to be, paid for each kind vidual fields ; and each successive
of soil. Crop rates were still worked stage was an approximation to the
out on calculations of the gross pro- true theory of our present land-
duce and its value, but they were revenue, namely, that instead of
not professed to be used except as dealing with the cultivator we deal
checks on the rates based on actual with the proprietor, and instead of
rents, and in fact they were hardly taking a share of the produce we
used at all. They were merely take a share of a natural rent.'
334 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ 3. The latest system of Assessment.
The North- West Provinces districts that are now being
settled have, of course, been settled several times before.
Therefore, in most of them very little in the way of
re-survey or record of rights is required. But the revision
of the assessment is now conducted solely on the basis of
the rents actually paid. The account has, of course, still
to be completed, by applying rent rates to the proprietors'
sir lands (with an allowance of from ten to fifteen per cent,
below full tenant rates) ; by applying rents to lands held at
favourable rates, or at no rent at all ; and by correcting any
manifest defects or errors in the rent-roll.
Provision is also made for cases where the recorded
rent-rolls fraudulently misrepresent facts, or are otherwise
inaccurate or unreliable.
In short, though the assets are now to depend on the
actual rental, irrespective of allowance for extension of
cultivation, or anticipated enhancements, still it is to be an
actual rental, not one which represents imaginary rents,
below what are paid, or excludes land from the account
without showing any rent at all.
In the Panjdb, the latest method of assessment still
remains different from this. We cannot make use of
rentals of the estates, because the bulk of the land is not
rented, — and what is rented pays ' batdi,' or rent in grain.
At the same time, the old plan of assessing the aggregate
revenue first, and then distributing it, and the subsequent
practice of relying on the valuation of one-sixth of the
produce, is completely given up. The assessing officer has
therefore to determine for each class of soil, in each assess-
ment circle, rates per acre, which are direct revenue rates.
These have to be sanctioned before being made use of in
actual assessment, and when so made use of can be modi-
fied to meet peculiar requirements of individual estates, —
requirements, that is, of a special character, and not already
provided for by the grouping into circles for assessment
purposes.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-RE\7ENUE ADMINISTRATION. 335
There is still no method of finding out the rates which
dispenses with personal opinion and sense of fitness ; but
the rates that are proposed can start with the basis that
there are existing rates, and primd facie these are to be
raised (or it may be lowered) on a consideration of the
history of the circle and its prevalent prices since the last
Settlement.
Then again, rates that first suggest themselves are tested
by a variety of calculations ; and it is worthy of remark
that the rules of 1888 now distinctly direct that as a
test of rates, an average tenant holding in each soil-class
should be selected, and the rent, if it is in cash, accurately
ascertained ; or, if it is paid in grain, then the grain is to be
valued in money at a fair average price. On this basis
estimates of the landlord's share, or produce rent (and the
Government half) per acre, are drawn up for each of the
different soil-classes. This shows that circumstances are
beginning to admit of tenants' rents being made more use of,
in calculation ; and it is also to be pointed out that such
estimates have one great value — they afford a good idea of
the relative value of different soils or different modes of
cultivation.
But perhaps the most interesting development is that of
the assessment method devised for the Government Settle-
ments in the Central Provinces.
It may be observed, that in the North- West Provinces,
though the Settlement officer calculates tenants' rents in
order to obtain his valuation of estates, in theory he had
nothing to do with fixing rates that the tenants were
actually bound to pay. That was supposed to be done by
the consent of the parties, and by recourse to the Rent
Courts under the Tenant Law. As a matter of fact how-
ever, the Settlement officers did do a very great deal,
though informally, to help the people to a settlement of the
rents consequent on the new assessment. But in the Central
Provinces the law has so limited the rights of the pro-
prietors of villages as regards the old tenants, that it also
was necessary by law to provide that the Settlement
336 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
officers should formally and legally determine fair rents.
Hence it was desirable to strike out a method which should
fix tenants' rents equably, and at the same time enable the
Government share of the rental-assets to be assessed with-
out further trouble.
Unfortunately it has been the great difficulty of all
Settlement calculations, that rates, however carefully tested,
will fall unequally. The surveyor and classifier can take
note of palpable differences of situation, and distinct kinds
and varieties of soil ; but besides these, there are a hundred
other circumstances which affect value, some of which defy
explanation. It was desired to see whether some steps
could not be taken to compare the rents paid in one
village with those paid in another, so that there could not
only be a positive increase (or decrease) where needed, but
also an equalization of one estate with another.
Mr. Fuller, B.C.S., who had been assistant to Sir E.
Buck in the North -West Provinces, was appointed to
direct the new Settlements in the Central Provinces, and
he devised a system which is working very well. This
system is described in detail in the proper chapter of the
sequel ; here I can only generally indicate its principle.
The actual rents paid in different villages on different
classes of soil are first carefully ascertained ; and, so far, it
can at once be seen (individually) whether they are too
low or too high ; and if too low, up to what they can fairly
be enhanced. For we can compare the rates within the
village, with what, under the circumstances, they might be
expected to be. For instance : the present rental is found
to be only very slightly in excess of what it was at the
beginning of the expiring Settlement: yet during the
period, cultivation has extended aoo per cent., and prices
(suppose) have doubled ; here, unless there are special
reasons, the rental may be considerably raised. But this
does not enable us to compare the rents of one village with
those of another ; in order to do this, the soils of both must
be reduced to a ' common denominator'; for we could not
compare the results (taking an all-round rate per acre)
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTEATION. 337
unless the villages were alike in classes of soil, and in the
proportion of each class of soil in each village area, which,
of course, is rarely or never the case. But if we can
ascertain that one class of land stands, as regards its pro-
ductiveness, in a certain relation to another, then we can
reduce the area of a village to a number of ' soil-units ' of
equal value. Suppose, for instance, a village A consists of
1000 acres and pays a total rental of R. 1000, and that
a village B has the same acreage and same total rental : —
Acres.
But A's area consists of j 3°° 'bl<Jc,k ' SQl1 j = x Ooo
( 700 ' red ,, \
B's area consists of \ 6o° \ bl*ck " } = 1,000
( 400 ' red ,, \
Now, by observation, careful experiment as to actual
produce on calculated areas, and inquiry, it is found that
the productiveness of ' black ' to ' red ' is as 20 : 1 2 —
Sothatin^!300X20=
( 700 X 12 = 8,400
14,400 soil-units of equal value.
A •, . T. ( 600x20 = 12,000
And 111 B i
( 400 x 12 = 4,800
16,800 „ „ „
We can now compare how the equal rental of R. icoo
falls ; for by dividing R. icoo by the total soil-units of
each, we find that A's rate per soil-unit comes out rn anna,
while .B's comes out at 0-95 anna. The difficulty is to work
out the proper ' soil-factor ' or number by which each
acreage of class of soil must be multiplied to reduce it to
a common denominator of equal productivity.
But this factor can be calculated for an entire tahsil and
can then be used by slightly modifying the results to
provide for special and local features in individual villages
or groups of villages.
The tables prepared for the villages in each circle, will
show the actual incidence per soil-unit ; the unit-rate as it
ought to be on general considerations, in comparison with
VOL. i. z
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
other villages ; and the actual unit-rate adopted with
reference to any peculiarity in the village itself. In many
tables I find this last is something less than the second,
because of the caste or condition of the tenants, or some
other special consideration of the kind. Thus, for instance,
we may have an actual incidence per soil-unit of 0*65 anna ;
but with reference to increase in assets (extended area of
cultivation, rents having risen, &c.), the incidence might
fairly be 0*80 ; but from considerations of the actual state
of the tenantry, the Settlement Officer will recommend 0-70
as the rate to be adopted. Of course, given this rate and
the soil-factors, it is a mere matter of arithmetic to take
out the actual rent per acre of each soil in the village as
shown in the map and field index.
§ 4. Element of intuitive calculation in Assessment
work.
"With all these different methods, it is apt to be supposed
that, after all, Settlement is very much a matter of indi-
vidual taste and opinion, and that the elaborate tables and
calculations do not produce much but expense and long
report- writing. There is, no doubt, in every assessment, a
point where it comes to taking a certain figure, which implies
an element of personal judgment — the intuitive conclusion
of a trained mind accustomed to the work. But such
conclusions are tested after they originate, so that they are
practically satisfactory.
All Settlement systems of a modern kind depend on
having an accurate survey of every field — grouping of
villages into ! assessment circles ' — or something equivalent
— according to general similarity of position and advantages,
and a complete classification of soils whereby every field
can be referred to a certain class, for which an appropriate
rate is worked out.
What that rate is to be, is calculated under the different
systems in different ways. In a country rented by tenants, it
depends on the rent actually paid, correcting the record
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 339
where it is not a real or full rent that is shown ; and supplying
a proper figure where the land does not pay rent. In other
places, it is a rate derived from general considerations of past
payments in relation to subsequent rise in prices and im-
proved condition, generally checked by estimates of produce
or rental receipts. In others again it approximates more
to a rate representing the half of the actual ' net produce '
(produce after allowing for all costs and profits of labour).
In most systems the acreage rate represents rather the net
income, than an actual net produce valued in money ; and
the general rule is that from 45-55 per cent, of the calcu-
lated net income is the Land-Revenue.
Originally the person responsible for the revenue was
content to pay ninety per cent, and retain ten per cent. ;
he made his profit in other ways. Even when under
British law, he was first called ' proprietor ' — and it might
seem that a proprietor was hardly to be so called if
he had to pay so heavy a share to the State, — it must be
remembered that the proprietary right was a pure gift of
which one person (or one body] was not to get the whole
benefit ; and further that the ' assets ' of which he gave up
ninety per cent., did not really represent anything like his
whole receipts. As the systems became more searching in
their calculations, the percentage was reduced, at first to
sixty-six per cent, or two -thirds, and then lower still *.
But, to return to the calculation of assets or the rates
which represent assets per acre. There must necessarily be
a point where estimation — guess-work if the term is pre-
ferred— comes in. No rule can possibly be laid down as to
whether a certain soil should pay i R. or i R. 8 a. or i R. ica.
per acre : a sense of fitness under all the conditions of the
case, arising in the mind of a practical officer who has
carefully inspected the land map and note-book in hand,
must begin the work ; but if the figure is not justifiable, its
error will surely appear when we come to apply the rates
1 And where, as in some cases in only a nominal proprietor, and glad
Bengal, it still remains at seventy to collect at a remuneration of thirty
per cent., it is where the person per cent., while the tenantry get a
holding the Settlement is really larger share of the total.
Z 2
340 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
to the whole village or circle, and compare the results with
existing payments and test them in various ways. And in
Bombay the test is mainly applied by having the relative
value of fields fixed on certain definite principles, so that
if the full rate is at all accurate, the individual valuation
of fields is almost a matter of arithmetic.
All systems insist on the rates being reported and justi-
fied, before actually put into force ; and therefore, though
the rates may be initiated to some extent by more or less
arbitrary methods, they are not used till their resulting
totals are tested and examined on data which are quite
sound and satisfactory, while the results are made to conform
to principles of equitable taxation laid down by Government.
§ 5. ' Cesses'
Properly speaking, we are concerned only with the ' land-
revenue,' but it may be convenient to explain that in many
Settlement Records another charge will be found entered.
The co-sharer in a village, for example, is entered as paying
for his field say 15 rupees, of which 13 R. is ' mal ' or land-
revenue, and 2 R. is ' siwai ' or cesses. The cesses were from
an early date levied to pay for certain public works which
benefited the locality only, and were not, therefore, properly
a charge against the Imperial Land-Revenue l.
The ' cesses ' are levied at the present day under local
Acts.
SECTION XI. — THE MODERN QUESTION OF A GENERAL
PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
Before I pass on to some other matters of importance
connected with land-revenue administration, I feel that it is
almost unavoidable to give some further detail regarding
1 The land-revenue proper is, for army, home charges, &c., — and the
budget purposes, divided between local treasures of the different pro-
the Imperial treasury — to meet vinces, for general provincial expen-
Imperial or general charges, like the diture.
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 341
the proposal to assess the land-revenues of provinces once
and for all. Probably there are now very few persons of
Indian experience who are likely to entertain any such pro-
position with favour ; and for official purposes the question
is dead and buried. But from time to time such questions
recrudesce ; and dressed up in showy and plausible argu-
ments, they are made use of to the bewilderment of persons
to whom the facts of the case are not familiar. I believe
that a few pages devoted to the actual history of the ques-
tion during the last twenty years, and to a plain statement
of some of the leading considerations on the merits of the
discussion, will not be without their use, nor wholly devoid
of interest, especially to the non-official reader.
§ i. Official History of the Question.
This question arose for the second time with reference to
the Settlements of the North- Western Provinces 1.
When the thirty years' Settlements made under the
Regulations of 1822 and 1833 began to fall in, the country
was still suffering from the effects of the disorder produced
by the Mutiny, and by the famine and cholera of 1860.
Under such gloomy circumstances, the districts came up to
be re-settled for a new term. The report on the famine of
1 860-61 by Colonel Baird Smith, struck the key-note of
praising the moderate assessments of the past Settlements,
and treating them as an instalment of a gift which would
be completed by making the moderate assessment permanent.
The light assessments had enabled people to bear up against
the famines in the last year better than they had done in
the famine of 1837-38 ; and it was urged that if the assess-
ment was made, not for thirty years but for ever, it would
achieve still greater success. This report received, at the
time, a good deal of commendation. There is, however, no
1 I am indebted throughout to and Co.). A collection of official
Mr. (now Sir A.) Colvin's admirable papers regarding the Permanent
Memorandum on the Revision of Settlement was also reprinted in
Land Revenue in the North-Western 1879.
Provinces, 1872 (Calcutta : Wyman
342 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
sufficient reason to assume that the permanence of a Settle-
ment has anything whatever to do either with the improve-
ment of the land or the happiness of the people. And there
are other considerations which the Report ignored. But the
pendulum of general and official opinion swings in a long
course from side to side in these revenue-administration
questions, — permanency, tenant-right, and so forth ; and at
that period it was again on the descent towards the Per-
manent-Settlement side. It also happened that, in 1861,
attention had been attracted to the unexploited waste lands
of India. Forest conservancy had not then come under the
public notice, and even if it had, the area of waste available
for cultivation was large. Lord Canning, then Governor-
General, wrote a minute on the subject ; and it was argued
that if the lands were sold free of any revenue demand, it
would encourage their occupation and draw capital to this
source of expected profit.
And naturally, from the question of occupying waste lands
free of revenue charge, the Govern or -General's remarks
passed on to the possible advantages of a general redemp-
tion of the land-revenue on estates already occupied. The
redemption was to be effected by paying up in one sum the
prospective value of the revenue demand. On this, the
Board of Revenue in the North -West Provinces advocated
a permanent settlement (for, of course, the revenue must be
permanently assessed before it could be redeemed). The
Secretary of State, however, in 1862, rejected the policy of
a redemption of land-revenue, but said he would listen to
proposals for a permanent Settlement.
It needs no lengthened explanation to understand that so
long as a district is not fully cultivated, and there is any
serious prospect of alteration in its economic position, an
assessment hastily made permanent must be ever after
regretted. The form the problem took in 1862 was — What
are the conditions which must be fulfilled seriatim before
a district can be fit for a final revision of assessment, so that
there need be no further change ? At first it was assumed
that when a careful revision of the existing (and then
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 343
expiring) rates had been effected, and when no considerable
increase of cultivation in future was probable, a permanent
assessment might be practicable.
In 1 864 the terms were fqrmulated by the Government of
India (and were modified at home in 1 865). The condition was
laid down that eighty per cent, of the culturable area should
have been brought under cultivation, and then that the rate
of permanent assessment need not be as low as fifty per cent,
of the net assets (the rate at which the revenue demand had
previously been fixed by the ordinary Settlement rules).
But this was not satisfactory ; and in 1867 another condition
was added, regarding the probability of canal irrigation
being extended to the lands in the next twenty years. This,
of course, largely alters the rate of produce and the value
of the land.
Then, it seems, officers were set to work to find out what
districts or parts of districts could be permanently settled
under these conditions. But in 1869 some cases came up
(in the course of the inquiry) in which it was demon-
strated that — although the conditions were satisfied — there
would be a great prospective loss to Government by making
the assessment permanent. Accordingly a third condition
was recommended. The Government of India, in concur-
ring, went so far as to say, what practically amounted to
this, that a permanent Settlement should be deferred so
long as the land continued to improve in value by any
causes which were not the direct result of the occupant's
own efforts.
It does not seem to have occurred to the supporters of
the idea of a permanent Settlement, that it would be possi-
ble to secure all or nearly all the advantages, whatever they
are, without the disadvantages of fixing a limit which — no
matter what new combinations the future may produce —
can never be altered. Still less did it seem to them
necessary to be very cautious (in India) when we prophesy
what will be the results, in the future, of any given pro-
posal. For instance, let us refer to the difficulty which
arises when a cash assessment is fixed for ever, and a fall in
344 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
the value of money occurs. The reader of the present day
will peruse with something like amazement, the remark in
Sir Charles Wood's despatch of 1862, that the 'fall in the
value of money was not of sufficient moment to influence
the judgment of Her Majesty's Government to any material
extent. Prices were unlikely to rise greatly : even if they
should rise, the Government of India might easily find
sources of income other than the land1.'
But to continue : the practical outcome of the discussion
at the time, was (as I have said) that a searching inquiry
into the condition of districts was to be made, to see really
what districts were in a condition that would satisfy the
requirements of the case. Before this was completed, the
very difficulty which Sir Charles Wood treated so lightly,
actually overtook us ; — the increasing depreciation of silver
had begun seriously to embarrass the Indian Government ;
and the financial position afforded unmistakeable proof of
the danger of attaching permanency to a money-assessment.
For a time the subject dropped. But in 1882, it finally
came up again in connection with the Kesolution which
the Government of India issued on the subject of reform
in the procedure of Settlements. The key-note of this
was, the possibility of securing the advantages derivable
from a permanent Settlement, without abandoning the un-
questioned claim of Government to share in the increase
resulting from improvements made by itself, and from a
general rise in prices.
As far as a question of permanent Settlement (pure and
simple) is concerned, the Government of India despatch
1 As a matter of fact, nothing is taking a share from the produce of
more difficult than to ' find the land, so also he gives him a share
other sources.' While provision of the increase of the merchant and
has now to be made for making an the manufacturer. (Chap. vii. 127-
increasing charge in the Budget for 131 ; x. 120, &c.) The land-revenue
loss by exchange, the subjects of becoming more and more in effect a
taxation are extremely limited. The tax on agricultural income, the tax
Income-tax, or a tax on trades and on other incomes is its direct and
professions, is the main alternative, logical counterpart. However this
but it presents great difficulties. may be, it is certainly not easy to
Nevertheless, it is interesting to mark find other sources of revenue,
that, as Manu contemplates the king
CHAP.V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 345
elicited from the Secretary of State a reply l which, after
admitting the difficulty of finding other sources of revenue,
noticing the change that had come over the financial posi-
tion, and acknowledging that the anticipations of benefit
from the permanent Settlement in Bengal had not been
realised, concluded: —
' I concur with Your Excellency's Government that the
policy laid down in 1862 should now be formally abandoned.'
And in writing to the North-Western Provinces Govern-
ment the Government of India said 2 : —
' It is sufficient for present purposes to announce that Her
Majesty's Secretary of State has now definitely agreed with
the Government of India in rejecting the policy of a perma-
nent Settlement pure and simple.'
§ 2. General reflections on the principle of permanence.
It is no part of this work, intended for practical purposes,
to enter into discussions of principles. I desire to give the
results rather than the details of controversies. At the
same time, in a matter like this, which has so often been
misrepresented, I may be pardoned for adding a few
remarks. It would be difficult, in a thorough and unpre-
judiced inquiry which went beyond mere phrases, to
discover any real argument for a permanent Settlement —
I mean an argument in which the perpetuity of the assess-
ment is the essential point— except the one that all future
costs of re-settlement and all harassment to the people would
be avoided. All other arguments (as far as they are not
merely prophetic of imagined results) may at once be
admitted, only they are equally true of any Settlement for
which a fair term of duration is provided. And as regards
the one argument which is real, the benefit is surely far
outweighed by the admitted sacrifice of revenue, when it
1 Despatch No. 24, dated 28th 2 No. 525 R., dated gth May, 1883.
March, 1883.
346 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
is remembered that the process of re-settlement can, by
judicious arrangements, be so carried out as to be very
slightly, if at all, vexatious, and its cost reduced to a
minimum.
As regards the 'prophetic arguments' — the hoped-for
creation of a prosperous middle class, the improvement of
the land and the growth of other sources of State income,
expected from the permanent assessment, the experience
(under most favourable conditions) in Bengal and Benares,
shows that as a fact, though the assessment has become very
light, nothing of the kind has happened1. As regards the
greater encouragement to agriculture, and to the expendi-
ture of capital on irrigation and other landlords' improve-
ments, as a matter of fact, in no single province or district
has a permanent Settlement been known to have any such
effect.
In the first place it may be asked (with one of the
Collectors in the North -Western Provinces) — as to improve-
ments made by landlords, where, as a rule, are they ?
Generally, they are made at the expense of the cultivating-
tenants, at any rate in the end. And certainly where
landlords do make improvements, little difference can be
detected between permanently-settled and other estates.
Here and there, a landlord makes improvements, because
1 Nothing can be more curious Moreover, under native custom,
than the results of a low assessment, properties become subdivided and
whether fixed for ever or not. In again subdivided, till their value
one large district, at least, where a is frittered away ; the money-
low assessment was secured for lender steps in, and land again
thirty years, the result has been, begins to aggregate in the hands of
not that a wealthy class has arisen, a class alien to agricultural know-
but that simply all restraint has ledge and interests. All these eco-
vanished, and the poor population nomical questions, interesting as
has multiplied to such an extent they are, are necessarily beyond the
that the wealth accumulated is not scope of my book. I must only add
more able to support the increased the notorious fact that in well-
mass of people than the former re- managed Native States, where the
sources were to feed the then exist- revenue is double, perhaps four
ing numbers. In other words, ten times as high as in the British dis-
men have not grown rich by the tricts, the people are apparently as
rise of their income from R. 1000 to prosperous : only that, to be sure,
R. 10,000, but a thousand persons their power of transferring their
have appeared instead of ten, to land is very limited, and there are
live on the increased amount. no pleaders and few law courts !
CHAP, v.] VIEW OP THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTEATION. 347
he is an enlightened man, but it depends on the man. not
on the supposed security1.
Mr. J. R. Reid, Secretary to the Government, North-
Western Provinces, giving his personal experience, wrote
in 1873:—
' According to theory one should find estates like these (per-
manently settled) in the most flourishing condition, with all
manner of improvements introduced, and landlords very well
to do, and most liberal to their tenants. But, in fact, in riding
through these villages, and through the parganas generally,
you would not detect anything in the appearance of the people
and land, in the number of wells and other means of irriga-
tion, the kind and look of the crops, the size of the houses, the
air and condition of the people and cattle, to make you suspect
that the (permanently-settled) land-owners enjoy a different
tenure from their neighbours of similar caste 2 and condition
in temporarily-settled estates. There is as much capital laid
out and industry bestowed on the land in the one set of estates
as in the other.'
I could multiply testimony to the same effect ; but the
fact does not really admit of dispute.
This matter of improvements is connected directly with
another question, which is not usually noticed by the advo-
cates of a permanent Settlement. Does any landholder
really believe in or realize, permanency 1 For example,
will any one seriously contend that, looking at all the ups
and downs of history, a Zamindar in 1793 f^olized that the
Government would last for ever, or even for a long period
of years ? Would not a promise of fixity for thirty or
1 I would call attention to the upset by the Special Commission, as
curious case noted in the chapter on an unjustifiable one. Yet the Kajti,
North- Western Provinces tenures, during the years he held, made im-
of the great improvements made by provements on the most liberal
a Kaja of Benares, in the pargana scale, which doubled his rental,
of Bara (Allahabad), of which he 2 He mentions similarity of caste ;
was merely the auction-purchaser because, for purposes of comparison ,
at a sale for arrears of revenue in if the caste is altogether different,
1820. Not only was there no kind the result might be put down to
of permanence about his Settlement, that. Some castes are by nature
but the question of inquiry into good thrifty cultivators ; others
revenue sales was then in the air, slovenly and bad : there is no
and this very sale was ultimately ignoring the fact.
348 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
twenty years, even then, have seemed to him a period
longer than he could count on ? And at the present day,
do the mass of unlettered but hard-working petty land-
owners ever think of anything so remote as fifty years
hence, still less realize the idea of permanency, and act
upon it1?
But even if it were otherwise, what possible right has
one Government to bind (and seriously embarrass) its suc-
cessors for all time ? The effect of a permanent Settlement
is practically this, that the Government of the day selects
a certain class of estate or a special province, and says —
' You shall never be called on to bear more than a certain
share of the public burdens, no matter what your neigh-
bours pay.' Of course, I am aware that other, and especially
indirect, taxes may be imposed, but practically, in Bengal
for instance, what are they ? It is a fair estimate to make,
that at present, for no conceivable reason, the class of
Bengal landlords is contributing (proportionately) to the
public expenditure, less than one-third of what any one
else pays2.
On the whole, therefore, it is impossible not to conclude
that in theory, as binding future Governments and exempt-
ing certain classes from part of the burthen of taxation,
1 As the Collector of Gorakhpur cumstances, indispensable, it must
remarks ' Revenue-free estates i^in be paid by some class or other, and
many the revenue is altogether re- no historical justification can get
mitted, be it remembered, in per- rid of the essential injustice of an
petuity) are as secure as they can be, arrangement by which those who
but I do not find that this security benefit most by the administra-
adds to their selling value. Revenue- tion should contribute least to its
free and revenue-paying estates cost.'
alike sell according to their imme- It is interesting to note that as
diate profits.' early as Col. Wilks' time (The History
a On this subject I may quote Mr. of Mysore was published about 1817)
Justice H. S. Cunningham in an this aspect of a Permanent Settle-
article on Indian Finance in the ment was not unperceived. Thus
Asiatic Quarterly Review (April 1888). Col. Wilks wrote (History, p. 123),
He says : — ' AJI English Chancellor of the Ex-
' The question has sometimes been chequer who should presume to
asked whether a compact so in- pledge the national faith to an un-
herently inequitable as the Per- alterable tax, might captivate the
manent Settlement, can be main- multitude, but would be smiled at
tained under the altered conditions by the financiers of Europe ; yet
of succeeding times ... A certain principles do not alter in traversing
expenditure being, in existing cir- the ocean.'
CHAP.V.] VIEW OP THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 349
and not applied universally, the declaration of a per-
manently fixed land-tax is inadmissible. Further, that in
practice, a general, unchangeable, assessment has no advan-
tages which are not equally to be secured by a moderate
assessment for a fairly long term of years. What that
term should be, depends on a variety of considerations,
local, as well as of principle ; and though a certain concur-
rence of practice has resulted in thirty years or twenty
years as an usual period, Government has wisely refused,
by either legislative enactment or otherwise, to stereotype
any rule. The circumstances of the Central Provinces have
only recently demonstrated that periods from twelve to
twenty years for the new Settlements, will be practically
the best.
As to imaginary or anticipated encouragements and
advantages to agriculture, it is idle to refer to them in
the face of nearly a century's experience of what has
happened in provinces where the experiment has been
tried, and tried under very favourable circumstances. It
certainly is high time that this 'policy' should now be
regarded as 'formally abandoned.'
SECTION XII. — THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
AND REVENUE.
Having thus sketched the development of the provincial
land-revenue systems, the remainder of this ' General '
chapter will deal, without reference to particular pro-
vinces (unless they are expressly named), with certain
important matters of modern revenue-administration, which
have of late years come into prominence — chiefly as the
result of the inquiry into the whole subject of land-revenue
administration which was made by the Famine Commission
in 1879. It is hardly needed to point out that, except in
limited tracts, the failure of the summer or autumn rains
(as the case may be) brings famine as the great scourge of
agricultural life in the Indian provinces. Serious famines
35O LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
in 1866 and in 1877-78 — not to speak of others — led to the
most earnest desire, first, to perfect a system of organized
relief when famine actually occurs, and for this purpose to
compile ' Famine Codes ' giving the results of experience as
to what is to be done and how to do it ; but still more (in
the second place) to see what could be done to put the
administration in a state of preparedness against the oc-
currence of bad years. To effect this object the entire
land administration machinery had to be overhauled, and
all agricultural conditions reviewed. If I were asked to
summarise, in a few words, what has been the most useful
outcome of the reforms recommended, I should say, — the
perfection of the local official machinery and of the records
of fact which their work makes available for administra-
tive purposes.
Without this knowledge of facts, you cannot have the
difficulties of re-settlement overcome ; you cannot have
famine warning; you cannot have any agricultural im-
provement ; and you cannot have good revenue-adminis-
tration.
In order, therefore, to organize agricultural inquiry and
record, and to improve revenue-administration, two things
were necessary. A series of Provincial Departments
charged with this special business, and an Imperial Depart-
ment to guide and direct the general aims of each local
centre of administration, without, of course, derogating
either from the responsibility or the power of the Local
Governments. Provincial Departments require a sys-
tematizing and controlling head ; their necessary supplement
is an Imperial department ; and it may be justly said that
one is of little use without the other.
I do not undervalue the importance of the labour which
has given us a Famine Code ; but that is outside the scope
of this manual. And therefore I may seem to ignore one
part of the Famine Commissioners' work, and only put
forward what they intended to be a secondary object.
The Famine Commission was naturally more directly
concerned with famine, its prevention and cure. It was
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 351
therefore proposed that the Agricultural Department in
each province should have three primary objects, — agri-
cultural inquiry, agricultural improvement, and organiza-
tion of famine relief. But it is obvious that there are
other duties which the Government, looking beyond the
single subject of famine, must require. In the first place,
famines are not universal, and are happily only occa-
sional, even in provinces subject to them. There are
some whole provinces (like Assam) and parts of others,
where anything like real famine is hardly known ; never-
theless, there is ample scope for an Agricultural Depart-
ment. Moreover, ' improvements in agriculture ' cannot be
effected in a short time. Too great a zeal is apt to cost
much and come to very little. Before we can 'improve,'
we must have full information as to facts. Agricultural
inquiry must precede agricultural improvement.
And agricultural inquiry is equally important for famine
purposes. ' The success of an Agricultural Department
would mainly depend,' said the Famine Commission, ' on
the completeness and accuracy with which agricultural and
economic facts are collected in each village, and compiled
in each subdivision and district throughout the country.
Without a perfect system of local information, the warnings
of approaching troubles are lost or misunderstood ; and the
liability of different parts of the district to calamity, — the
weak points, on which a watchful eye has to be kept, are
not known ; and relief, in the shape of remissions and sus-
pensions of the revenue demand, even when there is no
widespread famine, is apt to be given imperfectly and with
the least benefit.'
The branch of reform which it comes within my province
to speak of, is therefore one which is by no means of
secondary importance.
352 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITFSH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
§ i. The Imperial Department of Revenue and
Agriculture.
An Imperial Department of Revenue and Agriculture
had for some years past been in contemplation ; and under
Lord Mayo's viceroyalty one had been formed in 1870.
But this was abolished in I8761, partly for financial rea-
sons and partly because the measure was not successful,
owing to its not being supported by corresponding depart-
ments in each province. It became, in fact, only an addi-
tional Secretarial Department, with a miscellaneous burden
of public business ; so far relieving other offices, but not
effecting its own special object, because it had no corre-
sponding machinery under each local government to give
effect to its recommendations.
Sir John Strachey, however, when Lieutenant-Governor
of the North -West Provinces in 1875, formed a local
department on a new basis. The principle of action was
that which I have already briefly indicated as the necessary
preliminary, as well as the complement, to any direct method
of preventing and remedying famines. The credit of clearly
perceiving this principle and applying it in practice, is due
to Mr. E. C. (now SIR EDWARD) BUCK, then serving under
the North -West Provinces Government. The attention of
the Revenue officers was directed first to the perfecting of
the Land-Records and Agricultural Statistics, while agricul-
tural improvement was kept in mind as a secondary, or
1 The causes of failure are briefly Department are —
alluded to in § 2 of the Resolution Revenue.
(Government of India) of 8th De- Agriculture,
cember, 1881. An undue amount Famine,
and variety of subjects was thrown Fibres and Silk,
on the new Department ; but what Cattle-Breeding and Cattle-
really prevented it effecting its Disease,
special object, was the fact that no Meteorology,
agency existed in the provinces with Fisheries,
similar objects. Minerals.
It was not till the discussion of Museums and Exhibitions,
the Famine Commissioners' Report, Land-Trade and Agricultural
in 1880, that the scheme was again Statistics,
considered under better auspices. Surveys (including Geological).
The branches of work actually taken Emigration,
up by the Revenue and Agricultural General.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 353
rather as a subsequent, object. This may not be the most
popular, but it is certainly the only practical ideal of an
Agricultural Department in the present state of affairs.
The maintenance of maps and land-records in a state of
continuous correctness, not only leads to economy in the
future, and facilitates re-assessment of the revenue, but
provides a useful basis of agricultural statistics, and a
knowledge of the peculiarities of the different districts.
Without these, agricultural improvement cannot be at-
tempted ; it would be working in the dark, and spending
money in vain on experiments that had no basis to start
from.
The success of the system in the North -West Provinces
has been marked ; and when action was taken on the
Famine Commissioners' Report, it was wisely determined
to organize for each province a department on the same
basis. The Imperial Department could now be recon-
structed with every prospect of permanent utility, and the
sanction of the Home Government was accordingly given ;
naturally Sir EDWARD BUCK was selected to be the first
head l.
The Imperial Department pays primary attention to the
Land Administration, and to improving the system of
assessing and collecting the land-revenue in each province.
But the department is not unmindful of agricultural im-
provement, the introduction of valuable staples, the de-
velopment of trade in Indian products, and the conduct
of useful experiments in cultivation. It will, of course,
supervise operations connected with famines when they
occur. But the chief feature in the new arrangement has
been the utilization, under efficient control, of the local
agency in each village, for the purpose of maintaining
maps, statistics, and records, correct and up to date each
1 The head of the Department is, to spend part of his time on tour,
officially, one of the Secretaries to and thus can arrange on the spot,
the Government of India (Depart- or in conference with the local
ment of Revenue and Agriculture). authorities, many matters that
This plan was preferred to appoint- could not be so quickly or so well
ing a ' Director ' of the Department. disposed of by correspondence.
The Secretary is enabled, however,
VOL. I. A a
354 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
year. The economy thus effected in the cost of Settlements
has been estimated1 to have already secured a saving of
two hundred lakhs of rupees ; and it is likely to realize, in
the future, an annual saving of from twelve to sixteen lakhs.
§ 2. The Provincial Departments.
In order to emphasize the importance of that part of the
scheme which is directed to perfecting, and keeping correct,
the Agricultural and Land-Records, it was officially deter-
mined that the heads of the Provincial Departments should
be called ' Directors of Land-Records and Agriculture V
The departments have many other duties which I cannot
here describe, and which, of course, must vary according to the
requirements and local conditions of the several provinces.
The conduct of agricultural experiments, the care of vete-
rinary schools, and model farms (where these exist), are
among the most obvious 3.
The Resolution of the Government of India (8th Decem-
ber, 1881, on Agricultural Departments) concludes : —
' The views of the Government of India may be summed up
by saying that the foundation of the work of an Indian Agri-
cultural Department should be the accurate investigation of
facts, with a view of ascertaining what administrative course is
necessary to preserve the stability of agricultural operations.
1 See the Finance Members' Bud- the last twenty years, had an almost
get Speech ^1888,1 in the Gazette of continually increasing burden
India. The lakh, I may remind Eng- thrown upon him ; and the Land-
lish readers, is 100,000, — a lakh of Records Department gave sorely-
rupees is £10,000 conventionally, needed relief and help in a matter
i.e. if the rupee is two shillings. of peculiar importance. In discuss-
2 Resolution i Government of ing the financial question, such a
India^ Financial No. 608, dated gth consideration is necessarily left out
February, 1887. of sight ; but if the Agricultural
3 The establishment of Agricul- Departments resulted in less saving
tural Departments had not long than is actually the case, the enor-
proceeded before a financial inquiry mous good done by the improve-
was made as to whether they would ment of land records would amply
be successful. Fortunately, this has justify their existence. I know of
resulted in a satisfactory verdict. no one administrative measure of
But, in fact, these Departments are greater benefit to the country than
defensible in the highest degree, on the establishment of these Depart-
their own merits. The ' District ments.
Officer ' has, by the legislation of
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 355
. . . The primary efforts of the Department should ... be
devoted to the organization of agricultural inquiry, which has
been shown to comprise the duties of gauging the stability of
agricultural operations in every part of a province, of classify-
ing the areas of the province according to the results of careful
investigation, and of deciding what method of administrative
treatment is suitable to each so as to maintain agricultural
operations at the highest standard of efficiency possible under
present conditions. . . . From a system ... of inquiry thus
conducted will follow the gradual development of agricultural
improvement.'
SECTION XIII. — REFORM IN PROCEDURE FOR
RE-SETTLEMENTS.
The establishment of Agricultural and Land-Record De-
partments, it is hardly too much to say, alone rendered the
real simplification of the Settlement work of the present and
future possible.
Already, by Resolution in October 1881 1, the Government
of India had called attention to the fact that when the Set-
tlements fell in, it did not follow that a re-settlement, in
any shape, was to be undertaken as a matter of course.
The sanction of the Government of India was required to
new Settlement operations ; and it was to be considered, in
all cases, whether any such increase in the revenue was
probable as would make it worth while to undertake them.
Four points were especially to be noted — the probable cost
of the operations, the time they would take, the increment
of revenue expected, and the incidence of the existing re-
venue on the individual landholders.
If there could be no increase (or less than one which
represented a profitable rate of interest on the total anti-
cipated expenditure), revision should ordinarily not be
1 No. 144, dated 4th October, 1881. course similar principles would be
It did not apply to the Governments recognized in those presidencies,
of Bombay and Madras ; though of
A a 3
356 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
undertaken, unless, indeed, a revision was needed because
of the inequality of incidence of the last assessment.
§ i. New System of Land Records and their
Maintenance.
But this ' Resolution ' only touched the fringe of the sub-
ject. The whole question of re-settlements, and the means
of reducing their cost, and depriving them of all their in-
conveniences to the district population, is one of such
importance that it is desirable to explain at some length
how the work of the Land-Record Departments affects it.
The sketch given in preceding sections will have shown
how very gradually the work of assessment has been
reduced to a method, or rather to different methods, suited
to the varying circumstances of each province. There re-
mained still the difficulty that, however ' scientific ' the
method, hitherto the work of a new Settlement has been
very costly and very troublesome ; and the more elaborate
the method, the more costly and prolonged the operations.
The difficulty arose from the fact that it has hitherto been
unavoidable, in making a Settlement, to have a special staff
of Surveyors and Settlement Officers, with all their subor-
dinates and office staff, to record facts, compile statistics,
fair out records, and so forth. Such a staff, in the nature of
things, during the whole of its stay, harasses the people not
a little l, and it upsets all the regular work in ' tahsils ' and
of the kdnungos and pattudris. But suppose that at last
the work is at an end ; the Settlement records are all faired
out and bound in volumes, and the maps mounted; the
originals are deposited in the Collector's Revenue Record
Office ; the copies disposed of at the tahsil and in the pat-
wari's office or ' patwar-khana ' in the village. How soon
these records, correct as they may have been at a given
1 To say nothing of the petty de- necessary to pay fees and douceurs to
mands that subordinate officials secure more or less imaginary bene-
always make when they are in fits. It is impossible wholly to
camp, in the shape of supplies, grass, prevent such things, when the
firewood, and such like ; even if the entire population practises and
foolish landholders do not think it tolerates them.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EEVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 357
date, cease to correspond with facts ! New fields are added
to the cultivated area out of the waste ; old fields change
shape or boundary ; they are aggregated or divided. New
wells are sunk, new roadways are substituted for old ones,
and many other such changes take place. Then, again, pro-
prietors are continually altering ; a certain number of sales
are notified, and the usual applications for mutation of
names are made and allowed ; but whether the fact has
ever found its way into any such record that the Settlement
list could be corrected, is another matter. The result of all
this (and much more could be said if space permitted) is
that, hitherto, when the thirty years (let us suppose) of
Settlement expired, the whole of the records, prepared
originally with so much care, have proved out of date, and
more or less useless. There is, then, nothing for it but to
re-survey the whole area, and to make out fresh maps and
records, putting the whole district once more — for several
years — into the state of unrest already described, to the
great detriment of agriculture, as well as of administrative
and social well-being.
If only the separate records could be abolished ; if only
a certain set of necessary papers — the large scale-map show-
ing every field and every detail of the estate, the index-
register to this ; the list of proprietors, their shares and
interests, and the revenue they pay ; the list of tenants and
their rents ; and any such supplemental statistics as local
rules might require, — if only these could be placed in the
hands of a village patwari, tested and signed as correct up
to a given date, viz. the commencement of a new Settle-
ment; and if thenceforward these maps and statements
could be continually corrected, fresh fields plotted in, and
statements periodically recopied and kept up to date ; when
the term of Settlement expired, the 'Record-of-rights' would
be found as correct and conformable to facts as when it began.
Then the Collector himself, or perhaps a specially-deputed
officer, could soon make out the necessary schedules for
revising the assessment, and the ' re-settlement ' would be
over.
358 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
But to secure such an ideal procedure, several things
are necessary. First, the staff of village patwdris and
inspecting kdnungos must be well taught and made com-
petent to do the survey work that the maintenance of
village maps involves. Next, their work must be con-
tinually inspected, tested, and corrected, till the machine
works without friction and failure.
Next, the rules for assessment, applicable to future re-
visions, must be reduced to the greatest simplicity.
The first of the steps above indicated has everywhere
been taken. Schools have been opened for the instruction
of patwdris and their sons in surveying and other neces-
sary branches of education. The whole staff has been
graded and organized, and rules made for its appointment
and control.
Speaking generally, each patwdri has a circle of three
or four villages, and the inspecting officers or kdnungos are
continually moving about and testing the measurements
and the accuracy of entries in the books made by the
patwdri. There is also what is called a Registrar
kdnungo, at the head-quarters of the tahsil or local sub-
division, who keeps the books and compiles the village
returns into corresponding subdivisional returns. To give
a general idea of how the village staff is manned and
supervised, it may be mentioned that in the North -West
Provinces (excluding Oudh) the number of patwdris is
about 2o,oco, the field inspectors or kdnungos number 450,
or one to every 45 patwdris. The average area of a
patwdri' s circle is 1,130 acres (cultivated), so that the
local inspecting officer looks after above 50,000 cultivated
acres ; the whole establishment costs somewhat more than
23-75 lakhs of rupees, the reorganized establishments and
their supervision costing about two lakhs more than the
old establishment of patwdris and kdnungos.
It will be seen, then, how this improvement will in-
creasingly render possible the greatest reform of all in
re-settlement operations, — -namely, the carrying out of
revision operations without an elaborate re-valuation of
CHAP. V.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTKATION. 359
lands, and by the aid of the ordinary district staff, with
the smallest possible addition of special establishments.
Instead of having elaborate volumes of special records,
prepared and put into an office to become totally useless
at the end of thirty years, and another set of village and
pargana accounts increasingly out of correspondence with
the first, we shall have one set of simple maps and records
attested as correct for a given date and thenceforward kept
up, because papers in exactly the same forms will be in the
hands of the staff to be continually corrected from day
to day 1.
I need only add, that the records will not only help the
work of revision of Settlement ; they will affect every
branch of revenue-administration, for they will, in time,
put us in possession of what I may call analytical know-
ledge of the districts ; the knowledge, as regards each estate
and group of lands, whether it is fully developed, well
cultivated, and secure from famine, or only partially so,
and what estates must be treated as 'precarious.' This
knowledge will be the very key to famine prevention and
relief, as well as to management of estates in the matter of
granting timely suspensions and remissions of revenue in
bad years, and to the adoption of a more elastic system of
1 This is what Sir Alfred Lyall consulted. It would put an end, in
wrote on the subject : — districts already properly settled, to
' It is hoped that, under the re- all formal and minute valuations of
gular inspection and supervision theland ; it would, in great measure,
now given from year to year by the do away with the systematic en-
district establishment, and subject hancements and levelling up of
to certain checks and corrections, a rents that formed part of the duty
body of statistics can, during the of the Settlement Officer, and by the
currency of existing Settlements, be keeping up, along with the other
got ready for each estate, upon statistics, of a careful record of im-
which, without minute inquiry, a provements made by landlords and
summary and fairly accurate esti- cultivators, the profits of these im-
mate of the rental assets might be provements might be secured to
made. This system would, it is them. The body of statistics under
thought, provide the best possible collection from year to year could
method of securing for Government at any time be made open to the
its full share of enhanced rentals. scrutiny of the proprietors of the
It would, moreover, provide, from land, who might thereby be able to
time to time, for a tolerably equal forecast, with a certain degree of
distribution of the land-tax, a point assurance, the revenue for which
on the propriety and expediency of they would become liable.'
which much stress is laid by those
360 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
fluctuating assessments for precarious tracts, and, ulti-
mately, to really beneficial schemes of agricultural im-
provement.
§ 2. The principles of reassessment or revision of
Land-Revenue.
The Government of India, on the i7th October, 1882,
issued a Resolution indicating certain principles on which
re-assessments should be made. I wish to state the plan
propounded as a whole, but at once premising that it was
a tentative proposal, and has not been adopted in its
entirety. The original scheme was (i) that enhancements
of revenue should only be allowed on the ground of —
(a) rise in prices,
(6) increase in cultivation,
(c) improvements made at Government expense.
This proposal eliminated, as a general rule, all fresh
attempts to value land. The fact is, the majority of
districts have been thoroughly surveyed, and soils classified ;
and if the local establishment do their duty in keeping the
Records, and the maps on which they are based, up to date
in the manner above described, there should be only in
exceptional cases any necessity for further valuation.
The ' rise in prices ' principle (a) was to be applied with
two very important limitations. In the first place^ to
guard against the effect of small or uncertain fluctuations,
small rises of prices were to be disregarded ; nor need the
enhancement be in full proportion to the rise, but so as
to leave a margin with a view to meeting any increase in
the cost of agriculture, and of providing for a rise in the
standard of living.
In the second place, enhancement, on the ground of rise
in prices, was also to be limited to fifteen per cent, on
the former rate.
For the purpose of calculating prices, years of scarcity
•were to be eliminated, for prices are then abnormal. Certain
staples and certain market localities, it was suggested,
CHAP, v.] VIEW OP THE LAND-BE VENUE ADHINISTEATION. 36 1
might be taken for the purposes of calculation, and
the prices of, say, the decade before the current Settle-
ment, should be compared with those of the concluding
decade.
(2) In order to give landowners immediate assurance
of their future position, an assessment should, except in
backward districts, be declared for each estate as soon as
possible, which the Resolution called the 'initial assess-
ment/ which should not be altered when the re-settlement
began, except on one or more of the above grounds.
This point has, however (in particular) been given up, as
it was found impracticable.
(3) That measures should be taken to secure to tenants
the same protection against enhancement of their rents,
as would be offered to landlords in respect of the
revenue.
These proposals were generally and in principle agreed
to by the Governments of Madras and Bombay. In the
North -Western Provinces, however, they met with elaborate
criticism; and the Secretary of State 1, while approving the
general object of the Resolution, also felt doubts about the
details.
The arguments about the inequality of the incidence
of the re venue- demand under existing Settlements, and
therefore the difficulty of fixing an 'initial assessment,'
may be passed over, as this portion of the scheme stands
abandoned.
The principal objection in the North -Western Provinces,
was on the question of enhancing solely with reference
to rise in prices. It must be admitted at once that the
application of the principle of a rise in prices is easier
in a raiyaticdri province, or in the Panjab, where the
revenue approximates more to a money sum representing
a share in the produce obtained by the cultivating pro-
prietor. But in the North -Western Provinces the land
is cultivated by cash-paying tenants, and the revenue is
now a certain share of the rental ; and the objection was
1 No. 24, dated sand March, 1883.
362 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
stated that in the North -Western Provinces 'prices do not
affect rents immediately or otherwise than at long in-
tervals.' Under any circumstances, the prices looked to
should be prices at the pargana capital, where produce is
sold by agriculturists ; and harvest prices, not averages
of other months, should be taken. It was also urged that
rises in prices could not be counted on as permanent, and
that if they fell naturally after a revision made on the
strength of what appeared at the time, there would be
no remedy but to resort to remissions of the revenue, which
would be unsatisfactory.
There were minor objections, such as that the system
would benefit different tracts unevenly, and that in con-
sequence of the varying proportion of staples in different
tracts, there would be some difficulty in adjusting any
calculation of what the rise in prices was, which would
be fair to all. The Government of India admitted that
any rise in prices counted on ought to be widespread ; that
it was not to be one affecting small areas but whole
provinces, while it would be easy to allow for an additional
demand on any particular district or tract where a new
railway or canal had produced a durable and marked local
effect on prices. It was also admitted that the difficulty
about existing rents not following prices, was a serious one;
but reference was made to a possible change in the tenant
law, by which enhancements would necessarily be brought
about almost wholly with reference to prices ; and if so,
revenue enhancement would follow the same rule T.
1 Briefly, I may explain that in is, by competition, paying more than
the North- West Provinces, occu- the ' prevailing ' rates, as above ex-
pancy-tenants' rents are in practice plained. But should the law be
enhanced only on the first of the changed to allow all tenants having
grounds allowed by the law (Section held any land in the village for
13, Act XII of 1881) ; i. e. they are twelve years, to claim occupancy,
enhanced up to the ' prevailing ' then the majority would become
rate, which, in effect, is the rate occupancy-tenants, of whom the
assumed as fair by the Settlement older ones would soon become
Officer in his calculations. Occu- equalised as to rates, and the new
pancy-tenants must now have held ones would be already paying above
the same land in the village for these rates ; so that the application
twelve years, therefore they are a for enhancement on the ground
minority; and the ordinary tenant that the 'tenant was paying below
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-RE VENUE ADMINISTEATION. 363
It is unnecessary to go into the subject further, as there
is no present prospect of the tenant law of the North-
Western Provinces being altered so as largely to increase
the number of occupancy-tenants.
§3. The present state of the question.
In a despatch of i6th August, 1884 (No. 16), the Govern-
ment of India reviewed the objections of the North- Western
Provinces, and informed the Secretary of State that they
had abandoned the plan of framing initial revenue assess-
ments, and they continued : —
1 We shall have no objection in the more recently assessed
districts, to the entire exclusion of new land from assessment
on any estate in which the increase could be proved to be below
a certain percentage. We would divide districts, not estates,
into two classes :
' (i) those in which the revenue is fairly adequate, which
would include the majority of districts assessed
within the last twenty years ; and
' (2) those earlier assessed districts in which rentals have
considerably outgrown the revenue.
' The latter should be re-assessed according to the method
proposed by Sir A. Lyall (Lieutenant- Governor of the North-
Western Provinces) [i. e. the latest Settlement rules under
which the actual rent-rolls, corrected only to supply positive
errors, and to give rents for non-rented land liable to assess-
ment, without prospective and calculated additions, are made
use of]. The former (should be re-assessed) on the principles
stated in our first despatch, subject to the modifications now
suggested ; one of the conditions would be the fifteen per cent,
maximum (enhancement). The rise in prices would be deter-
mined primarily by a consideration of the prices in the whole
province, subject, perhaps, to a further scrutiny in particular
districts of the effect on them of improved communications. '
The Secretary of State replied in a despatch (No. 4,
Revenue) of 8th January, 1885. It was observed generally
the " prevailing rate " for other then the second ground allowed by
tenants of the same class,' &c., the tenant law — rise in prices- —
would cease to be operative, and would be the chief one.
364 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
that some of the objections to the original scheme were
admitted, and that others depended for their removal on
an alteration of the tenant law, which was not regarded
as practicable ; but that much remained which might be
usefully carried into practice. As the despatch gives the
final orders on the subject, I may now sum up both the
discussions which I have been describing, and the general
subject of the latest rules for the simplification of the
procedure in the re-settlements, by giving the actual prin-
ciples sanctioned : —
(1) The permanent Settlement idea is formally aban-
doned ;
(2) the State shall still retain its claim to share in
' the unearned increment ' of the value of land
to which there is a tendency in a progressive
country ;
(3) that a general and permanent rise in the prices of
produce is one of the principal indications and
measures of this increment ;
(4) that it is nevertheless desirable to modify the
existing system of revision of the temporary settle-
ments of land-revenue with a view of rendering
it less arbitrary, uncertain, and troublesome to the
people ;
(5) that the modification should be effected at least in
the following particulars : —
(a) repetition of field operations (survey, valuation, mi-
nute inquiries into assets, and the like) which are
considered to be inquisitorial and harassing to the
people, should be, as far as possible, dispensed
with ;
(6) enhancement should be based mainly on considera-
tions of general increase in the value of land ;
(c) the assessment will not be revised merely with a
view to equalizing its incidence with that of the
assessment of other estates ;
(d) improvements made by the land-holders themselves
should not be taken into account in revising as-
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-EE VENUE ADMINISTRATION. 365
sessments ; but improvements made at the cost of
the State should be taken into account, and also,
to some extent, increase of cultivation.
As regards more detailed rules, the Secretary of State
observed : —
' It is not desirable that I should attempt to lay down, for
the guidance of the Local Governments, rules for the revision
of Settlements. But I may state the general principles upon
which, in my opinion, such operations should be conducted,
subject to the conditions specified ' [viz. the Nos. i to 5 above
given].
' All tracts (whether whole districts or parts) which were in
a backward condition [when the existing assessments were
framed, and where the subsequent process of development has
produced inequalities so great and numerous as to make the
application of any general uniform rate of enhancement un-
advisable and unfair1] will be excluded from the scheme,
because the present assessment would evidently afford no
proper basis for the future assessment. These tracts must be
left for regular [re-] settlement.
' As regards other localities, when a Settlement is about to
expire, a summary inquiry should be made into the condition
and resources of the tract . . . and upon the results of this
inquiry the Local Government, with the approval of the
Government of India, should determine the general rate of
enhancement to be applied to the tract. The factors to be
taken into consideration would be, general rise in agricultural
prices, in actual rentals, and in letting-value and sale-price of
land ; and care would, of course, be taken, that the increment
determined on should be such as would not unduly raise the
revenue, certainly not in any case beyond fifty per cent, of the
"apparent assets " [i. e. the assets obtained by consideration of the
factors above mentioned, of which the ' actual rental ' was the
amount which the assessing officer, on a consideration of the
estate or tract, was led to consider the proper actual rental 2].
1 This explanation was approved rental ' does not include, be it re-
by the Secretary of State in a later membered, any prospective rise in
despatch. rent or (in this class of estate) any
2 The term in the despatch is increase in the cultivated area (Re-
' apparent assets ' which was ex- venue Despatch, Secretary of State,
plained to mean what I have put No. 65, dated soth July, 1885).
in brackets ; the proper ' actual
366 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
'There is no necessity for determining beforehand what
shall constitute the unit of area ... to which the same rate
of increment will apply. That must depend on local condi-
tions. It might be a whole district, or, when the conditions of
progress vary, different sections of it. Within that area, the
rate of increment, as determined by the Local Government,
would, as a rule, be applied by the Settlement officer rateably
all round. But it should be in his discretion to treat special
cases exceptionally. There may be tracts, or groups of estates,
to which a rate higher than the average rate should be applied,
— such, for example, as have benefited by improvements made
at the expense of Government, or where there has been an
unusual increase of cultivation or rise of rental. There may
very probably, on the other hand, be estates in which, from
over-assessment or other cause, it may not be expedient to take
the whole increase, or any part of it, or in which possibly even
a reduction of the existing demand may be expedient. And
objecting proprietors might have the option ... of a regular
revision.'
The practice now is, under these orders, to draw up a
programme of Settlement work with reference to super-
vision of survey operations and other considerations ; and
the Government lays down instructions for the Settlement
of each district1.
1 For example, I may abstract held by tenants of this class and
the ' Jalaun ' district instructions that ; what is to be done when a
(December, 1884) in a few words:— particular village has a fraudulent
1. No new survey or soil-classi- or wholly inaccurate rent-roll. Ob-
fication or records (except in seven- servations are added about fraud-
teen villages for special reasons). ulently inadequate rates as distin-
2. Revision to be an actual re- guished from those allowed at
corded rent-roll corrected (i) to put favourable rates on customary
a rent on ' sir ' ; r (2) to correct grounds ; and about determining
fraudulent concealments of rent ; the area that is really ' sir.' The
(3) correct rent for fields held rent- question of ' imposing fixed maxima
free or at ' manifestly inadequate ' of enhancement ' is reserved,
rents. The actual rentals to be The Government of the North-
average of six years (from 1878- Western Provinces have also issued
1883-4). Instructions go on to ex- general rules for assessment (under
plain how the rent-rolls should be Act XIX of i873\ which I have
verified, and it should be tested spoken of in detail in the chapters
what area really is ' sir/ and what on the North-Western Provinces.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OP THE LAND-BE VENUE ADMINISTRATION. 367
§ 4. Instalments of Land-Revenue.
Another subject of consideration has been the fixing of
the most convenient dates for the payment of the Govern-
ment revenue. This payment could not be conveniently
made in one sum for the year, nor on any purely calendar
arrangement of quarter-days, &c. In some Settlements it
is expressly provided that it shall be paid in a certain way.
It is obvious that this matter requires attention, and that
the power of the people to pay without difficulty, largely
depends on the suitableness of the time of demand.
In places where the revenue-payers are landlords or
employers of tenants, their power of payment depends on
their first having time to collect their rents. And in its
turn this depends on the power of the cultivators to find
the money for the rents. Rent, again, cannot be paid till
the harvest is realized ; and this condition applies also to
the raiyat, who pays revenue direct to the State, and to
the petty cultivating proprietor who does the same, in-
directly.
Here there are usually two harvests to be considered ;
some pay most of their revenue from the ' rabi,' or spring
harvest ; others, from the autumn, or ' kharif ' ; others
part from both. If a principal part is demanded when the
harvest relied on is not yet got in, the payer must borrow
the money at high interest ; and though, when the produce
is presently sold, he may pay back to the money-lender a
portion of the debt, he will not be able to repay the whole.
If, on the other hand, the date for payment is so fixed that
the cultivator has got in his money by sale of his produce,
and yet the village headman will not receive it, he is very
likely to spend this sum, or lose it in some way, before the
time comes for the revenue payment J.
1 In a very able paper on Instal- system that by concentrating the
ments in Berar, Mr. W. B. Jones payments of land-revenue on one
mentions the difficulty of getting or two dates it adds enormoiisly to
into the districts the requisite the difficulties of the cultivator,
amount of silver money to pay the For a small province like Berar to
revenue : — pay thirty lakhs of silver rupees
' It is the weak point in our into the treasury on the isth Janu-
368 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
On this important subject the Government of India
issued a Resolution (No. 15 R., dated 3rd May, 1882).
The leading idea is to establish a ' normal proportion
between the amount of revenue collected and the amount
of produce gathered at harvest' — to establish a closer
connection between current liabilities and current assets 1.
And it is not only for whole districts that this has to be
seen to ; agricultural circumstances vary within much more
limited tracts. ' Attention has lately been drawn to the
case of three adjacent villages, in one of which the cash of
the agricultural community is principally obtained from
rice at the end of the rainy season; in the second, from
a sugar-harvest in January ; in the third, from cereals in
spring. Yet for all these villages the same dates were
fixed for the payment of rent and revenue.' Attention
was also drawn to the matter I have alluded to in a foot-
note : ' The sudden demand for large quantities of silver
money on certain dates, causes prices to fall (because
of the withdrawal of silver) while the rate of interest rises ;
grain has to be thrown into a slackened market, and loans
must be negotiated on usurious terms.'
The result has been to call for an inquiry in each pro-
vince as to the practice. The North -Western Provinces
Government has issued rules on the subject.
ary, and thirty lakhs on the isth mark (Report, Part II, Chap, iii,
March, is a stupendous financial Sec. 3. § 2) : —
operation — an operation which ' Where one crop is mostly re-
causes violent fluctuations in the served for food, and another mostly
price of produce — fluctuations which sold, if the circumstances of the
give the baniya (grain-dealer and people require it, larger instalments
money-lender) his opportunities. should be made payable upon the
If we could but make these vast crop which is raised for the market,
sums flow into the treasury in equal and smaller instalments upon that
monthly amounts, the benefit to the which is raised for food. The dates
cultivating classes would be great for payment should also be fixed so
indeed. For they would then be as to allow of the produce being
able to raise the loans they require harvested and sold before the in-
to pay the revenue at the true mar- stalment is collected, so as to avoid
ket rate. As things now are, the the losses which the landowner
enormous demand which takes would suffer if he were compelled
place all at once, enables, I might to raise money on an unripe crop,
almost say compels, the baniya to or sell it hastily in an overstocked
ask exorbitant interest.' market.'
1 The Famine Commissioners re-
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTRATION. 369
SECTION XIV. — REMISSION AND SUSPENSION OF
LAND-REVENUE.
§ i. Suspension — when sufficient, and when not.
Another subject of great importance is the granting
of relief when a bad year, or a succession of bad years,
occurs.
Ordinarily, the revenue is calculated at rates which are
fair for the average of years, good and bad together ; so that,
speaking generally, if one crop fails outright, but the next is
good, the cultivator ought to be sufficiently relieved by the
suspension of the demand for the instalment of one crop,
payment being demanded only on the occurrence of the
second of two successive good harvests. But sometimes
there comes a more serious calamity, and suspended revenue
has to be remitted altogether. This causes disturbance in
the estimates, which is often embarrassing.
§ 2. General considerations.
The principle of the Native governments, which cared
nothing about estimates and financial equilibrium, was
always to be elastic ; they ran up the nominal revenue to a
high figure, which they perhaps rarely exacted to the full.
But, from the first, our system has been to fix a very
moderate revenue, and demand an exact payment ; failing
this, in Bengal, the sale of the estate is at once ordered, and
in other provinces, various coercive measures.
Fortunately the progress of the country has been such,
that the land-revenue is collected with remarkable facility,
and the issue of coercive processes is mostly confined to the
minor forms — mere notices or threats to the careless, rather
than serious action against defaulters ; but still there is a
rigidity about our system that, whatever its justification,
is not always acceptable to the Oriental mind *.
1 The following remarks in the ' Our system of Settlement and
BANDA Settlement Report (p. 150) land-revenue collection is logically
by Mr. A. Cadell struck me : — a good one, and is theoretically
VOL. I. B b
370 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
There is also much difficulty in dealing with districts —
of which Gurgaon in the Panjab occurs to me as an example
— where, sometimes for three or four years together, if there
is a sufficient rainfall, the qualities of the prevalent soils
are such, that excellent, and more than excellent, crops are
obtained. Then come a series of bad years : the rain fails,
and lands that were before fertilized by a deposit of soil
washed down from the low hills (dahri), are left untilled : or
again, if rain is in irregular excess, they may be over-flooded
and water-logged. Unless we adopt variable or fluctuating
rates, any fixed assessment can hardly work. If it is
very low, it will sacrifice revenue needlessly in good years ;
and in bad years, even then it will not be easily, if at all, paid.
It seems hardly possible to manage such areas, except on
the plan of allowing the Collector a power of immediate
action in bad years. In this matter, we should take a
lesson from the best Native governments. It will be seen
that their principle was always to keep up the assessment
pretty high, but allow of an immediately-acting and
thoroughly elastic system of easing off in bad years. Our
system, it is true, tends to make the land-revenue par-
take, somewhat, of the nature of a tax ; and rigidity and
certainty are the necessary features of a proper tax-
administration: they have their advantage in compelling
thrift and habits of forethought. But land-revenue is
not wholly a tax, and cannot be effectively treated wholly
on the principles of one.
just and fair ; we fix a demand to collect a revenue, in itself not
based neither on the abundance of excessive, through good years and
good seasons nor on the poverty of through bad, has been the great
bad ; we argue that the proprietor motive of the irregularities which
who gets more than his due in in Bundelkhand, more than else-
bumper seasons can afford to pay where, have disgraced our adminis-
more than his half share of the tration. Theorists may argue that
rental in unfavourable years. But, if men do not put by money in
unhappily, it is as true now as it good seasons they deserve no mercy;
was sixty years ago when Mr. Holt but the same argument pushed a
Mackenzie made the remark, that little further would condemn the
" men, especially men so improvi- improvident to death as well as
dent as the natives of India, do not ruin, when the next period of scar-
live by averages " ; and the attempt city arrives.'
CHAP, v.] VIEW OF THE LAND-REVENUE ADMINISTEATION. 371
§ 3. Government orders on the subject.
The Government of India's Resolution issued on the
subject in October, 1882, was intended to indicate the lines
of a policy rather than issue hard-and-fast orders. It
suggested that, in order to enable the Government officers
to know how to act, and in order to systematize know-
ledge, five principal measures should be taken in hand : —
(1) the classification of agricultural land according to the
security or insecurity of its yield ;
(2) the adaptation of the system to the character of each
class ;
(3) the extension of relief granted to landlords, to the
tenant class also ;
(4) an investigation into the outturn of every harvest ;
(5) the making more definite the authority of local
officers to act at once.
It was suggested that estates (and even parts of estates
might require to be noted in this respect) should be classi-
fied into those (i) which are, to a great extent, secure
against failure of crops, by having a fair proportion of
their area irrigated ; (2) those in which, in abnormal sea-
sons, suspensions, or ultimately remissions, are likely to be
needed (called insecure areas) ; (3) areas in which cultiva-
tion is so uncertain in its result as to render an annual
adjustment requisite : these may be termed ' fluctuating
areas.'
As to the first and fourth measures noted above, it is
sufficient to remark that the improved land records and
statistics, subject as they are to constant inspection and
testing, ought in time to secure good results, whether in
the form of village and pargana note-books, containing an
account of each estate, or in the form of specially-coloured
maps and tabulated lists of villages and estates, — as provin-
cial circumstances may suggest. The second head indicates
that in ' secure ' estates, suspensions or remissions would only
become necessary in the rare case of some special plague
of locusts, hail, or other calamity. ' Insecure ' areas would
B b 2
3/2 . LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
require a ready power of suspension, which has to be
systematized by indicating the duty of the District Officer
and the Commissioner, and their respective powers to act
on their own authority ; defining the cases in which refer-
ence to the chief controlling authority and to Government
is requisite 1.
Whether suspension is temporarily granted, or is more
formally sanctioned for a definite period under orders of
higher authority, the ultimate grant of remission depends
on the orders of Government ; and where the remission
aggregates ten per cent, of the entire land-revenue of the
province, the previous sanction of the Government of India
is required.
§ 4. Fluctuating Assessments.
The plans for ' fluctuating assessment ' vary according
to circumstances. In principle they proceed more or less
on the lines of assessing at fixed average rates (for different
qualities of soil), and charging those rates only when,
after the crop is or ought to be mature, it is known what
acreage was actually productive. An account of a special
' fluctuating system/ applied in the recent Settlement, will
be found in the chapter on Ajmer-Merwara.
In several parts of the Panjab, including riverain
villages liable to violent and extensive changes by river
action, as well as tracts liable to flood or where the rainfall
is extremely small and uncertain, fluctuating assessments
are also employed. Speaking generally, the basis of the
method is, to fix certain differential rates for classes of
land bearing crops, which rates are levied on an annual
(or a harvest) measurement of the land which actually bore
a crop. Partial failure in the yield is allowed for by
deduction in the total. Newly cultivated land is always
1 A certain graduated scale of which Collectors and other officers
powers, according to the greater or can act in the North -Western Pro-
less fraction of the crop lost, was vinces are stated in the special
suggested, but is too much in detail chapter on Administrative busi-
to be practised. The rules under ness.
CHAP, v.] VIEW OP THE LAND-EE VENUE ADMINISTRATION. 373
allowed a reduction for the first year or two. In some
cases, besides the fluctuating rate, a small fixed acreage
rate is levied on account of the value which the land has
as waste or grazing ground even when not cultivated.
§ 5. Relief to Tenants.
As regards the benefit of revenue relief granted to land-
lords being passed on to tenants, that is a matter which is
provided for in some of the Tenant Acts 1, and is then a
question of law ; otherwise it may be a matter of conditions
annexed to the grant of the relief.
It may be added that the Secretary of State has decided
against the principle of charging interest on revenue dues
suspended.
SECTION XV. — CONCLUSION.
Conspectus of the Systems.
I conclude this introductory and general sketch, first
with a diagram which will recall the chief features of the
development of our revenue systems, and next with a table
taken from the Government of India's printed ' Statistical
Returns, 1886-87,' which will give some idea of the general
effect and results of land-revenue Settlements.
As an appendix to the chapter, I also reproduce an
able and instructive resume of the financial aspects of
Settlement work contained in the Honourable J. Westland's
Budget Note for 1888-892.
1 See, for example, Section 23, it is customary to print not ' Ru-
Act XII of 1881 ; Act IX of 1883, pees ' but ' Rx,' i. e. ten rupees, and
Sections 65 and 73. then to omit three cyphers. So the
2 I may remind the reader that, Rx 27 means 2,70,000 rupees,
to save useless printing of figures,
374
LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
(A.)— SETTLEMENT WITH
LANDLORDS, OR JOINT-
BODIES.
The Bengal system of
1790—93 (seeks to de-
clare some person to
be landlord or pro-
prietor, and secure
his position, between
the cultivator and the
State).
Permanent Settlement with
Zamindars as propri-
etors, (1793,) with no
survey, no record of
rights, and no de-
fined method of as-
sessment.
Improved system of
Regulation VII of
1822 and Regulation
IX of 1833 ; non-per-
manent Settlements
with survey and re-
cord of rights and
prescribed method of
assessment.
Settlement with
proprietary joint
communities,
through a re-
presentative ;
North - "West-
ern Provinces :
the Panj&b
and Ajmer.
Settlement Settlement with
with Taluq- mdlguzdrs over
ddrs over the individual
the com- occupants of vil-
munities ; lages ; Central
Oudh. Provinces. Te-
nants' rents
fixed as well as
the proprietor's
revenue pay-
ments by the
Settlement-of-
ficer.
( B. ") — SETTLEMENT
WITH RAIYATS OR INDI-
VIDUAL OCCUPANTS.
The Bengal system
first applied to Ma-
dras, but afterwards
prohibited ; still sur-
vives as regards some
of the estates. At-
tempts in some dis-
tricts to make joint-
village Settlements.
I
Madras Raiyatwari
system (1820) ; occu-
pants regarded as
proprietors. Settle-
ment for thirty
years ; uniform sys-
tem of assessment
with annual remis-
sions. Re-settlements
confined by rule to
alterations resulting
from a rise in prices
— no general Revenue
Code.
I
Bombay Raiyatwari
system of field assess-
ment ; no theory of
ownership ; occupant
has right defined by
law. Settlement for
thirty years only :
system of assessment
uniform and defined
by rules. A complete
Revenue Code en-
acted.
I
Other systems, in
principle Raiyatwari
(no middleman) of
Assam, Burma,
Coorg, &c.
APPENDIX.
Extract from the Supplement to the Gazette of India
(March $\st, 1888.)
'Land-Revenue during the twelve months ending September
(In thousands of Ex.)
1881.
1882.
1883.
1884.
1885.
1886.
1887.
India
99
9i
88
96
no
no
116
Central Provinces .
608
609
612
613
613
615
619
Burma .
Upper Burma
1,036
i, 060
1,099
1,166
M33
i,i37
39
1,222
235
Assam .
385
379
396
404
410
420
401
Bengal .
3;687
3,880
3,801
3,680
39r5
3,799
3,736
North-Western Pro-
vinces and Oudh.
5.653
5,848
5,782
5,769
5,8o9
5,784
5798
Panjab .
2,112
2 099
2075
2,058
2.. 1 53
2,157
2,146
Madras .
4,777
4,556
4,721
4,779
4,492
4,807
4,864
Bombay
3,H9
3,095
3>o8s
3,407
33*6
3,342
3,373
TOTAL .
21,476
2I,6l7
21,657
21,972
2i,95*
22,210
22 510
See Note .
665
694
677
676
734
811
880
The figures in the lowest line are the alienated Land-Revenue of Bombay, which, in the
system of accounts of that province, are added on the Revenue side, and charged again as
expenditure under Assignments, Land-Kevenue, and Police. The amounts are neglected in
the statement itself.
It will be remembered that a portion of the total receipts of Land-Revenue is in the
accounts shown under the separate head of irrigation.
' 33. Although the growth of revenue shown in the above
figures has been very steady, it can hardly, from a financial
point of view, be said to be satisfactory in amount. It has
been less than one per cent, a year, and is on the whole a poor
return for the money which Government has spent, in the
form of railways and of canals, in improving its estate.
' But the fact is that the period covered by the above state-
376 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
ment represents, in a general way, the close of the thirty years'
Settlements in several of the provinces, and the Government is
only now beginning to reap its share in the advance of the past
two or three decades. Settlement operations are at present
being carried on on a more extensive scale than at any previous
time, and we have every reason to expect a handsome increase
of revenue under this head.
' NEW SETTLEMENT SYSTEM.
' 34. During the last four years (and in a great measure in
preparation for this re-settlement of revenue) a very great im-
provement has taken place in Northern India in the adminis-
tration of this important head of revenue and in the means
adopted by the Government to assess and settle from time to
time that share of the produce of the land which has in all ages
been the main source of the revenue of the sovereign powers
in India.
' As no systematic review has recently been published of the
position and prospects of this our most important head of
revenue, I propose to take up the subject in some detail, both
from an administrative and from a financial point of view, the
materials having been supplied to me by Sir Edward Buck, the
Revenue Secretary to the Government of India, to whom per-
sonally is due by far the largest share of the credit of the
improvements effected.
' 35. The system of land-assessment has hitherto, in every
province, involved the complete survey, field by field, of every
village — an operation which was rendered necessary by the
absence of correct maps at the commencement of the thirty-year
period. The object of the system now introduced is to pre-
serve, and to correct up to date, the records upon which the
surveys and Settlements are based, so that the re-settlements,
when they fall due, may be made upon existing records, and
may not require an elaborate investigation de novo. The maps
which have been provided by the great cadastral survey which
has now almost drawn to an end, are in future to be corrected
up to date from year to year by permanent establishments in
which the patwaris or village accountants occupy the most
important place. In the same way the Settlements now being
completed have involved a complete revision of all records-of-
rights, including details of the occupancy of every field, and
CHAP. V.]
APPENDIX.
377
these records, like the maps, are in future to be maintained
from year to year by the permanent establishments. The
assessment included also the valuation of the soil and produc-
tive powers of every field ; but the valuation made during the
past thirty years will in future revisions of Settlement be
accepted without material alteration. Three important ele-
ments of expenditure have thus been eliminated from future
Settlement operations, viz. the cost of periodical field surveys,
of revisions of records-of-right, and of soil valuations. The
introduction of the new system is made possible both by the
more complete maps and records which have been supplied by
the operations of the past thirty years, and by the creation of
Agricultural Departments which are permanent Departments
of Survey and Settlement.
' 36. An examination of the cost under the old and new sys-
tems has recently been made in pursuance of the inquiries of the
Finance Committee with the object of ascertaining the financial
effect of the new arrangements and the probable cost of future
Settlement operations. This investigation is not complete, but
it points to a maximum expenditure, in future, of R. 100 a
square mile, including the cost of additional establishment, and
in some provinces to a considerably lower figure. The com-
parative results are shown in the following table, in which
a maximum rate of R. i oo is applied to all provinces : —
PROVINCE (EXCLUDING ASSAM).
Rate pei-
square mile
under the
old system at
rates recently
prevailing.
Average
expenditure
per annum
at rates in
preceding
column.
Average
expenditure
per annum at
tlie maximum
rate of R. 100
per square
mile.
E.
Rx.
Rx.
North-Western Provinces and Oudh
35o
115,000
30,000
Panjab ......
200
50 ooo
25.000
Central Provinces ....
220
35>ooo
15,000
3 So
n ^oo
S ooo
Madras
440
70,000
15,000
Bombay ......
260
65,000
25,000
TOTAL .
303
352,500
116,000
showing an ultimate annual saving of Rx. 237,500.
378
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
' The above table is based on an estimate of the maximum
cost which may be incurred in the revision of assessments
when the new arrangements have been completely established.
In the meantime some saving has been already made by their
partial introduction and by measures which have recently been
taken to accelerate the current revisions of Settlement. Under
the programmes which have been arranged in recent con-
ferences with the local authorities, there has been effected
a saving either in the expenditure on survey and Settlement,
or in the more punctual recovery of increments of new revenue,
which, in three provinces — the Central Provinces, Panjab, and
Madras — is estimated at a gross amount of Ex. 2,000,000
during the next ten years, or an average of Rx. 200,000 a year
during the next decade. In these and other provinces the
new increments of Land-Revenue to which the Government
is entitled will henceforth be assessed and collected up to date,
while hitherto they have in many cases come into force only
several years after the date of the expiry of the old Settlement.
'37. The general growth of the Land-Revenue is exhibited
in the following table : —
Table showing growth of Land-Revenue (including Permanently- settled Tracts,}
(The figures are
thousands of Ex.)
North-Western
Receipts,
1856-57-
Beceipts,
1870-71.
Average an-
nual growth
(14 years).
Percentage
of increase
(14 years).
M
3 'o
0 00
|S
Average an-
nual growth
since 1856-57
(30 years).
Percentage
of increase
(30 years).
"3>__^
•§,8 J
0 o\_8
A &1
oo
Average an-
nual growth
since 1870-71
(20 years).
Percentage
uf increase
(20 Vl'-Ill-Sl.
Provinces .
3,920
4,130
15
5
4,390
16
12
4,560
21
IO
Oudh. . . .
970
1,320
25
36
1,410
15
45
1470
7
ir
Panjab . . .
1,840
1,970
10
7
2,150
10
17
2,2IO
12
12
Central Pro-
vinces . . .
570
600
2
5
620
2
9
650
2
8
Bengal . . .
3,54°
3,76o
16
6
3,740
7
6
3,800
2
i
Madras . . .
3,800
4.400
43
16
4,860
35
28
4,900
25
ii
Bombay (a)
2,150
2,950
57
37
3,370
4i
56
3,450
25
17
Assam . . .
80
210
10
162
400
ii
400
420
10
100
Lower Burma .
410
600
14
46
1,220
27
197
1,230
31
105
Minor Pro-
vinces . . .
2O
2O
—
—
1 20
3
500
1 2O
5
500
17,300
19,960
190
15
22,280
166
29
22,8lO
142
14
(a) Excluding Alienations.
CHAP.V.] APPENDIX. 379
'The figures show actual collections both of Land-Revenue
and of miscellaneous items classed as Land-Revenue, e. g. sale-
proceeds of waste lands ; water-rates in Madras ; nominal
revenue assessment on lands assigned for service in Bombay ;
capitation-tax and receipts from fisheries in Burma and Assam.
'38. Three periods are taken, viz. : — (i) the first fourteen
years after the mutiny, during which the growth was at the
rate of Rx. 190,000 a year ; (2) a period of thirty years from
the mutiny to the present time, during which the growth was
at the rate of Rx. 166,000 a year ; (3) a period of twenty years
(partly estimated) from 1870-71 to 1890-91, during which the
growth is at the rate of Rx. 142,000 a year.
'39. It will not fail to be seen that, while the fourteen years
preceding 1870-71 showed an annual increase of Rx. 190,000,
the rate of increase in the twe'nty succeeding years has averaged
only three-fourths of this. The reasons for this are, that the
first period was, in many parts of India— Oudh and Orissa
for example — a period of active re-assessment and Settlement,
and that, therefore, during the second there was less of the
growth of revenue which comes in from Settlement operations ;
that a large accession of land-revenue occurred after the mutiny
in consequence of confiscations ; and finally, that there was,
between 1860 and 1870, a rapid increase in the cultivated area
of the provinces of Bombay and Madras, in which the system
of land-settlement is such that newly-tilled land comes under
annual assessment, and in which the demand for cotton during
the American war gave a powerful impulse to cultivation. On
the other hand, a corresponding check to cultivation occurred
in the same provinces during the last of the three periods in
consequence of the drought of 1877-78.
' 40. Notwithstanding these causes of exceptional growth in
the beginning of the post-mutiny period, it may reasonably be
expected that the capital outlay which the Government has
recently devoted to irrigation and railways will, during the
next few years, bring to it a larger return from the land, by
reason of the great improvement of its produce, both in quan-
tity and value, by the agency of canals and the opening-out of
communications. In these accessions to the landed income of
the State strict regard will be had to the principles which have
invariably been followed by the Government of India in the
assessment of the land, its guiding policy having always been
the lenient consideration of the proprietary classes. During
380 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
thirty years of peace and progress, the rentals of tenants have,
through the cultivation of new fields or the imposition of new
rents by landlords, been continually expanding, and, in some
of the most fertile areas of India, the landlords themselves
have, without the intervention of the Government, materially
enhanced the rent paid to them, while at the same time that
proportion of it paid by them to the State has been continu-
ously reduced to lower and more definite limits. In the
same way, a lenient consideration is extended to the agri-
cultural community in provinces where the cultivators or
cultivating proprietors are assessed by the State itself, so that
in these also the percentage of produce paid as land-revenue
has been constantly decreased.
' The growth of land-revenue, therefore, which is to be
anticipated will be a growth due to that peace and prosperity
which directly spring from a lenient and careful administra-
tion rather than to any direct action of the Government in the
direction of raising rentals.
' A brief review of the position in each province will now be
given.
'KEVIEW BY PROVINCES.
'41. North -Western Provinces. — The old system conies to a
final end within the next two years. The greater part of the
province is held by tenants on small holdings of a few acres
paying rent to landlords who are charged with a payment of
50 per cent, of their assets to Government. The advanced
condition of the province led the Secretary of State to inquire,
so long ago as 1863, whether a permanent Settlement could not
be introduced ; but a final consideration of the subject between
1882 and 1884 ended in the adoption of the system already
described, under which annually revised maps and records are
made the basis of assessment.
' The rate of growth of land-revenue in the North- Western
Provinces since the mutiny year has, however, been moderate.
In the first fourteen years it was only 5 per cent, (say '35 per
cent, per annum), but it has in the current period of twenty
years risen to 10 per cent, or "5 per cent, per annum. There
was in the North- Western Provinces less room for extension
of cultivation than in most parts of India. Lying mainly in
the fertile alluvial plain between the Himalayas and the high-
CHAP, v.] APPENDIX. 38 1
lands of Central India, the province attracted a large population
at an early historical period, and it was at the period of the
mutiny highly assessed. But the large amount of State
capital spent since that time in the form of railways and
canals, and the contemporaneous rise of prices has given a
fresh impulse to agricultural wealth, and the province is now
in many districts as lightly, as it was formerly heavily,
assessed. A considerable amount of relief was given at the
commencement of the thirty-years' period of Settlement now
expiring, by the reduction of the standard of the State demand
from 66 per cent, of assets to 50 per cent. — a change which
was, however, somewhat counterbalanced by the high valuation
of assets made under the rules which governed the operations
of the Settlement Officers. The relief is now made complete
by the elimination of soil valuation from the assessment system
which, except in cases of suspected fraud, requires that the
recorded assets should be accepted as a basis of assessment.
Rentals are in many districts still growing at a rate of about
i per cent, per annum, and in certain tracts the growth is
likely to be so great that even under the lenient system
now adopted, some difficulty may be anticipated in taking the
Government quota in full at the next Settlement from the
landlords, on account of the large and sudden increase which
would be involved in such an assessment.
' 42. Oudh, with the exception of a closely populated tract
between Lucknow and Benares, came under much later deve-
lopment than the North -Western Provinces. Its revenues were
not, until after the mutiny, brought under the effective ad-
ministration of the British Government, who applied to it the
same system of Settlement as that which prevailed in the
North -Western Provinces. The tenants of Oudh have less
positive rights than those of the adjacent province, as in the
latter the greater number are more securely protected by
statutory rights against unlimited enhancement of rent.
There is, therefore, a prospect of a larger growth of rental,
and also of revenue, in Oudh than in the North -Western Pro-
vinces. The land is rich, the climate favourable, and although
since 1860 the extension of cultivation has been very large,
considerable areas still remain to be brought under the plough.
Competition for the land is likely to increase, and with it the
enhancement of the rents by the landlords, who have in Oudh
practically a free hand. The development of the province
382 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
under British rule has been very great, and is still, with the
extension of railways, progressing at a rapid rate. The pro-
vince will come under re-assessment, on the new or economical
system, between 1892 and 1906.
'43. In the Panjdb there is a large proportion of dry sandy
soil which is only capable of development under the influence
of irrigation. Subsoil water is generally too far from the sur-
face for wells, and the growth of revenue depends mainly on
the expenditure of State capital on canals. The revenue-
payers are for the most part cultivating proprietors paying
direct to Government, no part of the produce being intercepted
by middlemen. A large amount of State capital has been in
recent years invested in the province in railways and canals.
Under these circumstances the growth of the land-revenue,
which has since the mutiny been slow, should now progress at
a rapid rate.
' The revision of Settlement has, under the old system, in-
volved, as in the North -Western Provinces, a high rate of expen-
diture and protracted operations, but only a very few districts
now remain to be completed under that system, and measures
have recently been taken to expedite their assessment. The
whole province will then come under the operation of the new
rules which require the Settlement to be based on annual maps
and records.
' 44. The Central Provinces have shown a very small develop-
ment of land-revenue since the mutiny. They have been to
a great extent cut off from the railway system and have at the
same time been lightly assessed. The revision of Settlement
takes place during the current decade commencing with the
first year of the present Provincial Contract, 1887-88, and
it is estimated, after nine years, to yield an increase of
Ex. 180,000. Owing to the backward state of the province, the
low rates now paid to Government, and the new development
of the railway system which is taking place, it has been deter-
mined to make the new Settlements for terms varying between
twelve and twenty years, so that the reassessment of the pro-
vince will recommence shortly after the termination of the
existing revision.
' The revision of Settlement is being made at present partly
on the old and partly on the new system, but at a low cost not
exceeding R. 100 a square mile. The same necessity for a com-
plete series of maps and records has existed in this as in other
CHAP, v.] APPENDIX. 383
provinces, but owing to the circumstance that the revision of
annual records was commenced, with the creation of the
Agricultural Department, five years before the old Settlements
began to expire, there has been more time than elsewhere to
utilize the village and district establishments in the work of
preparing for Settlement. Arrangements were made under
which a large number of parties of the Survey of India have
covered the surface of the provinces with a network of trian-
gulation available both for topographical and revenue purposes.
These are filled in by the village officers under the supervision
of the local Eevenue officers, and they provide sufficiently good
maps as a basis for future revisions of assessment. The re-
vision of the record is also primarily effected by the permanent
establishments, leaving only the valuation of soils and general
supervision to be effected by 'a special staff. At the close of
the present revision, nine or ten years hence, the new system
will be introduced and the cost be brought considerably below
the new maximum of E. i oo a square mile.
' The land is held, as in the North- Western Provinces and
Oudh, by cultivators of small holdings paying rent to pro-
prietors from whom the Government takes revenue. But
whereas in those provinces the landlords have the power,
which is freely used, of raising rents contemporaneously with
increase of competition and rise of prices, they have no such
power in the Central Provinces. The growth of rent and,
therefore, of revenue, entirely depends, except in land newly
taken into cultivation, on the periodical assessments of rent
made by the Government at the time of Settlement. The
existing rents are, in most parts of the province, an unusually
small fraction of the total value of the produce ; while, in con-
sequence of the rising prices due to the extension of the rail-
way system, the disproportion is continuously becoming
greater. The area of culturable land still to be brought under
the plough is exceptionally large. The province is one, there-
fore, from which a material growth of land-revenue may be
looked for.
' 45. Thus far the provinces dealt with are those popularly
known as the ' temporarily- settled zamindari ' or ' landlord '
provinces. I will next refer to Bengal, which is recognized
generally as a 'permanently-settled landlord province.' But
there are in Bengal not less than about 14,000 square miles
which belong to the temporarily-settled landlord class and of
384 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. .[CHAP. v.
which the old Settlements will shortly fall in. In respect of
this tract preparations are now being made for punctual assess-
ment on much the same plan as in the Central Provinces,
and at equally moderate rates of cost, by the Agricultural
Department of the province.
' The area in question comprises large tracts in Orissa and
Chittagong, and several Government estates. It will hereafter
come entirely under the new system. An increment of land-
revenue of 20 per cent, would in this area be equivalent to
a fixed addition of ten lakhs a year to the annual demand.
' 46. The province of Madras must be divided into two sec-
tions— the permanently-settled zamindari or landlord area,
and the temporarily- settled raiyatwari or tenant-proprietor area.
The first is about 48,000 square miles and the second about
93,000 square miles, or roughly one-third and two-thirds
respectively. The Settlement on the old system, which re-
quired a complete series of field maps and a valuation of soils,
is now drawing to a close and is being hastened by assistance
lent to the local Survey Department by the Government of
India. In a few years the whole province will, in accord-
ance with the intention which for some time has been declared
by the Madras Government, be permanently relieved of special
Settlement and Survey establishments.
' The growth of land-revenue in the tenant-proprietor tracts
takes place in two different directions. There is the periodical
growth due to the increase of rent-rates at the end of every
thirty years' period, and the annual growth due to the gradual
increase of the area brought under cultivation. For in Madras
all tenant proprietor waste land has an annual rate attached to
it at the time of assessment which is applied and collected
whenever the land is occupied. The periodical growth (that
is, the increase of rates between the last Settlement and the
one now being completed) is roughly estimated at from 5 to 7
per cent, and the annual increment due to increased cultivation
at Ex. 10,000 per annum. The rate of increase under this latter
head will necessarily fall off as less land becomes available.
'47. In Bombay the same general conditions prevail as in the
raiyatwari or tenant-proprietor area of Madras. The growth
rate, however, is not checked by the presence of permanently-
settled land, and has, as in the temporarily- settled section of
Madras, a double growth, the one being due to the periodical
increase of rent-rates every thirty years, and the other to the
CHAP, v.] APPENDIX. 385
annual occupation of fresh land at the revenue-rates which
were attached to it at Settlement.
'The whole province has in recent years undergone a thorough
and searching revision of assessment which is now drawing to
a close. This revision has been in the hands of a separate
Survey Department which will within five or six years be
gradually broken up and absorbed in the new establishments,
and the province will then come permanently under the new
system. It may be noticed here that both in the Madras and
Bombay Presidencies the holdings or small farms of tenant-
proprietors have had their boundaries fixed once and for ever
by the Survey Department, and that instead of, as in other
provinces, the map requiring annual revision in order to keep
it in accord with changing boundaries, it is here necessary to
maintain the boundaries in accordance with the map as
originally made. This duty, as well as that of the mainten-
ance of the statistical record, is on the close of Settlement
operations in each district made over to the Agricultural
Department.
' The growth of land-revenue has been more satisfactory in
Bombay than in any province. It began in a marked degree
with the impetus given to cotton production at the time of the
American War, and has been continued under the influence of
rising prices, extended cultivation (and in Sindh, extended
irrigation), supplemented by a careful system of assessment.
' 48. In Assam the very backward state of the province and
the absence of communication with the seaboard in the years
immediately succeeding the mutiny, have made the growth of
revenue in the later years appear to be exceptionally rapid.
A part of the province (about 9,000 square miles) is, however,
under the permanent Settlement system of Bengal, and the
growth of revenue depends on the remaining area which is
temporarily settled, chiefly with tenant-proprietors, at rates
which are practically fixed, as there is hardly any compe-
tition for land on account of the great extent of waste area
which can be taken up. The most fully- occupied portion has
been revised on the system employed in other temporarily-
settled provinces, and this revision is nearly completed. The
remainder will probably be surveyed and settled on a cheaper
system under the direction of the Agricultural Department,
and the whole province will thereafter come under the new
arrangements. As in Bombay and Madras, there is an annual
VOL. I. C C
386 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [CHAP. v.
growth (estimated at from Ex. 8000 to Ex. 10,000 per annum)
which is almost solely due to new occupation, as there is here
no periodical growth due to increase of rates.
' 49. Lower Burma has been undergoing for some years a
regular revision of Settlement, of which about one-fifth, or
nearly i o, ooo square miles, is completed. Each district, when
it leaves the Settlement officer's hands, is made over to the
permanent care of the Agricultural Department, which will
henceforward be responsible for maintaining the maps and
records. The land is held by tenant-proprietors, and there is
again in this province a double growth due to annual increase
of occupation and to periodical increase of rates. The annual
assessments are complicated by the release of all fallow land
from payment of any but a nominal revenue, but there is
a steady extension of cultivation which, supplemented by the
effect of a careful survey and assessment, has resulted in a
growth of from two to three lakhs a year on a comparatively
small total revenue. Lower Burma is practically a large rice-
field formed by the alluvial deltas of the river systems, and at
present it yields only i per cent, of other produce. About
37,000 square miles, or 84 per cent, of its cultivable area, are
still uncultivated, and there is room for further growth both
by extension of cultivation and by the improvement of the
agricultural system through the introduction of other crops.
The soil is rich.
' 50. Upper Burma is composed of high- lands, the agricultural
value of which is under examination. The land-revenue is,
like that of all border provinces on first-occupation, initially
small ; but there is an equal promise of the same steady growth
in the future which has taken place elsewhere.
'51. The increase of revenue in minor provinces under the
direct control of the Government of India is mainly due to the
re-assessment of the little district of Ajmer and the addition of
Quetta. '
BOOK II.
THE LAND-REVENUE SYSTEM OF
BENGAL.
CHAPTEK I. THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
„ II. THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS.
„ III. THE LAND-TENURES.
„ IV. THE KELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT.
,, V. THE KEVENTJE OFFICERS.
VI. LAND-EEVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE.
C o 2
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE PERMANENT ' ZAMINDARI '
SETTLEMENT OF BENGAL.
SECTION I. — INTRODUCTORY.
§ i. Early History of the Presidency.
THE limits of this work make it necessary for me to
plunge somewhat abruptly into the history of the Bengal
Settlement. But in this chapter, and in that which after-
wards describes the Revenue Officers and their duties, I
shall go into more detail than elsewhere, regarding the
early history of our administration. The reason for this
will be already apparent from the introductory chapter
(Book I. Ch. V.) in which I have explained how the
Bengal system is the parent of all others. To this day
the district staff, — the Collector and his assistants, — by
whatever other titles they may be locally known, exist on
the model, and with many of the characteristics, of the
original Bengal institution. And the principles which
underlie the Bengal Settlement have not been without their
influence on the later systems which in many respects
depart widely from the old Bengal ideal. The strong con-
viction of the advantages of a recognized landlord with
a secure title, which moved the Government to make, and
39O LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
to congratulate itself upon, the Zamindari Settlement of
Bengal, resulted indeed in a reaction which produced (after
no little conflict) the raiyatu'dri systems of Madras and
Bombay ; but it survives in the modified systems — lying
midway, as it were, between raiyatwdri and Zamindari —
that prevail in Upper India.
Still our detail must be of a practical character, and I
must therefore pass over many interesting phases of the
history of the administrative system developed by the
East India Company when it was changed from a trading
corporation into the ruler of a great Empire l.
I will only briefly recall certain salient points.
BENGAL, which in the end became the first among the
provinces, was at the outset the lowest in rank as well as
the latest in origin. The ' President ' at the factory of Surat
was originally the chief representative of the Company in
the East. Madras was erected into a Presidency in 1653,
and Bombay — though still subordinate to Surat — in 1668.
The Bengal Presidency was not formally constituted till the
next century had begun.
Our trade with Bengal, no doubt, was established much
earlier. It began practically with the factory at Balasur
in 1643. But our permanent establishment — following on
the grant made in gratitude for some remarkable cures in
the Imperial family effected by Surgeon Gabriel Boughton
— may be said to date from 1652. Sultan Shuj'a (one of
the sons of Shah Jahan) was local ruler or Subadar of
Bengal, and was favourable to the English and allowed a
factory to be opened at Hughli. But that privilege was
liable to all the changes and caprices of Oriental rule ;
and it so happened that Shah Shuj'a's successor took a
dislike to the traders, with the result that, after the affair
of Job Charnock in 1686, the settlement was put an end to.
But this was only for a time ; four years later, a reconci-
liation was effected (as the loss from the cessation of our
1 A succinct sketch will be found ministration Repwt for 1872-73 ; and
in Phillips, Lecture vii. Also in the in Kaye, pp. 57-108 : and Field,
Historical Summary of the Bengal Ad- chapter xix.
CHAP. I.] THE PEEMANENT SETTLEMENT. 39!
trade was considerable), and Charnock returned and founded
Calcutta in A.r>. 1690. Permission was obtained, in 1698,
to buy out the rights of the landholders in the vicinity
of Calcutta ; the Company thus became holder of estates,
spoken of in the official language of the day, as ' in-
dependent taluqs.' In 1699 Sir Charles Eyre was sent
out to build the fort which was called after the reigning
sovereign, and has given the name to the Presidency—
'Fort William in Bengal.' In 1707 this Presidency was
formally recognized1. After this, nothing that is here
noteworthy, occurred till the outbreak which culminated
in the 'Black Hole' tragedy, and the battle of Plassey
(Palasi), on the 23rd June, 1757- Affairs then took a new
turn ; instead of the Company's officers being the humble
dependants of the Mughal power, they became the real
arbiters of affairs. The local governors or Subadars, were
in fact created by the authority of Clive. By treaty the
Company then became ' Zamindar ' of the town of Calcutta
and the territory around known as 'The 24-Pergunnahs.'
Afterwards the grant was made revenue-free 2.
In 1760 the 'Chaklas' or districts of Bard wan, Midnapore
(Mednipur), and Chittagong (Chattagraon) were granted
revenue-free. Lastly, in 1765 (i2th August), the grant of
the ' Diwani,' or right of civil and revenue-administration
of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, was made to the Company, on
condition of payment to the Emperor of a fixed sum of
twenty-six lakhs annually, and of providing for the expense
of the ' Nizamat,' i. e. the criminal and military administra-
tion 3.
1 See Harington, vol. i. 2 ; and when no revenue had to be paid to
Phillips, p. 231. Kaye gives 1715 the Imperial treasury, but every-
as the date, pp. 67 and 76. thing was managed, and all dues
a For the Sanad see Aitchison's appropriated, by the grantee.
Treaties, vol. i. 15. The nature of * The Diw;ini means the office or
the Zamindar's office under the jurisdiction of Diwun — the civil
Mughal government has already minister, as the Nizamat was of
been sketched (see p. 184) ; and the ' Nazim,' or military governor.
we shall presently study the subject Hence the term ' Diwani ' is still
more in detail. But this grant used to mean ' civil ' as in the
shows it was a position which then phrase Diwani 'Adalat, or Civil
implied something very like the Court ; and ' Nizamat ' was long
landlord's right; and doubly so used to mean 'criminal,' the chief
392 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
This put the Company into virtual possession of the three
provinces, — the Orissa of 1765 including only the present
Midnapore district, with part of Hughli, not the whole of
the country now called by the same name.
§ 2. Commencement of British Rule.
For some time no interference with the native officials
was contemplated l. It was soon found, however, that the
uncontrolled acts of local officials under a corrupt and
effete system, produced results little short of intolerable.
In 1769, 'Supervisors' were appointed in the hope of im-
proving the administration. They were directed to acquire
information as to the revenue-history of the province, going
back for the purpose to a given era when good order and
government had been universal ; they were to inquire into
the real limits of 'estates' held by the Zamindars, the
quantity of land they ought to have revenue-free, and the
real 'rents' or payments which the actual cultivators of
Criminal Court being called Nizamat pany's servants to the offices of Col-
'Adalat. Now the term ' Faujdari ' lectors, or indeed to do any act by
is used for Criminal Courts. But any exertion of the English power
both terms indicate that the military would be throwing off the
and criminal jurisdictions were con- mask, would be declaring the Coni-
sidered as one and the same. The pany Suba of the province. Foreign
grant of the Diwani did not theoreti- nations would immediately take
vally give the whole rule of the umbrage,' &c. — See Kaye, p. 78.
country, but it did practically. (See Mr. Kaye is, I think, much too severe
this explained in Cowell's Tagore on this policy : there was very little
Lectures for 1872, pp. 26, 27.) 'gorging ourselves on the revenue
1 Motives of policy, natural but and leaving the responsibility.' As
short-sighted, impelled Clive to to the revenue, no system could
leave the actual administration in well have brought in less to the
the hands of the old native function- Government ; as to the form of ad-
aries to be carried on in the name ministration, Clive had to consider
of the Subadar. In 1767 Clive wrote the susceptibilities of the French —
to the Select Committee : — 'We are a very present danger ; — and it was
sensible that since the acquisition with no desiretoshirk responsibility
of the Diwani, the power formerly that the government was let alone,
belonging to the Suba of these pro- but in a perfectly genuine belief
vinces is totally, in fact, vested in that the native rule was best, as it
the East India Company ; nothing was most politic. The Company
remains to him but the name and had only a staif of merchants and
shadow of authority. This name, writers, barely enough to manage
however, and this shadow it is in- their commerce, and quite unequal,
dispensably necessary that we should as Mr. Verelst wrote, to civil ad-
venerate To appoint the Com- ministration.
CHAP, i.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 393
the soil ought to make in each estate. Various other im-
provements were hoped for ; and especially illegal revenue-
free holdings were to be properly assessed and made to
pay. The cultivators were to be protected from the ex-
actions of the Zamindars, and leases or ' pottahs ' (pattas),
specifying exactly what each man had to pay, were to
be granted 1.
The intention thus to supervise and control the native
revenue-administration was no doubt excellent, but it
entirely failed of realization: and on the 28th August,
1771, the Court of Directors at home announced their
intention ' to stand forth as Diwan, and by the agency of
the Company's servants to take upon themselves the entire
care and management of the revenues.' In India a pro-
clamation to this effect was issued on iSth May, 1772, and
Clive took his seat as Diwdn, or Minister of State charged
with the Civil and Revenue administration of the Province,
at the annual ceremony (punya) for settling the year's
revenue, held near Murshidabad. That was the beginning
of our direct revenue-control.
But the idea of a Settlement and a recognition of the
proprietary right in land, had not yet occurred to the
Company's government. This is hardly to be wondered
at. The whole theory of Indian land-revenue was abso-
lutely strange to the English authorities. They could not
tell who owned the land and who did not ; nor in what
category to place the different native officials they found
in the districts. Everything had to be learnt by slow ex-
perience. There was no guide to the system, and no prin-
ciples of law to which it could be referred ; nor were the
Company's servants fitted by their training and antecedents
to prescribe systems or devise administrative forms. As
Mr. Kaye says, ' The Company's servants were dead hands
at investments, but they know nothing of land-tenures.'
1 This proposal should be noted, ing how the belief originated, which
as showing that from the first, the was not abandoned till many years
idea of protecting the rights of the after, that those rights would be
cultivators was in the mind of our efficiently protected by the issue of
administrators ; and also as show- definite written leases.
394 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 3. Sketch of the early Revenue system.
In 1772 the affairs of India had for the first time attracted
such attention as to be mentioned in a Royal Speech to
Parliament; the result was that the 'Regulating Act' of
1773 was passed, and this (insufficient in detail as it after-
wards proved) established the Governor-General and Council
in Bengal with a power of supervision over the other Presi-
dencies, and laid the foundation of a system of Courts of
Justice, as well as of a series of written and published
Regulations for the guidance of the authorities in India.
Warren Hastings became Governor -General in 1772,
and under him, reforms were at once undertaken. The
mercantile element in the Company's service was gradually
replaced, or supplemented, by men who could become civil
administrators, and the Collectors and assistants were given
more reasonable salaries instead of being expected to eke
out a merely nominal subsistence allowance by profits of
private trade, and by other more questionable means. It
was not to be expected that while such changes were in
progress, a Revenue Settlement system could all at once
come into view. The plan first adopted was to give out
the revenues in farm for five years. Each ' pargana ' was
separately farmed ; unless indeed the pargana gave more
than one lakh (ioo,coo) of rupees revenue, in which case it
was divided. ' Collectors ' were for the first time appointed
(instead of Supervisors) to receive the revenue1. A native
Diwan was associated with them, and they were superin-
tended by Revenue Councils at Murshidabad and Patna.
The existing Zamindars (who managed the revenue
under the Native rule) were not necessarily to be displaced
by this arrangement; but they often refused to contract
for the total sums demanded, so that other farmers were
appointed, and in some cases injustice was done.
1 In the chapter on Revenue tails about the five years' system of
business and officials, the history of 1772 will be found in Field, pp. 477
the Collectors, Commissioners, &c., et seq.
will be more fully gone into. De-
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 395
Stringent orders were given to prevent the farmers
robbing the cultivators or raiyats, and to make them
adhere to the 'hast-o-bud1,' or lists showing the rents
which it was customary for the raiyats to pay, and to
prevent illegal cesses being collected.
Notwithstanding the best intentions, and that the members
of the Central Revenue Committee went on circuit to arrange
details, the new farming system proved a failure, as such
systems always do. They required the utmost honesty in
the lessees, and that honesty did not exist. They required
also that the amounts bid for should be really fair, and fixed
with reference to the real resources of the estates ; they also
required local supervision based on a minute knowledge of
details, neither of which requirements can be said to have
been attainable. The leases were arranged too much in the
auction-room 2 ; the data for real assessments were wanting.
And if the total amounts could not be checked, any de-
tailed watchfulness over village collections was impossible ;
officers were too few, their knowledge too imperfect, and
the local machinery — the kdnungo and the patwdrt, which
our best modern systems have developed and instructed —
were either wholly wanting, or existed only in name, — the
holders of the offices being persons under the absolute
control of those whose object was to deceive3. But perhaps
the greatest cause of the failure of the farm system, was
the widespread and decimating famine of 1770, on account
of which enormous remissions of revenue had to be made 4.
It was not without reason that the Court of Directors wrote
in 1773 (speaking of the failure of the system of Supervisors
1 Literally (Persian) ' is and was ' ; the cancelment of the lease should
in fact, the actual and customary follow extortion ; but there was no
rent-roll without arbitrary additions one to enforce these provisions. See
to it. Field, p. 481.
2 The farmers in many cases were 3 See pp. 256, 284.
mere speculators who bid up the * What that famine was in one
leases, hoping to get an uncontrolled district — Birbhum — has been told
power to take what they liked. in piteous and graphic language in
Excellent orders were issued to pre- Hunter's Annals of Rural Bengal. As
vent this. Nothing was to be taken to the remissions, see Kaye, p. 168,
from the raiyat beyond what was in note,
his patta, and a heavy penalty and
396 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
before 1772): 'Every attempt for the reforming of abuses
has rather increased them, and added to the miseries of
the country we are anxious to protect and cherish.' As a
partial remedy it was determined, under instructions from
the Court of Directors, to abolish the agency of Collectors,
and try again the ' Amil ' or Native local Collector of the
first Mughal system. Had a strong district staff kept
watch over these agents, the results might have been
different ; but unfortunately, the local Collectors were
abolished and the only direct supervision was given by
Councils placed at distant points of the province. For this
purpose the country was divided into six divisions with a
Provincial Revenue Council for each. Five of these sat
at Bardwan, Patna, Miirshidabad, Dinajpur, and Dakha
(Dacca). The central Revenue Committee at Calcutta,
which had a general control over the whole, also undertook
the direct management of the sixth division, which was
the Orissa of those days.
When the period of five years' farms was about to expire,
Warren Hastings was carefully considering what system
should next be followed. But unfortunately, at this time,
the opposition of Francis, and the unseemly strife which
resulted from the imperfect constitution of the Governor-
General's office in relation to the Council, were at their
height l ; otherwise there can be no doubt that Hastings'
advice was good. To gain information about the land
tenures ; to protect the raiyats, whom he perceived to be
the real ultimate producers of revenue ; not to commit
himself to Settlement with any class for a long period,
without fuller knowledge ; — these were the points on which
he insisted.
1 Francis at that time had the ludicrous discomfiture of his foe
benefit of John Shore's advice, \vho (Kaye, p. 170). It is satisfactory to
wrote his minutes for him. ' The know that Shore lived to repent of
Councillor seasoned those minutes his association with Francis, and
with the necessary amount of became the friend of Hastings, as he
acrimony, and then served them up afterwards was President of the
as his own.' When Shore fell sick, Revenue Board and the trusted
Francis, it is said, was silent, and adviser of the Marquis of Corn-
Hastings smiled grimly at the wallis.
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 397
It was not, however, till the death of Colonel Monson
had given Warren Hastings a majority, that (in 1776) his
designs could be given effect to. Meanwhile the farming-
leases expired, and the Court of Directors did not exactly
agree to any plan sent home, while they did not offer any
substitute of their own, beyond directing annual leases to
the Zamindars whenever possible. These instructions are,
however, noteworthy, because in them for the first time it
was ordered that if the Zamindars fell into arrears they
should be liable to be ' dispossessed, and their Zamindaris,
or portions of them, shall be sold to make up the defici-
ency V
Meanwhile, under Hastings' orders, a commission was
issued to three officers to travel about and collect further
information. They made their report in March 1778.
During this period annual Settlements were made, i. e. in
J777> I77^J 1779, and 1780. In 1781 several 'Regulations'
were enacted2. Notably, the six Provincial Committees
were abolished, and a Metropolitan ' Committee of Revenue '
(four members, of which the chief was Shore, afterwards
Lord Teignmouth) was appointed. This Committee at once
proceeded to report on a mode of Settlement, and recom-
mended that the plan 'most convenient and secure for
Government, and the best for the raiyats and country, is}
in general, to leave the lands with the Zamindars, making
the Settlement with them.'
Meanwhile the annual Settlements were continued. We
now come to the eventful year 1786, when, in the autumn,
the Swallow arrived bringing Lord Cornwallis, and with
him John Shore, who had been appointed (as just stated)
to the Board of Revenue. It should be noted, that in this
year it was found (as might have been expected) that the
1 Kaye, p. 172. afterwards reconstructed as the
2 The reader will recollect that Bengal Code in 1793, were not in
the provisions for Regulations in exact accordance even with the
the Act of 1773 were insufficient. powers given, so they had after-
The defect was partially removed wards to be finally legalized by the
by an Act in 1781 ; but even then Act of 1797 (37 Geo. III., sec. 142).
the Regulations made, which were
398 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
Collectors were indispensable, and they were reappointed
to the number of thirty-six (afterwards reduced to twenty-
three). In this year, also, the Central Committee became
the Board of Revenue.
I should also mention that, in 1782, a definite attempt
was made to regulate the holding of lands revenue-free, and
to ' resume ' or charge with revenue, those that were held
without authority: the office for registration and inquiry
was called the ' ba'zi-zamin-daftar ' (office for certain lands).
The yearly Settlements (latterly with Zamfndars always,
unless expressly disqualified) continued till 1789.
Two things will here strike the reader ; one is how little
in a hurry Lord Cornwallis was to take action. The other
is, how all attempts to dispense with the Zaminddr failed,
and that in spite of repeated efforts to be free of him.
It is also instructive to note how little use central control
proves when the local agency is defective.
The Board, far removed from the actual scene of opera-
tions, knew nothing of the real state of affairs, and the
diwans and local officers combined with the Zamindars and
others to deceive them.
§ 4. A.D. 1786. — Plans of Lord Cormuallis.
Before Lord Cornwallis arrived. Barliament had passed
the Act 24 George III., cap. 25, in 1784. And Lord Corn-
wallis came out with instructions for carrying this Act
into effect.
The law indicated, as the means for ensuring a proper
Settlement, an inquiry into the real ' jurisdictions, rights, and
privileges ' of Zamindars, Taluqdars, and Jagirdai's under
the Mughal and Hindu governments, and what they were
bound to pay ; it also directed the redress of the grievances
of those who had been unjustly displaced in the course of
the earlier tentative and imperfect revenue arrangements.
The Court of Directors suggested that the Settlement should
be with the ' landholders,' but at the same time 'maintain-
ing the rights of all descriptions of persons. As for the
CHAP. I.]
THE PEEMANENT SETTLEMENT.
399
revenue, it was desired that there should be a durable
assessment, based on a review of the Settlements and actual
collections of former years. It was thought that the various
inquiries which had been ordered ever since 1765 would
have resulted in a sufficient knowledge of the paying capa-
city of the estates, and therefore a Settlement for ten years
was ordered. The Court then thought that a fixed period
of ten years would be better than promising a ' dubious
perpetuity ' ; but they directed that, on completion of the
arrangements, the whole matter should be fully and minutely
reported on, so that they might have an opportunity of
settling the whole question, without necessity for further
reference or future change.
As I have said, while these arrangements were in pro-
gress, the Settlements continued to be annual, and Lord
Cornwallis was so little in a hurry to carry out any scheme
of his own, that he continued seeking for fuller knowledge.
'No efforts,' says Mr. Cotton, 'were spared to increase the
store of information.' The vast body of opinions thus
collected was declared by the celebrated Fifth Report to be
' too voluminous to lay before the House V
§ 5. Issue of Regulations forming a legal basis for
a Decennial Settlement.
Meanwhile, the rules for the decennial Settlement were
being elaborated. They were issued on the completion of
Mr. Shore's celebrated Minutes of 1788, and of June and
September, 1789^ The rules for settling Bengal, Bihar,
and Orissa (as then constituted) were separately issued
between 1789 and I79O3.
1 See Cotton's Memorandum on the
Revenue History of Chittagong (Calcutta,
1880), p. 50. Unfortunately, how-
ever, they consisted chiefly of
opinions and masses of detail about
accounts, which did not in the least
suffice to solve difficulties when it
came to a question of assessing in-
dividual lands or estates, still less of
fixing the raiyats' payments on an
equitable basis.
2 The Minutes of 1789 are printed
in the appendix to the Fifth Report.
but not the elaborate Minute of
1788 with its appendices, giving
Shore's information about the rise
and growth of the Zamindari title,
and its becoming proprietary. This
latter is consequently given in ex-
tenso in Harington, vol. iii. (and in
the Reprint).
3 As to the rules, see Harington,
4OO LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
When Lord Cornwallis commenced the codification of the
Regulations in 1793, these rules (amended and completed)
formed one of the forty-three Regulations passed on the
same day, and have since been borne on the Statute-book
as Regulation VIII of 1793.
This is the law under which the ' decennial Settlement '
of Bengal was made.
§ 6. Result reported to the Home Authorities. — The
Permanent Settlement.
When the inquiries had been completed, report was made,
as ordered, to the Court of Directors at home. Lord Corn-
wallis was for making the Settlement permanent at once.
But the Court of Directors, knowing that Shore and other
able advisers deprecated the immediate declaration of per-
manence, deliberated for two years, and it was not till
September, 1792, that they sent a despatch consenting to
the proposal. On receipt of this, Lord Cornwallis, by pro-
clamation of 22nd March, 1793, declared the decennial
Settlement to be ' permanent.' This proclamation was also
included in the Statute-book of 1793, as Regulation I of
that year l.
The student will then bear in mind that the Bengal
Settlement has two main features, which must not be
vol. ii. p. 171. The dates were : — Court of Directors to 'declare the
Bihar . . i8th September, 1789. jumma which has been or may be
Orissa . . 25th November, 1789. assessed upon their lands . . . fixed
Bengal.. loth February, 1790. for ever,' went on to say: 'The
Having undergone alteration and Governor-General in Council ac-
received additions, they were issued cordingly declares to the Zamindars,
with translations on 23rd November, independent taluqdars, and other
1791, and in this form are given at actual proprietors of land, with or
length in Colebrooke's Digest of the on behalf of whom a Settlement has
Regulations, vol. iii. p. 308. Still been completed, that at the expira-
further improved, they were ulti- tion of the term of the Settlement
mately legalized, as above stated, in [ten years] no alteration will be
Regulation VIII of 1793. It is to made in the assessment which they
the provisions as they appear in have respectively engaged to pay,
Regulation that reference is made but that they and their heirs and
in the text. lawful successors will be allowed to
1 The proclamation, after reciting hold their estates at such assessment
that the Governor-General in Coun- for ever.'
cil had been empowered by the
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 40!
confused. Either one might have been adopted without
the other. They were —
(1) That the Zamindars were settled with ; and as they
could not fulfil their obligations to the State, nor
take an interest in their estates without some
definite legal status, they were declared proprie-
tors of the areas over which their revenue-collec-
tion extended. That proprietary right, however,
was a limited one ; it was subject, on the one
hand, to the payment of revenue to Government,
and to liability to have the estate sold at once on
failure to pay; and it was subject, on the other
hand, to the just rights of the old and original
cultivators of the soil, the raiyats, dependent
taluqdars, and others. The Zamindar was accepted
as the person to be settled with, not as a matter of
chance, but as one of deliberate policy, and on
administrative grounds.
(2) The other main feature was that the assessments
fixed in the manner presently to be described,
were declared to be unalterable for ever.
From these two features, the Settlement of 1793 has
acquired the name of the PERMANENT Settlement, also
(sometimes) that of the ZAMINDAEI Settlement of Bengal.
§ 7. General reflections on the Settlement of 1789-93.
Let me here pause to correct one of the common
misapprehensions about the Permanent Settlement with
Zamindars. Let me ask whether it was possible for the
English administrators to do anything else than acknow-
ledge them ?
In the first place, I have already explained in a general
way (and shall give some further details in the sequel), that
some of the Zamindars were old Rajas who had a very close
connection with the land, and on whom the people greatly
depended.
VOL. i. I) d
4O2 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOKII.
In the next place, there was the strong practical argu-
ment that every attempt to dispense with the Zamindars
had been a failure ; injustice had been done, and the Statute
of 1784 had insisted on the 'ancient immunities and
privileges ' of the Zamindars being respected. All previous
experience had shown that it was impossible to dispense
with their agency1. Even when each enormous district
(as it then was) had its one European Collector, it would
have been quite impossible for him to deal with thousands
of detailed holdings ; how much more would this apply
before that date, when, as from 1772-79, there had been
only councils or committees for controlling revenue matters
— at one time six of them for all the districts included in
Bengal, Bihar, and what was then Orissa !
Against these forcible facts it was of little use to take
the opinions of experts and historians2 as to what were
the origin and design, or the limitations, of the office of
Zamindar. The theory is probably much clearer to us, with
all the authorities at hand, than it was to the Collector of
1789; but what he was concerned with was not the true
theory of origin, but the practical position at the end of the
eighteenth century.
There was no hand-book of ancient law to guide the
Collectors in understanding the history of landholding, to
direct their attention to the origin of villages, the units
1 This is very instructive. In the trouble of going into any detail.
Akbar's time, the whole country This was the system our early
was divided out into ' Sirkars.' and administrators found already long
these into parganas, each with its established. In the position they
vigilant revenue 'amil, and the par- were placed in, it was utterly im-
ganas even had recognized sub- possible for them to have restored
divisions under petty revenue the ' Akbarian ' method, as we have
officers. As long as this system now restored it in Northern India,
was kept working by a powerful The ' tahsildars,' and all the host of
Government, the revenue was not local officials trained and able to
intercepted, the people were not carry out such a system, are the
oppressed. The moment the Go- product of a century of British rule,
vernment became too weak to con- In 1 789 no such persons could have
trol the machinery, the subdivisions been found.
disappeared, and then the revenue 2 This was freely done. See the
could only be collected by the agency series of questions and answers
of great farmers, who undertook to appended to Mr. Shore's Minute of
pay a fixed sum for a certain portion 1788.
of territory, saving the Government
CHAP, i.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 403
composing the great estates, or to explain what those
aggregates of cultivators meant, in the light of a compara-
tive study of early customs and institutions. Their only
conception of landholding was embodied in the English
landlord with his tenants. And it is impossible to deny
that the Zamindar was more like a landlord than anything
else1. True it was that the tenants' holdings were not
valued like English farms and offered to tenants at the
consequent rent, to be taken or left at the tenants' pleasure.
Even in England tenants had been on farms for genera-
tions. The superficial differences were not greater than
what differences of race and climate would account for ;
and the deeper but minuter differences were unperceived,
because land-tenures had not been cleared up as they have
now. The Zamindar was more oppressive than an English
landlord, therefore measures of protection were required
for the tenantry : that seemed the chief, if not the only
thing.
Grievous as the failure of the Permanent Settlement has
been, its failure is not due to the fact that Zamindars were
confirmed, or that, in the unavoidable necessity of defining
and securing their position in English legal documents,
they were called and made, landlords. The evil consisted
in this, that their right was not limited with regard to all
the older raiyats, leaving new-comers to be in principle
(with such detailed conditions as might be advisable)
contract-tenants. The other evil — that of assuming to
a legislature the power of binding all future lawgivers,
and permanently exempting a certain class of proprietors
from their due share of the State burdens at the expense
of other people and provinces — that is a matter quite
unconnected with the grant of proprietary rights or the
protection of tenants.
I shall point out in due course, the ample evidence there
is, that from 1769 onwards, the rights of the raiyats were
1 At any rate he must have ap- not explain itself to the Company's
peared to combine the landlord and servants of 1 789.
collector in a fashion which could
D d 2
404 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
never intended to be forgotten ; but it is easy for us now,
after half a century of inquiry and discussion about tenant
right, and with the experience gained in many provinces
and their Settlements, to criticise our predecessors of 1790.
At that time no one knew what practical steps to take.
Collectors knew that village rolls — ' hast-o-biid,' ' raibandi,'
or whatever other name they were known by — existed,
showing the sums payable by raiyats; but how these
sums were ascertained and how far they could be altered
periodically, and on what principles if any, they did
not know. ' Pargana rates ' were talked of rather than
actually adopted or enforced ; for re-assessments were
periodically made, or rather, virtual additions to the old
rates were covered by the irregular expedient of ' cesses '
and ' benevolences ' (abwab, &c.). With this knowledge, it
is hardly wonderful that they should have thought the one
and sufficient remedy to be the compulsory issue of 'pot-
tihs' or leases to the tenants, setting forth what the
payment was, and hoping that vague traditional ' pargana
rates' would be, or could be, respected. It was not
foreseen that the ' pattas ' would not be generally granted,
and that no machinery existed for seeing that they were
granted ; still less was it suspected, that, as afterwards
proved to be the case, the patta would be turned — when used
at all — into an engine of extortion.
Another point must be mentioned, and that is that the
Zamindari Settlement was not Lord Cornwallis's idea. It
was distinctly ordered in April, 1786, by the home authori-
ties : it was advocated by all the chief revenue authorities
in Bengal. Shore, though he deprecated the hasty assess-
ment of the amount of land-revenue in perpetuity, never
hesitated in recommending the grant of a secure estate to
the Zamindar. Mr. Thomas Law, Collector of Bihar, was
indefatigable in writing in favour of a Zamindari Settle-
ment. Mr. Brook of Shahabad was also urgent in its sup-
port. The Settlement was then, as Mr. Kaye says truly,
the work of the Company's Civil servants. No doubt it
fell in with Lord Cornwallis's views, because, as I have
CHAP, i.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 405
said, no one at that time could have thought of imagining
a theory of village communities or of village Settlements.
It was not till some years after, that the existence of
villages, with all their customs in full force, in Benares,
attracted the attention of Mi1. Duncan, the Resident, in
1795-6. Even then it is only necessary to read the report
to see how completely the landlord theory — as the only one
realized — was in the mind of the writer l.
When Lord Cornwallis, supported by the general opinion,
had made up his mind — and he deliberated carefully from
1786 to 1793 — that the Zaminddri Settlement was the
right thing, he further considered that it would be useless
unless the assessment was also declared Permanent.
In this one point Lord Cornwallis may be charged with
haste — he might have let the originally ordered ten years
run out, and then see what it was best to do. His arguments
in favour of permanency of the assessment — some of them
based on grave mistakes of fact 2— hardly answered the
objections of Mr. Shore.
It is worthy of note here, that while Shore thought it
right to declare the Zamindars proprietors, he held that
time would be required to settle what, under the circum-
stances, was really meant by the proprietary right con-
ferred3. He did not observe any specific rules for the
security of the raiyats ; he well knew ' the difficulty of
making them, but some must be established. Until the
variable rules adopted in adjusting the rent of the raiyats,
are simplified and rendered more definite,' he added, 'no
solid improvement can be expected from their labours
upon which the prosperity of the country depends.' With
true foresight Mr. Shore further predicted that 'if the
1 Instances of this will also be everything — of supposing that the
seen even in the minutes made raiyats paid rents by agreement with
thirty years later, when the North- the Zamindars. See Field, p. 490.
Western Provinces villages were &c., quoting the minute of i8tli
beginning to be understood ^ Re venue June, 1789, and Lord Cornwallis'*
Selections, North- Western Pro- reply,
vinces, 1818 22 . * Mr. Shore's own words will be
* As, e. g., what Dr. Field calls found quoted further on.
the 'cardinal' mistake— it vitiates
4-06 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
Zamindars were left to make their own arrangements
with the raiyats without restriction, the present confusion
would never be adjusted.' The system, in short, had not
defined the relation of the new ' landlord ' to his ' tenant ' ;
would it not be better to introduce a new system by
degrees than to establish it at once beyond the power of
revocation ?
On the other hand, it may be urged that probably the
consideration which most weighed with Lord Comwallis,
was one that would not take long to mature. He was
certain he had done the right thing in making the Zamin-
dar proprietor ; he believed that legislation would protect
the raiyat; but that if the Settlement, as a whole, was
not closed for ever, a revision might occur, which would
shake the Zamindar's position, and so at any moment, all
his benevolent work might be undone. In this, of course,
he was wrong : reassessment based on just principles of
growth in the cultivated area and rise in prices, has
nothing to do with unsettling fixed rights of property, any
more than a revision of income-tax renders the capi-
talist's position as a man of property insecure. But that
was not understood. It will be remembered that the
Zamindar's revenue, as fixed in 1793, was not a light one
under the circumstances. It was certainly supposed that
many of the raiyats would pay fixed rents : and it was
thought that if the Zamindar was to be secure and pros-
perous, his revenue could not be raised. True, he would
cultivate more waste which would bring in new rents ;
and in some undefined way, some rents would rise by
improved cultivation 1, but that would only be his legiti-
mate profit ; he would become rich and would then import
luxuries, live at ease, and enrich the treasury by the indirect
taxation he would pay on import of commodities 2.
1 And so they would. It was a not raised. Whatever the truth
question of paying rent in kind. A may be, expressions occur in the
bad tenant gets three- hundred seers early minutes alluding to a rise in
of wheat off an acre, and the land- rental, just as often as those which imply
lord gets one half. A good one gets fixity of rents.
five hundred, and the landlord 2 ' Every man,' wrote Mr. Law,
benefits thereby, though the rent is ' will lay out money in permanent
CHAP, i.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 407
All this seemed at the time, and backed by Mr. Law's
glowing periods about the gratitude of ancient Zamindar
and jagirdar families restored to opulence, to point conclu-
sively to the permanence of the assessment, as well as the
security of the landlord's title.
Unfortunately, facts, as they afterwards developed, could
not be foreseen; the necessity for punctual payments in-
volved a severe law for recovery ; the sale lavjs had from the
first suggested themselves without question ; and indeed the
law would have acted with much diminished harshness if it
had not been for the characteristics of the landlords. They
were indolent and extravagant ; they did nothing for the
land ; and even when there was no glaring personal defect,
the climate and the habits of the country unfortunately
suggested that the proprietor should save himself trouble
by farming out his estate to any one who would give him
the largest profit over and above his revenue-payment.
And as the proprietor's farmer in time grew rich, — what
with freedom from war, and security, and the daily in-
creasing value of land, — so he too farmed his interest to
others, till farm within farm became the order of the day,
each resembling a screw upon a screw, the last coming
down on the tenant with the pressure of them all. But
who could have foretold this in 1790 ?
We must now return to the direct narrative of the pro-
gress of the Settlement.
§ 8. Procedure of Settlement. — Absence of a Survey.
One of the first things that will strike the student is
that the Settlement was made without ascertaining the
boundaries of the estates and without a survey. The cost
structures, as such works enhance raise a class of native gentlemen
the value of his estate and promise proprietors, who will gradually have
future benefit. If a scarcity happens established themselves in good
the landholders will forego demands, houses with the various comforts of
and encourage cultivation to pre- life.' (See Kaye, p. 178.) See also
serve their tenants, who become a par. 32 of Revenue letter to Bengal,
part of their necessary property. ist February, i8ir ; Field, p. 544.
The increasing independence will
408 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
of survey would have then been great, and the requisite
establishment such as could hardly have been contem-
plated with equanimity; moreover there were visionary
advantages in abstaining from measurement and inquiry
which then commanded much attention.
The direct consequence of admitting the Zamindar to
the position of an English landlord, was a desire to leave
him in the enjoyment, as far as possible, of the independ-
ence dear to an English landholder. What need was there,
the rulers of those days thought, to harass the proprietor
we have established and now wish to encourage, by survey-
ing or measuring his lands and making an inquisition into
his affairs ? Fix his revenue as it has all along been paid,
or .correct the recorded amount if it is wrong ; sweep away
illegal taxes, resume what land is unfairly held without
paying revenue, and then leave the proprietor in peace.
If some neighbour disputes his boundary, — if there is room
to believe that he is encroaching, — let them go to law and
decide the fact.
Besides this feeling, there was another, which at fir&t
made a survey unacceptable. Strange as it may appear to
European ideas, measurement was looked on with great
dread, both by Zamindar and raiyat. Whenever the raiyat
had to pay a very heavy rent, or the Zamindar to satisfy
a high revenue demand, both were glad to have a little (or
often a good deal) more land than they were in theory
supposed to pay on.
It was always found an effective process under the
Mughal rule, to threaten a raiyat with the measurement of
his lands ; for his ' rent ' was fixed at so much for so many
bighds. If this rent was oppressive, as it often was, his
only chance of meeting that obligation was that he really
held some bigJids in excess of what he paid for, and this
would be found out on measurement. But that was not
the only danger ; the landholder well knew that even if he
had no excess whatever, still the adverse measurer would
inevitably make out the contrary. By raising the ' jarib,'
or measuring rod, in the middle, and by many other such
CHAP. I.]
THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
409
devices, he would make the bighd small, and so produce
a result showing the unfortunate raiyat to be holding
more than he was paying for ; and increased rent for the
alleged surplus was immediately exacted. In the same
way the Zamindar, even though the Settlement law was
explicit, thought it on the whole safer to have the details
of his estate as little denned (at least under the eyes of the
Collector) as possible.
Of course, the want of survey and boundary demarcation
led, as we shall afterwards see, to great difficulties ; and
various enactments have been since passed to provide a
proper register of estates and a survey to ascertain their
true limits ; but it is not difficult to understand why a
survey was not at first thought of. At that time nearly
all the occupied parts l of the districts were divided out
into ' Zamindaris.' In a few instances in Bengal, but more
commonly in Bihar, the estates were called 'jagir,' and
some estates were held by grantees called ' taluqdars.' But
whatever the title, the actual allotments of land forming
the settled estates were those mentioned in the native
revenue records. As before stated, there were no maps or
plans or statements of area ; the boundaries of the estate
were vaguely described in words, and a list of the villages
included was given ; but the limits of these were very
imperfectly known, especially where a large portion was
waste. Each Zamindar held a warrant, or ' sanad,' under
which the Emperor or his deputy had created the ' estate ' ;
and that specified the revenue that was to be paid, and
declared the Zamindar's duties ; but the limits of the estate
were only indicated by the string of names of villages or
parganas.
1 I say ' occupied parts,' for at
that time a majority of the districts,
especially those near the hilly tracts,
" had large areas still waste, but never-
theless forming part of the Zamin-
d&ri, or at least claimed as such.
Lord Cornwallis stated that one-
third of the Company's possessions
was waste at the time when the
Settlement work began. The object
of the Settlement of 1793 was to
recognize all the land, waste or cul-
turable, in each Zamindari, as the
property of the Zamindar ; but no
doubt at that time there was very
little certainty as to what was
really included in the estate. See
Fifth Report, vol. i. p. 18.
4-IO LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 9. The Property made transferable.
It is hardly needed to remark that the 'property' granted
to the Zamindars was made transferable, which, it was
expressly stated, it previously had not been. The 8th
Article of the proclamation sets forth —
'That no doubts may be entertained, &c., the Governor-
General in Council notifies to the Zamindars, &c., that they
are privileged to transfer to whomsoever they may think proper,
by sale, gift, or otherwise, their proprietary rights in the whole
or any part of their respective estates without applying to
Government for its sanction to the transfer ; and that all such
transfers will be held valid, provided that they be conformable
to the Muhammadan or Hindu law . . . and that they be not
repugnant to any regulations now in force which may have
been passed by the British Administrations, or to any regu-
lations that they may hereafter enact1.'
§ 10. Selection of Zaminddrs. — Joint Estates. — Refusal of
Settlement.
Some curious restrictions were at first placed on the
selection of persons to be Zamindar-proprietors. It was
at one time attempted to exclude from Settlement not only
minors and females incompetent to manage their estates,
but also persons of ' notorious profligacy ' or ' disqualified
by contumacy.' These grounds of exclusion, being of
course impracticable to prove satisfactorily, and being sure
to give rise to great scandals, owing to the necessity of an
inquiry in Court, were ultimately given up 2. As regards
estates of minors and others unable to take care of their
own rights, they were placed under the Court of Wards, and
managed on behalf of the incompetent owners.
When there were several shareholders in an estate, there
was at first a rule to make them elect a manager. This
1 The subject is further mentioned attempted to lay down the method
in the preamble to Reg. II of 1793. of charging, defending, and esta-
2 See Reg. VII of 1796. Reg X blishing such objections,
of 1793 (Section 5, clause 4) had
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 4 1 I
failed, and after a time the law was altered, and they were
left to manage as they pleased, but were held jointly and
severally responsible for the revenue. The law, however,
permitted a partition and a complete severance of responsi-
bility if the sharers wished it.
When there were cases of doubtful or disputed boundary,
possession was looked to ; and if possession could not be
ascertained, the estate was held by the Government officers
(held ' kbas ' as the revenue phrase is) till the dispute was
legally settled.
If the Zammdar declined Settlement (i.e. objected to pay
the amount assessed and the proper authorities refused to
reduce it) the lands were farmed or held khas, and the
ex-proprietor got a ' malikana,' or allowance of 10 per cent,
on the Government assessment.
I may add that such refusals were rare, for though some
refused the terms for the decennial Settlement, they accepted
when the proclamation of perpetuity was issued.
§ ii. Dependent and independent Taluqddrs.
The Regulation prescribed that the Settlement was to
be made with ' Zamindars, taluqdars, and other actual pro-
prietors ' ; that implies that the Zamindars were not the
only persons entitled to be recognized as proprietors.
I have mentioned that there were grantees of the State
called taluqdars. These were sometimes separate grants,
outside and 'independent' of the Zamindar's estate1, in
which case they paid revenue direct to the treasury. Some-
times, being of an inferior order, they were found inside the
estate, and were then 'dependent' on the Zammdar, and
paid through him. Rules were laid down for determining
when the taluqd&r was to be settled with separately as
proprietor, and when he was considered as subordinate to
the Zamindar.
1 Called also ' Huziiri' taluqas, i.e. authority ; or ; kharija,' i. e. outside,
paying revenue direct to the Huzur, or without, the Zamindsiri estate
or headquarters of the Government and control.
412 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
This was a matter of no little importance. Every one
who could get himself treated separately, became an inde-
pendent proprietor with his revenue settled for ever. A
taluqdar who could not establish his right to be separate,
though he might have substantial privileges as to his
tenure and the non-enhancement of his rent, still was only
a subordinate — a raiyat, or as he is now called, a ' tenure -
holder.'
The Kegulation also mentions that there were taluqdars
who had purchased or obtained their title by gift from the
Zamindar. These were independent ; so were persons who
held grants direct from the Government, also taluqs which
had been created before the Zamindari. A rule was also
made that if the Zamindar was proved to have exacted
more than was due, any taluqdar might ask that his estate
should be separated. On the other hand, leases granted for
clearing waste, and called ' jangalburi-taluqs/ were treated
as only subordinate.
As to the origin of these various taluqs, I must defer
details till we come to Chap. III. Sec. iii, where the matter
is regarded from the tenure point of view, whereas here we
are dealing with the question of Revenue Settlement only.
There were also grants known as ' afma ' (of which here-
after). If these had been granted free of all payment, they
were treated as independent properties ; but if only granted
at a quit-rent, or with the annexed condition that the
holder was to clear the waste,, they were subordinate
tenures.
When the taluqs were granted by the Native Govern-
ment under the denomination of ' muqarrari ' or ' istimrari '
(or both terms t6gether), they were independent. Of these
terms, the former means 'fixed' as regards the rent or
revenue, and the latter ' firm ' or ' in perpetuity ' as regards
the tenure.
Such a grant implied that whether the grantee were or
were not proprietor, the whole rent or assessment would go
to him, and only the fixed (muqarrar) proportion be passed
on by him to the Treasury. This sum of course was much
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 413
less than the full assessment. Here clearly the grantee was
independent of any Zamindar. If his grant was not
istimrari, in perpetuity, but only for life, then on its expiry
the succeeding holder would still be entitled to separation, as
clearly he had not had anything to do with the Zamindar,
but only with the authority which made the grant.
It will be remembered that there are tenures under these
same names ' muqarrari,' &c. — but granted by the Zarain-
ddr, not by the State: in that case they are only sub-
ordinate tenures, though the rents may be ' fixed,' and the
right to hold be ' in perpetuity.'
The Collector's duty is limited to determining the ques-
tion whether the 'taluq' ought to be independent or not.
He had nothing to do with the validity of the title itself if
that was disputed 1.
It was hoped that the process of inquiry would be ter-
minated with the Settlement, but it seems that for some
years after, people kept on filing applications for separate
recognition, and it became necessary to give a year's grace
for such applications, after which no further requests would
be listened to 2.
These remarks will not make clear the nature of the
tenures spoken of, but they are intended to indicate how
that besides ' Zamindaris,' there were many other estates
1 Of course if a Zamindari estate wards made to the Civil Court,
was held jointly and the sharers When the Zamindar had previously
separated, each would become a engaged for the revenue of his
separate independent proprietor. Zamindari, including the taluqs, he
Mortgagees in possession were was allowed an abatement to the
settled with, the mortgagee taking amount separately assessed on the
the place on redemption. latter as previously stipulated with
The Settlement was also always him. Of course, all this applied
made with the person in possession ; a only to taluqs existing or created
claimant out of possession must go before the Settlement. Any new
to the Civil Court, and, if successful, taluq would only be treated as sepa-
the Settlement would be trans- rate if properly registered and ap-
ferred to him. plied for under Regulation XXV of
2 Harington mentions that about 1793, which provided for the par-
three thousand taluqs were separated tition of Zamindari estates and the
by him in the Zamindari of Rajshahi allotment of the jama on the divided
alone. A summary inquiry was portions. If this was not done,
made in every instance as directed, Government would take no notice of
in the presence of the Zamindar's the taluq, if the estate were sold for
raldl (law agent), and one appeal arrears. See also Fifth Report, vol. i.
only is known to have been after- p 34.
41 4 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
which were treated as entitled to separate Settlement, and
their holders to be (equally with the greater Zamfndars)
' actual proprietors.'
§ 12. Basis of the Assessment.
The Settlement rules of 1789-93 laid down separate
principles of assessment for Bengal, for Bihar, and for
Orissa. In Bengal and Orissa the actual revenue of the
preceding year, or some year nearly preceding (which was
to be compared with the accounts, and tested by the in-
formation which the Collector had acquired), was to furnish
the standard of assessment. In Bihar, the standard was to
be the average produce of land in any ordinary year, which
would give a fair and equitable assessment. If any land
had paid the same revenue for twelve years past, that was
to be accepted as the Settlement rate.
With the single exception, then, of Bihar, where in many
cases former accounts were not forthcoming, and where
consequently an estimate of the produce of an ordinary
year had of necessity to be made, there was nothing required
as the basis of assessment, but a reference to old accounts,
with such adjustment and consolidation of separate items
and abolition of objectionable ones, as the declared prin-
ciples of the Government rendered necessary.
I may repeat that, in order to determine the assessment
of each estate, no inquiry was made (as under the later
Settlement procedure) either what the value of the estate
was, or what the produce was. or what the ' rents ' were as
paid by the raiyats. Reference was simply made to the
old records of the lump assessments under the native
rulers ; and these were roughly adjusted in cases where
such adjustment was needed, and the Zamindar or other
owner was directed to pay this sum.
The following description occurs in an article in the
Calcutta Review by Mr. Thornton, reprinted in 1850: —
' The Collector sat in his office in the sudder (headquarter)
station, attended by his right-hand man, the kaniingo, by
[CHAP. I. THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 415
whom he was almost entirely guided. As each estate came
up in succession, the brief record of former Settlements was
read, and the dehsunny (dah-san, ten years) book, or fiscal register
for ten years immediately preceding the cession or conquest,
was inspected. The kaniingo was then asked who was the
Zammdar of the village. . . . Then followed the determination
of the amount of revenue. On this point also, reliance was
chiefly placed on the daul, or estimate, of the kamingo, checked
by the accounts of past collections and by any other offers of
mere farming speculators which might happen to be put
forward.'
Such an assessment must have been almost pure guess-
work ; for, as the Fifth Report 1 says, —
' The lights formerly derivable from the Kamingo's office
were no longer to be depended on : and a minute scrutiny into
the value of lands by measurements and comparison of the
village accounts, if sufficient for the purpose, was prohibited
by orders from home.'
The Report goes on to explain how Mr. James Grant's
Analysis of the Finances raised expectations, and how
Mr. Shore's Minute (June 18, 1789) removed many miscon-
ceptions ; and it continues : —
' A medium of the actual produce to Government, in former
years, drawn from the scanty information which the Collectors
had the power of procuring, was the basis 011 which the assess- -
ment of each estate, whether large or small, was ultimately
fixed.'
By such a process, the assessment was not so likely to be
fixed at an excessive rate, as the rights of individuals to
share in the profits left by its moderation, were to be over-
looked.
Scrutiny was, as I have said, prohibited, for fear of
making the Zamindars distrust the promise of a Permanent
Settlement, and think that the information supplied would
be used to enhance the revenue afterwards. The evidence
adduced by Dr. Field 2 proves that, even so far back as the
1 Vol. i. p. 22. 2 Field, p. 469 note.
41 6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BE1TISH IXDIA. [BOOK irf-
time of Warren Hastings, the orders to collect information
contemplated that it should be general ; there was not to be
any ' vexatious ' extraction of details. The influence of this
fear can still be clearly traced in Regulation VIII of 1800
(Sees. 3 and 7) — the first Regulation for compiling a formal
register of revenue-paying and revenue-free estates (for the
Collector's purposes). The Regulation explains how the
information is to be acquired, and prohibits inquiry into>
rents and measurements of individual 'malguzari' (revenue-*
paying) lands.
It is evident also from what Hastings wrote in 1776, that
the revenue accounts exhibited by the kanungos were gene-,
rally believed to be much better kept and more reliable than
they really were. It was believed that we had only to go to
the pargana abstracts (checking them, when necessary, by
reference to the village rent-rolls) to get all possible in-
formation. But, in fact, nothing about the real value of
estates was found out ; only the attempt was made to dis-
tinguish the revenue figures from the abwabs or cesses
which had overlaid them1.
§ 13. Origin of the Revenue Accounts and Registers.
Before we can understand the nature of the pargana and
village accounts of revenue which existed, we must take
a brief retrospect of what the native system had been in
Bengal.
In a general chapter (V) we have already gained some
knowledge of the Mughal system of administration, and also
of the Settlements made under Akbar. It may therefore be
at once stated that it was under Raja Todar Mai that the
first Settlement of Bengal was made about 1582 A.D. The
assessment was exclusive of Orissa, and some of the terri-
tories in Eastern Bengal that were only added to the pro-
vince at a later date.
We have no evidence of any formal change in this assess-
1 See Field, pp. 483-4. Whole sets of accounts were often fabricated
to suit particular piirposes.
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 417
ment till A.U. 1658, when Shuj'a Khan. Subadar of Bengal,
revised it by raising the total from nearly 107 lakhs of
rupees to about 131 lakhs. The next rise was under Ja'far
Khan (surnamed Murshid Quli Khan). This revision i^
curious, because it exhibits one of those changes which are
always observable in the Mughal kingdoms. An energetic
ruler soon feels the loss to the treasury which contracts
with Zamindars and others cause. They save trouble,
but they intercept too much of the income. Ja'far
Khan, therefore, put aside the Zamindars and collected
by his own 'amils and officers1. About this time other
countries in Orissa and Eastern Bengal were annexed,
and came under assessment.. Shuj'a-ud-din, who succeeded,
raised the assessment in 1728, to over 142 lakhs. But in
his time (as indeed in his father's) the impost of abwabs
or ' extras ' had begun. We then find the assessment con-
tinually raised: the last assessment before cession to the
British power, was Qasim 'Ali Khan's, which was said to
be over 256 lakhs ; but there is some doubt whether this
amount was ever realized2. It was calculated that the
regular assessment had increased about 33 per cent., but
that the increase of the Zamindars' exactions from the
raiyats could not be less than 50 per cent.
There can be no doubt that for many years of the later
rule, assessments were habitually increased, not by a Settle-
ment or any new land valuation, but by imposing cesses
which were openly added to the payments required from
the Zamindars or other collectors. The local kanungos
doubtless long preserved the original or last regular land-
assessment, — spoken of as the 'tumar' or ''asl'; as well as
the subsequent reassessments ; and they had also the 'taksim '
or division of the total sum over the villages. But the
progress of events destroyed the practical use of such
1 He employed Hindus always as whole history of tho assessment
his Revenue officers. He divided is stated in Shore's Minute, §§ 13 39
the country into thirteen collector- and § 63 (Fifth Report, i. p. 103, et
ates called ' Chakla,' and the officers seq.).
put in charge afterwards became 2 Minute, i8th June, 1789, § 141.
Zamindars in many instances. The
VOL. I. r 6
41 8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BE1TISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
accounts. Warren Hastings, no doubt, was quite right
when he wrote —
' Under the old Government, the distribution was annually
corrected by the accounts which the Zamindars or other col-
lectors of the revenue were bound to deliver into the office of
the Jcdnungo or king's Register, of the increased or diminished
rents of their lands and of the amount of their receipts : but
the neglect of these institutions, the wars and revolutions
which have since happened in Bengal, have totally changed
the face of the country, and rendered the tutndr rent-roll a
mere object of curiosity. The land-tax has therefore been
collected for these twenty years past (i.e. since 1756) upon
a conjectural valuation of the land formed ty the amount of
receipts of former years, and the opinions [estimate or ldaul'] of
officers of the revenue ; and the assessment has accordingly been
altered almost every year/
This account is also borne out by the Fifth Report 1.
Hence in the decennial Settlement, as Mr. Thornton de-
scribed, the estimates were really based on the payments
made by Zamindars in past years, increased or diminished
according to the opinions of such local experts as were at
hand.
It will appear hereafter how very uncertain were the
raiyats' payments, owing to this system. The idea that
the whole body of raiyats had any guarantee under native
rule for payment at fixed rates for ever, or that the
law, when the Permanent Settlement was made, could have
easily denned such rates and made them permanent too, is
quite untenable. The custom varied from place to place
and pargana to pargana, according to the character and
influence of the revenue-collectors.
I do not say that it would not have been impossible to
ascertain the traditional ' tiimar ' rates of Akbar's, or some
other later Settlement, but would those rates have been
reasonable at the close of the century "? 2 Had the task been
1 Vol. i. p. 19, at the bottom. dealings with the raiyats at p. 171.
2 Mr. Phillips gives a perfectly For whatever the Zamindars' sanads
accurate account of the Zamindars' required, the raiyats were annually
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 419
seriously undertaken, it would have been necessary, as
was found in the Central Provinces, to fix the raiyats
rates on the basis of local inquiry by a Settlement officer
after a survey and registration of fields ; and such a pro-
ceeding no one could have dreamt of in ] 790.
§ 14. The Siwdi or Abwdb.
This is the place to introduce a description of the
additions by which the native Governments were accus-
tomed to raise the demand from the Zamindars. The cesse*
were called ' siwai ' (lit. 'extra,' 'besides') or 'abwab' (plural
of 'bab,' the heads or subjects of taxation1). Sometimes the
Arabic term hubub (plural of hab) is used. The common
Hindi or Bengali name is ' mathaut.' They were calculated
on the same principle as the jama', at so much per bigha,
or so many seers in the maund of grain. The ruler's local
deputy levied them on the Zamindar, who was authorized
to levy them on the cultivators. When such extras got
numerous and complicated, there would be a sort of com-
promise ; the account would be re-adjusted so as to con-
solidate the old rate and the cesses in one ; and this would
become the recognized rate, till new cesses being imposed.
a new compromise was effected2. In this way, therefore.
settled with (Land Tenure by a or after the nature of the tax. Thus
Civilian, 1832, pp. 65, 66). There we find the fir^t cess imposed by
were lists kept by the patwaris Ja'far Khan called ' khasnavisi, a
and kanungos, of village and par- tax to support the Government
gana rates, called ' raibandi ' or writers of ' sanads,' &c. ; ' naza-
' nirkh.' But then the abwab or rana muqarrari,' a rate to enable
cesses were added, and from time the Deputy or Governor to send his
to time consolidated with the customary annual present to the
original rates See also p. 178, Emperor ; the 'faujdari, to main-
where Mr. Justice Campbell, de- tain police ; zar-i-mathaut,' coin-
scribing the system of additions, is prising several items ; ' chauth-
quoted. On the subject of the Maratha,' a tax to meet the loss
practical existence of I he old Ak- caused by the cession of part of
barian assessment, I may refer to Orissa to the Marathas, &c., &c.
the undeniable authority of Mr. An elaborate account of cesses will
Shore's Minute quoted in the Fifth be found in Phillips, p. 176 et seq.
Report, vol. i. p. 139 (Minute, § 218"). 2 See Mr. Justice (Sir G.) Camp-
' The assal jumma established by bells judgment in the great Rent
him does not now anywhere exist.' Case, B. L. Reports, Supplementary
1 They were called after the volume, p. 256.
name of the ruler inventing them,
E e 2
42O LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
the revenue would periodically rise, and the rates exacted
from the cultivators rise also, with more than corre-
sponding frequency. The revenue actually realized was
thus composed of the ' 'asl jama ' plus these extra charges
(siwai), and was collectively called the ' mal.' .
The Zamindars naturally enough, not only raised the
rents of the raiyats to a sum sufficient to cover the whole
assessment, but imitated the example by levying private
cesses for their own benefit, in addition to the ' mal.'
§ 15. The Sdyer.
Besides the land-revenue there were other imposts only
indirectly connected with the land, and called ' Sair,' or,
according to the Bengali writing, 'Sayer.' These weie
taxes on pilgrims, excise, transit and customs duties, taxes
levied on shopkeepers in bazaars (ganj) and markets (hat),
tolls, &c. They amounted usually to about one-tenth of
the land-revenue ; they also included charges on the use
of the products of the jungle (ban-kar), on fishing (jal-
kar, produce of water), and on orchards and fruit-trees
(pkal-kar1.)
It is easy to understand, then, that the total revenue which
each Zamindar had to account for to the State consisted
of two kinds, — the ' mal ' (above described) and the ' sair.'
The sum under each head payable in total for the
different ' mahals ' or estates included in the Zamindari,
was placed on record, and noted also on the sanad of
appointment.
1 The Fifth Report (vol. i. p. 26) duce above mentioned. I may here
describes the Sdyer as consisting in mention that (as regards the mistake
' land customs, duties and taxes, of mahal for mal in the extract)
and whatever teas collected on the part that the report i the original as well
of the Government and not included as the reprint which exactly follows
in the "Mehaul" (meaning " mal" it) is full of mistakes or misprints
or land-revenue. )' But the Sayer of native terms. Many of them are
also included the charges on pro- quite unrecognizable.
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 42 [
§ 1 6. Disposal of these items at Settlement.
The British Government abolished all extra cesses or
' abwab ' as they existed when its rule began ; and
naturally it required the Zamindars, under penalty, to
abstain from levying such cesses from the raiyats.
As to the sdyer dues, those which were in the nature of
separate taxes — excise, and the like — the Government took
into its own hands, severing them entirely from the
land-revenue account. Others, which were oppressive, as
transit duties, taxes on pilgrims and the like, it gradually
abolished. Such dues of this class as represented payment
for the use of produce of land or water, the Government
handed over to the landowners to augment their legitimate
profits.
The good intentions of the Government as to freeing the
raiyats from liability to vexatious cesses imposed by the
Zamindars for their own benefit, were never carried out, at
least fully. Even at the present day such cesses are paid
by the raiyats, partly under the inexorable bond of custom,
and partly from a sense of helplessness. For though the
authorities would at once decide against the exaction, still
the Zamindar could always either conceal the fact or colour
it in some way, or else make things so unpleasant for the
raiyat, that he would rather pay and hold his tongue1.
1 The private cesses, as distinct Those who care to go into more
from the authorized cesses of old detail will also find, following the
days, were legion. A few names extract I make, a list of cesses,
will sufficiently indicate their showing the variety and ingenuity
nature ; thus, we find the ' man- which their levy displayed,
gan,' a benevolence to assist the ' The modern Zamindar taxes his
Zamindar in debt ; ' najai,' a con- raiyats for every extravagance or
tribution to cover the loss when necessity that circumstances may
some of the cultivators absconded suggest, as his predecessors taxed
or defaulted ; ' porvani ' or ' par- them in the past. He will tax
bani,' a charge to enable the Zamin- them for the support of his agents
dar to celebrate ' parva,' or religious of various kinds and degrees, for
festival days. There were also the payment of his income-tax and
levies for embankments (piilbandi), his postal cess, for the purchase of
for travelling expenses of the Zamin- an elephant for his own use, for
dar, &c., &c. As regards the the cost of the stationery of
modern levy of cesses, I cannot do his establishment, for the cost of
better than quote from the Ad- printing the forms of his rent
ministration Report of 1872-73. receipts, for the payment of his
422
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
The Regulation XXVII of 1793 giyes a somewhat de-
tailed account of the abolished adyer duties1. It refers to
the Ayin-i-Aklari (vol. i. p. 359), as showing that Akbar
had rescinded some, and that 'Alamgir (Aurangzeb), ' the
last Emperor who maintained the full authority of the
Mussulman government,' abolished seventy others. The
abolition of all transit duties and marriage taxes, having
been at an early time of the Company's administration
enjoined (viz. in 1772), was to be maintained. But so
anxious were the Government not to injure the Zamindars,
lawyers. The milkman gives his
milk, the oilman his oil, the weaver
his clothes, the confectioner his
sweetmeats, the fisherman his fish.
The Zamindar levies benevolences
from his raiyats for a festival, for a
religious ceremony, for a birth, for
a marriage ; he exacts fees from
them on all changes of their hold-
ings, on the exchange of leases and
agreements, and on all transfers
and sales ; he imposes a fine on
them when he settles their petty
disputes, and when the police or
when the magistrate visits his
estates ; he levies black-mail on
them when social scandals trans-
pire, or when an offence or an affray
is committed. He establishes his
private pound near his cutcherry,
and realizes a fine for every head
of cattle that is caught trespassing
on the raiyats' crops. The abwab,
as these illegal cesses are called,
pervade the whole zamindari sys-
tem In every zamindari there is
a naib ; under the naib there are
gumashtas ; under the gumashta
there are piyadas or peons. The
naib exacts a ' hisabana ' or perqui-
site for adjusting accounts annually.
The naibs and gumashtas take their
share in the regular abwab ; they
have also their own little abwab.
The naib occasionally indulges in
an ominous raid in the ' mofu.ssil '
the plain country away from the
town or headquarters'). One rupee
is exacted from every raiyat who
has a rental, as he comes to proffer
his respects. Collecting peons, when
they are sent to summon raiyats to
the landholder's cutcherry. exact
from them daily four or five annas
as summon fees.' (P. 23, Body of the
Report.}
On the other hand, it should not
be forgotten that all this need only
continue as long as the people them-
selves choose ; but in fact it is the
ingrained custom and is submitted
to as long as it is kept within
customary limits. Every petty
native official is born to think that
' wasila ' (pickings and perquisites )
are as much a part of his natural
rights as air to breathe or water to
drink. Nor will the public seriously
object as long as he does his duty
fairly. When he tries to take too
much and does ' zulm ' (petty
tyranny), the people will turn on
him, and a conviction for extortion
is more or less attainable, according
as the culprit still has friends or is
generally in the black books.
There is also a bright side to the
question : an amicable understand-
ing with a raiyat for some cesses
will often obviate a good deal of
litigation about rent enhancement.
This was the case in Orissa. In
Macneile's Memorandum on the Revenue
Administration (1873), an interesting
notice of the subject will be found.
The people complained of certain
cesses, and the Zamindar imme-
diately responded by bringing suits
under the Rent Act for enhance-
ment, and by measuring their lands
(see p. 408 "i.
1 See Markby. Appendix, pp.
144-148, and authorities quoted.
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 423
that where the remission of sdyer caused a real loss (by
taking away from them the tolls on roads and ferries, or
the taxes on bazaars and markets established on their lands),
they were compensated.
§ 17. Other Alloivances.
There were other charges and allowances to be taken
into account in the process of consolidating the Zammdars'
revenue liabilities into one sum. Allowances which had
been made to the Zamindar, for expenses of collection,
office charges, and the like, were of course duly considered and
deducted in making up the totals, where the expense would
continue to fall on the Zamindar. Other payments which
he formerly had to make and received allowance for, were
now made by the State direct, so that no deduction had
to be made on account of them. Thus the payment of
pensions and allowances to Muhammadan law-officers called
Qazis, other pensions, and the salaries of Kdnungos, were
now to be paid direct by the treasury, and the Zamindai1
was not concerned.
Nor under the revised arrangements, was it necessary to
make the Zamindar any allowance of land free of revenue
as remuneration of office — he had now become proprietor
of all, and his remuneration was amply secured in other
ways. Such lands as were formerly held as nankar, or by
other similar name, were not excluded from assessment *.
§ 1 8. Resumption of Invalid Revenue-free Holdings.
When the calculation of the assessment on each estate
was, so far, provided for, there was still another important
and very troublesome matter to be disposed of. If in any
Zamindari, a large portion of the land was held ' revenue-
free ' by landholders on the estate, owing to royal favour
1 But if the Zamindar refused to show a good title (Reg. VIII. 1793,
engage, he would continue to hold sees. 37-39)-
such land revenue free, if he could
424 LAXD SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
and grant, it is obvious that the Zamindar could not be
called on to make good the revenue to the treasury. But
in some cases the Zamindar himself had made such grants,
and then he had to make good the State claims as a matter
of course ; the grant he made operated against himself,
not against the State.
It was however known that in the disordered state of
the late Government, a great number of claims to hold
revenue-free were really invalid, and so the land was liable
to be assessed, or as it is technically called, 'resumed.'
This subject demands a somewhat fuller notice. It may
now seem a matter of dry detail, but at the time it affected
the livelihood of many hundreds, or indeed thousands, and
involved a vast amount of Government revenue.
When a Government is strong, it is very careful about
titles assigning the revenue of lands away from the treasury,
and about granting lands to be held revenue-free. It was
no doubt reckoned a pious duty to make such grants for
mosques, temples, schools, dharnasalas (or rest-houses), or to
the families of reputed saints or men of eminent piety and
learning. But it is also an easy thing, when the treasury-
is empty through waste and corruption, to assign revenue-
free lands to favourites or to persons to be rewarded, who
ought properly to have received cash pensions or life-
grants. In short, though there is a legitimate use of
revenue-free grants which the oriental mind approves, still
it is easy to abuse the institution and to forget that in all
cases they mean freeing one set of persons from taxation at
the expense of others who have, in the end, to make up the
loss. In the decline of the Mughal empire, not only were
such grants multiplied, but a great many of them were
made by subordinate officials who had no real authority :
not only so, but a considerable number of grants were held
under no authority at all, or were supported by forged
title-deeds.
It was therefore necessary in the proclamation of 1793, to
announce that a scrutiny of revenue-free claims would be
made. ' The Governor-General in Council will impose such
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 425
assessment as he may deem equitable, on all lands at present
alienated1 and paying no public revenue, which have been,
or may prove to be, held under illegal or invalid titles.' The
grants are spoken of as ' lakhiraj ' grants ; and the lands were
' lakhiraj ' lands. The name is derived from two Arabic
words, 'la,' the negative, and 'khiiaj,' revenue or land-tax.
These grants had been either made by royal authority
(badshahi), in which case they were dealt with under Regu-
lation XXXVII of 1793, or 'hukami' (incorrectly hukmi),
i. e. made by authorities other than the king, called in the
Regulations ' non-badshahi,' and these are dealt with in
Regulation XIX of 1793. It was the latter class that were
the most likely to be doubtful in origin ; properly speaking,
they were all invalid. The Regulation recites that if a
Zamindar had made such a grant (in past days) it was
considered void. On the subject of grants assumed to be
made by ' officers appointed to the temporary superintend-
ence of the collection of the revenue, under pretext that
the land was for pious or charitable uses/ some were no
doubt bond fide ; but, says the preamble, ' in general, they
were given for the personal advantage of the grantee, or
with a view to the clandestine appropriation of the produce
to the grantor,' or were given for a money consideration to
him. Government settled the Zamindar' s estate jama'
without reference to such grants and exclusive of them.
Consequently it was at liberty to 'resume,' i.e. to impose
an assessment on, all that were invalid. In determining
to do this, Government generously enough said that if the
grant was less than 100 bighds in extent, the assessment
would not be for the benefit of Government but for the estate
— would be in fact claimable as rent. It is said that both
these Regulations failed, — as might be expected in the
1 This phrase ' alienated ' is com- in that case ' alienation ' would
moner in Bombay and Madras than be used in an ordinary sense. But
elsewhere ; it refers rather to the where the land did not belong to
alienation of the revenue from the Government, ' alienation ' referred
treasury than to the land itself. to giving up the revenue demand,
Of course Government might have and the consequent lien or ultimate
land at disposal, and grant both it title, which Government has over,
and the revenue due on it ; and or to, all land whatsoever.
426 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
absence of a survey and any sufficient land records ; for I
suppose that by ' failing ' it is meant that the claims did
not come to light. The law was accordingly revised by
Regulation II of 1819, and again by Regulation III of
1 828. This latter enactment appointed a Court of ' Special
Commissioners ' ; and after they had done what they could
for many years, they were abolished by order of Govern-
ment in 1846. The more modern procedure of Registration
and Certificate, which will be described in the sequel, have
at length done everything that is wanted.
The Zamindars who were thus empowered to ' resume '
all the petty estates for their own benefit, were long loath
to do so. No doubt where the ' mu'afi ' was for a pious
purpose, it would have been contrary to the public feeling
to resume ; but if many were created, as asserted, either as
a means of raising money or otherwise irregularly, it is not
so easy to see why they should have been tenderly dealt
with ; at a later date, when the Zamindaris changed hands,
successors were not so particular, and resumption suits
became common *.
§ 19. Principles of Resumption.
In order to simplify matters, all grants made previous
to the i2th August, 1765 (date of grant of the diwdni),
1 See this explained in Markby, sequently, everybody asserting a
p. 7. I take occasion to observe grant or claim not to pay, is surely
that I do not quite follow the learned most naturally the person who has
author in his remark that the to take the burden of proof and
Regulations gave an extraordinary produce his exemption. It may be
facility to the estate-holder to re- that he has no grant, but has been
sume, or that they laid the burden allowed to go free so long, that now
of proof on the persons claiming to it would be hard to charge him ;
hold free in a manner contrary to but that is a matter of the nature
the usual rule ; but perhaps the of his title ; it is beside the question
remark is due to the confusion, of who should take the burden of
which undoubtedly is traceable in proof in the first instance. On the
the law, between assessing revenue other hand, if it was a question of
or rent fas the case might bet and ejecting from the land, then the
ejecting the claimant from the land. burden is, of course, the other way.
As far as the claim to rent is con- The man in possession on an appa-
cerned, the rent was only what rent title is to remain until some
had before been the State revenue one else proves his superior title or
demand ; every acre of cultivated proves that the other has no busi-
land is bound to pay this ; con- ness there.
CHAP, i.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 427
were recognized as valid without question, by whatever
authority they might have been made, and whether in
writing or without it: the only condition was, that the
claimant (or his predecessor) should have actually, and
bond fide, obtained possession of the land so granted pre-
vious to the date mentioned, and that the land had not
already been declared liable to pay revenue by the officers,
or under the orders, of Government.
Grants subsequent to 1765, and before the date of the
decennial Settlement (taken as December ist, I79O1), were
invalid (with a few unimportant exceptions). So also were
grants after December 1790.
The provisions of both Regulations refer only to the
revenue question, not to the right in the soil, which, if
disputed, could be settled in the Civil Court.
§ 20. Terms of Settlement for such Lands.
When a grant lapsed to Government or was resumed,
the Settlement was to be made, in perpetuity, with the
person entitled to hold the land, which became an in-
dependent ' taluq ' — a separate proprietary estate.
In the case of grants made between 1765 and ist Decem-
ber, 1790, Section 7 of Regulation XIX of 1793 contem-
plated certain differences as to amount of assessment,
which are rather complicated ; and it is now of no impor-
tance to go into them. These rules applied also (Section 8)
to grants resumed in favour of Zamindars, but with certain
directions as to ascertaining the revenue without expense
to the grantee.
The Government seems to have been more anxious to
facilitate the resumption by the landholders of the invalid
lakhiiaj grants of less than 100 bighas, than it was to
secure to the State the larger invalid grants. Section 10
invalidated all grants since December 1790; so that if the
Zamindar himself, or a predecessor, had made the grant, he
1 1198 Fasli era of Bengal (see Book I, chap. i. p. 13).
428 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
could undo his own act l. The grant was invalid as regards
the revenue (become the rent), and as regards the soil also,
if it purported to include the latter: 'and no length of
possession shall be hereafter considered to give validity to
any such grant.'
§ 21. Procedure. — Limitation.
The Settlement-holder (or manager, should the estate
happen to be held 'Mas') was empowered to levy rent
(or to eject an unentitled holder of the land) without any
action in Court or notice to any Revenue Officer ; but this
applied only to invalid grants dating after 1790. In order
to assess, or to eject from a grant previous to 1790, a
regular suit was at first required (Section n).
Section 30 of Regulation II of 1819 endeavoured to
facilitate resumptions of grants previous to 1790, by saying
that the application to resume might be presented direct to
the Collector, or if presented to a Civil Court, should be
referred to the Collector for an opinion ; but this was found
inconvenient and was repealed in 1862 (Bengal Act VII).
It should be remarked that the landholders at no time
largely availed themselves of the summary power given in
Section 10 of Regulation XIX of 1793, but preferred to
resort to the Civil Court even when the practice of resump-
tion became more general2. In consequence, Section 30
of Regulation II 'of 1819 was frequently misapplied: it
was not intended to apply to cases under Section 10 of
Regulation XIX (regarding which no suit at all was needed,
and therefore if one was filed it was the landholder's own
pleasure) ; it was designed to facilitate inquiry as to grants
before 1790, for which a suit VMS needed ; but it got applied
1 The motive for this was the his renf), and so contract himself out
principle — which is not unknown of the power of meeting his own
in other revenue laws — that the revenue engagements to the Go vern-
revenue-payer ought not to be ment.
allowed (or encouraged) impru- 2 See Markby, p. 8, and the cases
dently to give away his lands free there quoted,
of the revenue (which now became
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 429
to both, till the Privy Council ruled that it could not legally
be so.
The power given under Section 10, above referred to,
was, however, taken away by Act X of 1859, and the land-
holder was required to file his suit, which, however, lay to
the Collector as a Revenue Court : and when this Act was
repealed by Act VIII of 1869, the reference was re-trans-
ferred to the Civil Court, as in all other matters.
It was also ultimately ruled by the Privy Council, that
notwithstanding the terms above quoted, the Government
right to resume was subject to the law of limitation, and
that, by parity of reasoning, so was the Zamindar's 1. The
modern limitation law (1877. Act XV) sets the question
at rest, since Article 130 of Schedule II expressly gives
twelve years as the limit for a private resumption suit ;
and all suits by the Secretary of State are limited to sixty
years.
§ 22. ' Tkdnaddri Lands.'
Among other ' resumptions ' it may be proper to mention
that the Zamindars were relieved from the responsibility of
maintaining police forces, and so lands held free under the
name of ' thanadari,' to provide for them, were resumed and
assessed. The ' chakaran ' lands held for village service —
Q
i.e. for village watchmen or ' chaukidars ' and ' bulahirs ' — p^t \q ri
are not included in this. of J793-
§ 23. The Waste Lands.
Although we gather, from the early reports and his-
tories, that, at the date of the Permanent Settlement, a very
large proportion of Bengal was uncultivated and covered
with jungle, the matter attracted no definite attention.
1 This was because, in the limit- to authorize a suit barred by the
ation law then in force (^Regulation various periods prescribed ; so that
II of 18051, it was provided that the terms quoted above, out of
'nothing ... in any part of the Section 10, Regulation XIX of 1793,
existing Regulations ' should be held were over-ridden.
43O LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
Perhaps it was less prominent in the central districts that
formed the important revenue-paying tracts.
At all events, it was assumed that the boundaries of
Zamindaris or other estates were known. And all that was
within the boundary belonged to the proprietor, whether
waste or cultivated ; so that many fine ' sal ' forests and
other such lands have become included as private property,
though, in the absence of any detailed survey or register
of fields, it was quite impossible, in most cases, for any
one to tell whether the waste was really part of the ' estate '
or not.
That some waste was so, goes without saying ; for the
extension of the Zamindar's income, by bringing under the
plough lands that were uncultivated, was one of the means
most frequently spoken of, by which his wealth was to be
assured.
I do not find any mention of ' excess waste lands ' (i. e.
not included in any one's estate) till Regulation II of 1819.
Even then nothing is said about the want of title of
persons who had squatted or occupied ; only it is said such
R«g. II of lands were liable to be assessed to revenue. The Regula-
1819860.3. £jon referre(j especially, as instances of such lands, to —
(«) lands cultivated in the Sundarbans1 (these were
chiefly on the higher parts of the delta — better
protected from inundation, and probably exten-
sions or encroachments from the permanently
cultivated estates inland) ;
(&) ' chars ' and islands formed in rivers ; and other
alluvial accretions since the decennial Settlement ;
(c) lands which did not come under the Settlement
specially let out on clearing leases by Collectors.
The assessment was to be on the 'principles of the
General Regulations,' and therefore permanent (see Section
6 of Regulation I of 1793).
1 Avast tract of forest intersected 24-Pergunnahs, Khulna and Bakir-
by myriads of tidal streams and ganj, between the main mouth of
creeks, and forming the southern the Hughli on the west and the
or delta portion of the districts of Megna river on the east
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 43 1
The matter was better provided for at a later time.
Regulation III of 1828 recites in the preamble that —
* Commissioners have likewise, from time to time, been ap-
pointed, under the orders of Government, to maintain and
enforce the public rights in different districts, in which exten-
sive tracts of country, unowned and unoccupied at the time of
the Permanent Settlement, are now liable to assessment, or,
'being still tvaste, belong to the State.'
This is the first legislative declaration I have found on
the subject of the title to waste lands (see Chap. V, p. 236).
And while it also follows from this that all lands ' owned '
and occupied were liable to be assessed (and that per-
manently), no others could claim a Permanent assessment.
In other words, the benefit of the Regulations extended to
estates then occupied, even without title, not to all that might
thereafter be created by new occupation and cultivation.
We shall have occasion to notice how waste lands were
disposed of in several instances in the sequel. Here it is
sufficient to notice what the Settlement Regulations in-
tended on the subject.
§ 24. Resume of the Zaminddrs Position under
the Permanent Settlement.
The result of these various provisions may now be
summarized.
(a) The Zamindar was only required to pay one sum,
with no extra cesses on the land.
(6) The 'abicdb' were abolished; and he was not allowed,
in his turn, to levy such charges on his raiyats.
(c) The ' Sayer ' were not charged in the revenue :
some items were left to benefit the estate, others
were abolished, and others (excise, road-tolls, &c.)
were taken out of the land-revenue account
altogether and separately collected by the Govern-
ment.
(d) The Zamindar was not allowed to have any deduc-
43 2 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
tions from his sum total on the plea of private
lands revenue-free as ' nankar ' or subsistence
allowance.
(e) Nor to claim deductions on the ground of grants of
land revenue-free made by the former Government
or by its officers, unless these were valid on the
terms prescribed by law. All others were 're-
sumed' and assessed. This did not affect the
Zamindars if the 'resumed' grant was over 100
bighas, because such were treated as separate
estates and assessed. But, as regards smaller
grants, the Zamindar got the benefit of the re-
sumption, and it was left to him to resume or
not, under the prescribed procedure, as he chose.
(/) The Zamindar was not allowed deductions for
pensions, pay of Qdzis, or of Kdnungos, or for
police lands — because the State no longer required
him to meet any such charges.
§ 25. Profit left to Zaminddr.
The Settlement thus made with the Zamindars for one
consolidated lump sum of revenue, was supposed, in theory,
to represent nine-tenths of what they received directly in
rent from the raiyats, the remaining tenth being allowed
to them for their trouble and responsibility1. In reality,
1 See Regulation VIII of 1793, the peons or messengers, to keep
Section 77 ; and Whinfield's Revenue up the office, &c., &c.
Law and Practice of Bengal 1,1874', If anything is wanting to show
p. n. That was also the theory how utterly unlike a ' landlord ' th3
under the native rule. The Zamin- Zamindar originally was, this will
dars were to pay in the whole of supply the want. He got nothing in
their collections, less only a per- the nature of rent from the land. The
centage allowed them for the raiyat took the balance of its yield
trouble (called mushahara\ together after paying the Government share
with some allowances (called ' maz- (the balance to him being often
kiirat'), for charitable and re- small enough), and the Zamindar
ligious purposes — to keep lamps at had to account to Government for
the tombs of saints, to preserve the the whole of his collections, getting
' qadam rasul ' or foot-prints of the back only such allowance as the
Prophet, to give khairat or alms to State made him to keep up his
the poor, to pay the village or office, &c., and to remunerate him
minor revenue officials to support for his trouble. Whatever he made
CHAP, i.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 433
the Zamindar, when made landlord, got all the increase of
rents (as the raising of rents gradually came to be under-
stood), and, in any case, he got the benefit of all extension
of cultivation, as well as all the ' sayer ' items from
fisheries, fruit, grazing, &c., and the benefit of all invalid
grants (under 100 bighas) which he chose to resume. And
with all these sources of income, it very soon came to pass
that the revenue payment was nothing at all resembling
nine-tenths of the total receipts from the estate.
§ 26. Settlement Arrangements regarding the Zaminddrs'
dealings with the Raiyats.
The Settlement procedure certainly involved very little
action with reference to the raiyats, — the great body of
agriculturists, — now reduced to a secondary position under
the Zamindars. The Regulations may be said to have
hoped much and provided little. What they did, however,
though it might, in some respects, be conveniently noticed
here, had better be passed over, for the reason that I must
recur to the subject (of landlord and tenant) at a later
stage, and it is an object to avoid repetition. I will there-
fore simply reserve the provisions of the Regulation regard-
ing raiyats or tenants to a subsequent chapter.
§27. Registration of Landed Estates.
It will next be asked, what attempt was made to prepare
registers of estates and records of other rights under the
Permanent Settlement ?
As there was no survey or demarcation of estates, the
only thing that could be done was to prepare a descriptive
register, showing the names of estates and the villages, and
local subdivisions of land included in it. Regulation
for himself was derived from rulers contracted with the Zamin-
revenue-free land, — that held as dar for a fixed sum, this soon came
' nankar,' or from the levy of un- to be regarded as something apart
authorized cesses. In time, it is from the total rents paid in by the
true, he came to get something very raiyats.
like rent. When the later Native
VOL. I. F f
434 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
XLVIII of 1 793 contemplated a general register of estates
paying revenue immediately to Government. Each estate
was to be described by name, and it was to be mentioned
whether it consisted of a village, a tappa (group of villages),
or a pargana ; whether it was a jdgir grant, or a taluq, or
any other special form of grant (of which we shall hear
when we come to the chapter on Tenures). If the estate
had been partitioned, the shares were to be specified. And
should portions of estates lie in different districts, the term
' qismat ' (section or fragment), was to be prefixed.
The registers were also supposed to show the local name
and the (nominal) area of each village and pargana, with
the names of the landlord, farmer of rent, &c.
The registers were to be renewed every five years ; and a
register noting intermediate changes in the proprietorship,
partitions and other like occurrences affecting the estates,
was to be kept up.
To facilitate this work, the Civil Courts were to send
copies of all decrees which affected land, and the Board of
Revenue were to notify sales made under the Revenue Re-
covery laws. Registrars of deeds were also to send notices,
and proprietors were to give due information of transfers of
property, failing which they became liable to penalty.
Separate registers were kept up of revenue-free estates,
and of those which, being invalid, were resumed and assessed
to revenue.
These rules were first revised by Regulation VIII of
1 800, which mentions the failure J which had occurred, and
1 I do not mean, by the failure tenures. But the task was a diffi-
of the early records, to imply that cult one : there was delay in carrying
the authors of the Settlement pur- it out. English ideas of the rights
posely neglected the work. On the of a landlord and of the advantage
contrary, ' The original intention,' of non-interference, began more
says Sir G. Campbell, 'of the framers and more to prevail in Bengal,
of the Permanent Settlement, was The Executive more and more ab-
to record all rights. The kanungos negated the functions of recording
and patwaris were to register all rights and protecting the inferior
holdings, all transfers, all rent- holders, and left everything to the
rolls, and all receipts and pay- judicial tribunals. The patwaris
ments ; and every five years there fell into disuse, or became the mere
was to be filed in the public offices servants of the Zamindars : the
a complete register of all land- kanungos were abolished. No record
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 435
directed, among other changes, that the registers should be
kept by parganas. There is no occasion to go into detail,
as the rules have long since been repealed. They never
were, or could have been, fully carried out, so impossible is
it to manage Records of rights without a survey.
§ 28. Registration of Under-tenures.
But no registration of under-tenures, or record of the
nature and extent of the rights of cultivators and lessees
subordinate to the landlords, was made. And this was a
serious want, because after all the ' taluq ' grantees and
others had been 'separated' (and so recorded as estate-
holders on their own account), there must have remained a
large number of 'dependent' taluqs, 'muqarrari ' and ' istim-
rari' lessees, and others (of whom we shall afterwards hear),
whose rights were certainly above those of tenants, and
ought therefore to have been recorded. The Settlement
Regulations, however, though by no means ignoring such
rights, or wishing to destroy them, thought it enough to
assume that there were fixed terms of the grant by which
the tenure originated, and to declare these binding. The
want of proper authoritative registers of such tenures and
their holders long continued ; and it is only of late years
that the registration has been put on a better footing. A
notice of the present practice, however, belongs to a later
stage of our study.
§ 29. The means of recovering the Revenue. — Sale-laws.
I have already alluded to the first indication of the SALE
LAWS. The Government had dealt liberally with the
Zamindars; it had given them a valuable property, and
secured them by a permanent limit to the State revenue
demand. It was, therefore, thought only fair that, in
of the rights of the raiyats and tained for a time, fell into disuse.'
inferior holders was ever made ; (Sir G. Campbell's Land System of
and even the quinquennial register India — Cobden Club Papers, p. 148).
of superior rights, which was main-
F f 2
436 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
return, the State revenue should be paid with the unfail-
ing punctuality required to meet the pressing needs of the
treasury ; and it was held, without question, that if the
landlord did not or could not, pay, he must be removed
at once, by the sale of the whole or a part of the estate, as
circumstances should indicate. In those early days, the
Revenue instalments were payable monthly; and it was
held that failure to pay any month's due justified an
immediate sale1. But in 1799 the rule was relaxed. Regu-
lation VII provided that no sale should take place till the
end of the year, and thus give more time. And, as the
landlord was dependent on the recovery of his rents for
his ability to pay, a summary power of distraint for rent
was given him. The sanction of the Board of Revenue was
also required before a sale was ordered ; and only such part
of the estate as would suffice was actually sold. Interest
was not charged on arrears ; and this is still the law.
The law of summary distraint was oppressive to the
raiyats, but we are not concerned with that here, but only
with the law for recovery of arrears of revenue and its
effect on the system. As the revenue got lighter and
lighter, and the landlords had more and more power
against the rent-payers, it is hardly to be wondered at that
the provisions against revenue default should have been
made more stringent. The next Regulation of importance
was Regulation XI of 1822, which made it no longer neces-
sary to issue process of attachment or try any arrangement
for direct collection, before putting up the estate (or part
of it) to sale.
This law lasted till 1841, when Act XII replaced it ; this
in its turn was repealed in 1 845 ; and Act XI of 1 859 began
what I may call the ' modern sale law ' — to which reference
will be made in the chapter headed ' Revenue Business and
Procedure.'
1 Kaye, p. 185. As a matter of sale of his property. Regulation III
fact, the first Regulation, XV of of 1794 abolished the imprisonment
1793, prescribed the ordinary pro- of the defaulting proprietor, and
cess against debtors, viz. the im- substituted a power of immediate
prisonment of the person, and the sale of his estate.
CHAP. I.] THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 437
§ 30. Voiding of existing encumbrances ivhen the
Estate was sold.
One feature of the sale law, which was early allowed
to be necessary, deserves to be mentioned. Besides the
under-tenures, which existed in the shape of dependent
taluqs and other privileged holdings, it became the custom
with the landlords to divest themselves of the trouble of
management, by farming out portions of their estate.
The detail of this will appear later on, but it is obvious
that the result was to create, on most estates, numerous
under-tenures. All these were so many encumbrances
on the estate ; and if, when the landlord's interest was
sold for arrears, all these remained valid, the net interest
saleable would, in all probability, not fetch enough at
auction to realize the arrear. As early as Regulation Reg. XLiv
XLIV of 1793, we find that when an estate is auctioned for
arrears —
' all engagements which such proprietor shall have contracted
with dependent taluqdars whose taluqs may be situated in the
lands sold; as also all leases to under- farmers, and pattds to
raiyats [with certain exceptions] .... shall stand cancelled from
the day of sale, and the purchaser .... shall be at liberty to
collect from such dependent taluqdars, &c., whatever the former
proprietor would have been entitled to demand, according to
the established usages and rates of the pargana, &c., had the
engagements so cancelled never existed.'
This did not apply to absolute alienations (e.g. to reverse
a sale actually made), nor to leases to Europeans, of lands
for dwelling-houses, gardens, or manufactories ; nor did it
interfere with the assessment imposed by the Permanent
Settlement1.
But this wholesale avoidance of contracts made by the
defaulting landlord, was soon recognized to be excessive.
We gradually find new Regulations softening the terms.
1 So that, when the estate was Permanent Settlement would, in
sold, the Collector could not offer it many instances, have been got rid
at a new assessment, otherwise the of.
LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
First, Regulation I of 1801 protected arrangements that
might have been concluded during the year previous to
the date of sale. Next, Regulation XI of 1822 modified the
general rule. It no longer provided that such leases, &c.,
' stood cancelled,' but only that they were ' Halle to be
annulled' by the purchaser: and it was also expressly
allowed that five classes of persons who had an heritable
and transferable interest, or raiyats who had a right of
occupancy, could not have their engagements annulled.
This was perhaps implied, but not stated, by the earlier
law.
The Sale laws of 1841 and 1845 are very much the same
in these respects, but expressly declare the right of the
purchaser to enhance the rents of all under-tenures and
(after notice given) to eject tenants, subject to exceptions,
five in number.
Nothing further was changed till 1859. The only in-
terest these earlier provisions now have is as illustrating
how the revenue system grew, and how ideas regarding
sales, under-tenures, and enhancement of rents, were gra-
dually modified. But it is to be remembered that titles to
existing property may still depend on the laws which were
in force at the time when the sales, under which they arose,
took place, and therefore the early laws cannot be omitted
altogether from notice.
How many difficulties have arisen out of this principle of
sale, and the necessary ' clear title ' which goes with it, and
how those difficulties had been met, belongs to a later
section, where we shall deal with the modern law in its
practical application.
§ 31. Effects of the Permanent Settlement and its Laws.
Having now taken a general retrospect of the principles
and practice of the Permanent Settlement, as regards the
persons settled with, the nature of the revenue, the method
of its assessment, the treatment of the waste land, the
registration of estates, and the recovery of arrears of reve-
CHAP. I.]
THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
439
nue, we may proceed to make a general retrospect of what
the effects of the Settlement have been.
The decennial Settlement, made permanent in 1793, ex-
tended to Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa — the Orissa of these
days being (I may repeat) the tract between the Kupnarain
and Subarnrekha rivers, now in the Midnapore district l.
In general terms, it may be said that it disappointed
many expectations and produced several results that were
not anticipated. It has been stated that, at first, the
revenue levied from the Zamindars and others made pro-
prietors, was heavy ; but as the effects of British peace and
security made themselves felt, and as the value of land and
its produce rose, and waste lands were brought under the
plough, the assessments became proportionately lighter and
lighter 2. And it must be borne in mind that every estate
at the time of its original assessment contained considerable,
1 The land-revenue, though per-
manently fixed in 1793, was liable
to be increased by causes which had
nothing to do with the assessment
of the original estates ; for example,
the Zamindars were relieved of
police charges, and the lands held
free for the purpose would be called
in and assessed as the arrangements
were completed. Then the gradual
resumption of invalid revenue-free
tenures caused an increase, as well
as the assessment of land held in
excess ('taufir ' in revenue language)
of the proper estate (Reg. II of 1819) :
and there were other causes. This
is exclusive of the revenue of tem-
porarily settled estates, or lands
held by Government. The Per-
manent Settlement Revenue was
about R. 2,85,87,722. In 1828-29,
the demand had risen to Company's
R. 3,04,27,770, in 1846-47 it was
R.3,12,52,676, and in 1848 49 R.3,4O,
96,605. In 1856-57 it appears at
the slightly reduced figure of 3,37,
38,783. In the following year it rose
to R. 3,39,10,632. In 1882-83 it was
R. 3,62,78355: the increase during
the ten years previously had been
more than a lakh a year. In 1888-
89 the permanently Settled Re-
venue was R. 3,22,90,777 (Rev. Adm.
Rep. p. 2). These figures are cal-
culated for the whole of the dis-
tricts in the old Permanent Settle-
ment, excluding Chota Nagpore
(Chutiya Niigpur), which had not
then been settled (Report, 1883).
2 The revenue assessed in 1790-
93 being, as just stated. Company's
R.2, 85, 87, 722, or under three millions
of pounds, the Zamindars were esti-
mated to get, as their profit, a sum
equal to about a tenth of the total
assessment. They no doubt got
more ; but even if we say a fifth,
instead of a tenth, the rental or
profit would be under a million.
At the present day, judging from
the valuation for road-cess ^made in
respect of the rent paid to landlords
by tenants and tenure-holders of all
classes, plus the value of land in the
direct possession of the proprietors),
a fair estimate of the rental made it
thirteen millions, and it must have
largely increased since that date.
The revenue they pay now is about
three and a-quarter millions. So
that even on the rule of ' half- rental
assets = the revenue* prevalent in
Northern India, they pay less than
half (probably less than one thirds
of what other landowners have to
pay.
44O LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
often very large, areas of culturable waste of great value ;
and as this was entirely unassessed, all the immense sub-
sequent extension of cultivation was so much clear profit
to the owner1.
Before, however, these changes began to tell, the assess-
ments were heavy enough to necessitate diligence and
prudence ; and the landlords were not able at once to keep
pace with the inflexible demand. The consequence was
a very widespread default. As just now explained, the
law practically stood to enforce a sale of the estate (or part
of it), directly the owner was in arrears, and it followed
that large numbers of estates were put up to sale.
'In 1796-97,' says the late Mr. J. Macneile2, 'lands bearing
a total revenue of Sicca3 R. 14,18,756, were sold for arrears,
and in 1797-98 the Jama' of lands so sold amounted to Sicca
R. 22,74,076. By the end of the century, the greater portions
of the estates of the Nadiya, Rajshahi, Bishnpur, and Diiiajpur
Rajas, had been alienated. The Bardwan estate was seriously
crippled, and the Birbhiim Zamindari completely ruined. A
host of smaller Zamindaris shared the same fate. In fact, it is
scarcely too much to say that, within the ten years that imme-
diately followed the Permanent Settlement, a complete revolu-
tion took place in the constitution and ownership of the estates
which formed the subject of that Settlement.'
One effect of the ' Sale Law ' was to reduce very greatly
the size of the Zamindaris, for up to 1845 they were sold
piecemeal. The making into separate estates of taluqs, the
owners of which established a claim to be dealt with sepa-
1 Government, no doubt, after- Murshidabad, but still bearing the
wards resumed, and assessed sepa- name of the Mughal Emperor Shah
rately, some large areas of waste, but 'Alam. lit. Regulation XXXV of
it was waste improperly or fraud- I793> it was enacted that this coin
ulentlyannexed to the estate. Many, was to be legal tender, and was to
if not most, estates had a great deal bear the igth year of the Emperor's
of waste which was confessedly reign for uniformity sake. Speak-
included in their boundaries. ing roughly, three ' Company's ru-
2 Memorandum on the Revenue Ad- pees ' equalled two sikka. The sikka
ministration of the Loioer Provinces of contained 176-13 grains Troy, and
Bengal ^Calcutta, 1873 , p. 9. the rupee afterwards introduced in
3 The ' Sikka ' was the first rupee 1835 as the ' Company's/ 165 grains,
struck (in 1773) by the Company at of pure silver.
CHAP. I.]
THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
441
rately from the Zamindars, and the effect of partitions,
had also tended to the same result. The tendency to sub-
divide estates is also great, and especially in Bihar. In
twenty years, the number of estates was doubled in Patna
division, and in Tirhut (Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga dis-
tricts) was more than trebled. Taking the figures for
1882-3, out of a total number of 110,456 estates borne on
the roll of 39 districts of Bengal proper and Bihar, 457,
or 0-41 per cent, only, are great properties, with an area of
20,000 acres or upwards: 12,304, or ii'i per cent., range
from 500 to 20,000 acres ; while the number of estates
which fall short of 500 acres, is 97,695, or 88-4 per cent, of
the whole l.
In Chittagong, however, the estates were always small,
and in Bihar there never were any very large Zamindarfs.
§ 32. Districts affected by the Permanent Settlement.
The Permanent Settlement extended over the following
districts in Bengal, as the districts are now constituted :—
Bardwan.
Bankura.
Birbhum.
Hooghly (Hughli).
Howrah (Haura;.
24-Pergunnahs.
Jessore (Jasur).
Khiilna.
Patna.
Gaya.
Shahabad.
Muzaffarpur*.
BENGAL.
Nadiya.
Murshidabad.
Dinajpur.
Malda.
Rajhshahi.
Eangpur.
Bogra (Bagura).
Pabna.
BIHAB,
Darbhanga*.
Saran.
Champaran.
Maimansingh.
Faridpur.
Bakirganj.
Chittagong (Chatta-
graon).
Noacolly (Nawakhali).
Tipperah (Tipra).
Dacca (Dakha).
Purneah (Parniya).
Bhagalpur.
Monghyr (Munger\
These two form the old Tirhut District.
SANTALIA. — Part of the Santal Pergunnahs adjoining the Regulation
Districts.
ORISSA. — Mednipur (Midnapore\ except one pargana which was
settled along with Katak (Cuttack).
CHOTA NAGPORE (Chutiya Nagpur). Parts of all the districts.
1 Report, 1883, p. 4.
442 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
Some estates in the Manbhum, Singbhum, Lohardagga,
and Hazaribagh districts (now in the Chutiya Nagpur Divi-
sion) came under Permanent Settlement, though they are
' non-Regulation districts,' because they were then included
in collectorates which formed part of the Bengal or Bihar
of that date.
The part of the Jalpaiguri district south-west of the Tista
river, also was permanently settled under the same circum-
stances. A glance at the ' Settlement map ' annexed to this
volume will show the whole matter.
A portion of Sylhet was permanently settled, but the
Settlement did not extend to Jaintiya, nor did it touch
anything but the lands under cultivation at the time.
This district will be alluded to under the head of Assam,
in which province it is now included. Part of Goalpara
(also in Assam) was included in the Permanent Settle-
ment l.
§ 33. Proportion of Permanent and other Settlement
Revenue in Bengal.
It may also be convenient here to notice the proportion
of Bengal revenue which is permanently settled to that
obtained from estates not so settled. The total land-re-
venue, as stated in the Board's Report 1888-9, is, in round
numbers, R. 3,81,00,000, of which R. 3,23,00,000 comes from
permanently- settled estates and R. 58,00,000 (or 15-2 per
cent, of the whole) from estates which are temporarily
settled, and from estates of which the soil is owned by
Government, together.
1 The results of the Settlement, Rulers (p. 166 et seq.). Such ques-
and the condition of the tenants tions, interesting as they are, are
under it, both in Bihar and Bengal, evidently outside the scope of a
as questions of social economy, are Revenue manual, and I can only
well stated in Mr. (now Sir H. S.) make this brief reference to the
Cunningham's British India and its subject.
CHAPTER II.
THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS, INCLUDING THE RENT-
SETTLEMENTS OF GOVERNMENT ESTATES.
SECTION L— INTRODUCTORY.
§ i. Lands not Permanently Settled.
IN this chapter we have to treat of two different classes
of lands, which must not be confused together: (i) lands
held by persons recognized as proprietors, but not under
the Permanent Settlement law; (2) lands which do not
belong to proprietors, i.e. in which no proprietary right
other than that of Government exists.
In the first class there is, of course, a Settlement of land-
revenue, only that it is not under the Permanent Settle-
ment Regulations, but under later laws which contemplate
the assessment being raised periodically, and the making of
a Revenue-survey and record of the rights of all parties.
In the second class there is properly no Settlement of
land-revenue, because Government being itself the owner,
the revenue is merged in rent taken by the Government as
owner. Nevertheless ' Settlement operations ' are spoken
of as applicable to both classes of estates, under a view of
the matter which I will presently endeavour to make clear.
In the first class of lands, — proprietary estates tem-
porarily settled, — the law is chiefly contained in Regu-
lations VII of 1822 and IX of 1833, and some special Acts
which will be noticed more in detail hereafter.
In the second class, or Government estates, two methods
444 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
of management may be adopted : either the tract is kept
'raiyatwar,' i.e. Government deals as landlord directly
with its tenants 1 ; or a farmer or some kind of middleman
(who is in no sense a proprietor) may be employed on cer-
tain terms, to collect and pay in the rents of the tenantry,
for which he receives a certain emolument by way of deduc-
tion from the collections. The present tendency is, however,
against the employment of such persons ; it is preferred to
deal direct with the tenants 2.
The origin of these two classes of lands has to be ex-
plained.
§ 2. Temporarily-settled Estates.
To this class belong —
(1) Territory annexed by treaty or conquest at a date
subsequent to 1793. In these Government recog-
nized existing proprietary rights, but the Perma-
nent Settlement Regulations did not apply; as
(speaking in general terms) in the districts of the
modern Orissa (Katak, Balasiir, and Puri). To
this we may add districts exempted, for special
reasons, from the operation of the Regulations ;
(2) Resumed and lapsed revenue-free (lakhiraj) lands, —
not in permanently-settled districts, but held by
persons who are recognized as proprietors 3 ;
(3) Alluvial accretions to temporarily-settled estates,
which, under the law, may belong to the estate-
owner, but be liable to pay revenue.
1 The student will mark this, and is no proprietor but Government,
not confuse the ' raiyatwari tracts ' and that Government acts directly
of modern Bengal Reports with the as the landlord, taking rent from the
raiyatwari districts of Bombay, Ma- tenants, which rent it enhances, &c.,
dras, &c. In the latter, Government just as any other landlord does
treats the raiyats not as its tenants, under the law.
but as individual proprietors — 2 See post, § 6, page 449.
whether called in law ' proprietors ' 3 Invalid or lapsed revenue-free
or ' occupants ' — and assesses their holdings in a permanently- settled rft'.s-
holdings to land-revenue properly trict, when ' resumed/ are entitled
so called. The term ' raiyatwari to be permanently settled, but no
tract ' in the eleven Bengal districts others.
in which it occurs, means that there
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 445
§ 3. Government Estates,
To this class belong —
(1) Waste lands. — In the first place the Permanent Set-
tlement Regulations extended only to estates of
Zamindars and other actual proprietors as they
existed at the time. These estates, no doubt, were
very loosely defined, and all included a good deal
more land than was actually cultivated at the
time, and were intended to do so ; but there were
districts in which the area of waste was so large
that no claim to it was made, not even by squat-
ters or persons encroaching beyond their own
adjacent estates. This is notably the case in such
districts as Goalpara and Sylhet (described under
Assam) and Chittagong ; and again in the tract
known as the Sundarbans between the mouths of
the Hiighli and Megna rivers (part of the districts
of the ' 24-Pergunnahs,' Khulna and Bakirganj),
in the ' Daman-i-koh,' or hilly tract of the Santal
Pergunnahs. In all such waste lands, until (under
' Waste Land Rules ') Government leased or
granted the proprietary right, the ownership re-
mained vested in the State.
(2) When estates or parts of estates were sold for arrears
of revenue and Government bought them in, either
because no bidders appeared, or because satisfactory
terms were not offered 1.
(3) Thanadari lands, or lands formerly allotted to Zanrin- Reg. I of
dars for keeping up ' thanas ' or police stations.
The Zamindars were exonerated from this duty,
and the lands were resumed by Government.
At one time it was supposed porary Settlement : but this is not
that if Government parted with the so. Whenever sold, the purchaser
proprietary right in estates origin- would acquire a Permanent Settle-
ally permanently settled but sold ment right under the Regulations.
for arrears, the proprietor so ac- See Boards Rev. Rules, vol. ii.
quiring was only entitled to a tern-
446 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
(4) Islands and ' chars ' formed in rivers or on the sea-
shore— not being accretions by alluvion to existing
estates, which by the law or custom (Reg. XI
of 1825) belonged to the estate to which they
accreted — were liable to a separate Settlement.
With such a vast river-system as Bengal pos-
sesses, this head is not devoid of importance.
(5) Lands escheated in default of legal heirs or
claimants.
(6) Lands forfeited for any State offence, e.g. the Khiirda
estate in Puri.
(7) Lands which were acquired by conquest in cases
where the lands were not already owned, and the
Government did not see fit to confer any general
proprietary title : as, e.g. the Dwars of Jalpdiguri
and the Darjiling District 1.
§ 4. Official Classification.
The existence of these variously-originating estates neces-
sitated a recognized official classification. Such a classi-
fication was adopted under Sir G. Campbell's administration
in the district Revenue Rolls for 1876-77 2 : —
CLASS I. (All) permanently-settled estates —
(1) At the decennial Settlement (1789 to 1791);
(2) Resumed revenue-free settled permanently ;
(3) Estates formerly the property of Government, but
the proprietary right in which had been sold to
private persons subject to revenue fixed in per-
petuity.
(4) Ditto, ditto, subject to a revenue liable to periodical
revision 3.
1 I need hardly add an eighth class re-sold or kept as Government lands.
— Land acquired under the Acquisi- 2 And lands were described ac-
tion Act— for such lands will usually cording to it in the Board's Report,
be applied to a special purpose ; but 1874-75. See Report, 1883, p. 3.
such lands are sometimes taken, 3 As a subhead of Class I, No. 4
and not being needed, are either seems a little contradictory : I sup-
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 447
CLASS II. Temporarily-settled estates, the property of
private persons —
(1) Settled for definite periods, including (of course)
such estates, when—
(2) Farmed )
( Owing to refusal of the proprietors to
(3) or managed t thg termg of Settlement
direct. '
CLASS III. Estates the property of Government, however
acquired, and whether settled (i. e. the rents are made over
to a responsible collector, who is allowed a remuneration),
or whether managed direct : but this class has been for
convenience subdivided so as to give a further —
CLASS IV. 'Raiyatwari tracts,' i.e. large Government
estates with an area of not less than 5000 acres, where the
Government deals direct with the cultivators, settling and
recording their rents, and collecting them itself.
A glance at the table of estates and revenue at pp. 470-1
will show how these are distributed.
The orders contemplate the ' Daman-i-koh ' of the ' San-
tal Pergunnahs,' being classified as a single raiyatwari
tract.
The Khurda and Noanand estates in Orissa are, however,
entered as Government estates under Class III, because,
though in some respects raiyatwari (all rents and rights
being recorded), the collection is managed by responsible
' sarbarakars,' who are allowed a sort of Settlement.
Government lands called ' Jalpai ' lands in Midnapore 1
are not treated as ' raiyatwari ' unless the tract is 5000 acres
or over — notwithstanding that the raiyats pay direct.
In Chittagong, farms of circles, and ' nauabad ' taluqs or
holdings, are in Class III, because they are Government
property as far as the right in the soil is concerned.
pose it refers to cases where the vol. iii. 86-100). They are lands for
Settlement has been made once for producing the fuel used in boiling
all, but at progressive rates. brine to make salt. Government
2 Mentioned in the chapter on resumed these lands under the Salt
Tenures. They cover 76.835 acres laws, and compensated the owners
(Statistical Acc., Bengal, Midnapore — or holders.
448 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
§ 5. Certain Districts without any Revenue System.
In concluding this introductory explanation, I should
take occasion to observe that I omit from consideration
certain territories which are under Government control in
the Political Department, and have no regular revenue-
system. Such are —
(1) The portion of the Chittagong district known as the
Chittagong Hill tracts.
(2) The portion of the Tipperah (Tipra) District known
as Hill Tipperah belonging to the Maharaja of
Tipperah.
(3) The Chiefships known as Tributary or ' Peshkash '
States of Orissa.
(4) Chiefships in the Chutiyd, Nagpur Division (those of
the old ' South -West Frontier Agency ').
§ 6. Policy as to Retention or Disposal of Land.
It will next be asked, Under what principle does Go-
vernment sell or retain and farm or manage direct, the
lands which became Government estates "? To this question
I can best reply by an extract from the Report of 1882-83
on the Land system in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa (p. 6) : —
' The Government estates were originally either permanently
settled or sold outright. The policy was changed in 1871,
since when, temporary Settlements only have been allowed,
and, where sales have been considered expedient, the estates
were first settled for a term of years, and then sold subject to a
revision of the Government revenue on the expiration of the term
of Settlement. The above procedure, however, appeared to be
of questionable legality, and in 1875 the Government, at the
suggestion of the Board of Revenue, ruled that an estate should
be considered as qualified for direct management —
(i) If it was of sufficient extent and cultivation to support
a tahsildari [special collecting] establishment;
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOEAEY SETTLEMENTS.
449
(2) If, though not yielding a revenue sufficient to cover
such expense, there was reasonable expectation that
its gross rent could be increased by improvements,
extended cultivation, or otherwise, to that amount ;
(3) If, though not sufficient in extent or rental alone, to find
employment or funds for a separate establishment, it
was so situated as to be capable of being incorporated
with one or more similar ' khas-mahals/ so as to form
a compact tahsildari circle 1 ;
and that smaller isolated estates might still be retained under
direct management, if their situation near the headquarters of
a district or a subdivision was such as to allow of their proper
supervision by the Government officers. Smaller estates not
admitting of such super vision 'were to be sold after survey and
Settlement, in which the rights of all classes of cultivators
were to be recorded ; and the estates so sold, were to be trans-
ferred to their new proprietors, with the revenue fixed in per-
petuity, except in Orissa (a temporarily-settled province), where
the sale should be made subject to revision of the jama' on the
termination of the general Settlement of the province. The
above orders are still in force. Farming is adopted only in
very exceptional cases, or as a last resort, when every other
mqde of disposing of the estate has failed. Direct manage-
ment, though more troublesome, and probably not less expen-
sive, is preferred to farming, because it enables Government
officers to gain a practical knowledge of the progress of
agriculture, of the extent to which the productive powers of
the land have developed, and of the increased money-value
of the produce, which, in Bengal, it is difficult to obtain in
any other way.'
1 I may repeat the explanation
that, in revenue language, when any
land was managed directly by the
Collector's establishment (without
a farmer or lessee) it was said to be
held ' khas.' Government estates
were therefore called 'khas mahals,'
and the term is commonly used in
Revenue Reports.
VOL. I.
G or
450 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
SECTION II. — THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENT LAW AND
PROCEDURE.
§ i. Origin of the Settlement Law.
When the first extensive additions to the Company's ter-
ritory occurred on the annexation of the ' Ceded ' districts
(1801) and the ' Conquered' districts (1803), the Permanent
Settlement and its methods had already come into discus-
sion in connection with the Madras Settlements, as I have
stated at length in the chapters devoted to Madras. Both
the Ceded Provinces in the North -West, and Orissa, pre-
sented special features which did not invite a repetition of
the Permanent Settlement ; and notably there were few, if
any, 'Zamindars' of the Bengal class. I will state pre-
sently some particulars about Orissa, but here I only wish
to touch on certain salient points.
The result of the discussions, and of Mr. Holt Macken-
zie's x Minute, was the passing of the Temporary Settlement
Kegulation, No. VII of 1822, which applied to the 'Ceded
and Conquered Districts' — the Orissa Districts (called in
the preamble 'Katak, Pataspur, and its dependencies')
being among the latter. Now this law, instead of proceed-
ing to an estimated lump-sum Settlement without survey
or inquiry into details, expressly directed a survey and an
inquiry into the rights in every village and field, which was
to be followed by a valuation of the ' net produce ' of land
— i. e. (briefly stated) an inquiry into the actual produce on
various lands, of various crops. From the gross produce
valued in money, the cost of production, wages of labour,
&c., were to be deducted, and the result was the net pro-
duce, of which a certain fraction, never fixed by law but
1 This eminent civilian was, if I kenzie's great minute of 1819 in the
may say so. the prophet of the Tern- North -Western Provinces, did for
porary Settlement system of Upper the system there, what Mr. Shore's
India (and Orissa"), as Mr. Shore had minutes of 1788-89 did for Bengal,
been in 1788-89 of the Zamindari (See the chapter on N. W. Provinces
Settlement of Bengal. Mr. H. Mac- Settlements.)
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 451
determined on principles of fair dealing and expediency
by the executive power, was to be taken as the State share
or land-revenue. But (as more fully detailed in the chapter
on the North -Western Provinces Settlement, vol. ii) the
task of finding this ' net produce ' of every field proved an
impossible one; and by Regulation IX of 1833 it was
abandoned in favour of one which aimed at determining
the 'net assets.' This practically meant (or rather came
to mean as experience widened) the total receipts from
the land in the shape of rents. Putting it shortly, all
modern methods of Temporary Settlement which trace
their origin to the Regulations of 1822-33, tend more and
more to aim at discovering what is the actual rental of
land, correcting the sum total of rents paid, by adding in
the estimated rent (calculated on the data afforded by the
neighbourhood) of lands which are enjoyed rent-free or are
cultivated by the proprietors themselves. In other words,
the ascertainment of the income from rental and personal
enjoyment of cultivated lands, is the basis of Settlement.
Now, in Bengal, for temporarily-settled districts, a certain
proportion of this ' corrected rental ' is the land-revenue.
But in Government estates, the State as landlord, has also
to fix the whole rental which it takes as owner. In both
cases, therefore, a public officer has to ascertain the rent ;
and it matters very little whether it is only ascertaining
what that rent is, with a view to taking a portion as revenue,
or whether it also involves (in disputed cases), adjusting,
equalizing, raising or reducing, rents, with a view to taking
the whole as landlord J. A rent-inquiry of some kind is at
the basis both of temporary Settlements and of managing
Government estates.
The reader will then understand why we are able to put
these two dissimilar classes of estates under one chapter,
and why ' Settlement operations ' are conveniently, if not
quite logically, spoken of as applicable to both.
1 Or the whole rental less such middleman is employed to collect the
percentage as it allows in case a rents.
Gg 2
452 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK ll.
§ 2. Settlement and Rent-settlement Law.
i
The law for the Settlement of Rents is now contained in
the tenth chapter of the Bengal Tenancy Act (General), Act
VIII of I8851, and, when that Act does not apply, in other
Acts, as will be presently noted.
The same principles apply to the adjustment of rents in
Government estates and raiyatwari tracts, as in those
cases, in private estates, in which the Tenancy law contem-
plates the interference of public authority to settle rents.
And for all matters connected with the Settlement of the
Land-Revenue, other than the adjustment of rents, Regula-
tion VII of 1822 (amended in 1825) and Regulation IX of
1833 are still the law, except for the ' Scheduled districts,'
in which there are special laws for the Land- Re venue
administration.
Act vin Rules under the Tenancy Act (which have the force of
sec* 189' law), and instructions as to Settlement issued by the Board
of Revenue, are the natural and necessary supplement to
both kinds of Settlement law.
The Tenancy Act of 1885 does not, however, apply (un-
less extended specially) to the districts of Orissa (Katak,
Balasiir, and Piiri) nor to the ' Scheduled Districts.' Hence,
in those, we have three sources of rent and Settlement law :
(i) the Regulations and instructions above mentioned; (2)
Bengal Act VIII of 1879 (not repealed in districts to which
Act VIII of 1885 does not apply); (3) any special laws or
Regulations relating to particular districts as far as those
touch on rent or revenue matters. The law in force under
these three heads may be thus exhibited 2 :—
1 The magnitude of the interests in the Bengal Legislative Council,
involved, and the contest there was, 2 E. and F. Tenancy Act, p. 176.
as well as the bearing of the Act on B. Act VIII of 1879 refers to Settle-
other laws framed in the Imperial ment officers' powers, and will not
Council, rendered it necessary that be confused with VIII of 1869 (the
the Act should be passed in the old Tenant Act) still in force in
Legislative Council of India, and not those districts.
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOKAEY SETTLEMENTS. 453
DISTRICTS.
Balasur, Katak, and Puri -j
Regulation VIII of 1 793 l.
(For Katak) Regulation XII of 1805.
Regulation V of 1812 (not applicable to Katak;
Regulation XVIII of 1812.
Regulation VII of 1822 (and amendments i
1825).
Regulation IX of 1833.
Bengal Act VIII of 1879.
f « Act Vm of
(south of the Tista) . }
Jalpaiguri (the Bhutan ) Bengal Act VIII of 1879.
or Western Dwars). \ Act XVI of 1869.
Santal Parganas. Regulation (33 Viet., Cap. 3) III of 1872.
( Act XXII of 1860.
Chittagong Hill Tracts, j (See Bengal Settlement Manual, 1888, page 4.)
Chutiya Nagpur Dis- ,
trusts— / Bengal Act vill of 1879 ; and see Bengal Acts
Manbhum, Hazaribagh, > n»rf and I f £>
Lohardagga, Singh- I
bhum. /
Under these laws, according to circumstances, different
kinds of Settlements can be made: e.g. if it is desirable
merely to settle a lump sum of revenue without recordiug
tenants' rents or rights, it can be done under the Regula-
tions. This is seldom the case. If (as is usually the case)
the more complete Settlement with a record of rights and
an enhancement of rents (where necessary) is desired, then
in districts where the Act of 1885 does not apply, the
Regulation, aided by Bengal Act VIII of 1879, will give
the needful authority. The Act is, in fact, the supple-
ment of the Regulations of 1822-33. The latter only
enabled the Settlement Officer to declare what he con-
sidered a fair rent, and this was only presumed to be
correct till set aside by a regular civil suit ; but Act VIII
of 1879 empowers rents to be enhanced under circumstances
therein stated.
In cases where the Act of 1885 is in force, then, if it is
desired to have a complete record and adjustment of rents.
the Act must be followed ; but if it is supposed the en-
1 Applicable to a number of es- a Permanent Settlement for special
tates, intermediate between the reasons ; and they occupy a con-
semi-independent' Tributary' States siderable portion of the districts —
or Mahals and the periodically- Katak especially.
settled portion. These were granted
454 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
hancement is not necessary, and that Settlement will be
made without readjustment of rents, or with such a readjust-
ment as can be made by agreement (e.g. the enhancement
not being in excess of two annas in the rupee1), then
there will be no occasion to proceed to notify the tract
under the Tenancy Act, but the old Settlement procedure
will suffice.
§ 3. Certain operations even in permanently -settled
Estates.
It should be remarked that even where no re-assessment
of land-revenue is possible, i. e. in permanently-settled dis-
tricts,— some of the operations of a Settlement may require
to be carried out.
The Local Government, with the sanction of the Gover-
nor-General in Council, may order a survey and a record of
rights to be prepared for all lands in any local area. This
power has not yet been exercised except experimentally.
In time it is to be hoped that every district will ultimately
be so provided for2.
Without the supreme sanction, such orders can be issued
in cases where a large proportion of either landlords or
tenants desire it and deposit the amount (or security for
the amount) of expenses, as directed by the Local Govern-
ment ; or where such a proceeding is calculated to settle or
avert a serious dispute between landlords and tenants ; or
where the estate is being managed by the Court of Wards.
This is in addition to its application (before alluded to) to
all Government Estates (where, indeed, legal sanction
would hardly be necessary) ; or where a Temporary Settle-
Act vin inent of land-revenue is to be made.
of 1885.
sec. 10 1. * That being the limit under the and a complete record of rights
Act to •which enhancement by con- prepared. In Bengal an attempt
tract is valid. (Sec. 29, &c.) — which I am afraid I must call
8 The reader will learn hereafter abortive — has been made in one of
that in the North- Western Provinces the Bihar districts, but the day
permanently- settled districts (those must come when the work will be
that belonged to the Benares Pro- carried out.
vince and were ceded in 1795;, 3 F. and K. Tenant Act, p. 174,
though permanently settled, have where the orders are quoted,
now all been cadastrally surveyed,
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 455
This remark practically covers the whole ground, be-
cause in territories to which the Act of 1885 is not as yet
extended, the existing law enables the same thing to be
done, at least to a certain extent.
§ 4. Operations of Settlement.
In any ordinary Settlement under the Regulations of
1822-33, measurement, I have said, is contemplated by the
law ; or, if proceedings are undertaken under the Tenancy
Act, a survey is specially authorized. There is also a
General Survey Act (Bengal Act V of 1875), under which
the Lieutenant-Governor may direct that a survey may be
made of any lands, and that the boundaries of estates,
tenures, ' mauzas ' (villages), and fields, be demarcated and
surveyed.
The following processes are therefore ordinarily coin-
prised in Settlements of land-revenue, and in other Settle-
ments of rent, so far as may be necessary x : —
1. Demarcation of lands and adjustment of boundary
disputes.
2. Measurement and testing the same.
3. Fixing and recording of rents.
4. Recording rights and interests in the soil.
5. Settling any provision for police expenses, village
patwaris, allowances of the nature of mdlikdna, &c.
6. In land-revenue Settlements, fixing the terms of
Settlement, and who is to be settled with.
§ 5. Demarcation.
The Collectors or the Settlement Officers are empowered,
by the Regulations and Acts mentioned, to enforce the attend-
ance of the proper persons to point out boundaries and give
the necessary information. They are also empowered to
decide boundary disputes generally, on the usual basis of
1 The student will do well to Revenue Settlement Manual (Edition
have for reference the Board of of 1888 : Calcutta Secretariat Press).
456 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
possession, leaving disputes of title to be settled in the
Civil Court. But where the proceeding is under the
Act VIII Tenancy Act, the Settlement Officer is wisely endowed
sec* 106, 7. with the power of settling disputes of title as well 1.
§ 6. Survey.
I may take this opportunity of giving a general account
of the Bengal Survey system. The Report of 1883 gives
the following account : —
' Almost the whole of these provinces has now been surveyed
so as to show the boundaries of each village and estate ; but
there has been no field-measurement except in a few limited
tracts. There is a demarcation department whose business it
is to define the boundaries of villages and estates, and to make
a compass-and-chain survey of them. The ordinary scale of
the maps prepared from this survey is sixteen inches to the mile.
All disputes regarding boundaries are decided by the demarca-
tion officers.
' Where the whole of a village belongs to one estate, nothing
but the outer boundary of the village has to be defined and
surveyed; but, in a very large proportion of cases, there are
lands of more than one estate in the village, and the lands of
each estate are frequently scattered about the village and not
situated in one compact block. Thus, there may be lands of
ten estates in a village, but they may be contained in forty,
fifty, or even double that number of separate plots. Each of
these plots has to be separately defined and surveyed by the
demarcation surveyor. It is the extent to which plots of land
belonging to different estates are thus intermixed that renders
the demarcation of a Bengal district such a lengthy operation.
To take Hooghly as an example, there were in round numbers
4000 village circuits demarcated ; in about 1000 of these the
whole of the village belonged to one estate, and no interior
measurements were necessary. In the remaining 3000, no
1 Act VIII of 1885, sees. 106-7. (speaking generally) under the Civil
In Section 108 it is enacted that Procedure Code, and there is a
the Local Government shall ap- second or ' special ' appeal (on a
point a special judge (or more than point of law only, with certain
one) to hear appeals in such cases. special additions, Sec. 109) to the
Both suits and appeals are heard High Court.
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOEAEY SETTLEMENTS. 457
less than 80,000 plots had to be surveyed, owing to the inter-
mixture of lands of different estates.
' The demarcation has been followed by a professional survey-
staff, whose business it is to make a scientific survey of the
village boundaries, and also a map (usually on a scale of four
inches to the mile) showing the geographical and topogra-
phical features of the country. The whole of the work, both
of the demarcation and professional survey, has been carried
out at the expense of Government, although the Government
derives no additional revenue and no direct advantage from
the process. The surveyors, in making the survey of the
village boundaries, were guided by the marks put up at
time of demarcation at every bend and turn of the boundary.
Unfortunately, there were no permanent marks round the
boundaries of villages or esta-tes in Bengal, and no provision
then existed for compelling landholders to set them up and
keep them in order. The consequence was that the marks
have been obliterated and the use of the survey for practical
purposes has been greatly impaired.'
§ 7. Special Survey of Alluvial Lands.
1 The surveys of Ganges alluvion and diluvion, in accordance
with the provisions of Act IX of 1847, were commenced in the
Patna division about 1863, and brought to a close in the
Rajshahi division in 1871-72. The operations were afterwards
continued in the Dacca division. The object of the law was to
obviate the effects of the changes constantly going on in the
banks of rivers and adjacent lands. By these changes large
portions of land are often washed away — sometimes suddenly,
sometimes by slow degrees — from one side of a river, while an
accession of land takes place on the other side. It was thought
advisable, for the security of the land-revenue, that some pro-
vision should be made for allowing to a proprietor whose
estate had suffered diluvion, an abatement of revenue cor-
responding to the extent of his loss ; and, on the other hand,
for assessing the proprietor whose estate had gained land, with
an additional revenue, proportionate to the amount of his gain.
The law accordingly enacts that in districts of which a revenue
survey has already been made, Government may, whenever
ten years may have elapsed from the date of approval of such
survey, have a new survey made of lands on the banks of
458 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
rivers with a view to ascertain the extent of the changes since
the last survey. Having ascertained, by inspection of the new
survey map, which estates have lost and which gained land,
a corresponding abatement from, and addition to, the revenue
assessed on the estates respectively losing and gaining, is to be
made.
'The Settlements made were formerly permanent, except
when the proprietors of some of them refused to take the
engagement, in which case the lands were let in farm for
periods of from three to ten years ; but, latterly, orders have
been issued by Government prohibiting further permanent
Settlements, and temporary Settlements are made.
'In the course of the six years, 1877-78 to 1882-83, the
banks of the chief rivers of Eastern Bengal — namely, the
Ganges and Megna, with their principal branches down
to the Bay of Bengal, the Dhaleshwari, the Brahmaputra,
and the southern portion of the Jamuna — were surveyed.
The total area of the tracts of country surveyed in Dacca,
Furreedpore, Backergunge, Tipperah, Noakholly, and Mymen-
singh, is 5,682*74 square miles, at a total expenditure of
R. 1,59,430. The cost per square mile of country surveyed
has therefore been R. 28-6-10. This survey has been made
in the same scientific manner as the survey conducted by the
Revenue Survey Department, and the accuracy of the work has
been tested by connections made with eighteen tower stations
of the Great Trigonometrical Survey.
' The total area of land added to estates since the survey of
the districts, ascertained by a comparison of the new maps
with those of the previous survey, was nearly 479 square miles.
Out of this area, 273 estates, measuring 120*5 square miles,
have been assessed and settled under the provisions of section
6, Act IX of 1847, yielding an annual revenue of R. 59,461-2,
including malikana ; 128 estates, measuring 51*2 square miles,
with a rental of R. 23,848, are pending Settlement. In 113
cases, 57 square miles, with a rental of R. 45,084, have been
left unassessed under orders passed in appeal by the Commis-
sioner or the Board; 151 '3 square miles have been left un-
assessed as being (i) less than ten acres, (2) accretions to
temporarily-settled estates which are not liable to assessment
until the Settlements of the estates expire, (3) washed away
between survey and Settlement, and (4) included in estates
sold or permanently settled by Government on a revised
CHAP. li.] THE TEMPOEAET SETTLEMENTS. 459
assessment since the first survey of the districts, and therefore
not liable to reassessment. In 165 cases, covering an area of
99 square miles, with a rental of E. 48,765, the proceedings
have not yet become final, as objection cases are pending
before the Superintendent or in appeal.'
§ 8. Surveying Agency.
In large areas — generally speaking over fifteen square
miles — the area is professionally surveyed under the Survey
Department of the Government of India. In areas less
than that, the ordinary district staff carry out the detailed
work (as more fully described in the chapters on North-
Western Provinces). With, the aid of skeleton maps in
which main points and traverse lines have been laid down
for them with scientific accuracy, they survey both the
outer boundaries and field- and holding-boundaries, and
plot them. With the detailed map, a field-index or register
called (as usual) a khasra is prepared. This shows the
details of area, crop grown, irrigation, and class of soil.
The area is given in standard (Bengal) bighas l (of 14,400
square feet or 1600 square yards).
The khasra ordinarily names the raiyat working the
field, but does not attempt to record his status or his rent.
In order to group the different fields held by the same man
together, the surveyor prepares from the khasra, abstracts
(called 'khatian' or 'jamabandi') showing this. The
record of the status and the determination of the rent pay-
able come afterwards.
§ 9. Fixing and recording Rents.
Assuming that the particular law under which the
Settlement is proceeding allows it, the rents will be ad-
justed, wherever required by the circumstances under
which the Settlement is being made. The surveyor hands
1 And the bigha is divided into ganda contains 4 'kauri.' This
20 cottas (kattha), the biswa of last subdivision is equal to 9 square
other parts ; and that into 20 ganda feet or i square yard,
(the biswansi of other parts). The
460 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
over his maps, with the index-register and abstracts, to
the Settlement Officer, who has then a basis to work upon.
I assume also that the status of all existing tenants has
been recorded and the incidents of their tenancy. What
the status is, is a matter concerning land-tenures and will
be described in a later section.
' Generally speaking1, it may be said that the determination
of rents includes the ascertainment of existing rates of rent
which may be applied to the areas ascertained by measure-
ment ' (and of course this may be something different from
the actual sums paid hitherto), ' and the enhancements of such
rentals as may be legally possible under Bengal Act VIII of
1879, or the Tenancy Act, or other special Act under which
the officer is working.
' The first object is therefore the ascertainment of existing
facts. For this purpose the Settlement Officer calls the parties
together, attests the entries made by the surveyor regarding
areas and occupation of lands, and records the status of tenants
and tenure-holders, and their existing rents. He at the same
time disposes of such disputes and objections as may arise.'
§ 10. Enhancement of Rents under the Act of 1879.
When Settlements (involving rent adjustment) are being
made under the Regulations, supplemented by Bengal Act
VIII of 1879, Sections 6 and 7 of the Act explain the
grounds of enhancement, which are — (i) that the rate of
rent is below that paid by raiyats of the same class for
land of a similar description in the vicinity ; (2) that in-
crease is justified by an increase in the productive power
of the land which has taken place otherwise than at the
expense of the raiyat ; (3) that the value of the produce has
increased otherwise than by the agency of the raiyat ; (4)
that the quantity of land held is greater than that for which
he has been paying rent. In order to legalize an enhance-
ment on these grounds, the record must be published with a
1 The inverted commas refer to culture, to which I am indebted
a memorandum prepared by the for much of the information on
Director of Land Records and Agri- details in this chapter.
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOEAEY SETTLEMENTS. 46 1
notice to each raiyat specifying exactly the grounds on which
the demand is based. The raiyat may, within a period of
four months, contest the enhancement by suit in the Civil
Court. Under this law, also, the sanction of the superior
revenue authorities is required to increase of rates or rentals.
§ ii. Enhancement of Rents under the Act of 1885.
Under the Tenancy Act (1885) in Government estates,
the landlord (Government) may apply for an enhancement.
The application is dealt with as a civil suit. The legal pre-
sumption under the Act is that the existing rent is fair ;
granted then, that the existing rent is ascertained, the
claimant must show justification for increase on one or
other of the grounds mentioned in Sections 6, 30-37, 46,
&c. (as the case may be). These grounds are briefly — (i)
that the rate is below the prevailing rate paid for the same
class of lands by occupancy raiyats in the village ; (2) that
there has been a rise in the average local prices of staple
food-crops during the currency of the present rent ; (3) that
the productiveness of the land has been increased by im-
provement effected by the landlord, (4) or by river action ;
(5) that the area of the holding has been increased, new
land having been brought under cultivation for which rent
was not previously paid.
The same principles apply to private estates when an
adjustment of rents has been ordered.
§ 12. Duration of Rents so settled.
Under the Tenancy Act, 1885, when an occupancy
raiyat's rent is enhanced, it cannot be again enhanced for
fifteen years ; and when an ordinary tenant's rent is raised, Act vin
no further increase can take place for five years : it follows ggcl8«875'
that the effect of a Settlement is to fix rents for fifteen and id. sec. 46,
for five years respectively.
Under Act VIII of 1879, any rent fixed will be for ten 11L'3_
years, or for the period of Settlement, whichever expires Act VIII
of l8?9'
sec. 13.
462 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
§ 13. Remarks on the policy of the law.
In the ' Papers relating to the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885,'
at page 424, the following explanatory remarks are made —
' What has been done has been to give the Eevenue Officer
in the first instance power to settle all disputes that may come
before him. Where no dispute arises, and it does not appear
that the tenant is holding land in excess of or less than that for
which he is paying rent, and neither the landlord nor the
tenant applies for the settlement of a fair rent, the Eevenue
Officer will record what he finds, — he will not alter rents, and
his entries will only have a presumptive value (will be pre-
sumed to be true — Section 109 — until the contrary is proved)
in cases afterwards brought before the Courts. When a dis-
pute arises, or it appears that the tenant is holding land in
excess of or less than that for which he is paying rent, or
either of the parties applies for the settlement of a fair rent,
the Kevenue Officer will decide a dispute or settle a fair rejit,
as the case may be, on the same grounds, by the same rules,
and with the same procedure, as a Civil Court. His decision
will be liable to appeal to a special Judge, who may or may not
be the Judge of the district, and will be subject to a further
special appeal to the High Court. In appeal the High Court
may settle a new rent, but in so doing, is to be guided by the
other rents shown in the rent-roll. In other words, there can
be no second appeal to the High Court merely on the ground
that the rent has been pitched too high or too low ; but if
a second appeal is preferred, as it may be, on the ground that
the special Judge, owing to some error on a point of law, has
(for example) found the holding to comprise more land or less
land than it actually does comprise, or has given the raiyat
a wrong status, and the appellant succeeds, the High Court
can, without altering the rates, reduce or increase the rents, as
the case may be.'
§ 14. Sub-tenants or under-raiyats.
In addition to settling the rents of raiyats (i.e. tenants
not being tenure-holders), the Settlement Officer is bound
to record (that is all — for the rent payable is matter of
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOKARY SETTLEMENTS. 463
contract) the rents payable by any sub-tenants, or under-
raiyats as the Act calls them.
§ 15. ' Tenures'
In many districts the ' sub-infeudation,' which I have
before alluded to, has taken place ; i. e. the landlord has con-
tracted for the management and collection of his rents with
a patnidar or other ' tenure-holder/ and he again with a
sub-tenure-holder, and not infrequently he again with a
third. Thus there may be quite a chain of interests
between the superior landlord and the actual rent-paying
cultivator, when rent has been settled in the manner
described. And there are other kinds of tenure-holders
(not being patnidars) who are above the grade of ordinary
tenants.
The rights of these tenure-holders must be defined and
recorded. It may also be necessary to declare them invalid
and to set them aside.
If these tenures are found to be binding against the
landlord or against Government, it is necessary (unless
they are rent-free) to determine the relations in the matter
of payments between them and the superior. This is
ordinarily done by determining the portion of the total of
the cultivating rentals under them which they are entitled
to retain and not pass on to their superior or landlord.
This deduction must be at least ten per cent., and may be
as much more as the Revenue Officer thinks proper under
the circumstances of the case (see Section 7).
It is to be remembered that no tenure which has been
held rent-free or at a fixed rent since the Permanent Settle-
ment, can now be assessed to rent or enhanced ; nor in any
case where the facts are such that a suit for resumption in
a Civil Court would be held barred by limitation.
§ 1 6. Publication of Rent-rolls.
When the record of rents is complete, if under the earlier
law, only so much of it as includes enhancements must be
464 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
published for four months, during which period a civil suit
B. Act to contest the orders may be filed. Under the Tenancy
1879. sees. Act, 1885, the whole roll has to be published for one month,
9. I0- within which objections may be filed (as civil suits) before
the Settlement Officer.
§ 17. Record of Customs, &c.
In all important Settlements, a record is made of village
customs regarding rights of pasture, and waste land, forest,
fisheries, and customs as to payment of village officials, and
the like.
§ 1 8. Assessment of Land-Revenue.
Where we are dealing with lands that have a recognized
proprietor other than the State, there is an assessment of
land-revenue, and the Settlement is one strictly so called.
The Government revenue (as above explained) is a pro-
portion of the 'assets,' — i.e. the total rents of raiyat lands,
or of tenures which are recognized as binding on the
Government1, plus any income from fisheries, jungle, or
fruits, or mineral profits (if there are any) belonging to the
proprietor.
§ 19. Proportion of Assets taken by Government.
The proportion fixed for Settlement-holders (properly so
called) is 70 per cent, to Government and 30 to the Settle-
ment-holder.
Where there are, as in Orissa, sarbarakars or village
headmen, who, though Government servants, contract for
the revenue of the villages, the amount of the allowance is
1 Where there are no ' tenures,' as binding on Government, the
the whole rent of the raiyats is sums received accordingly are re-
taken of course by the proprietors ; cognized as the assets ; if the under-
where there are, the proprietor gets tenures are invalid, any deductions
only so much less than the full are the proprietor's concern. His
raiyati rent as the grants of the assets are then regarded as the
under-tenure-holders indicate. And rents of the raiyats irrespectively
if the under-tenures are recognized of the unrecognizable under-tenure.
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 465
regulated by special order of the Board of Revenue in each
case.
In Government estates managed direct (khas), or where
the raiyats pay direct to Government (raiyatwari tracts),
there is, of course, no question of dividing the proprietary
assets between the proprietor and Government, because they
are merged in one.
But should Government in any estate make an arrange-
ment for its rental with a tenure-holder, or with one or
more of its principal tenants, the rule is to make an allow-
ance of 20 per cent, on the total rental for expenses of
collection and farming profits1.
This is a convenient place at which to offer some remarks
on the percentage taken by Government. It should be
remarked that the ' proprietor ' who gets only 30 per cent.,
is in reality a person with no strong claims, who is well
remunerated by such a proportion of profits. In a letter
(N. 1917 Government to Board of Revenue), dated 8th
Sept., 1874, it was inquired whether 30 per cent, was not
too much, and whether 10 per cent, for expenses of collec-
tion and 10 per cent, for profit was not enough. In the
Board's office is an excellent printed note (dated 4th June,
1874) on the whole subject. The origin of the percentage
was the one-tenth, i.e. 10 per cent, originally allowed (as
already stated) by the Native Governments to the Zamin-
dars as collectors of the revenue. When the proprietary
position of the various kinds of landholder was recognized,
naturally it was desired to be a little more liberal, so when
Regulation VII of 1822 was passed, section 7 (clause 2)
mentions 20 per cent, as the minimum profit exclusive of
costs of collection. In Bengal 20 per cent, remained the
rule, and a circular of 1836 pointed out2 that the 10 per
4»
1 It may here be mentioned that anything paid to a proprietor (or
when a person entitled to a Settle- oftener ex-proprietor) in recognition
ment refuses the terms, and so the of his (lost) right,
estate is held in farm, 20 per cent. 2 The 20 per cent, was supposed
is also allowed to the farmer, and to represent 10 per cent, costs of
10 per cent, as malikana to the ex- collection plus 10 per cent, allow-
cluded proprietor for the term of ance for profit.
his exclusion. Malikana means
VOL. I. H h
466 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
cent, from profits was to be on the balance after allowing
for 10 per cent, as costs of collection. All this depended
on the fact that the so-called proprietor was really a very
artificial creation — a mere farmer called proprietor. In
other provinces, where the person called landlord was. one
who had a strong natural right in the land, his profits were
larger. He had at first to give 66 per cent, on his assets,
very loosely calculated, and when these assets were more
closely ascertained his revenue payment was reduced to
45 to 55 per cent, of the net assets.
§ 20. With whom the Settlement is made.
In temporarily-settled estates there is always some one
recognized as proprietor, and he is settled with ; and so in
the case of resumed or lapsed revenue-free estates. Where
it was a Settlement for land that was in excess of the
holder's proper estate (in some cases under Regulation II of
1819), the Settlement was made permanent, because at the
time no other law existed. But no law declared all ' taufir '
land to be entitled to such a benefit. Hence, when the Tem-
porary Settlement Law was passed, such lands would be
settled under it, and with the person who could prove a
title. When it is a Settlement for alluvial accretions to
existing estates, which accretions under the law are liable
to be separately settled, the Settlement is of course made
with the owner of the estate, who is under the alluvion
law (Regulation XI of 1825) entitled to the accretions.
§ 21. Alluvial Settlements.
I shall not go into details about the special rules regard-
ing 'Deara Settlements,' as they are called — the Settle-
ments of alluvial accretions. They apply to river flats
and islands (chars) and to alluvial lands which are not
accretions but are the property of Government ; they also
contain special directions regarding the survey (Deara
Survey). They can be read in the Board's ' Settlement
Manual,' 1888.
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORAEY SETTLEMENTS. 467
§ 22. Duration of Settlement.
For temporary Settlements there is no rule fixing twenty
years or thirty years or any other period ; the term depends
on the circumstances of the estate, and is usually fixed with
reference to the period for which occupancy rents are fixed
(fifteen years or ten years, according to the law in force).
And the periods are further ordered so that they may fall
in in successive years in the different divisions, so that
Survey and Settlement establishments may proceed from
one district to another as their services are required.
§ 23. Records of Settlement.
When the record of rents, &c., has been published and
has become final, clean copies are prepared for deposit in
the Collector's office. Under the Tenancy Act copies or
extracts are also given to the landlord and tenants. An
abstract or ' tirij ' (written also 'terij ') is made out, showing,
in a convenient form, all the main features of the estate or
holding with the owner, tenure-holders, raiyats, &c., and
the payments due from each 1.
A general report is then prepared (either for each village
or for the whole tract, as may be ordered). It shows —
(a) the number of tenants of each class ;
(6) the area and classification of the village lands
according to the Survey and Settlement, and
also according to the landlord's own jamabandi,
if known ;
(c) the rental according to Settlement and according
to the landlord's jamabandi, with explanation
of increase or decrease, amount of Government
revenue, and comparison of rent with revenue ;
(d) the rates of rent prevailing, with history of past
enhancements ;
(e) proximity to markets ;
1 Called also ' Sadharan-khatian.' See No. 10 in the Appendix to the
Settlement Manual.
H h 2
468 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
(/) facilities for irrigation ;
(g] village customs, including payment of village
officials ;
(h) arrangements made for maintenance of records ;
(i) other matters deserving of notice which do not find
a place in the record of rights.
Besides these particulars, the report will describe the whole
tract as regards —
1 . General features of the tract.
2. Its fiscal history.
3. Statistical results.
4. Comparison of condition of the tract as regards rentals
before and after the Survey.
5. Final results, including approximate division of ex-
penses under the heads of —
(a) Survey.
(6) Record of rights.
(c) Preparation and distribution of records.
The report also makes proposals as to the parties to be
settled with, and notices arrangements existing, or to be
made, regarding the instalments of rent and revenue,
which must be adapted to local circumstances, seasons,
and harvests.
§ 24. Sanction of Settlements.
When whole districts or large areas are settled, the
sanction (as usual) of the Local Government and of the
Government of India is required. But many Settlements
are of single or limited estates. The following are the
powers of sanction in that case : —
Temporary Settlements up to a rental of K. 500 . . . The Collector.
From K. 500 to R. 10,000 The Commissioner.
From R. 10,000 to R. 25,000
Also when the Settlement will be permanent ^ The Board of Revenue,
under a statutory right
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 469
§ 25. Supervision.
The Director .of Land Records and Agriculture super-
vises all Settlements in which the agency of the Survey
Department is employed or which are made under the
Bengal Tenancy Act ; and his services are available for
other Settlements at the discretion of the Board. He exer-
cises, in respect of all these Settlements, the powers of a
Commissioner, save in matters in which power is by law
vested in the Commissioner himself.
§ 26. Conclusion.
It may be necessary to repeat here, that for matters of
detail, the Acts and Regulations quoted require study, and
also the Settlement Manual. The object here (as in the
chapter on Revenue business) is not to furnish a complete
handbook of details, but an introduction or general guide
to the principles and leading features of the system, — pre-
paratory to such a detailed study as will be necessary for
officers who have actually to take their part in district
duty.
§ 27. General Conspectus of Estates.
Such being the general principles on which Temporary
Settlements are made in tracts owned by private proprie-
tors, and on which Rents are fixed in Government estates
(whether raiyatwari tracts or managed otherwise), it will
be desirable, before proceeding to an account of special
Settlements in certain exceptional districts, to give some
particulars about the general results of Settlements and the
distribution of the different classes of estates.
The general map, showing the prevalence of the various
Settlement systems, indicates, as far as Bengal is concerned,
the Permanent Settlements in one colour, and those districts
which are as a whole temporarily settled — i. e. the districts
of Orissa — in another colour. An attempt has also been
470
LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK ir.
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THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS.
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472 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
made to indicate by a third colour the larger raiyatwdri
and Government estates ; but it was not possible to show
all such tracts, on account of their (often) small size and
the way in which they are scattered about in the districts.
In the Board of Revenue's Annual Reports it is now the
practice to insert district-maps which show the Government
estates.
Taking the Report for 1888-89, Appendix II gives (A)
the permanently-settled estates ; (B) the temporarily-settled
estates ; and (C) the Government estates, separating the
raiyatwari tracts under (D).
The Government estates in (C) all appear as either
settled for definite periods or occasionally ' farmed ' or
managed direct owing to recusancy of the proprietors1.
The table on p. 470 is an abstract of this Appendix IL
designed to give the student an idea of the distribution of
estates in those general classes 2.
The numbers of permanently-settled estates vary by
reason of partitions, which are most numerous in the
Patna division districts : the temporarily-settled estates
also vary chiefly by reason of alluvial accretions.
No. of
Estate.
1 These cases of recusancy, I be- i. Permanently-settled Es-
lieve, are where the lands are un- tates of 1793 1262
productive and the holders do not 2. Resumed Revenue-free of
care to undertake the Settlement re- 1 793 98
sponsibility. 3. Islands, &c., excess ('tau-
2 Under those general classes the fir') lands settled under
individual estates maybe in great Regulation II of 18:9... 103
variety of origin as the result of the 4. Estates sold for arrears
operation of different laws and cir- and then permanently
cumstances. For example, in the settled (Section 6 of Re-
Tipperah (Tipra) district the follow- gulation VIII of 1793") . 167
ing details appear (Statistical Ac- 5. Tenures temporarily set-
count of Bengal, vol. vi. pp. 400- tied (this includes Go-
440) : — veriiment Estates) 241
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOEAEY SETTLEMENTS. 473
SECTION III. — THE OEISSA SETTLEMENTS.
The three districts of modern Orissa — including the
Pat&spur pargaha — were acquired after the Maratha war in
1803, so they did not come under the Permanent Settlement
Regulations. That Settlement only affected, more or less, the
Midnapore district which (excluding Pataspur) was the old
Orissa of 1765. Midnapore is not now spoken of as
' Orissa ' at all.
These districts were originally the seat of Hindu king-
doms— ' Rajputs,' who at a remote period invaded, conquered
and ruled over the Kolarian and Dravidian population.
The conquest probably only extended to the level and
culturable districts, for the Kolarian and other tribes in
the hilly country were found following their own customs,
but little if at all changed. The incursion of the ' Y&vanas,'
and other events, detailed in Hunter's Orissa, cannot now
be traced in any effect they may have had on the land-
system, and so I pass them over.
The Rajputs were in the end overthrown by the Muham-
madan king of Bengal; and Orissa was finally swept into
the dominions of the Mughal Emperor. But in the middle
of the eighteenth century, the Marathas succeeded to a
short-lived domination. Neither of these later powers had
therefore the time and the opportunity to modify very
deeply the land-tenures ; and we do not find any ' Zamin-
dars,' in the sense of contractors for the revenue, like those
in Bengal.
The Rajput kingdom was organized here as it was else-
where ; for the remains of this organization are still
manifest.
The country consists, roughly speaking — (i) of a marshy
tract on the coast, full of swamp forest like the Sundar-
bans ; (2) a belt of rice-land and other cultivation ; (3) a
hilly tract beyond, going up into the hill ranges of the
' South- West Frontier.'
As might be expected, the chief Raja had his ' khalsa ' or
474 LANr> SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
demesne lands in the best and level parts, and the hill
tracts were the territories or estates of his feudal chieftains,
who held them and took the revenue on condition of keep-
ing the country quiet. With the estates of these chieftains
the Mughals appear not to have interfered, but the rice-
tract (2) was called the 'Mughalbandi,' and was regularly
assessed to revenue.
The Marathas in turn assessed the chiefs to a tribute or
quit-rent. On the British annexation in 1803 the chiefs'
estates were maintained. Some have been recognized as
' tributary chiefs ' — the ' Tributary Mahals ' of Orissa.
These are not subject to any regular Settlement and
Revenue system ; they are managed in the Political De-
partment, and this work is not concerned with them.
There were nineteen of them formerly ; but two were con-
fiscated,— Angul in 1847 for the rebellion of its Raja ; and
Banki in 1840, the chief having been convicted of murder1.
A certain number of the chiefships nearer the plains
were, though not placed in the first rank, favoured so far
that they were granted a Permanent Settlement, and this fact
accounts for the permanently-settled estates shown in the
table under the Orissa districts. These estates were called
' qila" (i.e. forts — territories surrounding and protected
by the chiefs residence). The estates were treated as in
the position of full-rated permanently-assessed Zamindari
estates. At first, fifty such estates were proposed to be
constituted. The rest of the province was left to the
ordinary (temporary) Settlement.
On the 1 5th September, 1804, a proclamation regarding
the Settlement was issued ; and this was afterwards em-
bodied in the Regulation XTT of 1805. The plan was first
to settle for one year, then to grant a three years' lease.
Then a four years' lease was offered at an increase to be
1 Angul and Banki now form £3,322 to the British Government.
' Government Estates ' — Angul as This tract was called ' Rajwara ' or
part of the Piiri district, Banki in Garhjat, as opposed to the revenue-
Katak. The remaining seventeen paying plain called ' Mughalbandi.'
states consist of 15,187 square miles, The chiefs were locally known as
with a population of nearly a million ' Khandaits.' — Hunter,
and a half. They pay a tribute of
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 475
obtained by adding two-thirds of the net increase of any
one year of the three years' Settlement, to the total assess-
ment amount of that lease. At the expiration of the four
years it was announced that for such lands as then were in
a sufficiently improved state of cultivation, a Permanent
Settlement would be concluded on such terms as the
Government considered fair and equitable.
The Regulation next refers to the ' Tributary Mahals,'
which it exempts from the Regulations. Of the second
class of estates above mentioned, eleven were selected ; the
sanads granting a permanent assessment to nine of them,
which had been issued by the Board of Commissioners
(appointed to manage Orissa, or the Katak province as it
was then called), were confirmed. Khurda1 and Kanika
were directed to be treated in the same manner hereafter.
These eleven estates however differed only from the rest of
the district in having the assessment fixed for ever.
The history of the Settlements is briefly as follows : —
Certain changes as regards the revenue (of no impor-
tance now) were made by Regulations X of 1807 and VI
of 1 808 ; and when the last or four years' Settlement
became due, a Special Commission was appointed to make
it with due care : for it was supposed it would be made
permanent if the Home Government approved. But the
Home Government by this time had seen the evil of hastily
concluding Permanent Settlements ; they did not approve2,
and Regulation X of 1812 was passed to declare the fact,
but (as was done in the Upper Provinces) still held out the
hope of a permanent assessment iclien the state of the lands
1 Khurda soon afterwards (1804) indeed a model, Government estate.
was confiscated owing to the re- 2 See Kaye, p. 239. It will be
bellion of the Raja. The titular observed that the principles adopted
Raja was hereditary guardian of for Orissa were exactly the same as
the Jagan-nath temple, and he was those in the Regulations of 1805
maintained as such, as a pensioner. for the North-West Provinces. It is
But the holder of the title in 1878 instructive to note the prevail-
was convicted of murder and de- ing ideas on revenue matters,
ported. The estate of Khurda, which as exhibited by the Regulations of
gave some trouble in 1804 by re- this date, and how they had begun
bellion, and again in 1817-18, is to be doubted at home,
now a large and well-ordered, and
47^ LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
was such as to recommend it. Regulations of 1815 and
1816 made some further provisions which are now of no
interest.
In 1818 disturbances occurred, due in great measure to
the operation of the Sale Law1, and a Special Commissioner
was appointed (Regulation V of 1818). In the same year
Regulation XIII extended the existing Settlements for
three years, so as to afford due time to the revenue officers
to collect the materials necessary for the formation of a
new Settlement on proper principles.
Though the ' materials ' were not ready, the outlines of
the new Settlement system — imperfect, but in the right
direction — had been determined on. Regulation VII "of
1822, was passed for Katak (i.e. the Orissa districts), cer-
tain parganas (Pataspur, &c.) which are part of the Mid-
napore district, and for the districts of the North -Western
Provinces.
The history of this Regulation, and of the recognition of
its defects and their removal by Regulation IX of 1833, is
stated more fully in the account of the North -Western
Provinces (vol. ii.).
The Regulation (Sec. 2) once more extended the existing
Katak Settlements for five years, and Act VI of 1837 de-
clared that the Settlement should continue until a new one
was made. The first regular Settlement, with a survey and
record of rights, was made in 1838-45.
In 1856 a revision was undertaken. In 1867, Bengal
Act X again extended the Settlement ; this time for thirty
years ; so that there will be no further revision till 1897 2.
The Settlement was made with various kinds of estate-
holders, either individuals or joint families, — malguzars (as
Act VI of 1837 calls them), who had grown up over the
villages — as we shall see hereafter.
1 Field, p. 68 1, note. is a minute on the Province by the
2 There is an abstract of the history Commissioner (A. J. Moffat Mills,
of the early Settlements in Mr.Stack's 1847); and Macneile's Memorandum
Memorandum on Temporary Settlements, on Revenue Administration in Bengal,
1880, p. 579. In the Selections 1873, also contains ample inform-
from Bengal Records, No. III. 1851, ation.
CHAP II.] THE TEMPORAKY SETTLEMENTS. 477
The estates were then assessed village by village ; and
there were in most cases subordinate tenures or interests
of headmen and village -managers who collected the pro-
prietors' rents ; these were entitled to a certain allowance
representing their own interest, so that the Settlement is
spoken of as ' mauzawar.' As a matter of fact, all the
village lands were cultivated by ' thani ' (i. e. resident)
raiyats, or by ' pai ' (i. e. non-resident) raiyats, and some
were held as the village headman's ' sir ' or free holding in
virtue of his office (a relic of the former Dravidian
organization).
The plan of settling a lump sum of revenue for the
village — the ' aggregate to detail method,' and then dis-
tributing this sum over the holdings — was rejected. The
Settlement Officer determined separately the rents of the
holding of each raiyat, and, putting a value on the 'sir'
land, added the whole together. The total revenue was 60
to 70 per cent, of the rental assets so ascertained. But the
nominal landlord did not get even the 30 or 40 per cent.
which remained ; for there were the village-headmen or
managers, who directly collected the village rental and had
certain rights — almost like sub-proprietors — in virtue of
which they received a percentage, 20 to 25 per cent, if a
muk^dam or pradhan {hereditary headman). 15 to 20 if
a sarbarakar (manager).
§ i. The JKhurdd Estate.
This estate, occupying a considerable portion of the
inland side of the Piiri district, is one of the Government
estates, managed as a ' raiyatwari tract.' l For some years
after the confiscation in 1804, separate survey-Settlements
were made by ' mahals ' or groups of land, with local
managers called sarbarakars ; but in the last quinquennial
Settlement, care was taken to make the sarbardkdrs give
the raiyats leases at rates fixed for the whole term. In
1836, a regular — virtually raiyatwari — Settlement was
1 There is a printed volume of Selections from the Correspondence relating to
the Khurdd Estate, 1879.
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
made, at rates ascertained for classes of soil and applied by
measurement. Sarbarakars were, however, charged with
the responsibility for the revenue of the whole area. In
j 853, some three years before the expiry of the term of Settle-
ment, a renewal was offered to the sarbarakars at the old
rates, plus the assessment recorded for the culturable waste
fields, on the supposition that they had been, or would soon
be, all taken under the plough. This proposal was de-
clined ; consequently actual measurement of the extended
cultivation was made. And the Settlement so made expired
in 1880. Preparations for the revision that then became
due, began in 1875, and the estate was cadastrally sur-
veyed. The produce of fields was ascertained by declara-
tion of the raiyats themselves, and an acreage produce
rate being thus established, villages were classified into
homogeneous tracts, ranked into grades, and revenue rates
applied accordingly. The Government share had been fixed
at one-fifth l of the average gross produce. The sarbarakars
still collect the revenue, and are allowed a deduction to
cover their risk and expenses. Joint bodies of sarbarakars
are avoided, and it is arranged so that each sharer in a
family gets a separate village. Mr. Stack compares the
sarbarakar, who is thus a paid collector, not a proprietor,
to the ' mauzadar ' described under the Assam system. The
Settlement shows a considerable increase of revenue and
works admirably. The raiyats' holdings are generally
small. The average of 172 test villages gives no more than
i s acre to each raiyat. The raiyat's rent is fixed for the
term of Settlement ; but there is no relinquishing and
taking up lands, and consequently no annual 'jamabandi,'
as under other raiyatwari systems, is necessary.
1 The proposal was one-fourth, but it was ultimately fixed as stated.
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 479
SECTION IV. — THE WASTE LAND RULES.
§ i. Importance of the Subject.
This subject seems one which demands a certain detail in
treatment. The economist, and perhaps also the capitalist,
may be interested to know how (for example) the 'tea-estates'
of Darjiling and Assam had their origin ; and perhaps to
inquire how land for cultivation of imported staples can
still be obtained. The whole system of dealing with waste
lands depends on the principle developed in Chapter IV of
Book I, that waste and unoccupied land is at the disposal
of the State.
In Bengal, as already stated, the Permanent Settlement
only extended to the estates actually possessed, or to allu-
vial accretions which (though separately assessable) were
afterwards formed upon their boundaries. In tolerably
settled parts this gave rise to no difficulties ; but where
there were large tracts of waste it was otherwise. In 1819,
it seems, the subject first came under notice, but that notice
did not extend to the question of ownership ; the Regula-
tion II of that year only declared the lands assessable. The
authorities of the day were perhaps only too glad to see waste
taken up, and seemed to think that if it had been occupied
de facto, no matter how, they might accept the fact, treating
the occupier as lawful owner ; what was more essential was
to provide for his duly paying land-revenue.
Regulation II of 1819 specially mentions the case of the
Sundarbans *, — the forest tract on the delta between the
Hughli and Megna rivers. The waste lands there occu-
pied were in fact temporarily-cultivated lots known as
'patitabadi taluqs,' and were encroachments from the
regular estates inland. Hence arose the practice of calling
these irregularly-occupied lands ' tauf ir ' or excess, i. e.
1 As to the early attempts to issue times, grants began to be asked for
clearing leases, see article ' Sundar- in 1807, and up to 1872 nearly 1087
bans' in Imp. Gaz., vol. xiii. p. no. square miles had been brought under
They date back to 1782. In later cultivation.
480 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
assuming that they were extensions of regular estates. On
this ground perhaps such lands were treated as entitled to
be permanently assessed1. At any rate, this was the prac-
tice till after the Temporary Regulation (1822) had become
law. The Regulation did not, indeed, in terms, apply to
anything but the ' Ceded and Conquered ' Provinces ; but
obviously, if the land was not entitled to a permanent
assessment, the Government could assess it for a term.
A particular instance of this occurs in the case of the
districts of Sylhet and Cachar ; but as these districts,
once part of Bengal, were attached to Assam in 1874, the
history of them — and it well illustrates this section — must
be looked for in the chapters relating to Assam.
In 1828 (Regulation III) further and more definite pro-
vision was made regarding assessment, and it was then
declared that the ' waste ' was Government property.
§ 2. The Sundarbans.
In the Sundarbans, the first occupied lands (higher up
on the delta) appear all to have been recognized as having
proprietors 2. But in time ' Waste Land Rules ' were pro-
vided, and then there was an end to irregular occupation.
A part of the area is now taken up as State forest ; it is
the great source of fuel-supply to Calcutta, besides yielding
many valuable woods for building and for industrial pur-
poses. Waste land rules for the Sundarbans had been
issued as early as 1825, but they were ineffectual (Macneile,
§ 173), and the first useful code seems to have been that of
1853. Under these rules 1773 square miles were granted.
The land was held subject to a revenue payment which was
1 Mr. Macneile's Memorandum darbans to be State property,
(§ 167) mentions that the squatters although parts of it had been occu-
were so fully treated as owners, that pied before 1819. This led to various
in cases where they refused the orders and legal contests (see Mac-
'taufir' assessment they were al- neile's Memorandum, §§ 166-70".
lowed malikana like excluded pro- The right of Government was
prietors on regular estates. affirmed ; but in the end, hard cases
2 In one place indeed, the Regu- were allowed, and the occupiers re-
lation distinctly declares the Sun- cognized as proprietors.
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 481
progressive. In 1889, 474,080 acres (of which the maxi-
mum revenue would be R. 137,231) were still held under
the terms of the rules of 1853. But the rules themselves
were superseded by the Sale Rules of 1863.
These rules were made after Lord Canning's Minute of
1 86 11 on the disposal of waste lands. As regards the
Sundarbans, they did not prove successful. Only a
few lots were sold ; and seven out of twelve fell in for
default in payment of the purchase-money. For a time
recourse was had once more to the rules of 1853. In 1871
a committee reported on the whole subject, and in 1879
another set of rules was issued.
'The rules of iSyg2 differ from the rules of 1853 in pro-
viding a rent-free period of only ten years, and in laying down
only one clearance condition, viz. that one-eighth of the entire
grant should be rendered fit for cultivation at the end of the
fifth year. This condition may be enforced either by forfeiture
of the grant or by the issue of a fresh lease, omitting the re-
mainder of the rent-free period, and requiring payment of rent
at enhanced rates during the term of grant.
' The rules also provide for gradually increasing rates of
assessment after the expiration of the rent-free period, and
varying rates within different tracts according to the rent-
paying capabilities of the land. It is further provided that
there shall be constantly recurring renewals of the lease on
re-settlement. The term of the original lease is fixed at forty
years, and re-settlements are to be made after periods of thirty
years ; maximum rates being laid down for each re-settlement.
' The limits within which lands may be held for leasing are
fixed in consultation with the Forest Department. An accu-
rate definition of boundaries is provided for. The maximum
area of grants is restricted to 5000 bighas, the minimum being
200. Cultivation must not be scattered all over the area of the
land, but proceed regularly through the blocks ; and leases are
to be sold at an upset price when there is only one applicant,
and to the highest bidder when there are more than one.
' The leases confer an occupancy right hereditary and trans-
ferable. Survey fees are payable by the applicant, at the rate
1 This minute is described further 2 Quoted from the Report, 1883,
on. page 22.
VOL. I. I 1
482 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK ir.
of four annas an acre, as also a deposit of R. 16 for notices to
objectors. Eefunds and adjustments of fees deposited are
permitted. Rights of way and water and other easements are
reserved. The right of using all streams in any way navigable,
and the use of a tow-path not less than 25 feet wide on each
side of such stream, are also reserved to the public ; while
Government reserves to itself the right to all minerals in the
land, together with rights of way and other reasonable facilities
for working, getting, and carrying away such minerals. No
charge is made for timber on the land at the time it is leased,
nor for any cut or burnt to effect clearances or used on the
land ; but a duty is levied on any exported for sale.
' Forms of preliminary grant called 'amalnamas — for plots of
land below 200 bighas— are given to small settlers, guaranteeing
them a formal lease for thirty years if the lands are brought
under cultivation within two years. The thirty years' lease
allows a rent-free term of two years, and then progressive rates
of rent on the cultivated area, fixed with reference to the rates
paid in the neighbourhood by raiyats to landholders for similar
lands.
' If available, an area of unreclaimed land equal to the culti-
vated area is included in the lease, and in addition the lessee
can bring under cultivation any quantity of land adjoining his
holding which he may find bond fide unoccupied. The holding
is liable to measurement every five years, and all cultivated
land in excess of the area originally assessed can be assessed at
the same rate. After thirty years, renewed leases can be given
for thirty years' periods, and rates of assessment can be ad-
justed at each renewal with reference to rates then prevailing
in the neighbourhood. The tenure is heritable and transfer-
able, provided that notice of transfer is given to the Sundarbans
Commissioner within one month, and no holding is to be
divided without his permission. No charge is made for wood
and timber on the grant, nor for any cut or burnt in making
clearances, or used on the land ; but a duty is levied on any
exported for sale.
' These rules are reported not to have worked well, as when
the time comes to grant leases those who hold 'amalnamas
wish to be recognized as under-tenure holders, of the class (to
be described hereafter) called hawaladars ; and they refuse to
take leases as raiyats. It has been decided, therefore, to grant
hawaladari rights.'
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOEAET SETTLEMENTS.
483
§ 3. Statistics of Occupation.
It may be interesting to give a few statistics of the
occupation of land in these delta forests.
The result of the recognition of squatters under the
early law of 1819, was that in 1874 there were 98 holdings
recognized as estates permanently-settled, and amounting
to 255,849 bighas in the ' 24-Pergunnahs ' district, 93,695
in Khulna", and 134,709 in Bakirganj. There were also
a number of ' resumed ' plots and other estates kept in the
hands of Government l.
As to the lands sold or leased under the Rules, as they
now survive, the Board's Revenue Report of 1888-9 gives
the following figures.
It will be seen that a certain number of persons are con-
tent to hold under the ordinary Temporary Settlement and
not under the special rules.
Kind of Estate.
Number
of leases.
Acres.
Bevenue payable.
Rupees.
Under ordinary Settle-
ments.
1-
46,238
515,240 (will eventually
rise to 16,782).
Capitalists' rules of 1879
21
28,590
— 20,641.
Petty cultivators' rules . .
129
3-375
2,216 — 10,049.
§ 4. Waste Lands in other parts.
The Waste Land Rules have found application (besides
the Sundarbans) chiefly in Jalpaiguri and Darj fling (hill
estates for tea), and in Chittagong : a few leases have been
granted in Lohardagga.
1 Among them the Tushkhali Es- of Government in 1836. It was
tate of 22,754 acres in the Bakirganj settled as a ' raiyatwari tract' in
district, which became the property 1875.
I i 2
484 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
The following account of the Rules is once more quoted
from the Report on the Land System, 1882-83 : —
' Lord Canning's Minute of the i yth October, 186 1, laid down
three main principles on which grants of waste lands were to
be made in future. These were, first, that "in any case of
application for such lands they shall be granted in perpetuity
as a heritable and transferable property, subject to no enhance-
ment of land-revenue assessment" ; second, that "all prospective
land-revenue will be redeemable at the grantee's option by
a payment in full when the grant is made, or, at the grantee's
option, a sum may be paid as earnest at the rate of 10 per
cent., leaving the unpaid portion of the price of the grant,
which will then be under hypothecation until the price is paid
in full" ; and, third, that "there shall be no condition obliging
the grantee to cultivate or clear any specific portion after grant
within any specific time." The minimum price for the fee-
simple was fixed at R. 2-8 per acre, so that by paying 10 per
cent, of this, or four annas per acre, a title was obtained.
Moreover, many large tracts were obtained by speculators in
anticipation of measurement, for a merely nominal payment.
A despatch from the Secretary of State subsequently required
in addition to these provisions that grants should be surveyed
before sale, and that all sales should be by auction to the
highest bidders above a fixed upset price.
' In granting waste lands under the above rules, some abuses
were unfortunately allowed to occur. There was a great rush
upon tea-planting ; speculators bought upon credit Government
wastes wherever they could get them, and Government officers
were so far carried away by the mania, that they relaxed the
rules as to surveying wastes before they were sold, and in
other particulars. It followed that large areas of waste were
sold to jobbers, who transferred them at a profit, or threw
them up if they could not transfer them ; while in many cases
cultivated lands not regularly settled were sold as " Govern-
ment waste lands " over the heads of the occupiers. In other
cases, lands beyond the British border, in others again valuable
forest lands, were sold under the Waste Land Eules. Before
Sir George Campbell came to Bengal, attention had been
directed to this matter, and, in Chittagong especially, mistakes
had been recognized. There had in more than one instance
been risk of grave disturbance with frontier tribes on account
CHAP, ii.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 485
of ill-judged sales of waste land in the occupation of border
people. To prevent complications, the Lieutenant-Governor
published ad interim rules, which received sanction ; and orders
were passed that no more land should be sold revenue-free in
perpetuity without the previous sanction of the Government of
India, excepting such small plots, not exceeding ten acres in
extent, as might be required for buildings or gardens.
'In 1874, revised rules for the sale of waste lands, super-
seding all previous rules for the sale and lease of waste lands
within the Lower Provinces, were issued. The formation of
the Chief Commissionership of Assam had, by that time, with-
drawn the districts in which the chief transactions in waste
lands used to occur, from the control of the Bengal Govern-
ment ; and, in the districts left to the Lower Provinces in
which there are waste lands, these sale rules remained in-
operative, the terms having failed to attract applicants ; and
eventually, in May 1879, the sale rules were withdrawn, and
the only rules now in force in Bengal are those under which
waste lands are leased for certain terms of years.
' Waste lands capable of being leased exist in the Sundarbans,
the Western Dwars of Jalpaiguri, Darjiling, Chittagong, the
Hill Tracts of Chittagong, in Palamau, in Lohardagga, and to
a veiy small extent in Shahabad. The tea lease-rules for the
Dwars of 1875 were at first extended to Palamau, but were
found inapplicable, and applications for waste land there
require to be dealt with on their own merits. For the other
districts there are different sets of rules. It may be here
observed that one feature in the Sundarbans and Chittagong is
that the leases are sold by auction.
' There are two classes of lease-rules —
' (i) Those for large capitalists wishing to grow special crops,
as tea, coffee, or cinchona.
' (2) Those for small capitalists for ordinary cultivation.'
§ 5. Rules in Darjiling and Jalpaiguri.
' The main features of the rules of the first class, as appli-
cable to Jalpaiguri and Darjiling, published on loth October,
1878, are the following : —
'Declared forest-reserves and land having valuable timber
in compact blocks, lands in which other rights exist, lands
486 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
lying within sixty feet from the centre of any public road, and
lands expressly exempted by Government, are not to be
granted. Each lot must be compact, and not contain more
than 800 acres. Inquiry and survey at the expense of the
applicant must ordinarily precede the grant of a lease. A
preliminary five years' lease is granted rent-free for the first
year, and at progressive rents for the rest of the term. The
rights conveyed are heritable and transferable, provided that
the whole lot is transferred, that clearance conditions are
observed, that the transfer is registered, and a registration fee
paid. The right of Government to minerals and quarries, and
to payment for valuable trees on the grant, and the right of
the public to fisheries, and a right of way along the banks of
navigable streams, are reserved, while provision is made for
the construction and maintenance of proper boundary-marks,
the presence of the lessee himself or of a resident manager on
the grant, and for acquisition by Government of any land
required for public purposes free of cost, except by propor-
tionate reduction in the rent and by the payment of the value
of any improvements in the land taken up. If, after inspection
during the term of the preliminary lease, 1 5 per cent, of the
total area shall have been brought under cultivation and
actually bears tea-plants, the lessee is entitled to renewal for a
term of years, and to similar renewals in perpetuity, provided
that Government may fix the rent on certain specified con-
ditions on each renewal ; that the renewed lease be heritable
and transferable in so far that only the whole may be trans-
ferred, and that only with the consent of Government ; and
that all the other conditions of the preliminary lease hold good.
Failure to comply with any of the conditions renders the lessee
liable to forfeit his lease ; and failure to apply for a renewal
before the expiration of his preliminary lease reduces him, if he
is allowed to continue, to the status of a tenant-at-will till other
arrangements are made. Grantees can club or amalgamate
their grants by transfers, duly registered, on payment of the
prescribed fee.
' The second class of rules for small capitalists, as applicable
to the Dwars, published on the 23rd June, 1879, correspond in
the main with the rules for the grant of leases for tea-cultiva-
tion. The differences are briefly these : Ordinarily the lot
must not be less than ten acres or contain more than 200
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 48.7
acres \ The survey fee is to be three annas an acre, and no
further sum will be demanded nor any refund made, while in
the case of tea-leases the fee is fixed at one rupee an acre and
the applicant is entitled to a refund of any surplus, or, if the
expenses exceed the deposit, has to make good the deficiency.
Renewal of the preliminary lease is conditional on one half
of the total area held being occupied by homesteads, or cul-
tivated or left fallow, according to good husbandry, or other-
wise fairly turned to account for agricultural purposes. The
periods of renewals are to be conterminous with the period of
Settlement of the district, current at the time of renewal.
Sub-infeudation in the first degree only is allowable2. The
sub-tenant is, however, to have from the lessee the same pro-
mise of renewal as the lessee himself has from Government,
and the sub-tenant's rent is to be determined by the Deputy
Commissioner. Kates of rent on renewal of lease have been
fixed both in the case of tea-leases and of leases of arable lands.
Where half the area of the grant of the arable land has not been
brought under cultivation, the renewed lease shall ordinarily
include an area of waste land equal to the extent of land
brought under cultivation during the currency of the pre-
liminary lease, but in such cases the Deputy Commissioner
has the power, under certain restrictions, of refusing renewal
altogether, or of allowing it on special conditions. Each
description of land — tea, bastoo, rupit, &c. — is charged at the
rate fixed in the pergunnah wherein it is situated. In the
case of tea-leases in the hills of the Darji'ling district, an all-
round rate of one rupee an acre will be imposed on renewal of
the lease, subsequent to the expiration of the preliminary lease.
' For small capitalists it has been decided that no rules are
necessary for Darjiling.
' In consequence of re-adjustment of the boundary between
Darjiling and Jalpaiguri, the issue of orders which have in-
directly affected the rules, and the grant of certain concessions
on the part of Government, — such as extending the term for
renewed leases, reducing the fee to be charged on transfers,
1 Grants under these rules are there seems to be no reason for such
heritable, but not transferable a restriction.
during the term of preliminary 2 The grantee may farm out his
lease. It has been the local custom rights of management, &c., to one
not to allow tea to be cultivated on person, but that person may not
land leased under these rules ; but create a farm of a farm.
488 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
and permitting partial transfers. — the tea-lease rules of 1878
are under revision ; and it is at the same time proposed to
revise the Dwar arable land-lease rules of 1875.'
§ 6. The Ch'dtagong Districts.
' A set of rules for the grant of leases for tea cultivation in
the Chittagong Hill Tracts, based on the tea-lease rules for
Jalpaigiiri and Darjfling, was published by Government on the
3oth June, 1879. No charge is made for trees on tea grants,
though the right to levy tolls on forest produce exported either
by land or water is reserved.
' There are no rules for leases to large capitalists in this dis-
trict. Government are averse to granting waste lands in
Chittagong proper for any other purpose than ordinary native
cultivation. Here and there may be large tracts of waste land
better fitted for the cultivation of tea than for anything else,
and a special grant may be made of such blocks, if necessary,
on special terms.
' For small capitalists, the waste lands are broken up into
compact blocks of fifty acres each, and the lease of each lot
sold by public competition. There is no restriction as to the
kind of crops that may be grown.
' The whole of the waste lands are not thrown open at once
for sale, but the leases of the surplus waste-land blocks in one
village at a time are put up to auction on a given day on the
established terms.
'The leases are heritable and transferable. The rates are
fixed with reference to the quality of the land. A measure-
ment and assessment after ten years, and another after fifteen
years, is provided for ; and in the case of lands exposed to salt-
water inundation, and requiring the protection of embank-
ments, a larger area than fifty acres, up to a maximum of
200 for a single applicant, or fifty acres each to several appli-
cants jointly, may be granted. The other provisions generally
follow the rules for the grant of tea-leases in Jalpaiguri and
Darjiling.'
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 489
SECTION V. — THE REVENUE-SYSTEM OF CHITTAGONG *.
Chittagong is one of the eastern districts of Bengal
between the sea-coast and the hills which separate Bengal
from Burma. The soil is rich, but in 1793 a large portion
was, as might be expected, still covered with luxuriant
and tangled jungle, the clearance being chiefly in the
level plains suited for rice-lands. There had been no
natural opportunity, save in exceptional cases, for the
growth of large Zamindarf estates. The different settlers
formed groups or companies, and each cleared one plot
here and one there. The leader of the company was
required to be the collector of the revenue from as many
of the settlers as chose to pay through him, and therefore
came to be looked on as the superior owner of the whole
of the scattered group of holdings which paid through
him. The group was called a ' taraf,' and the person who
was at the head (or his descendant) was called ' tarafdar.'
It also happened that settlers were called on by the
Muhammadan conqueror for help and feudal service, and
1 Properly Chattagraon or Chat- to the chiefs, and the latter pay the
tagram. ' tribute ' or quit-rent (or whatever
The text refers to the regular dis- it is proper to call it) above alluded
trict and not to the hilly portion to.
known as the Chittagong Hill The cultivation is still chiefly of
Tracts. In these the only revenue the temporary kind called ' jum,' so
is a tribute paid by the chiefs. natural to all semi-barbarous people
Formerly it was taken in kind in tropical hill countries, and an
(cotton), according to the popula- attempt has been lately made to re-
tion ; this was afterwards converted cord in a simple way (so as to
into a money payment. This re- gradually get them fixed) the rights
venue was consequently shown in and interests of the different clans
the old accounts as derived from or tribes and their chiefs and head-
the ' kapas mahal/ and became fixed men. The record is called the 'jum
by custom. book.'
By Act XXII of 1860 the Hill dis- There are a certain number of
trict (as defined in a schedule to the estates in which lands are per-
Act) was removed from the opera- manently cultivated, and these may
tion of the General Regulations and be under a Settlement under the
put under a Deputy Commissioner. ordinary law. A portion of the dis-
Simple rules regarding judicial pro- trict called the ' khas mahal ' is
cedure have been drawn up under reserved from the jurisdiction of the
the Act, and no revenue Settlement chiefs, for the purpose of making
has been made. But there is a capi- land grants to settlers. There are
tation tax payable by householders also State forests in this tract.
490 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
were then recognized as jagir-grantees of their land, holding
it by stated area. So also ' tarafs ' were founded by the
military force sent to defend the province, and these tarafs
were also held in jagir in lieu of pay. The consequence
was, as early as 1 764, all the occupied lands (which alone
came under Settlement) having been granted by area,
had been actually measured *. The Permanent Settlement
then extended only to the measured lands as they stood in
1764.
All land cultivated subsequent to that, is locally spoken
of as 'noabad' (nauabad = newly cultivated). And the
ways in which this nauabad came to be cultivated were
various. Under Regulation III of 1828, such cultivators
would have no title whatever; but this was not at first
looked to : assessment was the main object.
In the first place the 'tarafdars' began to encroach on
the waste all round, and extend all their cultivation without
authority. This led to repeated re-measurements on the
part of the authorities, and to a great deal of oppression
and bribery, owing to the action of informers and others
who threatened to expose the encroachments, if not paid to
keep silence. A great number of other persons, mere
squatters, also cultivated lands.
§ i. The Noabad Taluqs.
All the ' nauabad ' lands could claim nothing but a
temporary Settlement. It happened, however, that one
of the old estate-holders laid claim by virtue of a sanad,
which afterwards proved to be forged, to have had all the
waste in the district granted to him in 1797. An immense
correspondence, ending in a lawsuit, followed, and lasted
for nearly forty years 2. The result was that Government
1 See Chapter III (on Tenures) whole, without discriminating those
for some further remarks on the lands to which he had a just title,
' taraf.' See also Cotton's Memor- from those fraudulently obtained.
andum on Revenue Administration of The Sudder Court decreed in his
Chittagong (1880), pp. 7, 8, 10. favour for the original estate, but
2 When the fraud was discovered, gave Government the rest. (Mac-
Government dispossessed him of the neile's Memorandum, Chapter IV.)
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPOEARY SETTLEMENTS. 49 1
recovered its right, but had to allow the Zammdar so
much land as really belonged to his original estate. This
could not be found out without a survey, and the oppor-
tunity was taken to survey the whole district, with a view
to the proper separation of the old permanently-settled
lands of 1764 from the nauabad lands. The process took
seven years to complete (from 1841-1848), and the Settle-
ment was made by Sir H. Ricketts. All the 'nauabad'
lands were surveyed, whether held by squatters or taken
as encroachments by the original tarafdars ; but each plot
separately occupied was, as a rule, formed into a separate
'taluq,' though some few were aggregated: 32,258 little
estates were thus formed, ca-lled in revenue language, the
' noabad taluqs.' A small number (861) of these, that paid
R-5o revenue and upwards, were placed directly under
the Collector, and the host of smaller ones were grouped
into 196 blocks, each of which was at first given out to
a ' circle farmer ' who was to be responsible for collecting
the revenue. The system was afterwards abandoned in
favour of khas management by the aid of local revenue
officers, on the analogy of a raiyatwdri management.
Nor was this the only trouble in Chittagong. The
invalid revenue-free grants, to which I have already alluded
as liable to resumption and assessment, were peculiarly
numerous and intricate ; even after relinquishing all cases
in which the holding did not exceed 10 bighas, there were
still 36,683 petty estates of this class separately to be
settled. Many of these had to be permanently settled
under the law alluded to previously (see page 427).
There were also a large number of small grants or leases
made by the revenue authorities under the designation of
clearing or 'jangalburi ' leases l.
Thus the Chittagong district consists of a mosaic of
petty estates ; here a plot of old permanently-settled land,
next a jangalburi plot, then a recovered and assessed en-
croachment, next a resumed lakhiraj holding, and so forth.
1 There were 1290 of them, of twenty-five years, gave only R. 2,475
which 1002, settled originally for revenue between them.
492
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
The table already given will show how the estates are
now grouped under the head of 'permanently settled,'
' temporarily settled,' and Government estates *.
The work of revenue collection in the petty estates will
now be facilitated, inasmuch as recent orders have resulted
in the issue of a proclamation 2 notifying that, for the term
of one year, petty estates permanently settled and paying
less than one rupee per annum may be redeemed on a
payment of ten times the annual jama'.
The question of how to deal with the nauabad lands
or taluqs, was for a long time in suspense. At one time
a Permanent Settlement was offered, but on such terms
that but few accepted it. It was then determined, generally,
that the nauabad taluqdar was a tenure-holder on an estate
belonging to Government. The Settlement of 1848 was
made for fifty years in the case of taluqs which had their
cultivation fairly fully developed, and for twenty-five years
in jangalbiiri-taluqs, where much land was still waste. In
1875-76, the re-settlement of these latter began, and the
measurements are now complete. A question then arose
as to whether some of these taluqs (and some resumed
revenue-free taluqs) were legally liable to re-settlement
at all. An order also had been obtained that 4913 tarafs
of the Government estate were not liable to re-settlement.
In respect of all these, it has ultimately been determined
that they are liable: but it was agreed not to re-settle
the 4913 estates till the fifty years' leases fell in in
ment purposes they are grouped into
five circles, each circle being called
an estate, and bearing a name as the
Town khas Mahal, the Ranjan Ma-
hal, &c., &c. (Report, 1883, p. 29.)
a Revenue Report, 1887-88, Section
55-
J Revenue Report for 1885 86, Sec-
tion 114.
1 In the Revenue Report (1888-9)
the map of Chittagong shows how
the Government and private estates
are intermingled, and the ' Settle-
ment ' map appended to this volume
endeavours to show (though only
roughly) the same condition. The
real number of the Government es-
tates is about 45,000, but for manage-
CHAP, ii.j THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 493
SECTION VI. — THE CHUTIYA NAGPUR DISTRICTS.
We shall have more to say about these districts under
the head of Tenures, because it is in them that we have
certain relics of one of the original village-systems, — that
of the Kols and kindred tribes, Hos, Mundas, and also of
the southern or Dravidian Uraons.
Here, however, we are concerned with the Revenue
Settlements.
A portion of each of the present districts that was
formerly attached to the old Collectorates of that date,
came under the Permanent Settlement.
§ i. Mdnbhtuum.
Nearly all Mdnlhum is permanently settled by treating
as ' Zamindar ' (with a fixed revenue) the chiefs over
parhds or groups of villages, which the old native tribal
organization originated. There are but two temporarily-
settled estates in the district.
§ 2. Singhbkum.
The northern portion consists of the permanently- settled
pargana of Dhalbhum formerly attached to Midnapore, and
of two chiefs' estates (Sarai-kalan and Kharsawan) under
political control, and one estate permanently settled and
two temporarily settled in the subdivision of Dhalbhum.
The rest of the district consists 'of the tract called
Kolhan * (1905 square miles) occupying the whole south-
west portion of the district, and forming a ' raiyatwari
tract ' and the confiscated estate of Parahat *.
In both these districts and in Manbhum, lands are never
sold for arrears of revenue ; and all sales and mortgages of
land require the sanction of the Commissioner.
1 Kolhan is sometimes called Ho- (or Porahat) estate in Government of
desam — the settlement of Hos. India (Itev. and Agr.) Proceedings for
2 There is a history of the Parahat February, 1889.
494 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 3. Hazdribdgh.
Here there are four principal subdivisions according to
the different Settlement arrangements : —
(a) Rdmgarh was originally a single estate ; but it
has since been split up into four separate estates,
one being the Government estate occupied by
cantonments, &c., around Hazaribagh, called (the
' Government enclosure ' or) ' Sirkari-hata ' ; the
second being the.Zamindarf of Kodarma, confis-
cated in 1841, and now a Government estate, the
third the remaining part of the Zamindari of
Ramgarh ; the fourth the Kendua estate, — a
Government ' tauflr ' estate made up of resumed
surplus lands and farmed for twenty years.
(6) The Kunda pargana and estate.
(c) The Kharakdiha estates, one of which is per-
manently settled, one is revenue-free, and others
are Government estates.
(d) The Kendi pargana, which is permanently settled.
The whole district is composed of 68 permanently-settled
and 1 86 Government estates.
§ 4. Lohdrdagga.
The Palamau subdivision, occupying the north-western
portion of the district, is a 'Government estate or 'khas
mahal ' shown partly as ' Government estate ' and partly as
' raiyatwari tract.' It contains some good State forests.
The rest of the district is settled with the Maharaja of
Chutiya Ndgpur as a sort of permanently-settled estate,
but it is looked upon rather as a tribute-paying chiefship,
and has never been held liable to sale for arrears of
revenue.
§ 5. General Remarks.
In the Chutiya Nagpur districts there are some curious
subordinate tenures, provision for the record and declar-
CHAP. II.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 495
ation of which has been made in the Bengal Act II of 1869.
These tenures will be dealt with in the chapter devoted to
the subject of tenures.
But as regards Settlement arrangements, it must here be
mentioned that the Act contemplated the appointment of
one or more special Commissioners, who were to have
exclusive jurisdiction to try and determine all disputes
regarding tenures in the estates, and to make a record
(which was final and authoritative), regarding the right
to the different lands and the privileges attaching to each.
The fact that a chief had been recognized as Zamindar,
or that the Government was the superior owner, did not
prevent this.
The tenures were based on the peculiar arrangement
(already alluded to) that besides, or rather anterior to, the
plan of allotting a share in the produce to the chief or
overlord, the ancient system was to set apart certain lands
for the king or the chief. Thus in every village these
lands were called (majhhas) and in later times became
the Settlement-holding proprietor's lands, whoever he
might be — a descendant of the chief, a purchaser, or a
person with a merely prescriptive title. Certain other
lands were, on the same principle, allotted to the original
founders of the village who held the office of headmen,
&c., others to the priest for himself and for the worship
of various deities ; others were taken by the mahto, or
collector, who was (at a later period) put in by the chief
to look after his interests ; others, again (called bet-kheta)
were assigned, in lieu of wages, to the labourers who
cultivated the once royal or majhhas lands.
Such a system, in later days, gave rise to great facilities
for wrong-doing. The more powerful would annex lands
and drive out the feebler. The object of the special record
was to restore the rightful holders (who had had possession
within a reasonable limit fixed by the Act), and to secure,
by record, these rights with the privileges attaching thereto,
in the majhhas lands and in lands in which rights of the
original founders (bhuinhar) existed.
49$ LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
SECTION VII. — SANTAL PERGUNNAHS l.
A glance at the map shows this district to consist of
a central hilly portion which begins in the north and
extends downwards ; this is the Government estate, or
' Daman-i-Koh ' : below this, on either side, and at the
south, is plain country which was permanently settled.
Regulation III of 1872 applies to the whole district, and
gives certain rules for the fixing of the cultivators' rents ;
so that in fact the Permanent Settlement only affects the
right in the soil and the fixity of the Government assess-
ment on the landlords.
The Santal Parganas were first removed from the oper-
ation of the ordinary law by Act XXXVII of 1855^ which
provided for a special superintendence. And this Act has
been continued and amplified by the "Regulation III of
1873 which declares the laws in force. It is important
to remember that Act XXXVII declares that no Act of
the Legislature, either past or future, shall apply to the
Santal Parganas unless they are expressly named in the
Act. This is why the Forest Act of 1878 does not apply,
nor has it yet been extended under the Regulation of 1872.
The old Forest Act of 1865 was specially extended, and
consequently still remains in force, but will probably be
repealed.
Part of the plain or old-settled tract, is regularly culti-
vated, but part of it is hilly and still much covered with
jungle. This portion is largely peopled and cultivated by
Santal immigrants. These brought their village institutions
with them and settled, each village paying rent to the
existing Zamindar landlord. Practically, all the village
tenures are permanent and alienable — subject only to the
superior landlord's rent. As a rule, the landlord gets his
rent, not direct from the raiyats, but through a village
1 The limits of this district are 2 The schedule to this Act has
described in a schedule annexed to been replaced by the revised schedule
Act X of 1857. in Act X of 1857.
CHAP. H.] THE TEMPORABY SETTLEMENTS. 497
headman ; so that in fact the Zamfndar is really more
like a pensioner drawing a rent from the land, but not, as
a rule (for there are some lands under his direct manage-
ment), interfering in the cultivation or management of the
villages.
§ i. The Ddman-i-Koh.
As early as 1780 A.D. the tract known as the Daman-i-
Koh was withdrawn, by an act of State, from the general
Settlement, and was made a separate ' Government estate V
This, however, practically meant that the Government took
the tribes under its own immediate management and did
not recognize any Zamindar, or intermediate landlord, as
having any hold over this wild region.
The Santals are not the original inhabitants of this tract,
but two or three Kolarian tribes, now indiscriminately
known as ' Paharias.' The Paharias cultivate chiefly by
'jum,' or shifting cultivation, already described. At first
there was no Settlement ; or rather the usual order of
Settlement was reversed ; the people did not pay anything
to Government, but the Government paid them an annual
grant to support their headmen and tribal officers. These
officers seem to be the relics of the old days when the hills
were nominally within the adjacent Zamindari estates,
There were local divisions of the separated tract, described
by the imported term ' pargana.' Over such a division
there was a ' sardar/ with his ' naib ' or deputy ; while
the headman over a village was the ' manjhi.' The
pargana division has long fallen into disuse ; but the
sardars and others survive, drawing their pensions. This
is a relic of the old Kolarian plan of village government
with nothing above it but the chief of a group of villages.
The old terms were lost, and the present equivalent Persian
names of office were adopted.
The Santals then seem to have immigrated in consider-
1 I am indebted for this informa- and to a Memorandum on the Santdl
tion to the kindness of Mr. W. Old- Settlement by Mr. C. W. Bolton, C.S.
ham, the Deputy-Commissioner,
VOL. I. K k
498 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
able numbers, and cultivated all the valleys and lower
slopes, so that the wandering Paharias, with no settled
cultivation, became confined to the hillsides ; since that
time, the Paharia headmen have begun to claim specific
properties in the hill-tops and slopes, which, however,
Government does not theoretically recognize, it having all
along claimed the region as a ' Government estate.' No
interference with these people is, however, contemplated ;
and they have, of course, wofully abused and destroyed the
forest. It has been long a question whether part of the
forest could not be put under regular conservancy; and
quite recently it has been determined to enforce simple
rules in a portion of the area.
§ 2. The Settlement.
The Settlement arrangements of the cultivated villages
of the Santal Parganas are governed by the Regulation III
of 1872, the manjhi or headman of each village collecting
and paying in the rents to Government or to the owner, as
the case may be, and being allowed 8 per cent, as his
'commission.' The Regulation contemplates the record of
all classes of interests in land and fixing of all rents (those
in Permanently-Settled estates not excepted), whether
payable to a proprietor or to Government ; these rents are
to remain unchanged for at least seven years.
SECTION VIII. — jALPAiauirf AND DAEJILING.
§ i. Jalpdigfi/rt.
That part of the district which is south-west of the Tista
river is all permanently settled, having been formerly part
of the old Rangpur Collectorate. The remaining part of
the district, north of the Kuch-Bihar (tributary) state, and
extending to the borders of the Goalpara district of Assam,
comprises the Bhutan (or Western) Dwars 1.
1 In a notification, No. 308, dated March sth, 1881), the laws in force
3rd March, 1881 (Gazette of India in Jalpaiguri and Darjiling (besides
CHAP, ii.] THE TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS. 499
The district as a whole is called a 'non-regulation'
district, but the whole body of ordinary law is in force
in the 'regulation portion,' to which the Permanent
Settlement extended.
The Dwars lie along the foot of the hills, and were taken
from theBhutias in 1865. In 1870 the country was settled
for ten years, and again in 1880 for ten years more. The
whole constitutes a Government estate managed as a
'raiyatwari tract.' The Settlement is made with the soil
occupants called 'jotdars,' whose tenures are recognized as
fixed tenancies, with a rent unalterable for the term of
Settlement. The ' jot ' is saleable for arrears of revenue l.
In some of the ' girds ' or parganas (of which the Dwars
contain nine in all) the Settlement was made with farmers
without proprietary rights, who were allowed 1 7 £ per cent.
on the revenue, as their remuneration and profit. When
the Settlement is with the jotdar, the revenue collection is
made by ' tahsildars,' who are remunerated by an allowance
of 10 per cent, on the revenue.
§ 2. Darjiling.
This district also may be described as divided into several
different tracts : —
(1) In the north-west corner a large estate (115
square miles) has been granted on a perpetual rent
to the Chebu Lama.
(2) The old Darjiling territory ceded by Sikkim
(a)2 ^ in 1835 — a long strip of 138 square miles, extend-
ing down to the Tarai near Pankhabari.
(3) Two strips on each side of this, acquired in
1850, bring the district up to the Nepal frontier on
one side and to the Tista river on the other.
Act XIV of 1874) have been declared. 3rd, 1881, the laws in force in Dar-
All the ' Regulation ' laws apply to jiling are specified. For this pur-
the Jalpaiguri district up to the pose the district is divided into
Tista river. The Western Dwars three portions — (a) the hills west of
are separately provided for. the Tista ; (6) the Darjiling Tarai ;
1 Some further details will be (c) the Damsong subdivision (east of
found in the chapter on Tenures. the Tista).
3 By the Notification of March
K k 2
5OO LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK ir.
(6) The Tarai below Pankhabari, also annexed in 1850.
(c) The Damsong subdivision, or hill portion of the
Bhutia territory about Dalingkot, taken in 1 865 (east of the
Tista, west of the Jaldaha, and north of the Western Dwars
in the Jalpaiguri district just alluded to).
Nearly all the territory in (a 2 and 3) seems to have been
dealt with under various ' waste-land rules ' and now to
consist of —
(1) Estates sold or granted or commuted into ' fee-simple'
or revenue-free holdings.
(2) Estates ' leased,' i. e. granted to persons who pay re-
venue according to their lease.
(3) Government estates appropriated to forests, to station-
sites, military purposes, &c., and waste not yet
disposed of.
In the tract (6) there were some lands at first settled for
short terms (three years) with Bengalis, the Settlement-
holders being called chaudharis of 'jots ' or groups of
cultivation. The chaudharis were, however, abolished in
1864, and the Settlement was made with the jotdars, or
cultivators of the jot.
In the upper Tarai are also Settlements for short terms,
made with Mech and Dhimal caste-men, who pay a certain
rate on each ' dao ' or hoe used for cultivating. Some
jungle-clearing leases for five years were also given. In
1867 there was a survey and Settlement under the modern
procedure for thirty years.
In the Damsong subdivision (c) at first only a capitation-
tax was collected ; the tract will probably ultimately be
surveyed and brought under temporary Settlement l.
1 The map in the Revenue Eeport Lamp's (P. S ) estate in the north :
colours the whole district as ' Go- this is hardly satisfactory,
vernment estates ' except the Chebu
CHAPTER III.
THE LAND-TENURES.
SECTION I. — GENERAL REMARKS.
THE task of writing, in moderate compass, an account of
the LAND-TENURES OF BENGAL is a difficult one, for two
reasons. In the first place, it is not easy to hit upon a
grouping or classification which is suitable ; and yet some
classification, based on an intelligible principle, is indispens-
able. Otherwise the tenures will only be presented to the
reader in a haphazard catalogue. Most of our books adopt
this latter method, with the result that, while the memory
is bewildered over a string of names that often are not
worth remembering, those real distinctions and actual
varieties of land-tenure which are based on custom and
on feelings and ideas about landholding, and are therefore
worth remembering, are undistinguished and forgotten.
The second difficulty arises from the enormous mass of
records and authorities. But little attempt has hitherto
been made to digest it. The Fifth Report to the Committee
of the House of Commons of 1813 is a great mine of infor-
mation, but neither classified nor arranged. In Harington's
Analysis, again, is a formidable collection of papers. Mr.
Phillips, with his usual industry, has given, in the Tagore
Lectures (1875), a mass of information scattered through
various lectures, but in a rather bewildering fashion. Dr.
Field has collected all the best authorities in his Land-
holding in Various Countries. In an anonymous work
called The Zamtnddri Settlement of Bengal* another vast
1 2 vols. Calcutta: Brown & Co. , 1879.
502 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
mass of authorities, of very various value, is piled up. And
these are only the more accessible of the references ; I have
not mentioned Special Reports, Notes, and Monographs,
whose name is legion.
In this chapter I have therefore to make the attempt to
present the student with a classified account of tenures, and
in doing so, not merely to re-quote the authorities en masse,
but to rigidly exclude all that does not appear to be of
real importance and weight. This should enable a reader
to dispense with a reference to bulky and inaccessible
volumes, except in case he wishes to make some special
study and go into ' original sources V
In dealing with Bengal tenures, I propose to relegate to
separate sections the tenures observed in the SantalParganas,
Chutiya Nagpur, Orissa, and Chittagong. There are special
historical features about these localities which fit them for
separate notice ; but they are full of interest, and indeed it
is in these places that we find survivals which are of the
highest importance in connection with the early history of
land-customs.
Taking, then, the districts of Bengal proper and Bihar,
we shall find that the original village organization has too
far decayed to enable us to start from it as a basis of land-
tenure investigation ; what traces of it survive in headmen's
privileges and grants of land for village service, will now
and again come to notice as we explore the peculiarities of
the landlord's right, and the origin and nature of the tenures
under him.
In a word, in Bengal the Zamindar has become the central
figure, and our study must start with him and with the
' independent ' landholder, jagirdar, and other ' actual
proprietor,' whom the Regulations placed on the same
footing.
The ' actual proprietors,' to state the matter in other
words, may be great Zamindars, or they may be lesser
1 The labour of this task has been Memorandum on Land-Tenures which
much lightened by the excellent Mr. J. S. Cotton, C.S., has prepared.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 503
estate-holders, all equally now raised to the status and legal
privileges of the Regulation proprietor.
In close connection with proprietary tenures paying
revenue, are the lakhiraj holdings allowed as valid. They
may be mere assignments of revenue, but often include the
ownership of the land as well. Some of these have become
landlord-estates ; other smaller ones have remained under
the proprietor, and therefore fall into the class of subordinate
' tenures,' just above the grade of ' raiyat.'
As we pass out of the class of fully proprietary tenures,
we enter on a border-land, which in Bengal is a most
curious one, — I refer to the region of tenures which we
cannot classify as proprietary, and are yet not exactly
tenancies.
The latest attempt of the legislature to deal with the
subject has not resulted in a complete definition ; but it has
given us the term ' tenure ' for this class of rights ; and
we can describe their peculiarities and privileges, if we
cannot frame a definition.
Some of these tenures practically represent relics of older
rights which gave way beneath the growth of the Zamin-
ddri right, but still showed some traces — as we can see the
remains of the original tree under its overgrowth of the
many -rooted Ficus in an Indian forest. And even where
the holder of such right possesses a document in the nature
of a grant from the Zamindar, or some other authority, it
by no means follows that the right really originates in con-
tract, or in an act of pure donation by the superior. Other
such tenures (as already indicated) are due to the desire
of the landlord to disembarrass himself of the direct
management of the whole or part of his estate ; he creates
tenures in favour of persons who will pay him a fixed sum,
and make what they can out of the land. Other such
tenures are again due to the desire to encourage the bring-
ing of the waste under cultivation, for which purpose a
fixed tenure and favourable terms are needed — backed, no
doubt, by the strong and long-established feeling of right
in favour of him ' who first cleared the land.' There are
504 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
other tenures also originating in grants free of rent for the
rendering of certain services.
Further detail would be here unintelligible ; but what
has been said will show that we have an ample supply of
material for a separate section on ' Tenures ' (in the tech-
nical sense). When we come down to the lowest grade —
' raiyat-holdings,' or cultivating tenancies — it is obvious
that we have also much to consider. The whole battle of
the tenant-question in Bengal is before us, and the history
of the many attempts to define and secure different grades
of tenant-right. These are the divisions of our chapters on
Land-Tenures.
SECTION II. — THE ZAMfNDAR LANDLORD.
§ I. General Remarks.
I have said enough in the earlier chapters to make the
student familiar with the name Zamindar. How the later
and declining Mughal ruler adopted the plan of collecting
his revenue through agents who, having contracted to find
a certain sum for the Treasury, were left to manage the
land as they pleased — that has all been described. The
question what is the true nature of the Zamindar's office or
title has been discussed in various books. But in point of
fact it is quite impossible to bring all the facts which were
true about the Zamindars at one time and at another, — to
bring all these facts to a focus and then to make them fit in
with tolerable exactitude, to any definition of right or title
to be found in an English law-book or dictionary. Looked
at with reference to the circumstances of a certain period
of Bengal history, and with reference to the terms of deeds
of appointment, it is easy to say that the Zamindar was
only a revenue official — a tax-gatherer if you please.
Looked at with reference to the practical position actually
held, I do not think that any one who dispassionately con-
siders what influence and hold over the land (and the
raiyats) the Zamindar really had in 1789, will hesitate to
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 505
conclude that it was right to call him ' landlord/ provided
the subordinate rights were adequately secured.
There are allusions to Zamindars even in Akbar's time,
in the Ayin-i-Akbari ; but certainly not to a ' Zamindar ' as
holding an office or function created for the realization of
the revenues of a certain tract, and charged with police and
other duties. Indeed, the term was then used as synony-
mous with ' bhiimi ' (evidently the Hindu term for the
natural proprietor or lord of the soil). This alone should
at once indicate what Ab-ul-Fazl meant. In one place
certain zamindars are mentioned as having functions like
jagirdars, but any landholder might have been employed or
granted allowances to keep a force of foot or horsemen to
maintain order locally. I have already alluded to the fact
that in most provinces where the Mughal power extended
its conquest, there were found, as in Oudh, local Rajas or
chiefs holding considerable areas of country as rulers l,
having both their own private lands and certain rights
and dues, as ruler, over the whole country. Such chiefs
could not resist the Mughal arms to the extent of main-
taining their independence, but yet might give great
trouble in outlying districts ; it was, therefore, often a
matter of policy to leave them in possession, on condition
that they would pay over to the Imperial Treasury a cer-
tain proportion of the revenue collected from the villages.
If a chief accepted — as he would be obliged to do — that
position, unless he were expressly recognized as holding
revenue-free, or as assignee of the revenue for special
service, he would be called ' landholder ' — Zamindar. In
1 ' Native leaders, sometimes lead- common origin of many of the most
ing men of Hindu clans who have considerable modern families, both
risen to power as guerilla plunderers, in the north and in the south. To
levying black-mail, and eventually our ideas, there is a wide gulf be-
coming to terms with the Govern- tween a robber and a landlord, but
ment, have established themselves, not so in a native's view. It is won-
under the titles of Zamindar, poly- derful how much in times such an
gar, &c., in the control of tracts of those of the last century, the robber,
country for which they pay a re- the Raja, and the Zamindar run into
venue or tribute, uncertain under a one another.' — (Campbell's Land- Ten-
weak power, but which becomes a ures in India: CobdenClub Papers, 1876,
regular land revenue when a strong p. 142.)
power is established. This is a very
506
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
the same way, when the authorities wished to show some
local landholder of lesser status, some kind of favour,
they gave him a grant of a local tract over which he
was to collect the revenues ; and this smaller grant they
called ' taluqdari.' According to the size of the estate and
the influence of the holder, the grantee was allowed to be
in direct relation with the State, or was placed in a privi-
leged position, but made to pay through a greater ' Zamin-
dar.' An instance of this is afforded by the case of many
village headmen in Bhagulpur and the petty landholders of
Chittagong, all of whom were vaguely called ' taluqdars.'
Let us confine ourselves here to the Zaminddr.
I do not think that the student need trouble himself
with anything more than can be gathered from a few really
authoritative sources. There are the minutes of Mr. Shore
and Lord Cornwallis, both based on very valuable native
authorities of the time *, and these give what I may call the
landlord view. On the other side, the chief authority
urging the ' official ' nature of the Zamindar's position was
Mr. James Grant, who wrote a history of the ' Northern
Sirkars' 2 of Madras (where there were also Zammdars), and
who afterwards became ' Chief Sarishtaddr ' under the
Bengal Government, and published an Enquiry into the
nature of Zemindary tenures in the landed property of
Bengal, I79O3. The opinion of Mr. Harington himself
(his service extended from 1780 to 1823) is entitled to
the greatest weight, as he was in the service all through
the period when the inquiries were going on. I shall
therefore quote it, as found in the Analysis, in some
detail.
1 A number of these, on which
Mr. Shore based his minute of 1 788,
are given in Harington, vol. iii.,
and in the Reprint of Harington's
chapter on the Rights of Land-
holders.
2 Political Survey of the Northern Cir-
cars, dated aoth December, 1784 ;
also an Analysis of the Finances of Ben-
gal (April, 1786) ; Appendices to
the Fifth Report.
3 This was answered by Mr. C.
W. B. Rouse, Secretary to the Board
of Control, in a Dissertation con-
cerning the Landed Property in
Bengal. Mr. Grant was a good deal
followed in Patton's Principles of
Asiatic Monarchies, 1801.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 507
§ 2. Origin of Zaminddrs.
Mr. Shore said that the origin of ' Zamindars ' was un-
certain l. There probably never was a time when a Mughal
governor or emperor deliberately conceived the plan of
creating an official collector of rents, or invented as a
title, the word ' Zamindar,' and making a decree or regula-
tion defining the rights and duties. But, as already stated,
persons who had a real estate of some kind or degree over
villages and districts, were always, from the earliest times of
Muhammadan rule, spoken of generically as ' zamindars ' ;
and if they received a warrant or sanad from the ruling
power, for any purpose, it would probably speak of them
as being (official) Zamindars. If, as I have already stated,
they were people of minor importance, they would be
called ' taluqdar,' — holder of a portion of land — a ' depen-
dency/ as the word implies, not a great and independent
estate. Persons recognized as ' Zamindars ' and some of
the superior ' taluqdars ' were no doubt allowed to collect
themselves, and to pay in direct, the revenue for their
territories. The rest of the country was managed solely
by State officers who collected through the heads of villages
from the cultivators. The Mughal system, it should be
always borne in mind (with the exception of the country
held on service grants, or by such local magnates as it was
politic to recognize), was essentially raiyatwdri ; it went
straight to the cultivator through the headman of each
village. The original system then did not countenance
farming the revenues ; so that chiefs and others (recognized
landholders) would not then have been known by any
particular name or official status. Probably, the degree of
actual power which the landholder had in managing his
estate, varied with the wealth, respectability, and influence
of each chief or grantee, and especially with his nearness to,
or remoteness from, the centre of control. But it would
seem that when the Emperor Farukhsiyar ascended the
1 Minute of and April, 1788.
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
throne in 1713 A. D., the decline of the Empire had already
begun, and decline was always marked by relaxation of
control, not only over the outlying provinces, but over the
whole administrative machinery, and by the substitution of
plans of farming the revenues of convenient tracts. Then
it was that, besides the Rajas, chiefs, and ancient grantees,
who had a real hold over the country, and were already
spoken of as the Zamindars, other classes of persons were
employed as farmers, and the same name and the same
designation came to be applied to them also. As a matter
of fact, we find ex-officials possessed of wealth and energy
— 'amils, karoris, &c., — also bankers and Court favourites,
receiving the name of Zamindar.
And such persons would, besides taking the name,
also ape the dignities and importance of the older land-
holders.
This class of Zamindar would commence with neither the
prestige nor with the customary incidents of tenure which
generations had established in the case of the others. The
old Raja, for instance, was already well established in his
right to take a share of the produce, besides having a more
or less definite claim to all waste land, and certainly the
unquestioned right of bringing it under cultivation, for
which purpose he made grants or located his own ' tenants.'
He had also tolls and dues of all kinds from traders and
artisans, fees from woodcutters in the forest, and transit
duties. His estate was, of course, hereditary, and probably,
if it was that of a Raja or greater chief, the custom of
primogeniture was established. Opportunities for getting
the best lands absolutely into his own hands were not
wanting. As the public authority declined, his oppor-
tunities increased ; no wonder that in time he grew to be a
landlord, and that, in 1789, he was recognized as such. The
later class of revenue-farmers was originally in no such
favourable position : they had certainly no right to succeed
by inheritance, nor could they make a grant of any land
except their own. They held a sanad, which professed
to convey no property in anything, but merely to fix duties
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 509
and require obedience and faithful service, and moreover
they had to subscribe a recognizance for due observance,
and a stipulation for the amount of revenue to be paid in,
which was supposed to be the total rental, less a fixed
allowance for the expense and risk of collection, usually
one-tenth of the whole, with or without an allowance in
money or land specially granted as ' nankar ' or subsistence.
It is quite certain that before the system si farming
came into vogue, and Zamindars of this class were ap-
pointed, the village cultivators, where there were no chiefs
over them, had a customary tenure, which was certainly,
however decayed or weakened, a proprietary right, in
their holdings. Therefore the Zamindars, when put over
them, could not be proprietors in the sense of absolute
owner, entitled to the usus, abusus,fructus et vindicatio of
European law. Nevertheless, the ' Zamindar ' had some
land to begin with ; he soon bought up, took in mortgage,
and otherwise made himself master of, other lands: he
cultivated the waste with his own tenants, and it became
his. And it is very likely that in these matters the lower
order of men were more pushing and energetic than the old
nobility; so that in the end, what with the growth of the
modern estates, and the decay of the older ones, — for noble
families die out, quarrel, break up, become bankrupt and
lose their lands, — all Zaminddris came to be looked upon as
one and the same, and their ancient differences of origin
ignored. In 1788 Mr. Shore said that most of the (then
existing) considerable Zamindars might be traced to an
origin within the last century and a half1.
1 The following passage is from mendation of Ratn Chand, when
Ghulam Husain, the historian corruption pervaded every depart-
(author of the Sayyar-muta,dkhirin, ment of the State, the unprincipled
' deeds of the moderns '). He was Zamindars, by ingratiating them-
the son of a Na/im or Governor of selves with the rulers for the time
the Bihar province. He was one of being, distressed the inferior zamin-
those to whom questions were ad- dars (i. e. persons who had been
dressed regarding the history and recognized over smaller estates) by
status of Zamindars before the Per- every possible mode, until they were
manent Settlement. ' Since the de- reduced to the necessity of selling
cline of the constitution in the reign their saminddris to their oppressors,
of Farukhsiyar and the introduction who thenceforward became .... the
of the farming system at the recom- acknowledged proprietors of them.
5*0
LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 3. Incidents of the Zaminddri as it was understood
after 1713 A.D.
(A) Hereditary Succession.
The title, if it was that of a Raja or other chief, who
became Zamindar, was naturally hereditary. Only the
ruling power took care to keep the heirs in mind of
their subordinate position, by exacting a fine or fee at
each succession, as well as by renewing the sanad or grant.
When Mr. James Grant says the office was not hereditary
till after Nadir Shah's time in 1739 A.D.1, he is speaking of
those revenue-farmers who had no natural connection with
the soil, but got the official position.
One thing that helped the general recognition of the
hereditary right, was the fact that many Zamindaris were
created for restoring cultivation or on condition of clearing
the waste (jangalburi), and these were always recognized
(from the first) as passing from father to son, because a
single lifetime would hardly suffice to develop the estate ;
or, at all events, it would be most natural to continue it to
the son, who would have local experience at the time when
the estate was probably just beginning to be a settled and
steadily -paying one 2.
(B) The form of appointing Zaminddrs.
To begin with, when the State affairs were still managed
Other Zamindars, having desolated
their lands by mismanagement and
dissipation, were obliged by the
ruling power to dispose of them to
more prudent and opulent Zamin-
dars for the liquidation of their
balances. The title of the pur-
chasers of such lands was considered
good and valid. Towards the close
of the reign of Muhammad Shah
(Farukhsiyar's successor in 1719) ...
certain Zamindars by attaching
themselves to these (certain State)
officers acquired great influence, and
either by force or under different
pretences, unjustly possessed them-
selves of the estates of inferior
(smaller) landholders, till at length
becoming rich and powerful ....
they declared themselves proprietors
of the lands thus unfairly acquired.'
1 Fifth Report, vol. iL 156.
" The author of Land Tenures 5j/ a
Civilian probably puts it correctly
when he says (p. 72) that ' the office
of Zamindar could not be claimed as
hereditary, though by long custom,
and perhaps out of policy, the chil-
dren of deceased contractors were
very generally admitted as successors
to their parents ; they were not in
all cases appointed, and sometimes
were ousted.'
CHAP. III.] THE LAND-TENURES. 5 1 I
with some care and attention to detail, the Zamindar who
proposed to farm a considerable area, had to go through
a somewhat formidable office-procedure. No doubt all this
detail was not exacted from the ' Zamindars ' of the old
Hindu aristocracy, who simply accepted a sanad with
a fixed sum entered in it. It was otherwise with the
farmers, though even they, in time, ceased to receive the
sanad, except in special cases, and then chiefly in case they
sought it as a protection against rival claimants l. The
original procedure was for the new Zamindar to petition
the provincial governor informing him that the office was
vacant — let us suppose by death, — and adding that the
petitioner desired favour as the heir or successor. The
Governor would reply, in the case of a person of some
consideration, by letters of condolence, &c. This prepared
the way for the submission of the 'arzi, or formal petition,
offering to be responsible for the usual revenue total,
together with any balance that might be outstanding. On
receipt of this, the Government officer prepared a fard
sawdl — an abstract of the petition with necessary inform-
ation as to figures, &c., — and asked for the orders of his
superior. On the orders being received, the proper officer
made out an exact schedule of the villages or component
parts of the estate, and of the assessment expected from
each, the deductions allowed, and the balance payable to
the treasury. This was the fard-i-haqiqat (or ' statement
of the true facts')2. The expectant Zamindar had then to
give a sort of recognizance or 'muchalka,' a document3
which acknowledged his responsibility for the revenue
stated in abstract, and for the performance of the duty : —
as Mr. Phillips puts it, —
'to observe a commendable character towards the body of
the inhabitants at large, to endeavour to punish and expel
the refractory, and to extirpate robbers ; to conciliate and
encourage the raiyats, and to promote the increase of cultiva-
1 Harington, vol. iii. 337. proper officer.
2 It is an elaborate document in 3 Also called ' qabuliyat ' or ac-
four columns, each filled up by the ceptance.
5 1 2 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
tion ; .... to take care that travellers might pass in safety,
and that no robbery or murder should be committed ; and if
any one should be robbed, he agreed to be responsible for
producing the culprits with the property, or to make good the
loss J ; to repress drunkenness and all kinds of irregularity ; to
pay punctually the assessment, less the items of allowed deduc-
tions (mazkurat) ; to transmit to the Government office the
official papers required.'
Lastly, the Government office issued the ' sanad ' (called
also 'parwana') addressed to the Government officials in
the limits of the Zamindari, and to the village accountants
(patwaris), village headmen, who were called (in the Per-
sian revenue language, but not, of course, by the people)
' muqaddarn.' It recited the Zamindar' s duties, prohibited
his levying abwdb or cesses without authority, and com-
manded the local officers and others to receive him as
Zamindar, and to take all pargana papers and accounts
signed by him, as authentic 2.
It is quite obvious from the terms of such documents,
that the holders of them, as such, were neither constituted
soil-proprietors, nor treated therein, as in any such posi-
tion. But then the executor of such a series of documents
might have rights independently of them, and, what is of
more importance, might in time easily grow into a new
position. As a matter of fact, when we reflect on the
emoluments and opportunities of the Zamindar, his power
of getting land by sale and mortgage, his ' right ' of ousting
obnoxious men, and by taking possession when an unfortu-
nate owner absconded — perhaps to avoid exactions which
had become intolerable, perhaps in his inability to pay his
' rent ' — it is not difficult to perceive how the Zamindar
grew into his ultimate position. When this virtual owner-
ship had gone on for several generations, and had become
1 This is a very ancient custom in Minute of April, 1788), and Phillips
parts of India. In the Rajputana gives a translation of the sanad (of
States it was common till quite of Muhammad Shah's reign) in A.D.
late years. 1 735-6 granted to the Zamindar of
2 Specimen sanads are given in Rajshahi.
Harington (Appendix 9 to Shore's
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 5 1 3
consolidated, the fact of a formerly different status very
naturally became little more than a shadowy memory.
Our early legislators of 1793 could then hardly avoid call-
ing the Zammdar's right a proprietary one, and treating it
accordingly ; though, as I have already shown, they limited,
or intended to limit, the right thus conferred, with a view
to securing at least so much of the original right of the
now subordinate village landowners as could still be
established.
(C) Power of Transfer.
In one respect, however, the recognition accorded to the
Zammdar's right in 1793 was a material advance beyond
what practice had hitherto sanctioned. Powerful as the
Zamindar became in managing the land, in grasping and
in ousting, he had no power of alienating his estate ; he
could not raise money on it by mortgage, nor sell the whole
or any part of it. This clearly appears from a proclama-
tion issued on ist August, 1786; the illegal practice 'of
alienating revenue lands ' is complained of ; the ' gentlemen
appointed to superintend ' the various districts, are invited
zealously to prevent the ' commission of this offence ' ; and
the Zamindar, chaudhari, taluqdar, or other landholder who
disobeys is threatened with ' dispossession from his lands V
But such a limitation was soon thought to be inconsistent
with the 'proprietary right' which it was the policy of
Government to secure and develop ; and it was abandoned
accordingly. Several of the Regulations allude to the
power of alienation, as now for the first time conceded.
(See, for example, Section 9 of Regulation I of 1793, quoted
at p. 410 )
The right was unrestricted, provided only that transfers
should not be inconsistent with the Hindu or Muhammadan
law (whichever applied), or to any Regulation ; that they
should be registered before the Collector, so that the revenue
liability might be known ; and that the transferee would
1 This proclamation will be found Mr. Cotton's Revenue History of Chitta-
reprinted in Appendix F, p. 179, of gong.
VOL. I. L 1
5 H I^AND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK ll.
be answerable for the revenue, or for a portion of the
revenue, in case of sale of a part of the estate to which the
revenue share was allotted on principles stated in the
Regulation.
(D) Emoluments of the Zaminddr.
Originally the Zamindar was bound to account for all he
collected from the raiyats ; these payments were not his
rents but the revenue assessed by the State, and increased
from time to time. He was to pay in all to the treasury,
less a certain percentage and some cash allowances, which
were carefully specified. But this strictness died out in
time ; for the very laxity of rule which induced the Gover-
nors to save themselves trouble by handing over the entire
management to Zamindars, operated also to prevent any
scrutiny into details. More and more, therefore, the Za-
mindar got to be a mere contractor for a fixed sum, and
able to make his own terms with the raiyats.
In the original accounts we find that the Zamindar was
allowed —
(i) His percentage called ' dastur-zamindari ' ;
(a) An allowance called nankar (lit. bread of service):
this was at first in cash (as a deduction); but
afterwards lands called 'nankar' were held
revenue-free ;
(3) The mazkurat (or ' specific items '), being the charges
of collection, such as headman's fees (muqaddami),
wages for servants and messengers (paikan), ex-
penses of office (daftar-band and sarinjamf), and a
number of others ;
(4) Fees (nimtaki — half a ' taka ' (or paisd in the rupee)
to the kanungo ;
(5) Charitable allowances, being remissions for ' aima '
and 'inam' holdings (plots left free to religious
persons, teachers, village servants, &c.) ; qadam-
rasiil, fees paid for preservation of 'footprints of
the Prophet,' also (khairdt) alms ; and daily allow-
ance to religious mendicants and others (rozina).
CHAP, in.] THE LAND TENUBES. 5 1 5
(E) Tfie Zaminddr's Private Lands.
In many cases the Zaminddr had private lands called
'nij-jot' (the Hindi equivalent of the Persian c khud-kasht,3
and the same as the ' sir ' of other parts) — i. e. lands of his
family which he cultivated with his own labour or personal
tenants. From these the State might or might not take
revenue.
A large portion of the estates, in many districts, was
waste, and the duty of the Zamindar was to extend cul-
tivation, not (originally) for his own profit, but with a view
to revenue from additional fields profiting the Treasury.
But when the Zamindar's revenue came to be a lump sum
fixed by bargain, it further resulted that all new cultivation
was solely a benefit to him as contractor. Not only so,
but as all the waste lands would be unoccupied and there
would be no resident or ancient ' raiyats,' to claim any
special terms, it followed that the land was cultivated by
real contract-tenants, and of course was acknowledged to
be the property of the Zamindar under the name of
' khamdr1.'
A third kind of land which the Zamindar came to hold
was under the head of ' nankar,' already mentioned. When
this allowance was made up by granting certain lands free
of revenue, the Zamindar, very naturally, absorbed them as
his own property 2.
This custom of ' nankar ' spread wide, and in the Northern
1 ' Khamar ' is an Uriya or Ben- khamar lands that we have is in the
gali word meaning ' threshing-floor,' Instructions to Supervisors (1769). The
and indicates lands the produce of Revenue Committee remark that
which is divided on the threshing- such lands have no natural tenants,
floor between the cultivator or the and that the Zamindar cultivates by
soil-owner. Naturally in new lands, contract, making advances to cul-
where at first cultivation is pre- tivators, and receiving back his ad-
carious, liable to fail or to be de- vance with interest and a share in
stroyed by deer, pigs, and wild the produce (one-half to two-thirds),
beasts from the neighbouring — (Colebrooke's Supplement to the
jungles, the terms of the tenancy Digest, pp. 182. 183.) At that date the
are not a cash rent but a ' bhaoli,' Committee thought this was an en-
or division of produce. This saves croachment, and desired that the
the tenant from loss, as, if the crop waste when cultivated should be
fails, or is only a partial one, no de- ' raiyati ' land — i. e. liable to pay to
mand, or only a limited one, can be the State through the Zamindar.
made on him. The first mention of 2 Harington, iii. 320.
L 1 2
516 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
Sirk&rs of Madras was found enjoyed under the local name
of 'savaram1.'
§ 4. Other Items.
As the Zamindar owned the waste in his estate, so he
owned ' manorial rights,' such as fisheries, and produce
from fruits or from grazing, and sale of jungle products.
These were the c sayer ' items, already spoken of in another
connection. The Zamindar appears to have levied a small
fee called 'parjot' (or in Persian 'muhtarfa'), on non -agri-
cultural residents in the villages, exactly as the Panjab
village landlords do to this day. It may be likened to
a kind of ground-rent for the house-site.
§ 5. Mdlikdna.
This term so often occurs in Bengal (and indeed in all
revenue literature) that I may take this opportunity to
explain it.
The revenue responsibility being on the land, Government
is entitled to exclude the proprietor who refuses what the
authorities deem a reasonable assessment ; but in such cases
it grants a ' malikana,' or ex-proprietary allowance, to sup-
port the recusant during the period of his exclusion. This
is not less than five nor more than ten per cent, on the
revenue.
See Sec. But the term malikana has also a wider application : it
vin of refers to any portion of the produce, or payment made in
1793; and acknowledgment of a proprietary2, or more commonly an
1822, Sec° ex-proprietary, right or title. It is well illustrated in
5, el. 2. Bihar ; there the villages appear in many cases to have
come under the landlord claims of men who were leaders
1 A Telugu word obtained from as his share or profit. It is also
the Persian ' Chayar,' a certain commonly used to signify the allow-
measure of land. — (Wilson.} ances paid to a person as having
2 Thus the term is sometimes some claim, but not enough to entitle
used to mean the portion of the him to a Settlement. In this sense
total assets which , on a Settlement, we often find it used in the North-
Government leaves to the proprietor Western Provinces and Oudh.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 5 1 7
of troops and minor chiefs, or cadets of noble families,
who so often, as we have already seen, established themselves
as landlords over single villages and small estates. Small
owners of this class cannot make terms with later con-
querors, as large estate-holders can ; and it came to pass that,
under the Muhammadan rule, such petty landholders were
displaced either by Muhammadan jagirdars, who got grants
over their heads, so to speak, or by other minor grantees
(lakhirajdars); further, under our own earlier revenue
system1, the country was farmed to outsiders, and in the
end the new-comers had got so firmly fixed that the
Permanent Settlement was made with them. But such is
the force of custom, that the -new grantees, and farmers,
were always obliged to recognize the older ousted pro-
prietors by making them a ' malikana ' allowance. When
our Government resumed a number of the lakhiraj estates
and assessed them to revenue and settled with the present
holders, the estate was often charged with paying the
' malikana ' to the ousted proprietor.
§ 6. Small Zaminddris in Bihdr.
The mention of the small land-holdings of Bihar remind
us that we must not suppose all Zamindars to have had
great estates. The fact is that in Bihar, had it not been
for the Bengal system, it would have been found that there
were village-estates of the landlord class in a tolerable
state of preservation. We have here actual tradition (see
Chap. IV. page 1 23) how the Aryans advanced into Bihar ;
and there can be no doubt that the petty landlords of the
Babhan (the military or Kshatriya caste) alluded to by the
older writers, were just the descendants of the chiefs and
rulers who either originally, or by the breaking up of larger
territorial rulerships, acquired the position of landlords
over single villages or over small estates of two or three
villages. In the course of time some of these small estate
holders were superseded by ' jagir ' grantees or farmers of
revenue, as above stated, but many of them survived, and
1 Mr. Shore's Minute of September, 1 789, § 2.
5 1 8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK it.
the family chief or leading man among them, became the
Zamindar. (The system only admitted of one man bear-
ing the title, unless several expressly agreed that they were
co-sharers.) Some of these families, though they had
dropped out of rank, and were not Zamindars in possession,
were still so far recognized as to receive the malikdna
allowance as just now explained. Some of them, as we
shall see presently, in the Shahabad district, fell into the
lower position of 'tenure-holders' (called guzashta jot). But
the case of Bihar is interesting as showing how, what in
the North -West Provinces would have produced village
landlord-communities, developed there into small Zamin-
ddri estates. The Monghyr district affords another in-
stance of the existence of small estates caused by the
subdivision of an original family grant or acquisition. I
have alluded to it more particularly under the head of
taluqs in the sequel, because the subdivision of the
estate seems to have resulted in the formation of a
number of taluqs, some of which paid their revenue direct
to Government, and others through one of the larger estate-
holders.
The rules by which ' taluqs ' were separated from the
Zamindaris have been alluded to before : in Monghyr the
result was that a number of small separate estates were
recognized as petty Zamindaris.
In Sylhet and Chittagong, the nature of the holdings of
land was such, that, as we shall see, the ' Zamindars ' in
those districts were quite small landholders *. In Benares
also, the 'Zamindars' actually settled with, were village
bodies ; for the Raja, who would have been the great
Zamindar under other circumstances, had resigned his
claims.
1 Sylhet is treated of in another Assam. Chittagong is separately
part of the book, because it is in described further on.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 519
§ 7. Authorities on the nature of the Zaminddr's Right.
Mr. Harington's l definition (or rather description) of a
Bengal Zamfndar is as follows : —
'A landholder of a peculiar description, not definable by
any single term in our language — a receiver of the territorial
revenue of the State from the raiyats and other under-tenants
of land — allowed to succeed to his Zamlnddri by inheritance,
yet in general required to take out a renewal of his title from
the sovereign or his representative on payment of a fine on
investiture to the Emperor, and a nasdrana or present to his
provincial delegate — the Nazi'm ; permitted to transfer his
Zaminddri by sale or gift 2, yet. commonly expected to obtain
previous special permission ; privileged to be generally the
annual contractor for the public revenue recoverable from his
Zaminddri, yet set aside with a limited provision, in land or
money, whenever it was the pleasure of Government to collect
the rents by separate agency, or to assign them temporarily or
permanently by the grant of a 'jagir,' or an * altamgha ' :
authorized in Bengal (since the early part of the eighteenth
century) to apportion to the parganas, villages, and lesser
divisions of land within the Zaminddri, the dbwdb or cesses
imposed by the Subadar (provincial governor) usually in some
proportion to the standard assessment of the Zaminddri esta-
blished by Todar Mai and others, yet subject to the discretionary
interference of public authority, either to equalize the amount
assessed on particular divisions, or to abolish what appeared
oppressive to the raiyat ; entitled to any contingent emolu-
ments proceeding from his contract during the period of his
agreement, yet bound by the terms of his tenure to deliver in
a faithful account of his receipts 3 ; responsible by the same
terms for keeping the peace within his jurisdiction, but appa-
rently allowed to apprehend only, and deliver over to a
Musalman magistrate for trial and punishment.'
1 Dr. Field notices that Mr. Har- assumed this power, but under the
ington gave this opinion to Lord British rule this was at first dis-
Cornwallis in 1789, and that he had allowed, as stated at p. 513.
seen no occasion to alter it twenty- 3 This, of course, was not done in
eight years afterwards. later times ; or an account was ren-
* This is more doiibtful — see dered, framed just as was convenient
Phillips, p. 270. No doubt they for the interests of the Zamindar.
520 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
§ 8. Mr. Shores Views.
Mr. Shore speaks of Zamindars as proprietors of the soil,
— to the property of which they succeed by right of inherit-
ance ; but he explains that a property in the soil must not
be understood to convey the same rights in India as in
England. We can only, under a despotic government, look
to the general practice as acknowledging a sort of right l.
In another place 2 he says expressly : —
' The relation of a Zamindar to Government, and of a raiyat
to the Zamindar is neither that of a proprietor nor a vassal,
but a compound of both. The former performs acts of autho-
rity in connection with proprietary right ; the latter has rights
without real property Much time will, I fear, elapse
before we can establish a system perfectly consistent in all its
parts, and before we can reduce the compound relation of a
Zamindar to Government, and of a raiyat to a Zamindar, to
the simple principles of landlord and tenant.'
§ 9. Lord Cornwalliss Views.
LORD CORNWALLIS expressed himself satisfied with Mr,
Shore's proofs that the Zamfnddr, though not an absolute
soil-owner, was yet entitled to be considered as a landlord
and recognized with a secure title, and he added something
that is important, as showing that the recognition of the
Zamindar was not founded on a mere abstract decision on
historical evidence, but on a State policy of justice and the
(supposed) welfare of the province. He says : —
'Although, however, I am not only of opinion that the
Zamindars have the best right, but from being persuaded that
nothing could be so ruinous to the public interest as that the
land should be retained as the property of Government, I am
also convinced that, failing the claims of right of the Zamindars,
it would be necessary for the public good to grant a right of
property in the soil to them or to persons of other descriptions.
I think it unnecessary to enter into any discussion of the
1 See Section 383 of the Minute 2 Minute of December, 1789.
of the i8th June, 1789 (Fifth Report}.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 52 T
grounds on which their right appears to be founded. It is the
most effectual mode for promoting the general improvement that I
look upon as the important object for our present consideration1.'
§ 10. Decision of the Court of Directors.
With all these minutes and views before them, the Court of
Directors came to a conclusion ; and their final orders will
naturally be regarded as of first-rate importance 2.
After stating that they had previously stated their views,
but always felt that the materials were insufficient for a
decisive opinion, the Court of Directors go on to say : —
' On the fullest consideration, .we are inclined to think that,
whatever doubts may exist with respect to their original
character, whether as proprietors of land or collectors of reve-
nue, or with respect to the changes which may in process of
time have taken place in their situation, there can, at least, be
little difference of opinion as to the actual condition of the
Zamindars under the Mughal government. Custom generally
gives them a certain species of hereditary occupancy, but the
sovereign nowhere appears to have bound himself by any law
or covenant not to deprive them of it ; and the rents to be paid
by them remained always to be fixed by his arbitrary will and
pleasure, which were constantly exercised upon this object.
If considered, therefore, as right of property, it was very im-
perfect, very precarious, having not at all, or but in a very
small degree, those qualities that confer independence and
value upon the landed property of Europe. Though such be
our ultimate views of this question, our originating a system
of fixed equitable taxation will sufficiently show that our inten-
tion has not been to act upon the high tone of Asiatic despotism.
We are, on the contrary, for establishing real, permanent,
valuable landed rights in our provinces, and for conferring
such rights upon the Zamindars ; but it is just that the nature
of the concession should be known, and that our subjects
should see they receive from the enlightened principles of a
British Government what they never enjoyed under their
own3.'
1 Fifth Report, vol. i. 591, quoted in tember, 1792, quoted by Dr. Field.
Phillips, p. 276. 3 Those who wish for further de-
2 General letter, dated i9th Sep- tails will do well to consult the
522 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK it,
§ ii. Reasons for the difference of opinion as to the
Real Status of the Zam{nddr.
It will thus be easy to see how, by singling out and
fixing the attention on certain undoubted features of the
farming system, we can argue (and that conclusively) that
the ' Zaminddr ' was originally only a revenue-farmer and
an official. On the other hand, by doing the same in
respect of other features, especially in the history of those
Zamindars who were local chiefs and had been rulers under
a previous organization, but who were employed in a sort
of official capacity by the Mughal conquerors, we can, with
equaj justice, argue that the Zamindar was nearer a land-
lord (in our sense) than anything else. Had the Settlement
been made by Mr. Holt Mackenzie in 1822, instead of
under Mr. Shore in 1789, it is probable that the variety of
status would have found recognition. Some Zamindars of
the old stock would certainly have been allowed as pro-
prietors, and the villages protected by a sub-settlement >
others would have been merely allowed a cash malikana.
But, perhaps, in so saying, I am not allowing sufficiently
for the fusing and equalizing influence of time; and
that really all had come to be very much alike. However
that may be, certainly no one in 1790 Dreamt of making
any difference. To find a general rule for all, was what
was contemplated ; and this leads me to repeat that what
our administrators of 1790 had to do, was not to determine
a historical and accurate theory of the Zamindar' s position,
but to take facts as they found them after a century and a
half of growth and development, and to confer on the
Zamindars such a position as was best, not with reference
to what they once were, but with what they had then prac-
tically become, when the prescription of years, I might say
of generations, had covered original acts of illegality or
usurpation.
opinions of the Judges declared in plementary vol. 204). A good ab-
1865 in the case known as the Great stract will be found in Phillips,
Bent Case (Beng. Law Reports, sup- p. 312 seq.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 523
It is very easy to write that the authors of the Perma-
nent Settlement, with a few strokes of the pen, converted
Muhammadan tax-gatherers into landed proprietors, and
phrases of that sort ; but they are far too summary to be
accurate or just.
Moreover, from the authoritative declarations which I
have above cited, it must certainly appear that no one
intended to make the Zamfndar an absolute owner of any-
thing, but to give him a certain estate in land (which is
juristically a different thing), and that limited by a due
observance of the rights of subordinate holders and cul-
tivators. If, in effect, he got more than was intended, that
was because the steps taken" to secure the inferior rights
were ineffective ; it was not because the authorities were
wrong in the view they took of the Zamindar's position.
§ 12. Modern legal view of the Zamindar's Title.
The actual right of the landlord, as it now exists, is an
estate in the soil certainly less than a ' fee-simple ' of
English law, but freely heritable and alienable and avail-
able for mortgage, sale, gift, or bequest. It is, however,
limited by the rights of tenure-holders and raiyats (i. e.
tenants), when they possess such under the Tenancy Law,
or other special law applicable to the case. And, of course,
it is limited (like all other rights in revenue-paying lands)
by the Government right to its revenue and the right of
sale in case of default to make good, at due date, the full
amount of that revenue1. The original intention most
probably was to limit the landlord's demands on the
raiyats much more than the later laws limited them. But
there is no clear decision traceable as to whether all
'raiyats' (or any but a small class) were intended to
1 Mr. Justice Macpherson put it intended to be, the absolute pro-
well when he said in the Eent Case prietor of the soil .... for certain
(p. 214), ' As regards the legislation classes of raiyats have at all times
from 1793 to Act X of 1859, it, in my had rights quite inconsistent with
opinion, shows clearly that the [his] absolute ownership.'
Zamindar never was, and was never
524 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
remain on for ever at fixed rents, or whether their rents
could be raised from time to time. Sometimes we meet
with expressions that imply the former or something like
it ; at other times with expressions that imply that rents
(or some rents) may be altered and tenants evicted. And
the legal powers actually put into the hands of the pro-
prietors were such as to enable them in practice both
to enhance and to evict ; it soon came to be looked on as
a matter of course, that in most cases, they had the full
powers of an English landlord. Then came the revulsion
of feeling which led to the legislation of 1859, and ulti-
mately to that of 1885; but meanwhile the prescriptive
position which had been growing steadily during seventy
years, was so strong, that opinions were much divided, and
the difficulty of legislating completely on the subject became
enormous.
SECTION III. — OTHER PKOPEIETAEY TENUBES.
I have mentioned that revenue-managing grants were
not always of the rank or extent implied by the title
Zamindar. Such minor landholders were allowed (by
sanad or otherwise) an undefined position of the same
kind but of lesser importance, and were called taluqdars —
holders of taluqs, i. e. ' dependencies.' Degrees of import-
ance were marked by the fact that some were allowed to
pay direct to the Treasury, while others were made to pay
through a Zamindar.
§ i. Taluqddrs. — Holders of ' Taluq Estates!
Who were the persons so recognized? Some no doubt
were persons who by ancient possession, or grant of the
Rajas, or by purchase, had become landholders in some
sense, and being recognized by the Muhammadan governors,
got vaguely entitled 'taluqdars.' Mr. Grant mentions
that such taluqdars existed by royal grant in Bengal near
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 525
Murshidabad and Hughli, and that they were rich or
favoured persons who, desiring to be free from the inter-
ference of revenue-agents and Zamindars, obtained grants
for which they often paid a consideration or fee.
A number of such taluqdars may have existed before the
date of the Zamindarf , others arose as fragments of a larger
estate of which the holders managed to get themselves
recognized as separate landholders1. In that case they were
' independent,' — that is, outside the Zamindari estate of
anyone, — and were called ' huziiri ' or 'kharija': (huzuri,
i. e. paying to the huziir or headquarter treasury ; ' kharij '
means outside)2. But many of the smaller taluqs were
either holdings which were not strong enough to prevent
their being absorbed into Zamindaris, or else had been tenures
granted on favourable terms to conciliate influential per-
sons,— or merely to save trouble, by the Zamindar himself
or some State official. These were called 'mazkuri,' or
' dependent ' taluqs. They paid their fixed revenue through
the Zamindar, and were not liable to many of the inter-
ferences which mere tenants were subjected to. It was
a question of the facts and merits of each case at Settle-
ment, what taluqs were of one class or the other. If in-
dependent, they were allowed to hold a separate Settlement
and were full proprietors ; if dependent, they became
' tenures ' under the landlord, however privileged in regard
to fixity of holding or rent. I have already alluded to the
rules in Regulation VIII of 1793 (page 411-13) for settling
the question whether the taluq was a proprietorship or an
under-tenure. Independent holdings were not always large
1 E.g in the 24-Pergunnahs I find the ' nawara ' estate in Jasiir (Statis-
it noticed that the estates had been tical Account, vol. ii. p. 263 \ This
much broken up and portions sepa- consisted of some 1 1 76 holdings of
rated or sold, or gifted. When the land (scattered over the district")
decennial Settlement came on, all treated as a sort of jagir in the
estates that paid R. 5,000 revenue Mughal days, their revenue being
and more were called 'Zamindaris,' set apart for the maintenance of a
and those paying less were called river fleet. They were not of course
'taluqs.' (Statistical Account of Bengal, included in any Zamindari; the
vol. i. p. 262.) holders fell into arrears and were
8 A good instance of the way in sold up, and the purchasers became
which estates might become 'inde- 'independent taluqdars,' or petty
pendent ' is afforded by the case of proprietors holding the Settlement.
526 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
ones. Mr. Harington quotes a case in Bhagalpur where
the headmen of villages — ' muqaddams,' as they were called
— had succeeded in working themselves into the position of
proprietorship, and the Courts decided in their favour,
separating them from the Zamindaris. They were called
' malik-muqaddam ' (proprietary-headman) and treated as
' actual proprietors ' entitled to Settlement under Sections
4 and 5 of Regulation VIII of 1793. Here the muqad-
dams put forward ' bills of sale ' to account for their rights,
while the other side was a Zamindar who had risen to this
rank from being the ' chaudhari ' of the parganas 1.
It was not always necessary that an estate which hap-
pened to be called ' taluq ' in the Revenue-language of the
day, should be held under a distinct grant. In the Fifth
Report 2 a curious account of the Monghyr district is given,
which well illustrates how taluqs might come into exist-
ence. Tradition asserted that on the Emperor Humayun
appearing at Monghyr (at the time of the Mughal conquest)
two Rajputs, Hira Ram and Ram Rai, obtained the appoint-
ment of chaudhari ; and they ultimately became Zamindars.
But the possession was regarded as a family right, and was
divided up, exactly on the principles that any single ances-
tral village would be. ' Ha veil Munger,' as the district was
then called, was divided into eleven ' tarf ' or divisions, for
five sons of Hira Ram, and six of Ram Rai. Of the latter,
two had passed out of the family. Each of the ' tarfs ' was
further divided among the descendants of each branch, and
the holdings formed so many taluq estates. Some of them
gradually passed into the hands of other families. A
1 It is probable that these ' mu- ' chaudharis ' or State officers, as
qaddams ' were really minor chiefs having ridden on horseback clad in
or scions of families who had once armour or clothed in rich dresses,
either ruled or had obtained ' birts' till the tyranny of Sultan 'Ala-ud-din
or grants from the Kaja, and then, (fourteenth century) reduced them
dividing up the estate, had come to to being mere raiyats.'
hold each one or two or more vil- 2 Vol. i. pp. 211-14. The account
lages of which they long regarded is full of misprints, but is very
themselves as the landlords. The curious ; it is followed by an ac-
judgment of the Court quotes Fe- count of the assessment and the
rishta's history, which alludes to various allowances to be made,
these ' muqaddams ' as well as the
CHAP, m.] THE LAND-TENUEES. 527
number of these taluqs, proprietary, were formed into
separate estates as small ' Zamindaris.'
Under the head of taluq estates I may also mention the
' invalid jagirs ' found in this same Bhagulpur district (see
Regulation I of 1804). They were grants — now perma-
nently-settled estates — made out of waste land to pensioned
or invalided soldiers of the Company's army. It is in-
teresting to note that at the time the 'Zamfndars' protested.
Whether or not these lands (in the Kalgaon or Colgong
pargana) were really included in the known limits of any
Zaminddjri I cannot ascertain ; but, on the supposition that
the Zamindar was a mere revenue collector, his protest
against the grant of certain lands and their revenue (and of
course the revenue would be deducted from any demand
made against the Zamindar) would be preposterous.
In Chittagong, as in Sylhet also, the nature of the
country was unfavourable to the formation of large estates
which absorbed all the essentials of proprietorship ; and
there we find that the heads of parties of settlers were
regarded as ' actual proprietors ' though the estates were
'taluqs.' But I shall best describe the land system of
Chittagong in a separate section.
The above are the estates — all known as taluqs — such as
were allowed to be proprietary., and therefore mentioned
here. Taluqs that were 'dependent,' and only formed
'tenures' will be dealt with further on: and it will be
found (in their case) the taluq is only one of quite a
number of local names.
This will serve as a caution, and prevent confusion in
the mind of the reader.
SECTION IV. — LAKHIRAJ OR REVENUE-FREE HOLDINGS.
We have already noticed, from the Settlement-point of
view, how the Collectors had to deal with tenures claimed
by persons who were, or professed to be, grantees of land
free of revenue ; and we found that many of such grants
were irregular or were wholly invalid. We have now to
528 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
examine them from the land-tenure point of view. In
early times the grants could only be made by the Emperor.
or by recommendation of a few of the most important local
authorities ; in after-days all sorts of authorities used to
make them. In speaking of the Settlement, we have already
seen how the Regulations dealt with these cases ; and that
rules were laid down for testing the validity of the royal
(badshahi) and subordinate authorities (non-badshahi or
hukami) grants. Whether valid and left revenue-free, or
invalid and therefore assessed to revenue, the holders were
regarded as the proprietors of the land, if that were the
intention of the grant, as determined, in the case of dispute,
by the Civil Court. Whether it was so, depended on the
circumstances. For example, the grant may have remitted
the revenue on a man's own holding, or on land (unoc-
cupied) granted to the holder ; in that case, the grant was
originally called 'milk' (ownership grant), or later 'mu'afi,'
and constituted a clear form of property, because the
Government had then no concern with the land, either
with the soil or the revenue on it. But in many cases, as
with jagirs, it often happened that the grant was merely
of the revenues realisable from lands already held by other
persons ; but even in such cases, in the course of time, the
grantee might have so developed his position as to become
virtually landlord. A great portion of the estate may have
been waste, and by his exertions brought under the plough ;
he may have bought lands, or ousted the original holders
for default, and so forth.
As a matter of fact, I believe I am right in saying, that
in Bengal the ' freehold ' estates were, or had come to be, all
or mostly, proprietary, whatever they might once have
been. The grantee would become landlord by the same
influences as caused the growth of the Zamindar.
§ i. Jdgirddrs.
The institution of the jagir (jai-gir= place-holder) was
essentially a Muhammadan one, but was not dissimilar to
CHAP, m.] THE LAND-TENURES. 529
the position occupied by Hindu chiefs in frontier territory.
In effect, when a tract of country was distant from head-
quarters and troublesome to manage, the State would
appoint a jagirdar, who would collect and appropriate the
revenues, and in return keep the country in order and
maintain a body of troops for local or other service. From
the Ayin-i-Akbari we learn that it was a regular part of
the Mughal system to make life-grants of this kind to
nobles and courtiers for the maintenance of their state,
with a more or less nominal claim to service in return.
In Bengal, however, jagirs were rare. Mr. Grant, in 1797,
said he only knew of three or four. But the old proprietary
Hindu chieftains were stronger in Bihar, and many jagirs
were there granted, besides other revenue-free gifts.
The jagir was originally only a life-grant l. Hereditary
nobles did not exist under the Mughal Empire ; the Em-
peror made and unmade dignities at will. When he wished
to confer a dignity, he appointed the person as mansabddr
of a certain rank, which was estimated according to the
number of horsemen he commanded ; the jagir was an
appanage to the grant of a mansab, and the revenue was
appropriated both for the support of the grantee and the
maintenance of his troops, which might be from ten to ten
thousand. At first the official forms of appointment were
minute and carefully followed out. Mr. Shore gives a very
detailed account of how the jagirs were granted2. This
will be found in extenso in Harington (chapter on Rights of
Landholders). I have said that at first jagirs were granted
only by the Emperor or on recommendation of the governors
of the most important of the distant provinces, as Kabul,
Bengal, and the Dakhan. In the times of the decline,
however, all sorts of local governors granted them 3.
Clearly, under such grants, the jagirdar was not in any
1 Harington, vol. iii. 361, 413. classified, in the State accounts, as
Baillie's Land-Tax, xxiv, xxv. (i) available for grant (paibaki), or
2 Minute on Eights and Privileges of (2] charged with the king's revenues
Jdffirddrs (April and, 1788, the same (khalsa muqarrari).
date as the minute so often referred ;< Jagirs were often granted in
to). In the best days of the Mughal mere notes addressed to the local
rule, the whole of the districts were officials called ' tankhwa.'
VOL. I. Mm
530 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK H.
sense proprietor of the land. Indeed, he was not allowed
to collect more from it than the actual amount assigned
according to his grade and the terms of the sanad ; and
had to account for all the surplus or ' tauf ir.' In course of
time, however, the precautions and rules fell into abeyance,
and the jagirdar was allowed to do much as he pleased ;
and then too it happened that the grant was not resumed
on the death of the holder, as it ought to have been, and
soon became hereditary. In short, the grantee in time
came to be looked on as proprietor, unless there was any
holder on the land strong enough to maintain his own posi-
tion. The Regulations accordingly declared that the terms
of the grant should be looked to, and that a jagir was not
to be assumed to be a life-grant if the intention appeared
that it should be hereditary1,
§ 2. Other Grants. — Altamghd; aimd; Madad-ma'dsh.
Besides the jagir grants, which were eventually connected
with military or State service of some kind, there were
several other grants which involved the remission of the
revenue, and in time came to constitute actual estates in
land. One such revenue-free grant, or rather an assignment
of the revenue of cultivated land, was called altamgha —
grant by the royal seal or stamp (tamgha). The term was
applied to any grant which was permanent and not re-
vocable (except in case of misconduct 2), and therefore
hereditary. The grant of the ' Diwani ' to the East India
Company was called an ' altamgha ' ; 3 where granted (as in
Bihar) on estates already in the hands of a landholder, the
grantee ousted the existing landlord, but felt obliged to pay
him ' malikana.' This illustrates what I just now remarked
about the growth of grantees.
Another was the ' madad-ma'ash ' — which was a ' milk '
grant (i.e. included the soil ownership). As its name im-
plies (help to livelihood), it was a subsistence grant, perhaps
1 See, for example, Section 2, 2 Colebrooke's Supplement, p. 238.
Regulation XIX, 1793. 3 Phillips, p. 199.
CHAP. III.] THE LAND-TENURES. 531
on condition of some service, but ordinarily to pious and
religious persons ; and it was hereditary. Mr. Phillips, on
the authorities quoted in his note J, says the grant was in
practice revocable at the will of the sovereign.
It was always a proper thing to make grants to Sayyids
and holy or learned men of family ; and the class of grant
made for this purpose was, in the official language of the
Empire, called ' suyur-ghal.' These grants were assign-
ments of revenue only, not conditional on service, and
were originally for life 2. They were made by order or
'tankhwa,' and very naturally became hereditary, as the
son was likely to follow the condition and vocation of his
father. To the same class belonged another kind of grant
known as ' aima.' But it seems that there were ' aima '
grants which included the land also, and then there were
' milk,' not ' suyiir-ghal ' grants. We hear also of ' aima '
grants given with a view to encourage the cultivation of
the waste, and these were proprietary grants. They were
sometimes merely holdings at a low or privileged rate of
revenue payment, and were then called ' malguzari aima 3.'
§ 3. Minor Service Tenures.
I may include in this section some mention of a numerous
class of tenures which here (as in other provinces) were either
wholly free from revenue charge, or else assessed at a quit-
rent. I allude to the ' chakaran ' lands, by which village
servants, the watchmen, the Zamindar's guards, and others,
were remunerated. A number of these were petty grants,
and became subordinate tenures under the landlord, but it
will be well to notice them here. They are all conditional
on performing service. The nankdr or ' bread-lands ' of the
Zamindars were originally of this kind. Mr. Phillips says
that there were 150,000 petty officers of all kinds — kanun-
gos, headmen, patwaris, guards and watchmen, &c., remu-
nerated in this way 4. In some cases the lands, though
1 P. 197. 3 Harington, ii. 65.
a Baillie, Land-Tax, xlviii. * See Phillips, p. 208.
M m 2
532 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
hereditary, were not allowed to be divided; so that the
person who actually did the duty, enjoyed the holding.
Ghdtwdl lands were holdings of this kind — an institution
which originated probably in the earliest times and was
adopted by all classes of rulers. They were in fact a kind
of jagir created in frontier territories, so that the holders
might be ' wardens of the marches.' In such territories
there often were hill-passes (hence the name ghdt-wdl), and
incursions were to be feared from wild tribes inhabiting
the hill country beyond, or from robbers who would make
the inaccessible jungles their haunt. The State granted
lands to be held free on condition of guarding the passes.
In Bengal these holdings appear to have originated in
Birbhum. They occur also in Bankura, Manbhiim, &C.1,
and we shall make a more detailed study of them here-
after.
SECTION V. — PROPRIETARY TENURES OF MODERN ORIGIN.
§ i. Waste Land Estates.
I have already given the chief results of the ' Waste Land
Rules,' and therefore here, in an enumeration of tenures, I
have only need to recall the fact that out-and-out grants,
whether with the revenue redeemed or not, may constitute
a class of modern proprietary tenures. Many rights under
Waste Land Rules, especially those designed for petty cul-
tivators, as opposed to capitalists, are not proprietary but
cultivating or lessees' rights under Government.
§ a. Proprietary Tenures with reference to the Settlement.
Connecting the various forms of proprietary rights in
land with the different Settlement laws, I may briefly
1 And Regulation XXIX of 1814 ferable and heritable, and fixing the
relates to the Birbhum ' Ghatwal rent in perpetuity.
Mahals/ declaring the estates trans-
CHAP, m.] THE LAND-TENURES. 533
observe that any proprietary estate may be, according to
circumstances —
(1) Permanently settled ;
(2) Temporarily settled, as in Orissa ; or in Bengal,
wherever the original estate permanently-settled
did not include the land in question, as in the
case of excess waste.
(3) Not settled, by reason of the proprietor's refusal to
accept the terms of Settlement : here the property
is not lost, but the management is, for a term.
SECTION VI.^-' TENURES.'
§ i. How they arose.
I have already explained that the long-continued rule of
the Muhammadan power tended gradually to overlay and
ultimately to obliterate the original tenures, with the
result that, in process of time, the chief proprietary tenures
came to be those of the Zamindar, the larger taluqdars,
jagirdars, and grantees, who, under the terms of the Per-
manent Settlement Law, retained sufficient importance to
be called and treated as, separate ' actual proprietors.' It
follows almost necessarily, that there were a number of
smaller tenures, — those of headmen who had obtained
favourable tenures of lands, of ancient holders of land, of
grantees who failed to resist the absorbing influence of the
greater landholders, but who managed to retain a certain
degree of recognition as ' dependent ta]uqdars,' or other-
wise,— all of whom became tenure-holders or subordinate
holders under the recognized landlord. I have also quoted
authoritative opinion to show (what might be expected)
that when once those subordinate holders descend to the
position of tenure-holders, it is impossible to draw any
hard-and-fast line between them and the persons who have
no pretension at all to proprietary right, and are therefore
simply ' tenants.'
But every case stands on its own history and merits, and
534 LAJtt) SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK rr.
therefore there are special provisions of law by which
persons having certain facts found in their favour, are
1 tenure-holders,' not tenants.
§ 2. Classification of ' Tenures'
A very large class of land interests in Bengal is repre-
sented by the ' tenures ' of this secondary order. For the
purposes of treatment I can best classify them as (A) taluqs
and other tenures of a heritable and transferable character,
with or without absolute fixity of rent ; these being of
small area, or otherwise by their nature, were not recog-
nized as separate, but remained < dependent ' or subordinate
to some larger proprietor. It is impossible to separate
these accurately, as to origin. Some of them may have
been distinctly created by the Zamindar since Settlement ;
others existed from before that date. If so, they are often
relics of former proprietary right. Even when traceable
to a grant of some preceding Zamindar, they yet may be
really due to an ancient proprietorship, which the strong
fetters of custom had induced the Zamindar to recognize
(not eo nomine but) by granting a ' taluq.'
(B) In a second group I place tenures which arise from
the desire of the Zamindar to improve his estate by extend-
ing his income— the large margin between the taxed revenue
and the possible rental,— and at the same time to divest
himself of the trouble and responsibility of direct manage-
ment. But such farming-tenures are not only due to the
desire to save trouble, they are often advantageous when
the landlord has no taste or capacity for estate manage-
ment, and the employment of an energetic lessee will
develop the capabilities of the estate.
When the farming-lessee manages well, he secures ex-
tended cultivation, founds new villages, and otherwise
increases the rental (very harshly, it is feared, in some
cases) ; and that being so, the margin between his contract
sum with the Zamindar and the collections becomes so large,
that he can afford, as time goes on, to retire and to be con-
CHAP, m.] THE LAND-TENURES. 535
tent with a portion ; he therefore, in his turn, gives up the
trouble of management, and subleases to another contractor.
More frequently, however, when there is much waste, the
lessee is unable to bring the whole under cultivation, and
so he sub-farms a portion with a view to more rapid ex-
tension of cultivation. In any case it often happens that
the sub-lessee shares his liability with another, and yet
another ' sub-sub-lessee.' This is what is meant by the
' sub-infeudation ' spoken of in revenue reports.
(C) A third and important class of tenures has arisen —
especially in Eastern Bengal and in the districts containing
' Sundarban ' tracts — out of grants and contracts (sometimes
antecedent to the year 1793), for clearing and reclaiming
the waste. In the native mind, first clearing of the waste
gives one of the strongest titles to permanent right in the
cultivation, and it is not surprising that this sentiment
should have given rise to many tenures, with (as usual)
tenures under them created by ' sub-infeudation.'
(D) Lastly, as we find ' lakhiraj ' (revenue-free] rights
giving rise to estates of the first or proprietary order, so
in the same way less important rent-free holdings, though
remaining included within proprietary estates, have become
' tenures ' of essentially the same origin. Village service
grants, and especially grants in aid of temple-worship
and for the support of holy men, represent this familiar
class.
§ 3. Absence of the Sub-proprietor or ' Proprietor of the
holding' found in other Provinces.
It will be noticed that in Bengal we have nothing of the
' (sub- or) under-proprietor,' the man who is complete owner
as far as his personal holding is concerned, but 'has no
interest in the general profits of the estate. There is
nothing like the ' malik-maqbuza ' of Upper or Central
India, in theory ; though where a tenure-holder has a fixed
rent, his position is, qua his holding, about as good as a
separate proprietorship ; especially when, by registration or
536 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
otherwise, his tenure is protected from being annulled on
the sale of the superior estate for revenue arrears.
§ 4. Difficulty of separating ' Tenures.'
The terms adopted are ' tenure-holder ' (or sometimes
in books) under-tenure-holder.' It will be interesting
to the student here to turn to the Acts and compare
the definition of ' tenure ' in the Recovery of Arrears
Act (B. VII of 1868), and in Section 5, clause I, of the
Tenancy Act, 1885. But here I must add a word of
apology. In dividing rights into tenures and raiyafs
tenancies, it is hardly possible to escape the criticism
that some rights which I have treated as tenures,
ought to be regarded rather as occupancy-tenancies. I
believe that absolute accuracy in drawing a line between
the two is unattainable. The framers of the Act have not
pretended that their definition is exhaustive. The Com-
mission said that it was impossible ' to discover any prin-
ciple of distinction between raiyats and tenure-holders or
under-tenure-holders, which will hold good universally or
even in a large majority of cases1.' Actual cultivation is
not a test, for a tenure-holder (like a small proprietor) may
cultivate the fields himself, while a ' tenant' may have sub-
let the whole holding. The same would apply to the act of
' receiving rents ' — the tenure-holder may be receiving rent
from a sub-lessee in actual occupation. So some tenant
rights are heritable, as much as in a tenure. Some tenant
rights are also transferable, and saleable in execution of a
decree for arrears. It is equally impossible to refer to the
amount of rent payable, for some tenures are extremely
petty, and some raiyat holdings pay considerable sums.
Act vin The Act, however, has given some assistance by enacting that
sec 5ci l°cal custom and the purpose for which the right was origin -
4? 5- ally acquired, have to be looked to, and that where the
holding exceeds 100 bighas (Bengal standard), the legal pre-
sumption is that it is a tenure till the contrary is shown.
1 The whole passage may be read at page 23 of R. and F. Tenancy Act.
CHAP. III.]
THE LAND-TENTJBES.
537
In these pages I shall follow the Act in treating all
persons under the proprietor as equally ' tenants ' in class.
But, to avoid confusion, we describe separately the ' tenure-
holders ' and the raiyats 1. The distinction is of some im-
portance, because tenure-holders are only liable to enhance-
ment of their rent under very limited circumstances, which
will be noticed hereafter. The tenure may be also per-
manent by law or by contract (as the case may be), and if
permanent it is transferable and can be bequeathed like any
other immoveable property, subject to certain provisions of
the law.
§ 5. Remarks on the variety of local names for Tenures
of the same kind.
One other difficulty remains to be noted, and that is the
tendency to give different names to tenures and forms of
lease, although there is really nothing essentially different.
In so far as the variety is due to locality and change of
dialect, it is of course not to be wondered at. What is
called ' jot ' in Kangpur may be called ' ganthi ' in Jessore,
and so forth. But it will often be observed that in an
elementary stage of civilization, languages are as rich in
terms distinguishing things that need no such discrimina-
tion, as they are poor in terms for things and for con-
ceptions that really do differ. In English, for example, we
are contented with one word ' bracelet ' for all ornaments
of that class ; or one word ' earring ' for any ornament for
the ear. Not so in the vernacular dialects ; there are dozens
of words for each kind and shape of bracelet or earring ; —
the pattern of ornamentation, or the number of stones set,
often sufficing to alter the name of the article. And so it
1 In a case reported in Calcutta
Law Reports, IX. 449, the Court said :
' The only test of a raiyat's interest
is to see in what condition the land
was when the tenancy was created.
If raiyats were already in possession
of the land, and the interest created
was a right, not to the actual phy-
sical possession of the land, but to
collect the rents from the raiyats,
the interest is not raiyati (in other
words it is a 'tenure'). It is un-
fortunate that the use of the words
' tenure,' ' a tenure/ &c., is not uni-
form or precise in judgments and
references. There is no remedy :
all we can do here is to adopt the
language of the Act and adhere
to it.
538 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
is with tenures: a slight difference in the conditions of
holding, in the rate or method of rent-payment, or in the
fact that the area is measured or not, will give rise to a new
name, as if the tenure itself were different. This gives at
first sight an air of mystery and complexity to Bengal
' tenures ' which they do not really possess l.
(A) TENURES DERIVED FROM ANCIENT RIGHTS.
§ 6. Dependent Taluqs.
As all the estates separated at the Permanent Settlement
from Zamindaris and originally called taluqs (huzuri or
kharija2) are now landlord estates, the term 'taluq' at the
present day is a restricted term, very vague, but always
implying a subordinate tenure. In popular language, such
a ' taluqdar ' is said to be ' shiknii ' (shikm, the belly — one
within the other).
The tenure may be under a private proprietor, or, as in
the taluqs of Eastern Bengal, may be under Government
itself as proprietor.
Those dependant taluqs which have been in existence
from the time of the Permanent Settlement, are not liable to
be cancelled if the estate to which they are subordinate is
sold for the recovery of arrears of revenue. They are herit-
able and transferable. The rent at which they are held
cannot be enhanced except upon proof3 (i) of a special
right by custom to enhance, or (2) of a right appearing
from the conditions of the grant, or (3) that the taluqdar,
by accepting abatements, has (impliedly) subjected himself
to increase ; — if the lands are capable of affording it. If the
rent has never been changed since the Permanent Settle-
ment, it cannot now be enhanced ; and in order to relieve
1 For example, in Tipperah I find ' muqarrari,' ' qaimi,' &c. — all these
about sixty names for tenures or words signifying, not any real differ-
under- tenures in proprietary estates; ence of kind, but some incidental
one of these kinds — the taluq — is condition or feature attaching to
distinguished as 'mushakhsi' (lump- the terms of the tenure,
rent for the whole), Hakhsisi ' (par- a See pp. 411-13.
ticularizing rents), ' chauhaddi,' s See Tenancy Act, 1885, chapter iii.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 539
the tenure-holder to some extent from the difficulty of
giving proof extending over a period of so many years, the
law provides that if it be proved that the rent has not been
changed for tiventy years, it shall be presumed, until the
contrary be shown, that the tenure has been held at the
same rent since the Permanent Settlement.
§ 7. Guzdslita holdings.
Among taluqs which represent a vestige of old proprietary
right, I mentioned as a characteristic example, those known
as 'guzashta jot' in the Shahabad district. It is not neces-
sary now to allude to the difference of opinion that once
existed, for there can hardly be a reasonable doubt that
the term 'guzashta,' which (in Persian) indicates something
' lost ' or ' passed away,' refers to a proprietary right once
held. Most of Bihar, as already stated, was held by small
proprietors, who were descendants of military retainers and
minor chiefs under the old Hindu kings ; in many cases
one of the family (or perhaps more than one jointly) suc-
ceeded in getting recognized at the Permanent Settlement ;
or else were found to have lost all their rights, except the
malikana payment l. In Shahabad, landlords of this class
were found too strong to be put aside with a mere malikana
allowance, and yet (from causes which we cannot now
ascertain) were not considered entitled to an independent
Settlement. They were placed under the great Zamindar
of Dumraon, but so as to become tenure-holders at fixed
rates ; and this is now their true position : they are not
mere occupancy raiyats 2. It is quite clear that their
position has nothing to do with any artificial rule under
Act X of 1859, or any other law creating occupancy
rights.
1 In this fact the reader will re- the ancient title, and he pays mdli-
cognize another proof of the strength kdna accordingly,
of those old claims by virtue of con- 2 Cotton's Memorandum on Tenures,
quest, which the descendants of the and Board's Letter to Government of
chiefs call ' birthright.' Though Bengal, No. 1024 A, dated 22nd Do-
overridden, the incoming landlord cember, 1883.
is obliged to give some recognition to
540 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 8. Fixed-rent Tenures.
Under this class I may consider the ' istimrari,' the ' mu-
qarrari,' and ' mauriisi ' tenures existing from before the
Permanent Settlement. These Persian names have been
noticed before : they give no clue to origin, and only
describe certain incidental features ; but it may be reason-
ably supposed that they originated in some closer and
hereditary connection with the land, either independent of
any contract with the Zamindar, or such as to have won
recognition in the shape of a special lease or tenure from
the local authorities.
Properly speaking, ' istimrari ' refers to the stable or per-
petual nature of the tenure, which is not voidable when the
estate is sold for arrears. ' Muqarrari ' refers to the rent
being 'fixed'; and a tenure might be either istimrdri or
muqarrari, or, more commonly, both. ' Maurusi ' merely
means that the tenure is hereditary, and implies nothing
about the fixity of rent. ' Miras l ' leases (miras is only
another grammatical form from the same root as maur&si)
are also found in Dacca and Eastern Bengal.
When such tenures are of modern creation, they are
sometimes found to have been created in favour of relatives
of the landlord's family, or to settle old claims by way of
compromise 2.
In Rangpur and the adjacent Kiich Bihar territory, a
tenure of this class called ' upanchaki ' is found ; it is a
perpetual holding for religious services at a small rent.
The ' upanchaki ' tenure of Rangpur is said to be the
creation of the Zamindar, and is the collective name for
lands granted for the worship of deities, the keeping of
lamps at shrines, &c., &c., under the well-known names of
debottar, pirpal, chiraghi, shibottar (see p. 542). They pay
1 We shall again notice the term istimrari tenures to ghatwals (p.
* miras ' in Sylhet, and in other parts 532) under him, in order to settle
of Bengal. a dispute ; and he revoked the con-
2 Mr. Cotton mentions that Eaja dition of service, which of course
Silanand Singh, of Bhagalpur, attached to the ghdtwcU tenure as
granted a number of muqarrari- such.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 541
a nominal quit-rent [perhaps connected with the ' fifth '
(panchak) of the produce], are hereditary and transferable.
If liable (rarely) to enhancement of rent, they are distin-
guished as 'niajkuri1.'
In the Bhagalpur division I find references to a tenure
called ' ghorabandi V
In not a few districts I find mention of a great variety of
' taluqs ' and ' mirasi ' (hereditary) tenures, distinguished by
various names, which, however, mean nothing more than
that there is some condition attached to their recognition
by the landlord, or some special feature in their origin or
terms.
In Tipperah, for instance, there is the 'zimma-miras,' which
means a tenure held originally by one person but made
over in charge (zimma) to another ; the ' az-musbakhsi
mirds' or ' specific,' is a tenure recognized after measurement
and assessment. There are also many tenures compounded
with the now familiar term taluq ; e. g. there is the
' takhsisi,' which means that the landlord has reserved the
right to test and measure the area and reassess it at some
future time. ' Tashkhisi,' again, means a taluq recognized
after measurement. ' Bandobasti ' taluq, is one granted
after measurement and making out an account of expenses,
allowance for ' malikana/ &c., and determining the resulting
payment as rent.
All these details sound very complicated, but in reality
indicate nothing that affects the nature of the tenure. To
recur to the illustration already used (p. 537) of the
variety of native terms for ornaments of different forms,
these separately-named tenures are on the same footing.
They are really no more difficult to understand, than would
be the case if our language used a separate name for a lease
with repairs and for a lease without repairs, or a lease ter-
minable with notice, and a lease for a fixed period.
1 Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. a definite area, whether cultivated
vii. p. 278. or not ; but it is not enumerated in
4 It is stated that this means a the Statistical Account of Bengal (vol.
tenure where the rent is payable for xiv) as a ' tenure.'
542 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 9. Rent-free Tenures.
Just as Government has created certain revenue-free
estates, so the landlords have in turn allowed certain rent-
free tenures, known as ' brahmottar,' ' shibottar,' ' debottar,'
' piruttar,' and ' hazratdargah,' &c., i. e. lands devoted to the
worship of the deities, or to that of a saint (pir). They call
for no special remark. In the same way some service
tenures (chakdran) may exist under the Zamindars. Espe-
cially these will be noticed in the Santal Pergunnah,
Chutiya Nagpur, the Bardwan division, and in the Rang-
pur district J.
(B) TENUEES DUE TO THE DESIEE OF BEING
BELIEVED OF DIRECT MANAGEMENT.
§ 10. Origin of the Class.
These tenures are due partly to the desire of improving
the estates by handing them over to the more energetic
management which a lessee would give, and partly to the
effect of prosperity and the desire to be saved trouble. In
either case a time came when the landlords began to create
permanent subordinate-tenures ; by this means they escaped
not only the labour and risks attendant upon direct manage-
ment, but were successful in bringing large tracts of waste
land under cultivation. Many a Zamindar, who had no
taste for estate management, or had more land than he
could manage, would by a well-considered farm, or sub-
lease, greatly improve his income. Considerable portions
of estates have been thus conveyed, in perpetuity, by
Zamindars in consideration of a bonus paid down and of
a fixed annual rent. This rent is calculated so as to
leave to the lessee a margin of profit over and above the
sum payable to the Zamindar and the revenue payable to
1 The Deputy-Collector mentions grants of this class (see Statistical
that most of the. Zamindars re- Account, vol. vii. p. 283).
munerate village servants by small
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENTJEES. 543
Government — a margin which it depends on the lessee's
skill and ability to make more and more considerable 1.
§ ii. The Paint2.
The commonest tenure of this kind is now the ' pattani,'
or patni-taluq, as it is usually written. At first under the
Regulations, — for fear of endangering the power of paying
the land-revenue, — the Zamindars had been prohibited
from giving any lease for longer than ten years. This
provision was rescinded in 1812; and gradually the prac-
tice of granting long (or perpetual) managing leases or
farms, called patni, became so common, that it was not
only legalized by Regulation VIII of 1819, but special pro-
visions were made regarding it. The patni itself can be
protected by registration (as will presently be explained)
from being dissolved, should the Zamindar fall into arrears
to Government.
A patni-taluq is heritable and transferable, and all the
rights of the Zamindar are transferred by the grant. It is
held at a rent fixed in perpetuity. The holder is required
to furnish collateral security for payment, and for his conduct
generally, though he may be excused from this obligation at
the Zamindar's discretion. But even if the original holder is
excused, the Zamindar may require this security from any
1 Sometimes the creation of such disabled himself from paying the
farms has been the greatest benefit revenue. Fifty-two of these taluqs
to the estate : sometimes it is the are now recognized as valid. — (Sta-
resource of mere laziness, and of a tistical Account, vol. vi. p. 401.)
device to procure money at almost 2 Whence the patni derives its
any sacrifice. Thus, for example, name is uncertain. Wilson inclines
Government became the purchaser to connect it with ' patta,' a lease,
(for arrears) of fractional shares in Had the land been usually waste, it
the Bardhakat estate of Tipperah would have been natural to suggest
district (first, the '8-anna share' the Bengali word patten — colonizing
was sold, and then a ' 2-anna,-i3 or founding. Harington (vol. iii.
ganda,-i kara,-i kranti' share). The 519) says it means 'established or
details of the former management settled,' but gives no word in the
soon came out. The default had in vernacular ; and Wilson remarks
fact resulted from the fact that the that the term originated in the
Zamindar, to raise ready money, had estate of the Zamindar of Bard-
sold so many taluqs or under-farms wan, and soon became common in
for ' salami ' or fees paid down other districts. The meaning is
(which he squandered), that he had questionable.
544 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
new holder introduced by private transfer (by sub-infeuda-
tion as it is called), or by purchase at a sale of the patni
for arrears due under it. A patni-taluq is liable to sum-
mary sale, upon application to the Collector, if the rent is
not paid ; and this is allowed to be due twice in the year.
The effect of sale is similar to that of a revenue-paying
estate ; inasmuch as all leases granted and incumbrances
created by the defaulting patniddr are voidable by the
purchaser, who is entitled to take the estate in the condition
in which it was at the original creation of the patni.
Persons whose interests might suffer in this way by a sale,
are authorized to protect themselves by paying up the rent
due by the defaulting patniddr, and on doing so can claim
to be put in possession of the patni tenure in order to
recoup themselves. If they do not take this course, and
the patni tenure is sold, they can only claim to be com-
pensated out of any surplus which remains from the sale-
proceeds after satisfying the rent due to the Zamindar. If
they are unable to obtain compensation in this way, they
may bring an action for damages 1.
§ 12. Sub-letting, or ' Subinfeudation.'
The margin left to the patnidar is often so considerable
— that is to say, the capability of the estates for improve-
ment is such — that the patnidar can again divest himself
of the management, and content himself with a fixed sum,
sub-letting the actual rental to persons who are called
' darpatniddr ' or ' darpatni-taluqdar.' This is, however,
often done, not to save trouble, but simply because if there
is much waste, the charge may be more than the original
farm-holder can manage : and he at once sees the advantage
of giving out waste portions, or outlying blocks, to a sub-
lessee.
And another special feature in this tenure has to be noticed.
It is not only the whole or some specific lands forming part
1 For this account of the patni I am indebted to Mr. J. S. Cotton, C.S.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENUKES. 545
of the estate that are thus sub-let ; often a fractional share
of the whole estate (or of the first tenure) regarded as an
undivided unit, is thus granted.
Mr. Cotton writes : —
'These [dar-patnls or sub-farms] again are sometimes similarly
under-let to se-patnidars ; and the sub-letting in some instances
has continued several degrees lower. In some places there
are now as many as a dozen gradations between the Zamindar at
the top and the cultivator of the soil at the bottom. In these
alienations, the proprietors, as a rule, have made excellent
terms for themselves. It rarely happens that a patni is sub-let
otherwise than on payment of a bonus which discounts the
contingency of many years' increased rents. The descendants
of the grantor suffer by this arrangement ; because it is clear
that, if the bonus were not exacted, a higher rental could be
permanently obtained from the land. This circumstance has
not, however, had much practical weight with landholders.
And if the wide diffusion of the profits from land is in itself
a desirable thing in the interests of the community, the selfish-
ness of the landholding class is not, in this instance of it,
a subject for regret. In one respect, however, the cultivators of
the soil undeniably are placed at a disadvantage by the practice
of sub-letting ; for it is a peculiarity of the system that,
although these tenures and sub-tenures often comprise defined
tracts of land, a common custom is to sub-let certain aliquot
$hares of the whole superior tenure, and in consequence the
tenants in any particular village of an estate are often required
to pay their rents to two or more than two, and often to many
different landlords [tenure-holders]. The desirability of cor-
recting this state of things, so productive of confusion and of
hardship to the rent-payers, is admitted, but it is not easy to
find a remedy. The extent to which sub-infeudation has been
carried in some parts of the country, the minute subdivision of
shares1 which exists in other parts, the claims of individual
shareholders on the raiyats for personal service and consider-
ation, and, most of all, the too common feuds and jealousies
of copartners, while they are the main causes of the difficulty,
1 In the estate of Katalipara, in whom is in possession of an in-
the district of Faridpur, there are finitesimal interest in the property.
no less than 500 sharers, each of
VOL. I. N n
546 LAND SYSTEMS OF BBITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
are at the same time insurmountable obstacles to the introduc-
tion of any scheme having for its object to induce or compel
joint-proprietors [tenure-holders] to act in concert.
' The enormous number of permanent holdings now existing
in Bengal is due to the practice of sub-letting. The total
number of perpetual leases registered in the offices of the
Registration Department during the past fifteen years, is
1,221,417. More than half of this almost incredible number
is furnished by the three districts of Jessore (273,892), Backer-
gunge (192,514), and Chittagong (230,795). The gradual
accession to the wealth and influence of small proprietors,
almost all of whom are themselves cultivators, induced by this
wide dissemination of a permanent interest in landed property,
is evidenced by the comparative material prosperity of these
districts.'
§ 13. Temporary Leases.
I do not propose to regard as tenures mere temporary
agreements for a five years' lease or more. In the Bihar
districts, where there are small landowners, there is no
general creation of patnis or permanent sub-tenures, but
a host of temporary farms, contracts, and leases, called
' ijara,' or ' thika,' or ' mustajiri.' A farm of a farm is called
' katkina.' A ' zar-i-peshgi ' (' money in advance ') lease is
common in parts : it is a grant of the rent- collections, either
against an advance made at the time, or by way of repay-
ing a debt already incurred1. The analogy of such con-
tracts to tenures is obvious, but they are not tenures in the
legal sense.
1 Mr. Cotton notices a curious or rent farmer). These lessees had
case of an estate (in the Kishnganj divided their circles into sections
Subdivision of Parniya) which came or ' qismat,' and let them out to
under the management of the Court sub-lessees called ' malguzar.' The
of Wards in 1874. The owners had qismat might again be subdivided
let the whole estate out in circles, into parts less than a whole village,
which they called taluqas, on five and called ' gach,' held by a ' gach-
years' leases. Each circle or taluqa dar ' or abadkar. This last would
contained several villages, and the usually cultivate himself or by hired
lessee was called ' mustajir ' (the labour, but even he will sometimes
common Persian term for a revenue once more sub-let to a ' kulait.'
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 547
(C) WASTE-CLEARING OR JANGALBURI TENURES,
We have seen already that from the days of Maim, the
Hindu custom has always respected the title of him who
' first cleared the jungle.' Instances of this will continually
occur in the land-tenures of almost every province. On the
one hand, the rulers were naturally inclined to encourage
such work, as it enlarged their revenue, and accordingly
they — even the worst — afforded protection and favourable
rates of rent or revenue payment to the ' abadkar ' (settler)
on the waste ; on the other, the sentiment of the people
conceded to him a right in the holding of a permanent
character1. A number of the-taluq or tenure rights which
we have been examining may very possibly have had their
origin in rights connected with village-founding and clear-
ance, though it is not so expressed, and they may have been
wrongly classified in my account : if so, it will not really
make much difference. But in this section we are con-
cerned with those tenures which are professedly created on
this basis only. They are all distinguished by locally
different names, and there are, as usual, separate terms
which indicate differences in the rate of rent, or the con-
ditions of holding, which, while making these tenures
apparently complicated and multifarious, do not really
show any fundamental or structural distinctions.
The commonest terms indicating this kind of tenure are
' jot 2 ' in East Jessore, Rangpur, Jalpaiguri W. and the
Dwars ; ' ganthi ' in Jessore and the 24-Pergunnahs ;
' hawala ' (often written and pronounced hawala or hawla)
1 'In all tenures based on the case may be, on the person who
right of reclamation, it will be reclaims jungle and causes waste
found that claims exist and are land to be brought under culti-
asserted, with more or less tenacity, vation.' — (Mr. J. S. Cotton.)
not onlyfor the permanent character 2 I need hardly remind the reader
of the holding, but also very often that when the vernacular name of
for fixity of rates . . . and accord- the tenure is given, the holder of it
ingly it is a principle always claimed (as a person) is indicated by adding
in these provinces, though it is not 'dar' (P) = holder. Thus the holder
always conceded, that a taluq or of a 'jot' or ganthi tenure is the
sub-proprietary right is vested or jot-dar, ganthi-dar ; just as the
transferred, or conferred, as the holder of a taluq is taluq-dar.
N n 2
548
LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
in Jessore, Backergunge. and Noakhali. In other places we
have the ' taluq ' of Chittagong, and the ' chak ' in the Sun-
darban tracts. In Midnapore we shall find that the revenue-
free grant already mentioned as ' aima,' was there applied
in favour of clearers of the jungle, and the ' aimadars ' of
that district are tenure-holders.
Some remarkable features are presented by the Khulna
district, which, in 1882, was separated from Jessore. It
might be supposed that the customary tenures, based on
jungle-clearing, would be the same both in the northern
and southern halves of the old collectorate. It is not so.
In the Khulna parganas Baghirhat and Naldi, the terms
'ganthi' and 'jot' of North Jessore are not recognised.
§ 14. Features of the tenures in Jessore, &c.
We may commence our study with these districts —
remarking that Khulna includes a good portion of the delta
tract we have already spoken of in connection with the
waste-land rules — the Sundarbans.
The following extract from Mr. Westland's 1 Monograph
on Jessore will give a good idea of these tenures ; and Mr.
Cotton remarks that this also describes the state of things
in the Sundarbans generally.
'Patni tenures and farms are almost unknown, as the Za-
mindar does not ordinarily transfer all his rights to others,
constituting himself a mere rent-charger ; but, on the other
hand, he manages his lands himself. In the south of the
district (i. e. in the present Khulna district), in fact, it is the
raiyats and not the Zamindars who take to creating tenures.
The highest tenure is called a taluk, the talukdar holding and
paying rent for a village or half a village ; sometimes cul-
tivating himself, sometimes not. The talukdar corresponds
with the ganthidar of the older tracts (where the word taluk-
dar2 has a totally diiferent application, and refers, not to the
1 Westland's Monograph on the Dis-
trict of Jessore (pp. 198, 1991.
2 See p. 525 and note. It applied
to the holdings in the
estate.
' nawara '
CHAP. III.] THE LAND-TENUEES. 549
raiyat series, but to the landholder series of tenures). The
talukdar's rent is looked upon as a fixed rent. Under him
comes the hawaladar, who corresponds with the jama'-holder
farther north, and whose rent is also regarded as fixed. The
hawala tenure may be created by the Zamindar if he has not
already created a talukdar, and in this case a talukdar sub-
sequently created, will take position between the hawaladar
and the Zamindar. The right of a talukdar, however, includes
that of creating hawdlas within his own tenure ; and the
hawaladar, again, may create a subordinate tenure called ' nim-
hawala,' and may subsequently create an ' ausat-hawala, '
intermediate between himself and the 'nim-hawaladar.' In
these subordinate tenures the holders are almost always of the
pure peasant class, and engage personally in agriculture. They
are always regarded as having rights of occupancy ; but if they
again let their lands, those who cultivate under them, who are
called cliardia raiyats, have no such rights, and regard them-
selves as only holding the land for the time.
' These tenures have their origin, I have no doubt, in rights
founded upon original reclamation. A raiyat who gets a small
piece of land to clear always regards himself as having a sort
of property in it — an l abadkari swatya ' or reclamation right.
As reclamations extend, he begins to sub-let to other raiyats,
and we have a hawaladar, with his subordinate nim-hawaladars
in a few years.
4 The talukdars above described are those who, in the per-
gunna lands, come between the Zamindar and the raiyat
proper, or hawaladar.
1 In Sundarban grants 1, the word has another meaning, for
the Sundarban grants are themselves called taluks, and their
possessors are talukdars. Among these talukdars we find
several persons holding considerable estates (zamindaris) in
Jessore, Backergunge, or the 24-Pergunmhs ; but a great
number of them appear to belong to the comfortably-circum-
stanced class of people residing immediately north of the
Sundarbans. Many people there, who derive a competence
1 The grants here referred to are by these grants are tracts of Sunder-
those which have been made by ban waste which are not included
Government under rules promul- within Zamindaris under the Per-
gated from time to time for the manent Settlement. — (H. J. S.
encouragement of reclamation in Cotton.)
the Sunderbans. The lands covered
550 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
either from a tenure in land or from commerce, have also some
taluk in the Sundarbans, and they form, for the most part,
successful reclaimers. They have just enough money to enable
them to carry on Sundarban reclamation with success ; and
they are not rich enough to leave everything in the hands of
agents, and, by forgetting their direct interest, relax the enter-
prise. Many of them also have raiyats of their own in their
older-settled lands, and can use them for their newer lands.
It is to the class to which these men belong that the greater
part of the agricultural improvements and extension since the
Permanent Settlement, is owing, and the advantage of having
men of this class as Sundarban talukdars was strikingly shown
in 1869. The raiyats lost very much indeed by the cyclones of
that year ; and the loss would have been sufficient to paralyze
the whole reclamation scheme, but that these talukdars,
immediately connected as they are with the grants, at once
came forward to give their raiyats the necessary assistance,
drawing only upon the little surplus of money they had at
their homes. Larger Zamindars require to have these matters
brought home to them, and even then, expect their raiyats to
settle matters themselves ; these smaller men at once appre-
ciate the whole case, and step into the gap.'
While the old-established 'jot' and 'ganthi' of Jessore
are founded on the clearing right, modern ganthis are now
much connected with the Zamindars' arrangements for rent-
collection ; still the ganthidars have much to do in the way
of promoting cultivation and settling the villages. Mr.
Westland says that these 'tenures are, whatever the law
may say, understood by the people to be fixed.' Their
right is so firmly established, that, according to Mr. Finu-
cane, the Zamindars do not think of contesting it 1.
§ 15. The hawdla.
The ' hawala ' of the Sundarban tracts of Khulna, Bakir-
ganj, and Noakhali is so named from the Arabic word
signifying something placed ' in charge of ' or ' consigned
1 There is a report on the jot and Correspondence on the Preparation qf
ganthi of Jessore by Mr. Finucane Tables of Rent-rates.
in the printed selections from the
CHAP. III.] THE LAND-TENURES. 551
to ' a person. The tenure implies the grant by a superior
landlord, of a certain limited area of waste for reclamation.
The hawaladar settles some cultivators on the land, advances
them a little money wherewith to erect homesteads, buys
ploughs and cattle, and advances seed for sowing ; he then
realizes rents from the cultivators and pays his own quit-
rent to the superior landlord. The tenure is permanent,
but the quit-rent is not absolutely fixed (unless there is a
grant in set terms). Mr. Cotton says : —
'This point has been settled by the Courts and is admitted
in many cases by the hawaladars. But it so happens that the
tenure of the hawaladar has often, either intentionally or
through carelessness, been perpetuated . . . and that the
hawala has been sold, re-sold, and transmitted by descent. . . .
In such cases the hawaladars naturally claim permanence of
terms and fixity of rate. '
In the Noakhali district there are some considerable
Government estates, and consequently the exact position of
the hawaladar has come up for determination. Under the
Settlement law of Bengal Act VIII of 1879, they were
treated as 'occupancy raiyats.' Their rents were settled
under Sections 5 and 6 of the Act, but not on the principle
of charging them with the total of all the sub-rents, less
a specific percentage deduction. Agreeably to this conces-
sion, they were to pay a certain lump sum to Government
as determined by the Settlement officer, and are free to make
their own contract arrangements with the actual cultivators.
I presume that now, under Act VIII of 1885, the hawaladar
will come within the meaning of ' tenure -holder.'
The extract from Mr. Westland's Monograph, given in
the last paragraph, forcibly reminds us how, coming under
permanent waste-clearing tenures, smaller sub-tenures also
arise : the tenure-holder finds he has more land than he
can manage, and he sub-lets a portion of the surplus ;
his sub-lessee, for the same reason, again sub-lets. The
hawaladar creates an ' ausat-' (corruptly ashat) hawala, also
called ' mm-' (or half) hawala. The sub-lease of this is the
552 LAND SYSTEMS OF BE1TISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
' nim-ausat-hawala ' ; and then again a ' nim-ausat-nim-
hawala ' (fortunately shortened into ' tim-hawala ') l.
§ 1 6. Taluqddrs of Chittagong.
Under the head of tenures I ought to mention the taluq-
dars of Chittagong. On the Permanent Settlement being
made with the heads of groups or tarfdars, the individual
settlers or taluqdars became tenure-holders under them.
The position also of the ' nauabad ' taluqdars or new settlers
who came in after the Settlement, has also to be considered ;
but as it would be inconvenient to break up the account of
Chittagong into parts, I have put everything relating to
that district under one section which follows.
§ 17. Jalpdiguri J6ts.
The cultivated land of this district is held by 'jotdars'
who are described as descendants from original settlers who
appeared as mere squatters on the waste and prepared a
portion of it for cultivation. As land was more plentiful
than labour, a large part of the holdings still remained under
jungle ; and now, as usual, the jotdar sub-leases to tenants
called ' chukanidars ' ; and as these cannot manage it at all,
they sub-lease to others called ' dar-chukanidars.'
In the "Western Dwars Settlement, the jotdar has been
recognized as a tenure-holder under Government as proprie-
tor 2 ; but as originally his right was regarded as a strong
one — a sort of quasi-proprietary right — he has been allowed
an unusually large margin of profit by the Settlement.
1 Original hawalas are distin- conditions for rent-enhancement,
guished by added names indicating All these terms, therefore, formid-
any little peculiarity. Thus, in able as they look, mean little or
Tipperah (Tipra), I find that an nothing from the tenure point of
' izhari hawala ' means a tenure view. — See Statistical Account, vol. vi.
which is claimed by the holder but p. 405.
not recognized by the Zamind£r 2 The tenure is heritable and
(who takes the rent all the same). transferable, but the power of sale
' Miras hawdla ' will be one acknow- is limited ; the Bhutan custom was
ledged as having been inherited ; that a sale could not be made to
' qaimi hawala ' will be one with the prejudice of any one who would
fixed rent ; ' karari hawala ' one succeed in the event of the death
with certain conditions attached ; of the ' jotdar.' — Statistical Account of
' raiyati hawali ' one with express Bengal, vol. x. p. 284.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 553
The rights of the sub-lessees are protected by a record of
their rents, and the pattas provide that the rents are* to
remain fixed during the term of Settlement, unless and
until the jotdar can show that the payments to him have
given him a less profit than 50 per cent, on the revenue he
pays to Government, or the chukanidar can show that he is
left a less profit than 30 per cent, on the rent he pays to the
jotdar.
554 LA^D SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
SECTION VII. — CHITTAGONQ TENURES.
§ i. Origin and growth of Tenures.
Mr. H. J. S. Cotton, some years ago, published a graphic
memorandum on Chittagong Revenue-history1, and I cannot
do better than substitute, for any abstract of my own, the
paragraphs Mr. Cotton has himself put together in a recent
printed memorandum on Tenures in Bengal.
The land-tenures, it will be observed, are —
(1) the proprietary estates of the petty Zamindars or
tarfdars who were the connecting links between the
State and the families who cultivated ;
(2) the subordinate tenures of those individuals and
families whose rights — as usual in Bengal — are
described as taluq holdings :
(3) the tenures of cultivators who came in after the
Permanent Settlement, and whose cultivation was
therefore described as ' new ' (nau-dbdd), and whose
holdings are nauabad-taluqs.
Chittagong is certainly an instance of a country to
which the ideals of the Permanent Settlement Were wholly
unsuited. Obviously enough now, the Settlement should
have been raiyatiudri with the several taluq-settlers : not
only does the ' tarfdar ' proprietor bear more than usually
strong marks of being a purely artificial landlord ; but as
the different taluqs under him are scattered one here and one
there, his estate must be practically unmanageable, were it
not for the strength of the individual taluqdar's position,
which frees them from any direct interference.
' The origin,' writes Mr. Cotton, ' of the peculiar system of
land-tenure in the Chittagong distinct has, in my opinion, been
1 Memorandum on the Revenue History Collector and Magistrate of Chitta-
of Chittagong, 1880 ; Calcutta, Secre- gong,
tariat Press. By H. J. S. Cotton,
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 555
correctly stated by the Commissioner, Mr. Lowis, in a recent
report submitted to the Board ], as follows : —
'"During the turbulent times preceding the final Maho-
medan occupation of the district, small settlements of ' khush-
bash ' cultivators appear to have been formed in different
directions. As soon as the Mahomedans finally established
themselves in the country, the first step was to collect rents
from these men, who, to save themselves from the annoyance
and trouble of visits from the revenue underlings, attached
themselves to some person having influence at the Nawab's
court, and paid their revenue through him ; hence these self-
elected agents came to be called tarafdars, from the Urdu
word taraf— on the part of — a partizan2. Hence it is that each
taraf is a mere aggregate of taluks, as these ' khushbash ' hold-
ings came to be called, the component parts of each being
scattered in different villages and different thanas. Such a
thing as a compact estate is unknown in Chittagong.
'"The taluqdars must have chosen their own taraf dar,
otherwise we would not find every estate, whether large or
small, scattered piece-meal over the district. Had the tarafdars
obtained the land and settled taluqdars, or had Government
farmed out the collections to tarafdars, it is quite clear that such
a fragmentary division would have been avoided — opposed as
it is to all facility for collection. Looking to the facts as they
stand, it seems to me perfectly clear that the popular belief is
the correct one, viz. that the taluks were the original clearances,
and that for their own convenience these taluqdars elected to
pay revenue through the agency of certain individuals known
as tarafdars, an aggregate of such scattered holdings forming
a taraf."
' In this manner the large tracts of jungle existing in Chitta-
gong were taken up in the first instance by taluqdars or
jangalburi [jungle-clearing] settlers, while the work of sub-
sequent reclamation went on by the agency of the same class.
I agree with Mr. Lowis that it was the intention of the Govern-
1 No. 72 C.T., dated 8th December, it maybe remarked, also means a
1882, paragraph 13. section or ' side/ as when a village
2 The term' khushbash ' (P., being is divided into 'tarafs' or major
at ease) is used all over India to sections in Northern India ; so that
indicate a tenant or settler invited ' tarafdar ' may also imply the head-
to take up his abode at a place ship of a group or section, i.e. of the
under promise of protection and cultivating settlers or taluqdars.
favourable terms. The word taraf,
556
LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
ment of Lord Cornwallis to fix the demand against these
taluqdars at the time of the Permanent Settlement. In the
correspondence1 of the time, reference is made to the "fixed
jamabandi raiyats," and the necessity of seeing that the
Zamindars do not exact from them sums in excess of their
engagements, is insisted on. In these allusions to fixed jama-
bandi raiyats there is no doubt that reference is made to the
jangalburi-taluqdars, and it is evident that, in fixing the
demand due from the Zamindars or tarafdars, it was intended
that the amount payable by the taluqdars should be fixed also,
and that all of that class should continue to enjoy the same
privileges which we find enjoyed by them at the time of the
Permanent Settlement.'
§ 2. Change in the position of the Taluqddr.
'For some time subsequent to the Permanent Settlement,
the rights and privileges of the taluqdars appear to have been
respected ; but the tendency of late years has unfortunately
been in an opposite direction. Even at the present day, how-
ever, though bereft of some of the privileges which used to
attach to it, the taluq is still a valuable holding, and its posses-
sion carries with it something of a proprietary title. It is
always considered to be permanent, and is, in consequence,
called qdimi, although the taluqdars are frequently persuaded
into consenting to some small increase of rent, which under
our laws militates against the claim of fixity of rate. A taluq
is transferable and heritable, and a taluqdar can grant per-
manent leases without question. Eoughly speaking, the entire
district is divided amongst these taluqdars, most of whom
cultivate personally.'
randum on the Revenue History of the
Chittagong District. The statement
there given shows the nature of
the assessment : first, the assul-
jumma, with its component parts ;
then the abwfib, mahtot, and other
demands added to the assul, until
the Government demand on a droon
of land amounted to Arcot R. 15,
annas 5, gundas 19, and 3 cowries.
This amount is equivalent to R. 15,
annas 13, gundas 16, in Sicca ru-
pees ; and for convenience of cal-
culation has always been reckoned
as R. 16 of the Company's coinage.
1 An extract from Mr. Collector
Bird's letter, reporting on the pro-
posals for the decennial Settlement,
dated i4th January, 1788, is as
follows : ' The rates and rules of
assessment do not vary in any part
of this province, and the raiyats
are immediately redressed wherever
it is found that the zemindars exact
anything beyond the established
jamabandi, with their different ab-
wabs which are specified in the
accounts annexed.' The whole of
this letter, with the accounts, will
be found at pp. 55-61 of the Memo-
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 557
& q. Etmdmddrs.
J *v
'Where, however, the holding is of any size, or where a
person owns more than one, a portion only is reserved as
" nij-jot " (home-farm), and the rest is leased to cultivators
locally called etmamdar (the term is a corruption of ihtimam —
a trust). An etmam is like the taluq, qdimi, and the rent is
not theoretically subject to increase ; but in practice, if the
taluqdar is persuaded by a new auction- purchaser or otherwise
to consent to some small increase, he generally manages to get
some corresponding rise in the rent payable by his etmamdar.
The etmamdar is also generally a cultivator, but he enjoys the
same power as the taluqdar of granting permanent leases to
under-raiyats. Hence the creation of "dar-etmams" and "qaimi
raiyati" leases/
§ 4. The Naudbdd holdings (subsequent to the Permanent
Settlement).
[All land that was not held by taluqddrs paying
revenue though ' tarfdars ' who became the landlords, at the
Permanent Settlement, was outside the scope of the Settle-
ment, and remained the property of the State. But as time
went on, squatters occupied it informally, and then naturally
questions arose about their position. They called themselves
taluqddrs like the older cultivators. This large area of
land, shown in a separate colour on the maps, was collec-
tively called the mahdl or estate of Government, and
distinguished by the term nau-dbdd — newly cultivated.
The following is what Mr. Cotton writes about it.]
' The taluqdars of the Government nauabad mahal base their
claims on exactly the same grounds as do the other taluqdars, —
viz. on original reclamation of the soil. When Chittagong
passed into the hands of the English, the policy of encouraging
the reclamation of waste land and of granting rights to the
holders or taluqdars, such as existed under the Mogul adminis-
tration, was carefully adhered to. Accordingly in May, 1761,
558
LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
a proclamation l was issued, inviting people to take up waste
and bring it under cultivation. The reclaimer was only required
to record the amount of his reclamation and was to be assessed
at the established rate. The immediate result of this pro-
clamation was a considerable extension of cultivation which
was claimed by one Joy Narayan Ghosal as having been
brought about by his efforts ; and in the measurement of the
district in 1765 the new nauabad taluqs were grouped and
recorded under pattas granted by him, as " taraf- Joy Narayan
Ghosal." Subsequent measurements made from time to time
recorded the increased area of land brought under cultivation.
In 1796, the grant under which Joy Narayan Ghosal claimed
to be "tarafdar" of all new lands brought under cultivation,
was declared to be a forgery, and his rights were confiscated by
the State. But the rights and privileges of the nauabad taluq-
dars were obviously unaffected by this action, and, as a matter
1 An extract from the proceedings
of the Chittagong Council, dated
isth May, 1761, is to the, following
effect : ' Taking into consideration
the vast quantity of lands that have
been laid waste for many years past
from the dissensions between the
people of this province and those
of Arracan, and as an encourage-
ment to every one who will under-
take the clearing and inhabiting
these lands again, agreed that a
proclamation be put up and publicly
declared throughout all parts of
the province, that whatever persons
will undertake the clearance of
such lands shall for the first five
years be excused all rents and taxes
whatever ; that at the expiration
of that time their rents are to com-
mence at the usual rate of lands in
every other part of this country ;
and that a guard shall constantly
be kept there to protect them
from any insults of the Muggs or
other foreigners : and to prevent
hereafter disputes regarding the
property of the land when cleared,
every person who shall engage in
the inhabiting and clearing of them
shall first register his name in this
office, and every month send an
account of what quantity he has
cleared, for which pottahs shall be
immediately granted him.'
The effect of these orders is to
create precisely a junglebooree taluq
as defined in sec. 8, Regulation VIII
of 1793, as follows: ' Taluqdars
also, whose tenure is denominated
jutigalburi, and is of the following
description, are not considered en-
titled to separation from the pro-
prietors of whom they hold. The
pattd granted to these taluqddrs in
consideration of the grantee clearing
away the jungle and bringing the
land into a productive state gave to
him and his heirs in perpetuity
the right of disposing of it either
by sale or gift ; exempting him
from payment of revenue for a
certain term, and at the expiration
of it, subjecting him to a specific
'asl-jama, with all increases, abwdb,
and mahtaut imposed on the per-
gunnah generally, but this for such
part of the land only as the grantee
brings into a state of cultivation.
And the grantee is further subject
to the payment of a certain specified
portion of all complimentary pre-
sents and fees which he may receive
from his under-tenants exclusive of
the fixed revenue. The pattd speci-
fies the boundaries of the land
granted, but not the quantity of
it until it is brought into culti-
vation.'
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 559
of fact, they were clearly recognized by the Collector at the time
of the confiscation.
' It is impossible in this memorandum to describe the subse-
quent history of the nauabad taluqdars. It has become the
subject of an elaborate and intricate correspondence, extending
over a period of ninety years, and a variety of conflicting orders
have been passed from time to time by the highest authorities ;
the rights of the taluqdars have again and again been empha-
tically asserted and they have been as emphatically denied V
'The Ee-settlement of nauabad lands was ordered in 1872.
It was then decided that the position of a nauabad taluqdar
was that of a tenure-holder in an estate the property of Govern-
ment. Under orders then passed, the Settlement has been
based on the rents actually paid by the cultivators : no inter-
mediate tenures have been recognized 2, the proprietary title has
been held to belong solely to Government : and the taluqdar
himself been treated as a sort of rent collector with little more
interest in his holding than that possessed by a farmer.' . . .
' The Commissioner has now challenged the propriety of the
conclusions at which the Government arrived, and on which it
founded the orders on which the Settlement has been made.'
It has been decided (see section on Settlement, p. 492)
that the holdings are liable to re-settlement, but it has been
conceded that a number of these shall not be re- settled at
present, which puts them on the same basis as other holdings
to which a fifty years' settlement was conceded in 1 848.
§ 5. The Island of Kutubdla.
' The title of the taluqdars of the island of Kutubdia rests
upon the same origin as that of the taluqdars of the mainland.
They were declared by the Settlement officer in 1834 ;! —
1 The subject is discussed by me ment, paragraph 7, No. 993, dated
at length, with full extracts from 10th April, 1878, it was directed
correspondence, in a note recorded that certain intermediate holdings
in the Board's office, dated 7th Feb- should be recognised; but these
ruary, 1883. A copy of this note instructions were not properly
was submitted to Government with carried out.
the Board's letter No. 693 A, dated 3 Mr. Plowden's Keport, No. 34,
i8th August, 1883. dated agth September, 1834, para-
2 Under orders passed by Govern- graph 14. But of course if the
560 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
' "to hold a jangalburi tenure differing in no respect from the
description of that denomination of tenure as laid down in
Section 8, Eesolution VIII of 1793. These dependent pro-
prietors, under the above section, enjoy a permanent, hereditary,
and transferable right of occupancy, privileges to which they
have always considered themselves entitled ; for whilst in some
cases the original jangalburi taluqdars are still in possession,
others have become proprietors in right of succession as heirs
of the original clearers of the land, whilst a third class rest
their claim on the deeds of purchase or gift executed either by
the original grantees or their heirs."
' In the recent Settlement of the island, the title of taluqdar
has been retained, but practically the taluqdars have been
treated as occupancy raiyats, and the Settlement records do
not contain any entries of the holding or rental of the actual
cultivators. The claim to hold at fixed rates was strenuously
asserted, but it has not been admitted. In one case only a
taluqdar contested the principles of the Settlement in the civil
court, but unsuccessfully, and the others appear to have accepted
the situation.'
clearing had not been made in 1793 proprietary or permanently settled
it did not follow that the settler . estate under the Regulation,
would be entitled to any quasi-
CHAP, in.] . THE LAND-TENURES. 561
SECTION VIII — THE LAND-TENURES OF ORISSA.
§ i. Early History.
Only a part of what is now the Midnapore district con-
stituted the ' Orissa ' comprehended in the grant of the
Diwani in 1765. For the purposes of this section, however,
I include both the old and the modern Orissa: in other
words, I go beyond the Subarnrekha river which now
forms (roughly speaking) the provincial boundary, as far as
the Rupnarain river further to 'the north-east.
First, taking the modern Orissa only, as to its general
features ; I have before noticed that it consists
(1) of certain Tributary States furthest inland ;
(2) of certain Permanently Settled Estates next beyond
them towards the coast ;
(3) of the flat, rice-growing country called the Mughal-
bandi, which was the chief seat of Temporary Settle-
ment operations ; and
(4) a swampy coast-line.
The ' Tributary States ' are not properly part of British
territory: they are the home of various relics of primaeval
tribes, the Kandhs (sometimes written Khonds), Savars or
Sauras, and others ; they present great attractions to the
ethnologist. The Uriya people or Uraons (Dravidians from
the south by origin) seem, at a remote period, to have
conquered the whole country.
The primaeval tribes were not altogether displaced by the
Uraons, but the two races apparently co-existed. The
Uraons in some parts left the aborigines alone in such fast-
nesses as the Bod State (where the Kandhs now are), or the
hills to the south, where the Savars are (or in Keunjhar,
where the curious Bhumiyas. who claim to be autochthones,
and the leaf-wearing Jawangs are found). In other parts
they took the ruler's place, seizing, of course, the best
lands for their chiefs. Sir W. W. Hunter has extracted for
VOL. i. oo
562 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
us, out of the old official records of Orissa, a most interest-
ing account of the Kandhs l. That I must pass over,
merely remarking that the Kandhs exhibit the same peculi-
arity as other Kolarian tribes. They had no organization
above that of tribal families in villages, these again being
loosely grouped into circles under petty chiefs.
The Kandhs (as is the case with other tribes similarly
situated) have hardly settled down from the nomadic
stage, in which cultivation is practised by firing the
forest and raising a crop or two by the aid of the ash-
manure. Where they are more confined as to space, there
the tribe has finally settled, and lays claim to the whole
area occupied, while the families have their allotments
which remain undivided until the death of the family-
head2. It is this head of the family who is everything.
There is, of course, the necessity for protection from
enemies and wild beasts, which causes a number of families
to group together; they arrange their residence like the
people of Kanara 3, where the ' village ' site is in fact a
single street with houses on either side, and at the end
the huts of the menial caste and artisans, who supply the
needs of the residents. The villages are often divided by
rugged peaks and dense forests, but the only organization
is that as each village is under a headman, so a group of
villages — probably the 'sept' or section of a tribe — forms
a ' muttha ' 4 ; and the chief of the sept is over the muttha.
This exactly resembles the village union called parhd, and
the chief (mdnki) which we shall notice in Chutiya Nagpur.
The Uraons had a much stronger government ; and,
indeed, like those southern (Dravidian) states about which
1 Orissa, vol. ii. p. 69. for pasturage among the village
2 In their native settlements they hamlets.' — Orissa, ii. 77.
change their villages once in about 3 Cf. p. 106, ante. In such a village
fourteen years ''Priority of occu- a headman is a necessity, and be-
pation forms the' -sole origin of comes still more so when the tribe
right. No complicated tenures is brought into contact with a con-
exist, every man tilling his own quering Raja or some one mightier,
field and acknowledging no land- He is, however, elected and only
lord. Where the population begins partly hereditary, and has no par-
to press heavily on the territory of ticular emoluments or authority,
the tribe, they parcel out the waste * Onssa, ii. 70.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENUKES. 563
we shall hear so much in the Madras Presidency, they had
an organization which it is very hard to distinguish from
the Aryan or Rajput. We find the same gradations of
rank ; first, a great chief over the whole nation, with his
central demesne ; minor chiefs on the frontiers, and a system
of militia to guard the marches, and to keep the peace
within.
At a remote period, however, Orissa became the scene of
Rajput conquest ; and the Jagannath records, though Brah-
manical, and naturally inclined to ignore everything non-
Aryan, leave no doubt that the Rajput or Aryan settle-
ment must have taken place long ago and assimilated
the institutions of the villages and states of the non-
Aryan tribes : so that the present state of things is due —
(i) to the Dravidian organization; (2) to its modification
by the Rajput system which supervened, and later by the
Mughal conquest which tended to convert the Rajput fiscal,
police and military officers into landlords ; (3) the action of
the brief and ill-established Maratha rule, in arresting the
growth of the landlords, and pushing forward the heads
and managers of villages and smaller estates.
It has been suggested that the Aryans really copied and
adopted the earlier system 1. I must be content with
merely noting the fact, adding that in Chutiya Nagpur we
clearly see how the Dravidians strengthened the Kolarian
village system, linking it on to their own State organiza-
tion of chiefs and courtiers, by adding to the village an
accountant, or fiscal headman — the ' bhuin ' of Orissa, the
' mahto ' of Chutiya Nagpur.
§ 2. The organization of the Orissa-Rdjjmt Kingdom.
As to the Rajput organization of Orissa, we find that
the Raja occupied the level and fertile plain as his de-
mesne, or, as it would be called in Rajputana, his ' khalsa.'
All round were the hilly frontier tracts which were held by
chiefs called 'khandaits.' This term, derived from the
1 See Chapter IV. p. 119, and Orissa, ii. 207.
O O 2
564 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
Uriya ' khanda,' a sword, was applied not only to the great
frontier chiefs who kept the marches, but also to the mili-
tary chiefs of all grades who were located within the king's
demesne. The hill states were protected by the ' forts ' at
which the chiefs resided, and hence the territories came to
be known collectively in Muhammadan times as ' Garhjat.'
The estate-owners were called 'Qila'dars1.'
We may dismiss the Garhjat chiefs from further notice ;
the Mughals and Marathas never interfered with them
beyond exacting a tribute and nominal allegiance : they
have now become the { Tributary States ' or ' Mahals ' of
the Regulations, and are under political control only 2.
The ' demesne ' itself was also portioned out into many
estates ; for there was a large military force to be main-
tained, and estates also called ' Qila' ' were also formed on
the margin, which estates became the ' Zarnindaris ' and
were admitted to a Permanent Settlement as noticed in
the chapter on Settlements. The ordinary districts were
divided for fiscal purposes into ' Bisi ' or ' Khand ' — terri-
torial tracts under a Desmukh, Bissai, or Khand-adhipati,
aided by some military chief or ' Khandait,' whose ' paiks '
or military retainers were supported by small rent-free
holdings. The district officer, who was to the district
what the headman was to the village, had a district
accountant (Bhui-mul) to aid him, and a village accountant
also was subordinate to him in each village. Every one of
them had lands held in virtue of office (a Dravidian
institution), which laid the foundation of those estates or
tenures dealt with in our own Settlements at the beginning
of the century.
But besides supporting the military chiefs, the king
made grants within his demesne for the support of the
priesthood3, for his family, and for his ministers and
courtiers. Some curious survivals of these grants are
I ' Qila' ' means a fort in Arabic, 3 The existence of the sacred
as ' garh ' does in Hindi. temple at Piiri ensured many lands
II This was judicially decided. See being granted revenue- free for the
Indian Law Reports, viii. 985 (Cal- worship of Jagannath.
cutta Series).
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENUEES. 565
mentioned in the reports. They were called by fanciful
names, perhaps representing the titles given to the holders ;
thus we have the grant of ' The Lion's Cub ' (Chhual
Singh), that of Hari Chandan, of Sudhakar (the receptacle
of nectar), Utsal Kanajit (grant of the exalted conqueror).
' Beg ' (grant to some Afghan adventurer), and many others.
§ 3. Effect of the Mughal Conquest.
When the Mughal rule supervened, the district organiza-
tion was scarcely changed, except by the substitution of
Persian names : the ' khand ' or district became the par-
gana. The military and civil heads remained on their own
lands, but were called ' chaudhari,' and probably with ill-
defined functions ; the accountant became the kamingo ;
and the village the ' mauza,' with its head or accountant
variously named according to locality and the tribal origin
of the village itself.
'Two centuries,' writes Sir W. Hunter, 'of conflicting
usage followed (1567-1751). During that period of con-
fusion and chronic rebellion, the Muhammadan governors
were only too glad to secure the revenue for each current
year without any nice scrutiny of the machinery by which
they collected it ... What they wanted was a body of
powerful native middlemen who should take the trouble of
dealing with the people off their hands, and who should
have both the power and local knowledge enough, to
enforce the revenue demands against the individual
villages V
The body of hereditary Hindu officials thrust into this
position, soon came to act like landlords ; if it had not
been for the intervention of the Maratha period, they
would probably have become absolute landlords under the
British system.
1 Orissa, ii. 221.
566 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 4. Illustration of the growth of Land-officers
into Landlords.
Before noticing what relics of the ' estates ' of the
kanungos, chaudharis, and others survive, I would call
attention to the very instructive account which Sir W.
Hunter gives of their means of gro^uth•, because this,
though written of the Orissa districts, really explains the
growth of ' Zamindars ' and others everywhere in Bengal.
First of all, these officers were all appointed ; but as
soon as the Government became weak and relied upon
the local knowledge and power of those who were its
instruments, it followed almost necessarily, that the son, or
other competent near relative of the last man, stepped into
his shoes ; and the right of appointment practically became
softened into the right of confirming or issuing a ' sanad '
to the new man, and perhaps taking a fee or present by
the governor. In the end the ' sanad ' was discontinued,
and there was then nothing but a tacit recognition of the
succession.
The opportunities1, then, of these fiscal officers were,
first, that they were practically hereditary ; they were
responsible for the revenue, and therefore had large powers
in realizing it ; they also had the right to retain a nominal
percentage and various charges or heads of expense in
collecting: really they kept whatever they could collect
over and above the fixed sum they had to pay in to the
treasury. They had their official holdings of revenue-free
land ; they had the profits of bringing new waste and
abandoned lands under cultivation, — all the newly-settled
cultivators of course looking to them as their direct head
or 'landlord.' They had various dues and cesses, rights
over fisheries, pasture lands, thatching-grass, bamboos,
jungles, forests, transit dues, and the like. What wonder,
then, that in time such officers should become landlords ?
And be it observed, all this process of growth is the more
1 See Orissa, ii. 230.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENUEES. 567
possible because, in the individual villages, there is no
strong proprietary right. The actual cultivators who are
residents (thani) are practically proprietors of their holdings,
just as much as the Kandh families were of their lands ;
but the long-continued effect of the Raja's rule, and the
encroachments of the grantees and others who took the
royal share within the grant, reduced the resident cultivator
to being nothing more than a permanent occupant with a
hereditary right : it was no one's interest, as long as govern-
ment was settled, to reduce them lower than that. In
North India we have seen that as the grantee's family
multiplies and divides, it produces a number of individuals
or families holding each perhaps a single village as the
share of the estate ; and then, in time, they appear as the
actual proprietary body owning the village (which then
becomes a ' zamindari ' or a ' pattidari ' village of the text-
books).
§ 5. Circumstances limit the growth.
In Orissa the process was arrested by the fact that there
were certain greater fiscal chiefs who kept the Bissais
(kamingos) subordinate to themselves ; but furthermore it
was arrested by the fact that when the Marathas came,
they checked the growth of these incipient landlords.
Wherever we come across a tolerably settled form of
Maratha government, we shall again and again notice that
the Maratha at once did two things: he imposed a quit-
rent on revenue-free holdings — thus avoiding the odium of
wholly resuming them; and he ignored the middleman
system, went straight to the villages, and made use of
the headman as the distributor of rents, holding him
primarily responsible for their collection. It was only in
the outlying tracts where the Maratha rule was uncertain,
that the governors granted large farms and took all they
could grasp before the day of destruction. So it was in
Orissa ; the village heads were resorted to, with the result
of greatly increasing their power : as usual, in many cases
568 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
inefficient headmen were turned out and replaced by
' sarbarakars ' or managers ; exactly as in the Central
Provinces, a 'patel' who did not give satisfaction was
replaced by a ' malguzar ' or revenue-paying manager.
§ 6. First British policy. — Absence of great Zaminddrs.
When our rule began in 1803, no attempt was made to
introduce the Permanent Settlement or its laws. I have
described the chief features of the Orissa Settlement before T :
I have here only to speak of the tenure of land. It is
unfortunate that our reports so often speak of ' Zamindars,'
as if Orissa had been permanently settled, and as if such
an institution had existed generally. There are in fact
hardly any ' Zamindars ' in the Bengal sense 2. There were
a few of the 'Qila's' or chiefs' estates lying on the edge of
the royal demesne (which it will be remembered was the
scene of our detailed Settlement), and a few of the greater
fiscal officers, who had retained such a hold over the whole
of the pargana, that our first administrators thought fit to
acknowledge them as proprietors, and give them the benefit
of a permanent revenue. Then there were a certain number
of kanungos' estates, and those of other chiefs and grantees
(of which I have spoken). Of these some were regarded
as subordinate to the greater estates, and others were
allowed to be independent and were treated as pro-
prietary.
The t larger number recognized as 'landlords' were the
headmen, ' muqaddams ' or ' sarbarakars ' of villages (in
some places the local names, 'pradhan,' &c., survived.)
As regards the class of large ' landlord estates/ the latest
return I have shows only 174 such estates (permanently
assessed), viz. 23 in Katak, 3 in Puri, and 148 in Balasor3,
1 See p. 473. Zamindari in Regulation XII of
2 The proclamation of 1803 issued 1805, and the sanads were so
on annexation, spoke of zamindars, worded. I find, for instance, one
meaning ' landholders ' generally. of the Khandait chiefs (Sakinda
See Orissa, ii. 257. estate) giving his ' qabuliyat ' or
3 The larger estates are called engagement setting forth that he
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENUKES. 569
while the smaller village and other estates, temporarily
settled, exceed six thousand.
§ 7. Smaller Landlord Estates.
Putting aside the few great estates called ' Zamindarl,'
the bulk of estates which came under Settlement were
smaller properties, — holdings of kaniingos, chaudharis.
courtiers, grantees, and revenue-free holders. They are
described as ' taluq,' and are called after their origin ' taluq
chaudhari,' the estate held by the chaudhari, and so forth.
These estates should not be described as 'tenures,' as the
term has a special or technical sense in Bengal. I may
repeat that when we speak of ' holders of tenures ' in
Bengal we now mean interests of the second class existing
under a recognized landlord. But in Orissa the larger
number of the landholders we are speaking of became
Settlement-holders direct with Government.
One of the results of the former rule had been a system
of selling estates and villages, nominally, but not always
actually, waste ; and a number of those who had purchased
such estates became ( proprietors ' and their estates were
called ' kharidadari,' 'patna,' and 'kharija' (i.e. lands
outside any other recognized estate).
§ 8. Revenue-free Holdings.
There were also many revenue-free estates \ Some of
these, of course, were petty rent-free holdings under other
had been ' appointed to the service claims to Idkhirdj decided by Deputy
of Zamindar ' in his Qila' by the Collectors amounted to 277,925
Government, and that he would (Memorandum on Temporary Settlements,
pay the revenue and keep the 1880, p. 580). The Marathas im-
raiyats prosperous, &c. (see Statistical posed a 'tankhi' or quit-rent on
Account of Bengal, vol. xviii. p. 123). many such tenures, consisting of
In Katak the old records showed i tankha or rupee of the time per
that of 1779 proprietary or quasi- 'bati' of 20 'man.' The Orissa
proprietary estates, 16 only were ' man ' is closely equal to the Eng-
called 'Zamindari' and the rest lishacre. A number of these tenures
' taluq.' were settled at half rates under the
1 Mr. Stack mentions that the British Settlement.
57O LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITfSH INDIA. [BOOK II.
proprietors. The rule was that such holdings, when ad-
mitted as valid, were treated as proprietary estates if they
exceeded 75 acres, and as subordinate (tenure) interests if
smaller.
Among the smaller rent-free holdings figure many be-
longing to the ' paiks ' or old militia ; and some were called
' jagirs ' or ' dogra ' (literally ' stick-holder ') l.
§ 9. Village Heads become Proprietors.
In many cases the village heads, especially those who
had purchased the villages, and others whose actual
position demanded the step, were settled with.
§ 10. But artificial Landlord rights rarely created.
The Orissa officers, as is amply testified by the valuable
notes they have left on the land-tenures, and which Sir
\V. Hunter has turned to such good purpose in his Orissa,
were under no necessity for creating landlords: and, as
Sir W. Hunter remarks, '-putting aside very quietly the
theories of distant bureaucrats, the local officers proceeded
laboriously to construct a system in accordance with the
actual facts.' Hence the variety of estates actually
recognized. But while a number of larger or smaller
proprietary estates were recognized, and the owners held
the Settlement, the mistake was not made of leaving un-
defined the power of the estate-holder, or letting the
question of the rent-payments of subordinate holders be
doubtful. The estate-holders' interest was strictly limited
by the procedure at Settlement. The officers went direct
to the villages and fixed the rents of the than! raiyats
(who really were the original individual proprietors — only,
as I have explained, they ceased to claim so high a
position). This done, there was a fixed total rental, of
1 The Statistical Account notes that, in 1875, sixty-five of these existed in
Katak district, covering 8339 acres.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 57!
which part went to Government and the rest to the ' pro-
prietor.'
§ ii. Grades of interest — lioiv provided for.
But though the proprietor was one, he had often to share
the profits with other persons interested — as, e. g. first the
aarbardkdr of the village, second a dependent taluqdar.
In oui' Settlements, whether there was a proprietor over
the village or not, the headman, niuqaddam, sarbarakar,
parsethi, pradhan, or whatever his local title, was allowed
to collect the rents and manage the village and receive a
percentage for his trouble ; and so with the ' kharidadars,' —
headmen by purchase of reclaimed or new villages \
Practically, therefore, the difference between the nominal
landlord and the inferior, interests is represented by the
larger or smaller share of the rental fixed at Settlement.
§ 12. Protection of Tenants. — The Thdni Raiyat.
The cultivators are, as I said, protected by rents fixed
for the term of Settlement, if they are ' thani ' or resident ;
and the Rent Law of 1859, still in force 2, protects the paM
tenants who have fulfilled its terms.
The ' thdni ' cultivator is in fact a ' sub-proprietor ' in
everything but the name. 'Rooted to the soil,' wrote
Mr. Sterling in 1821, 'he has a local habitation and a
name, a character known to his neighbours, and a certain
1 In the Statistical Account (vol. centage he gets under the Settle-
xviii. p. 307) will be found a dis- ment represents no right in the
cussion as to the origin of the soil, but is a collection allowance
' sarbarakar ' as distinct from the only. But, as a matter of fact, the
muqaddam or headman (the Mu- village total payment to the pro-
hammadan equivalent of barmv, prietor being fixed, the sarbarakar
pradhan, or other local names). gets the benefit of an increase in
As to the 'parsethi, 'the explanation the rental when alluvial land is
of his being a town headman (p. formed and let out, or when waste
134) is very unlikely : most prob- in the village is occupied. The
ably he is the headman of a later tenure may be (if so proved by
colony, i. e. a village of modern custom) heritable and transferable,
foundation (see p. 310). The sar- but the holder is liable to be re-
barakar's right was the subject of moved for misconduct,
judicial decision in 1 859. The per- a See p. 452.
572 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
degree of credit thence resulting, which enables him to
borrow from the mahajan (money-lender) and secures him
a settled market for the disposal of his produce.' He is
exempt from demand of 'chandniya' (a payment — chan-
dina — made by outsiders for the use of a site in the
village) ; he is allowed a bit of rent-free ' khanabari ' or
garden-ground near his house1, also a rent-free patch in
his holding called ' talmunda,' or a nursery-ground for his
rice-plants.
' A preference,' adds Mr. Sterling, ' is given to him in
cultivating the lands of village lakhirajdars (revenue-free,
—the aima, debottar, &c.. lands, so often spoken of) when
the holders do not themselves handle the plough ; and his
sons and brethren, and even he himself, may cultivate
untenanted land as " pahi " raiyats in their own or any
other villages.'
§ 13. Midnapore.
I include the district of Midnapore in this notice, though
the greater portion of the district, being the old Orissa of
1 765 (all in fact but the Pataspur pargana), came under the
Permanent Settlement. The tenures now found in the
district are those which are usually found described in
Persian terms of the Mughal system and that of the Regu-
lations, and again and again repeated in the Statistical
Account. There is the usual array of Zamindaris, the
resumed ' lakhiraj ' estates, and the ' bahali ' [i. e. those not
resumed, but that remained in (ba) their own state (hal)].
Under them are the usual ' taluqs ' or tenures, — ' patnis/
' ijaras/ and the like. Of these no special mention is here
required. A certain number of special jungle-clearing
tenures (but sometimes granted out of favour) exist under
the name of kamdura. They are heritable and trans-
1 The reader will also note the the differences of Brahman villages
same custom in Assam. There is are noted. As the Brahman could
an exceedingly good account of the not plough, the whole cultivation
village (exactly resembling the vil- was done by the aid of tenants,
lages all over Bombay and Madras) which resulted in some peculiar-
in Orissa, vol. ii. p. 241, and there ities.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENUKES. 573
ferable. I also notice favourable tenures called 'panchaki,'
seemingly identical with the 'upanchaki' of Rangpur1.
It is also worthy of notice that the revenue-free tenure or
' aima ' seems to have been here created, not for the support
of religious persons, but as a favourable tenure for cul-
tivating the waste. As it is not entirely free, it is called
' nialguzari aima.' No rent is paid for some years, and
then the rent progresses to the rate usually paid in the
pargana for similar lands. Some of these tenures in par-
gana Balrampur are said to date back before the Permanent
Settlement ; others, under the same name, are more recent.
To this class also belong what are known as ' mandali
jot' tenures in Midnapore, which are nothing more than
the holdings of certain men who were set to reclaim the
waste (abadkar), undertaking that a lump sum of rent
should be forthcoming. From time to time the terms of
the bargain were readjusted. Naturally the abadkars became
the mandal or headmen of the new villages. They had
a higher status than ordinary resident raiyats ; and they
were entitled to make their own terms with their culti-
vators, thus getting a considerable profit out of the differ-
ence between the lump rent they paid and the total of
the collections from cultivators. Their tenure became
transferable by custom.
1 See pp. 540 and 586.
574 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
SECTION IX.— CHUTIYA NAGPUB TENUBES.
§ i. Interest attaching to the Tenures.
The tenures of these districts have a peculiar interest for
us, because here (and in Santalia) we have one of the
centres in which we can trace pretty clearly one of the
earliest native methods of landholding in relation to
the State, which are so interesting. Just as Oudh and
Rajputana, and to some extent Orissa, give us the best
information regarding the Rajput or Aryan organization
which has so profoundly affected the constitution of village
communities, so Chutiya Nagpur is a centre which enables
us to reconstruct the organization of Kols and Dravidians,
the latter being great colonizers and conquerors, like the
Rajputs ; and this organization is probably identical with
what once existed in Gondwana (now the Central Pro-
vinces and Berar) as well as in Southern India1.
§ a. General Description of the Country.
The Chutiya Nagpur country covers an area of about
46,000 square miles. It consists of a series of table-lands
rising in succession from 800 to 3500 feet above the sea-
level.
On each ten-ace are well-cultivated plains, and the borders
of each are scarped and forest-clad hills. The plains them-
selves are dotted over with wooded hills. In the east of
the division are the tribes known as Mundas, Hos, and
Santals (Kolarian) ; in the west are Korwas (Kolarian
1 The materials for this sketch 1887, vol. iii.) ; an interesting
are Mr. J. F. Hewitt's paper on ' Official Paper ' in the Calcutta Ga-
Village Communities in Journal, zette, i7th December, 1880, on the
Society of Arts, vol. xxxv. p. 613 Lohardagga District ; and the
(May 1887) ; ' Chota Nagpur, its volumes of the Statistical Account of
People and Resources,' by the same Bengal, relating to the Division,
author (Asiatic Quarterly Review, April
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 575
also). The independent States along the frontier of the
Central Provinces are Gond (Dravidian). There are Bhuya
tribesmen in the States of Gangpur and Bonai, and in the
(British) Singbhum and Manbhum districts. In some parts
there are also Uraons. These are all Dravidians.
It seems that the Kolarian tribes are the earliest inha-
bitants, and the Uraons and Bhuyas are invaders ; in fact,
part of that great wave of conquest made by the Naga
(snake- worshipping) people, who advanced far up to the
Ganges valley. The Santals are K61s ; they moved from
Orissa to Hazaribagh to escape the Marathas, and then, in
the middle of the last century, settled in the hills which
are now known as the ' Santa-1 Pergunnahs.'
§ 3. Kol and Dravidian Organization of Land.
Of these tribes some appear to have had but little or-
ganization, but to have lived by shifting or temporary 'jum '
clearings in the forests1. But in the plains they formed
settled villages with a headman over each (munda). The
Naga races in their advance, where they did not drive out
the weaker tribes, admitted them, as it were, into their con-
federacy, and the system became one — that is to say, the Kol
village system was strengthened by the Dravidian military
organization, which was very like that of the Aryans.
There were senior chiefs or Rajas of territories, who had
a central domain, while all around, estates were allotted to
the lesser chiefs and to the servants of the kingdom, — some,
as usual, on the frontier, being charged with keeping the
passes. The villages, as usual with all earlier colonizing
systems in India, show no sign of a joint claim to a defined
area of soil. Such a right appears, rather, to arise at a
later stage, when some petty chief gets a hold over the
village by grant or otherwise, and then claims to be, in
that little circle, what the Raja was in his larger domain.
His claim is distinctly territorial and is focussed on a
1 See p. 116, ante.
576 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
small area, so that it is distinctly felt in a way that the
Raja's general claim over a large area cannot be. When,
in course of a generation or two, this chief's descendants
form a considerable body, these jointly claim the entire
area as a body of 'landlords'; or, dividing it up into an-
cestral shares according to their descent, constitute what
the books call ' pattidari ' communities.
We have now to see how the Kolarian village system
was modified by being taken into the Dravidian system.
The K61 tribes had no central government. The tribal
groups, distinguished by a flag1, were called 'parha,' and
over which was a chief called ' Manki ' or ' Manjhi.' These
were independent ; they might meet for counsel and com-
bine for defence, but often they were at war with each
other. The parha territory was divided into villages, each
under its ' munda ' or headman, who was hereditary. There
was a ' pahan,' or priest ; but he was tribal, not local.
The Dravidians did not alter this organization, but their
chiefs and Rajas took the rule over the mdnkis, who.
having no special estates, dropped into a secondary or in-
ferior official position. What distinguished the Dravidian
plan, was that in every village the Raja or the chief took
a certain area of land, the whole produce of which went to
his State granary. It was easy to carry out this plan,
because the whole village was divided into lots, according
to certain principles. The lots were called (originally)
' khunt ' — a term said to mean stock (Latin stirps], and
imply the allotment for a family group of the same order.
The term ' khunt-kati,' or the clearer of the holding, is still
a term used to mark the right which, in the public estimation,
attaches to the clearer of the primeval jungle. The 'khunts'
consisted of plots of different qualities of land, and in some
places were periodically re-distributed, so as to give the
person who enjoyed each a certain equality of advantage 2.
1 These are still displayed at cere- India : where the level land was
inonial or festive gatherings. cultivated with rice, some uplands,
3 In the Chutiya Nagpur vil- called 'tanr,' to supply grass and
lages we find an institution which stuff to burn for manure, were
is common in Southern and Western allotted with each holding.
CHAP, m.] THE LAND-TENURES. 577
When the Dravidians conquered, and desired to find a
'lot' in the village for the Raja (or chief in an estate not
held by the Raja himself), it was easy to do so by a slight
re-adjustment of the ' khunt ' system.
§ 4. Official Allotments. — Royal Lands.
Originally it seems that a lot was reserved for the old
tribal manjhf — and this became the Raja's royal farm, and
was called majh-has. The ' bhuinhar,' or original families
(founders l) of the village, had their allotments. One of
these was for the headman, munda, whose family was of
course ' bhuinhar.' Another was for the priest (laya), which
was subdivided into a lot for the village god (gram deota
bhut-kheta), and the district god (desauli bhut-kheta) ; the
Dravidians added a third, the earth-god, or deity of the
whole nation (whose secret symbol was the snake) — this
was called 'dalikatari V It is hardly necessary to add that
petty allotments were made for the support of the village
menials — watchmen, &c., and the artisans, not forgetting
the ' ojha,' or witch-finder.
§ 5. Changes effected by the Rdjds.
In the course of time, but very early in the history, the
Rajas became dissatisfied with merely the produce of the
'majh-has,' and began to levy a grain-share from the land
generally, but always excepting the official and religious
allotments. In this stage all the land that paid the share
was called ' Raj -has' land. Possibly this was in imitation
of the Kols. This people paid no regular revenue, but
used to give informal offerings of grain to their tribal
chiefs, which may have suggested to the Dravidian Raja to
make a regular or formal levy of grain. Then it was that
the Raja grafted on to the old village staff, a steward or
1 Called also Khunt-kati (clearers port of the priests' assistants who
of the lot). carried water: ' murghi-pakowti '
8 These were again subdivided, for those who cooked fowls on festi-
as e. g. into ' pani-bhara ' for sup- val and ceremonial occasions.
VOL. I. P p
578 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
headman, in the royal interest, and called ' Mahto.' This
official was provided with an ex officio land-holding
(called 'mahtoai), like the earlier village authorities. In
order better to provide for the tillage of the majh-has lands,
the king also established allotments (called bet-kheta) for
labourers who cultivated the royal farm ; these allotments
were held revenue-free.
When these changes were accomplished, the lands in each
village became distinguished as (i) majh-has, (2) the
bhuinhari and other privileged lands, (3) the other lands
paying a royal share and called raj -has accordingly.
§ 6. Later condition of the Village Lands.
When the Raja's dominion passed away, the ' majh-has '
land became the special holding of the person, whoever he
might be, that retained or acquired the superior or quasi-
landlord right over the village. Meanwhile the idea of
lots for cultivation was carried further than is above in-
dicated ; for, after these original allotments were provided
for, there remained all the rest of the available waste and
other land. At the present day we find it held by a variety
of what we may call tenants, as distinct from the ' buin-
hars.'
In some villages, a lot of the land is called sajwat or
khundwat, meaning that it was held by tenants who had
cleared the jungle: these were not the original village
founders, but people called in at a later period to extend
the cultivation and, as ' first clearers,' were to some extent
privileged. Then there would be a large area of 'jiban/
held by people who got the right to cultivate a certain
area (defined by local measures, with reference to amount
of seed required), and here the holdings were not
fixed, but were distributed from year to year by
exchange. Then another part of the available area would
be held by ordinary tenant-labourers, called ' utkar.' This
distribution of area varied according to locality and circum-
stances. In some places, settlers of other tribes admitted,
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 579
were called ' khorkar,' holding rent-free for three years, and
then paying half rates. I find also tenancies called ' bai-
bala,' 'ariat,' and many others. One called ' jalsazan,' or
water- providing, meant a permanent tenure, where the
holder got the angle of a ravine, dammed it up, and so
formed a small tank ; then he carefully terraced some rice-
fields below, which he watered from the tank.
§ 7. Later history of the Rdjds.
The Muhammadan conquest brought no real change to
the local chiefships ; the holders were accepted as Zamin-
dars, and some of them got sunads on submitting to pay
a ' peshkash ' or tribute.
But among themselves, the usual course of events over-
took both chiefs and Rajas : quarrels, feuds, and the
usurpations of the more energetic members of families who
threw off their allegiance, occurred. Some families rose,
others fell. At first the seat of the chief authority was at
Patkum (Manbhum district) ; but, in time, ' the chiefs, who
had previously governed outlying provinces under the
control of the descendants of their first leader, proceeded,
like the Maratha chiefs who separated themselves from the
authority of the Government at Satara, to set up inde-
pendent kingdoms for themselves ; while the Patkum chiefs
sank from being lords paramount to being merely subor-
dinate barons.' These changes appear to have come about
gradually, and without such violent disturbance as would
have left traces in the traditions of the country l.
The next change was one that also happened in Assam.
Brahmans and others began to penetrate the country,
and in time the chiefs were ' Hinduized.' As usual, they
became ' Nagbansi' Rajputs, and adopted caste. The result
was that the outsiders began to get lands and influence, and
to override the rights of the original inhabitants, causing
much discontent.
Asiatic Quarterly Review, vol. iii. p. 410.
P p 2
580 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
When British rule began, some of the surviving Rajas
chiefs, and grantees, were recognized as ' Zamindars,'
with a Permanent Settlement; and then, as landlords,
they began to grant ' taluqs ' and ' ijaras 1,' or farms of
their villages, to eject tenants and enhance rents, on
the (raj-has or) revenue -paying lands. A few peculiar
land-tenures are the result of the chiefs becoming Zamin-
dars. They made grants for their brothers, called ' Haki-
mali,' ' Kunwarkar,' &c. (according to locality), for relations
called ' Khor-o-posh.' A number of these obtained recog-
nition separately, and became Permanently-Settled estates.
When the old Rajas (or their successors) became 'Zamin-
dar' landlords, the majh-has lands became their home-
farm or special property, unless rights had arisen in them,
owing to grants, family divisions, &c. as might be the case.
The 'raj -has' became the ordinary 'tenant-lands.' The
landlords did their best to reduce to a minimum the rights
of the ' bhuinhars,' in their free allotments ; and this led
to so much discontent as to cause rebellion in 1831-32,
and again in 1858. The districts were then (by Regulation
XIII of 1833) separated from the Regulation Districts and
placed under the ' South -West Frontier Agency,' the
political control being guided by simple administrative
rules. At the present time the districts are ' Scheduled
Districts' under Act XIV of 1874. The Revenue-sale law
has never been enforced.
§ 8. Modern attempts to adjust rights.
In 1869 it was determined to put an end to the un-
certainty and discontent which arose from the encroach-
ments of the landlords, who had ignored the old tenures,
and infringed the bhuinhari rights. Bengal Act II of 1869
provided for the appointment of a Special Commissioner,
whose duty was to define and record all classes of rights.
1 Thus, forinstance, in Manbhum, gana on an ijara or managing lease
the Zamindar of the Barabhum for 21 years to an English firm of
estate had granted the entire par- indigo planters.
CHAP. III.] THE LAND-TENURES. 581
It is stated (but on this matter I am not competent to form
an opinion) that the Act does not correctly represent the real
state of affairs. I understand that it does not apply to the
' raj -has ' or ordinary proprietary lands, in which the tenants
of all classes have their holdings. Tenants there have the
protection already afforded them by the Rent law, presently
to be mentioned. The Act certainly makes no mention of the
' raj -has ' lands and their tenants, but directs that a record
of rights shall be made, giving an accurate list of the lands
that belong to the majh-has class J, and those which were
'bhuinhari' — i.e. set apart for the hereditary headman,
mahto, priest, and privileged families. It was to be ascer-
tained what were the services required from, and the rights
enjoyed by, the holders.
Anciently the theory was that no ' bhiiinhar (of an original
founders' family) could ever lose his lands ; so that after
years of absence he might return and claim it from the
present holder. This was so far recognized by the
Act, that a bhiiinhar who had been dispossessed, could
claim to be restored if his loss occurred within the twenty
years preceding 1869. No tenure originating within
twenty years was to be recognized as really bhuinhari,
unless it was a proved case, not of originating, but of re-
gaining, a former bhuinhari status2. The bhuinhars had
been so long made to pay some rent to the ' Zamindar,' that
this could not now be reversed ; but the holder could
claim to commute any service he had to render, for a money
payment.
1 Including the bet-kheta hold- villages and tribes was well under-
ings of the special tenants who stood ; but in time the Rajas and
work the majh-has land. others encroached, and so the bhuin-
* I have mentioned that rice-land hars, though always allowed certain
holdings were accompanied by a cer- rights of user in the waste near the
tain appendage of hilly upland, village, were not given an actual
which supplied grass, wood, and right over the waste (tanr) unless
stuff to yield ash-manure, &c., for they could prove a definite occupa-
the rice. No doubt originally the tion and possession,
allotment of such areas among the
582 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 9. The Chutiyd-Ndgpur Tenancy Act.
The value of the record made under this Act is to a great
extent secured by the existence of another special Act —
(B.) I of 1879 — which regulates the relations of landlord
and tenant in Chutiya Nagpur.
This Act makes no attempt to draw any theoretical
distinction between tenants and tenure-holders, but speaks
of taluq-holders and persons having a permanent and trans-
ferable interest in land, as well as of raiyats. A twelve
years' holding gives a right of occupancy to a raiyat in all
lands except in the majh-has lands, or in waste reclaimed
by the landlord (the khamdr of the Permanent Settlement),
or in his ' nij-jot' or home-farm, or in lands called ' man '
lands (held in virtue of office1), or as 'saika,' i.e. lands
held by contract from year to year, or under a contract
containing express stipulations.
The usual rule was made about holdings which have
paid the same rent since the Permanent Settlement ; they
are unenhanceable. Moreover, no tenant who is a ' bhuin-
har ' or a ' khunt-kati ' (the reader will now understand
this term) can be enhanced, except on proof of custom or a
written agreement ; and a number of tenancies specified in
Section 20 are similarly exempt. All occupancy tenants, as
such, are liable to enhancement only on certain terms stated
in Sections 22, 23, 24.
§ 10. GMtwdli Tenures of Mdnbhtim.
A special notice of these tenures, which exist not only in
Chutiya Nagpur, but in Monghyr (Hunger), the Santal
Pergunnahs, Bankura, and other districts, will throw some
1 The reader will note how the of revenue — in virtue of his office, a
landlord claim had grown. The old privilege one would have supposed
Raja was content with his majh-has to be already provided for in the
and his grain-share ; but the Zamin- majh-has. The exemption of the
dar took, besides waste which he re- special holdings of the landlord from
claimed, private lands of his pur- the growth of tenant-right is on
chase or original possession ; and the usual principle observed in
had land (man) held — no doubt free modern Indian Tenant Acts.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 583
light on the Permanent Settlement and its effects, as well
as on the influence of revenue-free grants, in originating
tenures. (See Book I. Chap. IV. Sec. iii. § 9.)
The outlying districts of a conquered country were, as
I have before stated, usually occupied by chiefs who were
bound to maintain a force to keep the passes. In the end
it often happened that these very forces proved a source of
trouble ; instead of defending, they attacked ; and the ' Poly-
gar wars ' of Southern India originated in this manner.
When the Permanent Settlement arrangements were
made, there were a number of local chiefs all round the
frontiers of Chutiya Nagpur, in Kamgarh (Hazaribagh),
Singhbhum, Manbhum, &c. Their territories adjoined the
more settled districts, and formed what were called 'the
jungle mahals ' in early days. Our administrators ac-
cepted these chiefs as ' Zamindars,' imposed a small and
fixed revenue, and left them very much to themselves. In
Manbhum this was the case. In the days before 1793, and
even at the Permanent Settlement, we hear nothing about
ghatwals, under that name at least. In 1793, indeed, there
is some mention of ' paikan ' lands ; but they were virtually
looked upon as lands for the support of rural police or
paiks, which did not demand any special notice.
But the existence of ghatwali lands was a matter of real
importance, for it is to be remembered that in these tenures
not only is the chief (the Ghatwal par excellence) entitled to
his privileges, but every head of a troop in his own grade
and rank, and every militia man, had his lesser share in
the privilege — a certain area of land revenue-free, which he
either worked himself, or, if his caste and rank demanded
it, let out to his own tenants. When, therefore, the chief of
the locality became 'Zamindar,' and the collections from
the raiyats became his rents, it followed that every acre or
bigha that could be claimed as held by a subordinate in
ghatwali tenure, was so much cut out of his profits : he
got nothing but (at most) a small quit-rent from it. The
sort of militia men who held the land, were taken over, so
to speak, by Government, who tried to organize them into
584 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
rural police and make them render service ; and there were,
from time to time, Regulations passed with this object. Such
subordinate tenures represented a very large area of land,
and they were held by a series of holders in a graded order.
In 1877-78 the inefficiency of the local police called atten-
tion to the system, with the result that, under the Bengal
Survey Act V of 1875, it was determined to have a survey
and record of all the gh&twali lands, and of the rights of the
Zaminddr and minor ghatwals respectively, so that disputes
might be at an end and proper service demanded in return
for the holdings allowed. Mr. Risley, C.S., was in charge
of the ghatwal survey of Manbhiim, and submitted to
Government an elaborate report. The report is somewhat
difficult for the uninitiated to understand, but it is full of
curious information.
It appears that ghatwali lands were found in 25 out of
the 38 parganas of the Manbhum district ; there were 591
holdings, covering an area of 785,192 standard bighas, or
408 square miles1. These were distributed among 1974
persons, who formed the organized body, — organized, that
is, according to their own custom.
The chief grantee has become the ' Zaminddr,' and under
him the various grades are as follows : —
At the head of a group of villages, now called a taraf, is
the ' sardar-ghatwal,' or leader, of whom there are twelve in
all, and they, of course, have the largest holdings. There
is also a body of ' digwars,' and nalb- (or deputy-digwars,
whose functions formerly were to 'show the way,' i.e.
guide or protect travellers and caravans in transit. They
are now subordinate heads of small companies of ' taba'-
dars.' In the ghatwal villages there were headmen
called ' village sardars,' and persons called ' sadial,'
about whose origin there was some doubt. It was first
supposed that they were ' sarbarakar,' or managing
collectors of rents2 ; but their true position seems to be
1 Report (No. 6, dated aoth Dec., digwar, naib-digwar, sadial, village-
1883) to Board of Revenue, § 7. These sardar, and taba'dar, as will appear
tenures represent the shares of presently,
various grades, — sardar-ghatwal, 2 In the special note on the
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 585
that of chiefs of the ' parha" ' (the old Kolarian union or
group of villages) ; being thus a relic of earlier times they
were respected, but in subordination to the ' taraf-sardar.'
The rank and file are the ' taba'dar,' who have their petty
holdings. The local name for ghatwal is 'chhuar1.'
It must be remembered that this is the country of the
Bhumij Kols. There seems reason to believe that the
militia-organization was created over and amalgamated
with, the village organization on the Kol system. The
village lands being divided into lots or ' khunts ' held
by the office-bearers and original settlers, the taba'dars
represent the body of ordinary village landholders: the
village sardar represents the munda, and the sardar-
ghatwal and sadial take the place of the ' mankf,' or chief
of the ' parha ' or union of villages.
It did not follow, of course, that the whole of the chiefs
(now become Zamindar's) lands were held by his subordi-
nates on ghatwali tenure : some were so held, others as
ordinary tenancies : and, as there was no real knowledge of
land-measures in old days, it became a burning question at
the survey what lands should be demarcated as ghatwali,
i.e. held on that favourable tenure, and what as ' mal/
i.e. land liable to pay full or tenant-rent to the ' Zamindar.'
The ghatwali lands were described in various ways, e.g.
as 'land sowed with one maund of seed' (which may be
taken as about eight bighas), or as so many ' rekhs ' — a rekh
meaning a sixteenth of the total cultivated area, whatever
that might be. The consequence was, as might be ex-
pected, that the minor ghatwals got to claim, and hold, a
good deal more than they were really entitled to ; and that
any attempt to define would, under the large licence of
Barabhum pargana, Mr. Risley dis- and grant muqarrari rights in com-
cusses the 'sadial' at length, and plete disregard of the nature of their
thinks he was a real part of the own title. They even keep so-called
system — a senior chief. ' diwans,' disreputable Hindus, who
1 The ghatwals are not good cul- do whatever writing is necessary
tivators, and the lands are poorly and absorb whatever profits are to
managed. Notwithstanding their be made out of the lands. Even
poverty, ' the sardar-ghatwals keep the sadials and village-sarclars copy
up the pretence of being Zamindars. this system on a small scale.' (Re-
They have seals, execute 'sanads,' port, § 43.)
586 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
dispute given by the Survey Act, result in the ghatwals
claiming more on one side, and the Zamindar striving to
reduce the allotments on the other. In one case it hap-
pened that the original estate-holder — the old Bhiimij
chief, who had first been transformed into a Hindu ' Raja,'
and then into a Permanent- Settlement Zamindar— had
granted an ijara or managing lease of the whole pargana to
an English firm. These gentlemen were, of course, anxious
to watch every demarcation ; it was the Zamindar's in-
terest to see that no more was allowed as ' ghatwali ' land
than could be helped. In M^nbhum there was fortunately
a kind of list of the ghatwals, with their rights stated in
rekhs, &c., drawn up in 1833, and spoken of as the 'Ism-
navisi ' (or ' nominal roll ' of ghatwals). Mr. Bisley gives
reasons at length for relying on this ; and in the pargana
we are speaking of, it was made the basis of a compromise
by which certain lands were demarcated as ' ghatwali,' the
rest becoming ' mal ' or liable to rent to the Zamindar. In
consideration, however, of the fact that many of the rent-
payers were probably the original clearers of the land, even
though not entitled to it on ghatwali terms, they were to be
allowed a rent- Settlement at fixed rates, something in this
way : the holders were to pay fixed rates per bigha ; the
Zamindar took 50 per cent, from the headmen of tarafs
(sardar-ghatwals and sadials) ; the 50 per cent, that re-
mained was then shared according to fixed percentages
between the grades of ghatwal ; 25 per cent, to the village
sardar, and so on.
The ghatwali tenure does not carry with it any title to
a share in the village upland waste or ' tanr,' but certain
rights of user are allowed.
The ghatwali land is not held entirely free. It pays the
landlord a 'panchak' or quit-rent1. But extra land pays
rent and the ' mangan ' or cesses.
1 The use of this term throws light 'one-fifth' would be alight share,
on the ' panchaki ' and ' upanchaki ' as a full rent was often the half
tenures : (p. 573). Calculating on or very commonly the ' panch-do '
the old fashion of sharing the grain, or two-fifths.
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENUEES. 587
§ ii. Similar Jdgir Tenures.
Somewhat analogous to the frontier police tenures were
the jagir grants found in Palamau and Lohardagga, and
called baraik, cheru, and bhogta. They were grants of land
held on condition of the holder being ready to turn out
armed at any moment to defend his Raja's lands and make
reprisals J.
§ 12. Law relating to Ghdtii'dls.
I shall not go further into detail regarding the law of
ghatwali tenures, as this can be found at p. 356 of Finu-
cane and Rampini's Tenant Act (snd ed.) There are ghat-
wal grants created under the Mughal rule (as in Birbhum,
and now in the Santal Pergunnahs) which have become
proprietary tenures, alienable and governed by Regulation
XXIX of 1814, and Bengal Act V of 1859. Others (as
those of Kharakpur in Hunger) are on a different footing ;
they are not alienable (without consent of the superior),
and the ghatwal may be dismissed by the Government, or
the Zamindar, as the case may be, for misconduct.
Police ghatwals, like those of Manbhum, are on a different
footing; if the ghatwal is dismissed for misconduct, he
forfeits the holding2.
1 For further details, see Statistical 2 See Indian Law Reports, vol. v,
Account, vol. xvi. p. 371, &c. Calcutta Series, p. 740.
588 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
SECTION X. — THE TENUEES OF THE SANTAL
§ i. General Account.
The district was made up (i) by the withdrawal from
Murshidabad of some of the Zamindari tracts ; (2) from
Birbhtim of certain parganas belonging to the Nagu Raja's
estate ; (3) from the Bhagalpur district, of certain Zamin-
dari tracts, as well as the hilly territory known as the
Rajmahal Hills, and formerly called 'Jungle Terry' (jangal
tarai). The chief feature of the district, indeed, is this
hilly tract, forming a broad strip beginning at the Ganges
and extending downwards to the south-east corner, which
is indicated on the map by a separate colour showing
it to be a ' Government estate.' It is locally known as
the Daman-i-Koh, and here no formal recognition of any
proprietary right has been made, though, of course, the
occupants have all their interests practically respected and
recorded.
The Santals colonized this district about the middle
of the last century. In consequence, the population is a
mixed one, although it is evident that the Kol village
system was generally prevalent.
§ 2. The Permanently-settled portion.
I. In that part of the district taken from the older
collectorates on the east, west, and north-west, all the earlier
settled tracts are under the Permanent Settlement, and
their tenures exhibit no peculiarity, except that they have
all been surveyed and rights recorded under Regulation III
of 1872. Here (as elsewhere under the Regulation) the
1 For this section I am mainly on the Tenures, by Mr. W. Oldham,
indebted to a Report on the Settlement, kindly prepared expressly for my
by Mr. C. W. Bolton, and to a Note work.
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 589
village headman is employed to collect the rents from his
villagers, unless there is any special reason for allowing
the Zamindar directly to interfere in the management.
The village headman will be a ' manjhi ' in a Santal village,
a ' pradhan ' in other tribal villages, and a ' mustajir ' or a
' mandal ' in the Bengali villages. The office and its appur-
tenances cannot be transferred by sale. For every raiyat
actually cultivating at the time of Settlement, and whose
name was entered in the Settlement proceedings, after due
inquiry, as the occupant, it has been recorded that he cannot
be ejected without an order of Court. This refers to tenants
who have not already a right of occupancy, so that all
tenants have virtually rights of occupancy. A further
effect has been that the tenures so recorded, no matter of
how short standing, are bought and sold and sub-let :
whether such transfers will hold good against the Zamin-
dar (or his rent-farmers — patnidars, muqarraridars, &c.) has
yet to be decided. But a portion of this Zamindari and
Permanently- Settled tract may be distinguished by the
fact that the great mass of the cultivators are Santal immi-
grants. This consists of the portion nearer the hills, and
where there is much forest to clear. Here especially, the
rules about the headmen as managers, and the occupancy
rights above stated, are applicable.
§ 3. The Ddwian-i-Koh.
II. The Da'man-i-Koh itself is entirely distinct. It was
originally occupied by Paharia or ' hill ' tribes under local
chiefs who got spoken of (though that, of course, is only a
Persian office nomenclature) as ' sardars ' and ' naibs.' As
early as 1780 this tract was placed on a special footing;
no revenue was demanded from the Paharias, who roamed
the tops and sides of the hills, living by shifting culti-
vation in the forest (jum1). Government made a cash
allowance monthly to support the 'sardars' and 'naibs';
and then left the land and all its products to the
1 Locally called ' Kurowabari.'
590 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
people, contenting itself with declaring, but never other-
wise practically asserting, its own title. The valleys lay
uncultivated till the Santals immigrated and established
villages under their manjhis or headmen : these have now
been settled and their rights recorded under the Regula-
tion. They are thus tenants on a Government estate. The
mdnjhi pays direct to Government, receiving 8 per cent, on
the collections as his commission.
This immigration has confined the Paharias to the hill-
sides. ' In the hills,' says Mr. Oldham, ' left to themselves,
tenures innumerable have grown up among them. Every
hill is claimed as private property and the hills are bought
and sold.' . . . ' None of their claims have been acknow-
ledged by Government, and are all at variance with its
declaration that the Daman-i-Koh is its own and the in-
habitants its direct raiyats.'
§ 4. Law of the District.
The whole district called the ' Son thai (Santal) Pergun-
nahs ' was removed formally from the Regulation law within
the limits stated in Act XXVII of 1855 (amended by Act X
of 1857). But the managers of the several Zamindari
estates, and especially some of the contract-farmers, had
been in the habit of oppressing the people, by raising their
rents, and that even in the case of those who had cleared
the jungle and therefore ought to have been respected. In
1871 the ill-feeling culminated in a very general agitation.
In Mr. Bolton's report will be found in detail the various
complaints which the local inquiry elicited l.
It is to the credit of one of the Zamindars, the Maharaja
Gopal Singh of Maheshpur, that some of the main sugges-
1 As a specimen it may be noted a profit of over E. 31,000). Four
that a European contractor from a years later the rental was run up to
Raja had (in 1267, Bengal era) taken R 1,12,296. Granted that some of
a seven years' contract for R. 30,052, this was due to extended cultivation
the jamabandi or rent-roll being or legitimate increase, a rental rise
R. 41,566. At the close of the lease of 270 per cent.in twelve years, could
he had run the rents up to R 81,637. no* have been effected without
He then got a lease for another grievous oppression,
seven years at R. 50, ooo (thus making
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENURES. 59 1
tions on which the Regulations of J 872 are based, came from
him. They were, that the whole body of the ' Regulation '
laws should not be enforced1 ; that the cultivator of a first
clearing should not be ousted, but that the rent should be
adjusted by a public officer ; and that no cesses beyond the
rent so fixed should be levied.
Regulation III of 1873 declares what laws are in force,
and limits the interest that may be levied on debts to 24
per cent, as a maximum, any agreement to the contrary
being disallowed, and compound interest in no case being
permitted. The interest is also never to exceed the prin-
cipal debt, and if the interest is for not more than a year,
it is not to exceed one-fourth of the principal.
The rest of the Regulation is taken up with the Settle-
ment and record of rights. The decisions of the Settlement
Courts are to have the force of decrees. Mr. Bolton thus
describes the chief provisions of the special Regulation : —
' The Settlement Officers were to inquire into, decide and
record the rights of Zamiiidars and other proprietors, the rights
of tenants or ryots, the rights of manjhees and other headmen
as against both proprietors and tenants, and also any other
landed rights to which, by the law or custom of the country
or of any tribe, any person may have legal or equitable claims.
The claimants must, however, have had possession personally,
or through others, since the ist January, 1859, a limitation of
twelve years being thus fixed. (Section 12.)
; The record of rights must show the nature and incidents
of the rights and interests of each class of occupiers or owners,
or, if need be, of individuals. Notice must be given to the
people on the Settlement Officer proceeding to a village to
record the rights. (Sections 13 and 14.)
' The boundaries of each village must be demarcated, areas
of waste or forest beyond the reasonable requirements of the
village being excluded, unless one-third of the total area of the
village is already cultivated or is fallow in due course of agri-
cultural rotation, and such waste or forest has been hitherto
enjoyed by the village. (Section 15.)
1 It would seem that, in spite of later Acts, and notably Act X of
Act XXVII of 1855, and partly 1859, which worked great mischief,
owing to an erroneous legal opinion, were practically put in force.
5Q2 LAND SYSTEMS OF BKIT1SH INDIA. [BOOK n.
' The Settlement Officers were empowered to review and
modify any previous decision of the ordinary officers of the
district, regarding the rights of manjhees and other village
headmen, which was found erroneous. (Section 16.)
' With regard to the manjhees and other headmen, it was
laid down that any manjhee or headman who had lost his
village since the 3ist December, 1858, was entitled to restora-
tion if he had a fair and equitable claim ; and that he should
not be excluded because he had been described as a mustajir
or farmer. The Settlement Officers might abate the existing
rents of manjhees or headmen if they were inequitable, or
enhance them if they were low, the rates being determined
according to the prevailing rates of the neighbourhood, the
number of ploughs in the village, and other relevant matters.
If necessary the lands might be measured. (Section 17.)
' The following principles were to apply in the case of
ryots : —
' (a) Twelve years' possession conferred occupancy rights.
' (&) Eyots who had acquired occupancy rights before the
3ist December, 1858, to be restored to possession,
if justly entitled.
' (c) Eyots to be held to have acquired rights of occupancy
in fields taken in exchange for other fields in the
same village in the same manner as if no exchange
had taken place.
' (d) Any custom regulating the mode of paying rents to the
manjhee or headman to be recorded.
' (e) The Settlement Officer to record the rents of the ryots,
if they are fair and equitable. If they are not, he
should inquire into and re-settle the rents according
to the number of ploughs owned by each ryot, or the
area of cultivated land held by him, or in any other
manner which might be customary and equitable.
(Section 18.)
' After adjustment and record, the rents of both headmen
and ryots shall remain unchanged for seven years, and there-
after until a fresh Settlement or agreement is made. (Section
'9.)
' In adjusting rents, the Settlement Officer might take into
consideration the agricultural skill and habits of life of the
rent-payers, or the fact that the headmen or ryots, or those
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENUEES. 593
through whom they claim, had reclaimed the land from forest
or waste. (Sections 20 and 21.)
' The instalments of rent and dates of payment by ryots
and manjhees or headmen respectively 1 were to be fixed by
the Settlement Officer, who was empowered to alter existing
instalments and dates if they pressed hardly on the people
of any village. The amount and dates of the instalments are
to remain unaltered until otherwise ordered by the Lieutenant-
Governor. (Section 22.)
' A record of local customs on the following matters was to
be drawn up for eveiy village : —
' (a) The existence of the office of manjhee or other village
headship, and the duties and emoluments of each
headman, and the customs of succession to the head-
ship by inheritance, election, or otherwise.
' (6) The removal or suspension of a headman for misconduct,
and the appointment or election to a vacant headship.
' (c) The devolution of the lands held by proprietors or
under-proprietors or headmen, or cultivated by ryots,
any custom contrary to the ordinary Hindu or Ma-
homedan law being noted.
' (d) The tenure of houses in the village, and the payment
of ground-rents and dues by non-cultivating resi-
dents.
' (e) The duties and dues of village watchmen and other
village servants, and their succession to, and removal
from office.
' (/) The management and usufruct of the waste land, and
other matters relating to the internal arrangement of
villages.
' The record of rights must be published by being posted
conspicuously in the village or otherwise, and persons in-
terested may bring forward objections in the original or
appellate Settlement Courts. (Section 24.)
' After one year from the date of publication the record
of rights becomes conclusive proof of the rights and customs
therein recorded, except in regard to those still under objec-
1 It will be remembered that the saving the raiyats from having to
headmen are constituted the sole deal with the landlord's officials,
rent-collectors of their villages, thus
VOL. I. Q q
594 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
tion before the Settlement Court. Such record having become
final, shall riot be reopened or modified without the sanction
of the Lieutenant-Governor, save as provided by the customs
of the village ; but the Lieutenant-Governor may order the
revision of any material error.' (Section 25.)
§ 5. Special Land Tenures.
The special tenures that deserve notice are the results of
the Kol organization. As before stated, in the permanently-
settled portions of the district, we have Zamindars with
patnidars and other tenure-holders leasing their estates in
the usual way. These need no remark.
A considerable area of land is held by ghatwals who
employ farmers, ' mustajirs,' to collect their rents. The
ghatwals (as far as they differ from those described in
Manbhum) will be described presently.
Throughout the Zamindari and ghatwali villages, there
are the usual rent-free taluqs for religious or personal
service ; lands allotted to members of the family (babiiana),
and in the Deogarh ghatwalis ' khor-o-posh ' grants for the
same object; and there are the village-service lands,
especially those of the ' Gorait,' or village watchman.
Where the Santal villages are the predominant element,
we find that the village has its headman or ' manjhi' (the
heads of other villages are called pradhan or mustajir). A
group of villages, now called a 'chakla' (borrowing the
Persian term), has a ' pramanik ' over it (also called ' chak-
ladar '). A still higher chief, called a ' des-manjhi,' used to
preside over the pramaniks ; these have now no func-
tions, but are still remembered. The head of an entire
'pargana' was called 'parganait.' In the ' Daman-i-Koh '
his position was regularly recognized ; he gets a commission
of 2 per cent, on all rents punctually paid, and an allow-
ance from each village. Elsewhere he is not so generally
recognized, and sometimes does not exist. These officials
have all more or less retained lands held in virtue of
office, rent-free or lightly assessed. The holding is
CHAP, in.] THE LAND-TENURES. 595
called 'man'; thus, 'manjhiman' is the headman's hold-
ing1.
In the Daman-i-Koh, I may notice, only levelled and
prepared rice-land is called ' zamin ' (or in the dialectic
form ' jami '). This is one of the many indications how
little the soil, as such, is regarded as the subject of pro-
perty ; it is the cleared, prepared, utilizable surface, or, in
other words, the use and productivity of land, that is
regarded as the object of ownership. The Paharia, wander-
ing about and getting a crop from the ashes of the burnt
forest, is not regarded as owning any ' land.'
§ 6. Ghdtwdli.
I have already described the tenures of this class in
Manbhum : but the ghatwals of Deogarh and other parts
are, in some respects, peculiar, so that I may repro-
duce in extenso the account kindly sent me by Mr.
Oldham : —
' It was the practice throughout the district, and in the
portions transferred from Birbhum, Bhagalpur, or Murshida-
bad, for the great Zamindars to assign grants of land, generally
at the edges of their estates, in selected passes (ghats) or other
spots suited for forts, to check the incursions of the forest
tribes, as the remuneration of the person or family entrusted
with the guardianship of the pass, and of the specified number
of armed retainers whom he was bound to maintain.
* This was the general character of the ghatwali tenure. ' The
grants were rent-free. The grantees held while they performed
the conditions of their grant. The establishments of retainers
varied much in size, according to the purpose for which they
were wanted ; and the extent of the lands assigned varied in
proportion. Some of the holders were wardens of extensive
marches, and their successors at this day occupy the position
of considerable Zamindars. Other grants were merely for the
purpose of checking the ravages of wild beasts ; one in par-
ticular was given for the destruction of elephants.
1 Note that here we have the same idea as involved in the watan of
Central India.
Q q 2
596 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
' In the Bhagalpur district the grants were considered " police
lands," and when the need for the grantee's services passed away,
they were resumed by Government and held for some time as
Government estates. One proprietor, however, appealed against
this mode of dealing with them, and the Privy Council decreed
that he, and not the Government, had the right of resumption ;
and most of those resumed have been restored and absorbed in
the Zamindaris, of which they formed a part.
' In the part of the district which once belonged to Birbhum,
no resumption or restoration has taken place. The grants,
with an exception to be noticed, are of small extent, and are
still held as rent-free lands, and a nominal service rendered
for them. Many of them have changed hands by sale and by
encroachment, though such alienations are not recognized or
permitted when known by Government.
' An exception to the ghatwali, as thus generally described,
is the subdivision of Deogarh, which consists entirely of
ghatwali tenures of a distinct kind. This country, which
consisted of a forest tract, amid which rise precipitous, isolated
hills, was held by a number of Bhiiiya chieftains of an abori-
ginal or semi-aboriginal race, and was conquered by the
Muhammadan sovereign of Birbhum about A.D. 1600. The
conquerors, however, were never able to bring the tract into
complete subjection, and at last effected a compromise with
the Bhuiya chiefs, under which the latter were to hold half of
their respective tenures rent-free, on condition of their main-
taining retainers and performing the services of warden of the
inarches as above described. Engagements on both sides were
never properly fulfilled, and in A.D. 1813 the Government
finally intervened and concluded an arrangement with the
ghatwals by which their quota of rent was paid directly to
itself, and they were still bound to render what the Govern-
ment of the day styled their police duties.
' Their system of sub-tenures coincides with that existing in
the precisely similar tenures in the Chutiya Nagpur division,
on which Deogarh abuts. They held watch and ward, and
maintained militia and police, and farmed out each village to
a person called mustajir, on whom fell fiscal responsibilities
only. These farmerships became hereditary, and consequently
at Settlement, the holders were unwilling to accept the lower
status and more onerous duties, as well as the restrictions as to
sale and transfer, fixed for the village headman. They made
CHAP, ill.] THE LAND-TENUEES. 597
an application to the Government, which conceded in return
the right of sale to mustajirs of certain specified villages.1'
1 The British Government made of the district the (Persian) term
certain Ghatwali grants to pensioned mustajir has been naturalized and
or invalided soldiers on the banks turned into mustagir (with the hard
of the Ganges ; these are known as g instead of.?').
' Inglis (English) Grants.' In parts
CHAPTER IV.
THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT.
SECTION I. — THE LOCAL VAKIETIES OF TENANTS'
HOLDINGS.
THE preceding chapter has dealt with landlord estates
or those involving proprietary right, and also with ' tenures,'
technically so called, which form a sort of secondary
class, intermediate between the first grade of interest and
the lowest which is that of the raiyat. Properly speak-
ing, no fresh start is necessary before proceeding to"
describe raiyati rights ; an account of the varieties of
these, as they are found in different districts, is as much a
part of our study of Bengal land-tenures, as is the descrip-
tion of the Zamindar or the hawaladar. It is only the mag-
nitude of the subject and the necessity for subdivision into
sections, that makes me begin a new ' chapter ' for tenants
and their rights. In reality, a large number of the persons
who have become legally tenants, but are still called by
the old name of raiyat, were the original soil-owners of. at
any rate, their individual holdings. Their present position
is due partly to their own decay, partly to the gradual
overlaying of their rights by the growth of the ' Zamin-
dars ' ; it is therefore necessary to bear in mind that in
Bengal, as in other parts of India, we must not be surprised
to find ' tenants ' many of whom owe their position to no
kind of contract with any landlord whatsoever. That is
a main point to be borne in mind. We may now proceed
CHAP, iv.] THE KELATION OF LANDLOKD AND TENANT. 599
to notice some of the local forms of raiyati tenure, and
then proceed to the history of the relations of landlord and
tenant, and to the provisions of law actually in force.
And first of certain very common terms describing tenants
generally.
§ i. Main Classes of Tenants.
In the ordinary revenue language, but hardly in the
common speech of the people, tenants in the Permanently
Settled districts were spoken of in two classes — ' khudkdsht '
and ' pahi-kdsht.' Khudkdsht properly means a man who
cultivates his own land ; and, in reality, it points back to
a time before the Zamindars' time, when the village cul-
tivator was either a member of a body which had cleared
the waste and established the village, or had become, by
conquest or grant at some remote date, the virtual owner
of it. Where such persons were of a cultivating caste and
worked their own holdings personally or with the aid of
their servants, they were said to be ' khudkashfc,' or cul-
tivating their own. But there were always others in the
village who, though not on the same footing, were never-
theless resident and privileged cultivators, just as we see in
Panjab villages at the present day. When the proprietary
right of the village cultivators became lost or obscured by
the turmoils of the times and the influence of overlords,
both the original village owners and their resident help-
mates became practically undistinguished, and were called
raiyats under the Zamindar ; but as both were by custom
privileged, and were not liable to eviction, both came to be
equally called ' khudkasht ' — with a slight change of mean-
ing, for the word now implied tenants ' cultivating in their
own village.' The ' thani ' (or sthani) cultivator is only a
Hindi name for exactly the same thing ; and ' chappar-
band,' the man who has his 'roof or house 'fixed' in the
village, is also the same. Pahi- or pai-kasht meant a man
who came from abroad and took up land to cultivate
without belonging to the village permanently. He retained
6OO LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
the appellation of origin, even though he in fact continued
to till the land year after year.
As the modern tenant-law has given privileges, after a
lapse of years, to the ' pahi ' cultivators as well as to the
khudkasht, the distinction found in the Regulations and in
the older reports has ceased to be of practical import, and
has given place to the legal distinction of ' occupancy ' and
' non-occupancy ' raiyat.
§ 2. Local Names for Tenants.
The common local names for tenants are various. ' Jot '
is a term commonly used for any tenancy *, especially in
the Bihar districts, where it has not the special meaning
explained (in Chap. III. Sec. VI. § C, p. 546). 'Praja' is
a common word for tenant, and also ' karsha ' (Sansk.
krishan).
As regards the term 'jot,' Mr. Cotton remarks that it is
used with the most elastic application. It has already
been stated that in Jessore it means a class of persons who
are in fact substantial tenure-holders with an acknow-
ledged right to hold at fixed rates; and so it is explained
in the district of Rangpur. In general the raiyat who
holds direct from the landlord is called 'jotdar,' and his
holding is a 'jot,' whatever its size, and which may, and
does, vary from one paying a rent of one rupee to one of
which the rent is half a lakh 2. It will then be remem-
bered that 'jot' may be either a ' tenure ' or a raiyati
(tenant) holding according to locality.
§ 3. Hdl-hdsila.
In the Bhagalpur division a form of tenancy is spoken of
as ' hal-hasila ' (which means 'what has been realized for
1 R. and F. Ten. Act, p. 33. house and garden and paddy-fields.
2 The term ' jot-jama' ' merely im- The rent is ' be-miyadi,' without a
plies that a lump rent is fixed on fixed term, or 'miyadi,' for a term,
the whole holding, say, of five to or ' sarasar,' fixed from time to time,
ten bighas, including the site of and so on.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLOED AND TENANT. 6oi
the time being, or actually '). This almost explains that
the tenant is only bound to pay according to the crop
which actually comes to maturity. The tenant cultivates
such lands in the holding as he judges best, so that the
fields occupied and the rent, vary from year to year ; but it
is understood that the tenure is a continuing one. Certain
rates for each crop, called ' bera,' are known ; and at the
close of the year, the account is made out by taking the
area of crops of different kinds matured , and working out
the rent by aid of the ' bera ' or rates *.
So much of the holding as is left fallow is either not
paid for at all or according to a ' fallow ' rate, as may be
agreed on ; but it will be observed that, whether fallow or
not, the entire area is at the disposal of the tenant. The
landlord has no power to hand over to some other person
such fields as the tenant has not elected to plough up. It
is said that these tenures are held by the higher castes,
and that, in some cases, they are regarded as transferable,
having been sold in executing decrees.
A modern form of this, only on a yearly agreement, is
found on the banks of the Ganges and Kiisi rivers, by
non-resident cultivators, locally called ' dotwar V
§ 4. Otbandi or utbandi 3.
This is a new form of temporary contract tenancy, and
only resembles ' the hal-hasila,' which is a permanent
tenancy, in this one particular, that the rent depends on
the area cultivated, and on the actual crop raised ; nothing
is paid for the fallow, if, as in some cases, the utbandi
1 There is a more extended account in the following note).
in the Statistical Account (Purneah\ 3 Commonly written ' utbandi.'
vol. xv. p. 324, and Malda (vol. vii. Wilson gives it .as a Marathi word
p. 81). The questions there raised Aiit, a plough, from Sanscrit ayudh,
about an occupancy-right accruing, a weapon. But Platt, with much
are all set at rest by Act VIII of more probability, spells it 'ot,' which
1885, under which it is not needed means a ' scotch ' (to fix a thing
that the very same plots should down) ; and hence a fixed rate for
have been continuously held. the use of a plough and pair of
2 Unless the name is (as I suspect) bullocks.
a misprint for aotwar or otwar ^as
602 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
raiyat holds for two or three years ; for it is a local feature
that the land (owing to its infertility) must be given rest.
This form of tenancy is commonest in Nadiya, but is found
in Jessore, Murshidabad, and in Pabna under the name of
' Uthitpatit ' or ' charcha jot.' It is said that 'jama'i'
raiyats — i.e. tenants paying a lump rental for their hold-
ing— pay at rates about half as high as those which are
paid by utbandi raiyats on their actual cultivation.
§ 5- Grain-tenants.
Before closing the notice of varieties of tenant, I must
mention the ' bhaoli ' or grain-paying system of Bihar.
The process of division is much the same as it is in the
Panjab, or any other place where it survives, or had sur-
vived till of late years. As usual, the grain division is
effected either by weighing out the grain at the threshing-
floor (agor-batai), or by appraising the standing crop (dana-
bandi), in which case the tenant makes over as many
maunds of the grain as it was estimated would be the
share in the field as it stood. It is surprising how accurate
an appraisement of this sort can be when made by persons
accustomed to the work.
In Gaya, it is said, four-fifths of the land is held on
grain-paying tenures. I have found a report on these
tenures written by Babu Bhub-Sen Singh, of Gay^i, which
graphically describes them1: —
' It is the distinctive feature of the grain-rents that the
payment consists not in any fixed quantity but in a fixed pro-
portion of the actual out-turn of the crops grown. The rent,
paid or payable accordingly varies from year to year. The
land is tilled and the seed sown is supplied by the raiyat or at
1 Report on the Rent Bill in 1884. whom the * Zamindar maintains,' is
The account is also curious as it is one of the regular servants of the
written from a strongly landlord village community, and that the
point of view. When it is recol- Zamindar was always bound to keep
lected that a large proportion of the the embankments, the author cer-
bhaoli tenants are what was once, tainly does not underrate the land-
in byegone days, the village pro- lord's equitable interest in the cul-
prietary body, and that the ' gorait ' tivation.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLOED AND TENANT. 603
his cost— the cost of hoeing and transplanting, of weeding and
clearing, being also borne by him. But the water is supplied by
the landlord at his own cost. The cost of gilandazi (throwing
up of earth), division of lands into plots, by al and ail (ridges)
according to their levels, for the storage of the necessary
quantity of water, and of erecting embankments on the banks
of rivers for the protection of the villages from being over-
flooded, are exclusively paid by him. In dry years, when
water cannot be supplied from rivers and village reservoirs
and artificial water-courses, he pays the raiyat the cost of
sinking wells. It is not only that the landlord supplies water
for irrigation, but as the rise or fall in his income depends
upon the increase or decrease in the produce of the lands, he
naturally shows as much anxiety and takes as much care in
the proper and timely ploughing thereof, as he would have
done had he been a cultivator himself ; and his servants are
always found to be busy in superintending the tilling of the
soil, the sowing of the seed, the transplanting of the rice, and
so forth, according as the case may be.
' If the raiyat' s bullock happens to die in the ploughing
season, and the raiyat is unable to procure one in its stead,
the Zammdar would come forward and help him with one,
even at the risk of running into debt, if he is poor. Seed is
also supplied by him in the same way. For similar reasons,
the landlord is interested in seeing that the best crops are
grown upon the land it is capable of producing. No raiyat has
the right to sow any crop inferior to what the land is capable
of producing, nor can he be allowed, without the express
consent of his landlord, to grow crops for which, by the custom
of the country, a cash rent is paid, or which are incapable of
being appraised or stored in the threshing-floor or barn for
division. From the time the crops are sown to the time they
are appraised and stored, the landlord watches the crops with
keen interest and protects them from being wasted or other-
wise injured by men or cattle. For this purpose he has to
maintain an establishment of Barahils and Goraits, the former
of whom receive their salary from, the Zammdar, ....
while the latter are remunerated by the Zammdar with rent-
free land ' [and some grain-payment which is exacted from the
tenants]. ; This kind of tenure, it may be remarked en passant,
is a peculiar one and has not its like anywhere else either in
604 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
Asia or Europe : and it would be a mistake to compare it with
the European metayer system and to condemn it as having all
the evils of that system without any of its advantages*. . . .
1 The " bhaoli " crops are by custom and the circumstances
under which they are grown, regarded by the parties concerned
as their joint property.' [!] . . . 'The whole of the straw
and the chaff, which are not without value, goes to the raiyats.
It is only out of the grain-produce that the Zamindar gets a
share which, though everywhere more than half, is different in
different parganas, and almost in different villages, and which
again varies with the different classes of raiyats, whether
Ra'iyan or Shurfa 2, the former delivering a higher and the
latter a lower share : and we shall be very near the true figure
when we state that the Zamindar's share, with the customary
abwabs or cesses, is T9g- of the grain-produce. But, if the value
of the straw and the chaff, which are, in these days, as much
valuable commodities as grain, be taken into consideration, the
highest share which the Zamindar gets in lieu of rent, would
be much less than even half of the total gross produce. The
value of the straw and chaff may fairly be assumed to be one-
third of the grain-produce. '
' As soon as the crops are ripe for harvesting, the Zamfndar
deputes an amin (assessor) and a sdlis (arbitrator) to make an
estimate of the grain-produce. In the presence of these officers,
the raiyats, the village gomdsta, the patwari, and the jeth (head-
man of raiyats), who generally knows how to read and write,
representing and watching the interests of the raiyats ; the
village chainman, called Jcathdddr (holder of the rod or bam-
boo), measures the field with the village bamboo, which in this
district is nowhere less than 8 feet 3 inches or more than 9
feet in length. The sdlis then goes round the field, and from
his experience guesses out the probable quantity of the grain
in the fields, holds a consultation with the amin and the
village officers, and when the quantity is unanimously agreed
upon, it is made known to the raiyat. If he accepts the
estimate so arrived at, the quantity is entered by the patwari
1 I should have thought that the 2 Ra'iyan are ordinary 'subjects.'
author's own description fully jus- Shurfa are the higher castes (from
tified the condemnation in italics, sharif= noble), very often ex-pro-
which, if I recollect rightly, is Dr. prietors.
Field's !
CHAP, iv.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 605
in the Jchasra or field-book. If he objects, other raiyats are
called in to act as mediators, and if they fail to convince either
party, a partdl or test takes place. On behalf of the landlord,
a portion of the best part of the crops is reaped, and an equal
portion of the worst part is reaped on behalf of the raiyat.
The two portions so reaped are threshed and the grain weighed.
On the quantity thus ascertained, the whole produce of the
field is calculated and entered in the Jchasra. From the time
the estimate is made, the Zammdar withdraws his supervision
from the crops, which are then left in the exclusive charge and
possession of the tenant. ' . . . ' After the appraisement of the
field, the raiyat is allowed the full liberty of reaping the crops
and taking them home at any time that may suit his con-
venience. Out of the estimated quantity, a deduction at the
rate of two seers per maund is allowed to the raiyat, which is
called chhuthi (let off). I have not been able to ascertain the
exact reason for which this allowance is made. But, as in the
agorbatdi, the reapers who also thresh out the grain are paid
from the joint crop, I presume this is allowed to the raiyat to
meet the cost of reaping, gathering, and threshing. The land-
lord's share is then calculated on the quantity left after the
chhuthi has been deducted,'
The writer, however, goes on to describe how the land-
lord exacts several cesses (here called ' hubub '), which
include the dah-haq, which is an extra ' tenth ' (4 seers in
the maund), besides pan-sera (-J- seer), ' nocha,' and others.
With these he says 'the Zamindar's total shark would
come to, in some cases, a little less, and in others a little
more, than TnF.
§ 6. Sub-tenants.
When the tenant's holding is of considerable size and
importance, it is not surprising that sub-letting should be
usual. The commonest name for a tenant's tenant, or
under-raiyat, is, perhaps, ' kurpha ' (often written ' koorfa,'
&c.) l. A sub-tenant paying grain is called bargait or
1 As the term is supposed to be of in these languages, must be wrong ;
Hindi or Bengali origin, of course but I believe it is not settled what
the letter ' f,' which does not occur the real derivation of the term is.
606 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
adhiyadar. The term ' shikmi ' is used for under-tenants,
but not in Gaya, where it means a kind of money-paying
tenant who is permanent, and probably refers to the class
of tenant who was not on equal terms with the descendants
of original village settlers, though privileged as long resident
and settled.
§ 7. Local terms for Tenants.
Where there are special terms for ' tenures,' or for raiyati
holdings, there are also special terms for tenants or sub-
tenants ; as, for instance, the chukanidar under the jotdar
in Rangpur and other districts, and the kol-karsh£dar in
Bakirganj. For a variety of terms which I do not think
it would be interesting to reproduce, as merely indicating
kinds of contract, it will be sufficient to refer to the note
at p. 35 of Finucane and Rampini's Tenancy Act.
§ 8. Tenancies in Waste-land clearings.
Chittagong presents to us certain peculiarities in the
system of tenancy which deserve to be noticed, because
they throw light on the difficulties of a tenant law, and
how provisions which may be effective in one place, and
under one set of circumstances, fail to apply in another.
The account that has been given both of land-tenures and
of the method of land-revenue Settlement adopted in this
district, will have made the subject so far familiar that
what follows will be intelligible. We have, in fact, a
country where land is extremely abundant in proportion
to tenants, and where there is indeed never likely to be
much pressure, because the neighbouring district of Arakan
is still a virgin wilderness to a great extent, and, like so
much of Burma generally, only awaits the overflow of
population to turn it into a source of wealth to the agri-
culturist. Not only is land abundant, but it is held in
small patches which are still distinguished by the names
of origin. The taluq is the individual holding, whether
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 607
old-settled revenue-free, assessed (i. e. resumed) revenue-
free, or nauabad. The result is (i) that every one ekes out
his subsistence by taking, as a tenant, some patch of land
belonging to another ; (2) that every one desires to have some
land of which he is owner, or at least permanent tenure-
holder (qaimi), because that gives him the poiver of letting
•it out. A mere occupancy- right is not valued ; for it does
not enable a man to get land on any better terms than
circumstances always secure for him as a casual tenant ;
while of itself it is not a right which enables him to let
the plot and get money by it.
A considerable portion of the cultivation is in the hands
of tenants-at-will, called (as usual) 'jotdar ' or ' chasa,' or
sometimes ' karshai-raiyat ' (karsha = plough). And of course
a man may be a ' chasa ' tenant on one plot, while he is
owner (or taluqdar) of another.
' Settlements with the cultivators ' (writes Mr. Lowis, the
Commissioner1) 'are made in March or April, when each
jotdar settles what rent is to be paid for the land he proposes
to cultivate, the rate being governed by the state of the rice
market and the demand for the land. . . . Sometimes written
engagements are taken, but as often as not the arrangement is
verbal. It is not absolutely necessary that a fresh engagement
should be entered into every year. When a chasa has held
the same land for several years, he is allowed to hold on at the
old rate without attending at the cutcherry to settle afresh.
... It is always assumed, however, by both parties that, on
the occasion of a marked rise or fall in the price of rice, there
shall be a corresponding change in the rent, after mutual
discussion.'
A trusted chasa —
' will be allowed to hold on for some years without a fresh
agreement, while a new man will be required to attend at the
beginning of each season to settle his rent.'
In many cases rents are settled only for one year, and at
the end of it either party is at liberty to dissolve the con-
1 Commissioner of Chittagoug to Board of Revenue, No. 72 C.T.,
dated 8th December, 1882.
608 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
nection. Such a system, Mr. Lowis remarks, would, on a
large estate, result in rack-renting ; but it does not here, as
the tenant is independent, owing to the small size of the
holdings ; and if he cannot get one bit on terms that suits
him, it is no question of breaking up his home and going to
a distant village — he is sure to find another, or half a dozen
other plots, within a stone's throw, the owners of which are
only too anxious to secure him. A man is not absolutely
bound to get land or starve ; he is pretty sure to have some
of his own, by which he can live ; and if he does not get
extra land on a tenancy as it pleases him, he can afford to
let it alone.
The taluqdars have thus the complete control of the land,
but subject to conditions which compel moderation ; the
tenants prefer to be free also. ' The taluqdars,' says the
Collector regarding the Kutabdiya estates, —
' argued that no terms whatever could pay them if the control
of the land were taken out of their hands and the cultivators
under them were recorded with fixed rights. The reason of
this is, that the cultivators under them cannot be relied on for
a fixed rent year by year. They prefer to pay heavily on a
good crop and lightly in a year when they have reaped less or
got lower prices, or have left a larger area uncultivated. More-
over, each taluq has its own small embankments, and the
taluqdars must be entitled to demand the labour of the
cultivators to ensure these being kept up. In short, the
cultivators do not want fixity of tenure, and it would be ruinous
to the taluqdars if it were given to them. '
§ 9. Alluvial Tenancies in Noakhdli district.
Noakhali is another district where land is abundant,
owing to the constant formation of more or less rich silt
islands or 'chars ' out of the river- branches that intersect
the district.
These ' chars,' of course, vary in their durability : some
last but a short time ; some remain for many years, or per-
manently. Most of the recent chars, and even much land
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 609
on the older ones, is cultivated by ' jotdars ' on a purely
annual tenancy. Tenants of this class will come at the
proper time to the office of the hawdladdr or other tenure-
holder, and offer to take a certain plot, at a rate which
varies, and depends on the quality of the land and its
advantages. The agreement being completed, the tenant
passes a plough-furrow across the land, as the sign of his
taking possession.
The Commissioner writes as follows T :—
' For the first ten or even twenty years of its existence, a
char is thus cultivated by jotdars pure and simple, — non-
resident, nomadic, and unsettled. Gradually, however, some of
them settle near their cultivation, and come to be looked on
as settled -raiyats, who hold at some sort of fixed rate of rent.
There is a rate for settled-raiyats, and this is not usually
altered ; but even a settled-raiyat often sits loose to his hold-
ing, and so a custom has become recognized that he should be
allowed some remission in a bad season, and should not be
expected to pay for land not cultivated.
' This rule is not invariable, but I am led to believe that in
a bad season, after some haggling, a settled-raiyat does gene-
rally get some remission, while in a good season he has to pay
something extra in one shape or another ; in either case the
rate is not altered, but the arrangements made are the result
of mutual compromise.
'There is very little actual difference between a settled-
raiyat and a jotdar. They neither of them hold under leases ;
the usual rate for both is about the same : only the jotdari
rent is admittedly variable ; that of the settled-raiyat is not
variable, but — which comes to much the same thing — he can
generally get some remission when things are bad.
' There has always been more land to be cultivated on the
islands than cultivators ; and land once cultivated so soon gets
covered with rank vegetation — all the ranker for the earth
having once been opened up — that cultivators are in demand,
and have always been able pretty well to dictate their own
terms ; while the facilities for obtaining fresh land rent-free,
or at low rates, have induced unsettled and nomadic habits, so
1 To Board of Kevenue, No. 116 similar state of things is described
C.T., dated nth February, 1882. A in Tipperah (Tipra).
VOL. I. B r
6lO LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
that even where cultivators have been for a considerable period
apparently settled, the hawaladar knows that they sit very
loose to the holding, and, if discontented, are apt to abandon
them in order to acquire land elsewhere.'
§ 10. Comparison of this class of Tenancy with the state of
Tenancies generally at the Permanent Settlement.
Mr. J. S. Cotton compares the present state of things in
the alluvial districts to the condition of the ' pahi-kasht,' or
casual or non-resident tenants generally, at the time of the
Permanent Settlement ; and the existence of such con-
ditions no doubt largely contributed to the old belief that
the relations of landlord and tenant (generally) would settle
themselves — a belief which resulted in the silence of the
Regulations as to any definite terms of protection.
'The country was then three parts waste, still slowly re-
covering from the effects of famine. The demand was on all
sides for raiyats to bring the land under cultivation ; the rates
of rent were uniformly low, since, as soon as the demand was
raised above what the raiyat chose to pay, he would migrate to
the lands of a neighbouring landlord1.'
But as time passed, this state of things gradually ceased,
and in the end Government was obliged to devise protec-
tive measures, which it did in 1859, and again in 1885.
' But in Chittagong, and throughout the new alluvial for-
mations of Noakhali and Tipperah, population is still sparse,
land still plentiful, and the demand is still for raiyats to bring
land under cultivation.' . . .
' There is no rack-renting in Chittagong, for there is always
the probability that if the rent is fixed too high the land may
not be taken up ; and if not engaged for, the loss would, of
course, fall on the taluqdar or hawaladar, as the case may be.
1 The Chittagong raiyats are, in short, entirely independent
1 And this to the 'pahi-kasht' packed up h is fofci(drinking-pot) and
was not what a removal would be his bedding and few moveables ;
to an old resident of a village. There and as to his hut, a frame of mud
was no breaking up of an ancestral and bamboos and a thatch roof is
home — even though a humble one — easily renewed in one place as well
and severing lifelong ties and asso- as another,
ciations ; the casual tenant, soon
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLOKD AND TENANT. 6 1 I
of the influence and interference of their landlords, and cultivate
as they please on a yearly tenure. It is not surprising that
under such circumstances they do not attach much importance
to the right of occupancy as our law defines it. They are
naturally indisposed to bind themselves definitely to a parti-
cular plot of land for which they will have to pay rent whether
they cultivate it or not. Their real ambition is to get a
permanent lease ['tenure '] and then to let this to other raiyats
for cultivation ; but, if they cannot get this, they prefer to make
their own terms with their landlord for such lands as they may
themselves cultivate.
' A similar state of things exists in the Dwars 1 of Jalpaiguri,
where so much land is available that an under-tenant who feels
himself aggrieved will at once desert his holding and take up
other land.
' It is the same in the estates belonging to the Jaipur
Government 2 in the district of Bogra (Bagura). Owing to the
abundance of fallow and waste land in this part of the country,
the raiyats seldom occupy the same holding for any lengthened
period, and rights of occupancy are almost entirely unknown.
The Zamindars compete for raiyats, and "the latter are almost
masters of the situation. " The figures given by Mr. Macpherson
in paragraph 8 of his report show that nearly 10 per cent, of
the holdings on these estates had been vacated during the three
years, 1879-80 to 1881-82, and no less than 1,320 bi'ghas, which
were cultivated three years before, had gone out of cultivation.
The amount of new land taken under cultivation had prevented
the rental of the estates from being reduced by more than K. 48;
but the results vary considerably in different villages, and
from year to year.'
1 Commissioner to Board, No. 868, 2 Mr. Macpherson's report to the
dated and March, 1878, paragraph Board, No. 61, dated 22 Jan. 1883.
ii ; and Board to Government, No. paragraph 4, published on p. 201 of
211 A., dated 2^th March, 1878, the Selections from the correspondence on
paragraph 12. the preparation of Tables of Rent Rate.
R r 2
6l2 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
SECTION II. — A SKETCH OP THE HISTORICAL CHANGES IN
THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT.
§ i. Introductory Remarks.
I must now endeavour to give a sketch of the relation
of Landlord and Tenant in Bengal. Among the legacies
which the Permanent Settlement has left us, the controver-
sies excited by the question of the Zamindar's right to the
estate, and of the permanence of the assessment, sink into
insignificance beside the burning question of the rights of
tenants and their liability to ejectment and to enhancement
of rent. On this subject, the difficulty, once more, is to
deal with the mass of official literature that the question
has evoked, and to place before the student just as much as
is really important and really authoritative.
The main points I have to bring out are — -first, that from
1 769 onwards the Government was perfectly alive to the
fact that the raiyats of all classes — from the permanent
tenure-holder to the humblest resident cultivator — needed
protection and were entitled to it ; second, that they only
contemplated certain means for this protection, which were,
perhaps, in any case, theoretically inadequate, and which
certainly, in the course of actual events, proved absolutely
futile. Thirdly, I shall have to illustrate and explain the
difficult subject of rents and their liability to enhancement,
which our ablest administrators of 1789 certainly had very
confused ideas about. On this subject I shall have to point
out that a great portion of the controversy has arisen from
a failure to draw the distinction which a careful considera-
tion of the original condition of the raiyats will be found to
warrant, and to an utterly mistaken view of what the early
Regulations really laid down. It has been sedulously
maintained — notably (for instance) in an elaborate volume
of authorities, entitled the Za/minddri Settlement of Bengal l
1 An anonymous work in two volumes. Calcutta : Brown & Co., 1879 ;
already alluded to.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLOED AND TENANT. 6 1 3
— not only that the ' raiyats ' were the original owners of the
soil, which is true only to a limited extent (if we take into
account not merely historical facts of a remote past, but
also the actual conditions which ages of change brought
about), but also that the ' raiyats ' had a general right l to
an absolutely unchangeable rate of payment, which it was
intended to make permanent and unalterable, just as much
as it was to fix the revenue of the Zamindar. I do not under-
stand that even the author of this work goes so far as to
assert that tenants really owing their position to contract —
i. e. located on the waste lands — were or could be entitled
to have a fixed rent, never to be enhanced ; and that alone
would seriously affect the question, for at least one-third
of the whole presidency was uncultivated at Settlement :
in many districts two-thirds would be nearer the mark.
But, as regards the raiyats on cultivated land, it cannot
be contended that they were all on the same footing. Even
as regards those that had once been the real proprietors of
the holdings (before there were any Zamindars, or under
the rule of Rajas who were overlords, but never proprietors),
it is quite impossible to assert that their revenue contribu-
tions were not liable to increase 2. It is true that, by a
mere tradition, the Settlement of Raja Todar Mai was
remembered and looked back to as a sort of fundamental
assessment or starting-point ; but it was nowhere actually
in force, or had been within recent memory. It is a
matter of the plainest fact that the Mughal Government
from time to time re-assessed the lands and raised the
rates, just as our own Government does (only in a more
methodical way) in temporarily-settled provinces 3. It is a
mere question of form that sometimes the assessment was
raised by actual re-measurement and re-valuation, and
sometimes, in later days, by the expedient of adding ' cesses '
1 I. e. not limited to particular 2 See ante, p. 277, and Fifth Rt-
cases where general and prescriptive port, vol. i. 104 (Shore's Minute, §§
usage could be proved, in which 13-39, 63, 279).
case no one ever doubted that the 3 This fact is expressly asserted in
possession and the payment were Reg. I of 1793, Sec. 7 (Article VI of
fixed. the Proclamation).
6 14 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
or abwab to the last 'asl jama'. And as to the rates of rent
spoken of 'as pargana rates,' they existed only in theory,
and in practice would not be found to represent any-
thing more than the results of the last re-assessment, if
so much.
While, therefore, it was practically impossible to do any-
thing else but recognize the Zamindars (and others) as
limited proprietors, either in name or practically, as has
been done in every form of Settlement known in British
India or Burma, and while it was practically impossible to
lay down that no class of raiyat should ever have his rent
raised, there was a just solution of the question, and that
was for a Settlement Officer to inquire into and record
rights, and classify tenants exactly, as we have done for
instance in the Central Provinces, where, from motives of
justice and State policy, we created, more or less artificially,
a body of landlords.
But with all our present machinery of rapid and accurate
survey, with a Settlement Office that can attack work, and
in a short time have every field and every form of tenure
under its eye in maps and tabulated returns, and, above all,
under the experienced local inspection of trained officers,
— with all this in mind, it is a matter of some difficulty
to take ourselves back to 1788-89, and think of the
small body of Collectors, the utter absence of reliable
native subordinates, the imperfection of survey science,
and the inaccessibility of the districts, without roads, and
many of them half cultivated. But if we can succeed in
doing this to any extent whatever, we shall at once realize
how impossible it was that the one and only chance of
success should ever have occurred to any one as within
the horizon of the practicable ; the more so as the policy
distinctly was to save the newly-made landlords from what
was thought to be vexatious inquisition into the details of
their estate and its management.
Unfortunately, as we began (should I not say were obliged
to begin ?) without the only possible guarantee of success, — •
a survey of estates and a classification of rights, — so the
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 615
continuous and inevitable process of the stronger absorbing
the weaker right, went on ; and when rights have been
changed and discoloured by a century of growth — or of
abuse, if it be so, — it is impossible for a sober and practical
Government, whatever it may be for impassioned advo-
cates, to ignore accomplished facts and hark back to a
theoretical state of rights that once existed. Where it is
difficult to defend the course of legislation, is in the time
between 1800 or 1812 and 1845. The errors then made
were fatal ; but granted that legacy of mistake, I do not
see how, from 1 859 onwards, in the divided state of opinion,
more could be done than has in fact been clone. Every
step had then to be taken in . the teeth of strongly- vested
interests. While, on the one side, the raiyat's advocate
looks regretfully back to unquestionable facts of ancient
right, and appeals to declarations of intentions the means
of realizing which unfortunately never existed, the landlord's
advocate, on the other, relies on the practical growth of
years and actual facts of the present ; and it is only
gradually and by cautious steps that a modern Government,
as umpire between the two, can make its tenant-law so as
to do practical justice to both sides, removing from time to
time, defects in the law and introducing working improve-
ments. Viewing the tenant-law of Bengal in this light,
and making allowance for the conflict of opinion and the
fervid interests aroused on both sides, it must be candidly
admitted that the progress of legislation from 1859 to 1885
has been anything but unsatisfactory, or unworthy of an
impartial and enlightened Government.
§ 2. Protection to Tenants promised.
The first endeavour I shall make is to place before the
reader the plainly declared intention of the authorities and
of the legislature to protect the raiyats ; because, though
the Regulations never expressed any intention of absolutely
preventing any enhancement of rents, these declarations
put beyond doubt the indefeasible right of Government to
6l6 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
do what it has done in 1859 and in 1885, — viz. to pro-
tect tenant-rights and limit the power of enhancement
and eviction. The growth of the Zamindar's power was
inevitable under the Regulations as they first stood, and
as they continued even when oppression became more
and more manifest as years went on ; but nothing can
ever be allowed to annul the force of these early promises,
and disentitle Government to go yet further than it has
done, if so advised, in the direction of protecting tenants.
It is not too much to say that the principle of protecting
the raiyats was never absent from the minds of the authori-
ties. As early as 1769, in the oft-quoted Instructions to
the Supervisors, it was said1 : ' An equally important object
of your attention is to fix the amount of what the Zamin-
ddr receives from the raiyat as his income or emolument.
. . . Among the chief effects which are to be hoped from
your residence in the province ... is to convince the raiyat
that you will stand between him and the hands of oppres-
sion . . . that, after supplying the legal due of Government,
he may be secure in the enjoyment of the remainder ... for
the raiyat being eased and secured from all burdens and
demands but what are imposed by the legal authority of
Government itself, and future pattas'2 being granted him
specifying the demand, he should be taught that he is to
regard the same as a sacred and invariable pledge to him
that he is liable to no demands beyond their amount.' The
instructions go on to require the Supervisor to examine
and check the ' hast-o-biid ' (rent-rolls), and see that the
pattas are given accordingly, and then the raiyat is to be
' impressed in the most forcible and convincing manner
that the tendency of your measures is to his ease and relief,
. . . that our object is not increase of rents or accumulation
of demands, but solely by fixing such as are legal . . . and
abolishing such as are fraudulent and unauthorized, not
1 See Field, p. 464 ; and the whole is the written lease or note of the
history of the Supervisors is very terms of holding rent payment and
graphically given in Hunter's Annals other particulars, drawn up, of
of Rural Bengal. course, in the vernacular.
* ( Patta,' a term we so often use.
CHAP, iv.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 6 1 7
only to redress his present grievances, but to secure him
from all further invasions of his property V
At the time of the Permanent Settlement also, the Court
of Directors wrote (1792) regarding 'the difficulty of pro-
viding for an equitable adjustment and collection of the
rents payable by the raiyats.' They hoped that in time
every one would learn his own interest, and that things
would then be managed by consent, without ' interference of
authority.' ' But as so great a change,' they said, ' can only
be gradual ; the interference of Government may, for a con-
siderable period, be necessary to prevent the landholders
from making use of their own permanent possession for the
purpose of exaction and oppression ;'...' and while we
disclaim any interference with respect to the situation of
the raiyats, or the sums paid by them, with any view to an
addition of revenue to ourselves, we expressly reserve the
right which clearly belongs to us as sovereigns, of inter-
posing our authority in making from time to time all such
regulations as may be necessary to prevent the raiyats
being improperly disturbed in their possession or loaded
with unwarrantable exactions.' After adding that it was a
maxim of the Mughal Government that a raiyat, duly pay-
ing his rent (revenue) could not be dispossessed, they say :
' This necessarily supposes that there were some measures
and limits by which the rent could be defined, and that it
was not left to the arbitrary determination of the Zaminddr
. . . and in point of fact the original amount seems to have
been annually ascertained and fixed by the act of the
sovereign.'
It will be enough to add to these orders, the declaration
of Regulation I of 1793 (Section 8, cl. i) : ' It being the duty
1 All this, be it observed, is per- ment, which does not change ex-
fectly consistent with a legal and cept at considerable intervals —
authoritative revision of the assess- twenty or thirty years or whatever
ment, even if the raiyat was re- period is fixed. The worst native
garded as practically owner of his Governments often altered the as-
holding. No increase is to be sessment annually, but our Govern-
allowed beyond the rent lawfully ment would never have done that —
claimable for the time being, i. e. apart from any ideas of permanency
according to the Government assess- afterwards evolved.
6 1 8 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
of the Ruling Power to protect all classes . . . the Governor-
General in Council will, whenever he may deem it proper,
enact such Regulations as he may think necessary for the
protection and welfare of the " dependent taluqdars," raiyats,
and other cultivators of the soil ; and no Zamindar, &c., shall
be entitled, on this account to make any objection to the
discharge of the fixed assessment which they have re-
spectively agreed to pay.' As to the general effect of the
Regulation VIII of 1793 on the relative rights of landlord
and raiyat, as recognized by the Proclamation and Rules of
Settlement, I do not think it necessary to do more than to
refer to the judgments delivered by the High Court of
Bengal in the ' Great Rent Case ' in 1 865. An excellent
summary of the judgments, as far as they concern this par-
ticular point, will be found in a convenient form in the
Tagore Lectures for 1875*. It is of comparatively little
interest, however, to quote further examples of general
declarations ; one thing is certain, viz. that these declara-
tions give ample authority for legislation whenever it is
required. A more important question is — what actual and
practical provisions were made for protecting- tenants ? It
will be found that the first enactments were in fact
nugatory and futile, and that this result was due partly to
their inherent inadequacy, and partly to their being
counteracted by other rules which, from a fear of loss to
the Treasury and to the landlords, were afterwards
gradually enacted to facilitate the recovery of rents.
§ 3. Impossibility of an unalterable Rent for Tenants
generally.
Though protection to the raiyat was thought of, his
actual rights and position, as they emerged at the end of
the troublous history of Bengal previous to 1765, were so
uncertain that to devise securities without making a full
1 See Phillips, pp. 312-15.
CHAP, iv.] THE RELATION OP LANDLORD AND TENANT. 6 1 9
local inquiry was an almost hopeless task. But in any
case, it would have been impossible for the framers of the
Regulations to adopt any such remedy as prohibiting the
enhancement of rents generally. On the other hand, they
were not prepared with any rules to say when an increase
should take place, and when not l.
It is clear that Mr. Shore never thought that rents were
to be fixed for ever, but that definite rules must be
found out by which they could be fixed legally and justly
from time to time.
' It is evident that in a country where discretion has so long
been the measure of exaction, where the qualities of the soil and
the nature of the produce suggest the rates of the rents . . . and
where endless and often contradictory customs subsist in the
same district and village, the task (of denning rights and
tenures) must be nearly impossible. I do not observe, in the
correspondence of the Collector (of Eajshahi), any specific rules
for the security of the raiyats. I well know the difficulty of
making them, but some must be established. The great point
required is to determine what is, and what is not, oppression,
that justice may be impartially administered according to fixed
rules. . . . Until the variable rules adopted in adjusting the
rent of the raiyats are simplified and rendered more definite,
no solid improvement can be expected,' &c.2
In his minute replying to Shore's minute (from which
the above has been taken), Lord Cornwallis disposed of the
difficulty by observing that if Government fixed its demand
on the Zamindar, he had ' little doubt that the landholders
1 In the minute of iSthJune, 1789, tenants, and not of Government.
Mr. Shore said : ' I have admitted Where rates exist, or the collections
. . . the right of the Government to are made by any permanent rules,
interfere in regulating the assess- the interference of the Collector
ment upon the raiyats, but I object would be unnecessary. Where the
to the policy and propriety of this reverse is the case he would find it
interference without evident neces- difficult to adjust them.'
sity. When a Zamindar has re- 2 Shore's minute as quoted by
fused or evaded the execution of the Dr. Field, pp. 492-493. It is worth
orders . . . the interference of the while to refer to the Fifth Report, i.
Collector may be expedient. The p. 162, and read the account of the
regulation of the rents of the raiyats fixing of raiyats' rents as detailed by
is properly a transaction between Mr. Shore in his minute (June, 1789),
the Zaminddr and landlord and his §§ 390 404.
62O LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
will, without difficulty, be made to grant pattas to the
raiyats upon the principles proposed by Mr. Shore. . . . The
value of the produce of the land is well knoiun to the pro-
prietor or his officers, and to the raiyat who cultivates it,
and is a standard which can always be resorted to by both
parties for fixing equitable rates. Further on he draws a clear
distinction between raising rents and exacting arbitrary
cesses. And he speaks of establishing such rules 'as shall
oblige the proprietors of the soil and the raiyat .... to come
to a fair adjustment of the rates to be paid for the different
kinds of lands or produce ; ' and still further, Lord Corn-
wallis remarked that ' the rents of the estate can only be
raised by inducing the raiyats to cultivate the more valuable
articles of produce, and to clear the extensive tracts of waste
land which are to be found in almost every Zamindari in
Bengal V
§ 4. Reference to an 'established Pargana Rate.'
Still, the early Regulations often speak as if disputes
about rent-rates could always be settled with reference to
some known and recorded standard called the 'pargana
rate.' preserved in the old kamingo accounts.
It is no doubt easy to quote passages showing that
Hastings and others had exaggerated ideas of the value of
such old accounts2. But as to there being any real 'par-
gana rate ' (other than the traditional assessment of Akbar,
&c.), Mr. Shore remarked 3 : —
' At present no uniformity whatever is observed in the de-
mands upon the raiyats. The rates not only vary in the
different collectorships, but in the parganas composing them, in
the village, and in the lands of the same village, and the total
exacted far exceeds the rates of Todar MaL'
The same minute (and others) abound in exposures of
1 It was confidently expected that 2 See, for instance, Field, at pp.
to avoid law-suits the parties would 483-4.
voluntarily agree about rents (see Fifth 3 Minute of June, 1789, § 219.
Report, i. p. 34 at the bottom).
CHAP, iv.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 62 I
the lawlessness of the times ; how the despotic authority
plundered the Zamindars and left them to plunder the
raiyats in turn.
But, granted that all this was wrong, and therefore not
to be appealed to as justifying arbitrary rent-rates, the
remedy was certainly not to pretend that every one ought
to go back to the rate of the last regular assessment (Todar
Mai's or any other), and never depart from that.
In 1812, Mr. H. Colebrooke, discussing in a minute
(ist May, 1812) the evils that resulted from the Regula-
tions, wrote regarding the 'pargana rate' that it was
supposed by the Regulations that the proportion of annual
produce in money or kind,- constituting the revenue
demand, could, with certainty, be ascertained. There was,
however, 'reason to presume that the pargana rates are
become very uncertain.' Mr. Colebrooke had sat in the
Sadr Diwani 'Adalat (highest Court of Civil Law), and
declared that in cases favourably circumstanced for
inquiry, 'the most patient inquiry, conducted by a very
intelligent public officer,' failed to elicit any rule of ad-
justment. In Benares it had been found possible to refer
to a table of rates of 1187 (Fasli era). In the 24-Per-
gunnahs the Courts had been able to support claims to
refer to the last general measurement undertaken under
the authority of Government before the Permanent Settle-
ment. Other instances may exist, but they are few ; and
the position, as a general one, was unquestionably true,
that there was no evidence of any permanent rates and
usages of parganas which could be appealed to.
Indeed the absence of any definite and unchanging stan-
dard of rent or revenue-rate was remarked some years
before Mr. Shore's time. As early as 1776, Warren Hastings
(in replying to a minute of Francis's) had written x : —
' The ancient . . . distribution of the land-rent, which was
formed about two hundred and twenty years ago, has long since
ceased to serve as a rule. Under the old Government, this dis-
1 Quoted by Field, p. 483.
622 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
tribution was annually corrected by the accounts which the
Zanrindars and other collectors of the revenue were bound to
deliver into the office of the Jcdnwngos or King's registers, of
the increased or diminished rents of the lands and of the
amount of their receipts, but the neglect of these institutions,
the wars and revolutions which have since happened in Bengal,
. . . the increase of cultivation in some parts of the province
and the decrease in others, . . . have totally changed the face
of the country, and rendered the tumdr rent-roll a mere object of
curiosity. The land-tax has therefore been collected for these
twenty years past, on a conjectural valuation of the land, formed
by the amount of the receipts of former years, and the opinions
of officers of the revenue, and the assessment has, accordingly,
been altered almost every year.'
§ 5. But even if ' Pargana Rates' had been reliable,
they were never unalterable.
But, even if we assume that 'pargana rates' could be
reliably ascertained, what was there to bind the Zaminddrs
never to enhance on those of a given date? The rates
(become the landlord's rents) were originally the revenue
rates payable to the State, and after the full proof given *,
I have no occasion to repeat that it was perfectly ' legal '
or customary to revise them periodically. Let us, however,
be quite clear on the subject.
Let us suppose that there never had been any official
Zamindars, and that the ruling power continued to deal
direct with the villagers. No one will question, for a
moment, that under such a state of things, the cultivators
of the village were, in some degree or sense, proprietors of
their holdings. In some villages there would, no doubt,
have been a group of persons claiming a higher position
than the rest ; they were the descendants of the original
founders, or the descendants of the person to whom the
Raja had granted the village in ' birt,' and these persons
would certainly have a position which it is no stretch of
language to call 'proprietary.' Under them would be a
1 See Bk. I. Chap. V. pp. 277 280, and Bk. II. Chap. I. p. 416.
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 623
class of residents and privileged persons (qadimi raiyats)
in the second rank, who acknowledged that they were not
equal to the first, but probably paid no more for their land,
and were certainly not ejectable at pleasure. Besides those
there would be tenants from other places.
Which of these classes of village cultivators would have
reasonably expected that his payment to the State would
never be altered, and that there really was in each
'pargana' a series of rates for different kinds of soil,
or different degrees of value in the holdings — rates
which no power could lawfully, and at proper intervals,
raise ?
Obviously even the highest class in the village, would have,
from time to time, to submit to the Government raising the
rates either by assessment or by imposition of abwab ; the
second privileged class would expect the same ; while
casual tenants would not, under any conceivable policy, be
exempt from being asked to pay more. Not only did the
exigencies of the State vary, but when money rates were
paid, it is obvious that as coinage became more plentiful,
the value of the money decreased, and revision became a
matter of necessity.
When, in the course of events, these State payments
became the landlord's rents, some similar power of
periodical revision (however limited on equitable grounds
and with reference to all the circumstances) must, in
reason, have been intended J.
It is perfectly true that people spoke about ' pargana
rates,' but that merely meant, that a rate, as fixed at the
last authoritative assessment, was known, and was the
standard ; and what the people who appealed to that,
desired was, not that under no circumstances should these
rates be increased, but that they should not be increased
arbitrarily and without mercy, at the will of the tax-
collector in the shape of abwab and extra imposts. In
1 I.e. in the express absence of any — that as the landlord was given a
declaration — the economic results of fixed revenue-liability, so were all
which would have been portentous tenants given a fixed rent-liability.
624 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
actual practice, there was no uniform standard of assess-
ment ; but if there had been, it would have been admittedly
absurd to compel the landlords to go back in all cases
to an old standard of assessment, and never advance
beyond that, no matter what the increase in value of
the produce, or of the land itself.
It is quite certain that, from the first, under the Perma-
nent Settlement Regulations, the Zamindars did raise their
rents, and Government, though (as already shown) willing
to protect the raiyats, if they had only known any means
of doing so, never contemplated that rents should remain
unalterable in all cases : and, therefore, they never issued
orders to prevent change. In 1812 the Court of Directors
wrote to Bengal, that the Permanent Settlement had
' secured to the proprietors of estates the whole advantage
of a rise in their rental.' It is certain also that from the
time of Lord Cornwallis onwards, a rise in the rental,
not only by cultivating waste but by raising the 'nirkh-
bandi,' was contemplated ; nor was this affected by the
prohibition of illegal cesses, which was then thought the
main precaution to be taken *.
The Courts of Justice never appear to have had it dis-
puted before them, that there was any general prohibition
against enhancement, though of course there were specific
cases of right arising from ancient grant or from the
fact of an invariable rent having been paid for so long that
it gave rise to a prescription in the special case. The
Privy Council has always held ' that the right to enhance is
presumable until the contrary is shown V
And, even if it were conceivable that there should have
been so extensive a prohibition merely implied or intended
1 Dr. Field (p. 533, § 281) has abwabs or cesses. And if the de-
fully disposed of the argument that cennial Settlement agreements had
raiyats' rents were intended to be stipulated anything more, such
fixed for all time, based on the fact stipulations would be overridden
that in the arrangements of 1772 by the express words of the Regula-
made urith farmers, they were told to tion VIII of 1793, enacted when the
take only the ' jama ' fixed on the decennial Settlement was converted
raiyats the year before. The Zamin- into a permanent one.
dars' qabuliyats or Settlement agree- a See cases quoted by Field,
ments only bound them not to take p. 556.
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 625
but nowhere expressed, circumstances would soon have
rendered its maintenance impossible. Remembering what
a large part of Bengal was waste, and how rapidly new land
was brought under the plough, it was to be expected that
new rates of rent would arise ; and as population increased
and competition for land arose, those new rates would be
higher than the old ones. Again, when an estate was sold
for arrears (as was frequently the case), the existing leases
were all voided, except certain specified ones, and there-
fore the purchasers would make new terms with the
tenants, and rents would be raised to the level of the
higher rates ' prevailing ' from the cause first mentioned l.
' Now,' says Dr. Field, ' if one-half of Bengal was waste
in 1793, and could therefore be let by the Zamindars upon
their own terms, and if half of the landed property in Bengal
changed hands between 1793 and 1815, under a law which
authorized the purchasers to avoid previous engagements,
it was easy to see that the majority of the raiyats were, in
the matter of rents, subjected to the uncontrolled will of
their landlords, and the ' prevailing rate of rent being thus
raised, there was little difficulty in enhancing the rents of
the remaining raiyats up to the same level V
§ 6. Summary of the Argument.
It has sometimes been asserted that it was the declared
intention of the Regulations that no raiyat should be made
to pay more than ' pargana rates of 1793-'
There is no doubt a great deal of uncertainty in the State
papers preceding the Regulations ; it is possible to pick
out phrases from which some writers could be argued to
suppose that every raiyat was to be protected for ever in
paying a rate ascertained and fixed in a patta at the time
of Settlement ; but it is equally easy to show that what was
really meant was, that the rates fixed by lawful authority,
1 Compare Maine, Earhj History of succeeding the Permanent Settle-
Institutions, p. 184, and Hunter's ment one-half the estates were sold.
Orissa, i. 57-8. In twenty-two years 2 Field, p. 559.
VOL. I. S S
626 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
and not according to arbitrary exaction, should be paid
(how or by what rule fixed was never determined), and that
these rates could only be departed from by a consent which
altered the mode of cultivation, and also by the increase of
land under cultivation.
I may briefly also summarize the reasons why it could
not have been intended by any one (as it certainly was
never declared by any Regulation) that all raiyats' rents
were to be absolutely invariable : —
(1) that no class of raiyats (except of course those who
had special grants) was ever exempt from having
the revenue periodically raised by State authority
from time to time, even when there was no question
that the raiyat was the practical owner of his hold-
ing ; and when Government limited its demand on
the middleman it did not follow that the revision of
the raiyat's rent was also foregone, unless it was
specifically so provided, which it never was J ;
(2) that no such thing as a pargana rate, fixed for all
time, existed, but only a rate from time to time
fixed by authority ;
(3) that the change in the value of money and of pro-
duce, the gradual change of circumstances whereby,
as population increased (under a peaceful rule),
tenants would become more abundant and begin to
compete for land, — all tend to produce a state of
things in which an unchangeable rent for all classes
is a practical impossibility ;
(4) that the very fact that some raiyats held ' muqarrari '
or fixed rate leases, showed that a fixed rent was
the exception, not the rule ;
1 Indeed, exactly the contrary. to ' appropriate to his own use the
The preamble to Regulation XLV of difference between the said pro-
1793 expressly states that the rai- portion' and the fixed demand,
vats were bound to pay a proportion The whole preamble would have no
of the annual produce of every bigha point if it were not that the 'pro-
of land (in money or kind according portion ' payable by the raiyat had
to custom", and that the Govern- not been (in the absence of express
ment fixed a demand on the pro- grants liable to be fixed from time
prietor of every estate, and left him to time on periodical revisions.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 627
(5) that even if some of the old village cultivators were
specially entitled to consideration, all raiyats were
not, by custom, on the same footing ;
(6) that considering the enormous areas of waste that in
time would be brought under cultivation, the tenants
who undertook it, could not be on any other foot-
ing than that which depended on contract, and these
would, in time, become a very large class ;
(7) rents in kind are still common, especially in Bihar,
and in the nature of things, these would really, if
not nominally, increase, and could not escape being
converted into money rents in time. In short, when
the value of produce increased, and the money com-
mutation took place, and when the cultivation of
new land called for a reassessment, the 'nirkh-
bandi ' or often appealed to list of ' pargana rates '
would necessarily rise (see Field, page 546).
§ 7. Actual Provisions in Regulation VIII of 1793
regarding Rent.
The features of the Permanent Settlement law, as stereo-
typed in Regulation VIII of 1793, have already been stated,
and at p. 433, 1 expressly reserved the provisions relating
to tenants. Let us now consider them briefly.
The Regulation notices that there are persons called
taluqdars or ' muqarraridars ' (on grant of fixed rent), &c.
Some of these, as I have explained, were recognized as pro-
prietors and were settled with independently. With such
we are not now concerned. The others then remained ' de-
pendent ' or holding ' tenures ' under the proprietors ; but if Section 49.
they had held at a fixed rent for more than twelve years,
or if their grant or title-deed showed a fixed rent, then these
tenures were ' not liable to be assessed with any increase '
(unless the Zammdari was held by Government or let in
farm). And in any case these ' dependent ' tenures were not Section 50.
to be enhanced, except upon proof that it was the custom of
the district or the special condition under which the tenure
S S 3
628 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
Section 51. was created. A certain provision was also made for one
other class — the old resident (or khudkasht) raiyats. Their
existing terms of holding could not be interfered with
(except on proof of fraud in the title), and the right to raise
these rents was limited to cases —
(1) where the rent paid within the previous three years
had fallen below the nirkh or rate of the pargana,
according to the kanungo's lists l ;
(2) upon a general measurement of the pargana for the
purpose of equalizing and correcting the assessment.
(This did not apply to Bihar, where rents in kind are
taken 2.)
Then comes a provision about the ' remaining lands,'—
i.e. all that are not of the classes just named. These
lands are to be let, under the prescribed restrictions, in
Section 52. whatever manner the Zamindar may think fit. The ' pre-
scribed restrictions/ as stated in the Regulation, are, that
persons appointed to collect rents are to get authority by
a written ''amlnama3'; that all cesses (abwab, mdthaut,
1 These, as I remarked, were must have varied from period to
often incorrect, since the irregulari- period according as the money value
ties of many years would either rose, and according to other circum-
have resulted in arbitrary and stances.
various rates, or else in some old 2 In 1789, Mr. Harington gave a
rates being continued, which could full statement of the arguments pro
not be expected to last for ever and con as to enacting that the ' per-
without revision. It was the want manent raiyats ' should be entitled
of any rule for getting equitable and to hold for ever at fixed rents
correct rent-rates that led to all the (Harington, iii. pp. 461-463!. He
trouble. Mr. Shore observes : ' In recommended, as the result, that
every district in Bengal, where the for the decennial settlement, the
licence of exaction has not super- proprietors should be obliged to fix,
seded all rule, the rents of land are during the first three years, a rent
regulated by known rates called which was to hold good for the re-
" nirkh " (and the list of these par- maining seven. When the decen-
gana rates is the " nirkh-bandi "). nial settlement was made per-
These rates are formed with respect manent the protection given to the
to the produce of the land, at so permanent tenants was that stated
much per bigha. Some soil pro- in the text, which is perhaps not
duces two crops in the year of very definite or satisfactory, for
different species ; some three. The there is nothing to show how often
more profitable articles, such as the the ' general measurement ' might
mulberry plant, betel-leaf, tobacco, have come round. But an absolute
sugarcane, and others, render the fixity of rent and tenure is nowhere
value of the land proportionately conceded, unless proved to have
great. These rates must have been been acquired by grant or by pre-
fixed upon a measurement of the scription.
land.' And he might have added, 3 So that the raiyat may know
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 629
mangan, &c.) are to be consolidated with the substantive
rent ('asl) in one sum ; that no ne^v cesses are to be im-
posed. Where it was the custom to vary the terms of
holding for lands according to the ' articles produced
thereon,' this was allowed to be done, the law, however,
'expecting that the parties (specifying both landlord and
tenant) would find it for their mutual advantage' to enter
into agreements for a specified sum, for a certain quantity
of land. All rents were to be specifically stated in pattas
or written leases (and details are given as to how this was
to be done) ; forms of patta were to be prepared and get
the Collector's approval, and be given out to the raiyats ;
leases existing at time of assessment, unexpired, and not
contrary to anything in the Regulation, nor collusive nor
fraudulent, were to hold good till expiry. Accounts were
to be kept by patwaris, &c. ; receipts for rent were to be
given ; rents of persons who absconded were not to be
demanded from those that remained (called ndjdi pay-
ments). Instalments of rent were to be fixed with due
regard to seasons of reaping and selling the produce.
These were the only ' restrictions ' on the Zamindar
' letting ' his ' remaining lands ' in any way he pleased.
But there was a restriction imposed on the other side. For
fear that Zamfndars should be too liberal, or rather too
eager to get rid of trouble, by granting away their estates
on long leases, and so disabling themselves from meeting
the Government demand, another Regulation, passed at the
same time (XLIV of 1793), prohibited pattas being issued
for more than ten years. It is obvious that such a pro-
vision contemplated a periodic increase of rents, which
might be foregone for ten years, but not for more, or it has
no meaning J.
who he was paying to, and not be ' Mr. Field has given a number
tricked into handing over his rents of authorities (p. 523 et seq.~] show-
to some one who could not discharge ing that this was the meaning of
him legally. the Regulations.
630 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 8. Eviction.
It also follows from these provisions that the question of
eviction of tenants was undetermined. The tenure-holders
(taluqdars and others similar) were of course not liable to
be dispossessed. And the resident raiyats were protected
to a limited extent. But nothing is said about other
tenants ; if they would not agree to the terms offered, and
were not holding under an unexpired lease, there was
nothing to prevent their being removed. Probably in
1793 the demand for tenants was so great (see p. 610
ante], that it was not thought likely that the Zamindar
would evict many; he would be only too glad to keep
them. However this may be, there is no provision in the
early law on the subject, except as above indicated. When
once the idea of the Zamindar being landlord, in the Eng-
lish sense, became familiar, it was not surprising that
people should begin to talk of the 'inherent privilege of
giving him (the tenant) due warning to quit1.'
§ 9. General Conclusion.
I cannot here forbear extracting Dr. Field's just and
lucid summing up of the discussions and orders which
preceded the Settlement, giving the result of Mr. Shore's
and Lord Cornwallis' minutes and the orders of the Home
Government. He says2: —
' It will be clear to any unprejudiced person that the Direc-
tors, and those who, under their authority, conducted the
Government of Bengal, were well aware of the indefinite rela-
tions which subsisted between Zaminddrs and raiyats, were
well apprized of the uncertain nature of the rights of the culti-
vators of the soil s ; that practically nothing effectual had been
1 See, for instance, the corre- provisions of Lord Cornwallis' Code,
spondence quoted by Dr. Field (p. no rights at all.'
531), and Land Tenure, by a Civilian, 2 Page 503, § 267.
p. 104 — ' In point of law and fact, 3 Uncertain, in the first place (I
the raiyats can claim [that is, ordi- may repeat), because all -village cul-
nary tenants can claim], under the tivators were not originally on an
CHAP, iv.] THE EELATION OP LANDLORD AND TENANT. 63!
done between 1765 and 1790 to define or adjust the rights and
the payments to be made by the raiyats . . . that Mr. Hastings
and Mr. Shore were of opinion that these rights and payments
should be defined and adjusted before the Government limited
its own demands upon the Zamindars and settled for ever the
amount of revenue payable by them ; that it was admitted on
all hands that up to 1790 there were not sufficient materials
for this definition and adjustment ; that Lord Cornwallis was
sanguine that the combined effects of the limitation and per-
manent Settlement of the State demand, and of the patta
regulations, would have the ultimate effect of adjusting the
relations between the Zamindars and the raiyats . . . ; that the
Court of Directors adopted Lord Cornwallis' views, and instead
of directing the rights of the cultivators of the soil to be ascer-
tained, adjusted, and defined once for all \ contented themselves
with reserving a general right to interfere afterwards, if these
expectations and those of Lord Cornwallis should be disap-
pointed, and such interference should be found necessaiy for
the protection and welfare of the raiyats. Any unbiassed indi-
vidual who will read the whole of the papers must be satisfied
that both Lord Cornwallis and the Court of Directors acted to
the best of their judgment and entertained a very honest belief
that (a) the elimination of the element of uncertainty by the
permanent fixing of the Government demand, (&) the mutual
interests of the parties, and (c) the enforcement of the rules as
to pattas, would together operate to assure and improve the
condition of the raiyats. '
equal footing. Some were certainly best it is ' uncertain,' whether the
originally proprietors, others only original right, whatever it was, had
privileged helpmates (I will not call not been, in a great many cases,
them tenants) of these proprietors ; thoroughly and really lost.
others equally clearly only casual 1 A task which indispensably ne-
cultivators, but who, from lapse of cessitated a survey and a Settlement
time or other circumstances, had staff to discover and record rights,
even then great claims to con- How impossible such a work seemed
sideration. 'Uncertain,' in the in 1789 I have already remarked,
next place, because rights get irre- The power of doing it was not
trievably abandoned, changed, and discovered till 1822, when a new
lost, in the lapse of years, and the epoch of land administration corn-
confusion caused by two centuries menced.
of doubtful government ; and at
632 LAND SYSTEMS OP BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
§ 10. Result of the Regulation Law.
It will now be amply clear that there was neither law
nor custom by which even the old resident cultivators
of a village, and still less other tenants, could expect
to go on from decade to decade without any increase
in their revenue (now become rent) payment. It was also
in the nature of things that tenants on waste land and
tenants offering themselves and willing to compete for
available holdings, should hold at variable rates of rent
fixed by contract and mutual understanding ; and, finally,
the Regulations prescribed nothing as to any principle of
rent enhancement, because the information on which differ-
ent classes of tenants and their privileges could be distin-
guished and formulated, was wholly wanting.
' The necessary and natural result,' says Dr. Field, —
* was that for all things for which the legislature did not make
provision, the new course of things under British rule created
a practice and an usage which adjusted and regulated those
relations with which Government did not concern itself to
interfere ; and a common law (i. e. unwritten usage and prac-
tice) came into existence which was largely compounded of the
ideas of the ruling race, to which practical operation was given
by a strong executive and by means of the Courts of Justice.'
SECTION III. — PROGRESS OF THE TENANT-LAW FROM
1793 T0 l859-
§ i. The 'Patta' Rules.
The first disappointment experienced was the failure of
the attempt to enforce the issue of written leases for all
tenancies, to which I have alluded1. Some tenants, who
regarded themselves as really or originally proprietors of
their holdings, refused (and very naturally) to take a lease
for fear of its being an admission of a lower status on their
part, implying that their right and title was derived from
1 See p. 629 ante.
CHAP, rv.] THE EELATION OP LANDLOED AND TENANT. 633
the grantor of the patta, that it was terminable (the patta
could not be granted for more than ten years), and that the
rent-rate was liable to alteration. Many of the tenants also,
feared the pattas as means of extortion, and refused to take
them1. The earlier Regulations supposed that if pattas
were required, the parties would agree as to the rates, and
yet nothing was said as to what was to happen when pattas
existing (or those first granted) expired. Regulation IV of
1794 attempted further legislation. Disputes as to rates
were to be settled in the Civil Court, with reference to
'rates established in the pargana for lands of the same
description and quality.' This applied both to existing
tenancies and to new ones ; the- ' pargana rate ' was not to be
exceeded 2. The facts about the pargana rates have already
been stated (see §§ 4, 5, p. 620). It was provided also
that, if people did not take pattas, the landlord might post
up at his office a list of rates, and offer pattas at those rates,
and that then he might recover by suit or distraint at such
rates. ' Thus,' says Dr. Field, ' the Zamindars were enabled
to claim any rates they pleased, and to distrain for rent at
those rates, and to put on the raiyats the onus of proving
that the rates so claimed were not the " established" rates 3.'
These suits, moreover, became numerous, and so swamped
the Courts, that the Zamindars in turn suffered, as they
could not get decrees for rent really due.
§ 2. ' Haftam:
The next step taken, therefore, was to facilitate the
recovery of rents by improving the laiv of distraint. Re-
1 They feared that they would be
bound to pay for the whole land
specified, even if crops failed, or
cattle died.
2 Field, p. 563. The rate might
easily be raised by getting tenants
to take some private land of the
Zamindar's at high rates, which
were then appealed to as examples
by which to raise the average rates
of the whole neighbourhood (Land
Tenure by a Civilian).
3 In 1811 the Collector of Eaj-
shahi reported that the Regulations
had then been in force eighteen
years, and that as to pattas and their
counterparts (qabuliyats) 'these are
as few now as ever.' He attributed
this to the fact that the rights of
raiyats had never been defined, and
that those who claimed a certain
status refused pattas for fear of com-
promising their claim. The letter is
given in detail by Field, pp. 565-66.
634 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
gulation VII of 1799, popularly known as ' Qanun haftam '
(seventh Regulation) l recites that the revenue collections
had suffered because the landlords could not readily get in
their rents, particularly when the land was sub-rented and
the crop not in the immediate possession of the raiyat2.
The law empowered landholders and farmers to delegate
the power of distraint to their collecting agents ; distraint
might be exercised without sending notice to any Court or
public officer, and included crops and cattle and personal
effects ; tools of tradesmen were, indeed, exempt, but
ploughs and seed-grain and plough cattle were only exempt
if other property could be found ; and as the distrainer was
the judge of this, the exemption was a dead letter. No
written demand was required before distraint, except in the
case where the tenant had no written specification of the
exact time when his instalment fell due. After the dis-
traint was made, notice was to be given of sale ; if the
arrear was not at once paid, and if the tenant absconded or
was otherwise absent, then a list of the property was sent
to the nearest official who had power to hold a sale, and the
law only required five clear days between notice and sale.
The tenant must either pay or find security to institute a
suit to test the rent and to pay whatever the Court decreed
with interest.
It was stated that tenants sometimes delayed proceedings
by making unfounded (criminal) complaints of misfeasance
and abuses in attachment. Magistrates were to repress
1 The 'haftam' was followed, in them which they were utterly un-
1812, by 'panjam,' or Regulation able to recover; while Government
fifth (of which presently) : the was selling their lands for arrears
peasantry of to-day attribute all of assessment . . . Farmers and in-
their misfortunes to ' panjam ' and termediate tenants were till lately
' haftam '. able to withhold their rents with
2 See Fifth Report, i. pp. 76, 77. impunity, and to set the authority
In Feb. 1802 the Collector of Mid- of their landlords at defiance,
napore reported that ' complaints Landholders had no direct control
were very general among the Zamin- over them : they could not proceed
dars . . . they had not the same against them, except through the
powers over their tenants which Courts of Justice, and the ends of
Government exercised over them. substantial justice were defeated by
It was notorious that many of them delays and costs of suit.'
had large arrears of rent due to
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 635
these and fine the complainant if his case appeared vexa-
tious ; and other provisions were added. Practically this
meant that no one, unfamiliar with new Courts and new
procedure, would venture to bring a complaint, for fear of
his powerful adversary making out that it was a vexatious
one.
There were other provisions regarding the arrest of per-
sons intending to abscond, and authorizing the seizure of
tenures and farms in arrears, the landlord managing them
direct, and ultimately putting up the title to sale if the
management failed to realize the arrear. When default
occurred in the case of a lease-holder or tenant ' having a
right of occupancy, only so long as a certain rent . . . was
paid without any right of property or transferable pos-
session ' the landlord was to have the right of evicting the
defaulter. No application to a Court was needed, but
farmers, proprietors, &c., were responsible for any act ex-
ceeding their powers. The Regulation stated that it was
not intended to limit or define rights of any class, but to
point out in what manner defaulting tenants might be
made to pay, leaving them to recover their rights, if in-
fringed, with full costs and damages, in the established
Courts of Justice.
It was stated that ' in all other instances the Courts of
Justice will determine the rights of every description of
landholder and tenant . . . whether ascertainable from
written engagements, defined by law, or dependent on
custom.' Nothing in the Regulation took away the power
of landlords to ' summon, and if necessary compel, the
attendance of tenants for the adjustment of their rents, or
any other just purpose.5
No doubt this law was passed in the bond fide belief
that tenants were in fault, that the hands of the landlord
needed strengthening, and that his power would be exer-
cised fairly, and that the Courts would give relief if
needed. But when it is recollected how impossible it was
for the poor and ignorant to apply to distant Courts
under a new and strange procedure, which took an immense
636 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
time — always a serious difficulty to people who want to be
in their fields ; — when it was further recollected that such
a law could not fail to be abused, it is difficult to read its
monstrous provisions without indignation.
That this law produced the most evil results goes almost
without saying1.
§ 3. Proposals for Relief.
In 1811, the evils produced were remarked on by the
Board of Commissioners at home, and in India the Govern-
ment issued a circular of inquiry, which still shows a spirit
of belief that complaints were exaggerated, and that if rents
were not collected regularly, there would be a heavy accu-
mulation of arrears of Government revenue. Among the
opinions elicited, Mr. H. Colebrooke's was among the most
valuable. Other officers followed suit. Having clearly
pointed out that the remedy of appeal to the Courts was,
in the case of poor people, quite inefficient — ' many of the
rules designed for the protection of the raiyats having been
perverted into engines for their destruction, — it was urged
that definition of rights should be undertaken, and that if
people had no rights the}7 should be told so.
The abolition of the local native offices of kanungo and
patwari during the first years, was appealed to as faci-
litating the destruction of rights ; but this may be doubted.
The village accountant is of no use if the whole system of
village organization has perished. And the district ac-
countant can be of no use under a system where there is
no public control of the details of revenue collection, but
where the landlords pay their lump sums into the Col-
lector's treasury direct. Both officers naturally became
mere servants of the Zamindar, and therefore they had
been abolished. This step was taken because it was found
that the formal records which they still prepared were use-
less ; in some cases these were altogether neglected ; in
1 Those desirous of some details may read the quotation from Official
Reports in Field, p. 584, et seq.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLOED AND TENANT. 637
others they were falsely framed to suit the purposes of the
Zamindars.
Among the points discussed by Mr. Colebrooke were the
restriction of pattas to ten years, prescribing the form, and
invalidating all that, though definite, were not in due form;
the invalidating en bloc all existing leases and tenures
on a sale of an estate for arrears ; above all, he exposed
the fallacy which lay at the root of the reference so often
made to 'established pargana rates' (see p. 621).
Mr. Colebrooke proposed that where ' pargana rates '
were not available, definite protection should be given to
the resident (khudkasht) raiyats : ' This will silently sub-
stitute a new and definite rule in place of ancient but
uncertain usages.' He proposed that in individual cases
of renewed pattas or new pattas in place of an old one
voided by a sale, the rate should be that which was
actually paid for similar land in the vicinity ; and that
where there had been a wholesale cancelling of the pattas
of a village or estate consequent on a sale, new rates should
not exceed the highest rate actually paid in the three
preceding years. And in the case of taluqddrs, after cal-
culating the raiyats' jama' on these principles, the tenure-
holder was to be definitely allowed 10 per cent, on the
total, plus a reasonable allowance for cost of collection.
I only state the proposals generally and in outline, for
the purpose of indicating the historical birth of the 'modern
tenant law, which substitutes defined rules practically
securing certain advantages, for pretended references to
ancient standards impossible of access.
§ 4. 'Panjam.'
The main proposals of Mr. Colebrooke were adopted in
'Qanun Panjam,' or Regulation V of 1812.
The ten-years' restriction as to leases was removed, and
any form of lease was allowed as long as it was definite,
but this was not to be construed to sanction ' cesses ' and
exactions in any guise. It limits the avoidance of exist-
638 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
ing leases on sale of the estate for arrears ; it declares the
uncertainty of ' pargana rates,' and substitutes rules similar
to those above stated for adjusting rents on renewal of
pattas. Enhancement was to be preceded by a formal
notice, without which no enhanced rent would be recover-
able. The law of distraint was softened, and implements
of husbandry, plough cattle, &c., were absolutely exempted.
The Regulation still made no provision for defining
rights by record, and thus only dealt with a part of the
evil ; it would, however, have been a relief were it not for
the, fact that it was unfortunately neutralized by other
Regulations 1.
§ 5. Farming Estates.
It was during this period that the creation of farming
tenures, which I have fully explained under the name of
'Patni,' came to notice, and it was found desirable to
recognize them. (See p. 543 ante.) Their advantages I
have already pointed out. On the other hand, they may
tend to oppression. The manager or leaseholder often
re-transferred portions of the estate to sub-lessees, and such
a person had no other interest but to amass the largest
profit to himself, regardless whether, on going out, he left
behind him an estate sucked dry and tenants verging on
misery. In 1843, the system was described as 'striking
its roots all over the country, and grinding down the
poorer classes to a bare subsistence.'
It should, however, be remembered that it is in the
Central and North -West Bengal that those 'patnis' were
most common. In East Bengal generally, the tenants have
rather the upper hand of the Zamfnd&rs than the reverse.
1 It is not necessary to go into which will explain how it came
this in detail. At p. 654 of Dr. about.
Field's book will be found a footnote
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 639
§ 6. Alteration of Sale Laws as affecting Tenants.
The next series of enactments that affected tenants were
the modifications in the sale Jaws, and especially what was
provided about the clear title which the purchaser would
get, that is, a title free of encumbrances created by the
defaulter or his predecessors being representatives of the
original engager. It was, of course, impossible equitably
to avoid all encumbrances, and Regulation XI of 1822
made certain exemptions ; among them it protected ' khud-
kasht-qadimi raiyats or resident and hereditary cultivators
having a prescriptive right-of-occupancy V and the pur-
chaser was not to demand a higher rate of rent from such
a tenant than was receivable by the predecessor, unless in
specified cases where a rent lower than was justly demand-
able had been fixed by him. ' This gave rise,' says Dr.
Field, ' to a doctrine that khudkdsht raiyats who had their
origin subsequent to the Settlement (1789) were liable to
eviction, though, if not evicted, they could only be called on
to pay rents determined according to the law and usage of
the country ; and also that the possession of all raiyats
whose title commenced subsequent to the Settlement, was
simply a permissive one, that is, retained with consent of
the landlord. The establishment of this principle left the
Zamindars free to enhance the rents of all but a small class
of raiyats up to any point that competition could run them ;
because, though the provisions of the Sale Regulations ap-
plied only to estates which had been sold for arrears, yet
the principle being established, it was soon extended by the
power of the Zamindars, to other estates also. Quite apart
from this power, the raising of rents in one place tended to
create a higher ' prevailing rate ' which could by law be
imposed on the tenants of any estate independently of there
being a revenue sale. Moreover, those tenants well knew
that if they resisted, the Zaminddr would accomplish his
1 Construed to mean resident the decennial Settlement. (Bengal
raiyats who had been in possession Law Reports, Supplementary Vol.,
for more than twelve years before p. 215.)
640 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
purpose by allowing the estate to fall into arrears and be
sold, purchasing it himself (free of the old leases) in the
name of a relation or dependent l.
This law remained in force till 1841, when Act XII pro-
vided that a sale should void all tenancies and tenures
created since the Settlement, and leave all tenants to be
enhanced at discretion after notice given, except certain
specified cases, which were certainly made more definite
than before. Some changes, not affecting the rent ques-
tion, were made by Act I of 1845 ; and this law remained
in force till 1859, when the Tenant Act X of 1859 was
passed, and the Sale Law (XI of 1859) also (five days
after Act X) 2. The great feature of the modern sale law,
as it affects tenures, is, that it, for the first time, hit upon
a proper device for protecting them, by registration. Entry
in a General Register protects them against auction-pur-
chasers, and entry in a Special Register protects even
against the Government.
We shall recur to the Sale Laws in the following chapter
on Revenue Business.
1 These ' banami ' transactions as 'Affrays and litigations cannot but
they are called, are a favourite de- ensue. There must always, in every
vice all over India for concealing case, be years of enmity between
the property really belonging to one the new landlord and his tenantry,
person by making it appear to be- There being no record of the protected,
long to another. he assumes that none are protected,
The term is ' ba-nam,' in the name while the tenants set up groundless
of (another),' not, as incorrectly claims to protection, of ten-times
written, fce-nfim, which would mean supported by the late Zamindar . . .
(be) without a name. I can imagine no condition more
2 The connection of the sale law pitiable than that of the inhabitants
with the tenant's rights was impor- of a Zaminddri transferred by sale
tant when sales were frequent. The for arrears.
whole body of the tenants was . . . We can talk and write with
alarmed, because there was no indifference of it (re-adjustment of
means of making the defaulter hand rent), but to the tenants on an es-
over his papers to the purchaser. tate, a sale was as the spring of a
The latter came in as a stranger, wild beast into a fold, or the burst-
not knowing one tenant from ing of a shell in a square.' (Sir H.
another, nor the protected classes Ricketts, 1850.)
from the unprotected.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 64 1
k SECTION IV. — MODERN TENANT LAW.
§ i. Act X of 1859.
This Act came at a time when the evils of the existing
state of things were so patent, that, in giving his assent
to the Act as passed by the Legislative Council on 29th
April, 1859, Lord Canning was able to say, ' no objection is
suggested to the nature of the Settlement which the Bill
contemplates.' In fact, almost the only serious discussion
which arose was on the provision which made over rent
cases to revenue officers sitting as Courts (with only a
reference, by way of appeal, to the Civil Court in certain
cases).
I will borrow Dr. Field's excellent analysis l of the Act
under nine heads, and make a few remarks on each. These
will not be out of place, because there are still a few dis-
tricts where the Act is in force (as I will presently explain),
and in any case the student will hardly understand the
effect of the law of 1885 without some idea of what the
reforms effected by the first ' modern ' tenant law, if I may
so call it, actually were.
The Act exhibited these main features : —
I. The abolition of the landlord's power to compel at-
tendance of raiyats at their offices.
II. The definition of a few classes of ' tenants ' whose rent
was fixed (not then classifying or attempting
any distinction between heritable and transferable
tenures and tenancies}.
III. A right of occupancy for tenants (with exception of
those on the landlord's home farm — sir, nij-jot,
and khamar land — who held on lease from year
to year; and excepting also sub-tenants). This right
was acquired by continuous holding (personally,
or by the predecessor from whom the holding
1 The whole chapter on Act X in by students desiring to go a little
Dr. Field's book may well be read more into detail (p. 743 et seq.).
VOL. I. T t
642 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
descended) of the same land for twelve years.
It was conditional, of course, on duly paying the
rent (which was enhanceable, but only on the
conditions prescribed in the Act).
IV. Making provision for settling rent-disputes and
questions of abatement and enhancement.
V. A renewed attempt to bring about an interchange of
pattas (leases) and qabuliyats (counterparts).
VI. An attempt to compel receipts for rent and to prevent
exaction of excess rent.
VII. Distraint was modified but not abolished.
VIII. Transfer of original jurisdiction in suits between
landlord and tenant from the Civil to the Revenue
Courts (limited appeal to the principal Civil Court
of the district).
XI. Registration of transfers of permanent transferable
interests intermediate between the cultivator and
the landlord.
§ 2. Remarks on these Heads. — Special classes of Tenants.
I. The first head calls for no remark ; its natural result
was that duress and coercion were prevented, to an extent
dependent on the raiyats' knowledge of the law, and the
perfection of the subdivisional system, whereby local
courts and the protective action of the ' Sub-Deputy Col-
lector and Magistrate ' were brought nearer to the people's
doors.
II. The tenures called ' muqarrari ' and ' istimrdri'
which were always permanent, and, in the former case
had the benefit of a fixed rent, had been acknowledged, as
we have seen, from the days of the Regulation VIII of
1793 ; a rather uncertain protection had also been given by
Regulations V of 1812, and XI of 1822, to the old resident
cultivators called qadimi-khudkasht. The Act of 1859
extended this by allowing every dependent taluqddr or
other person possessing a permanent, transferable, interest in
CHAP, iv.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 643
land1 who held at a fixed rent, which had not been changed
since the Permanent Settlement, to be exempt from enhance-
ment. Even raiyats (who had not a permanent; transfer-
able interest) whose rents had not been changed since 1793
were also exempt, being entitled to pattas at those rates.
And as it was often difficult to carry evidence so far
back, the privileged classes were aided by a presumption of
law that if the rent had not been changed for twenty years
before suit, it had been unchanged since the Settlement.
The landlord might rebut by showing that a change had
taken place, or that the tenure or raiyat's holding had been
created, and therefore the rent fixed, at some time subse-
quent to the Settlement.
Dr. Field remarks that the only class who would have
had any difficulty in producing the rebutting proof (if
any existed), supposing they had kept proper accounts,
would be the auction-purchasers, a class not entitled to
much sympathy.
Head III. The occupancy-right after twelve years, was
a sort of cutting the Gordian knot of a complicated question.
It was quite certain that all the old village cultivators at
the time of Settlement were — if in the lapse of ages they
had lost actual proprietary rights — certainly entitled to
be considered ' ex-proprietors ' in some sense. Yet it was
not all of these that could get the protection mentioned
under Head II ; and even if they could, there were many
tenants of less pretensions who were still, in the belief and
feeling of the people, entitled to occupancy-rights. In the
sixty years that had elapsed since Settlement, a number
of such rights had grown up, and tenancies had been held
from father to son ; so that a general rule of the kind was
more likely to be just in the long run than any attempt
to distinguish or classify 2. I have stated the exceptions
1 Dr. Field thinks this left it un- but perhaps this could not be legally
certain whether the 'jot,' ' hawala,' proved (p. 7551.
' ganthi,' and similar tenures I have 2 The draft Bill limited the rule
described were protected ; in popular to resident raiyats, but this was not
estimation they were certainly per- adopted in the Act as passed. If
manent, heritable, and transferable, some tenants got, under this clause,
T t 2
644 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
which were intended to protect the landlord's home-farm,
and give him the full benefit of that.
It was further enacted that a decree of Court must, in all
cases, be the means of ejectment ; and that decree could
only be passed on the ground of non-payment of rent. It
is obvious, however, that a protection from ejectment is not
sufficient of itself ; for if enhancement is not also regulated,
the landlord might demand such a rent that the tenant
could not pay it, and so be evicted on that ground. It
was, therefore, necessary to add two more provisions : (i)
that the landlord could not enhance without order of the
Revenue Court, and (2) that the Court should only enhance
on certain principles.
§ 3. Enhancement; and other Rent-rules.
Head IV. — The principles of enhancement were : —
(a) The Court started with the presumption that the
existing rent was fair and equitable till the land-
lord showed the contrary.
(6) The ' contrary ' was shown when it appeared that the
rent paid was below the prevailing rate payable
by the same class of raiyat for land of a similar
description and with similar advantages in the
places adjacent ;
(c) that the value of the produce or the productive powers
of the land had been increased otherwise than by the
agency (or at the expense) of the raiyat ;
(d} that the quantity of land held by the raiyat proved
on measurement to be greater than that for which
rent had been previously paid.
I may dismiss (d) without remark, as it is not really an
enhancement at all.
(6) is also a question of enhancement only as regards the
rather more than an absolutely ac- The landlords had had their innings
curate criterion of right would have for sixty years, and if the tenantry
allowed, it was no more than a com- now got a little more than was due,
pensation for years of suffering. it would be hard to complain of it.
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 645
individual ; it makes one man pay as much as his fellows ;
it does not raise the rent payable by the class generally.
(c) This is the important ground: but it proved very
difficult of application. The Great Rent Case of 1865 l, in
which all the fifteen Judges of the High Court gave judg-
ments reviewing the whole history of rent since the Perma-
nent Settlement, was an endeavour to settle it ; but while
the decision of the majority gave a rule, it was one which
it was difficult, if not impossible, to apply in practice.
The enhanced rent was to be calculated so as to bear to
the old rent the same proportion that the proved increase
of value in produce did to the old value. Or in a, formula.
thus : —
Former gross
value of pro-
duce (average
of 3-5 normal
years).
Present gross
value of pro-
duce (average
of 3-5 normal
years).
J Former
" l rate
. l Enhanced
' i rate.
The first three terms had to be proved, but the difficulty
of proving when the rent was previously fixed, so as to give
the date at which the ' former ' value was to be taken for
comparison with ' present ' value, was very great. ' The
most experienced officers,' says Dr. Field, ' have pronounced
the rule to be unworkable, and the Zamindars have confirmed
the verdict by giving up all attempt to work it in their own
interest.'
We must also notice that Act X gives some general
rules for all tenants. No tenant can be made to pay a
higher rent than the rent payable for the previous year,
unless a written notice has been served on him before the
close of the agricultural year, specifying the higher rent
claimed and the reason of the enhancement ; and the tenant
can contest this, either by suit or in answer to a suit for
arrears. This applies to tenants not holding under any agree-
ment, or under an agreement indefinite as to period,
1 Thakurani Dasi vs. Bisheshur another case — Hills vs. Ishar Ghos.
Mukharji — Bengal Law Rep., Supp. Weekly Rep. (special volume).
Vol. (Full Bench} 202. See also
646 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
or under one which has expired or become void by sale of
the estate for arrears of revenue.
§ 4. Pattas and Receipts.
Heads V and VI require no remark. It is now recog-
nized that, what with decrees of Court and improved
means of record, it is immaterial whether pattas are given
or not.
§ 5. Law of Distraint.
Head VII. — Distraint is to be made only against culti-
vators (i. e. not against farmers, patnidars, &c.)5 and only for
the rent of one year ; no distraint is allowed for any sum
in excess of the rent payable for the same land in the pre-
ceding year, unless a written engagement for the payment
of such excess had been executed by the cultivator.
Before distraint, a written notice specifying the demand,
and the grounds on which it was made, is required. After
distraint, application must be made to the proper officer for
sale within five days. If the distraint was made while the
crop was standing, the cultivator may reap and gather it.
It is stated that these provisions, good as they seem on
paper, were not useful in practice.
§ 6. Revenue Courts.
Head VIII. — The transfer of jurisdiction in 1859 was
cancelled ten years later ; but that Act (B. C. VIII. of 1869)
did not apply to all districts * ; so that where it or the sub-
sequent Act of 1885 does not apply, Act X of 1859 still
retains the Revenue Courts. The reason for giving revenue
officers power in these matters, is that the experience of
Civil Courts is not always such as enables them to under-
stand revenue practice, and that the settlement of rents
depends on facts and circumstances not ' easily reducible to
1 See § 9, post.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OE LANDLORD AND TENANT. 647
the usual forms of evidence.' Officers daily dealing with
land-management, and knowing the local details in many
cases, acquire a sense of fitness and a practical power of
adjusting rents which are invaluable, but cannot always be
adequately explained in a formal judgment.
§ 7. Transfer of Tenures.
Head IX. — The provisions for registering transfers of farms,
taluqs, and tenures intermediate between the cultivator or
the landlord, were thought necessary, and have been retained
on a somewhat different basis even in the later law of 1885
(as we shall presently see). But they are said not to work,
owing to a fear (which is legally groundless) that registry
of a transfer would imply the landlord's admission of
its validity. On the other hand, the rules were supposed
to check secret transfers and transactions whereby one man
held in the name of the other, and thus created difficulties in
cases where the real owner of the tenure was required to be
known ; and it was believed that they prevented litigation.
§ 8. Some objections to the Act.
Act X of 1859 was not a complete Code of Tenant law,
and yet contained no provision that it was not intended to
touch any customary right not inconsistent with, or expressly
or impliedly disallowed or modified by it. It also failed
to recognize, as distinct from raiyats' holdings, tenures
which, if not easily definable, were, nevertheless, in the
popular estimation, permanent, heritable, and transferable.
The landlords also objected to the working of the enhance-
ment clauses, which failed where they considered they had
a good claim l.
1 ' The principal faults of Act X of could not prove, and the landlord
1859 have been said to be that it one which he could not enforce.'
placed the right of occupancy which (Introduction to R. and F. Tenant Act.}
it recognized in the tenant, and the Minor amendments have been made
right of enhancement, which it re- in Act X, and appear incorporated
cognized in the landlord, on a pre- in the Legislative Department edi-
carious footing. It gave, or professed tion in the ' Lower Provinces Code.'
to give, the raiyat a right which he
648 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
§ 9. Bengal Act VIII of 1869.
This Act of the Bengal Council was merely a new
edition of Act X of 1 859, with certain amendments of detail
(not of principle as regards tenants' rights). The details
need not occupy our attention here ; they relate to matters
of limitation of suits, to powers of measurement of estates,
and so forth. The important change was the re-transfer of
landlord and tenant cases to the Civil Courts.
The Act only applied to districts to which it was ex-
pressly extended, and these were the permanently-settled,
and what I may call ' regular ' districts, in the Bhagulpore,
Patna, Rajshahi, Bardwan, Presidency, Dacca, and Chitta-
gong Civil Divisions ; and the law did not apply to Jalpai-
guri, Darjiling, the Orissa districts, the Chutiya Nagpur
districts, and the Santal Pergunnahs. It is therefore a
local question whether Act X of 1859 (and its amending
Acts) still remains in force : it does if declared in force, and
if neither Bengal Act VIII of 1869 nor Act VIII of 1885
has superseded it. Act VIII of 1885 is in force in all the
Bengal and Bihar districts, not being Scheduled Districts,
and is not in force in Orissa.
§ 10. Local operation of the several Acts.
Full details on this subject will be found in the notes to
Section i (3) of Act VIII of 1885. The following table is
generally correct : —
Regulation Districts in the Divisions of —
Bhagulpur
Patna
Rajshahi
Bardwan ......... I Act VIII of 1885.
Presidency .........
(Dacca) Dakha ...
Chittagong .........
Katak1..., . . . ,
Balasor Ac*
. ..
Puri .................. j ing Acts.
1 Banki, formerly a scheduled Orissa is a scheduled tract, and
tract, has now (Act XXV of 1881) Act X has not been applied to it.
become part of Katak. Angul in
CHAP, iv.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 649
Chutiya Nagpur ...... S ^h^da£i.. .'.'.'.'.'.'. I Bengal Act II of 1869 and
(Singhbhum ......... } also I of 1879-
Manbhum ................................................ Act X of 1859 and Bengal
Act II of 1869.
Santal Pergunnahs .................................... Regulation III of 1872 and
Rent Rgulation II of 1886.
Chittagong Hill Tracts .............................. See Act XXII of 1860.
Jalpaiguri ............... (a) South of dis- Act X of 1859, &c.
trict, once part of
the old Ramgarh
District.
(fc) Western Dwars. See Act XVI of 1869.
Darjiling ................................................ Act X of 1859, &c.
The Act of 1885 may be extended to any of the Scheduled
Districts (by Section 3, Act XIV of 1874), and may be ex-
tended to Orissa (by the Act itself, Section I (3) ).
§ ii. The origin of Act VIII of 1885.
As no one is likely to enter on a detailed study of the
present law applicable to the larger and most important
part of Bengal and Bihar, without Rampini and Finucane's
edition in their hand, it will be my part only to call attention
to the salient points.
In 1876 a bill for a serious alteration as regards defini-
tion of rights was commenced with, but only led to the
appointment of a Rent Law Commission (in 1879) to inquire
into the whole subject, aided by a Committee of experienced
officials, indigo-planters, and landlords, to consider the
special difficulties of Bihar. A complete draft law was
prepared by their means in 1880; but the Government
could not accept the draft in its entirety. Several other
drafts were then made under various authority, and the
present law was introduced into the Legislative Council of
India in 1883, and received assent on I4th March, 1885. It
was declared to come into force on ist November, I8851,
except certain portions, the operation of which was by law
(Act XX of 1885) deferred to ist February, 1886.
1 Notification, Cakutta Gazette, 4th September, 1885.
650 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
§ 12. Analysis of the Law of 1885.
In this Act (as amended by Act VIII of 1886) the follow-
ing classes are recognized : —
(i) Tenure-holders and under-tenure-holders (e.g. the
patnidar and darpatnidar) ;
Raiyats at fixed rates ;
(2) Raiyats
Occupancy -raiyats ;
Settled-raiyats ;
Non-oceupancy-raiyats.
(3) Under-raiyats (or sub-tenants).
This, it will be observed, obviates the objection to the old
Act, as regards reducing holders of tenures to being merely
a kind of tenant.
Any non-proprietary holding exceeding 100 bighas, is
presumed to be a ' tenure ' till the contrary is shown.
The tenure-holder, who has paid a fixed rent from 1793,
Sec. 6. is, as before, protected from enhancement, except on proof
that local custom, or the terms of the tenure, warrant an
increase, or that the tenure-holder, by receiving reduction
of his rent (not being on account of loss of area) has sub-
jected himself to the payment of the increase demanded,
and that the lands are capable of affording it1. And in
this (rare) case of enhancement, the limit is (subject to any
contract between the parties) such customary rate as other
tenure-holders in the vicinity are paying; if such a rate
does not exist, then the limit is what the Court thinks fair
and equitable. And in drawing conclusions the Court will
never leave the tenure-holder with a less profit than 10 per
cent, on the gross collections of rent, and will have regard
to the conditions under which the tenure arose, whether it
paid a fine to begin with, or was for reclamation, and what
Sec. 7. improvements have been made. The rent once enhanced
cannot again be raised for fifteen years.
1 This resulted from an old stand- another. It is explained in § 384 of
ing custom that if a taluqdar ac- Shore's Minute, printed in the Fifth
cepted remission or reduction at Report, vol. i. p. 162.
one time, he must accept increase at
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 651
The tenure-holder cannot be ejected, except on breach of
some express condition, not inconsistent with the Act. A
tenure is heritable and may be bequeathed, and is trans-
ferable by registered instrument, or by course of law.
Sections 13 to 15 are the ones altered by Act VIII of
1886 and represent the amended form of the 'Registry'
rules for securing that it be known who was the actual
tenure -holder, repressing 'banami' holdings (see note, p. 640),
arid preventing litigation — noted under Head IX of Act X
of 1859.
§ 13. Raiyats.
The first class of raiyat • may hold either at a fixed rent
or a fixed rate of rent ; the distinction is obvious. He is
subject to the same provisions as to succession and transfer
as a tenure-holder, and he cannot be ejected except on
breach of a condition (consistent with the Act), whereby he Sec. 18.
becomes, by contract, liable to ejectment. The second
class (occupancy-raiyats) includes, generally, all who, imme-
diately before November 1885, had the right of occupancy,
by the operation of any law, by custom, or otherwise ; so
that all existing rights are saved.
Not only so, but any tenant (before or after the Act) who
has held for twelve years continuously any land in the
village, whether under a lease or not, becomes a ' settled-
raiyat.' It need not be the same plot of land (as under
Act X), so that a landlord cannot evade occupancy by
shifting the site of the cultivation within the same village.
The holding may have been by means of the person whose
heir the present holder is.
A person is a ' settled-raiyat ' as long as he holds any land
as a raiyat in the village, and for one year thereafter : and
even if the tenant abandon, but return in time, under section
87 he does not lose his right. The raiyat starts with the
presumption in his favour that he has held for twelve
years ; it is, of course, much easier for the landlord to show Sec. 20 (7).
how long he really has been there, if he is not a twelve-
years' tenant.
652 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
Section ai should be read with Section 178, and the
notes ; these will explain the object, which is generally, to
prevent an ignorant tenant contracting himself out of the
benefit of occupancy ; and especially doing so between
March 1883 and the passing of the Act, when the whole
matter was in Council, and sharp landlords might have
brought pressure to bear on tenants to make such contracts.
Section a a makes provision in cases of merger of rights
by transfer, succession, &c.
The occupancy-tenant has to pay rent ' at fair and equit-
able rates.' He cannot be ejected except by Court decree,
on the ground that he has used his land in a manner which
renders it unfit for the purpose of the tenancy, or has broken
a condition (consistent with the Act) on breach of which he
is by contract liable to ejectment1.
An occupancy-right (subject to any custom to the con-
trary) descends by inheritance ; but in default of heirs it
dies out (i.e. does not lapse to the Crown).
It will be observed that the law is intentionally silent as
to whether occupancy-rights are transferable by bequest,
sale, gift, mortgage, &c., or not. The matter is regulated
by custom, which is saved by Section 183. (See illustra-
tion i to the section 2.)
The 'private lands' of proprietors are (as before) protected
from the growth of occupancy-rights, only that the subject
is specially dealt with in chapter xi of the Act, which
provides clearly for determining what are private l%nds.
Thus, it will be seen that comparing Heads II and III of
the abstract Act of 1 859 (p. 642) a very considerable advance
has been made in the law.
1 And even then section 155 must 2 The law on the whole subject
be read, as it affords a remedy of transferability is given at pages
against absolute ejectment. 70-2, F. and R. Tenancy Act.
CHAP, iv.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 653
§ 14. Enhancement.
It will here "also be interesting to look back to p. 644,
Head IV (Enhancement). Here we found the law of 1859
was somewhat impracticable. It was one of the main objects
of the law of 1885 to effect an improvement. As far as the
landlords are concerned, the new rules for deciding an
enhancement suit are certainly made easier and more prac-
tical ; while the tenant has been protected by not being
allowed, in his ignorance, to bind himself to submit to an
unreasonable enhancement, so that 'a raiyat cannot now
contract himself out of almost any of the rights conferred
upon him by the Act V
The initial presumption (as under the former Act) is, that
the existing rent of an occupancy-tenant is 'fair and
equitable ' ; the landlord must prove that it ought to be
enhanced.
A money rent cannot be enhanced except as provided by
the Act.
A produce rent cannot be enhanced at all, and very na-
turally so, for it is a question of sharing the produce, and
this really enhances itself by the rise in value of the share
which naturally occurs.
Section 40, however, gives either the landlord or occu-
pancy-tenant power to apply for a commutation of a grain-
rent into a cash -rent.
The specific provisions of the Act stand thus : —
I. Enhancement by Contract.
The conditions are that —
(a) Contract is to be written and registered ; Sec. 29.
(6) The rise agreed on must not exceed 2 annas in the
rupee ;
(c) The rent fixed is not to be liable to further enhance-
ment for fifteen years.
1 F. and R Tenancy Act, Introduction, p. xiii.
654 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
There are, however, provisoes added, which should be
referred to ; for instance, (6) will not apply where a higher
• rate is contracted for on the express ground that the land-
lord has made, or will make, an improvement to which the
raiyat is not otherwise entitled. The provisoes explain
themselves, except, perhaps, the first, which refers to the
case where a tenant, though entitled to ignore the contract,
because not in writing or not registered, has actually paid
a certain rate of rent for three consecutive years (which
he might have refused if he had chosen).
II. Enhancement by Suit in Court.
The grounds on which a decree can be made are : —
Sec 30 (a) That the rate is below what other occupancy-tenants
pay, in the absence of special circumstances ;
(6) Rise in average local price of staple food-crops dur-
ing currency of present rent ;
(c) Increase in productive powers of the land —
(1) By landlord's improvement ;
(2) Fluvial action (which includes a change in the
course of the river rendering irrigation possible).
These three grounds are nearly but not quite, the same
as the older law, and are such as are usually entered in
modern Tenancy Acts1.
In order that these principles of enhancement may be
8608.31,32, applied properly, the Act goes on to explain their use.
33, and 34. ^s ^o ^aj foe rates generally paid during the previous
three or more years are to be looked to ; and enhancement
will not be decreed unless there is a substantial difference
between the rate so discovered, and that which the raiyat is
paying. A ' local inquiry ' may be ordered with a view of
discovering the prevailing rate.
The caste of the cultivator will only be taken into consider-
ation when it is proved that the local custom requires it.
1 The student will find it instruc- 1886 (Oudh\ section 33, and com-
tive to turn to the similar sections pare them with section 17, Act X of
in Act XII of 1881 (N.-W. Pro- 1859, and this section 30.
vinces), section 13, Act XXII of
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 655
As to (6), the average prices for the ten years immediately
preceding the suit are compared with the average prices
' during such other decennial period as it may appear
equitable and practicable to take for comparison.' Then
the rule of enhancement, stated in the form of a proportion
sum, so that the student may compare it with the old rule
(cf. p. 645, ante) will be —
Value of pro-1) /Value in 10- \
duce in select- I . J years period I . . J Former
i ^ . ^ * -I'll ^ » • *\
ed 10 - years j * J immediately f " ) rent,
period. J (. before suit. / \
' | rent.
Enhanced
Provided that the excess of the second term over the first
term is to be reduced by one-third in order to give the
enhanced rate ; and if a ten-year period is not practicable
a shorter period may be used.
As to (c). The landlord's improvements must have been
registered. The registration (in a book kept for the pur-
pose) will obviate any dispute as to whether an improvement
has been made or not. And, naturally, as ' improvements '
vary, the increase of rent will depend on the amount of
increase in the productive power of the soil which is likely
to result ; the cheapness and costliness of the improvement ;
the question whether the improvement will require a costly
style of cultivation to benefit from it ; and lastly, it is
important to consider whether the rent is not already so
high that the land, even as improved, cannot well bear
a higher rate.
As all these matters are, to some extent, matters of ex-
pectation and probability, any decree made is liable to
reconsideration, ' in the event of the improvement not pro-
ducing, or ceasing to produce, the estimated effect.' For the
case of ' fluvial action,' Section 34 may be referred to.
Sections 35 and 36 contain the important general provisoes
that in no case is an enhancement to be decreed ' which is,
under the circumstances of the case, unfair or inequitable ' ;
and that if a sudden enhancement would press hardly, the
increase may be gradual, i.e. by rises extending over not
more than five years till the full rate is reached.
656 LAND SYSTEMS OF BBITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
Section 37 is also by way of general proviso, since an
enhancement on the ground of ' prevailing rate ' or of ' rise
in prices ' (a, 6) will not be allowed, if, within the fifteen
years next before the suit, there has been —
(1) A contract for enhancement dated after March 2nd,
1883;
(2) A decree for commutation of grain-rent to cash
(Section 40) ;
(3) A decree for enhancement (or a decree of dismissal of
suit on the merits) on the same grounds, 'or
grounds corresponding thereto.'
It should be added that to facilitate, in future, these
Sec. 39. inquiries about the value of produce, the law prescribes the
maintenance of price lists by the Collector.
§ 15. Reduction of Rent. — Commutation.
As rent can be enhanced, so there are occasions when
a reduction may be called for and justly enforced by law if
Sec. 38. refused voluntarily. And it has already been mentioned
that grain-rents (still so common in Bihar, p. 602, ante} can .
Sec. 40. be commuted to cash, on demand of either landlord or
tenant.
Grain-rents are both natural and useful in certain cases
and in the early stages of society. If, for instance, in out-
lying and precarious tracts crops are liable to loss by flood
or drought, or locusts or wild beasts, the tenant who has to
give only a fraction of the grain — actually produced and
garnered, receives a practical reduction in bad years ; the
calamity of season and uncertainty fall on both parties
equally. But in other places, where this ground does not
exist, other objections come to light — fraud and concealment
on one side, over-estimate and extortion on the other, and
the loss to the tenant of a rise in value. As the country
becomes more settled, and cultivation reaches its limits, the
tendency is always to give up grain-rents.
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 657
§ 1 6. Non-occupancy Tenants.
The ordinary raiyat is not, and ought not to be, in any
country in India, left entirely to ' competition.' All tenant
laws admit the principle that some protection he requires.
If a tenant accepts land for the first time, he must natu-
rally accept the terms offered1 ; if he does not like them, let
him give up his attempt to get the land, in favour of some
one who does ; and if the landlord finds that no one will
accept his terms, naturally he will come down.
But once the tenant has accepted, he cannot be subject
to extortion. Further enhancement must be by registered
agreement2 or by means of what the Act calls an agree-
ment under Section 46, of which presently.
JEjectment has, also, to be regulated. It is obvious that
it is of no use regulating enhancement without regulating
ejectment, and vice versa.
Section 89 has here to be read, because it applies to all
tenants. There is no ejectment, except by decree of Court ;
Section 44 gives plainly the grounds on which an ordinary
raiyat can be decreed against 3.
Section 46 requires some remark. Supposing the tenant
refuses to accept a landlord's demand for enhancement and
so becomes liable to a suit for ejectment ; the landlord must,
as a preliminary measure, put into Court a proposed agree-
ment which will be served on the tenant in a specified way.
If the tenant fails to accept this, a suit for ejectment will be
lodged. When such a suit is lodged, the Court will declare
what is a fair and equitable rent and give the tenant the
option of paying that, — which will not be subject to any
further enhancement for Jive years.
1 See, however, Section 47. A hanced rate which he might have
man must be bond fide a new comer, refused.
not a man really already on the 3 The ordinary raiyat is ejected
land, whom the Zamindar proposes for arrears. The tenure-holder and
to treat as a new-comer. occupancy-raiyat of both classes is
a Unless, as in a previous section, not; his tenure is put up to sale
the tenant has de facto waived this, (^Section 65).
by paying for three years the en-
VOL. I. U U
658 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
If the tenant will not have this, of course a decree for
ejectment will issue. Under-raiyats are protected by Sec-
tions 48 and 49, which need no comment.
§ 17. General Provisions as to Rents.
It will be observed that the whole question of pattas has
been allowed to drop. Receipts for rent are retained, and
various provisions are made.
The general principles of rent need only be read (Chapter
VIII) to be understood.
The old principle about rents not changed since Settle-
ment is retained, and with it the twenty years' prescription
already explained.
An alteration in area of a tenancy may always involve
an alteration of rent without infringement of the privileges
already noticed.
Rent is always payable, subject to agreement or esta-
blished usage, in four (quarterly) instalments.
Sections 56-60 go into details about receipts for rent, and
counterparts, which will, perhaps, not prove very effective,
or be easily enforced.
§ 1 8. Arrears of Rent.
Sections 65 to 68 should be read on the subject of
arrears ; interest is allowed by law, and damages in some
cases of wilful non-payment ; but not both. Any decree
for ejectment on the ground of arrears (amount to be speci-
fied) can be avoided, if the tenant, within fifteen days, pays
the amount with costs.
The landlord cannot harass a tenant by successive suits
for arrears ; having got his decree, he cannot sue again for
Sec. 147. three months. The restrictions on execution of decrees for
rent have been removed to a great extent by reason of the
application of the Civil Procedure Code subject to certain
modifications. A decree for arrears of rent must be ex-
ecuted by the landlord himself or a transferee of the
CHAP. IV.] THE EELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. 659
landlord's interest in the land, not by any chance assignee
of the decree ; on the other hand, there is no restriction as
to the order in which certain property must be proceeded
against, &c., other than what the Civil Procedure Code
prescribes.
The tenant's holding is treated as hypothecated for the
rent due, and no transfer is valid while any arrears of rent
which have accrued are unpaid *.
§ 19. Produce Rents.
The Sections 69 to 71 provide for various matters likely
to be in dispute, e.g. appointing an officer to make an
appraisement of the standing crops, and to make a division
(see p. 602 ante), and defining the right of possession of the
crop and the grain at the threshing-floor.
§ 20. Improvements.
Chapter IX deals with a number of additional matters
between landlord and tenant, which will give relief. The
whole question of improvements is dealt with, defining
what an improvement is, settling that occupancy and fixed-
rate raiyats can always make improvements of all kinds,
but that non-occupancy tenants can only make improve-
ments of certain kinds, and giving a convenient power of
reference to the Collector, whose decision is final. There is
special provision for registering improvements and recording
evidence as to their being made, intended to save future
disputes.
There are, of course, provisions for compensation for
improvements on ejectment. Also, when ejectment takes
place, there is a protection in respect of growing crops and Sec. 156.
land prepared for sowing. As the number of tenants fixed
in their holdings is now great, a reasonable facility is given
^
1 In these remarks, I have gone cedure sections about execution of
out of the order of the Act in order decrees, &c., come later on in the
to complete the subject ; the pro- Act.
U U 2
66O LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
to landlords to apply to the Civil Courts for an order to
retake a plot of ground wanted for religious, charitable, or
educational buildings, on fair terms.
§ 21. Miscellaneous Provisions.
Section 85 regulates the raiyat's power of sub-letting, and
Section 90 the landlord's power of measurement. Section
93, et seq., call for some remark, as these provisions will
probably smooth over many cases of dispute, where there
are co-sharers on an estate, and they are at feud as to
the management ; this harasses tenants greatly, and a
' common manager ' can now be appointed.
§ 22. Distraint.
Passing over some intermediate chapters, it will be ob-
served that Chapter XII regulates the power of distraint.
It can now only be done through the Civil Court ; and not-
withstanding the attachment, the tenant can reap, gather,
or store the produce, and do everything necessary to its
preservation.
§ 23. Record-of- Rights.
I left out of its place Chapter X, which is really the most
important feature of the Act, and if I may venture a pro-
phecy, will be gradually acted on, till the only complete
satisfaction for all classes of rights is gained, viz. a cadastral
survey and record- of-rights for every estate, large and
small, in the province.
Under circumstances stated in Section 101, a survey anc
a record- of-rights can be ordered for a local area in an\
case with the sanction of the Governor-General in Council,
and in certain specified cases without such sanction.
And among such cases I may mention that the procedure
applies to all estates under the Court of Wards and all kh^
mahals or estates which are or have become the property oi
Government.
CHAP. IV.] THE RELATION OF LANDLOED AND TENANT. 66 1
Where this Act is in force, Act VIII of 1879 is repealed ;
and as Government, in its own estates, as landlord, is sub-
ject to the same liabilities to tenant-occupancy and other
rights as other landlords, it desires to have those rights
defined and protected and its own management facilitated,
provision is made for a record-of-rights and a settlement of
rents. (See page 459).
In any area in which this survey and record-of-rights is
ordered, the ordinary Courts are precluded from entertain-
ing any suit for alteration of rent or the determination of
the status of any tenant.
§ 24. Jurisdiction.
The law of 1885 retains the jurisdiction of Civil Courts
over suits between landlord and tenant, except in the case
of a survey and record above mentioned. The High Court
is empowered to make rules, declaring that any portions
of the Civil Procedure Code do not apply, or apply with
modifications : and, as already stated, the Act itself, in
Chapter XIII, makes certain special provisions as regards
procedure.
§ 25. Sale of Tenures for Arrears.
The sale law has (as we have seen), from time to time,
dealt with the ' clear-title ' to be given when an estate is
put up to sale for arrears of the Government revenue; and
as tenures, and certain raiyati holdings, can be sold for
arrears of rent, in executing a decree, there are similar
questions as to voiding the subordinate contracts or rights.
These are dealt with in Chapter XIV. Briefly, all such
subordinate rights are classed into (i) 'protected interests'
and (2) ' incumbrances ' ; the former are not voidable, the
latter are, but only in certain cases.
CHAPTER V.
THE EE VENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL.
§ i. Introductory.
THE system of public administration by means of District
Officers throughout the Provinces, may be said to have been
derived from Bengal. There the system originated ; there
it was modified from time to time by way of experiment,
and ultimately issued from the crucible of a very severe
testing, in its modern form. It is natural to expect that
the system, ultimately perfected in BENGAL, has, to a large
extent, been the model on which district government has
been developed in all the other provinces.
It will be desirable therefore to examine the administra-
tive machinery of Bengal and to follow the steps by which
it has attained its present form, somewhat more in detail
than we shall need to do in the case of other provinces.
§ 2. General Outlines of Provincial Administration.
I have stated (p. 389), as a general fact, that the main out-
lines of the administrative system are everywhere the same.
Immediately under the Local Government or Administra-
tion, with its Revenue Secretaries, i. e. Secretaries who take
charge of the correspondence relating to revenue matters,
we shall generally find, first, a central controlling revenue
authority over the whole province1, whether under the
name of a ' Board of Revenue ' or of one or more ' Financial
Commissioners.'
1 Bombay is an exception, as presently noted.
CHAP, v.] THE REVENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL. 663
The whole of the province is divided out into a number
of DISTRICTS, and these are generally, but not always,
formed into groups of three to five as DIVISIONS under
Commissioners, who form a supervising and controUing
agency, intermediate between the chief authority and the
District Officer1.
The DISTRICT is presided over by a COLLECTOR, who is
also the District Magistrate. His general official title is
' Magistrate and Collector,' while in provinces or parts of
provinces where formerly what was called the Non-Regu-
lation system prevailed, the District head is styled ' Deputy
Commissioner V
The local sub-division of districts, though always carried
out, is not so uniform, and will be spoken of later.
The Department of ' Land Records and Agriculture ' has
now become an integral and important factor in the revenue
administration (Bk. I, Chap. V, p. 349) ; the ' Director,'
who may or may not have the charge of Settlements, as
' Commissioner of Settlements,' assists the district officers
by systematizing, directing, and constantly inspecting, the
preparation of local maps and land records and statistics.
These not only concern the Settlement work of districts
where that is subject to periodical revision, but intimately
concern the revenue administration, as the means of
keeping the Collector informed of the progress and state of
all estates, with reference to their management, to advances
for agricultural improvements, and to the remission or
suspension of land-revenue which calamities of season may
call for.
Now we must return to the special system of Bengal.
1 In Madras no ' Division ' inter- the reader may, if ho pleases, look
venes between the District and the on the Board as in fact a body of
Board of Revenue. But the dis- Commissioners, only aggregated in
tricts are large and are subdivided. one central office.
To some extent, therefore, the officer 2 The title is still maintained.
of a sub-division may be regarded Formeiiy,theDeputy-Commissioner
as the real district officer, and the had Civil Court powers : moreover,
Collector rather as a sort of Com- the latter was always a covenanted
missioner over him. Again, the civilian (by statute^ ; the former
Board now consists of an aggregate might be, and still often is, an Un-
of ' Commissioners,' in charge of covenanted or a Military officer.
different branches of work ; and
664 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK 11.
§ 3. The Board of Revenue.
it has already been indicated more than once, that on
first assuming the government of ' Bengal, Bihar and
Orissa,' no attempt was made to interfere with the native
method of revenue management. In 1769, as we shall see,
an attempt at supervision, excellent in theory but impossi-
ble in practice, was made. In 1 770, two ' Revenue Councils,'
sitting at Patna and Murshidabad, were established, and
soon after, ' District Collectors ' were tried. A Board of
Revenue was appointed at Calcutta, to supervise the revenue
generally; it consisted of the Governor and Members of
Council , with an Accountant-General. After the Regulating
Act of 1773, a new experiment was made; the Collectors
were withdrawn from districts and aggregated into six
' Provincial Councils V
These were supervised by the Calcutta Board remodelled
as a ' Committee of Revenue.'
In 1781, it was found, as might be expected, that district
control was indispensable, so the six Councils were dis-
solved, and Collectors remanded to the districts. The
Controlling Committee at Calcutta, up to this time, con-
sisted only of members of the Government. But this was
found inconvenient, as the members, in their other capa-
cities, had more than enough to occupy their time. The
Committee gradually became a separate body of Civil
Servants, but in 1786 the President was still a member
of the Government2.
Reg. II of The Regulations of 1793 recognized this ' Board of Reve-
nue' and conferred powers —
1 Sitting at Calcutta, Bardwan, vants of the Company.'
Murshidabad, Dacca, Dinajpur, and For the information regarding
Patna. the official staff, I am indebted to a
a ' It is therefore full time,' wrote very good historical sketch prefixed
the Court of Directors, ' to adopt a to the Report of the Salaries Commission
settled plan, and for that purpose (Calcutta, 1886), to the Report of the
we direct that there be a " Board of Salaries Commission (Ministerial
Revenue " to reside in Calcutta, to Officers), 1868, and to Papers relating
consist of one of the junior Members to Village and Indigenous Agency Em-
of Council, and four others of the ployed in the Census of 1872 (Calcutta,
most intelligent of the senior ser- 1873).
CHAP, v.] THE BE VENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL. 665
(i) To summon any officer to the Presidency to explain
and justify his conduct, to impose a fine not
exceeding a month's salary, and to suspend him
from office1.
No further alteration was made till 1807, and then on]y
to provide supervision for other acquisitions of territory.
By Kegulation X of 1807 a ' Board of Commissioners ' was
appointed for the 'Upper Provinces,' and in 1817 a Board
for Benares and Bihar, including two districts of Bengal.
(This was rescinded by Regulation I of 1819.)
By Regulation III of 1822 (still in force) provision was
made for the better division of labour ; three Boards of Reve-
nue were constituted — one for the ' Lower Provinces,' one for
' Central Bengal,' and one for the ' Western Provinces.'
In 1829 a final change was made. The previous history
of the Boards marks the difficulty which was increasingly
felt as the revenue system developed, cultivation extended,
and work increased. The Boards were directly responsible
for too much detail and too much judicial work. The
idea therefore soon gained acceptance, that it would be
better to arrange for the direct supervision of manageable
groups of districts by Revenue Commissioners, and restrict
the scope of the Board's duties to a general and ultimate
control at head-quarters.
The Board of Revenue at Calcutta (at first called the
Sudder (Sadr) Revenue Board) remained for Bengal, and
the Board for the Upper Provinces became the Board which
now sits under the Lieutenant-Go vernor of the North -West
Provinces ; the third Board (Central Bengal) was abolished.
Bengal was then apportioned into eleven Divisions 2.
The functions of the Central Board at Calcutta being thus
restricted to the superior control, it was possible to unite
with it what had been, since 1819, a separate Board for
Trade, Customs, Opium, &c. This was effected by Act
XLIV of 1850, and the title 'Sudder Board' was dropped.
1 These provisions were never re- 2 And the North- Western Pro-
scinded till Act XII of 1873 declared vinces into nine,
them repealed as obsolete.
666 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
The ' Board of Revenue for the Lower Provinces ' is hence-
forth the official designation. Regulation III of 1822 (still
in force) enables the Government to empower any Member
of the Board to exercise all or any of the powers of the
whole Board l ; this Regulation also states the general
powers of control possessed by the Board, though, of course,
other Regulations and Acts have to be referred to in order
to trace the entire scope of legal provisions giving powers.
The Board of Revenue now consists of two members with
two Secretaries2. It exercises general powers of control
and sanction, and regulates, by the issue of Standing Orders
and Circulars, the procedure and conduct of official busi-
ness in all revenue departments whenever these matters
are not directly provided for by Acts of the Legislature, or
rules having the force of law made pursuant to such Acts.
Some idea of the extent and variety of the duties and powers
of the Board of Revenue, in supervising officials, reviewing
decisions and orders, sanctioning Settlements, controlling
sales for arrears of revenue, controlling the Land Registers,
Irrigation, Embankments, Customs, Salt, Opium, Excise, the
Court of Wards, Stamps, and many other matters, may be
gained by a glance at the columns under the head of the
' Board of Revenue, Bengal,' in the ' General Index to
Enactments relating to India,' or to the volumes of Standing
Orders.
§ 4. Commissioners.
As already indicated, the appointment of Commissioners
of Divisions, with general powers of supervision and con-
trol, but subject to the Board of Revenue, dates from 1829
(Regulation I of that year). The territorial extent of the
Commissioner's charge was then wisely determined to be
such, that the presiding officer might ' be easy of access to
the people' and be able 'frequently to visit the different
1 An order has recently beei\ is- Opium, Stamps, Excise, &c.
sued (1889) empowering each Mem- 2 By the 24 & 25 Viet., cap. 54, the
ber to exercise the whole power of members and Secretaries are to be
the Board, one in mattersof Revenue, Civil Servants,
the other for Miscellaneous Revenue,
CHAP, v.] THE REVENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL. 667
parts of their respective jurisdictions.' At first the Com-
missioners had Civil Court powers and were Criminal
Judges of Circuit. They were, however, relieved of Civil
Court duties by Act III of I8351; and afterwards were
relieved of criminal duties by the appointment of separate
Sessions Judges under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In other provinces, it may be mentioned, the union of
civil and criminal powers in the Commissioner's office
lasted much longer, and has not yet altogether ceased in
some provinces. In the Panjab it lasted till the Courts
Act of ist November, 1884. In the Central Provinces it
still exists, and so in some other places.
Even in provinces where the ordinary civil and criminal
(appellate and original) jurisdiction of Commissioners has
ceased, the Commissioners have some judicial or quasi-
judicial duties, inasmuch as under the Tenancy and Revenue
Laws, a number of matters are excluded from the cognizance
of Civil Courts, and are disposed of by Revenue Officers, and
by such officers sitting as Revenue Courts, and the appeal
lies to the Commissioners.
In Bengal, rent cases and appeals are heard by the Civil
Courts2, but there are still important revenue matters in
which an appeal of a ^turn-judicial nature lies from the
Collector's order to the Commissioner.
Commissioners also retain a general control in police
matters. The minor changes in the law between 1837 and
1861, which have occurred, do not directly concern us here.
The wide scope of the duty of a Commissioner of Division
in Bengal is well summed up in the Salaries Commission
Report (1885-86), and as this gives an excellent general
idea of what the Commissioner's duty is everywhere, it
may be quoted in extenso : —
3 i Nearly every one of the numerous duties of the District
Officer is exercised by him subject to the supervision of the
Commissioner of Revenue and Circuit, and even in those
1 Salary Commission Report, chapter II. § 9.
2 Except in Orissa, Chutiya Nagpiir, and the Santal Parganas.
3 § 18 of the Repoi-t, 1886.
668 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
branches of public business which do not, ordinarily, come
under his immediate observation, he is at any time liable to be
called on by Government to interfere or to give an opinion.
His work, like that of the Magistrate- Collector, may be divided
into administrative and judicial — the former is far more onerous
than the latter. A Commissioner's administrative work is very
difficult to define, and there is hardly anything, except perhaps
taking command of a fleet, or performing a surgical operation,
that he may not be called upon, at one time or another, to
undertake. He has to inspect the offices of all the Collectors
under him once a year, and the Sub-divisional Officers, as far as
he can, and to see not only that work is properly performed,
but that the people in all parts of the division are treated with
due consideration, and all that affects their interest is carefully
watched and reported by District and Sub-divisional Officers as
well as by the Police. He has to collect information from his
District Officers concerning a vast variety of matters, and pre-
sent it in a suitable shape to Government. He receives constant
applications from the Collectors for sanction to the disburse-
ment of money, and the performance of official acts, and to
these he replies in some cases by giving sanction himself ; in
others by referring the question to higher authority. He is
also referred to for instructions on all sorts of questions by his
subordinates, and these references, if he is an active man, not
afraid of responsibility, he answers himself ; if he is not such
a man, he merely sends them on to Government, or to the
Board for orders. He has to write carefully considered opinions
on legislative measures while passing through the Council, and
a large number of annual reports and occasional reports on a
number of subjects. . . . His judicial work consists in hearing
appeals in Settlement, partition, certificate sale, wards' and
Government estates, and under several other revenue laws : as
well as appeals from ministerial and police officers regarding
dismissal or other punishment. Lately, also, the Local Self-
Government Act has added considerably to his work ; and
some Commissioners have also a large amount of political and
civil work. Thus, the Commissioner of Orissa is also Superin-
tendent of the Tributary .States, a duty which entails on him
a large amount of civil and criminal work, besides that of
supervision, advice, and guidance to the Kajas of the several
estates.
' The Commissioner of Chutiya Nagpur has similar work, but
CHAP, v.] THE KEVENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL. 669
on a smaller scale. The Commissioner of Bhagalpur has civil
and criminal jurisdiction in the Santal Parganas, and the Com-
missioner of Chittagong in the Hill Tracts of his Division.'
There are now in Bengal nine Divisions over groups of
districts : —
i. Bardwan, over 6 districts.
2. Presidency, ,,
6 „
3. Rajshahi, „
7
4. Dacca ( Dhaka \ ,,
4
5. Chittagong, „
4
6. Patna, ,,
5 »
7. Bhagalpur, „
3 „
8. Orissa, ,,
3 districts (besides political charge
of the Tributary States).
9. Chutiya Nagpur, ,,
4 districts.
§ 5- Collectors.
In speaking of the Board of Revenue, mention was made
that, as early as 1769, 'supervisors' were appointed, with
a view to collecting information of all kinds, and to keep-
ing a check on the work of the Muhammadan district
officers *.
They did not continue long: in May, 1772, they were
styled Collectors; and in 1773 ^ne7 were withdrawn, as
already stated, and the districts left to native officers —
' Diwan ' and ' 'Amil.'
After the various attempts at revenue administration by
means of local and central committees, District Collectors
were again appointed in 1786. The main changes in the
office since that time have been with reference to the union
of Magisterial and Civil Court powers with Revenue duties.
At first (in 1787) it was considered desirable that the
' people accustomed to despotic authority should look to
one master.' But in the course of time, and after several
changes enacted by law, the Civil Court powers were
1 See p. 392. The letter describing have seen is in Hunter's Annals of
their duties is given in Field, p. 463. Rural Bengal, pp. 262 65.
The best account of Supervisors I
670 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
withdrawn and Criminal powers alone remained in union
with the Revenue powers. It was in 1831 that the Regu-
lations gave rise to the modern office of ' Magistrate ant
Collector.' But in 1837 the double function was for a time
divided, owing to the pressure of Revenue work. The
separation was gradually carried out, and up to 1845,
Collector after Collector was relieved of Magisterial duty.
It was only in 1 859 * that the Magisterial and Revenue
functions were again, finally, united.
Though the possession of Magisterial authority in the
district is deemed essential for the Collector's position, it is
not to be supposed that time would suffice for the chief
officers to take a large share in the disposal of the daily
work of the Criminal Courts. Various expedients were
resorted to, such as the creation of ' Joint-Magistrates '
(Act XV of 1843), with which a Revenue Manual is not
concerned.
The division of Criminal and Revenue labour has been
much facilitated by the modern system of sub-dividing
districts and giving local officers charge.
At the present time all grades of Magistrates, whether
District Magistrates, or Assistants, or Joint-Magistrates, or
Uncovenanted Deputy Magistrates, derive their Magisterial
powers from the Code of Criminal Procedure. And under
that Code there may be Honorary and other Magistrates
who have no official position as Revenue Officers.
The Revenue duties of the Collector, with which alone
we are here concerned, were originally enumerated in Regu-
lation II of 1793. His duties have increased in many
directions. The land-revenue, which in the days of the
decennial Settlement is quoted as 385 lakhs, had risen in
1888-89 to over 380 lakhs2. The Collector has to look
after the collection of this LAND-REVENUE, involving the
sale for arrears in ths case of the ' Zamindari ' estates, and
the certificate procedure, as it is called, under the ' Public
1 Despatch of Secretaiy of State, number of permanently-settled ami
No. 15, dated i4th April, 1859. other estates can be seen in the
2 The list of districts and the table at pp. 470-1. See also p. 442.
CHAP, v.] THE REVENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL. 67 1
Demands Eecovery Act' (B. Act VII of 1880) in others.
He has also the collection of the local or provincial rates,
which consist of the Public Works cess (B. Act IX of 1 880 1),
a cess levied for roads and provincial public works ; and the
Postal cess (B. Act VIII of 1862) which provides for local
official postage. Besides this, there is the whole subject of
the EXCISE revenue under his care (this revenue in 1884-85
exceeded 10 lakhs). To this must be added the super-
vision of the LiCENSE-Tax and IxcoME-Tax, and the STAMP
Revenue. Besides the collection of these revenues, there
are all the connected duties which the land-revenue system
entails, viz. the registration of titles to land; issue and
recovery of loans for agricultural improvements ; embank-
ments (on the maintenance of which agriculture in many
parts depends) ; irrigation (in some districts) ; the open-
ing of separate accounts, for sharers and others in estates
paying one sum of revenue ; management of patwaris in
Bihar; various applications under the Tenancy Law (Act
VIII of 1885) ; the management of estates of minors under
the Court of Wards, and of attached estates (for recovery
of debts due by the owners).
Besides all these matters, there are various miscellaneous
duties connected with supply of provisions for troops on the
march ; the occasional acquisition of land for public pur-
poses ; Municipalities and Local Boards ; Ferries ; Pounds ;
Emigration ; Primary Education, and others ; to say no-
thing of his responsibility as Magistrate for the Police and
Criminal administration of the district. The District Officer
is designed to be the central authority, the ' Hakim,' par
excellence, of his district. Sir George Campbell wrote in
1871-72 (Administration Report, Part I, p. 66) : —
' It is the Lieutenant-Governor's wish to render the heads of
districts (the Magistrate-Collectors) no longer the drudges of
many departments and masters of none, but in fact the general
controlling authority over all departments in each district. . . .
Departments are excellent servants, but, as he considers, very
1 With amending Acts, e. g. II of 1881, and VII of 1881.
672 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK u.
bad masters. He has, therefore, striven to make the Magistrate-
Collector of a great Bengal district, generally comprising one-
and-a-half to two-and-a-half millions of inhabitants, the real
executive chief and Administrator of the tract of country com-
mitted to him, and supreme over everyone and everything,
except the proceedings of the Courts of Justice.'
§ 6. Collectors Office.
The Collector has under him both an ' English Office,'
i. e. clerks and accountants for the correspondence and
accounts kept up in English for communication with other
offices and departments, and a ' Vernacular Office,' of
which, however, the members mostly know English, and
make use of it to some extent.
In Bengal, the Vernacular Office has long been divided
into departments, the sarishtadar, the treasurer (khazanchi),
the record-keeper, and the ' taujih-navis ' ; these are all
assisted by native readers and clerks (Munshi and Mu-
harir).
The ' Sarishtadar ' (as his name imports) keeps the ' files '
that are pending, and is, in fact, responsible for the super-
vision of the whole vernacular office and for the care of
different records, petitions, and papers, that are undergoing
inquiry and are awaiting orders.
The Native treasurer is under the Deputy or Assistant
Collector who is in charge of the district treasury, and his
duties require no notice here.
The Record-keeper takes care of the records. There is,
always, one department for English correspondence, and
another for files of vernacular ' cases.' He arranges and
classifies the records, keeps the general registers prescribed
by the Land Registration Act in Bengal, and makes reports
regarding mutations of proprietors, and other matters which
the registers show, and he supervises the issue of authenti-
cated copies of papers.
The taujih-navis maintains the revenue-roll and prepares
the returns showing the state of the collections, what pay-
CHAP, v.] THE EEVENTJE OFFICEBS OP BENGAL. 673
ments of land-revenue fall due, what are in arrears, and so
forth.
There is also the district Nazir or ' Sheriff' and his Naib
or Deputy. This person acts as the guardian of property
attached, and sees to the issue of processes and notices.
Besides which he is the general sort of ' housekeeper ' to the
District Officer, looking after the furniture, ' pankhas,' the
district tents, and so forth.
Some such distribution of business as this — varying of
course in details, and in the local titles of the officials — will
be found in every Collector's head-quarters office in India.
§ 7. The Collector s Assistants.
From an early date there were, besides the Collectors, offi-
cers called Assistant- Collectors, but they had no legal powers.
By Regulation IV of 1821, the Collectors were first formally
empowered to delegate to their (Covenanted) Assistants any
part of their duties to which they could not themselves
give due attention. By Regulation IX of 1833 the appoint-
ment of Uncovenanted Officers with the title of ' Deputy
Collectors ' was legalized.
These provisions resulted (in connection with different
laws giving magisterial powers) in the official titles of
' the Magistrate and Collector,' ' Joint Magistrate and De-
puty Collector,' 'Assistant Magistrate and Collector,'
' Deputy Collector and Deputy Magistrate (Uncovenanted).'
In 1872, Executive Revenue Officers called ' Sub-Deputy
Collectors ' were appointed for the purpose of giving local
or special aid for particular places or departments of duty.
The Sub-Deputy Collector is appointed by executive au-
thority, and can be invested with such powers of a Deputy
Collector under various Acts and Regulations as may be
necessary. Even Kamingos (of whom hereafter) are now
reckoned on the staff of the revenue-agency, as, where they
are employed, they can be utilized in various ways, super-
vising partitions of estates, making assessments in connec-
tion with the levy of cesses or rates, and so forth.
VOL. I. XX
674 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
In order to facilitate the district management and turn to
best account the powers of the various grades of officers, the
plan of sub-dividing the district and giving the charge of
the sub-division to one of the district officers in subordina-
tion to the District Officer, was long ago thought of. In
1845 thirty-four sub-divisions were made, but as the
system developed, the number rose to its present figure of
ninety.
Attention should be directed to this feature of the Bengal
district, because it marks an important difference between
that province and the other provinces, where the Native
Government had not introduced the system of revenue
collection by Zamindars. In all other provinces, speaking
generally, the districts are divided up into small local
revenue divisions, known variously as the ' tahsil,' the
pargana, or the taluka ; and when this is the case, there is
a native or other officer in charge (called by various titles —
tahsildar, mamlatdar, &c.), with his writers and revenue-
accountants and treasurers. There are often, under this
officer, other subordinates, to aid in the general work of the
tahsil, or taluka, and help in the supervision of the village
officials; and finally for each village or group of villages1,
a system of headmen and village-accountants. Thus there
is a complete revenue hierarchy, from the District Collector
at the top to the village officer at the bottom. In
provinces where this system exists, in more or less com-
pleteness, there may be primary sub-divisions of districts
in case the district is large, and there is some important
town with its connected territory, at which it is desirable
to relieve the Collector by posting an Assistant or Deputy.
In Bengal, the revenue history has already shown us
how the Zamindari system gradually swept away 2 all but
the memory of loCal limits of parganas, destroying the
agency of 'Amils or Tahsildars, with their Kanungos and
the village Patwaris or accountants. Deprived then, of
1 Village pahcdris generally look stance) survived in the Bihar dis-
after groups of villages or ' circles.' tricts, and other features of old
'J I am, of course, speaking gene- revenue days in other places,
rally. Patwaris in villages (for in-
CHAP, v.] THE KEVENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL. 675
what I may call the natural sub-division of revenue-work
which facilitates administration in other parts, and there
being no field-registers and maps of each village, revenue-
management would be now impossible, were it not for the
Sub-divisions in charge of Sub-Deputy Collectors subordi-
nate to the Collectors. It may be asked why the need of
sub-division of labour has arisen and why such an increase
of official work has taken place ? The Salaries Commission
remarks in answer : —
' This increase in the superior executive staff, is accounted
for by the gradual development and perfecting of our Adminis-
trative system, the chief feature of which has been a cautious
and gradual advance. New laws have been and are being con-
stantly enacted to provide for the growing requirements of the
people, to remedy abuses, and to regulate procedure. New
measures, undreamt of a hundred years ago, have been intro-
duced as experience showed the necessity for them, and matters
once considered of so little importance as to be left to be dis-
posed of by Collectors according to their own ideas, have been
made the subject of intricate legal provisions and fenced about
with safeguards and restrictions of all kinds. Large as the
present executive body may seem when contrasted with that of
the early years of the present century, there is little doubt that
it is even now barely strong enough for all the work it has
to do.'
At this point, then, our account of the Revenue Officers
of Bengal ceases to be a guide to what exists in other
provinces, and we must therefore devote a brief special
study to the local pargana and village agency as it exists in
Bengal.
§ 8. Village Officers in Bengal.
After looking through all the evidence collected in 1872,
I see no reason to think that the villages of Bengal were
different from those which were found wherever the Aryan
conquests extended, or where kingdoms, which, if not Hindu
had adopted the Hindu constitution, existed. I do not
include in this remark the districts of Chutiya Nagpur
X X 2
676 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
or the Santdl Pergunnahs, the villages of which I have
elsewhere described.
In Chittagong and other places, where the colonization of
the waste has been of comparatively recent or modern origin,
there are also special features. It is impossible to carry
on cultivation in jungle country in India without co-
operation ; and that implies a grouping of cultivators, a
headman — or headmen of the different castes or sections
associated, and some artisans and helpers. I am aware
of no form of Indian cultivating settlement of which this
is not true.
In Chittagong, for instance, with its local institutions—
the ' tarf ' and the associated ' taluqdars,' we find that there
are headmen of local groups known as ' Matabar ' (corrup-
tion of the Arabic mu'tabir = respectable or trusted man),
though they are not officially recognized.
In the ordinary districts in Bihar as well as Bengal,
the old constitution is so far traceable, that the ' headman '
survives with the almost universal name of ' Mandal.' He
is still hereditary as a rule ; but the elective element is not
wanting ; and the villages would reject an incompetent
heir, and elect a more promising one. In some cases the
term ' pradhdn ' is used, but in more than one district I
h'nd it doubted whether this does not really indicate
a parvenu headman, not of the old organization, but one
who has gained the position by official interference, and
by his own wealth and influence. In villages where, from
the earliest days, we can find no trace of any idea of
proprietorship except in the lot occupied by the family for
clearing and cultivation, we are probably in presence of
the ' raiyatwari type ' of village, which was discussed in
Book I, Chap. IV. And this is a form of land-holding
which lends itself to change; for there is a tendency for
persons of various kinds to assume the landlord position,
the old holders of land becoming his ' raiyats,' or under-
proprietors, or something analogous. And thus it is we
so often have traces of the effects of a Raja's grant,
and other forms of over-lordship, which, at a remote date,
CHAP, v.] THE REVENUE OFFICEES OF BENGAL. 677
or perhaps at a comparatively modern one, introduced
a change. A proprietary body, being the multiplication of
a grantee's or of a chief's family, claims the village and
divides it into sections, called ' patti,' or ' muhalla,' and
when we find that there are several 'mandals,' one at
the head of each section, we may reasonably conclude that
something of the kind has occurred. In fact, every member
of the proprietary families calls himself, and is called.
' mandal ' in Bengal, ' patel ' in Central India ; though
only one man is the official head, or two or more if there
are sub-divisions of the village. These have a certain pre-
cedence on occasions — appear first on the puny a or first
day of rent payment, and receive small offerings, and such
like marks of superiority.
Directly the milage system falls into abeyance, and the
State officers no longer deal with the village-heads, for rent
collection, but look to larger estate-holders as Zamindars,
taluqdars, and the like, the headman drops out of con-
sideration ; — but not altogether, for he is still useful, and
in some places the estate-holder will assume to appoint
him, or rather confirm or recognize his appointment.
But the milage accountant either disappears or becomes
the mere servant of the landlord, keeping his accounts
with his tenants, without any sense of public duty or
responsibility, or dignity. The village watchman (gorait.
budhwar, &c.) remains, and so the ' chaukidar ' or guardian
of roads, and other similar functionaries : and the artisans
remain of course, still receiving certain grain-dues, or
perhaps rewarded by a bit of ' chakaran ' or rent-free
service land, which the landlord does not, out of policy,
resume.
That is, I believe, in brief, the true state of the case as
regards the village headmen, and the village accountants in
Bengal. In Bihar, the old institutions survived more per-
fectly, because there the villages seem to have been held
by minor chiefs or even petty officers of the Raja's army; —
at any rate, the circumstances were such, that the land-
lords were small holders : the greater chiefs did not often
678 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
develop into Zamindars ; and therefore, even though the
village gained a 'proprietor,' or several joint proprietors,
the form of its constitution survived : moreover as villages
paying grain-rents require the services of village officers
more than those paying cash rents, the patwaris more
generally remained.
§ 9. The Kdntingo and the Patwdri.
As ike village system disappeared under the later plan of
farming or contracting for the revenues, so the parganci
system, of which the kdnungo was the representative,
disappeared also. ' Qanun-go ' means x, the ' teller,' of
the 'rule,' but it rather refers to the rule or standard of
what was proper in assessment, and measurement, than to
any general legal knowledge possessed by the pargana
officer. In 1793 ^ was thought that the retention of the
kanungo would be a good check on the Zamindar ; and the
latter was required to maintain patwdris in the villages,
and they were, in turn, to render accounts to the kanungo.
But they did no such thing ; the one idea of the Zamindar
had originally been — in the days of Mughal decline — to
pay as little to the treasury as possible, and therefore to
conceal what he really got out of the villages. Under
British law, it is true, his payment was positively fixed,
but still he felt that, perhaps, something would happen if
it was known accidentally what was the real rent-total he
got ; hence he took care that any accounts he sent in were
framed so as to suit his interests. Naturally enough, both
kanungos and patwaris were soon abolished, the latter
being employed by Zamindars as their clerks.
But the growing evils which I have described in the last
chapter gradually attracted attention; and in 1815 the
Court of Directors conceived that the patwaris might be
made Government servants ; the scheme fell through, and
1 The word ought always to be mon revenue term, that I have
written with ' q ' to represent the generally retained the usual but in-
true vernacular word, but Kanungo correct spelling.
with a ' A; ' has become such a com-
CHAP, v.] THE REVENUE OFFICERS OF BENGAL. 679
the patwaris, where they existed, remained as servants of
the landlords. Then it was thought the kdntingos might
be revived, so as to supervise the patwaris. Regulations
were accordingly passed in 1817, 1818, and 1819. Regu-
lation I of 1819 directed the re- establishment of kanungos
and defined the duties of patwaris. But these offices are
part of certain machinery ; they are calculated to work
with the machinery as a whole ; they cannot be detached
and introduced into a totally different system. In 1827 ^
was found that the kanungos had done nothing, and that
the land-owners had been determined in their opposition.
In Orissa alone (where the Settlements are temporary
village Settlements) kanungos and patwaris have sur-
vived.
' Efforts have, of late, been made,' says the author of the
Report of 1883 on the Land-Revenue system, —
' to revivify patwaris. Throughout the province provision
was made for their appointment, or for the performance of
their duties in all Settlements, under instructions issued in
1872 l. As a rule, in every estate of which the revenue was
above R. 300, remuneration for a patwdri formed a set-off against
the assessment: and in a smaller estate, the Settlement-holder
engaged himself to perform the duties required of a pattvdri.
Except in Orissa and Bihar, however, no successful results
sprang from the attempt. . . . The system was generally con-
demned by officers in Bengal proper as being vexatious and
irritating to the landlords, useless for all practical purposes,
wasteful of Government money, and opposed to the present
customs and traditions of the land-owning classes. The Govern-
ment, therefore, at the suggestion of the Board, directed that
no further attempts should be made to revive the institu-
tion, and that allowances granted in the estates should be
resumed.
1 By Sir G. Campbell, whose more of ' village ' management in
official life had mostly been passed the system ; and just in proportion
where village Settlements were in as that is the case, the utility of
force, and where the patwari, being the village accountant becomes more
a natural feature of the system, was manifest : — it may be but little, for
indispensable. The use of patwaris even the Orissa patwaris' accounts
in Orissa and in Bihar illustrates are said to be quite untrustworthy,
this : in these districts there is
63o
LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
' In Bihar (and in the Munger district) steps were taken to
give the system a more effective existence. The re-organiza-
tion has been completed in Munger, and has reached an
advanced state in the Bihar Districts.'
The report from which this is quoted is dated 1883. and
it is there stated that fresh legislation would be required :
but I have not seen any proposal on the subject during the
six years that have since elapsed *.
The Settlement Manual, 1888, at p. 18, gives the rules
for entertaining patwaris in Government estates, or estates
held direct, or under farm. In temporarily-settled estates
where Government is not proprietor, the Settlement natu-
rally makes provision for the patwaris who will maintain
the records. A patwari is separately found for each estate,
or group of estates, having a rental of R. 2000.
§ 10. Chittagong Local Establishments.
The Chittagong District has always been an exception;
there being no Zamindars of large estates, but only small
holdings in groups of very independent taluqdars, almost
like a raiyatwari country, the kaniingo has always been
useful, and the country is now divided into ' tahsils,' with
tahsildars under whom the kanungos work very much as in
Northern India.
1 It was still undetermined in
1887 (see Board's Annual Report,
Section 137). Regulations XII of
1817 and I of 1819 are still in force
(nominally).
If I may venture an opinion, fur-
ther legislation may give a certain
legal status to the officers, but it
will not infuse life into them. Pat-
waris require kanungos, under
orders of the Land Record Depart-
ment, to inspect them : but the
patwari can do nothing unless he
has accounts, maps, field-indexes,
and records determined by authority
to start with. That he has not in
Bengal ; herein lies the futility of
all schemes for utilizing thejn.
CHAPTER VI.
LAND-REVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE.
SECTION I. — INTRODUCTORY.
I DO not propose to go into any detail on these subjects ;
the object of this chapter is merely to indicate how certain
main heads of administration are provided for. For the
Permanent Settlement, with its total absence of survey and
record-of-rights, has left a necessity for a variety of special
laws.
For example, there is the Registration of landed property.
I do not here speak of the ordinary Registration law
under which bonds, mortgages, and other documents, are
either compulsorily or voluntarily registered, but to the
maintenance of registers or lists of the various landed
interests, which shall have public credit or authority.
The preparation of such registers has also been brought
about indirectly in various ways. There is the direct
law, beginning with the old regulation for making five-
yearly registers of Proprietary estates in the Collector's
office. Then another record grew out of the necessity for
imposing on all estates a cess for maintaining roads, and
local public works, as will presently appear. A still
further registration was brought about by the sale-law.
We have already seen how early it was perceived to be
necessary to give full value to the prior lien of the State on
all land for its revenue-dues. This could not be effective
if the land were so encumbered by the defaulting holder
that at sale it would fetch nothing. So that in some form,
682 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK H.
or to some extent, it became a matter of necessity to record
such encumbrances, and distinguish those subordinate in-
terests, which, in common fairness, ought not to be avoided ;
such (for instance) as might not have been created by the
landlord in full knowledge that his acts would be held
subject to the prior claims of the State. After many changes
which have been incidentally sketched in the preceding
pages, the device was hit on of opening certain registers,
and allowing that interests registered in the one or the
other should have a certain protection in the event of the
estate going to auction for arrears of revenue.
Another outcome of the special system is the ' Certificate
Procedure ' of Bengal. When an estate cannot, or will not,
pay its revenue, it has always been the legal remedy to put
it up for sale. But in Bengal, besides the Zamindari
estates which are so dealt with, the Government has a
number of estates, held by itself, or under its management,
and has rents and other dues to get in where there is no
estate to sell, and where some other less formal and (to the
State) less troublesome method than a law-suit and the
execution of a decree, had to be devised.
The special Survey law was another outcome of the state
of things which has grown up out of the Permanent Settle-
ment.
Again, the local circumstances of Bengal, and the action
of rivers in some districts, have also necessitated a special
law regarding drainage, by which important works can be
carried out by local Commissioners under the supervision
of Government. A similar law also deals with watercourses
and embankments, or works both for retaining water in
tanks or reservoirs, as well as keeping out water where,
but for the embankment, it would flood the land and con-
vert it into a marsh. Formerly, it would seem the native
Governments entrusted the duty of maintaining public
watercourses and embankments to the Zamindars as public
officers, and allowed them to deduct from the revenue certain
charges under the name of 'pul-bandi' and the like. At
Settlement our Government determined to assess the revenue
CHAP, vi.] LAND-EEVENUE BUSINESS AND PEOCEDURE. 683
in one sum, on which no deductions were to be allowed.
But the Zamindars still bound themselves to some extent,
and in general terms, to maintain embankments l. All
this was, however, very indefinite, and from time to time
Regulations were passed to deal with the subject. The
existing law is in Bengal Act II of 1882.
Besides these more special branches of Bengal Collectorate
law, there are the usual subjects (relating to land) of par-
tition of estates, acquisition of land for public purposes,
management of estates by the Court of Wards (Act (B) IX
of 1879 and amending Acts)2.
I now proceed to notice specially, a few of the more
important branches of business, confining myself to those
directly connected with land-revenue.
SECTION II. — REGISTRATION OF LANDED PROPERTY.
§ i. Object and Practice of Land-Registration.
It was the intention of the legislature from the first, that
there should be at least one Register kept up, showing the
extent and particulars of each estate separately assessed
with revenue payable to Government. The object was to
enable the Collectors to apportion the revenue in cases of
partition, and to enable the Civil Courts to know when an
estate changed hands, or happened to be transferred from
one district to another. The registers were first directed to
deal with the land as grouped by estates only 3, but after-
1 But construction was to be under- judgment (I. L. R., 7, Calcutta, 505")
taken by the State. One of the quoted at length in H. A. D. Phillips'
clauses of the Zamindar's engage- Revenue and Collectorate Law, p. 165.
ment used to be : ' the construction 2 The New Guardian and Wards
of "beri" (small embankments), the Act, VIII of 1890, which has sim-
excavation of silt from " khal " plified and consolidated the general
(water-courses), the construction of law of minors, &c. (and repeals the
"gangura" (larger embankments) old Act XL of 1858) does not touch
in connection with the salt and sweet the Bengal Act quoted in the text,
lands of the pargana, shall be made (See Sec. 3 of the new Act. )
by the Government of the Hon'ble 3 And any estate might have
Company.' The whole history of lands belonging to it scattered over
the Regulations relating to embank- half the district or extending into
ments is given in a High Court other districts. Reg. XLVIII of
684 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
wards 'pargana registers,' dealing with the lands as they lay,
and accounting for every plot in each pargana and its sub-
divisions, were ordered. The law on this subject was never
very well carried out, and the Regulation was both cum-
brous and incomplete. It is, however, unnecessary in this
place to dwell on the history of the past ; it is enough to
turn to the present law (Bengal Act VII of 1876) 1.
The object of the registration is simply to know who is
the person answerable, as in possession, for every plot of
land in the district, whether revenue-paying or revenue-
free. Every person in possession, whether as owner or
manager of the land, or of any share in it, is bound, under
heavy penalty, to register. Registration is optional in
the case of mortgagees who have a lien but not possession
of the soil.
The Act does not apply to certain special localities, e.g. the
Western Dwars, the Kolhan estate, and the political estates
in the Singbhum district. The possibility of overcoming
the difficulties of the old system is largely owing to the
land-survey, of which mention will presently be made. In
the course of the survey, descriptive lists of the land
were prepared (and the survey followed the local areas
or villages, or was, in revenue language, mauzawdr).
Registers showing the estates as made up of lands in dif-
ferent villages, or of groups of villages locally compact
(i. e. mahalwar registers), are easily prepared from those first
mentioned, by simply abstracting them. In September,
1888, the Board noticed in a circular, that proposals for
legislation to enforce the record of all changes subsequent
to the initial registration, had been abandoned for the pre-
1 793 was the first law : that directed there were did not explain who the
an (English) alphabetical register, owners were, and furnished no in-
with a supplementary register of formation at all about under-tenures
changes by sale, inheritance, &c. , and raiyats.
and every fifth year the registers 1 As amended by Act V of 1878.
were to be written out anew. The See also Chapter V of the First
Regulation was amended by No. Volume of the Rules of the Revenue De-
VIII of 1800; but up till 1876, partment (edition of 1878), with ad-
practically, the registers were not ditions prescribed in September,
properly kept, nor were any penal- 1888, by Board's Circular.
ties enforced. Such registers as
CHAP, vi.] LAND-BEVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE. 685
sent. But ' various disqualifications are now imposed by
law on those who neglect to register. Under Section 78
of Act VII (B.C.) of 1876, no one is bound to pay rent to
an unregistered proprietor. A revenue officer making
a Settlement of rents under the Tenancy Act (1885) may
refuse to entertain an application for enhancement or settle-
ment of fair rents from a proprietor who is not registered.
It is only registered proprietors who are entitled to partition
(batwara), or to open separate accounts with the Collector
whether for revenue or cesses, to bring a patni to sale, to
object to common or special registry (of this hereafter), and
to claim surplus sale-proceeds on the estates of which they
are proprietors being sold for. arrears of revenue.' In order
to facilitate registration, the Board supply, free of cost,
forms of application which are to be had from stamp-
vendors and others.
§ 2. Form of Registration.
The registers at present required by law are : —
(A), a register showing the revenue-paying lands in the
district. This is divided into two parts, to show the lands
which belong to estates the revenue of which is payable in
the district, and lands within the district, which form por-
tions of estates whose assessment is payable in other
districts.
(B), a register of revenue-free lands. This is divided
into three parts showing (i) perpetual revenue-free grants ;
(2) lands held by Government or companies for public pur-
poses free of revenue ; and (3) unassessed waste land and
other lands not included in part i or 2.
(C) is a register of lands paying revenue and those held
revenue-free, arranged ' mauzawar,' i. e. the register is a list
of the villages in each local sub-division (adopted for the
purpose by order of the Board) and accounting for all the
lands in each village, showing to what estate each belong,
which are revenue-free, and so on.
(D) is an 'intermediate' register for all kinds of land,
686 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK ir.
showing the changes in proprietary rights resulting from
sale, succession, lapse, or other transfer, and changes caused
by the alteration of district and other boundaries.
The registers are only re-written when the changes have
become so numerous as to affect the original register very
considerably and make it no longer of any use for reference.
The Act makes it obligatory on persons interested to give
information with a view to the preparation of the registers.
It should be borne in mind that registration only describes
the person in possession. It decides no question of right.
Section 89 of the Act expressly states that any one may
sue for possession or for a declaration of right, the Act
n ot with standing.
§ 3. 'DdJckil-khdrij.' — Subsequent Changes.
The proceedings for reporting and registering changes in
proprietorship are spoken of as ' dakhil-kharij,' and closely
resemble the same procedure in other provinces. The
' dakhil-kharij ' proceedings are solely concerned with the
fact of, or right to, possession. If the applicant's possession
of, succession to, or acquisition by transfer of the pro-
perty is disputed, the Collector will summarily determine
the right to possession, and will then see that the party is
put in possession, and will make the entry in the register
accordingly1.
The details of procedure for obtaining mutation of names
will be found in the Act.
The work of registration is now practically complete, or
will shortly be so. In 1887 it was reported complete in
thirty-seven out of the forty-three districts to which the law
applies, and was practically complete in the remaining
districts. In the Orissa districts and in Chittagong there
was a source of unusual labour in the number of petty
revenue-free holdings, and the work was brought to a close
by rejecting from registration very small free-holdings.
1 Bengal Act VII of 1876, section Dakhil means ' entering ' : kharij is
55, as amended by Act V of 1878. ' putting out.'
CHAP. VI.] LAND-REVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE. 687
§ 4. Registration of subordinate Interests in Lind,
It will be observed that these registers do not profess
to deal with any subordinate rights or interests ; there is
nothing in Bengal which answers to the ' Record- of-Rights '
of the North -West Provinces1. It so happens, however,
that the Road and Public Works Cess, Bengal Act IX of
i88o2, has resulted in a record of subordinate rights also.
The results are, however, vitiated by the system of summary
valuation (for purposes of the Cess calculation) which the
Act necessarily provides. This summary valuation ' with-
draws from sight all details of tenures, under-tenures, and
raiyati holdings contained in such estates or tenures as are
summarily valued.' ' In the instructions issued to officers 3
under the Act IX of 1880 (B.C.) an attempt has been made
to remedy this defect in the returns, by declaring that the
least possible recourse should be had to the process of sum-
mary valuation.' The Road Cess is a tax levied on all
classes of proprietors, including every grade of tenure-
holders, down to a limit of cultivators paying R. 100 in the
year as rent ; and hence a register has to be made of them.
There is no legal validity, as evidence of right, attached to
these returns.
There is another method, however, of registering under-
tenures. We have seen that it has been always the law
that when an estate is sold for arrears of revenue, all leases
and under-tenures (with certain exceptions4) are liable to
be voided, and the purchaser gets a clear and complete
' Parliamentary ' title. This is so under the Sale Law (Act
XI of 1 859) and its Amending Acts 5. To protect such
1 Except of course in Government '" The Board has issued a col-
estates or in temporary Settlements lection of Rules called the Cess
under Regulation VII of 1822, or in Manual, 1888.
cases where, under the Tenancy 4 Now contained in section 37 of
Act, Chapter X, or other special Act XI of 1859.
(local law\ records-of- rights are 5 Act (B.C.) Ill of 1862, Act
made. (B.C.) VII of 1868. Act (B.C.)
2 Acts X of 1871 and II of 1877 II of 1871, and Act VII (B. C.) of
have been repealed and superseded 1880.
by the Act quoted in the text.
688 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK H.
Act XI of tenures, the Act provides 1 that they may be registered either
1850, sec. . , • i > • L <> n • i L- •
38 to 50. in a common or a special register J. Registration in
the former protects them from being voided on sale of the
estate for arrears, by any party other than Government ; and
special registration protects them absolutely. The Act also
provides that the rights of sharers may be protected (and
this is important, because otherwise the default of one
sharer might cause the whole estate to be sold). 'Separate
Sec. 10. accounts ' are opened with sharers on application. Separate
Sec. ii. accounts can also be opened for sharers, who not only have
a specified fractional interest in an estate (and therefore are
liable for a known fraction of the revenue), but whose shares
consist of ' a specific portion of the land of the estate ' :
Section 70, Act VII of 1876, also contemplates separate
accounts of ' complex shares ' as therein described. And
Part V of Act VII of 1877 (Land Registration) should be
read as to ' separate accounts ' generally.
For the procedure necessary to the registering, the Act
itself must be consulted.
SECTION III. — COLLECTION OF THE LAND-REVENUE.
§ i. The Taujih Department.
For the purposes of revenue collection, besides the lists
of estates just described, there must be kept up lists
showing the revenue payable by each estate or separately
assessed portion of an estate. There is a general district
revenue-roll, divided into two parts — one showing the
revenue fixed permanently or for a time, and payable by
1 See Board's Rules, vol. i. ch. xiv. ' special ' 389 (rental R. 46.099).
2 Up to the end of 1887, the Separate accounts (under section
' common register' contained 2502 10) were 40.524, with a revenue de-
holdings with an area of 28,037,819 mand of over 6o| lakhs. Accounts
acres, and arevenueofR. 1,21,94,842. for specific shares (section 11) were
The ' special register ' contained 256 3680, with a revenue demand of
holdings, of 8,861,964 acres, with over 4| lakhs. Accounts under sec-
a revenue of R. 30,85,888. The tion 70 (Act VII of 1876 B.C.) were
tenures registered were ' common ' 7,061, with a revenue demand of
4440 (rental R. 24,35.234), and something over 5 lakhs.
CHAP, vi.] LAND-EEVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE. . 689
proprietors, farmers, or other engagees for the whole ; the
other showing the rent or revenue in estates in which the
raiyats pay direct to Government. It is not necessary
to go into further detail on the subject1.
§ 2. Sale Laws.
The effects of the Law of Sale for arrears have been
noticed in previous chapters.
The present law on the subject is to be found in Act XI
of 1859, as amended and amplified by Bengal Acts III of
1862 and VII of 1868, and still more recently by Bengal Act
VII of 1880 for the recovery of ' Public Demands.'
An ' arrear ' accrues, if the ' kist ' (properly gist) or instal-
ment of revenue due for any month remains unpaid on the
first of the following month. In some cases notice for Act XI of
fifteen days before sale is required, and the later Act * and ^^
enables Government to empower Collectors to issue warn- B. Actvil
,, of 1868.
ing notices in all cases. sec. 6.
Sharers of joint estates can protect themselves from their
shares being sold for arrears along with the rest of the
estate, by applying for and obtaining an order for a ' sepa-
rate revenue account' of their share, as I mentioned at
page 688. But if on a sale being notified (subject to
the exception of the separate shares), it is found that the
estate, subject to such exception, will not fetch a price equal
to the amount in arrear, then notice is given that, unless
the recorded sharers make up the arrears and so save the
estate, the whole estate will be sold. I pass over the rules
for re-sale in case the auction-purchaser fails to pay the
purchase-money in due time, and here only notice that
there is an appeal (final) to the Commissioner against a
sale in certain cases. The Commissioner may also suspend B. Act VII
a sale in cases of hardship, and report to the Board, on ^ 2 '
Act XI of
1 The detail may be found in keeps the rent-roll and the accounts 1859, sec.
chap. vi. Rules of the Revenue Depart- of each estate, with the amounts, 26.
ment, vol. i. (1878). The revenue collections, and balances, is spoken
roll is written up by the Taujih- of as the Taujih Department,
navis : the establishment which
VOL. I. Y y
6QO LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
whose recommendation the sale may be annulled (after it
Act XI of has taken place) by the local Government. The jurisdic-
3359' se ' tion of the Civil Courts to annul a sale, on a regular suit
being brought for the purpose, is also defined.
As already noticed, a sale for arrears hands the estate
over to the purchaser with a clear title : the purchaser may
void and annul all leases and subordinate tenures, except
those specified in Section 37 of the Act XI, and those which
are protected by registration. ' Tenures,' and interests like
fisheries, and other interests arising out of lands not being
Act VII of ' estates ' (land or shares in revenue-paying land) may be
^ ' sec* sold like estates for arrears of revenue.
The sale law, which at first worked very hardly, is now
little felt. The average annual number of defaulting estates
and shares during the last ten years, has been 9126, of which
only 1624 or i7'8 per cent, have actually been sold.
For the details of Sale Law Procedure the student will
naturally refer to Mr. Grimley's Manual of Sale Law
published by the Bengal Government. But I must warn him
that the Sale Law is being consolidated and redrafted by
the Board of Revenue, but the Bill will not be completed
nor come before Council in time for me to give any in-
formation about it in this chapter.
§ 3. Certificate Procedure. — Public Demands Act.
There is a Certificate Procedure Manual, 1885, which
gives the detailed rules on this subject *. As sale of the
estate is the only remedy for revenue default, it follows
that some further procedure is needed for the collection of
rents in Government estates and other public demands to
which the sale law is inapplicable. Bengal Act VII of 1868
was intended to provide for the recovery of such demands ,
and Act VII of 1880 amended the law. It is only necessary
to allude to the subject; the practice being quite simple.
Briefly, the Collector records a ' certificate of arrears '
1 To be had in the Bengal Secretariat Press.
CHAP. VI.] LAND-REVENUE BUSINESS AND PEOCEDUEE. 691
which acts like a decree of Court, and can be executed
continuously till all is paid, subject, of course, to the law
of limitation.
SECTION IV. — SURVEY.
I have already given a description of the survey work in
Bengal (see p. 456 ante). Here it is only necessary to
allude to the laws applicable.
Previous to 1875, as far as permanently-settled estates
were concerned, the process of revenue-survey was carried
on without any authority given by law. Regulation VII
of 1822 could not be quoted, since it applied to non-
permanently settled estates, and could not warrant any
action with reference to estates in which there could be
no question of re-settlement. In 1847, indeed, a law had
been passed regarding the survey of lands liable to river
action1, and the principles of this law are still maintained
under the Survey Acts. The whole business of survey is
now regulated by Bengal Act V of i8752. It is not my
intention to go into any detail as to the procedure, but
a general outline may be given so as to furnish a clue or
guide to the study of the Act itself when necessary.
The Act allows a survey to be made extending not only
to districts and to estates, but, if ordered, to defining fields
and the limits of tenures 3.
1 Act IX of 1847 (amended by cannot in consequence be identi-
Act IV (B.C.) of 1868). In the fied ; also to ascertain and assess
case of the alluvial lands the survey lands which have been added to
is treated as a special matter ; it is the estates by accretion.' (Board's
required only along the banks of Revenue Administration Report, 1879-
the great rivers. At present the 80, § 92.)
special branch which deals with 2 As amended by Act VII (B.C.)
this work — the ' Diyara (Dearah) of 1880, with regard to the recovery
Survey' as it is called — is confined of demands under the Act (sec. 5).
to the Dacca Division. It is worked 3 But, of course, has nothing to
by non-professional agency under do with denning or recording rights;
the Deputy-collectors. The object that has to be done under chap. x.
is to ' identify and relay on the of the Tenant Act, 1885, or the
ground the boundaries of villages Settlement Act of 1879, as the case
which have been subject to fluvial may be, in the cases where it is
action and of which the boundaries lawful to order it.
Y y a
692 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II,
After provisions relating to establishments, the Act re-
quires a proclamation to be issued, and persons to attend
and point out boundaries, clear lines, and so forth, so that
the survey may begin.
When the demarcation is complete, the persons who
pointed out the boundaries are required to inspect the
papers and plans representing such boundaries, and to
satisfy themselves as to whether the boundary-marks have
been fixed according to their information. The plans and
papers are to be signed by these parties, in token that the
marks are shown in the maps or papers in the places where
they declared they should be.
The Collector can always set up temporary marks, and
may also set up permanent marks ; after notifying their
number and cost and giving opportunity for objections to
be heard, he may direct the cost to be apportioned among
Sees. 19, the land-owners or tenure-holders concerned. Provision is
made for the permanent maintenance of these marks.
Passing over the detailed provisions for determining who
shall bear the cost of the boundary-marks, and how it is to
Act, Part be apportioned, I proceed to the subject of boundary-disputes.
&c&ec' 4°' Here the Collector is to decide on the basis of actual pos-
session, and his order holds good till it is upset by competent
authority. If possession cannot be ascertained, the Collector
may attach the land till one party or the other obtains a
legal decision ; or the Collector may, by consent of the
parties, refer the matter to arbitration. There are also
excellent provisions for relaying any boundary which has
once been decided, but which has become doubtful or
disputed.
Full provisions also will be found for protecting boundary-
marks from injury and restoring them when damaged.
The Act, it will be observed, does not say anything about
the records and registers which the Survey Department
prepare.
These particulars, and rules about the scale, and so forth,
must be sought for in the Board's Revenue Rules.
CHAP, vi.] LAND-REVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE. 693
SECTION V. — PARTITION OF ESTATES.
This generally finds a place among the topics of revenue
procedure. Owing to the fact that by the native laws the
sons or other heirs succeed together, it follows from our
modern ideas, that any one of a joint body may re-
quire that his interest and share should be separated off
and assigned to him. This process is called ' batwara ' or
partition. But, then, such a separation may affect the
Government revenue : since, if an estate assessed with, and
liable as a whole for, one -sum of revenue, is afterwards
divided into, say, four properties, the Government interest
would be considerably affected, unless the whole group
remained, as before, liable for the entire revenue.
This fact has led in Northern India to a distinction between
' imperfect ' and ' perfect ' partition. When the partition is
imperfect, the different shareholders get their private rights
separated and declared, but the whole estate still remains
liable to Government for the whole revenue. In ' perfect '
partition the responsibility to Government is also divided,
and the shares henceforth become separate estates, entirely
independent one of the other. It has always been therefore
a moot question how far partition should be allowed. The
question, indeed, has most interest in those provinces where
the village Settlement-system is in force. That system, as
the student will have sufficiently gathered from the Intro-
ductory Chapters in Book I, is based on the joint respon-
sibility of the community, for the lump sum assessed on
the village area.
In Bengal the land unit is different ; but still the break-
ing up of a compact estate liable to sale as a whole, for
the revenue assessed on it, into a number of petty holdings,
each separately liable for its fractional assessment, and
possessing a very reduced market value in consequence of
its small size, has been felt to be a real difficulty. On the
other hand, there are interests which benefit by partition.
694 LAND SYSTEMS OF BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK II.
The tenants on a joint estate are often seriously harassed
by having to pay their total rent in a number of fractions
to different shareholders, each insisting on collecting his
own separate payment. A separation of the interests tends
to alleviate this1. The question, therefore, of regulating
partition long remained under discussion. It had been
dealt with by Regulations in 1793, 1801, and 1803. In
1807 a limit had been put to the division, and no share
assessed with less than R.5oo revenue was allowed to be
separated. This Regulation, however, was thought to go
too far, and was afterwards repealed2. The subject has
been more recently set at rest by the passing of Bengal Act
VIII of 1876.
This Act contemplates only one kind of partition, i. e. the
complete separation of the estates, not only as regards the
private rights, but as regards the responsibility for the
revenue. But no partition made after the date of the Act
coming in force (4th October, 1876) other than under its
provisions, though it may bind the parties, can affect the
responsibility for Government revenue. There is a limit,
but only a very low one, to partition : if the separate share
would bear a revenue not exceeding one rupee, the separa-
tion cannot be made, unless the proprietor consents to
redeem the land-revenue, under the rules for this purpose.
B. Act Partition can be refused when the result of it would be to
1876 lees break UP a compact estate into several estates consisting of
11-13 scattered parcels of land, and which would, in the opinion
of the Collector, endanger the land-revenue.
For the procedure of a partition case, how disputes are
settled, how the final order is recorded, the Act must be
referred to. The proceedings are held 'on the Revenue
side ' before the Collector.
1 This difficulty of fractional pay- Macneile's Memorandum, chap. xvii.
ments will be found discussed in 2 By Regulation V of 1 8 10.
CHAP. VI.] LAND-EEVENUE BUSINESS AND PEOCEDUEE. 695
SECTION VI. — ESTATE MANAGEMENT.
§ i. Government Estates.
While speaking of the Collector's general revenue duty,
it is impossible to avoid mentioning one branch which is
not represented by any particular Act. I refer to what is
called ' khas,' or direct management, of estates belonging
to Government, where no one is entitled to a Settlement.
or of estates where a person entitled declines the terms of
Settlement and is therefore excluded for a term (with
a'malikana' allowance). 'It was formerly the custom to let
estates of this kind in farm, but in 1873 the practice was
condemned as injurious to the interests of the property, and
the tenantry. . . . There are 1061 estates with an annual
revenue of R. 26,27,360 under the direct management of the
revenue officers throughout the Lower Provinces V Estates
are either managed by the revenue officers as part of their
ordinary duty, or, in case of larger estates, by special
managers with suitable collecting establishments. The
management charges are met by setting apart 10 per cent,
of the total collections as a fund (credited to Land-Revenue
Receipts in the public accounts) for meeting the costs ;
74 per cent, is placed at the disposal of the Board of
Revenue for expenses of management, Settlement, measure-
ment, and improvements and 2j per cent, is devoted (not
under the Board) to education and roads.
§ 2. The Court of Wards.
A most important branch of management duty is the
care of Wards' estates, regulated by Act IX (B. C.) of 1879
(amended by Act III of 1881). There is also an excellent
manual of rules issued under the authority of the Board of
Revenue.
I cannot forbear making another extract from the
Report (on Land-tenures] of 1883, on the results attained
1 This is exclusive of such estates as are still, for special reasons, farmed.
(Report 1883, p. 29.)
696 LAND SYSTEMS OF BEITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
by the management (under the Court of Wards) of the great
estate of Darbhanga (1860-1879). The extract not only
speaks of the benefits conferred, but incidentally affords a
vivid sketch of the varied subjects which come under the
Manager's notice. I will only add that effort is made, when
an estate comes under the Court of Wards, to get a survey
and record-of-rights, but it is not always that the resources
and circumstances of the estate make such a course
possible.
' The Darbhanga Eaj is the largest property which has, for
many years past, been under the charge of the Court of Wards.
When the Court took charge, in 1860, its condition seemed
almost hopelessly bad. The gross annual rental was nominally
K. 16,39,357, and the Government revenue only K. 4,07,484.
But the management had for years been left entirely in the
hands of underlings. All the villages were leased to farmers,
most of them relatives of the Eaj servants, who had got their
leases on favourable terms. Others were outsiders, men of
straw, who had nominally undertaken to pay rents far above
the value of the lands, and who made what they could by rack-
renting the ryots and levying illegal cesses, without attempting
to satisfy the Eaj demand. Security for payment was never
taken from the farmers. Pattas and kabiiliyats were seldom
interchanged. The correct rental of the villages was nowhere
recorded. Patwaris' papers were seldom forthcoming. The
outstanding arrears of rent, at first unknown, proved to amount
to E. 56,44,972. There were other debts due to the estate,
aggregating E. 3,37,775. The debts alleged to be due by the
Maharaja to creditors amounted to a crore of rupees, of which
the Court of Wards was compelled to admit E. 71,88,427. The
estates were destitute of roads and bridges. The palace was
neglected and in ruins ; its courtyards quagmires ; its environs
a hopeless waste of jungle, pools, and filth. Notoriously all
the epidemics of the town took their rise in the Eajbari.
There were no refuges for the sick ; no resting-places for tra-
vellers ; not a school in the whole estate. No productive works
of any kind had anywhere been attempted.
' On the surrender of the estate to the Maharaja, in 1879, all
this had been changed. The rent-roll had been re-adjusted ;
and although reductions of rental had been made, amounting
CHAP, vi.] LAND-KEVENUE BUSINESS AND PKOCEDURE. 697
to E. 5,92,323, the gross rental (including that of a few small
properties purchased) was E. 21,61,885. The outstanding
arrears of rent due to the estate were E. 18,51,397 (less than
a year's demand), of which E. 14,51,664 were good and in process
of realization. All debts had been paid off long before. There
was a cash balance in hand of E. 2,75,733, besides Government
securities of the value of E. 38,54,500. Over 150 miles of road
had been constructed and bridged (in many places with screw-
pile viaducts). Upwards of 20,000 trees had been planted along
their sides. Feeder and village roads had been made and im-
proved. In Kharakpur, extensive irrigation works, securing
that property against famine, had been made and opened. A
large bazaar had been built at Darbhanga, including a handsome
public serai a. The old palace was considerably improved and
was made the centre of a pretty garden some fifty acres in
extent. In lieu of the ruinous system of farming leases, the
whole estate had been brought under direct management.
Collections were made without friction or difficulty. The out-
lying zirat lands2 had been equitably settled with indigo-
planters, while those in the vicinity of villages had been
reserved for the ryots, thus putting an end to the constant
disputes between the factories and the cultivators. Hundreds
of small embankments, water-channels, tanks, and wells had
been constructed from advances made without interest to the
tenants. Complete surveys had been made of the greater part
of the property, and a considerable area had been resettled to
the advantage both of the estate and of the cultivators. Twenty
vernacular schools had been established by the Eaj, educating
1000 children ; aid being at the same time given to other
educational institutions not belonging to the estate. Three
admirable hospitals were kept up for the use of the tenantry,
while assistance was also afforded to six charitable dispensaries
in various places near. Above all, both the Maharaja and his
brother had received a thorough English education, were pro-
ficient in manly exercises, and free from the vices which are
too often the ruin of native magnates. The Maharaja had been
trained to manage his own affairs, and to take a lively interest
in the welfare of his people, while his brother had been deemed
1 Saranor Sarai (P.) is a public terms used to indicate the private
inn or resting-place. or home farm of the landlord : it is
* Zirat (zira'at A.) means 'cul- practically equivalent to nij or nij-
tivation,' and is one of the several jot, or kamat or khamar land.
698 LAND SYSTEMS OP BRITISH INDIA. [BOOK n.
fit for appointment to the civil service of the province, in which
he is now an Assistant Magistrate.
' During the incumbency of the Court of Wards, the aggregate
demand of rent due to the estate amounted to E. 4, 26,79,578.
Of this, E. 3,54,66,458, or 83 per cent., were collected, and
E. 55,39,610 remitted. The total receipts from all sources
during the management were E. 4,84,50,669, and the total dis-
bursements E. 4,80,86,228, of which E. 32,90,934, or only 6
per cent, of the receipts represents the cost of management.
E. 80,41,113 were expended in payment of Government reve-
nue, and E. 31,98,000, or 6 per cent, of the receipts in the
allowances of the family, including social and religious cere-
monies. The collection of rent was on several occasions during
the management seriously affected by drought and scarcity.
These calamities serve to explain the heavy remissions of rent
shown in the accounts. The total expenditure on public works
from first to last was E. 54,92,245.'
SECTION VII. — OTHER BKANCHES OF KEVENUE-DUTY.
There are other branches of a revenue officer's duty
which occupy a considerable space in the Revenue manuals.
It is not within the scope of this work to deal with these
branches ; they are all fully provided for by special Acts
and by Revenue Rules.
As an example I may instance the question of agricul-
tural loans (Act XII of 1884), the rules for 'Taqavi,' or
advances made for land improvements (Act XIX of 1883).
The road cess assessment and collection under Bengal
Act IX of 1880, to which incidental allusion has already
been made, forms, in Bengal, another special branch of a
revenue officer's duty. In other provinces, as a rule, a cess
for the same purposes is assessed along with the land-reve-
nue, and is collected at the same time and by the same
process. In Bengal, the arrangements of the Permanent
Settlement did not include this, and therefore an Act was
required, which makes not only estates, but every kind of
tenure and cultivating holding, liable to pay a small con-
tribution to the maintenance of a fund for roads and
CHAP. VI.] LAND-REVENUE BUSINESS AND PROCEDURE. 699
communications. (There is a Cess Manual, 1888, issued by
the Board which gives all the rules.)
The acquisition of lands for public purposes under Act X
of 1870 is practically a branch of revenue duty, as it is
the Collector who makes the first award of compensation ;
moreover, when the land is expropriated the revenue on it
has to be remitted, so that the ' taujih ' department is also
concerned.
Full instructions regarding the form of submitting a pro-
posal to expropriate lands, and other details of procedure,
are to be found in the Board's Rules ; a reference to these
and to the Act X of 1870 will make the whole matter clear.
Further detail here is not required.
The Waste Land Rules have also a great importance in
Bengal, as there are still lands available, about Darjiling,
and in the Sundarbans. I have already given some account
of the working of these Rules, as far as the tenures result-
ing from them are concerned l. I have here only to add
that some revised rules were issued in 1888 ; and that the
whole subject is now to be studied in the Waste Land
Manual, 1888.
1 See p. 479, ante.
END OF VOL. I.
HD 875 .83 1892 v.l SMC
Baden-Powell. B. H.
The. land systems of British
India
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