I. Less complete khoodkashts. Uninterrupted occupation and succession gave them a LECTURE prescriptive right to occupy, but there is no instance of sale of their holdings; they were in fact conditional occupants rights than and had not so complete a right as the khoodkashts.1 They could be dispossessed for default in payment of the assessment or for not keeping up the full extent of cultivation; but they could not reclaim their holdings as the khoodkashts could. They had no share in the management of the village or in the privileges of the khoodkashts. The right of the pyacarries of the Northern Circars is said to be a sort of life estate; but the right of this class appears to have grown to be an hereditary although inalienable right to occupy, paying the fixed assessment.5 That assessment Assessment was slightly lower in former times than that of the upon them. khoodkashts, but higher than that of the mere pyekashts. They received 45 per cent. of the crop as their share, instead of 50 per cent. which was the proportion the ordinary pyekashts received. Out of their share they had to pay fees to the khoodkashts.6 It is clear that this class of cultivators had a less complete proprietary right than the first class, but still 1 Directions for Revenue Officers, 63. Evidence of Col. Briggs before the Select Committee of the House of Lords (1830), 4078, and of Lieut. Col. Barnewall before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1832), 1744. 2 Campbell's Cobden Club Essay, 162. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 301. Directions for Revenue Officers, 62, 63, 65. s Campbell's Cobden Club Essay, 161, 162. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 81, 82. 5 Fifth Report, Vol. II, 41, 42, 87, 308, 491 to 493. * Fifth Report, Vol. II, 301. Directions for Revenue Officers, 63. Evidence of Col. Briggs and Lieut. Col. Barnewall before cited. LECTURE The mere pyekashts. Rates paid by them. Precarious na ture of their rights. they had a permanent hereditary proprietary right. This however was inalienable, and was otherwise subject to limitations and burdens from which the khoodkashts were exempt, and did not so completely incorporate them with the khoodkashts as to entitle them to the same position in the village. 2 The third class is that of the strict pyekashts who came from another village, usually a neighbouring one, to cultivate the lands of the village which the khoodkashts were unable to cultivate.1 They were called pyacarries, common paracoodies, and oopurees in different parts of India. They were mere tenants-at-will or more usually from year to year, but sometimes for fixed periods. They had to be attracted by favourable terms, since the competition formerly was for cultivators, and hence they got half the produce. They paid fees to the khoodkashts. They were mere sojourners in the village or cultivated while living in neighbouring villages. This class of cultivators, although they had no proprietary right, could not be ousted Evidence of Col. Briggs and Lieut.-Col. Barnewall before cited. Directions for Revenue Officers, 63. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 308. Whinfield's Landlord and Tenant, 16. Robinson's Land Tenures, 15. 2 Fifth Report, Vol. II, 87. Steele's Deccan Castes, 207. 3 Land Tenure by a Civilian, 81. Colebrooke's Husbandry and Commerce in Bengal (Calcutta, 1804), 64. Campbell's Cobden Club Essay, 157. Orissa, Vol. II, 206, 245. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 164; Vol. II, 8, 41, 308, 490, 494. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 64. Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 353. Whinfield's Landlord and Tenant, 16. Robinson's Land Tenures, 15. Thomason's Selections, 478. Directions for Revenue Officers, 61, 62, 64, 65. Evidence of Mr. H. Mackenzie before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1832), 2572. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 41, 42, 87, 308, 491 to 493. Campbell's Cobden Club Essay, 165. Directions for Revenue Officers, 65. between sowing and harvest. They had of course no voice in the government of the village community, and altogether their interest was of an uncertain and precarious description. Such rights were left to be settled by contract, and were hardly allowed to come under the higher protection of custom, which regulated all the more important and permanent interests. constitution. I pass now to the official constitution of the village The village corporation, so far as it is necessary to dwell upon it. I have already mentioned that the village was a corporation managing its own internal affairs. It was ruled by a Council of Elders, originally called a punchayet from the number of its members, and was presided over and represented in its fiscal and many of its other relations by its headman. With the village Council we have little concern; but the headman will require some fuller notice. Before however describing the position of the headman, I will give such further details as to the village officers and constitution as seem requisite. officers. The village was supplied with certain hereditary officers, The village whose number varied, but in the typical villages there appear to have been twelve (called ayagandras, in some parts of the Madras Presidency and barah bullooteh in the Deccan). The headman was one of the twelve. The 'Land Tenure by a Civilian, 82. 2 Evidence of Col. Briggs and Lieut.-Col. Barnewall above cited. Compare the labourers of the Pullee caste in the Brahmin villages in the south of India (Fifth Report, Vol. II, 302), and the ryots of Dindigul (Fifth Report, Vol. II, 494). 3 In some villages more and in some fewer than those mentioned. Fifth Report Vol. II, 577. Evidence of Col. Sykes before the House of Commons' Select Committee (1832), 2173. I. LECTURE others were (1), the Curnum, Shamboug or Putwaree, the village registrar: (2), the Paliary, Schulwar or Tulliar, who inquired into crimes and escorted travellers from village to village: (3), the Potee or Totie who watched the crops. He was also known as the Pausban, Gorayet, Hawuldar or Shaeenar (4), the Neerguntee or Nurguaty, the distributer of water: (5), the Jotishee or Joshee, the astrologer who announces the season for seed time and harvest and notifies lucky and unlucky days: (6), the blacksmith: (7), the carpenter: (8), the potter: (9), the washerman : (10), the barber :(11), the Mode of pay- silversmith. All these officials were paid by a share of the produce, which was called their russoom or marah.3 Their share of the grain crop was taken from the threshing floor before that of either king or cultivator was removed. They also received money fees. In some parts they are said to have had an allotment of land free of revenue or at low rates instead of other remuneration, or at least instead of the money payments. This is said to have been the case in Bengal chiefly, and was probably restricted to the cases in which there was a service to the ment. 1 Fifth Report, Vol. I, 18; Vol. II, 13. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 77. Directions for Revenue Officers, 184. 2 Wilks's South of India, p. 117, cited in Rickards's India, Vol. II, Appendix I, 60. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 13, 14, 75, 76, 91, 353, 471, 575, 698. Steele's Deccan Castes, 207. Orissa, Vol. II, 221. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 69, 84, 85. Evidence of Mr. Fortescue before the Select Committee of the House of Lords (1830), 405, 406, 528, 529. The Great Rent Case, B. L. R., Supp. Vol., 265. Ayeen Akbery Maine's Village (Gladwin's Translation, Calcutta, 1783) Vol. I, 358. 3 Fifth Report, Vol. II, 14. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 84, 85. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 59, 571. State as well as to the village. In such cases the State might, instead of making money payment, or surrendering a share of its portion of the produce, remit the whole or a portion of the revenue on land held by its officer in the village, or assign the whole or a portion of the revenue on other lands. The pykes or police employed in collecting the Government share under the directions of the headman were paid in this way in Bengal. Lands so allotted were called chakeran or service lands in later times. The same modes of paying the village officers were found to be in use in Java, the village communities of which are very similar to those of India, and are supposed to have been derived from Indian colonists.3 These allotments of land were also rendered serviceable to the community; since they were usually situated on the village borders beyond the ordinary cultivation, and thus served to keep up a knowledge of the village boundaries.* LECTURE 1. labourers of The village was bound, besides rendering a share of The servile the produce to the king, to supply a certain number of the village. the servile labourers attached to the village for the king's service, or to pay the king an equivalent for such services. These labourers also received a share of grain from the threshing floor.5 The village offices were most of them 1 Fifth Report, Vol. I, 341; Vol. II, 12, 13, 89, 90, 95, 155, 307, 698, Whinfield's Landlord and Tenant, 34. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II 65, 235(n). Orissa, Vol. II, 216. 2 Joykissen Mookerjee v. Collector of East Burdwan, 10 Moore's I. A., 16, at pp. 18, 43. Whinfield's Landlord and Tenant, 34. Evidence of Mr. Trant before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1832), 2022. 3 3 M. de Laveleye in the Revue des deux mondes, tome 100, p. 160. * See the evidence of Col. Briggs before the Select Committee of the House of Lords (1830), 4155. |