THE ZEMINDAR. 63 connected, and most easily dissolved; that the rights of its members are alienable and freely alienated; and that it is most practicable for a Hindoo to acquire separate property, and least difficult for a stranger to acquire land untrammelled by the restrictions of Hindoo law. It is also in Bengal that the village communities have decayed most: and that the zemindars have acquired the greatest influence. The power of the zemindars has, to a great extent, been built upon the ruins of the Hindoo system. They were at first recognised as officers, or partly as officers and partly as persons with a certain interest in the revenue derived from Hindoo times; but the indirect effect of their recognition by the State, at a time when the old Hindoo forces of joint property and hereditary right were weakened, tended to give them a larger right than they had ever ventured to claim; just as the recognition of the zemindars as proprietors at the Permanent Settlement has tended to make them in practice absolute proprietors. Thus, although little was formally changed at the Mahomedan conquest, the seeds of much practical change were sown. LECTURE II. In those parts of the country where the village commu- The zemindar. nities were in vigour, the headmen seem to have retained their position to some extent, and to have dealt with the State direct as huzooree malgoozars under the old Hindoo titles of mokuddums, munduls and bhuinias (or ut a zemindars). But in other places the ancient rajahs and revenue collectors became talookdars and zemindars, and collected the revenue as such; aumils being appointed to check or control them, with large bodies of troops under their command, cantoned in the district. These zemindars 2 Land Tenure by a Civilian, 43. Orissa, Vol. I, 244, 247, 248, 264. ? Land Tenure by a Civilian, 33, 40, 73. Orissa, Vol. II, 222, 1 LECTURE Descent of a talook, and talookdars, as we have seen, generally contrived to absorb the functions, or at least the chief emoluments, of the headman, and to displace him to a great extent. Thus the Rajah of Benares is said to have attained his position by this means. And in Orissa the Hindoo fiscal divisions were broken up into a number of subdivisions, at the head of each of which arose a powerful proprietor, who claimed the permanent right of distributing the revenue amongst the villages of the district, and of collecting it from them. These grew to be the talookdars, who sometimes, when they were powerful, paid revenue for their districts direct to Government, that is, were "independent talookdars," as such talookdars were afterwards called in Bengal; or paid through the zemindar, who had become the superior fiscal officer of the pergunnah or division,—that is, were "dependent talookdars." Again, in Monghyr the rise of zemindars and talookdars can be traced. The zemindary is divided into eleven turfs, and the original zemindar was a chowdhry, whose descendants held, until a late period, nine of the turfs. One of the other turfs was waste, and another chowdhry became zemindar of it. The original zemindary was further subdivided by the grant of talooks out of it by the zemindar to his relatives.3 Thus arose zemindars and talookdars of whom I shall zemindary and have more to say hereafter. Many of the superior zemindaries descend by primogeniture, a fact which perhaps points to their having been derived from the ancient rajahs; as a raj undoubtedly descended mainly in this mode. The inferior zemindars grew out of collectors, farmers, and 1 Thomason's Revenue Selections, 111, 114. 2 Orissa, Vol. II, 225. 3 Fifth Report, Vol. I, 212, 213. Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 368. other officers of revenue, headmen, and even robber chiefs." The zemindars mentioned in the Ayeen Akbery, as furnishing large military contingents, were probably chiefs who had become zemindars, and had acquired the right of contracting for the revenue from having been powerful in their districts. The zemindars above described either entirely or partially displaced the headmen. Again in some parts of the country there were ryots who did not form part of any village organisation; and in dealing with these an example would be given of the mode of collection, which grew to be almost the only mode, that of collection through a zemindar alone; and the zemindar's power would in such cases be almost absolute.* LECTURE II. Again, many of the conquered rajahs were allowed still Jageerdars. to receive the revenue not in the limited capacity of revenue collectors or zemindars, but for their own benefit, on condition of military service, and by grant from the conquerors. Such a grant of revenue was called a jageer; and in such cases the old system would probably continue in its integrity. But in later times many of these also became zemindars. At the Mahomedan conquest those who claimed to collect the revenue did not claim the ownership of the land: they claimed a right to collect and sometimes a kind of property 'Baillie's Land Tax, xxxvii. Campbell's Cobden Club Essay, 168, 169. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 73. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 156. Orissa, Vol. II, 240. Compare the Poligars of Southern India. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 88, 91, 93. 78 Fifth Report, Vol. I, 168. Compare the Poligars of Southern India. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 88, 89. LECTURE in the collections, but nothing more.1 But in course of time the zemindars who had grown out of these claimants, began to encroach upon the rights of both the State and the Ala-ood-deen's cultivator; and by the time of Ala-ood-deen, who died in attempt to curb the Zemindars. A.D. 1316, they were thought to require curbing. The superintendents of the revenue department were accordingly required "to take care that the zemindars should demand no more from the cultivators than the estimates the zemindars themselves had made;" thus bringing them back to their original position to some extent, and forbidding what were known as abwabs and cesses. But in spite of this check the power of the zemindars was not crushed, but they regained their position, and ultimately became almost independent.3 Ala-ood-deen intended to abolish the authority of the mocuddums and chowdhries, as well as of the zemindars proper, as oppressive to the ryots; and to appropriate their fees and perquisites as part of the revenue. He also, as we have seen, endeavoured to raise the assessment to half the gross produce to be levied upon measurement. His proceedings were a sort of foretaste of those of Jaffier Khan in the eighteenth century. After the time of Ala-ood-deen, we do not hear of any check to the progress of the zemindar's power, except perhaps Akbar's settlement in the sixteenth century, until Jaffier Khan's time. Mr. Fortescue's Evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1832), 2283 to 2285. Orissa, Vol. II, 227. 2 Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, 88, 89. Baillie's Land Tax, xxxix. Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, 88, 89. LECTURE III. AKBAR'S SETTLEMENT. Akbar's or Todar Mull's settlement for ten years-Four classes of land-Mode of ascertaining average produce for one season-Average of ten years then taken-New assessment lower than former rate-Proportion taken by the State-The rebba-A fixed money-rate the main object of the settlementThe position of the ryot not affected-The Assul Toomar Jumma-The old methods of rendering the revenue might still be adopted-Remissions and deductions-The settlement made with the ryots direct-The headman-The zemindar-Attempted return to the Hindoo system-The settlement only partially carried out-Commencement of the modern revenue system-Todar Mull's assessment the basis of all subsequent assessments-The fiscal divisions -Khalsa and jageer lands-Khalsa lands-Jageer lands-Havilly landsThe Soubah-The circar-The chucklah-Three stages of fiscal divisionZemindaries-A cutcherry attached to each division of the zemindary-Fiscal organization above the zemindar-The crory-The Foujdar Aumildar-Claims of fiscal officers to hereditary rights-Military force employed in revenue collection-The crory's emoluments-The canoongoe-The putwarry-The chucklah superseded the circar-Attempts at centralization-Hindoos filled the lower revenue offices, and Mahomedans the higher-The aumil-His subordinates. IN the year 1582 Akbar began those changes in the Akbar's or revenue system of which the ten years' settlement, known settlement for as Todar Mull's or Toory Mull's settlement, was the most important result. That was the first general settlement for any longer period than a year of which we have any record. Up to that time, as far as we can learn, the amount of the year's revenue was settled upon a measurement of the lands and an estimate of the crop, or upon actual weighment and division of the crop. The standard of measurement however does not seem to have been fixed, and it was the first of Akbar's reforms to fix it. He established as the standard measure of length the ilaha guz, a measure not unknown before, but not before accepted as Todar Mull's ten years. |