LECTURE IV. functions to those of the zemindars; being headmen of a district including a circle of villages, the cultivation of which they superintended on behalf of Government; but nowhere do zemindary rights appear to have acquired the same strength as in Bengal Proper. In Behar also the Zemindars in zemindars became powerful after the soubahdary of Mahabat Jung. They obtained the management of the collections and entered into annual engagements with Government for the revenue.2 Behar. Jaffier Khan. We have seen that a zemindary was hereditary: but that The sunnud of it was not so by virtue of the sunnud, which contemplated only a personal grant. It is said that the sunnud granted by Jaffier Khan to the new zemindars appointed by him clearly restricted the interest of the zemindar to an appointment for life. It was probably one of the chief aims of that prince to break the power of the zemindars: and to bring them back to their theoretical position as mere officials. But the traditions of the office were too strong for him; and we find that the old system was reverted to: and although the sunnud may have contemplated an appointment for life only, yet the son was generally appointed to succeed the father, and the efforts of Jaffier Khan proved in the end ineffectual to arrest the progress of zemindary claims.5 alienable. The zemindary right also came to be alienable it A zemindary was claimed as a kind of property, although the State strove to treat the zemindar as an officer. And when LECTURE The zemindar's emoluments. Government practically abandoned the contest, and treated the zemindar as having a fixed hereditary right to contract for the revenue, the notions of the Mahomedans as to individual right would easily lead to the holder being considered at liberty to alienate to any person furnishing the requisite securities for the payment of the revenue. The sanction of Government was therefore required, but not the concurrence of the next in succession. Indeed, the office was sometimes sold by the State; and it is said sometimes also sold by a defaulting zemindar at the command of the Government for arrears of revenue; and it has been suggested that the power of alienation may have arisen in this way; a not improbable supposition. Ultimately the zemindar came to transfer his rights quite freely; and this was looked upon later as a distinctive feature, and a decisive mark of proprietorship of the soil. We now come to consider the zemindar's emoluments. These were of a defined and limited character indicating a right in the soil considerably below that of an absolute proprietor in England. The zemindar having ultimately superseded most of the ancient malgoozars, or revenue contractors and collectors, apparently absorbed their emoluments; especially after the time of Jaffier Khan, who expelled the old malgoozars and formed large official zemindaries, in which he put new men, who seem to have absorbed the whole of the emoluments of the old malgoozars, including those of the headmen.3 But the zemindar of later times received other profits beyond the ancient perquisites 1 Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 342. Steele's Deccan Castes, 231. 2 Orissa, Vol. II, 228, 238. 'Land Tenure by a Civilian, 41 to 43, 50, 63, 64, 76. LECTURE IV. revenue. with Govern of the malgoozar; since he retained his official allowances and gains, after he had absorbed those of the old malgoozar. In the first place he retained the surplus revenue after Surplus paying to Government the amount contracted for.' I have pointed out already that this source of profit, originally yielding little, grew afterwards when the zemindar was unchecked, to be a substantial item. The zemindar's Settlement settlement with Government was generally an annual one, ment. but might be made for a term of years. The zemindar's settlement with the ryots was always annual.3 His settlement with Government was based upon the hus- The hustabood. tabood, a comparative statement of the value of the land, prepared by the canoongoes, and originally founded upon Todar Mull's investigations. For reasons already touched upon this was probably revised much less frequently than the zemindar's estimate for assessing his ryots. The original assessment upon the footing of the hustabood, as derived from Todar Mull's settlement, was called the assul toomar jumma; but in later times abwabs, or extra assessments, were incorporated with it, although it still bore the same name, and was treated as the original assessment. These abwabs were however kept separate in the canoongoes' accounts; and there were other abwabs imposed from time to time, after the assul jumma had ceased to be considered sufficiently elastic to include them. The zemindar having Settlement thus settled with Government the amount of revenue upon the footing now described, he proceeded just before the 'Rouse's Dissertations, 295. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 360. Orissa, Vol. II, 28. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 42, 59, 70. 2 Land Tenure by a Civilian, 47. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 19. 3 Land Tenure by a Civilian, 65, 66. 4 with the ryots. 112 LECTURE Modes of enhancing the ryot's rent. Customary rates. MODE OF SETTLEMENT. rains to distribute this assessment amongst the cultivators. He was bound to demand from them only sufficient to meet the Government revenue and such allowances as were payable by the ryots. Even thus the assessment upon the ryots would be at higher rates than the assessment upon the zemindar; provided he was held bound, as in modern times he was, to bear himself the loss arising from any ordinary failure of crops and from outstanding loans, and to yield the stipulated amount of revenue notwithstanding. And in this way a door was opened for the zemindar's exactions by necessitating a difference between the ryot's and the zemindar's assessments. But he added also his own exactions, included under the head of sewace,1 before distributing the burden of assessment amongst the cultivators. There were two modes in which the enhanced assessment was fixed according to Mr. Shore (afterwards Lord Teignmouth and Governor-General of India). One of these was to add the subsequent abwabs and the exactions by the zemindar (calculated at so much a month, or so much in the rupee,) to the assul or original rate, and then to distribute this according to the quantity and quality of land held by the ryots, or the estimated or actual crop. The other mode was to assess at a fixed rate for the beegah, whatever might be the crop, which rate included the chief items of exaction or extra assessment. The zemindar was however to some extent controlled in his assessment by custom; which required that the rates usually paid by the village should be adhered to, at least in form. Those rates were well known, and registers of them were kept by the putwarries and canoongoes in records called village and pergunnah rey'Land Tenure by a Civilian, 59. 2 Fifth Report, Vol. I, 140. bundees. Nevertheless, the zemindar ultimately contrived to extract the main portion of his profit from the surplus of his receipts beyond the jumma he paid. And in this he was still further assisted when he settled with Government for a term of years; and when consequently his yearly settlements with the ryots could not at all be expected to be at the same rates as he paid to Government. The rates were settled with the cultivators through the headman of the village in many cases; but there appear to have been cultivators who did not form part of any village organization, and with these probably the zemindar could deal untrammelled, at least by the village reybundees.3 LECTURE land. IV. The zemindar's stipulated payment being in full discharge The khamar of the revenue of his district, and he being empowered in his capacity of Government representative to authorize the cultivation of waste land (khamar) or fallow (bunjer) within his district, the revenue derived from such land came to belong to him as part of the revenue of his zemindary. If he cultivated such land by himself or his servants, he took the whole of the benefit: if he permitted the villagers to cultivate, he took such revenue as was payable for it.* The revenue for the khamar land when cultivated by others was generally received by the zemindar in kind and amounted to half the produce. We thus see the primitive 1 59. Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 324. ' Orissa, Vol. I, 54, 55; Vol. II, 232. 3 Ib., Vol. II, 232, 245. Land Tenure by a Civilian, Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 340, 343, 363. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 42, 60, 69. Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, 158. Orissa, Vol. I, 54, 55; Vol. II, 232. Rouse's Dissertations, 293, 294. Wilson's Glossary "khamar." Directions for Revenue Officers, 4. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 140. Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 346, 422. Whinfield's Landlord and Tenant, 72. Ρ |