LECTURE IV. The perwanneh. peshcush, jumma, and balances specified in the before-mentioned documents; and an abstract of the amounts of which was set out in the muchulka. The zemindar-elect then went on to agree and bind himself in this document not to neglect his duties in the most minute particular: to observe a commendable character towards the body of the ryots and the inhabitants at large; to endeavour to punish and expel the refractory, and to extirpate robbers; to conciliate and encourage the ryots, and to promote the increase of cultivation and the improvement of agriculture; 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 value; to repress drunkenness and all kinds of irregularity; to pay punctually the assessment after deducting the usual muzkoorat; and to transmit to the Government dufter-khana the official papers required, according to custom, under his own signature and the signatures of the canoongoes of the soubah. This document with the details included the cabooleut, and was called either the muchulka or the mucḥulka-cabooleut.' The sunnud or perwanneh was then granted the whole of the before-mentioned documents, with the necessary signatures and authorisations, being written on the same roll on which the sunnud was written; so that the whole transaction was evidenced by one document.3 The sunnud or perwanneh was addressed to the mutseddies of affairs and the officers entrusted with public 'Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 287. 3 Ib., 277, 278, transactions, to the canoongoes, mokuddims, and husbandmen of the pergunnah, and recited that the furd-sewal, furdhuckeekut, and muchulka had been executed, and that the service of the zemindary had been conferred upon the person therein named in consideration of the specified peshcush, jumma, and balances, to the end that he might not fail in his duty in the most minute particular, describing those duties exactly as in the muchulka, with the addition of a specific prohibition against exacting illegal abwabs or extra revenue. The sunnud concluded after this recital of the zemindar's duties, with a command to the persons to whom it was addressed to regard the person designated as the authorized zemindar; and that, considering him as invested with the duties and functions appertaining thereto, they should receive all papers regarding the pergunnah, signed by him, as genuine and authentic. The sunnud of which I have thus given an abstract is of the date A. D. 1735 or 1736, after Jaffier Khan's death, and when the zemindary had become almost recognized as hereditary. Accordingly the arzee in this particular case shows that the zemindar had already succeeded to his father's zemindary, and had been in enjoyment thereof for three years before applying for a sunnud. It also recites that the necessity for a sunnud is the difficulty arising from the insecurity of the applicant's position until he obtains a sunnud; and that he desires to obtain such a grant in order that he may appear with dignity and credit among his equals. The arzee was probably more variable in its form and contents than any of the other documents; and in this particular instance 2 'Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 279, 280. LECTURE IV. LECTURE Duties of the zemindar. we see the hereditary claim almost paramount, and the recognition by the State sought very much as a matter of convenience. 3 The sunnud shows what were the duties of the zemindar:' and that they were duties devolving upon him as a representative of the Government in respect of the revenue, as well as in respect of the preservation of order. His relation with Government was that of a responsible representative. He was responsible for the revenue as specified in the sunnud after making the proper deductions. And he was bound to render detailed accounts of his collections under his own signature and attested by the canoongoes. He was also bound it seems to assist the sovereign in case of invasion.* He was further responsible for the peace and order of his zemindary.5 The Government endeavoured to maintain various checks upon his conduct; and, when he was suspected of any tendency to insubordination, compelled him to renew his obligations by a cabooleut.6 His relation with the ryots was also that of a representative of the State, entitled to collect from them the share due to the Government, and charged with the duty of protecting and assisting them; the ryots in turn being bound to assist the zemindar in preserving peace and order. The zemindar was bound to advance such temporary loans (or tuccavee) as the ryot needed in order to enable him to cultivate; to Baillie's Land Tax, xxxviii. Rouse's Dissertations, 53 to 55. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 160; Vol. II, 7. 2 Orissa, Vol. II, 228. 3 Rouse's Dissertations, 85. 4 Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 242. 5 Ib., 346, 353. • Ib., 346. 7 Ib., 353. Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, 160, 161. REVENUE PAID BY THE ZEMINDAR. 107 grant him remissions and indulgences in the payment of his revenue in case of calamity; and generally to exercise the functions of the State in encouraging and controlling, especially with regard to the revenue. With him rested the duty of allotting and assessing the lands of his zemindary; of seeing that the accounts of the revenue were properly kept; and of collecting the rents or revenue from the cultivators.2 These duties devolved upon him in the same way as they had formerly devolved upon the huzooree malgoozar or direct revenue-payer, whether headman, chowdhry or farmer, from whom the zemindar had derived his functions.3 LECTURE In earlier times he was bound to account for the whole Amount of revenue paid revenue collected; and although he was never theoretically by him. released from this liability, yet practically the revenue paid by the zemindar came to have less and less connexion with the revenue received by him from the cultivator. The same causes which had driven the State to employ such officials, and had made it unable to resist their encroachments,—namely, the difficulty of constant minute investigations by the immediate officers of the State,tended to make the arrangement between the State and the zemindar as to the amount of revenue a mere continuation of the existing arrangements, with little reference to the actual assessment of the ryots by the zemindar. The zemindar had, as we have seen, to render accounts; and probably the profit derived was originally not so much due to the difference between the formal assessments upon the zemindar and upon the ryots respectively as to the 1 Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 353. Ib., 353, 363. Rouse's Dissertations, 28. LECTURE landlords. exactions which the zemindars contrived to enforce, and at which the officers of Government connived. This practice, of exacting unauthorised contributions, ultimately established itself so completely that at length it came to be considered that the zemindar was entitled to all he could squeeze out of the ryots in indirect ways, and he gradually grew to be looked upon as a sort of landlord in his relation to the ryots, and a sort of tenant in his relation to the State. But he did not at once altogether lose his position as a public officer bound to keep the peace and protect the ryots. The zemindars As we have seen throughout the proprietary character of ultimately looked upon as the zemindar tended to strengthen itself while the official character tended to be ignored, except as a useful auxiliary to the proprietary right. And thus we find that before the period of British rule, the proprietary character had, to a great extent, absorbed the official character; and, when English ideas were applied to the relations between the parties, it was natural enough to look upon the zemindar as the rent-receiving landlord entitled to the soil and paying only a tax to the State. Still even at that period, in the early times of British rule, the official aspect of the zemindar's position was not entirely lost sight of; and we find the Board of Revenue, some time before 1786, declaring that a zemindary was "a conditional office, annually renewable and revocable on defalcation." The Nautwars. Zemindars prevailed chiefly in Bengal. In the South of India the village communities retained more of their vigour. In the Northern Circars the Nautwars exercised similar Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 229. |